A top aide to President Vojislav Kostunica warned Monday that sporadic violence along Kosovo's boundary with Serbia could lead to a new Balkans war, possibly involving Macedonia.
"The events in southern Serbia have the potential to lead to a new Balkans war," said Zoran Djindjic, who has been tipped by Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia to head the future government of Serbia.
Djindjic said ethnic Albanian "terrorists want to take control of the road" linking Belgrade with the Middle East, via Macedonia, one of the main transportation thoroughfares in the region.
The action by the rebels will "lead to further conflicts in the Balkans" if the crisis "is not settled by next spring," said Djindjic.
"If Serbia loses control of this international transportation link, Macedonia will immediately be placed on the agenda," Djindjic said.
He said that Belgrade was holding contacts with Greece and Macedonia to ask them to take "more radical measures" to control the route.
Belgrade wants the United Nations to step in to help solve the crisis in southern Serbia, where ethnic Albanian separatists have clashed violently with police over the last few weeks, killing three policemen and taking control of several villages in a buffer zone near Kosovo.
At an emergency meeting this weekend, top Yugoslav officials called on the UN Security Council "to take measures as soon as possible for the urgent withdrawal of Albanian terrorists."
"Failing this, Yugoslavia will exert its legal and legitimate rights to resolve the problem by using methods internationally authorized in the fight against terrorism, which is its duty," a statement released after the meeting said.
But Djindjic admitted that a crackdown in the region could lead to deaths among civilians and spark another outflow of refugees which would give the new Belgrade administration a "terribly bad image."
"These conflicts represent the biggest challenge to Serbia so far," he said.
The self-proclaimed Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), which claims the three towns of that name, has set up bases in the buffer zone on the Serbian side of the administrative boundary with Kosovo.
They want the region, with its large Albanian population, grafted on to breakaway Kosovo, which is currently under UN administration -- NOVI SAD, Yugoslavia (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
