Arms cache found near Kosovo

Arms cache found near Kosovo, says Serbia
Agence France Presse - April 1, 2003 Tuesday 11:21 AM Eastern Time

BELGRADE, April 1 - Serbian police discovered on Tuesday a large arms cache near the southern boundary with Kosovo, the Serbian interior ministry said, adding that the arms belonged to former ethnic Albanian rebels from the province.

Police reportedly discovered two recoilless guns, eight rocket launchers, 30 automatic weapons and ammunition in a metal container buried near the ethnic Albanian village of Mali Trnovac, close to the boundary of Kosovo, a province of Serbia which has been under UN administration since 1999.

Police said the arms had been buried by former members of the self-styled ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), named after three villages in the region, police said.

The UCPMB fought for self-rule in the region until they were disbanded in May 2001 due to action by the Serbian police and pressure from the international community.

However certain former combatants are thought to have joined a new guerrilla organization, the Albanian Liberation Army (ANA).

The last two months have seen a number of attacks on Serbian and joint Serbian-Albanian patrols in the area, including an attack on a Serbian police car in February which killed one and injured two. The ANA claimed responsibility for the attack.

Both Belgrade and the European Union have expressed concern at the increase in violence.

Serbia and Montenegro Minister for Minorities Rasim Ljajic has promised decisive action to smash organized crime in the area which he says "is generating a political crisis in the region".

"I don't think that Serbs and Albanians are going to live in great mutual love, and I don't exclude certain incidents, but I don't think there will be serious conflict," Ljajic told the Tanjug agency.

The minister also said that he had asked NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo to arrest certain former UCPMB leaders based in the province.