Doug Bereuter: “Since late last year, we have received a spate of reports indicating that violence is on the rise once again in the…”

“Since late last year, we have received a spate of reports indicating that violence is on the rise once again in the southern parts of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, and especially in the Kosovo region. These reports are of special concern because the regions involved in this new outbreak of conflict lie immediately adjacent to the sector of Kosovo which is termed the ``area of responsibility'' for United States troops participating in KFOR, the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping operation. Responsibility for most of the increased violence lies with the hard-line Albanian Kosovar nationalists, some of whom quite clearly participated in the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, which is supposed to be disbanded. They are now pushing their extreme agenda through violence in the Presevo Valley, lying across the internal boundary that separates Kosovo from Serbia. As part of the agreement that ended the NATO military air operations against Yugoslavia in June of 1999, a 5-kilometer ground safety zone, GSZ, was established along the internal boundary between Kosovo and Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavian military and special police forces were prohibited from entering without expressed authorization by NATO. The Presevo Valley contains several small cities and villages that are home to ethnic Albanians? Unlike their brethren in Kosovo, however, the Albanians of the Presevo Valley chose to remain outside the conflict which wracked Kosovo during 1998 and 1999.”