TENSIONS IN KOSOVO RISING

( Editorial: --> 7422 ) PRISTINA, March 5 (Hina) - The Kosovo Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms on Thursday said the movement of large police units had been reported in the village of Gjocaj, near Decani. According to an unconfirmed report, one person was killed in the village. The committee reiterated that on Thursday morning villages in the area of Drenica had been attacked by long calibre infantry weapons, as well as by grenades, and even heavy guns and rockets. The committee believes that the attacks left several people dead and wounded. Xhemail Mustafa, spokesman for the Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, said at a snap press briefing that the Albanian population in that area, especially women and children, had been vacating their homes and moving towards Vucitrn. He also said that Serbian forces were positioned at approaches to some villages, and that mobilisation and arming of the Serb population in the villages of the Vucitrn municipality had been reported from Drenica. Speaking at the press briefing, Kosovo Information Centre director Enver Maloku told domestic and foreign journalists several Albanians had been wounded, including some that had been transported to the hospital in the town of Mitrovica. However, he could not give their exact number, as all roads to Drenovica had been blocked. He said that the intensity of heavy guns fire had decreased, but that more police forces had been dispatched to Drenica and that some unconfirmed reports spoke about troops movements in the area of Mitrovica. Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova asked for strong pressure on Belgrade to stop the violence. (Hina) jn mr /mb 051913 MET mar 98