Ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia yesterday released two Yugoslav army officers kidnapped last month, but warned that Belgrade troops being deployed in a buffer zone were in danger.
The rebel commander, known as Lleshi, said that by releasing the two soldiers, the guerrillas "want to show the international community that we want to solve the problem politically".
"Today it is peace that is winning. We are waiting for a positive move from Belgrade" for the release of the detained rebels, Lleshi, a member of the the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB), said.
Sasa Bulatovic (23) and Milija Belojica (32) were delivered to the NATO representative, Mr Shawn Sullivan, in the rebelheld village of Konculj, one of the strongholds of the guerrillas of the LAPMB.
But the commander later warned that Yugoslav troops deployed on Saturday in a tense buffer zone in southern Serbia were not safe, saying "we cannot guarantee their lives".
Yugoslav army units entered another part of the five km (three mile) wide and 402 km long security zone near the town of Medvedja on Saturday.
NATO last month approved a gradual return of Belgrade troops to the zone for the first time since the Kosovo war ended in June 1999.
Lleshi dismissed the deployment as "political marketing", adding that it would not facilitate the return of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo to their home towns in southern Serbia.
In Brussels, the NATO Secretary General, Lord George Robertson, welcomed the liberation of the Yugoslav soldiers as a step towards resolving tensions between Belgrade and the Albanian community.
Lord Robertson said the release was "a good and important humanitarian gesture and a decisive step towards a political resolution of the current tensions".
On Saturday, the rebels released three Serb civilians, kidnapped on March 4th in the rebel-held village Veliki Trnovac.
A Bosnian Serb army commander, Lieut Col Dragan Obrenovic, wanted for the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Bosnia's worst wartime massacre was arrested yesterday by Sfor and is to be sent to The Hague to face trial.