NATO mission on hold as Macedonia security cabinet meets Posted August 26, 2001
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Sunday, August 26 8:05 PM SGT

NATO mission on hold as Macedonia security cabinet meets

SKOPJE, Aug 26 (AFP) -

NATO's mission to collect ethnic Albanian rebel weapons looked in danger of being delayed on Sunday as talks between alliance and government officials on the number of arms to be gathered continued.

And with less than 24 hours to go before the planned launch of Operation Essential Harvest, two security guards were killed in an explosion that destroyed a motel in the northwest, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

An emergency session of Macedonia's national security body was called on Sunday to discuss developments, including both NATO's estimate on how many rebel arms it will collect over the next 30 days and the blast.

NATO says it is ready to launch its mission but its spokesman appeared less confident it would begin as planned.

"We are preparing to conduct the mission tomorrow, but we are flexible on when to start," said Major Barry Johnson, the alliance's spokesman in Skopje.

Other military officials were convinced an agreement would be reached later on Sunday.

According to reports from alliance and government sources, big differences in figures have to bridged. NATO sources say around 3,300 arms is a fair number, while Macedonian tallies have ranged from 6,000 to 85,000.

On Saturday, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, a nationalist, described NATO's estimations as "laughable", saying that the guerrillas had 70,000 pieces of weaponry.

Whatever the figure, NATO is committed to gathering one third of them from the National Liberation Army (NLA) by Friday, when parliament meets to debate implementing a wider accord reached on August 13 by political leaders.

Operation Essential Harvest also depends on a shaky July 5 ceasefire holding out.

While northern Macedonia has been largely calm since NATO ambassadors decided to launch the mission on Wednesday, a massive explosion on Sunday near the mainly ethnic Albanian town of Tetovo heightened tensions again.

An AFP journalist at the scene said there had been unconfirmed reports that two security guards at a motel near Celopek were bound with wire and tied to explosives.

The journalist said the blast destroyed a restaurant and lodging complex in what residents of Celopek, which has a mixed Macedonian and ethnic Albanian population, described as the act of animals.

The residents said they feared for their safety and blamed the Macedonian security forces for not doing enough to protect them. Police from Skopje were sent to the scene to try to determine if the blast was a criminal act or the work of rebels.

Its timing appeared calculated to derail the start of the NATO mission, which is part of a wider peace accord granting an amnesty to rebels who surrender their weapons and changing the constitutional to give the Albanian language official status in some areas.

Ethnic Albanians make up around a quarter of Macedonia's population of two-million, in which Slavs are in the majority.