Word: albanian
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...their support for the bombing, and neighboring states from Albania to Macedonia were convulsed by the prospect of ethnic violence. Inside Yugoslavia, in what may come to be regarded as the worst of the secondary effects of the strike, Serbian troops stepped up their campaign against Kosovo's Albanian citizens, squeezing the province in a pincer movement that stabbed south from Belgrade and north from the Macedonian border. The offensive produced thousands of refugees and inspired terrifying reports of mass killings...
...Milosevic's early goals when he came to power was to tighten his control over Kosovo. In 1989 he revoked the province's self-government--something it had enjoyed since 1974--and instead demanded local Albanians follow orders from Belgrade. Every year the noose got tighter, and by last year Kosovo was home to a nascent guerrilla movement. Occupying Serbs had become targets. On Feb. 28, 1998, an Albanian hit squad killed two Serbian policemen working in Kosovo. Milosevic, in a typical response, unleashed his security police and paramilitary units in a brutal reprisal that left 300 dead...
...Whatever the shape of an eventual settlement, the only given is that the Rambouillet peace deal, whose failure precipitated current bombing campaign, is dead. The ethnic Albanians can't be expected to accept remaining under Serb rule, and the Serbs haven't yet been militarily persuaded to relinquish their control over any part of the province. Thus as NATO develops ideas about creating a protected enclave in Kosovo and the Serbs continue to depopulate predominantly ethnic Albanian areas, the two sides could find themselves moving toward some form of compromise. Thursday's talks between Milosevic and moderate ethnic Albanian leader...
What may turn out to be good news for the Kosovar Albanians would be bad news for NATO's p.r. credibility: On Monday NATO reported that two leading moderate ethnic Albanian politicians, Fehmi Agani and Baton Hadziu, had been executed the previous day by Serb forces; but the BBC reported Thursday that U.S. diplomats and Kosovar Albanian sources believe both men are still alive. If the report proves true, it would open NATO to criticism that it relies too heavily on partisan information from the Kosovo Liberation Army, which appears to have been the source of the execution claims...
...steep slopes of central Kosovo, a magenta KIA 4x4 slows to a crawl amid the cheers of running children. Behind the wheel, the rebel Albanian commander known as Celiku, or "Steely," acknowledges their play-soldier salutes, greets several wizened old men and continues up the mountain to his hilltop compound. Sitting on the cushioned floor of his house, sipping thick Turkish coffee, Celiku, a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army's "general headquarters," says there's only one way to end the war in the secessionist southern Serbian province. "Serbia has to be defeated militarily," he says. "Otherwise they will...