Agreement on Macedonia police Posted August 5, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/08/05/macedonia.talks/index.html
Agreement on Macedonia police
August 5, 2001 Posted: 5:28 PM EDT (2128 GMT)
OHRID, Macedonia -- Macedonian negotiators on Sunday reached agreement on police reforms, removing one of the main sticking points in the week-long talks.
European envoy Javier Solana, who joined the talks Sunday, said the power-sharing deal governing the country's police forces was a significant step forward in the peace process.
"I think we can say that the parties have agreed on the document on police," Solana told a news conference. The European Union foreign policy chief did not outline the plan.
But Western mediators indicated that a final peace deal could be reached as early as Monday.
"The hard part is behind us," U.S. envoy James Pardew told CNN, adding that "we could get this done very, very quickly" once the talks reconvene Monday morning.
Pardew described Sunday's deal as a "fundamental restructuring" of the Macedonia police.
Under the agreement, 1,000 Albanian policemen will be hired by July 2003 and deployed "according to the composition and disposition of the population," Pardew said. "There will be more Albanian policemen in Albanian areas."
Currently only 5 percent of the Macedonia police force is ethnic Albanian.
The appointment of police chiefs was another issue decided Sunday. According to Pardew, the chiefs will be appointed by Macedonia's interior minister and approved by municipal councils, increasing the councils' authority over the police chiefs.
Pardew described Sunday's deal as the "second of the two big hurdles" in the talks, the first being an agreement on language that was settled earlier in the week. Under that agreement, Albanian will be considered an official language in areas where ethnic Albanians make up at least 20 percent of the population.
The agreement on police reform came on the eighth day of Western-mediated talks between government officials and leaders of the country's ethnic Albanian political parties.
The talks are the latest effort to reach a political settlement to end a violent insurgency by ethnic Albanian rebels that has destabilized the Balkan nation.
-- Journalist Juliette Terzieff contributed to this report.
Macedonia peace talks on a knife's edge, as top EU envoy flies in Posted August 5, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010805/1/1a6qb.html
Sunday August 5, 7:37 PM
Macedonia peace talks on a knife's edge, as top EU envoy flies in
OHRID, Macedonia, Aug 5 (AFP) -
Peace talks in Macedonia were on a knife's edge on Sunday, as top European Union envoy Javier Solana flew in to help broker a deal aimed at avoiding civil war in this Balkan country.
Solana arrived around 11:20 am (0920 GMT) at this lakeside resort town as Macedonian and ethnic Albanian negotiators, meeting for an eighth day, moved towards resolving the key issue standing in the way of a peace deal - the reform of the police in areas of the country inhabited by ethnic Albanians.
Asked on arrival whether he believed a peace accord would be struck Solana said: "Of course I do. I do not say if it happens today, but in any case today will be an important step forward."
He said there had already been progress.
"I hope that today we will give another push to what still has to be agreed," he said.
Earlier, Francois Leotard, the EU's permanent envoy to the talks, told AFP the "talks are on a razor's edge", but added that "an accord is possible today".
Solana would jointly meet the representatives of the two sides around 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), and the talks would be followed by a press conference.
He was due to leave Macedonia later in the day after meetings with President Boris Trajkovski, Foreign Minister Ilinka Dimitrova, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski.
The international community has weighed in to help secure peace in Macedonia, fearing a new Balkan bloodbath on the scale of Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo in the 1990s.
The crisis started in February when rebels of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) launched an insurgency in what they say is a fight for better rights for the country's ethnic Albanian population.
The EU's Leotard said there were still notable differences on both sides on the police issue, which is central to ethnic Albanian rebel demands.
Albanians make up up to one third of the population in this former Yugoslav republic, living mainly in the north of the country, on the border with Kosovo, and in the west, near Albania.
The rebels themselves have not been allowed at the negotiating table, but ethnic Albanian political leaders are under pressure to secure a deal that suits them.
Pressure for a settlement intensified last week when the Skopje government started talking tough, threatening military action to oust rebels from areas they have captured.
Max Van der Stoel, the official responsible for minorities at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said positions had been clarified in talks so far.
The talks are being held at Trajkovski' residence in Ohrid and group two Macedonian and two ethnic Albanian parties, plus Leotard and US envoy James Pardew.
Minor incidents were reported overnight by the defence ministry. A fragile July 5 ceasefire has been sporadically marred by clashes since peace talks opened just over a week ago.
The rebels fired several grenades at the village of Popova Sapka, but Macedonian forces did not respond, the ministry spokesman Marjan Gjurovski said, adding that automatic fire was also reported around Djepciste, another village near Tetovo.
In the northern region near Kumanovo, where guerillas control several villages, the situation was calm, the spokesman said.
The police problem revolves around demands by ethnic Albanians that the composition of local police forces be proportional to the local population.
Macedonia opposes the demand for fear that these forces could be turned against its own security forces.
Solana Seeks to Spur Macedonian Peace Talks Posted August 5, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010805/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_233.html
Sunday August 5 4:50 AM ET
Solana Seeks to Spur Macedonian Peace Talks
By Philippa Fletcher
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - European Union (news - web sites) foreign policy chief Javier Solana will make a lightning visit to Macedonia on Sunday to spur political leaders to agree to a plan to end a five-month ethnic Albanian rebellion.
Solana, who has spearheaded Western efforts to head off a new Balkan war in the former Yugoslav republic, will meet leaders of the two main Macedonian and two ethnic Albanian political parties in a lakeside mansion in southwest Macedonia.
It was unclear whether Solana would merely be coaxing the fractious politicians, who have been locked in talks in Ohrid for a week, or if he might be able to celebrate a breakthrough on Albanian demands for a bigger role in the police force.
``This is a signal of support for the talks,'' Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said of the visit lasting a few hours from midday. She declined to say whether a deal on police reforms seemed imminent.
``The message is that the EU would like to have a final deal as soon as possible. Giving specific time lines might not be the most appropriate thing at the moment,'' she said.
Even if an agreement on policing is reached, other constitutional issues remain to be settled in a long haul to end a conflict fueled by demands for more rights for ethnic Albanians who make up about a third of the population.
``The signing of the final document is still far away,'' the state news agency MIA said.
UKRAINIAN VISIT SEEN HELPING
Solana will be accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko, whose country has been supplying Macedonia with combat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft which it has used to try to flush out the rebels with little success.
Western diplomats have been trying to stop the supplies, noting that pounding guerrilla positions from afar only fuels support for the rebels. They say Zlenko's visit will help Solana send the message that a political agreement is the only way forward.
Max van der Stoel, an envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)) at the talks, said he hoped that disputes over policing could be resolved on Sunday.
One Western source at the talks, also brokered by EU envoy Francois Leotard and American James Pardew, said the two sides were still far apart on police reforms.
Ethnic Albanians make up only about six percent of police forces. They want more jobs, saying that ethnic Albanians often feel intimidated by Macedonian police.
A tenuous truce has been in place since July 26, but both sides have accused the other of repeated violations.
The guerrillas, who control a swathe of territory in northern Macedonia, are not at the talks. But the demands of the ethnic Albanian parties mirror many of their own.
POLICING `` DIFFICULT THAN LANGUAGE''
The political leaders made progress last Wednesday by solving the toughest issue at the talks by agreeing details of how to make Albanian an official language in regions where 20 percent of the population is Albanian. But policing is proving difficult.
``It's more difficult than language,'' said one Western source.
The Macedonians want the make-up of police forces around the country to reflect the total population -- meaning Macedonians will have a majority in every local police station.
Ethnic Albanians want police forces determined by local populations -- handing them control in some regions.
A Macedonian source said that, if an agreement was reached in Ohrid, the next step would be an amnesty which he hoped would prompt the start of rebel disarmament and encourage Macedonian deputies to approve the deal.
NATO (news - web sites) has agreed to send 3,000 troops to help collect weapons for a month but wants to avoid a long-term mission.
(Additional reporting by Ana Petruseva in Ohrid and Alister Doyle in Skopje)
West Mulls Macedonia Police Force Posted August 5, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010804/wl/macedonia_361.html
Saturday August 4 8:45 AM ET
West Mulls Macedonia Police Force
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
OHRID, Macedonia (AP) - Western mediators discussed deploying dozens of foreign police experts and officers in Macedonia to help carry out reforms if rival ethnic groups can agree on a peace plan, officials said Saturday.
The Western-mediated peace talks plodded ahead, focusing on the highly contentious issue of sharing power in law enforcement. The issue is one of the most difficult to be faced at the talks, in part because both sides are far apart.
Ethnic Albanian representatives are demanding that their sizable community - nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people - be proportionately represented on the force. They also want to independently elect police chiefs who would answer to local leaders rather than authorities in the capital, Skopje.
Macedonians see these demands as part of a larger ethnic Albanian strategy to ultimately carve off and break away northwestern regions of the country where the restive minority lives. They fear forever losing control of areas already overrun by the rebels.
Another hurdle is the ethnic Albanian demand that the rebels, now entrenched in the mountains and clashing with government forces, become members of the police force once a peace deal is reached.
Scattered clashes have continued throughout nearly a month of talks, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced.
Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the talks as ``very difficult'' but said both sides accept that any police reform would require significant assistance from Western democracies in the form of experienced officers who would help supervise and train Macedonian police.
The officers and experts would come on top of the estimated 3,000 NATO (news - web sites) troops that the proposed peace plan envisages to help disarm the ethnic Albanian rebels.
Macedonians in New Talks to End Ethnic Rebellion Posted August 3, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010802/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_223.html
Thursday August 2 6:27 PM ET
Macedonians in New Talks to End Ethnic Rebellion
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's divided politicians will try Friday to sketch out a future police force as part of efforts to defuse an ethnic Albanian insurgency.
But the talks have been clouded by a call for a crackdown on the rebels.
The leaders of the two mainstream Macedonian Slav and two ethnic Albanian parties meet in the southwestern town of Ohrid after a one-day break in their open-ended crisis talks on averting a new Balkan war.
``It will be difficult. We are not here to impose a solution,'' said Francois Leotard, the European Union (news - web sites) envoy brokering the talks with American James Pardew on the five-month-old insurgency.
The politicians made a breakthrough Wednesday by agreeing to give the Albanian language a limited official status alongside Macedonian. But hurdles remain over Albanian demands for a bigger role in policing and for constitutional reform.
Any optimism after the language deal was punctured when Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said it would be shameful and insulting to sign any peace accord when the rebels were still in control of swathes of Macedonian territory.
``We must take back our occupied territories because we can't close our eyes to the fact that we are talking under the threat of guns,'' he said in a speech on a national day holiday Thursday.
The rebels, who are not taking part in the talks but might go along with a deal agreed by ethnic Albanian parties, say they will hand over their weapons to a planned 3,000-strong NATO (news - web sites) force only if their demands are met.
Leotard, a former French defense minister, declined comment on Georgievski's remarks but noted: ``Everyone wants to continue the discussion.'' He said he could not say how many days talks would last.
PRIME MINISTER WILL ATTEND TALKS
Georgievski, one of several nationalistic hard-liners within a unity government formed in May, is due to attend the Ohrid talks when they resume about midday (6 a.m. EDT).
Ethnic Albanians make up about a third of the 2 million population but say they face discrimination in all walks of life. Fewer than 10 percent of public sector jobs are held by ethnic Albanians, for instance.
And they want a bigger role in policing Macedonia, accusing the virtually all-Macedonian police force of thuggery and intimidation.
But Macedonians fear the National Liberation Army guerrillas could simply trade their fatigues for police uniforms in areas with a large ethnic Albanian population and, better armed, move to break up the country.
Western mediators agree with the Macedonian Slavs that the police should be under central control by the Interior Ministry. The Albanians have argued for regional control.
One Western diplomat said the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)) might have a role in helping overhaul the police, perhaps including training and supervision.
Any overall deal, also comprising reforms like dropping a preamble to the 1991 constitution that ethnic Albanians reckon is condescending, would have to be voted as a package through the Macedonian parliament within 45 days.
The talks have continued despite violations of a ragged July 5 cease-fire, including the killing of a policeman in northwest Macedonia earlier this week. Several dozen people have died since the conflict began.
(Additional reporting by Philippa Fletcher in Ohrid)
A Battleground With Unmarked Front Lines Posted August 3, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-000063080aug03.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dfrontpage
August 3, 2001
A Battleground With Unmarked Front Lines
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
TETOVO, Macedonia -- Uncanny silence in the late afternoon is the first sign that something is wrong.
The broad main street is lined with cafes and small stores that ought to be thronged with people. But the flies find few cups of sugared espresso to land on because only a table or two is occupied.
Once in a while someone hurries past. Outdoor socializing is as much a part of the culture in landlocked Tetovo as it is in any beach town, but no one lingers. Macedonia's conflict has been neither as widespread nor as brutal as those in other Balkan countries. But its second-largest city, barely an hour from the capital, Skopje, is an urban war zone where even close to the city center, locals cannot be sure exactly where the front lines are.
It is in Tetovo and surrounding small towns that the National Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force, is fighting Macedonian military and police. The guerrillas say they only want equal treatment for the ethnic Albanian minority. Ethnic Macedonian political leaders fear that the guerrillas want to split the country. There is a tentative cease-fire while international negotiators try to bring the two sides to an accord.
But almost every day, there are reports of gunfire, shootings and deaths. At times, the two sides have exchanged small-arms and mortar fire a few minutes' drive from the center of town.
At first glance, there are no obvious signs of war here--no soldiers and no visible front line. Petunias, roses and marigolds grow in well-tended gardens.
At close range, small signs emerge--a bullet hole in a telephone pole, a trashed car, a downed power line.
The tension is all the more striking because just 16 miles away in the town of Gostivar, another community with a large ethnic Albanian population, the mood is completely different. There, the cafes are full of mixed groups of ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians.
It is only deep into a conversation that the conflict's toll becomes evident there too.
Nasif Selimi, a middle-aged ethnic Albanian man burned brown by the hot Macedonian sun, talks at length about his hopes for peace. It turns out that he has a personal stake: 10 days ago, one of his two sons left home.
"He came to me and said, 'Father, I have no more friends here--they have all joined the NLA; I am going too.' " Selimi has not heard from him since.
Nearby, at a cafe frequented by many ethnic Macedonians, 18-year-old Mariana Velickovski hugs an Albanian friend and says she does not want to talk about the fighting. But after he leaves, she says: "I am scared. I don't know why, but I am scared and I am ashamed of how Macedonian people are behaving."
She is frightened not so much by threats to her safety but by the sense that her world is changing and that the conflict cannot be kept at bay.
In Tetovo, a stroll down the street is a lesson in vulnerability.
The Drenovec neighborhood is a subdivision a mere 10-minute drive from downtown. The few men gathered in the downtown cafes say a house in the neighborhood was set on fire earlier in the day but that the area is safe.
In the late afternoon, the streets in Drenovec are bright and quiet. Well-kept houses, many with cheery, Mediterranean terra cotta tile roofs, sit close together. There are more people on the streets here than on the town's main boulevard. They gather at small corner groceries or stand at the edge of the sidewalk.
Some of them are recognizably ethnic Macedonian because they are wearing small gold crosses--a symbol of the Orthodox Church. Most ethnic Albanians are Muslims.
A little farther into the neighborhood, the people vanish. But the houses are still pleasant; cars sit undisturbed in small driveways. It is very quiet.
Then, on one block, several houses are shuttered, and at the end of that block, there is a trashed car. One front tire is gone, its windshield broken and its foam seats ripped to shreds. A telephone wire trails on the ground nearby. Across the street is a burned-out house; perhaps the one that was the subject of the cafe conversations.
It is hot and very still.
A shot rings out, fired from the direction of the city stadium and a Macedonian police checkpoint. It smacks into a telephone pole at head level. Two journalists on the street dash toward the burned-out house.
Instantaneously, two men in black T-shirts and black pants and casually holding AK-47 assault rifles appear by the house. A moment later, the two visitors are led down cement steps into a basement.
A total of six men are here, NLA fighters who patrol this edge of the neighborhood.
What the civilians did not know was that the street is an unmarked border that divides the neighborhood between an ethnic Macedonian area to the south and an Albanian area that extends many miles to the north, almost to Kosovo, the majority ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic. It is contested ground, and even during a cease-fire shots are often fired here.
In some individual blocks, international monitors say, the border is even less defined--there may be both Albanian and Macedonian homes.
The NLA soldiers appear well dressed, polite and calm. Most of them wear a uniform of black fatigues, including a black T-shirt with the guerrilla army's symbol: the letters UCK and a double-headed red eagle.
For most, the logo is printed on their shirts, but some have a patch that is sewed on. A couple of them wear baseball caps, and several have ammunition belts around their waist.
Some wear black army-style boots; others are in sneakers. Every one of them is carrying an AK-47. They shake hands politely and offer their guests Coca-Cola, which is surprisingly cold, even though there is no electricity on this side of the line.
They crouch much of the day in a concrete trench that leads into the basement. Graffitied on the wall is the word "Hoxha," the name of one of the NLA leaders, and UCK, the Albanian acronym for the National Liberation Army.
They are young, between 17 and 25 years old, they say.
"I am 20 years old, and I would like to go with a beautiful woman to America," says a tall, lean fighter with brush-cut hair. "But I must fight for our rights, not for me, but for my children. I don't have children yet, but I want my children to be free when I have them."
He speaks English, which he learned in a village primary school. It is halting but good.
He cares what Americans think of the NLA and says repeatedly, "Please, tell George Bush that we are not terrorists."
"We don't kill Macedonian women and children, only Macedonian military and police," he says. Most of the reports of NLA attacks occur around government checkpoints.
A few worn-out couch cushions are on the cement floor along with cigarette butts and chips of brick, cement and other debris. The brush-cut fighter is one of several who are cleanshaven; only a couple sport beards. One of the most striking things is how clean and well groomed the fighters are--especially given the dilapidated state of the building and the neighborhood, not to mention that they are in battle.
They report the shot to their commanding officer on their cell phone. A car goes to fetch him from a command post minutes away. They seem to drive fearlessly in the area they control.
He arrives with about 20 fellow fighters, and everyone gathers in the basement of the house next door. A few fighters are in the kitchen eating a meal out of cans. It is dark in the basement.
Ground-level windows are covered. Everyone sits on a beat-up couch and on the floor while the commander is quickly briefed.
He is young but has the confident air of a man in control. He carries a cell phone and has no gun.
"A nurse was hit yesterday," he says. NLA fighters don't dwell on the fact that if there was no fighting, no lives would be in danger.
This war "is for our children," says a burly young fighter as he goes back on patrol.
Macedonian peace process hits new snags Posted August 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010802/1/1a3ks.html
Friday August 3, 3:16 AM
Macedonian peace process hits new snags
Efforts to avoid a Balkan war in Macedonia hit new snags, as hardline leaders called for action to drive out ethnic Albanian rebels and fresh clashes in the north undermined progress towards a peace accord.
As Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders took a break from peace talks for the country's national day, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski threw a cat among the pigeons, saying government forces should push rebels from territory they have taken before a peace accord is signed.
The comments came just a day after peace negotiators said they had reached agreement on the key issue of the status of the Albanian language, opening the way for a final peace deal when talks resume on Friday.
Speaking in Prohor Pcinski in neighbouring Serbia, at a monastary of historical significance to Macedonians, Georgievski said the military push against the rebels should continue.
"We must win back captured territory and we cannot close our eyes to negotiate under the pressure of arms," Georgievski said in a speech marking National Day, which celebrates a Macedonian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1903.
"...Signing such a text while we have occupied territory and terrorists in the hills would give Macedonians a shameful accord, and would make each Macedonian citizen feel humiliated.
"There is a difference between an agreement signed in Ohrid by humiliated citizens or by proud Macedonians who have won and who were able to liberate the territory," said the hawkish prime minister, who has often accused the rebels of coming from neighbouring Kosovo.
In his own national day address President Boris Trajkovski said that while Macedonia wants a political settlement, it is ready for an effective military solution."
"Macedonia is going to defend each inch of its territory and we are going to do so in a way that requires the smallest human losses and minimal destruction.
"It's for that reason we are giving the highest priority to the political path. But at the same time wer are ready for an effective military solution," he said.
The speaker of the Macedonian parliament, Stojan Andov, also put peace talks under pressure, saying parliamentarians would not examine a peace deal "while the terrorists have not disarmed and while the terrorist groups have not disbanded."
The ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) launched an insurgency in February in what they say is a fight for minority rights and a July 5 ceasefire has proved shaky.
In new incidents in the volatile north of the country, a Macedonian policeman was seriously wounded on Thursday during an exchange of gun fire between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government forces in the northwestern town of Tetovo.
A policeman killed by rebels was also buried in Tetovo before several hundred people.
The crowd of between 300 and 500 locals escorted the flag-covered coffin containing the body of Coki Stanovski, 28, to the town's cemetery.
The officer died early Wednesday from chest wounds sustained during the attack on the checkpoint near Tetovo, which has been the focus of recent fighting between rebel and government forces.
There have been regular clashes between rebel and government forces in the north despite a July 5 ceasefire, raising fears that the whole country might slip into all-out civil war should the peace talks fail.
Negotiations are to continue in the southwestern town of Ohrid Friday towards a full peace accord encompassing remaining issues, including the control and composition of local police forces in ethnic Albanian areas.
Media impartiality falls casualty to Macedonian crisis Posted August 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010802/1/1a359.html
Thursday August 2, 7:22 PM
Media impartiality falls casualty to Macedonian crisis
SKOPJE, Aug 2 (AFP) -
One of the greatest casualties in months of ethnic fighting in Macedonia has been the loss of media impartiality, according to the head of the country's private A1 television station.
"What is difficult is the polarisation of media space -- the Albanian propaganda on one side and the regime's on the other pushed by Macedonian national TV (MTV)," Aco Kabranov explains.
The greying editor-in-chief bitterly regrets what he says is the "disappearance of all professionalism" among "certain journalists" working in the Balkan country.
About 30 journalists gathered in the station's studio, situated in the industrial district of the capital Skopje, where red and yellow Macedonian flags flutter overhead, to discuss the media situation.
The handful of journalists, both Macedonian and ethnic Albanian, have found themselves in the middle of a media battle in which ethnic tensions have run high.
The hatred that exists between sectors of the Slav and ethnic Albanian communities has become all too apparent in the months since Albanian guerrillas rose up against Macedonian government forces in February, dominating the news in this former Yugoslav republic.
Skopje's main Albanian-language daily, Fakti, with a circulation of about 15,000, has given a lot of space in its latest editions to reports of attacks on the ethnic Albanian community.
The newspaper has regularly published poor quality black and white photographs of men with swollen faces, claiming they depict ethnic "Albanians tortured by the Macedonian police."
Fakti -- which frequently presents the guerrilla forces as an organised and disciplined army -- has notably not reported the exodus of Slav Macedonian villagers, recently chased from their homes in the north of the country by the rebels.
On the Slav side, the most popular Macedonian-language daily, Dnevnik, with a circulation of some 80,000, has concentrated its coverage on the "crimes of the ethnic Albanian terrorists."
"The Macedonians do not want to see Albanians in their newspapers," Snezana Lupevska, a Macedonian reporter working for A1 said, adding that such coverage could be seen as "anti-patriotic."
"We recently received phone calls from furious Macedonians for presenting the Albanian point of view," Kabranov says.
The country's newspaper readership is estimated at around 150,000, among Macedonia's two million, mostly rural, population.
However, there is no official press regulation, with criminal charges for libel being the only form of media sanction.
While accusing the "majority of the Albanian-language media of not maintaining impartiality towards their politicians," the A1 editor also reeled against Macedonian state television, describing the station as a "real catastrophe."
"One night, MTV quoted a statement attributed to the paramilitary Macedonian group Makedonija 2000, ordering ethnic Albanian stall-holders to leave Skopje market," he said, describing the report as scandalous.
Across town, in the ethnic Albanian area dotted with mosques, journalists working for the private Albanian-language television station Era silently watch MTV news on their black and white television set.
"Journalists in Macedonia have become merchants of chaos," the station's editor-in-chief Agrom Memedi said, adding that for MTV, "all Albanians are terrorists."
"We are trying not to stir up hatred and we refused to broadcast the 'Makedonija 2000' statements," he added.
Rolling a cigarette, he explains that he has invited Macedonian intellectuals to appear in a programme on the crisis, but they had all turned down the offer.
Renewal of fighting as Macedonia celebrates National Day Posted August 2, 2001
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Thursday August 2, 8:48 PM
Renewal of fighting as Macedonia celebrates National Day
SKOPJE, Aug 2 (AFP) -
A brief renewal of clashes between ethnic Albanian rebels and government forces on Macedonia's National Day casted a shadow Thursday over a breakthrough in peace negotiations which had raised hopes for averting another Balkans war.
A Macedonian policeman was seriously wounded during an exchange of fire between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government forces in the northwestern town of Tetovo.
The shooting came on Macedonia's National day, and less than 24 hours after the main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political parties reached a preliminary accord over the use of the Albanian language, seen as the first concrete step in the peace process.
There have been regular clashes between rebel and government forces in the north of the country despite a July 5 ceasefire, raising fears that the whole country might slip into all-out civil war should the talks fail.
Top Macedonian officials were to attend several ceremonies celebrating the national holiday -- the Saint Elias' day -- after peace talks on Wednesday ended with Western mediators hailing a conditional agreement on the key issue of language.
Stojan Andonov, chairman of the Macedonian parliament, warned however, that the assembly would examine the peace projects only when the guerillas of the National Liberation Army (NLA) was "dismantled and disarmed."
"The parliament will examine the proposals of the accord, but only when the terrorists are disarmed and terrorist groups are dismantled," Andonov said at the ceremony held in the southwestern town Krusevo, marking a national day.
The negotiations are to continue Friday towards a full peace accord encompassing other issues, including the future police forces, that must also be hammered out.
The breakthrough on making Albanian an official language in the former Yugoslav state came after five days of gruelling negotiations mediated by Western envoys in this southwestern Macedonian town.
At the end of Wednesday's talks, US envoy James Pardew hailed the outcome as a "good deal", saying it permitted Albanian as an official language alongside Macedonian in areas where the Albanian community made up at least 20 percent of the population.
Ethnic Albanians make up about a third of Macedonia's two million people. Most live in the north, near the border with Kosovo, and in the west, near Albania.
The Albanian would also be used in communication between ethnic Albanian citizens and government departments and agencies, as well as in parliamentary pleniary sessions and committees.
Macedonian, however, will remain the sole language of central government and in international relations.
Rizvan Sulejmani, deputy of the Party for democracy and prosperity (PDP), told AFP, however warned that "there is no definite decision, but a conditional one" over the language issue.
"A number of questions and demands are yet to be finalised," Sulejmani said.
There was no immediate word from ethnic Albanian rebels, whose cooperation will be necessary for any final agreement.
On Tuesday, the rebels' political leader, Ali Ahmeti, said he was "not optimistic at all" about the talks.
Pardew also insisted that he was not "euphoric" over the conditional acoord for the language issue, warning that "tough work" was ahead of the negotiatiors.
That essentially means an accord on the control and composition of local police forces in areas populated by ethnic Albanians.
For the Macedonians, it appeared to be out of question to lose control of the security forces in the Albanian-populated areas.
"This is the issue more important than the language, but it is less emotional for the population. It is necessary to avoid transforming a local Albanian police into a militia," a European diplomat in Skopje warned.
And diplomats also warned that it remained to be seen how and whether the guerillas would accept to dissolve.
One of the conditions is an amnesty for the guerilla fighters, but this would be a topic not for the negotiators in Ohrid, but NATO together with the Macedonian authorities, and obviously, the rebels.
NATO, which leads a peacekeeping force in neighbouring Kosovo, has said it will step in to supervise a rebel disarmament once a full accord is signed by the two Macedonian parties and two ethnic Albanian parties involved in the negotiations.
US presses for rapid political settlement in Macedonia Posted August 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010801/1/1a1cc.html
Thursday August 2, 5:54 AM
US presses for rapid political settlement in Macedonia
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (AFP) -
The United States on Wednesday cranked up the pressure to secure a speedy political settlement in Macedonia while denying charges it was tilting toward the ethnic Albanian camp.
"We do think that now is the time to reach a deal," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a briefing here, referring to ongoing talks in Ohrid, southern Macedonia bringing together the country's main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties and international mediators.
He made the comments before the announcement late Wednesday of a breakthrough on the key issue of language at the Ohrid talks.
Under that deal, in addition to the official Macedonian language, Albanian would be allowed in communications between ethnic Albanian citizens and government departments and agencies, and in parliamentary plenary sessions and committees.
The ceasefire talks, now in their fifth day, are being mediated by Western envoys in hopes of ending a six-month ethnic Albanian rebellion and averting a Balkans war.
In separate statements Wednesday, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, European Union envoy Francois Leotard and US envoy James Pardew stressed that the provisional accord on language relates to a final deal that still has to be struck on all outstanding issues.
"President Trajkovski and the party leaders are, in our view, working constructively and intensively to try to find compromises on the remaining issues," Boucher said earlier, suggesting that progress was being made.
"Language is a sensitive issue for all sides. Mr Leotard and ambassador Pardew are working with president Trajkovski and the parties on compromises that address the concerns of all sides," said a US official, who asked not to be named.
"We continue to monitor closely compliance with the ceasefire agreement. We call on all sides to exercise restraint and refrain from destabilizing actions or provocations," he added.
Washington meanwhile rejected charges that it was tilting toward Macedonia's ethnic Albanians. The allegations touched off anti-Albanian and anti-US demonstrations in Skopje.
The charges are often linked to Washington's cozy ties with ethnic Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (UCK) during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.
The allegations are being relayed here by sources close to the right wing of the Republican party, which is highly critical of the US military presence in the Balkans.
The UCK is engaging in a "subtle form of blackmail", said Gary Dempsey, an international relations experts at the conservative Cato Institute think tank. "Placate us in Macedonia, or we will make life very difficult for you in Kosovo."
For the past several days, the State Department has been railing against what it views as "Balkans conspiracy theories" and systematically rejecting reports of US support of Albanian guerrillas.
It harshly criticized ethnic Albanian extremists, denouncing what it called their "blatant violations of the ceasefire agreement" as "unacceptable".
Meanwhile the rising tension led Washington to reduce the number of US military personnel who perform "non-critical" functions in Macedonia as a security precaution.
Bush Vows to Help in Macedonia Posted August 2, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010802/wl/us_macedonia_2.html
Thursday August 2 3:49 PM ET
Bush Vows to Help in Macedonia
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)- American troops would participate in a NATO (news - web sites) force that collects weapons from ethnic Albanian fighters in Macedonia if there is a settlement of their conflict with the Macedonian government, the Bush administration said Thursday.
``We have a plan that will be implemented once there is final agreement among the parties on a political settlement,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Arms collection from ethnic Albanian extremists, who have been fighting government forces of the Balkan country, is likely to be part of any accord.
``We'll come in and do what we need to do,'' he said.
The United States and its NATO allies would assume various roles, with the United States providing logistics, transportation and ``other kinds of support that we have largely available from people that are on the ground,'' Boucher said.
Earlier Thursday, the House Democratic leader, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, said in a speech criticizing the Bush administration's foreign policy that ``the administration has resisted a commitment of even a small number of ground troops to this mission.''
Gephardt, who met with allied leaders in Europe, said Lord Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, had told him an American presence would reinforce the U.S. commitment to NATO and send a signal to the warring factions that a military solution to their differences is impossible.
Macedonian PM Urges Action Against Rebels Posted August 2, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010802/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_222.html
Thursday August 2 3:31 PM ET
Macedonian PM Urges Action Against Rebels
By Kole Casule
PROHOR PCINSKI (Reuters) - Macedonia's Prime Minister Thursday urged military action to recapture territory held by ethnic Albanian rebels, saying it would be shameful to sign any peace deal under the threat of rebel guns.
Ljubco Georgievski said he hoped for a negotiated deal, but his hard line dimmed optimism a day after Macedonia's political leaders made a breakthrough by agreeing to allow wider use of the Albanian language.
The language deal hinges on a wider package of reforms to the constitution and Macedonia's police force.
Georgievski's call for military action also exposed rifts between him and the more moderate President Boris Trajkovski on how to end the five-month-old insurgency and avert a new Balkan war.
In a speech marking the Balkan state's national day holiday, Georgievski said that signing any peace accord ``while our territories are occupied by terrorists would be a shameful agreement for Macedonia.''
``We must take back our occupied territories because we can't close our eyes to the fact that we are talking under the threat of guns,'' he said at a monastery where Macedonians agreed on Aug. 2, 1944, to become a part of former Yugoslavia.
But he also said: ``I'm an optimist that with a bit of political will we can reach the end and sign a document.''
Ethnic Albanian rebels, who say they want more rights for Albanians in everything from education to jobs, control a swathe of northern and western Macedonia.
Georgievski, a 35-year-old nationalist within a unity government formed in May, said Macedonian police and soldiers were ``ready to implement the constitution'' which describes the Balkan nation as indivisible.
AGREEMENT ON ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
Leaders of the four main ethnic Albanian and Macedonian Slav political parties, including Georgievski's own VMRO-DPMNE, agreed to wider use of Albanian as an official language alongside Macedonian in talks Wednesday.
Ethnic Albanians make up about one-third of the country's 2 million people.
The dispute over Albanian had been a main sticking point in the talks, brokered by European and U.S. envoys. The talks are due to resume Friday after a one-day break Thursday.
In sporadic violence despite a cease-fire in place since July 5, a 25-year-old policeman was shot and wounded in the chest by rebels near the northwestern town of Tetovo Thursday. Doctors said his wound was not life-threatening.
And a Macedonian policeman shot dead two days ago was buried in a ceremony in Tetovo amid draconian security. During the funeral, explosions could be heard from nearby mountains. There were no reports of injuries.
Georgievski also said that ``all the Albanian extremists in Kosovo, southern Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro have only one goal -- the creation of a greater Albania.''
And in an apparent criticism of Trajkovski, Georgievski said: ``Unfortunately today we have a strong and decisive people but indecisive leadership.''
Trajkovski, long at odds with Georgievski and other cabinet hawks including Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, insisted Macedonia should keep casualties in the conflict as low as possible and give priority to talks.
``Macedonia is defending every inch of its country and will continue to do so in a way to avoid casualties and with minimal disruption,'' he said in a statement marking the holiday.
PRIORITY TO POLITICAL DIALOGUE
``That's why we give priority to the political dialogue, but we are also ready for efficient military solutions,'' he said.
Under Wednesday's agreement, diplomats say Albanian will be an official language alongside Macedonian, for instance, in areas where ethnic Albanians make up more than 20 percent of the population.
Echoing Georgievski's tough line against the guerrillas, the president of the Macedonian parliament, Stojan Andov, also said the legislature would not discuss any peace plans ``until the last terrorist is disarmed.''
NATO (news - web sites) has said that, after a peace deal is in place, it is willing to deploy 3,000 troops to whom the rebels are meant to hand in weapons.
Skopje was quiet with shops and businesses closed in blazing summer sunshine. Aug. 2 also marks the anniversary of the start of a failed 10-day uprising against Ottoman rule in 1903.
Macedonian Parties Make Breakthrough on Language Posted August 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010801/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_214.html
Wednesday August 1 1:14 PM ET
Macedonian Parties Make Breakthrough on Language
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's political parties trying to end a five-month insurgency by ethnic Albanian rebels have made a breakthrough on the key question of use of the Albanian language.
``We have obtained today an agreement from the four political parties on the question of language,'' European Union (news - web sites) peace envoy Francois Leotard told reporters after talks between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders in southern Macedonia.
``But this accord...hinges on the outcome of the political discussions, notably on the issue of the police,'' he added. Details of the deal were not immediately available.
Ethnic Albanians, who make up to about a third of the population, want Albanian adopted as an official language alongside Macedonian. The dispute has been a major stumbling block to the talks.
The Albanians also want greater control of police forces in areas where they are in a majority. Leotard said that talks would resume on Friday after a break on Thursday for a national holiday.
Macedonian Peace Talks Make Progress on Language Posted August 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010801/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_213.html
Wednesday August 1 11:14 AM ET
Macedonian Peace Talks Make Progress on Language
By Philippa Fletcher
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Peace talks between majority Macedonians and minority Albanians in Macedonia appeared stuck on Wednesday on the thorny issue of the use of the Albanian language, despite earlier signs of progress.
Sources close to the Macedonian negotiating team said Albanian delegates were still discussing a proposal the Macedonians had presented to them on Tuesday granting use of Albanian in parliamentary sessions but excluding it from government.
Western envoys mediating the talks had hoped the Albanians would accept it, a Western source said, adding that he felt the proposal might be the Macedonians' ``bottom line.''
But the Macedonian sources said on Wednesday afternoon that the Albanians were still discussing their position. One said one Albanian party might be closer to agreement than another.
There is no official deadline for the talks, intended to end a five-month-old Albanian guerrilla revolt by improving the rights of the one-third Albanian minority.
But diplomats fear the longer negotiations drag on, the greater the likelihood that tensions on the ground will spin out of control and into civil war.
The state news agency MIA said a policeman had been killed overnight when guerrillas attacked a checkpoint on a road near the town of Tetovo, Macedonia's unofficial Albanian capital.
There was another skirmish, this time with no injuries, after guerrillas tried to stop a police car and check the documents of the officers inside, MIA said.
REGULAR SKIRMISHES
A cease-fire between the security forces and the guerrillas, who have taken swathes of territory in mainly Albanian areas in the north and northwest, is regularly punctured by bouts of heavy fighting or such smaller skirmishes.
Each time there is violence on the ground, tensions at the talks increase, diplomats say.
The use of Albanian in Macedonia has been the focus of four days of tough negotiations between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian party leaders at a presidential villa on Lake Ohrid in the southwest of the ex-Yugoslav republic.
``The main battle for Macedonia is now fought in Ohrid,'' Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski told MIA.
An Albanian delegate said the talks were like the weather, which has varied at the lakeside resort between hot sunshine and chill thunderstorms over the past few days.
The rebels' political representative, Ali Ahmeti, said on Monday he wanted Albanian to be used officially at all levels.
A senior Macedonian government source said giving Albanian equal status with Macedonian would encourage ethnic separation.
If the language issue can be resolved on Wednesday, the talks, which must also finalize the sensitive issue of the ethnic makeup and command structure of the police, could be wrapped up by the weekend, a Western source said.
A break was expected on Thursday to let Macedonian leaders attend commemorations of the creation of a Macedonian republic in Yugoslavia in 1945 by communist leader Josep Broz Tito.
Macedonia was the only republic to break away from the Socialist federation in the early 1990s without a shot being fired. But it now finds itself riven with conflict.
Hopes rise of breakthrough in Macedonian peace talks Posted August 1, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010801/1/1a0uz.html
Wednesday August 1, 8:05 PM
Hopes rise of breakthrough in Macedonian peace talks
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders met for a crucial fifth day of talks aimed at averting a new Balkans war in Macedonia, amid increasing hopes that agreement on the key language issue was imminent.
Officials involved in the talks said they believed the problem over the status of the Albanian language was close to being resolved, and agreement could be announced Wednesday.
However, as negotiators sat down in this southwestern Macedonian town, doubts remained over how effective a final settlement would be in ending a six-month ethnic Albanian rebellion, as sporadic violence continued to mar a ceasefire in the flashpoint north.
Ethnic Albanian rebels, who launched an insurgency over minority rights in the former Yugoslav republic in February, are not allowed at the negotiating table and on Tuesday a rebel leader said he was not optimistic about the outcome of the talks.
In a sign of continuing trouble a Macedonian police officer was shot dead early Wednesday near Tetovo, the director of the town's hospital, Rahim Thaci, told AFP.
The officer was shot at a police checkpoint in an area where recent fierce fighting between the rebels and government forces has stoked Western fears a new Balkans war was in the making.
The peace talks, being mediated by European Union and US envoys and hosted by President Boris Trajkovski in his lakeside summer retreat, are seen as Macedonia's last chance to avoid such a conflict.
NATO, which leads a peacekeeping force in neighbouring Kosovo, has pledged to send in troops to supervise a rebel disarmament -- but only if a peace accord is signed first.
Such a deal hinges on a compromise of two key ethnic Albanian demands: that Albanian be made an official language alongside Macedonian, and that an independent ethnic Albanian police force be set up for certain areas.
As talks ended on Tuesday, James Pardew, Washington's top envoy in the talks, was upbeat.
"There is progress; I feel good," he said.
A Macedonian official involved in the talks said Wednesday that negotiations on language were all but complete and a draft accord drawn up by Pardew and EU envoy Francois Leotard would be discussed.
"Today, we're going over the draft document and a few specific details, especially the conditions under which Albanian will be used in parliament," he said, requesting anonymity.
Another Macedonian source expressed pessimism, however, saying previous last-minute demands by the other side meant he would not believe there was agreement until all the details were worked out.
Macedonian National Security Advisor Nikola Dimitrov said Tuesday he thought "impossible" demands were being put on the table so the rebels could continue their fighting for territory populated exclusively by ethnic Albanians.
There was also suspicion among the Macedonian negotiators that the political leader of the rebels, Ali Ahmeti, was pulling the strings of the ethnic Albanian participants, and that he may not respect a political settlement.
Mediators Seek Breakthrough in Macedonia Posted August 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010801/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_211.html
Wednesday August 1 1:34 AM ET
Mediators Seek Breakthrough in Macedonia
By Philippa Fletcher
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Western mediators in Macedonia hope a meeting at midday on Wednesday will bring a breakthrough to efforts to bring peace and avert civil war, a Western source said.
Ethnic Albanian delegates were considering a proposal from their Macedonian counterparts on the most sensitive issue of the talks, which aim to end a five-month-old Albanian guerrilla revolt by improving the rights of the country's one-third Albanian minority.
They were expected to bring a decision to the meeting.
The issue -- the use of the Albanian language in Macedonia -- has been the focus of four days of tough negotiations between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian party leaders at a presidential villa on lake Ohrid to the southwest of the ex-Yugoslav republic.
``Talks will reopen at noon and we're very, very close on language,'' the source told Reuters.
The source declined to comment on whether Albanian delegates were seeking to coordinate their stance with the guerrillas, who are excluded from the talks, chaired by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.
One Albanian negotiator, Imer Imeri of the smaller of the two Albanian parties, PDP, told Reuters on Tuesday evening that agreement on language could be close.
``There is a real possibility of reaching an agreement on the language issue by noon tomorrow. I can say that today most of the work was done,'' he said.
But another Albanian source, who declined to be identified, said the proposal fell short of what they wanted. ``We will stick to our demands, which we believe are realistic,'' the source said.
ENVOY OPTIMISTIC
U.S. envoy James Pardew, who is mediating with European Union envoy Francois Leotard, expressed optimism on Tuesday evening for the first time since the talks began on Saturday.
``We had some progress. I feel good today,'' said Pardew, who previously had been downbeat about progress toward agreement paving the way for the rebels to lay down their weapons.
The rebels' political representative, Ali Ahmeti, who is believed to follow the talks closely, told Reuters on Monday that he wanted Albanian to be used officially on all levels.
The Western source said it was not clear whether Ahmeti would object to the new proposal, declining to give details. A senior Macedonian government source said on Tuesday that giving Albanian equal status with Macedonian would encourage ethnic separation.
The Western source said that if the Albanians agreed to the Macedonian proposal, the talks, which must also finalize the sensitive issue of the ethnic makeup and command structure of the police, could be wrapped up by the weekend.
There is no official deadline, but diplomats fear the longer negotiations drag on, the greater the likelihood that tensions on the ground will spin out of control and into civil war.
A cease-fire between the guerrillas and the security forces is regularly punctured by heavy bouts of fighting.
The army, which has used long-range artillery and helicopter gunships against the rebels with little effect, asked Britain on Tuesday for assistance in training a new counter-insurgency infantry formation, a Macedonian defense official said.
He said there had been a longstanding offer from the British which the government had decided to take up. A British diplomat confirmed the Macedonian request but denied there had been any offer and also declined to say if London would accept.
NATO has offered a force of around 3,000 troops for one month to help collect weapons from the guerrillas if an agreement is signed, but diplomats say the Macedonians may need to tackle rogue elements if they continue fighting.
Macedonia Rift May Be Irreparable: Balkans: Even if a peace accord is reached, leaders of the two ethnic groups could be unable to sell it Posted August 1, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-000062536aug01.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dfrontpage
NEWS ANALYSIS
Macedonia Rift May Be Irreparable
Balkans: Even if a peace accord is reached, leaders of the two ethnic groups could be unable to sell it.
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia is dividing along ethnic lines, and it may be too late to stop it.
Regardless of the outcome of ongoing peace negotiations among political leaders trying to halt a rebel insurgency, the divisions on the ground are becoming so stark that it is hard to imagine how the nation's two main ethnic groups will be able to live together again.
Already there are forced migrations, ensuring that areas of the country are populated by a single ethnic group--either ethnic Albanian or ethnic Macedonian. And in those areas of the country that are majority ethnic Albanian, government armed forces have little control. "We did not consider this conflict to be ethnic to begin with, but the longer it takes for the peace process, the more likely that the results will be the same as those you would see in an ethnic conflict," said Maki Shinohara, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency.
James Pardew, a U.S. mediator trying to bring the two sides together, expressed optimism Tuesday that an agreement could be close. One of the ethnic Albanian negotiators, Imer Imeri, told the Reuters news agency that agreement on the main sticking point--the use of Albanian as an official language--was near.
But even if the political leaders' peace talks succeed, questions remain about whether the two sides can sell the agreement. Macedonia's parliament, feeling pressure from nationalists, may not be willing to implement it. Furthermore, leaders of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement have not been included in the negotiations and may not support an agreement.
Diplomats say that in the best of circumstances, Macedonia will be more divided in the future. And it could be in for a long period of sporadic fighting and ethnic instability.
Elsewhere in the Balkans, ethnic groups have been driven at gunpoint from their homes, especially from areas where they were in the minority. Macedonia had escaped that fate, and it still is not happening on the scale it did in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.
Ethnic Albanians make up at least 25% of Macedonia's population, while ethnic Macedonians account for roughly two-thirds.
Forced migrations and the successful display of firepower by ethnic Albanian guerrillas have undermined the confidence of the ethnic Macedonian population.
"Life together is probably impossible from now on," said Slavko Mangovski, editor of the Macedonian weekly magazine Makedonsko Sonce (Macedonian Sun). "It is my belief that what the Albanians want is not language rights--as they are saying in the peace talks--but territory."
Each side has lost control of territory to the other through what both term "ethnic cleansing." Often, a relatively small, albeit intimidating, incident is used to send a message. In the current atmosphere of rising distrust and suspicion, it does not take much for people to feel vulnerable.
"One day I recognized my neighbors on television in a uniform with guns," said Boban Bogdanovski, 25, a native of the village of Aracinovo, near the capital, Skopje. "With a gun, you go to fight. How can I live here?"
Aracinovo was taken over by the National Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement, and then was taken back by the government.
Bogdanovski and his family, who lived in adjacent houses, decided to stay away from the village when the guerrillas first took over. Now, even though it has been recovered by the government, he does not plan to return. His house was destroyed during the fighting, and he said he cannot imagine rebuilding there.
"I'll never feel safe in my village again," Bogdanovski said.
Human rights groups and observers tell other, similar stories.
In Tearce, a village in a northern area that is predominantly ethnic Albanian, several houses were burned, sending a clear message to ethnic Macedonians to get out. It appeared to work.
"We brought back a group of ethnic Macedonians after the guerrillas were expelled, and as the buses were unloading, those ethnic Macedonians who had stayed in the village told us they wanted to board the buses and leave as soon as possible," said a Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "That worries me."
Shinohara, of the U.N. refugee agency, said there has been "fairly deliberate forced movement in the areas around Skopje directed at the ethnic Macedonians" and noted that official figures, probably on the low end, show that 8,000 ethnic Macedonians have left that area.
Similarly, there was looting and vandalism in the southern city of Bitola that was directed at ethnic Albanians. The London-based International Crisis Group reported that as a result of the Bitola incidents, about 10,000 Albanians migrated from the city.
Altogether, about 44,000 people have been displaced within the country of 2 million, according to the Macedonian Red Cross, and 121,000 more have crossed the border into Kosovo and other areas of Yugoslavia to wait out the conflict. It is unclear whether they will return to the areas they fled.
There have long been fears that if Macedonia divides, it could drag neighboring countries into conflict.
"Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece all have particular historical interests in the region--the first two Balkan wars prior to World War I were fought over the territory--so that any violence there risks the possibility of escalation to a wider region," said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.
Diplomatic sources say the ethnic Albanian rebel army in Macedonia is far better armed and organized than its counterpart in Kosovo was two years ago during the war there.
If a peace agreement is signed, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization force is to be deployed in Macedonia to disarm the guerrillas.
But ethnic Macedonians believe that the guerrillas will never fully disarm and will remain an intimidating force that will continue to control the mountainous areas to the east and west of the capital.
Guerrillas shot two soldiers at an army checkpoint Sunday. Such incidents in ethnic Albanian territory have become almost daily occurrences, even after a cease-fire was restored last week.
The deaths of soldiers and police have attained a symbolic significance among ethnic Macedonians.
On Monday in Skopje, the cavernous St. Clement's Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral was filled to overflowing and a crowd of hundreds thronged outside for the funeral of an army reservist. He was from the Tetovo area, a town about an hour from the capital that is at the center of rebel activity.
The funeral was held in Skopje because ethnic Macedonians did not feel comfortable holding it in an area dominated by ethnic Albanians.
On the other side, ethnic Albanians say they fear intimidation by largely untrained police and army reservists, who have recently been put on active duty. They say the government has given arms and ammunition to ethnic Macedonian civilians in mixed areas and encouraged people to defend themselves.
"If there is going to be a demilitarization of the NLA, then there should also be a demilitarization of paramilitary Macedonian groups," said Emin Azemi, publisher of Fakti, an Albanian-language daily newspaper. "Otherwise, Albanians feel there will an imbalance that could result in violence toward Albanians."
Despite the evidence of forced migration, diplomats hope it can be contained because there has been far less brutality and violence here than elsewhere in the Balkans. They say that so far, there have been few atrocities and no use of such brutal tactics as systematic rape.
Still, they acknowledge that the distrust and suspicion as well as the beginnings of forced migration are the seeds of a bigger ethnic conflict.
"Even in the best case, the country will be more divided," said a senior Western diplomat. "Ethnic Macedonians now, compared to a year ago, are much more hardened against the Albanians. The signing of a peace agreement will not be the end of the story."
Macedonian Peace Talks Make Progress on Language Posted August 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010801/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc.html
Wednesday August 1 5:54 AM ET
Macedonian Peace Talks Make Progress on Language
By Philippa Fletcher
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Peace talks between majority Macedonians and minority Albanians in Macedonia have made significant progress on the thorny issue of the use of the Albanian language, an Albanian source said on Wednesday.
``Everything has been resolved except the use of language in government,'' the source said ahead of a fifth day of talks intended to end a five-month-old Albanian guerrilla revolt by improving the rights of the one-third Albanian minority.
There is no official deadline, but diplomats fear the longer negotiations drag on, the greater the likelihood that tensions on the ground will spin out of control and into civil war.
The state news agency MIA said a policeman had been killed overnight when guerrillas attacked a checkpoint on a road near the town of Tetovo, Macedonia's unofficial Albanian capital.
There was another skirmish, this time with no injuries, after guerrillas tried to stop a police car and check the documents of the officers inside, MIA said.
REGULAR SKIRMISHES
A cease-fire between the security forces and the guerrillas, who have taken swathes of territory in mainly Albanian areas in the north and northwest, is regularly punctured by bouts of heavy fighting or such smaller skirmishes.
Each time there is violence on the ground, tensions at the talks increase, diplomats say.
Ethnic Albanian delegates were given a proposal on Tuesday on the language issue and were expected to bring a decision to a meeting at midday (1000 GMT).
Western mediators hoped for a positive decision but the comments from the source indicated debating would continue.
The use of Albanian in Macedonia has been the focus of four days of tough negotiations between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian party leaders at a presidential villa on Lake Ohrid in the southwest of the ex-Yugoslav republic.
The rebels' political representative, Ali Ahmeti, said on Monday he wanted Albanian to be used officially at all levels. A senior Macedonian government source said giving Albanian equal status with Macedonian would encourage ethnic separation.
Diplomats say Albanian delegates coordinate their stance with the guerrillas, who are excluded from the negotiations, chaired by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.
CONCLUSION IN SIGHT?
If the language issue can be resolved on Wednesday, the talks, which must also finalize the sensitive issue of the ethnic makeup and command structure of the police, could be wrapped up by the weekend, a Western source said.
A break was expected on Thursday to let Macedonian leaders attend commemorations of the creation of a Macedonian republic in Yugoslavia in 1945 by communist leader Josep Broz Tito.
Macedonia was the only republic to break away from the Socialist federation in the early 1990s without a shot being fired. But it now finds itself riven with conflict.
The army, which has used long-range artillery and helicopter gunships against the rebels with little effect, asked Britain on Tuesday for assistance in training a new counter-insurgency infantry formation, a Macedonian defense official said.
He said there had been a longstanding offer from the British which the government had decided to take up. A British diplomat confirmed the Macedonian request but denied there had been any offer and also declined to say if London would accept.
NATO (news - web sites) has offered a force of around 3,000 troops for one month to collect weapons from the rebels if a deal is signed.
Diplomats say the Macedonians may need to tackle rogue elements who might continue fighting, and that they are hopelessly badly equipped and trained for the task.
Hardliners 'plot to start civil war in Macedonia' Posted July 31, 2001
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/07/31/wmace31.xml
Hardliners 'plot to start civil war in Macedonia'
By Askold Krushelnycky in Skopje
(Filed: 31/07/2001)
FEARS grew in Macedonia last night that senior ministers were determined to scupper Western-brokered peace talks and provoke full-scale civil war.
Macedonian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 11 guerrilla leaders yesterday as talks on a draft peace plan faltered, edging forward "millimetre by millimetre", according to Franois Leotard, the European Union negotiator.
The move against the guerrillas was initiated by the Interior Ministry, headed by a hardline nationalist, Ljube Boskovski.
With the nationalist Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, he is holding out against granting key concessions to the ethnic Albanian population, including the recognition of Albanian as an official language.
There were also doubts about the circumstances surrounding the attempted "assassination" of Mr Boskovski on Sunday.
The minister's car and government armoured personnel carriers were filmed by a state television camera crew as they came under fire from what were reported to be ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army.
No one was hurt in the battle, near the capital, Skopje. But Mr Boskovsi, dressed in camouflage uniform, later urged Macedonian forces to retake the large areas of territory they have lost to the NLA since fighting began in February.
Nationalists are angry at what they see as an attempt by Nato and the EU to place the guerrillas on a par with the Macedonian government. Until fighting began, Macedonia was seen as a relative haven of ethnic diversity in the Balkans.
Hardliners claim that Nato allowed the Albanians to infiltrate the country from Kosovo. The guerrillas are not directly involved in the peace talks, but they have an effective veto on the outcome.
One Macedonian political observer said the two hardliners hoped that their strident line would yield dividends during parliamentary elections in November.
He said: "Georgievski seems to want the elections even if he loses half the country to the Albanians."
Macedonia seeks to arrest ethnic Albanian leaders Posted July 30, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010730/3/19we1.html
Tuesday July 31, 12:02 AM
Macedonia seeks to arrest ethnic Albanian leaders
By Philippa Fletcher
OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonian prosecutors asked local courts on Monday to issue arrest warrants for 11 ethnic Albanian guerrilla leaders, overshadowing last-ditch peace talks that Western envoys are trying to mediate.
The guerrillas are not involved in the negotiations, which participants said had edged forward, but a draft peace plan under discussion is designed to persuade them to end their five-month-old rebellion and disarm.
This would also require an amnesty.
President Boris Trajkovski is chairing the closed-door talks, at a villa in the lake resort of Ohrid, between the leaders of four mainstream parties -- two Macedonian and two Albanian -- in a fragile emergency government coalition.
The move against the guerrilla leaders was initiated last week by the Interior Ministry headed by hardline Macedonian nationalist Ljube Boskovski.
Police said the minister and his convoy came under fire from the guerrilla National Liberation Army (NLA) on Sunday on a road outside Skopje, although no one was injured.
"The aim of the so-called NLA is to unite all territories populated by Albanians by organising armed rebellion, committing acts of terrorism...forceful eviction of the population followed by military crimes against civilians," said a document from the prosecutors carried by state news agency MIA.
The talks, begun in May, have frequently been interrupted by bouts of fighting between security troops and the rebels, who now hold swathes of northern and western Macedonia along the border with ethnic Albanian dominated Kosovo.
There are widespread fears that if they fail, Macedonia -- the only republic to break away from the old Yugoslavia in 1991 without a shot fired -- will collapse into civil war.
ALBANIAN OPTIMISM ON TALKS
There was no immediate reaction from Albanian officials or the guerrillas to the call for arrest warrants.
After two days of negotiations, which one source said had come close to breakdown, sources on the Albanian side expressed optimism that the main issue as they see it -- the use of the Albanian language -- was close to resolution.
The use of Albanian and ethnic make-up of police are the main remaining sticking points in a draft peace plan prepared by European Union envoy Francois Leotard and his U.S. counterpart, James Pardew.
A Western source said the Albanian side had made "significant concessions" on Sunday over their two objections to the draft -- which he did not specify.
But the Macedonian majority has balked at endorsing reforms it fears could lead to the division of the country and the source said Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, in particular, was being "extremely inflexible".
Georgievski's ally Boskovski called on Sunday for "determined action" to prevent the guerrillas seizing more territory, implying he felt force was a better tactic.
A source close to the Macedonian negotiators said Pardew was pressuring them to accept the latest version by warning that Western financial support could be at stake.
But the source expressed fear that if they did sign up, the agreement would not get the required parliamentary approval.
"An agreement might be signed but that still leaves open the question of parliament," the source said. A source on the Albanian side said later that the Macedonians had come up with a counter-proposal that was "totally unacceptable."
Leotard, speaking to France Inter radio, was cautious.
"We're trying to push things forward but I acknowledge it is very difficult. I'm not certain of success and it has to be said frankly. But we do not have the right to abandon this and leave things in a logic of war," he said.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting, mostly ethnic Albanians but also some Macedonians.
The European Commission said it would send emergency humanitarian aid to the more than 60,000 refugees who have fled from Macedonia to Kosovo and support for some 10,000 Kosovo families who are hosting them.
A government spokesman said a government session scheduled for Tuesday had been postponed, indicating that the negotiations might go into a fourth day at least.
(Additional reporting by Shaban Buza in Kosovo)