Copyright 1987 The New York Times Company   
                                      The New York Times 

                             June 28, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition 

SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 12, Column 5; Foreign Desk 

LENGTH: 245 words 

HEADLINE: Belgrade Battles Kosovo Serbs 

BYLINE: Special to the New York Times 

DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, June 27 

BODY:

The clash occurred shortly after a meeting of the country's Central Committee during which there were 16 hours of debate on ways to ease tension between Kosovo's 1.7 million ethnic Albanians and 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins.

Witnesses said squads of policemen seized demonstrators and forced them into buses to be driven back to their homes in Kosovo. Some protesters were detained for several hours.

The Central Committee meeting was the first in six years dedicated solely to Kosovo problem.

Tensions have been high in the province in southwestern Yugoslavia since the Albanians rioted there in 1981 to back demands for higher status as a republic.

Since then, more than 22,000 Serbs and Montenegrins have fled Kosovo.

The Government asked people from Kosovo not to come to Belgrade during the Central Committee meeting, but hundreds came here overnight.

Published excerpts from the debate showed continued splits in the party ranks, and no decisive action was considered likely.

The police also prevented large groups of Belgrade residents from joining the protesters by cordoning of the entire center of the city.

Serbs have said the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have committed atrocities against them, including murder, rape, desecration of graves and churches and blinding of cattle.

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