- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 January 2001 01.29 GMT
The latest demonstration of Nato involvement in the buffer zone with Kosovo - officially part of Serbia, but controlled by Kosovan Albanian rebels - comes after rebels snatched six Serbian hostages there on Sunday.
The captives were released yesterday after intensive diplomatic efforts by Yugoslav and Nato authorities, and were said by Serbia's deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic, to be "in good shape".
Tension rose further on New Year's Eve when villagers raised the Albanian flag in Veliki Trnovac - which sits right on the fringe of the buffer zone. Nato sent two peacekeepers into sovereign Serbian territory, in a move which calmed the situation but was in direct breach of the technical-military agreement signed after the Nato bombing.
The six Serbs were taken from their cars at the Mucibaba checkpoint as they entered the buffer zone from Kosovo. The rebels then gave Belgrade a three-day deadline for the release of 120 Albanian prisoners held in Serbian jails.
Serbia's prime minister designate, Zoran Djindjic, who was in southern Serbia when the kidnapping took place, said earlier that the US ambassador, William Montgomery, had given assurances to him that the six Serbs would be released and had called on the Serb police to exercise restraint. The US diplomat condemned the hostage-taking as an act of extremism.
The rebel acts did much to undermine confidence-building measures that K-For, the Nato-led Kosovo peacekeeping force, had brokered to rebuild trust between the Serb and Albanian communities.
The day before the incidents, K-For won an agreement between Serbia and the ethnic Albanian rebels for both sides to remove checkpoints and pull back from their positions in Veliki Trnovac.
The moderate Albanian mayor of Presevo, Rizim Halimi, said: "After yesterday's agreement, this is not good. This can only harm our relations."
Despite technically having no right to operate in southern Serbia, K-For is increasingly acting as a liaison point for Serb and Albanian forces over troubles in the Serbian zone.
According to the agreement signed after the bombing, K-For should not go beyond the administrative border and only lightly armed Serbian police are allowed into the three-mile buffer zone.
New Year's Eve was the first time K-For peacekeepers are known to have been deployed in Serbian territory. According to a local source, the soldiers celebrated New Year with the Albanians of Veliki Trnovac, in order to ease tensions.
The K-For liaison over the six recent hostages mirrors a role it played last month when four Serbs were snatched on the same road. K-For also ensured the return of bodies after rebels killed four Serb policemen in the buffer zone in an assault in November.
Ten days ago, a rebel commander in the buffer zone said he wanted K-For to take over control of the three municipalities of southern Serbia that the rebels call eastern Kosovo.
Commander Lleshi said: "In the Yugoslav and Serbian constitution there were rules for all the rights of minorities to be respected. But these were practically eliminated. So we want a monitoring mission and K-For here."
