NATO notes progress in Macedonia peace talks Posted August 6, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010806/3/1a94f.html
Monday August 6, 5:36 PM

NATO notes progress in Macedonia peace talks

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO cautiously welcomed on Monday a breakthrough in peace talks in Macedonia and stepped up preparations to send troops to collect ethnic Albanian guerrillas' weapons if a final deal is signed.

A NATO official told Reuters: "We are encouraged by what has happened. The signs are pointing in the right direction, but I don't want to be too optimistic."

He said preparations were in high gear at NATO headquarters and the 19-nation alliance's policy-making North Atlantic Council, which must approve any deployment, might meet later on Monday to hear a report on progress in the talks between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political parties.

European Union facilitators announced a breakthrough on Sunday night on the key outstanding issue of the Albanians' role in the future police force, following agreement last week on wider official use of the Albanian language.

Negotiations were to resume on Monday to put final touches to a peace plan meant to defuse a five-month-old ethnic Albanian revolt in the most southerly former Yugoslav republic.

The NATO official said the alliance would have to be sure that all parties were satisfied with the political accord, that the Macedonian authorities supported NATO's deployment and that technical details of disarmament and weapons collection were agreed before allied troops could go in.

However, he made clear that NATO would not have to wait until the Macedonian parliament had ratified planned constitutional amendments to give ethnic Albanians greater rights, a process that could take six weeks or so.

Asked how quickly NATO's planned 3,000-strong force could start to deploy, the official said: "The political agreement is the point of departure. There would have to be a NATO Council decision to authorise deployment. It can happen very quickly but all this (conditions) has to be there."

"We are very close but the conditions have to be met. What we are working on at NATO is to be ready ourselves," he added.

NATO has said its mission would be limited to about one month, but many Balkans experts believe a much longer term NATO presence will be necessary to stabilise fragile Macedonia.