AT LEAST 52 ALBANIANS KILLED IN ORAHOVAC - KOSOVO INFO CENTRE

( Editorial: --> 9301 ) PRISTINA, July 22 (Hina) - Fifty-two Kosovo Albanians have been killed in battles between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army in Orahovac which indicates the incomplete tragic balance of power, the Kosovo Information Centre (KIC) said on Wednesday. The Albanian-run KIC released a list of 16 new names of killed Kosovo Albanians, of which nine were killed, then covered with straw and their bodies burnt. The number is not final and it is feared that more than 100 Albanians have been killed in the Orahovac clashes. Several hundred Albanian civilians from Orahovac and surrounding villages have been arrested and carried away, the KIC said. The pro-Serbian government Media Centre in Pristina on Wednesday organised the arrival of a group of domestic and foreign journalists to Orahovac in order to show Serbian police had complete control over the town. Police representatives told reporters that during the clashes in Orahovac two Serbian police officers had been killed, while nine policemen and four Serb civilians had been injured. They also said dozens of armed Albanians had died. Sources in the Albanian capital Tirana, however, report that the situation in the country's northern regions near the border with Yugoslavia are becoming more strained, and that Serbian forces had fired at Albanian territory with sniper-fire. There were no victims but a residential building had been hit, the same sources said. Radio Tirana announced on Wednesday that Serbian forces were increasing their concentration on the border. Official sources in Tirana said Serbian forces had placed mines in the border zone in an attempt to prevent illegal crossings by Kosovo Albanians. (Hina) mbr jn 222341 MET jul 98