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Yugoslav Troops To Be Deployed, Serbs Sign Ceasefire
KONCULJ, Yugoslavia, March 12 (News Agencies) - Ethnic Albanian politicians hailed Monday's signing of a ceasefire between separatists in southern Serbia and Belgrade but condemned what looked to be an imminent deployment of Yugoslav forces in the area.
"This might not be a way to reduce tension, we should first have established an atmosphere of trust," said Halil Selimi, member of the political council of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).
"This redeployment will spark fear amongst the population, which no longer trusts Serbian forces and identifies them as enemies," he added.
In separate ceremonies, the Belgrade delegation and separatist chief Shefket Musliu signed the accord after Albanian gunmen dropped objections to Yugoslav troops deploying in part of a neutral buffer zone the separatists hold.
The signing was a success for NATO, tasked with security in post-war Kosovo but struggling to contain the aftershock of the bloody ethnic conflict in which it was forced to bomb Yugoslav forces out of the province.
"This ceasefire is the first step in a broader process leading to political and inter-ethnic reconciliation in that region," NATO Secretary General George Robertson said in a statement from Brussels.
"This is a major step forward ... the whole process is now moving forward," said NATO's Balkans envoy Peter Feith, after the separatists inked the document in their stronghold of Konculj, located in the buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
But the deployment of Yugoslav army and police troops in a narrow strip of the buffer zone parallel to the border with Macedonia remained a point of contention with ethnic Albanian leaders.
Buhlul Masufi, vice president of Riza Halimi's Party for Democratic Action (PDD), said: "We salute the accords signed today, but we are not satisfied with the deployment of Serbian forces."
He added: "We are against the militarization of this force, and against the deployment of Serbian police, who mistreated the people of this region."
But Masufi said the PDD would nevertheless respect NATO decisions.
"The people are scared of the Yugoslav forces' deployment, but we'll see how they conduct themselves," said Zeqirja Fazliu, of the Albanian Party for Democratic Unity (PBDSH), another ethnic Albanian group.
Last week, the alliance got tough with separatists fighting Macedonian forces, shooting and wounding two gunmen and conducting a joint operation with Macedonian forces to occupy the separatists' base on the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
And last week, NATO gave the green light to its former foe to enter a small area at the southern tip of the buffer zone, where Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia converge.
General Carlo Cabigiosu, head of the NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, said Yugoslav forces could enter the zone in "a matter of days."
NATO hopes the troops will sever the vital links of arms and men between the two separatists groups and scale down the crisis.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic announced on Friday the creation of joint army and police units for deployment in the zone
But even after signing the deal, the separatists still expressed reservations and insisted on the right to defend themselves if fired upon.
Separatist leader Shefket Musliu warned: "I and my commanders do not accept any responsibility for the spontaneous acts by local Albanians" in the sector where the Serbian forces are to deploy.
Monday's signing was the result of intensive shuttle diplomacy at the weekend by Feith, as NATO feared the separatist movement could drag the region into a new Balkans war, but Belgrade refused to deal directly with "terrorists".
If international monitors are satisfied in a week that both sides have respected the ceasefire in the wooded hill country, the two sides plan to open talks on the future of the impoverished region.
The separatists want a referendum on whether the Presevo Valley, home to 70,000 ethnic Albanians and around 30,000 Serbs, should remain under Belgrade's control.
But Belgrade's own peace plan sets out far greater political involvement for the Albanian community, as well as demilitarization and a major aid package, but stops short of autonomy.
The Albanian separatist force first appeared in January 2000 after Serbian police allegedly shot dead two Albanian brothers in a village in the buffer zone, set up by NATO in June at the end of its air war against Yugoslavia.
The separatist ranks quickly swelled in the last months of the rule of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, as local men and volunteers from Kosovo fought for autonomy or even union with Kosovo.
They stepped up their armed campaign in November as international sympathy swung sharply from the Albanians to newly democratic Belgrade, driving Serbian police - the only force allowed in the zone - out of the border strip.
International fears about the region rose sharply last month with the emergence of a similar Albanian separatist group in northern Macedonia, which Belgrade and Skopje charged was allied with the first and aimed to destabilize the Balkans.
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