"The Kosovo region of Serbia. Many analysts are picking this area to explode in 1998. There is a danger that the violence
could spillover into neighboring regions and even into Albania. In the last six months, many weapons stolen in Albania have reached nationalists in Kosovo, giving them an arms capability equal to the Serbian police."

MILITARY NEWS

EUROPE

TIRANA, ALBANIA (EmergencyNet News) - The number of border incidents along the tense Serbian-Albanian frontier reportedly increased 10-fold in 1997 compared to the previous year. In 1997, there were 121 border incidents involving arrests, 97 happened on the Serbian-Albanian border. Gunfire was involved in 27 incidents and two soldiers were wounded. The Serbian army said it prevented 2,878 illegal border crossings last year, double the 1996 figure. Serbia has sealed off the border with its southern neighbor for security reasons following riots in northern Albania in 1997.

PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (EmergencyNet News) - Seven people were killed in what is being called the single worst day of violence since the emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army militant group. The victims included two Serb policemen and five Albanians, who were all apparently killed in retaliation on Saturday.

Two other Serb policemen were also wounded when the four were ambushed while on patrol in Serbia's mostly ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo. Five terrorists were reported killed in the clashes. The incidents were said to be related but separate, with the ambush coming first and a police siege of several ethnic Albanian villages following. The five civilian deaths occurred in villages near Glogovac, which is located 12 miles west of the provincial capital, Pristina. Sources said that it has not been confirmed that all five of the civilians killed were members of the KLA.

ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY

PRISTINA, SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Several thousand ethnic Albanians demonstrated against police violence in Kosovo after at least 20 people died in fighting in Serbia's southernmost province over the weekend.

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ESR CLOSE UP

From the ERRI Watch Center

PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (EmergencyNet News) - Serb riot police reportedly beat demonstrators as they fled onto side streets on Monday. The demonstrators, said to be in the tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians, were protesting a number of killings that occurred in Kosovo province over the weekend.

At least 20 people -- 16 Albanians and four Serbs -- were killed in what was called an unprecedented weekend of ethnic violence in Kosovo. The violence was sparking the fear that an all-out war could breakout in the province, which borders Albania and is seeking autonomy from Serbia.

Monday's demonstrations took place in downtown Pristina, Kosovo's capital. The crowd, estimated at 30,000, waved their fists at a police helicopter overhead and chanted: "We'll give our lives, but we won't give up Kosovo."

Hundreds of police fired water cannons and tear gas, and riot police charged the demonstrators and reportedly beat them as they fled.

The violence over the weekend was said to be the worst since the emergence of The Kosovo Liberation Army in 1996. The group has claimed responsibility for attacks that have claimed nearly 24 victims.

On Sunday, gunfire and explosions could be heard. Police said they found a large quantity of weapons, including grenades, mortar shells and explosives.

According to Serbian police, officers on patrol were ambushed Saturday with grenades, automatic weapons and mortars near Glogovac, which is located 12 miles west of Pristina. Four Serbian policemen were killed and two were seriously wounded. Police then killed 16 Albanian "terrorists" and arrested five others.

Ethnic Albanians' said the Serbian police and paramilitary forces had attacked unarmed Albanian civilians, including women and children, in several villages.

ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY

LONDON (EmergencyNet News) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic faced growing international pressure to ease tension in his Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo as Serbian police came under fire in its capital. A senior U.S. official, echoing a commitment made by former President George Bush, said Washington might intervene militarily if needed in the province of Serbia where Albanians outnumber the Serbs.

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MILITARY NEWS

PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (EmergencyNet News) - There was more trouble reported in Kosovo overnight. Serb police reportedly came under fire twice on Wednesday evening in the center of Pristina. No injuries were reported, but the high profile attacks kept tension high after weekend violence in which about 30 people died, almost all of them ethnic Albanians.

In one incident, shots were fired near a police station. Witnesses said they saw a man running down a side street. Police said a man had approached the entrance of a police compound and fired two pistol shots at a guard from a range of about yards. He then fled down the street and escaped into the darkness of a nearby park.

At about the same time, a police vehicle came under fire in a different part of the city. Although no one was hurt in the attacks, they represented a challenge by Albanian separatists because they took place in Pristina.

The attacks came hours after the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) vowed to take revenge against the Serbian authorities for last weekend's violence.

EUROPE

From the ERRI Watch Center

PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (EmergencyNet News) - At least 20 ethnic Albanians were killed by Serb police in Kosovo province on Thursday. It brought the death toll to at least 51 people killed in violence in the province in the past week.

The ongoing violence in the southern part of Serbia is said to be bringing the area perilously close to civil war. A warning that was issued by ERRI and other analysts since the beginning of the year.

Police backed by armored personnel carriers sealed the area of Drenica, which is located about 20 miles west of Kosovo's capital, Pristina. One policeman said, "The anti-terrorist action is in progress and the area is off-limits."

In a statement, Serb police said that a sweep through Drenica resulted in the deaths of 20 Albanians and two policemen. The police also said that they had discovered "a well-equipped arsenal of weapons, hand grenades and explosive devices" in Drenica and arrested eight "terrorists."

Ethnic Albanian media quoted witnesses as saying that the Serbs used heavy artillery and helicopter gunships, and described the scenes as "massacres."