U.S. and NATO Back Serbian Access to Kosovo Buffer Zone
By JANE PERLEZ
BRUSSELS, Feb. 27 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the United States was prepared to allow Serbian soldiers back into a three-mile-wide buffer zone along the Kosovo border, where Albanian militants have been increasingly active.
Such a concession would be the first such easing of the stern restrictions that NATO imposed on the Yugoslav Army after the bombing campaign of 1999.
The "ground safety zone," on the Serbs' side of the border, was set up to keep Yugoslav and Serbian troops and NATO peacekeepers well separated after the Kosovo war, while Slobodan Milosevic was still in power. Only lightly armed police officers are now allowed in the area.
But one section, the Presevo valley, has become a haven for armed Kosovar Albanian guerrillas who seem to want to annex the valley to an independent Kosovo. NATO has been increasingly concerned that the conflict could intensify, but has been reluctant to send in troops.
Today, with General Powell standing beside him, Lord Robertson, the secretary general of NATO, said NATO was prepared to carry out a "phased and continued reduction of the ground safety zone" and return the area to Serbian authorities. But Lord Robertson offered no details, and said NATO needed "further military advice" to carry out the plan.
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has effectively been under United Nations control since the end of the NATO bombing.
NATO had been expected to announce today how it would deal with the Albanian insurgents. But last week the Bush administration failed to define the specifics on how far NATO troops, including American soldiers, might go to calm the situation.
That is a particularly sensitive issue for Washington because the Presevo valley abuts the sector of Kosovo where American troops are stationed.
The United States agrees to a phased re-entry into the buffer zone of soldiers from Serbia, and Yugoslavia, which includes Serbia, General Powell said, but he gave no timetable.
He said the return of the soldiers would be "conditioned," a reference to a plan by Nebojsa Covic, Serbia's new deputy prime minister, that includes some concessions to ease border tensions. Among Mr. Covic's proposals is the integration of some Albanians into the local Serbian police forces in the Presevo region, whose residents are about 90 percent Albanian.
Among the conditions that NATO is setting is that Serbian soldiers and police officers who were involved in attacks on Kosovars would be excluded from any force that might return to the area.
Lord Robertson also met in Brussels today with Carla del Ponte, prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, which has indicted Mr. Milosevic for crimes against the Kosovars. No details were disclosed.
Recent killings of civilian Serbs in the border zone by Albanian militants have inflamed passions, leading to concerns at NATO about renewed fighting.
"Serb tanks are in a very, very aggressive position," one American official said. "They are in a position to run roughshod over this."
For the moment, he added, Serbian authorities have pledged restraint, but it is not clear how long that restraint will last, the official said.
General Powell said today at the news conference with Lord Robertson that the problem should be resolved without having Serbian forces become "belligerents," which would make "a more difficult situation than we have now."
Lord Robertson said NATO forces along the buffer zone had taken measures to tighten controls and "crack down on extremists." NATO has about 43,000 troops in Kosovo, including about 5,700 Americans.
Finally, in Belgrade today, the Yugoslav government indicated that it welcomed the effort to solve the problem.
The interior minister, Zoran Zivkovic, welcomed the announcement at NATO as a policy success for the new Yugoslav government, saying it was "obvious to everyone that the ground security zone was the least secure place in Europe."
Cedomir Jovanovic, leader of the government alliance in the Serbian parliament, said he welcomed NATO's decision but warned that Serbian forces would move to solve the issue alone if necessary.
"If NATO does not fulfill its obligations, then we will do it," he said.
General Powell, who was making his debut appearance at the North Atlantic Council, where the foreign ministers of the 19 NATO countries meet, said he had explained the Bush administration's policies toward missile defense and a planned European "rapid reaction" force, which is to include 60,000 troops, telling his colleagues that Washington would consult with them as concrete plans for missile defense evolved.
He repeated President Bush's statement of last week that the United States endorsed the development of the rapid reaction force, which is intended to send European troops to trouble spots where NATO is not engaged.