Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- "What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?" Tuesday September 4, 10:15 PM Rebel Albanians from Macedonia lay low in Kosovo UROSEVAC, Yugoslavia, Sept 4 (AFP) - Hundreds of ethnic Albanian guerrillas have crossed over from Macedonia to the Serbian province of Kosovo since demobilising under an August peace deal aimed at ending a seven-month insurgency. For members of the National Liberation Army who come from Kosovo itself, it is a return home, but for those coming from Macedonia it is a question of lying low for a few months before returning home when conditions are safer. Most of those who have chosen to go to Kosovo do so by crossing the mountains which separate the mainly ethnic-Albanian province of Serbia from Macedonia, with little heed for NATO-led (KFOR) peacekeepers in the UN-administered province. "What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?" said commander Ali Daja, a former official of rebe brigade 113 in the northern region of Kumanovo, refering to KFOR's detention centre. Many witnesses said that commanders and other fighters stroll the streets of the Kosovo towns of Urosevac, Prizren and Gnjilane having crossed either legally or illegally into Kosovo territory. Since the peace accord struck in the southwestern Macedonian town of Ohrid on August 13 aimed at ending the rebellion over minority rights, several hundreds of fighters have been stopped by KFOR entering Kosovo illegally, but most were released shortly afterwards. According to Captain Daniel Byer, spokesman for the KFOR brigade, only around 100 fighters are still in detention in Camp Bondsteel. Over a thousand have been arrested since the beginning of the conflict in February. A 21-year-old man, nicknamed Barut, says that he was detained for three days by KFOR after being demobilised by the rebels' 113 brigade. Then he was taken by KFOR soldiers to the bus station several kilometres (miles) away. "Last week between 10 and 50 former combatants were released each day," a witness at the bus station cafe said. A welcome committee has been set up by the rebels in Kosovo to help those coming from Macedonia who have nowhere to go. On Friday 140 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo who claimed they were former rebel soldiers came to Kosovo legally right under the noses of KFOR troops and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). They went first to Albania, then they presented themselves as unarmed civilians at a border post at Verbnica, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Prizren. Embarrassed UNMIK officials finally allowed their entry. "Not one of them was stopped because they had regulation Macedonian passports," said an UNMIK spokesman. A number of KLA guerrillas injured in the war have also found refuge in hospitals in Kosovo where they are treated just like other patients. Doctors and nurses know where their injuries came from, but they maintain a code of silence. According to witnesses, one rebel shot in the leg at Slupcane in northern Macedonia has already spent two months in hospital in Kosovo without receiving a single visit from the police or KFOR forces. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
