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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Flora who wrote (5270)	4/24/1999 12:04:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Letter from Kosovo guerrillas asks NATO for help 09:45 a.m. Apr 23, 1999 Eastern LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas fighting inside Kosovo have written to NATO asking for either air drops or ground forces to combat Serbian security forces they say are dispersing and digging in across the province. The two-page letter, a copy of which was shown to Reuters by Western diplomatic sources, was dated April 18 and sent by the General Headquarters Staff of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Addressed to NATO's military chief, General Wesley Clark, the KLA missive spoke of gratitude for NATO's efforts in the ''elimination of the last dictatorship in Europe,'' an apparent reference to the rule of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. ''We think there are two main roads to speed up the capitulation (defeat) of the Serb army: the supplying of the KLA and IDPs (internally displaced persons) on the mountains of Kosovo from the air by your side (by you), and second, your entrance with ground troops,'' the letter said. NATO has kept the KLA at arm's length because Western governments support substantial autonomy for Kosovo, not the rebels' goal of complete independence from Yugoslavia. Allegations of KLA human rights abuses and criminal activity, including narcotics trafficking, have also cost the guerrillas badly needed international support. KLA commanders have used satellite phones to try to relay target information to NATO from inside Kosovo, but they have been forced to pass the sites through diplomatic intermediaries because NATO officers will not take calls from the rebels. The KLA letter clearly was timed to coincide with NATO's 50th anniversary summit in Washington this week, at which Kosovo and the possibility of a ground force invasion to supplement ongoing air strikes against Yugoslavia are hot topics. KLA leaders described Yugoslav army and Serbian police units ''spreading their forces and equipment in all Albanian villages and towns in Kosovo'' because there was no credible threat of a NATO ground force invasion to make them regroup. The KLA letter spoke of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other military hardware being camouflaged in yards, gardens, schools, industrial, social and cultural buildings. Serb tanks and artillery are hidden in the edge of thick forests to shield them from being spotted by NATO war planes, and they also operate from elaborate tunnel systems in places like Golesh and the Dulje heights, the letter said. Golesh is an air force and army base built into a mountain that rises about 10 miles west of Kosovo's capital, Pristina. The Dulje heights are southwest of Pristina. KLA sources have been complaining that their troops and displaced ethnic Albanian civilians are bombarded regularly from that spot. Tanks and self-propelled guns dart out from their places of hiding and fire a few rounds before pulling back to safety, making it difficult for NATO to identify them, KLA and NATO sources have said. The KLA leadership charged that this dispersal of forces has been ''made possible as a result of the forced displacement (expulsion) of the Kosovar population, which directly affects the KLA forces since they are deprived of their main and only base of support.'' The letter said KLA forces would gradually lose their ability to operate without air drops of supplies if NATO were to continue with its 'air strikes only' policy for weeks to come. The guerrillas asked for anti-tank weapons, mortars and ammunition for light arms such as the Kalashnikov assault rifle and promised that with such assistance they could open up a land corridor into Kosovo to supply themselves. One of the main KLA supply routes from neighbouring Albania, which drops down out of the mountainous border area west of Junik, has been virtually closed for weeks. Belgrade reportedly has concentrated a large number of forces there to interdict rebel supply runs. The letter indicated that Serb forces take advantage of the slightest lull in NATO bombing runs occasioned by bad weather to move infantry units into position around the supply route. NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia began on March 24 as a result of Milosevic's refusal to accept an international peace plan for Kosovo. Since then the KLA and Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority have been fighting for survival. Some 600,000 civilians have fled across Kosovo's borders as refugees. NATO estimates another 850,000 have been forced from their homes and are holed up in forest and mountain camps until they, too, can escape. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.