Thousands of Serb troops are poised to pour on Thursday into an area by the Kosovo border which has been a base for ethnic Albanian guerrillas for the past 16 months, but Belgrade expects little resistance.
In contrast to their ethnic kin still fighting in nearby 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.
Serbian leaders do not rule out some trouble when their troops move into the hilly terrain of 'Sector B' of the NATO- ordained buffer zone. But they confidently predict it will be isolated and shortlived.
``I don't expect any great resistance but I don't exclude the possibility of some smaller incidents, by some smaller groups,'' said Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, architect of the reformist government's peace plan for the region.
``They are adventurous people, far removed from reality. But they will be punished quickly for that,'' Covic said.
Around 3,500 soldiers and police will move into the sector if the operation goes peacefully, but up to five times that number could be deployed if required, Covic said.
An advance party has already been seen inside Sector B, a strip of land around 22 miles long by three miles wide, but the main force will move on Thursday into the northern and southern parts.
They will wait until next week to enter the more populous central part, where the rebels have been most entrenched. They say they need more time to demilitarize it -- BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia (Reuters)
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