Sgt.

Thorin Sprandel
Camp Monteith PAO

KFOR soldiers detained 13 suspected members of the Liberation Army of

Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) in the early morning hours of Dec. 20 and

seized a large weapons cache near the village of Surlane in southeastern Kosovo.

The joint U.S. and British patrol detained the suspects after observing their

movements in and out of the five kilometer wide buffer between provincial Kosovo and

Serbia known as the Ground Safety Zone.

The patrol apprehended the suspects, who were traveling on tractors and in four-

wheel drive trucks, and seized their equipment including 30 rocket propelled grenade

warheads, four rocket launchers, 50 hand grenades, eight anti-tank mines, one box of

explosives, five AK-47 rifles, two light machine guns, seven long-barreled weapons, two

12.7 mm machine guns, three .50 caliber machine guns, two pistols and ammunition.

Additionally, the KFOR soldiers found military uniforms and maps.

At about the same time, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment

observed four men loitering in the village of Pidic. The soldiers went to the village and

conducted a cordon and search operation of three houses. No additional illegal weapons

were found during the house search operation.

The detainment and seizure follows a week of violence in and near the GSZ

established in June 1999 after the two Yugoslavian provinces signed the Military and

Technical Agreement. In one incident, suspected UCPMB gunmen fired automatic

weapons at a car of four ethnic Serbians, wounding one, near the village of Mucibaba

Dec. 15. Three days later, a joint U.S. and Russian patrol received small arms fire
directed at their position from suspected UCPMB guerillas after preparing demolition

charges to complete a boundary closure mission. The KFOR patrol returned fire and

broke contact from the engagement without suffering casualties.

The UCPMB was established in the Presevo valley of western Serbia after the

disbandment of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac are all

located within 15 km of the GSZ in an area that is home to roughly 80,000 ethnic

Albanians.

KFOR’s investigation of the three incidents continues.