Preševo Valley conflict

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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

Muhamet Xhemajli
Ridvan Chazimi-Leshi† [1]

Casualties

Unknown

Civilian casualties:

The Preševo Valley conflict [2] was a struggle between the Yugoslav federal government and an Albanian separatist organisation Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UCPMB), created with the aim of annexing this area of southern Central Serbia to Kosovo.

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

1 Background
- 1.1 The Buffer zone
- 1.2 The UCPMB
2 Conflict
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Background

[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 the United Nations) and inner Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro respectively). 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 only officially 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.

[edit] Conflict

Yugoslav soldier in Preševo

In 2001, as a follow-up to the Kosovo crisis, there were reported clashes between Yugoslav security forces and ethnic Albanian guerillas linked to the KLA. The aim of the movement was to take full control of Preševo and Bujanovac (and Medveđa outside of the valley but through the same campaign) and hold them until such time as the adjacent lands, Kosovo and Western Macedonia, also came under Albanian control. This should have been followed by the gradual opening of the borders. Lacking the attention of the international media, the incidents paused as the activities spread south of the border into Macedonia from where the twin organization ONA, waged a war against Macedonian authorities.