By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - NATO (news - web sites) peacekeepers detained nine men on Sunday as they tried to cross into Kosovo from a tense zone in southern Serbia, the site of recent clashes between lightly armed police and ethnic Albanian guerillas.
British peacekeepers chased the men after watching them enter the province from the Presevo Valley area, said Maj. Tim Pierce. Nine were caught, but a 10th escaped, Pierce said.
Armed and in uniform, the men dropped their weapons and fled when challenged by a British patrol.
The rebels, known as the ``Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac,'' seek to unite the predominantly ethnic Albanian region with Kosovo, as part of a bid to gain independence for the province.
Kosovo remains part of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, under the terms of the 1999 peace agreement that ended NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The province is under the control of international peacekeepers, and a three-mile-wide buffer zone separates it from the rest of Serbia.
Yugoslavs consider the buffer zone a strategic area because it falls across the land route between Serbia and Macedonia and Greece.
Except for lightly armed Serb police, Yugoslav forces are not allowed to enter the zone. Kosovo peacekeepers cannot enter the zone either because it is on the Yugoslav-controlled part of the boundary.
Rebels have operated in the zone with virtual impunity. In November, four Serb police officers were killed by insurgents, and last month four Serbs were abducted and later released after NATO peacekeepers intervened. Six more Serbs were taken hostage recently, but released after NATO intervention.
There have been concerns the clashes could explode into violence similar to the 1999 conflict in Kosovo, which began when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) cracked down on independence-minded ethnic Albanians.
The crackdown triggered the 78-day NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the deployment of the alliance's peacekeepers in Kosovo.