Turnover of buffer zone goes smoothly
at Army's Outpost Sapper in Kosovo
By Terry Boyd, Kosovo
bureau
Terry Boyd / Stars and Stripes
Sgt. Kim Shellhamer, of the 101st Airborne, enjoys a bouquet from some local boys at
Outpost Sapper in Gnjilane, Kosovo, on Thursday, the day the Yugoslav army completed its
move into the buffer zone. |
GNJILANE, Kosovo — Sometimes history happens quietly.
On Thursday, just minutes before amnesty ended at 8 a.m., a cluster of 15 Muslim
guerrillas turned themselves in at the U.S. Army’s Outpost Sapper. Other than that,
everything was quiet by early afternoon at the remote base 10 miles east of Camp Monteith
in Gnjilane.
“I think we made history today at Outpost Sapper,” said Capt. Dave Gardner,
with Company A, 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment of the Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 3rd Infantry
Division. “I think something significant happened today.”
The significance of this perfect spring day, Gardner said, is that the Serbian military
moved into some of the final sections of the buffer, or ground safety, zone.
And they did so apparently unchallenged by Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and
Bujanovac (UCPMB) guerrillas who have fought to meld this section of southwestern Serbia
with bordering Kosovo.
For the past 18 months, guerrillas with various groups — known collectively as the
UCPMB — have killed dozens of lightly armed Serb police in skirmishes up and down the
Presevo Valley. Until now, the guerrillas have used the 3-mile-wide buffer zone separating
KFOR forces in Kosovo from Yugoslav troops in southwest Serbia.
Earlier this week, outgoing U.S. KFOR commander, Brig. Gen. Kenneth J. Quinlan, called
Thursday’s deadline for guerrillas to surrender “potentially the most dangerous
operation that KFOR has undertaken since entering Kosovo.”
But so far, commanders’ concerns are going unrealized. Other than some small-arms
fire early Thursday morning near Sapper, there was no shooting. And though Red Cross and
other groups stood by to render aid, there was no rush of refugees through Sapper, which
sits on a high ridge overlooking Dobrosin, the headquarters of guerrilla operations.
If Sapper was quiet, Outpost Terminator, a few miles south of Sapper, was even more so.
U.S. soldiers blocked traffic into the Presevo Valley from Kosovo, and there was virtually
no one driving in from Serbia.
The climax of the day was when soldiers identifying themselves as Serb security forces
arrived in Humvees at Sapper, sometime before 10 a.m., said Capt. John Snow, with the 3rd
Battallion, 7th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.
“They said, ‘Good morning. This is the plan,’” Snow said.
The Yugoslav soldiers announced that they had taken their positions in the valley and
went over their plans and positions. Snow declined to discuss the conversation more
in-depth other than to say that the Serbs gave him “a clear picture of where they are
and what they’re doing.”
Neither Snow nor Gardner was surprised by the lack of displaced people or the relative
peace. Both agreed that most of the displaced people and guerrillas taking advantage of
the amnesty crossed the border last week and earlier this week.
Nearly 400 guerrillas have left the valley in six days under the amnesty. Many men in
the valley, wary of the Yugoslav military’s arrival, are staying there to protect
farms and homes while sending their families to Kosovo, Gardner said.
Moreover, one of the most influential Presevo guerrilla leaders reached an accord with
the Serbs and is disbanding. Gardner said Sami Azemi, UCPMB deputy commander, told him his
group will turn over its weapons to KFOR this week. “I think some of [the guerrillas]
are working in concert to make it an organized end of the war,” he said.
Does that mean it’s all over? “Nothing ends cleanly,” Gardner said,
adding that he worries there could be violence when Yugoslav troops move into the
guerrilla stronghold of Dobrosin in the next few days. Gardner said he had talked to
people from the valley, “and they’re genuinely apprehensive about the
Serbs’ return. And there is fear within Kosovo for the [Muslims remaining] in the
valley,” he said.
“They don’t want to see happen [in Presevo] what happened to them” when
Serbs under deposed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic invaded Kosovo in 1999 amid
reports of ethnic cleansing.
In nearby Malesevo, Muharrem Imeri said while he believes the fighting is over, “I
think there’s a 90 percent chance” that the Serbs will take revenge on the
remaining Muslims.
“There’s no trust” between Muslims and Serbs, said the 60-year-old
shopkeeper. “We just have to depend on KFOR.”
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