Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told and included cellular phones, satellite radios and phones and handheld Motorola radios. Some zones were well equipped with computers in order to establish databases and maintain efficient administration. Security situation December 1998 to mid-March 1999 The fighting in Kosovo in 1998 set a precedent for what was to happen in 1999: Many villages have been destroyed by shelling and burning following operations conducted by federal and Serbian government forces. There are concerns that the disproportionate use of force and actions of the security forces are designed to terrorise and subjugate the population, a collective punishment to teach them that the price of supporting the Kosovo Albanian paramilitary units is too high and will be even higher in future. The Serbian security forces have demanded the surrender of weapons and have been reported to use terror and violence against civilians to force people to flee their homes or the places where they had sought refuge, under the guise of separating them from fighters of the Kosovo Albanian paramilitary units. The tactics include shelling, detentions and threats to life and finally short-notice demands to leave or face the 18 consequences. Under the cease-fire agreement called for in UN resolution 1199 of 23 September 1998, as subsequently accepted (see Chapter 1), no ground advances or confrontations between the UCK and the Yugoslav/ Serbian forces were permitted. This did not prevent a number of reactive operations by the Yugoslav/ 19 Serbian forces against UCK infiltration along the Albanian border in December 1998. Further, in December 1998, the UCK occupied and reinforced former VJ trenches overlooking the main supply route in Kosovo from Serbia proper by Podujevo/Podujeve. The Yugoslav/Serbian forces were unsurprisingly not willing to overlook this action, and immediately announced VJ "exercises" starting on 19 December 1998 in the vicinity. By 24 December, the VJ were once again in control of the ground following three days of fighting. The importance of the main supply routes to the Serbs was reiterated by the strengthening of positions straddling the Dulje/Duhel Pass (Suva Reka/Suhareke) on 30 December 1998. There were frequent small-scale ambushes against MUP forces by the UCK during the first two-and-ahalf months of 1999, clearly breaching any conceptions of a cease-fire. Tensions were raised further when eight VJ were held captive by the UCK in the north of Kosovo; Yugoslav/Serbian troops and equipment were moved into the vicinity. Further reinforced patrolling took place along the strategic Stimlje/Shtime Pass area following the death of three police near Dulje/Duhel (Suva Reka/Suhareke) on 8 January 1999. Fighting subsequently took place in the middle of January around Petrovo/Petrove and Racak/Recak (Stimlje/Shtime). Tensions in the province were raised from the end of January through to the OSCE-KVM evacuation on 20 March 1999, as a result of a series of bomb and grenade attacks on cafés (both Kosovo Albanian- and http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch3.htm (9 of 16)12/5/2003 11:48:47 AM