SERBIA: REBELS HAND OVER 3 SERB SOLDIER BODIES

(26 Nov 2000) Natural Sound
XFA
Ethnic Albanian rebels have handed over the bodies of three Serb soldiers killed in fighting in southern Serbia.

In a heavily guarded operation, the bodies of the slain officers were brought by helicopter to Merdare on the border between Serbia and Kosovo.

K-FOR peacekeepers collected the coffins and drove them to the "demilitarised zone" where they were handed over to Yugoslav officials.

Tension in The Presevo Valley escalated on Tuesday, when rebel ethnic Albanians attacked the Serb police inside the safety zone, and took control of several positions and a key road.

In a rare visit to the region, the Associated Press witnessed the destruction from the fighting.

Many ethnic Albanian villages were severely damaged by shell and gunfire.

Grenades have also been thrown at village schools.

The rebels want to split both this region and Kosovo from Serbia, and unite them.

One rebel commander told APTN: "We tried, for all these years, poltical ways to resolve the problem but we saw that there was no other route except to grab our weapons and to free our land here. "

Serbian police have given NATO a Monday deadline to curb the ethnic Albanian offensive, threatening to take the matters into their own hands if the alliance's peacekeepers in Kosovo fail to do so.

The rebels have declared a unilateral cease-fire until Sunday at midnight.

But fears are growing of a surge in fighting along Kosovo's volatile boundary, with Serbian officials claiming that ethnic Albanian militants are bracing for a new offensive despite their declaration of a cease-fire.

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian):
"Looking at all the discrimination that we had from regime of Milosevic, but now also Kostunica, we did not have any choice, but only to grab our weapons. We tried, for all these years, poltical ways to resolve the problem but we saw that there was no other route except to grab our weapons and to free our land here. "
SUPER CAPTION: Commander Leshi

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Today is the result of the 72 hour ceasefire which has been agreed to between K-FOR, the Serb authorities and the U-C-P-M-B. We have been able, through that process, to facilitate the recovery of three dead M-U-P policeman in the ground safety zone. We have just recovered them from the Dobrosin area and we are shortly going to deliver them to the Federal (Republic of Yugoslavia) authorities on the other side of these gates here inside Serbia."
SUPER CAPTION: Canadian K-FOR Colonel Serge Labbe

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