By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer
 
 

KONCULJ, Yugoslavia (AP) - The rebel commander rolls the grenade toward the center of the long brown table, chuckling at the suggestion that NATO (news - web sites) peacekeepers are hurting his chances in any new Balkan war.

U.S. and British peacekeepers may be trying to choke off supplies coming from Kosovo to his ethnic Albanian forces stationed just outside the province, but no matter - he's getting his guns from his enemies: the Serbs.

``Look at that,'' said Shefket Musliu. ``It's made in Serbia! Most of our weapons come from Serbia.''

Try as NATO might, it has failed so far to stop the rebels' ability to wage attacks against the Serbs - if the rebels are to be believed. The rebels have already seized much of the strip of land set aside as a buffer between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic.

The 3-mile-wide buffer zone along eastern Kosovo's border was set up after the 1999 war over the province to put some space between peacekeepers patrolling Kosovo and the Yugoslav army. Under the peace deal establishing the zone, Serb police patrolling the zone can only carry light weapons.

In November, rebels swept through the zone, killing four police officers and seizing Serb police positions.

On Sunday, an explosion believed to have been caused by anti-tank mines killed three Serb police officers. That blast came just two days after a bomb ripped through a bus ferrying Serbs home for a religious holiday in the province itself, killing at least seven.

Alarmed by the surge of rebel activity outside Kosovo, diplomats and NATO commanders last year began patrolling the so-called ``Ground Safety Zone'' more closely.

Peacekeepers record mortar blasts and machine-gun bursts. They search for signs large and small of movement, such as footprints and tractor tracks. They monitor the boundary from the air and have sensors in the woods.

Those caught trying to help the rebels are handed over to U.S. jailers at Camp Bondsteel. In custody now are 85 suspected members of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac.

Brig. Gen. Kenneth J. Quinlan, the U.S. commander in Kosovo, estimated the strength of the four warlords that control the area at no more than 750-850 fighters and insisted that seizures of arms in Kosovo have hurt their fighting power.

``We know we have disrupted their pattern of operations,'' he said.

No way, says Musliu, a former Kosovo Liberation Army fighter. The Yugoslav army might deny it, but he claims one of its generals is the point man in an arms smuggling operation that helps the rebels.

Anything can be bought, he said. The only thing that stopped him from buying a pair of tanks was an extravagant price tag.

Musliu fears an attack is imminent, despite recent peace offers made by Serbia's new pro-democracy leaders. Winter has been unusually warm, offering few fighting obstacles.

``We do not want a war,'' he said. ``But we are ready for it if we are pushed.''

In Kosovo, the rebels enjoy some sympathy. At some workplaces, employees are given the ``opportunity'' to offer donations. Contributions are similar to the ones paid by ethnic Albanians living abroad to the KLA during the 1998-99 crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo launched by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites).

NATO and the United Nations (news - web sites) took control of Kosovo after a 78-day air campaign that pushed Milosevic's forces out.

Since that time, Milosevic himself has been ousted, and the pro-democracy leadership succeeding him is aware that they risk losing tenuous international support if they use violence to quash the rebel movement.

Pro-democracy leaders or no, Musliu says he can't trust the Yugoslav military posted on the edge of the zone in southern Serbia. He says it is largely the same force that was accused of atrocities during the Kosovo crackdown.

Instead, he thinks the United States must act as an intermediary in negotiations.

Like many ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Musliu has a respect for the United States that borders on reverence. He places a miniature American flag next to an Albanian one in front of his chair; the blue NATO flag is relegated to the bookshelf behind him, beside a vase of plastic pink flowers.