BELGRADE REGIME IS GUILTY FOR SITUATION IN KOSOVO - RUGOVA

( Editorial: --> 9219 ) PRISTINA, April 24 (Hina) - Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova has strongly condemned the latest assaults by the Serbian police and army on villages in the municipalities of Decani and Djakovica, as well as Yugoslav Army intervention on the Yugoslav-Albanian border. Rugova also denounced every form of violence in Kosovo, stressing that the main initiator and culprit for the situation in the southern Yugoslav province was the Belgrade regime. At Friday's news conference in Pristina, Rugova invited Serbian authorities to accept an unconditional dialogue with legal representatives of the Kosovo Albanians. There is no indication so far of Belgrade's will for negotiations nor the defusing of tension in Kosovo, he said. The best solution would be an independent and neutral Kosovo, with all guarantees for local Serbs and other residents of the area, Rugova said. He called on all residents of Kosovo to be tolerant and on Kosovo Serbs not to allow themselves to be manipulated by Serb extremists. Rugova called on the international community to do everything to prevent Serbian police and military actions, and on the Yugoslav Army to withdraw its troops from Kosovo. Albanian dailies on Friday reported on Yugoslav Army artillery attacks on the municipalities of Decani and Djakovica, adding that Yugoslav troops had killed 22 Albanians in conflicts in the border area. An official statement by the Yugoslav Army issued in Belgrade Thursday night said that 16 Albanians had been killed and two arrested, while the Yugoslav army had suffered no losses. (hina) lm /mb 241457 MET apr 98