Bujanovac - Thousands of Serb troops were poised yesterday to pour into an area by the Kosovo border which has been a base for ethnic Albanian guerrillas for the past 16 months. Belgrade expected little resistance. In contrast to their ethnic kin still fighting in Macedonia, commanders of the guerrilla group in the Presevo Valley of southern Serbia have agreed to disband by the end of the month and not resist the NATO-backed return of Serb forces.
NATO is anxious to support reformers who ousted Slobodan Milosevic last October and has been allowing Yugoslav forces back into the zone sector by sector this year. The alliance decided last week to let them into the final and most sensitive section, where the guerrillas have been in almost total control for months. After weighing up the risks of fighting a vastly superior force, guerrilla leaders accepted NATO's argument that, with Milosevic gone, now was not the time for armed struggle.