Post by radovic on Nov 9, 2007 16:18:01 GMT -5
Serbia Tightens FYROM Border
08 11 2007 Belgrade _ Serbian security forces have strengthened their control in southern Serbia’s volatile region that borders neighbouring FYROM, a police official said Thursday.
Elite gendarmerie troops and police were deployed in response to Wednesday’s clashes between FYROM police and an armed ethic Albanian group near FYROM second-largest city of Tetovo.
“We are taking precautionary measures to prevent a spillover of insurgency into Serbia, and we are taking no chances,” an Interior Ministry’s official said on condition of anonymity.
Southern Serbia still bears scars of an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-2001 which ended in a NATO-brokered peace agreement.
However, tensions have persisted and in the most recent incident earlier this year a police patrol exchanged fire with an ethnic Albanian group, killing one man.
The police official said that “the increased Serbian police presence” is aimed at preventing an armed group, allegedly led by a man he identified as Lirim Jakupi, from withdrawing from FYROM to Serbia’s Presevo valley.
According to the source, Jakupi is being sought for his alleged involvement in Wednesday’s skirmish with FYROM troops. To read more, see www.birn.eu.com/en/111/15/5714/
Tensions are high in the region in anticipation of the end of talks over the long-term status of Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo.
Ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo that borders both the Presevo Valley and FYROM want full independence and the Serbian government is offering them only a broad autonomy.
Internationally-mediated talks between the two sides are scheduled to end by December 10 when mediators from the US, Russia and the European Union are set to forward their findings to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Several Kosovar Albanian leaders have called for their parliament to declare independence, regardless of the outcome of the talks.
08 11 2007 Belgrade _ Serbian security forces have strengthened their control in southern Serbia’s volatile region that borders neighbouring FYROM, a police official said Thursday.
Elite gendarmerie troops and police were deployed in response to Wednesday’s clashes between FYROM police and an armed ethic Albanian group near FYROM second-largest city of Tetovo.
“We are taking precautionary measures to prevent a spillover of insurgency into Serbia, and we are taking no chances,” an Interior Ministry’s official said on condition of anonymity.
Southern Serbia still bears scars of an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2000-2001 which ended in a NATO-brokered peace agreement.
However, tensions have persisted and in the most recent incident earlier this year a police patrol exchanged fire with an ethnic Albanian group, killing one man.
The police official said that “the increased Serbian police presence” is aimed at preventing an armed group, allegedly led by a man he identified as Lirim Jakupi, from withdrawing from FYROM to Serbia’s Presevo valley.
According to the source, Jakupi is being sought for his alleged involvement in Wednesday’s skirmish with FYROM troops. To read more, see www.birn.eu.com/en/111/15/5714/
Tensions are high in the region in anticipation of the end of talks over the long-term status of Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo.
Ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo that borders both the Presevo Valley and FYROM want full independence and the Serbian government is offering them only a broad autonomy.
Internationally-mediated talks between the two sides are scheduled to end by December 10 when mediators from the US, Russia and the European Union are set to forward their findings to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Several Kosovar Albanian leaders have called for their parliament to declare independence, regardless of the outcome of the talks.