Expand: KFOR
expands its cooperation with FYROM authorities, plus enforce
the ground and air patrolling along the FYROM - Kosovo border.
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PRISTINA:
Fears of war erupting between ethnic Albanian rebels and the Macedonian
army has increased after sustained clashes on the frontier between
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Kosovo recently.
Now KFOR expand its cooperation with the FYROM authorities.
"A stable FYROM
is of crucial importance to the success of the KFOR mission,"
COMKFOR Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu says in a statement on the situation
at the border.
FYROM is the
host nation for KFOR logistical support to operations in Kosovo.
Now KFOR will expand its cooperation with FYROM authorities through
increased military and political contacts, as well as coordinated
operations as authorized under current mandate.
" KFOR has increased
ground and air patrolling along the FYROM - Kosovo border. We
have seen absolutely no evidence of ethnic Albanian armed groups'
crossings from Kosovo to FYROM. The terrain in this mountainous
area is rough and still heavily mined," Cabigiosu says.
He stresses that
Kosovo is not being used as a safe haven for ethnic Albanian armed
groups reportedly operating in FYROM.
Refugees
Ethnic Albanian refugees continue to stream across the mountainous
border into Kosovo following the latest clashes. The overwhelming
majority of them are coming from the ethnic Albanian mountain
village of Tanusevci in northern Macedonia.
Astrid van Genderen-Stort,
spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR,
says the number of Albanians from Macedonia who have fled to Kosovo
has more than doubled in the last four days.
"We have reports
of 500 refugees coming from FYROM," she said on a press conference
in Pristina Wednesday.
She thinks however
that the numbers are larger.
"So far no refugees
have approached UNHCR."
Also KFOR are
concerned about these new refugees.
"KFOR will work
with UNMIK, where appropriate, to develop additional measures
in support of these efforts especially in regards to refugees,"
COMKFOR Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu says.
UCK
It is still unclear what sparked the fighting in and around the
village of Tanusevc and Malin Maala just inside the FYROM border,
but this is the first sustained period of fighting in the region
and follows six weeks of mounting tension in which one Albanian
has been killed.
The rebel group,
which calls itself the National Liberation Army, along the border
with Kosovo has caused huge international concern. The FYROM government
claims it is being supported from within Kosovo.
According to
the Guardian the group members dress in camouflage fatigues and
wear red badges embroidered with the words Ushtaria Climatare
Kombetare, whose initials, UCK, are the same in Albanian as those
of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
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