Konculj, Yugoslavia — Police scouts moved into a tense strip of southern Serbia on Tuesday ahead of army units, under a deal meant to quell ethnic unrest that risks drawing NATO into new conflict. NATO said the Yugoslav army would enter the area today.
Senior police officials in Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, said the advance teams were headed for the villages of Norca and Trnava, in the buffer zone around Kosovo that ends at the Macedonian border.
NATO officials in Kosovo said Yugoslav army and beefed-up Serbian police forces would enter the region today. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We appeal to the citizens to stay calm and not to obstruct the return of the joint security forces in any way," Nebojsa Covic, deputy prime minister of Serbia, said Tuesday evening. "The residents have no reason to worry."
Covic said he expects the "extremists ... not to undertake any provocative measures."
A NATO-mediated cease-fire for the buffer zone between Belgrade and ethnic Albanian guerrillas appeared to be holding on its first day Tuesday.
But the government in Macedonia reported fierce skirmishes with ethnic Albanian rebels there. And a guerrilla leader in southern Serbia cast doubt on the effectiveness of the cease-fire, saying many rebels in the southernmost tip of the buffer zone did not feel bound by the agreement.
Macedonian forces near the border villages of Malino Malo and Brest are "clashing with the guerrillas, trying to isolate them and to force them to retreat from the area," said Interior Ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski, suggesting that the Macedonian army had initiated the fighting.
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