BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Feb 17 (News Agencies) - Four Serbs kidnapped by ethnic Albanian gunmen on Friday in the buffer zone separating southern Serbia and Kosovo were released later the same day, officials here said Saturday.
Three men and one woman were abducted midday Friday when gunmen held up their bus traveling from the southern Serbian town of Presevo to Gnjilane in U.N.-administered Kosovo, and were taken in an "unknown direction."
They were released later in the day with the help of mediators from the European Union and Yugoslavia, officials said.
Ethnic Albanian separatists of the Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB) have occupied the buffer zone dividing Kosovo from the rest of Serbia since November.
They are fighting for the attachment of the towns of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja to Kosovo, the U.N.-run province with a majority Albanian population.
The incident happened just hours after seven people were killed and 43 hurt in a bomb attack against a convoy of buses carrying Serbs in northern Kosovo.
