By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
DEBELDE, Yugoslavia (AP) - U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo - working
to cut off supplies
to rebels in Macedonia - wounded two ethnic Albanian insurgents
Wednesday, fueling
tension along the border where clashes threaten to ignite another
Balkan war.
Nearby, in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley, three Yugoslav soldiers
were killed Wednesday
when their vehicle hit a land mine. The soldiers were traveling
outside the village of Oreovica,
on the edge of a three-mile-wide buffer zone between Kosovo and
the rest of Serbia.
Less than two years after international peacekeepers moved into
Kosovo, rising separatist
tensions at the borders have sparked fears of another round of
large-scale fighting. The
overwhelmingly Albanian province is technically part of Serbia,
the dominant Yugoslav
republic.
U.S. soldiers were searching for weapons Wednesday in the Kosovo
village of Mijak, on the
Macedonia border, when men in black uniforms with red patches
pointed their weapons at
them, the U.S. military said.
Considering the action a provocation, the U.S. peacekeepers opened
fire, the military said.
Three people were arrested. Two gunmen were wounded.
``We don't want any more violence, but this will be up to those
armed men,'' said U.S. Maj.
James Marshall.
Debelde Mayor Hamdi Hasani accused the U.S. peacekeepers of indiscriminate
arrest and
harassment of ethnic Albanians, including some who fled fighting
this week in the Macedonian
village of Tanusevci.
``If the arrest of refugees from Tanusevci continues, we are going
to leave this place and seek
refuge somewhere else,'' the mayor said.
In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said 250 people crossed
into Kosovo on
Wednesday from another Macedonian village, Mala Malina. Eckhard
said the refugees
reported heavy shooting and told of fleeing on foot and horseback.
He estimated the total
number of refugees from the region at 800.
Macedonia's ethnic Albanian community makes up about one-fourth
of the country's 2 million
population.
About seven miles to the northeast, ethnic Albanian rebels in
southern Serbia are fighting
Yugoslav forces in the Presevo Valley. The area is within a three-mile-wide
buffer zone set
up as part of a 1999 peace deal ending the NATO (news - web sites)'s
78-day bombing
campaign. The air campaign was launched to stop former Yugoslav
President Slobodan
Milosevic (news - web sites)'s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Rebels in both Macedonia and southern Serbia are believed to be
aided by extremists in
Kosovo, who seek an independent ethnic Albanian state.
The latest violence came as NATO ambassadors considered a proposal
to allow Serb forces
into the buffer zone to help cut off a rebel supply corridor.
NATO's highest policy-making
body adjourned without agreement Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, Macedonia's foreign minister asked the U.N. Security
Council to support
the creation of a buffer zone on its border with Kosovo, similar
to the one that exists
separates the province from the rest of Serbia. NATO Secretary-General
Lord Robertson
ruled out the creation of such a zone Tuesday, saying border
patrols should be stepped up
instead.
Fighting this week prompted Macedonia to close its borders with
Kosovo. The Macedonians
allowed traffic to resume Wednesday after appeals by international
officials.