Any such incursion would immediately draw Albania into the conflict in Kosovo. There is widespread sympathy here for the ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo who are challenging Serbian rule in the province. As the fighting in Kosovo intensifies, it also threatens to draw in Macedonia, where an ethnic Albanian minority also supports the separatists.
Diplomats fear a new Balkan war as destructive as the one in Bosnia.
When you look at what the Serbs are attempting to do, to create a security belt along the border, you soon realize it is impossible in such a mountainous area. The next step is to try and enlarge the area under fire, an enlargement that would push the conflict into Albania. The prime minister, who sent an urgent appeal to NATO commanders Wednesday asking for troops to secure the border area, conceded that it was impossible to monitor the rugged terrain. He insisted, however, that any arms shipped into Kosovo from Albania were being sent without his government's knowledge. The Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, has deployed thousands of special police and soldiers along the border, and they have been pounding villages with heavy artillery, witnesses report.