20 June 2001
Kosovo Peacekeepers Detain 19 Guerrilla Suspects
 
 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites)-led
 peacekeepers in Kosovo said on Wednesday they had detained 19
 suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas from Macedonia in the last few
 days, two of them with wounds from earlier fighting.

 U.S. peacekeepers detained 12 men believed to be members of the
 self-styled National Liberation Army on Tuesday night in the mountains
 near the border with Macedonia, U.S. spokesman Major Randy Martin
 said.

 ``They looked suspicious and they're being questioned,'' he told
 Reuters, giving no further details.

 On Monday night, Greek peacekeepers detained five men near the
 border and took them to a U.S. peacekeepers' jail, according to
 statement from U.S. peacekeepers late on Tuesday.

 ``The men were detained after a search uncovered suspicious
 documents and military style paraphernalia,'' U.S. Command Sergeant
 Major Marvin Hill said in the statement.

 In a third incident, two suspected guerrilla members, both of them
 wounded, were picked up on Monday morning by Spanish and Italian
 peacekeepers near the Kosovo village of Stancici, just north of recent
 fighting in northeast Macedonia.

 One man was treated for an arm injury and the other for a wound to his
 buttocks at a U.S. peacekeeping hospital, Martin said. ``They were
 previous combat injuries. KFOR (the NATO-led peacekeeping force)
 came in and provided medical assistance.''

 The guerrillas with backing from Kosovo began operating in Macedonia
 earlier this year, bringing the majority Orthodox Slav country to the
 brink of civil war.

 NATO has tightened its control of the Kosovo-Macedonia border to
 try to stop the flow of men and arms, and Western leaders are pressing
 its Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to agree to constitutional changes to
 address the minority's concerns.
 


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