The program of the Federal government and the new Serbian authorities, announced as a document for the resolution of the crisis in this area, which, sources from the top of the Serbian police have confirmed, has already received the support of the international community will enable the Serbian side to finally stand up to the terrorists.
The document will give the international community an "alibi" for an already agreed upon reduction of the Ground Safety Zone (GSZ); it will give the Serb side free reign to deal with the terrorists; and it will give the Albanian population, including some of those who are presently part of the terrorist bands in this part of Serbia, a last chance to acquiesce to life in Serbia with all rights that meet European standards. According to announcements already made public, the program foresees the resolution of the problem in three phases through which the Albanian population would be integrated into the state and social system. This would, bluntly put, be the end of peaceful attempts to resolve the problem in the south of Serbia, and the end of the Serb side's failure to respond to terrorist attacks. If the proposal is rejected, the authorities in Serbia will get the "green light" of the international community to deal with the terrorists in the south of the country using methods followed in states that do not have the international community "breathing down their neck".
Sources close to the top of the Serbian police claim that the platform of the Serbian authorities is nothing but the promised reward of the international community for the "exemplary behavior" of the new government in Serbia, which hasn't used anything more serious to threaten the terrorists from its trenches than a reprimanding index finger. The world may have been tempted, says a source from the Serbian state police, to continue diplomatic games regarding Bujanovac if spring was not just around thee corner and the international community frightened by the possibility of a repeat of Kosovo. That's why it gave its full support to the Serb side for the proposed program and the right to describe it as "democratic" according to world standards.
Commander Leshi: Of course, the foreigners are also offering help with negotiations, which are all the more difficult due to the disunity among the Albanian bands in this part of Serbia. Namely, as the source from the top of Police explains, the international representatives now have the problem of choosing the most adequate negotiator on the Albanian side and of neutralizing possible "alternate candidates". Even though the favorite for chief negotiator of the Albanians is Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo, the man who in the present situation would also be the preferred choice of the Serbian side, there is a fear among the implementers of "the democratic resolution of the crisis" that extremists such as Shefqet Musliju, Sheqir Shaqiri or the leader of one of the Albanian bands, the renowned "Leshi" might "draw away" the critical support of the population from the accommodating Halimi. Namely, according to the explanation of the ministry source, the "support" enjoyed by the leaders of extremist groups is not small. They, explains the source, determine who among the Albanians will be mobilized, who will pay 1,000 or 5,000 German marks [$500 to $2,500] to stay at home, who will walk down the road, who will be abducted and who will be murdered. The leaders of these bands are the law "down there". And when a small-town tailor such as "commander Leshi" becomes the law, explains the source, it is hard to expect him to agree to a blueprint of a program which would make him "just" a small-town tailor again. However, both the international community and the Serbian police are hoping, claims the source, that this problem will be resolved by the Albanians themselves. Faced with the possibillity of eradication, says this man who has spent a lot of time in the field, the Albanians will probably on their own "neutralize" those elements who want to hurry up and cause an armed conflict. Without the support of international organizations, the Albanian extremists don't have a chance before the spring.
Casualties: The source from the top of Police explains that false information regarding the number of casualties among members of the Yugoslav Army and police in the south of Serbia and lies that the Serbian government is hiding the real number of casualties are just another attempt by the Albanian extremists to provoke a reaction by the Serbian side in order to awaken the dissatisfaction of the international community. It is the policy of the Government and its representatives in the south of Serbia, says Reporter's source, to show things as they really are. At this moment it is absolutely not to the Serbs' advantage to hide the number of casualties, adds the policeman.
These rumors, he adds, are being spread chiefly by the Albanian media and the leaders of the terrorist bands who are trying to raise morale among their followers.
However, the casualties which the Serbian side has had so far and the rumors that the number of soldiers killed is being hidden have also caused a reaction among the soldiers and police on the front lines. A 19 year-old member of one of the elite units of the Yugoslav Army deployed in positions near Bujanovac claims that the army is having a difficult time following the order to apply just one military tactic in their battle with the terrorists for now: lying down in the trenches.
This young man talks to his parents and friends in Belgrade by cell phone every day from a trench only a few hundred meters away from the positions of the Albanian terrorists and fills them in on events on the front lines. Conversations are forbidden only in the evenings when the Albanian terrorists use floodlights to shine lights on the army trenches and intermittently fire on them. That's when they have to be careful. They lie down in the trenches until the shooting stops. And that is what passes for diplomacy.