Merdare, Yugoslavia — Former enemies NATO and Yugoslavia agreed on a deal Monday that will allow them to squeeze ethnic Albanian guerrillas from separate flanks, while the rebels signed a cease-fire all moves meant to reduce the threat of a new Balkan war.
Under the agreement, Yugoslavia would be allowed to send better-armed troops into the southern tip of a buffer zone adjoining Kosovo that is now overrun by ethnic Albanian insurgents, who also use the region for incursions into neighboring Macedonia.
KFOR Commander Carlo Cabigiosu, left, shakes hands with Nebojsa Covic, a deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia, after reaching a deal Monday that will allow Serbian police and Yugoslav army troops to return to the buffer zone on Kosovo's border.
The deal takes some pressure off NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, particularly the American troops involved in trying to stop the movement of fighters and supplies south into Macedonia, where rebel attacks last week raised fears of a wider Balkan conflict.
NATO already has increased its presence in areas of Kosovo bordering Macedonia. Macedonia's government, however, has been urging NATO to extend its activities into the three-mile-wide buffer zone, which separates Kosovo from the rest of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic. The alliance has refused, saying it is restricted to Kosovo by the U.N. resolution setting up its mandate.
"The final agreement has been reached," said the commander of NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, Italian Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu, referring to the deal on entry of Yugoslav forces into the buffer zone.
"I hope that Albanians in the ... area will understand that this is the time to move from armed conflict to peace," Cabigiosu said, even as fresh fighting was reported on a border village between Macedonia and Kosovo.
Though separated by borders, the insurgents' struggle in southern Serbia and Macedonia is linked by common demands for more rights for ethnic Albanians who form the majority in the adjoining regions. The ultimate aim appears to be linking the two regions to an independent Kosovo run by the ethnic Albanian majority.
Rebel commander Shefket Musliu had threatened over the weekend to "fight to the last man" to keep more and better armed Yugoslav troops out of the zone.
But on Monday, just hours after announcement of the deal between NATO and Yugoslavia, Musliu said he had signed a 20-day cease-fire in buffer zone, in a deal mediated by NATO. Nebojsa Covic, a deputy prime minister of Serbia, signed the truce separately, a few hours afterward; the Serb version of the text had no 20-day limitation.
NATO envoy Pieter Feith described the cease-fire agreement as a "major step forward" and urged rebel commanders to "exercise restraint," and "strictly comply" with its terms.
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