Yugoslav Armed Forces Complete Deployment in Safety Zone

Yugoslav Armed Forces Complete Deployment in Safety Zone

---

Yugoslavia's armed forces have completed deployment in the section of southern Serbia's safety zone that borders Macedonia, the Tanjug news agency reported Wednesday.

Chief of General Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic reported to President Vojislav Kostunica early Wednesday morning that the armed forces had started entering the designated section of the safety zone, the news agency said.

By 8 o'clock in the morning, the forces had completed deployment in the designated area, it added.

Pavkovic and observers from both the European Union and the NATO's peacekeeping forces entered the zone along with Yugoslavia' s troops and the deployment was monitored by NATO helicopters.

The deployment came two days after Belgrade gained approval from the NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo.

Tension has been mounting recently in the five-kilometer-wide zone, as a result of an upsurge in ethnic Albanians' separatist activities. The zone was established in June 1999 to separate Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia.