Serb volunteers ready to fight for Kosovo

BELGRADE, May 4 (Reuters) A grouping of Serb veterans and hardline nationalist said today they would form a 'volunteer guard' and take up arms to keep Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province, which the West wants to make independent in months.

In a move reminiscent of the Serb paramilitary gangs that roamed Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during a decade of war and atrocities in the 1990s, they said they plan to christen the ''Guard of Prince Lazar'' in a town in central Serbia tomorrow.

Named after the 14th century Serb ruler, the guard, they say, will ''never give up'' the fight to defend the southern province, if the 2 million ethnic Albanians who now dominate Serbia's religious heartland win independence.

''Some people think they can take away Serb holy land, wipe it off the map,'' coordinator Hadzi Andrej Milic, dressed in camouflage uniform, told a news conference at the veterans' association in Belgrade.

''The moment anyone tries to tear Kosovo away and declare it independent, we will set off. My units and I will never give up,'' said Milic, sitting at a table draped in posters heralding ''The Battle of Kosovo - A war to defend Serb land''.

ORTHODOX HERITAGE Kosovo is rich in Orthodox religious heritage and steeped in myth and history for Serbs. But it is 90 percent populated by ethnic Albanians and has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO expelled Serb forces accused of killing and expelling civilians while fighting Albanian guerrillas.

The UN Security Council is expected this month to consider a plan drafted by a UN envoy to give the territory independence, under an open-ended period of European Union supervision. The West backs the plan.

Serbia opposes independence, but has ruled out war, and the veterans' initiative has no backing from any political parties. The interior ministry declined comment but reiterated that forming paramilitary groups was illegal.

Organisers say they expect around 100 people at Saturday's church service in the town of Krusevac, but 5,000 had signed up to join the guard.

Serbian Veteran Movement head Zeljko Vasiljevic insisted they had ''no ambition to act outside state institutions.'' ''All we want is to place ourselves at their disposal, the army and the police, in case Kosovo declares independence.'' Vasiljevic is allied to the Socialist Party of Serbia of late Slobodan Milosevic, whose nationalist policies led Serbia from one war to another in the 1990s.

''We don't think five million Serbs will support our idea and fight for Kosovo, that is not our aim,'' he said. We want individuals who have war experience and are ready to do so.'' REUTERS KK KN1953