Preševo valley crisis

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Preševo valley crisis
(Yugoslav wars)

Date	2000-2001
Location	Preševo, Bujanovac, Medveđa municipalities in Serbia
Result	Ceasefire, rebels disarmed

Combatants

FRY army

Serbian police

UCPMB

Commanders

Unknown

Casualties

Unknown

Civilian casualties:

The 2001 Southern Serbia conflict also known as the Preševo valley crisis was a struggle between the Serbian government and an Albanian separatist organisation Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UCPMB), created with the aim of annexating this area of southern Central Serbia to Kosovo.

Yugoslav wars
Slovenia – Croatia – Bosnia (1st NATO intervention) – Kosovo (2nd NATO intervention) – Preševo valley - Macedonia

See also: Serbian-Albanian conflict

1 The Buffer zone
2 The UCPMB
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] The Buffer zone

After the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, a three-mile "Ground Safety Zone" (GSZ) was established between Kosovo governed by United Nations) - and inner Serbia and Montenegro. Yugoslav army units were not permitted to patrol the area, only lightly-armed police forces. The exclusion zone included the predominantly Albanian village of Dobrosin, but not Preševo.

[edit] The UCPMB

see: UCPMB

Modelled on the Kosovo Liberation Army - which was disbanded after the war in Kosovo - the new guerrilla movement has been able to operate with relatively little concern about retaliation from Belgrade, which has been allowed to keep only the local police force in the area.