NATO Tells Kosovo Leaders to Curb Rebels

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson told Kosovo political leaders Thursday to use their influence to rein in ethnic Albanian guerrillas operating in the Serbian border area.

Robertson, on a one-day visit to Kosovo, said he was concerned about a recent upsurge in activity by the guerrillas in an area that borders southern Serbia. The violence left four Serbian policemen dead last week. Kosovo is a province of Serbia but has been under international control since NATO’s 78-day air war in Yugoslavia ended in June 1999.

“The leadership here in Kosovo . . . has also a role to play in restraining extremists in the area because the activities of these extremists damage everybody’s interests in Kosovo,” Robertson said.

“They should be isolated, and they should be condemned both privately and publicly by all of the leaders here,” he said after meeting with local leaders.

In a change of roles made possible by the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has praised Yugoslavia under new President Vojislav Kostunica and vowed to step up cooperation with Serbian authorities to combat the guerrillas.

The alliance issued a six-point plan Wednesday to calm tensions in the border area. It has also asked the Serbs to seek a peaceful solution and to respect a 3-mile-wide buffer zone that separates Kosovo from Serbia proper.

Robertson said there were no plans to change a 1999 deal between NATO and Belgrade, under which all Yugoslav soldiers and Serbian special police are banned from the zone unless they have NATO’s permission.