(29 Nov 2000) Serbo-Croat/Nat

Rebels ensconced in hillside fortifications watched but didn't resist as Serbian police retook a strategic village just outside Kosovo, in a region where a recent rebel ethnic Albanian offensive claimed at least five lives.

Backed up by two armoured vehicles and armed with automatic weapons, police zigzagged from house to house as they cautiously entered Lucane.

Most of Lucane's estimated one-thousand ethnic Albanians fled earlier, leaving behind only the elderly.

But by nightfall, most had returned on the strength of agreements village elders had made with police that they would be safe if they did so.

The village religious leader and several other residents complained that the ethnic Albanian militants had ransacked their houses before pulling out.

The strategic village is the first recaptured by Serbian forces since last week's rebel offensive.

It brought Serb security troops and the ethnic Albanian militants closer.

They now face each other from a 500-metre distance.

Rebels could be seen entrenched on the hills near Lucane.

Although they didn't respond, they suggested that they didn't approve of the Serb move beforehand, claiming they had no advance word of it.

Lucane is on a main road to Kosovo leading through a 5-kilometre (3-mile) buffer zone.

Under an agreement signed last year, Serbian police are allowed only light weapons in the area.

The zone has a large ethnic Albanian population.

Militants are demanding to join Kosovo and want independence from Serbia, Yugoslavia's largest republic.

A high-ranking Serbian police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his forces would not enter deeper into the buffer zone.

He said the officers planned to set up what he called a "permanent presence" in the village.

Violence escalated last week, as ethnic Albanian militants launched attacks into the buffer zone, capturing several strategic points in Serbia proper.

The offensive triggered protests by Western governments and fears of more bloodshed in the region.

Yugoslavia's new pro-democratic leadership - claiming the militants are crossing from Kosovo - have demanded that NATO troops stationed in the province stop the incursions into southern Serbia.

UPSOUND: (Serbian)
"We are here to protect the villagers. The villagers can go about their business without fear."
SUPER CAPTION: Yugoslav policeman

UPSOUND: (Serbian)
"We are afraid of both sides. The Albanian militants and the Serb police."
SUPER CAPTION: Lucane resident

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