Serbs Report Prisoner Exchange in Kosovo

Serbian authorities reportedly freed nine ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo on Saturday, making good on an exchange deal for the release of eight Yugoslav soldiers earlier this month.

At almost the same time, the guerrillas released five elderly Serbs who were taken hostage Thursday. A source close to Serbian authorities insisted the two developments were not linked.

The Serbs, three men and two women, were handed over to the Kosovo Verification Mission, or KVM, said U.S. monitor Mike Philips.

Later, an ethnic Albanian human rights group said the nine rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, captured last month near the Albanian border, were freed by Yugoslav authorities.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which set up a team of international observers to verify a shaky cease-fire brokered in October, confirmed the release of the Serbs but not of the rebels.

The five Serbs were taken from their homes in the village of Nevoljane at gunpoint by masked men wearing the insignia of the KLA rebels, who are fighting for an independent Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs.

The KLA seized eight soldiers Jan. 8 to bargain for the release of its fighters. The rebels freed the soldiers Jan. 13, claiming international diplomats had promised to work for the release of the guerrillas.

The releases were expected to help ease tension in the Serbian province, which rose to boiling point earlier this month with the alleged massacre of at least 45 ethnic Albanian villagers.

Earlier Saturday, William Walker, the U.S. head of the monitors, had condemned the taking of the Serbian hostages, saying it seriously disrupted efforts by the international community to restore order in Kosovo.

“People say I never say anything bad about the KLA, but I think it was a very unwise and uncivilized thing for them to do to kidnap civilians, and I want to condemn it,” Walker said.