Macedonia leaders seek compromise Posted July 28, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1461000/1461266.stm
Saturday, 28 July, 2001, 13:31 GMT 14:31 UK
Macedonia leaders seek compromise
Refugees have put pressure on the government Macedonian government officials and ethnic Albanian leaders have opened fresh peace negotiations in a bid to end a six-month-old Albanian uprising.
The talks - originally scheduled to begin on Friday - are taking place at the presidential retreat at Lake Ohrid for security reasons.
They come a week after a previous attempt at peace talks collapsed as fighting flared around the largely Albanian town of Tetovo.
The western-mediated talks are intended to end an insurgency by ethnic Albanians who want greater recognition of their language and identity.
The talks are expected to last at least through the weekend, but the BBC's Chris Morris in Skopje says that the negotiators must show evidence of progress in the next few days.
Heavy security
Army helicopter gunships flew over the area as the talks began, while police deployed all over the grounds and police boats patrolled the lake.
BBC correspondents in Macedonia say that the final points still under discussion will be hard to resolve - most notably the status of the Albanian language, and a restructuring of the police force.
Albanian rebels who retreated behind lines agreed in the ceasefire were said to be ready to return to forward positions if demands were not met.
The talks are chaired by President Boris Trajkovski and attended by the leaders of the four main parties in the emergency coalition, two Macedonian and two Albanian.
The negotiations will pick up where they were abandoned last week, after the Macedonians walked out saying they were being forced into too many one-sided compromises.
Push for compromise
Western mediators are reported to be suggesting compromises to push the dialogue forward, but it is not clear at this stage what they are.
Problems in the talks centre on the demand by the Albanians for official status for the Albanian language, which Macedonians say would undermine the state's democratic base.
A draft plan is being drawn up which envisages Albanian becoming an official language where ethnic Albanians make up more than 20% of the population.
But the Macedonian Government has so far rejected the demand, which it believes would effectively lead to the creation of an Albanian state.
Tight security for Macedonia talks Posted July 28, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/28/macedonia.newtalks/index.html
Tight security for Macedonia talks
July 28, 2001 Posted: 10:48 AM EDT (1448 GMT)
SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- Peace talks aimed at averting civil war have resumed in Macedonia amid tight security.
Army helicopter gunships flew overhead at Lake Ohrid -- a presidential retreat in the south -- and police boats patrolled the water as the political leaders began deciding Macedonia's future.
Among the issues still to be resolved is official recognition of the Albanian language, a move that would bring with it added political power.
Fighting broke out in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in February with ethnic Albani ans, who make up about one-third of the country's two million population, demanding greater rights.
A NATO source said Saturday the rebels have pulled back to the July 5 ceasefire line. They were supposed to have completed the pullback by Thursday, but were given more time.
Despite intense negotiations over the last week and the breakdown of a cease-fire Macedonian officials have found it impossible so far to agree to make Albanian the country's second official language.
U.S. envoy James Pardew and EU envoy Francois Leotard have presented a proposal to officially recognise Albanian language in part of the country where the local population is at least 20 percent Albanian.
Some politicians representing the Slav majority, including Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, have called NATO a friend of the enemy, for allegedly sympathising with the rebels.
NATO and Western officials have denied the charge -- and Macedonian politicians, including President Boris Trajkovski, have since calmed the rhetoric.
Both Trajkovski and Georgievski were attending the latest talks on Saturday, which also involve ethnic Albanian leaders as well as Leotard and Pardew.
As negotiators headed into peace talks, streets in the capital, Skopje were blocked amid reports of a planned evening protest by Slavs forced from their homes because of the fighting in the northern border region.
The area cordoned off included the parliament, where the refugees have been holding vigil after being driven from their homes by fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
Protesters have been demanding their safe return home.
Some refugees were making the return home on Saturday. About six buses, escorted by government vehicles set off from Skopje for villages around Tetovo -- the scene of some of the worst fighting.
Macedonian peace talks start as fragile ceasefire holds Posted July 28, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010728/1/19u13.html
Saturday July 28, 7:54 PM
Macedonian peace talks start as fragile ceasefire holds
OHRID, Macedonia, July 28 (AFP) -
Peace talks involving Macedonia's authorities, main political parties and Western envoys began Saturday as a rescued but shaky ceasefire between ethnic Albanian rebels and government forces managed to hold into its third day.
President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the leaders of the two main ethnic Albanian parties, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri, participated in the meeting, held in Trajkovski's summer residence in this lake resort town, far from the scene of the recent conflict in the north.
EU and US envoys Francois Leotard and James Pardew were also at the table, a sign of the arm-twisting the West has done to get the talks, which were aborted two weeks ago, back on track.
The parties are trying to stitch together an agreement that will meet some ethnic Albanian demands for a greater say in regions where they have a significant population without weakening the sovereignty of the multi-ethnic republic.
The main point of contention is an ethnic Albanian demand that Albanian become an official language of the country alongside Macedonian, something the government has previously rejected out of fear it would help create a de facto ethnic Albanian state in the north.
A source close to the talks told AFP he thought it unlikely that a settlement would be concluded Saturday, implying that the talks may continue over the weekend.
In the meantime, low-level violence continued in the north, although a July 5 ceasefire salvaged by NATO was holding.
Sporadic shooting is still heard in Tetovo, Macedonia's third-biggest city and the focus of many of the recent clashes, and overnight Friday several houses and shops in nearby Tearce were burnt.
The continued unrest in Tetovo, where the peace talks were meant to have taken place Friday, caused officials to delay the start of the negotiations and relocate them to Ohrid, well away from the risk of violence.
In the capital Skopje, police blocked roads leading to government buildings ahead of a demonstration by angry Macedonian Slavs who were forced to leave their homes during a flare-up of fighting around Tetovo this week.
"We do not know where to go, and the government is doing nothing," Nebojsa, a young Macedonian who left his home during the fighting, told AFP.
NATO, the European Union and the United States want to stop the unrest flaring into yet another Balkan war, especially as many of their troops are in neighbouring Kosovo as peacekeepers and Macedonia is used as a logistical rear base.
The July 5 ceasefire was almost extinguished by this week's fighting, which left two dead, 30 wounded and caused thousands to flee.
The situation gained further urgency Tuesday when mobs frustrated with the continued violence rioted in Skopje on an anti-Western, anti-Albanian rampage that targetted the British, German and US embassies.
But NATO managed Wednesday to broker an agreement from the rebels to reverse adavances made during the truce in return for restraint by Macedonian security forces.
And yet another crisis-management trip to Macedonia Thursday by NATO secretary general George Robertson and EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana to see authorities ended with an optimistic Solana declaring that the ceasefire and peace negotiations were "back on track".
Macedonia Peace Talks to Resume on Saturday Posted July 27, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010727/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_193.html
Friday July 27 12:03 PM ET
Macedonia Peace Talks to Resume on Saturday
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's polarized politicians will resume peace talks on Saturday, officials said on Friday, after top European Union (news - web sites) and NATO (news - web sites) officials twisted their arms in a new bid to stave off civil war.
U.S. envoy James Pardew and EU negotiator Francois Leotard met Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski twice on Friday, their offices said, to discuss the most sticky issue -- the future status of the Albanian language in the small Balkan republic.
No details were available.
Full scale talks between the leaders of four mainstream parties, two Macedonian and two Albanian, that comprise the shaky emergency government coalition are to start in the lake resort of Ohrid on Saturday.
There will also be a meeting in Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian town of Tetovo, the statement said, without mentioning who would take part. A source in the second biggest Albanian party, PDP, said it would involve Pardew, Leotard and the Albanian leaders.
Tetovo was buffeted by gunbattles between government troops and ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army guerrillas this week. The fighting jeopardized a 15-day-old cease-fire but it was reinstated through NATO mediation on Wednesday.
This allowed EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson to pay a flying visit to Skopje on Thursday.
After a day of talks Solana and Robertson announced that the talks would resume. The dialogue aims to undercut popular support for a five-month guerrilla rebellion by granting more rights to Macedonia's one-third Albanian minority.
``The political process is back on track and the cease-fire is back on track. Both things are of tremendous importance,'' Solana told a news conference. For his part, Robertson said Macedonia was pulling back from the brink.
``This country for the past few weeks has been on the edge of atrocities that could lead to civil war. A civil war in this country would leave no victors but thousands upon thousands of casualties,'' he said.
Thursday's talks showed political leaders wanted ``to avoid this eventuality,'' he said.
Solana and Robertson have made frequent visits to Skopje proclaimed to have advanced the peace process, but talks have almost always hit snags after their departure.
DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
The basis of a peace deal is all but agreed, but the issue still dividing Macedonians and Albanians cuts to the core of the identity of the 10-year-old former Yugoslav republic.
Leotard and Pardew gave Trajkovski a revised draft of peace proposals that would make Albanian an official language in the swathes of northern and western Macedonia where most of the country's minority lives. The regions are now rebel strongholds.
Macedonians balk at endorsing a reform seen as the thin end of the wedge that ends with the division of a country they view as their own, especially with gunmen at large.
Albanian politicians have signaled that the plan would be acceptable, diplomats said. But Arben Xhaferi, leader of the biggest ethnic Albanian party, DPA, indicated bargaining would be tough.
``From the very beginning we were careful not to go against the interest of the Macedonian people...But now it is completely paradoxical to expect from us to back (off) from our rights,'' Xhaferi was quoted as saying by the state MIA news agency.
MACEDONIAN NATIONALISM STIRRED
Western involvement in peace talks has angered ordinary Macedonians, who staged violent anti-Western riots in the capital Skopje on Tuesday. Some top officials accused the West of siding with the guerrillas.
The Interior Ministry, headed by nationalist hard-liner Ljube Boskovski, said on Thursday it had collected evidence allowing it to charge 11 guerrilla chiefs with crimes against humanity, international law and the state.
Among them was NLA political director Ali Ahmeti, who struck Wednesday's deal with NATO under which rebels agreed to fall back from territory grabbed since the truce, torn by three days of fighting early this week, took effect on July 6.
An NLA spokesman, Dren Korabi, dismissed the allegations out of hand. ``It is not us but the honored gentlemen of the Slavic Macedonian government who are responsible for war crimes,'' Dren Korabi told Reuters by mobile phone.
He also rejected charges that the NLA's real aim was to federalize and tear apart the territory of Macedonia, whose western and northern parts border respectively Albania and the U.N.-administered, ethnic Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo.
``We have declared from the outset that we support the sovereignty and integrity of Macedonia and want to live in a joint state of Macedonians and Albanians,'' Korabi said.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Simpson in Skopje and Benet Koleka in Tirana)
Curfew imposed on US personnel in Macedonia Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010727/1/19sd4.html
Friday July 27, 10:27 AM
Curfew imposed on US personnel in Macedonia
WASHINGTON, July 26 (AFP) -
The US government on Thursday imposed a curfew on its employees in Macedonia and ordered the departure of non-essential embassy employees and family members from the violence-torn country.
In addition, it "strongly" urged Americans, currently in Macedonia, to leave and those planning to go there to defer their travel.
"Amid a climate of rising anti-foreigner sentiment, there has been an increase in acts of intimidation and violence against American citizens in Macedonia," the State Department said in a travel warning.
The move comes after Tuesday's attacks on the US and other Western embassies in Skopje, the capital, by crowds of angry Macedonians protesting NATO's role in a conflict between majority Slavs and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The Western alliance is trying to facilitate a political settlement between the warring groups.
According to the announcement, the curfew, which will take effect every evening at 8:00 pm, will affect US officials living and working in downtown Skopje.
The State Department also warned that the US Embassy and other US government facilities in Macedonia may temporarily close or suspend public services, if the security situation warranted.
Forty-seven US Marines arrived in Macedonia earlier Thursday to protect the US Embassy, according to defense officials.
The marines are part of a Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team based in Italy.
They were sent in at the request of the State Department because of the uncertain situation, a second Pentagon official said.
mk/jlp
US-Macedonia-travel
Curfew imposed on US personnel in Macedonia
WASHINGTON, July 26 (AFP) - The US government on Thursday imposed a curfew on its employees in Macedonia and ordered the departure of non-essential embassy employees and family members from the violence-torn country.
In addition, it "strongly" urged Americans, currently in Macedonia, to leave and those planning to go there to defer their travel.
"Amid a climate of rising anti-foreigner sentiment, there has been an increase in acts of intimidation and violence against American citizens in Macedonia," the State Department said in a travel warning.
The move comes after Tuesday's attacks on the US and other Western embassies in Skopje, the capital, by crowds of angry Macedonians protesting NATO's role in a conflict between majority Slavs and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The Western alliance is trying to facilitate a political settlement between the warring groups.
According to the announcement, the curfew, which will take effect every evening at 8:00 pm, will affect US officials living and working in downtown Skopje.
The State Department also warned that the US Embassy and other US government facilities in Macedonia may temporarily close or suspend public services, if the security situation warranted.
Forty-seven US Marines arrived in Macedonia earlier Thursday to protect the US Embassy, according to defense officials.
The marines are part of a Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team based in Italy.
They were sent in at the request of the State Department because of the uncertain situation, a second Pentagon official said.
Macedonia government, guerrillas set for last-ditch talks Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010727/1/19sch.html
Friday July 27, 10:07 AM
Macedonia government, guerrillas set for last-ditch talks
SKOPJE, July 27 (AFP) -
Talks between the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian leaders were to resume Friday in the flashpoint town of Tetovo after ethnic Albanian guerrillas withdrew from key positions, giving the country a chance to avoid all-out civil war.
President Boris Trajkovski, speaking after a crisis mission Thursday by NATO and European Union peace envoys, said the talks would take place in Tetovo, the northwestern town which has been the scene of intense fighting this week between government forces and guerrillas.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said the talks would resume on Friday.
Western envoys said the peace process was now on back on track, after the fighting in Tetovo left a July 5 ceasefire in shreds and anti-western riots in the capital Skopje fuelled fears that the powderkeg Balkans region was on the brink of another war.
"The political process is back on track, the ceasefire is back on track, both are of tremendous importance," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a joint news conference with the Macedonia leaders after a day of talks.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson, whose transatlantic military alliance persuaded ethnic Albanian rebels on the eve of the visit to abandon positions they had controlled since a July 5 truce, said Macedonia had been "on the brink of a precipice and a civil war."
The peace talks are aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency which started in February, which has fuelled western fears of a new Balkans war like those in Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo in the 1990s.
"I am glad that further discussions will allow to avoid such an outcome," Robertson said.
Robertson said the transatlantic military alliance was ready to rush in and meet a commitment to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels when the political process had been completed.
"NATO is poised to take the guns from the insurgents, when a political agreement will have been reached, when there will be a sustainable ceasefire, the NATO troops will come," he said.
Washington welcomed the new truce.
"In terms of the broader issue of Macedonia, we certainly welcome the ceasefire agreement, the return to the ceasefire that went into effect this morning local time," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Thursday.
"The international community, of course, remains committed to this close engagement with the Macedonian government at the highest levels to help them achieve a political solution."
Thursday's breakthrough came after both international observers and ethnic Albanian guerrillas themselves said the withdrawal from towns they controlled since the ceasefire had gone according to plan.
The head of the rebel National Liberation Army in the Tetovo region, Commander Ilir, said his forces had completely withdrawn by midday Thursday from the positions they had occupied since the July 5 ceasefire.
"Everything has gone as scheduled," said Commander Ilir, reached by telephone from in Pristina, the main town in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
"All the units have withdrawn, including those of the commander who had told the press that he would not withdraw," he said.
Peace talks had floundered last week over the status of the Albanian language in the mainly Slav country.
The western envoys said after the talks with the Macedonian leaders that 95 percent of the agreement had already been secured.
Trajkovski told the news conference talks would be held in Tetovo as securing peace in the mainly ethnic Albanian town 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital Skopje was central to securing peace in the country.
Despite the breakthrough, there were signs that the Balkan country had not seen the end of its troubles.
The Macedonian authorities said they were issuing international arrest warrants against 11 ethnic Albanian guerrilla leaders, among them the guerrillas' political representative Ali Ahmeti.
The interior ministry said there was enough "evidence gathered between 1998 and 2000, proving that their terrorist activities were aimed at federalising and tearing apart the territory of Macedonia, creating a greater Kosovo," referring to the neighbouring UN-administrated Yugoslav province.
The western peace mission, which also involved the chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mircea Geoana, was arranged hastily after the former Yugoslav republic appeared headed for all-out war on Wednesday.
Intense fighting earlier this week in Tetovo between government forces and guerrillas left two dead and around 30 injured and anti-western, anti-Albanian riots hit the capital Skopje late on Tuesday as ties between the Skopje leaders and western peace envoys soured.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council said stronger action must be taken to keep ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Macedonia from using Kosovo as a base of operations.
Members of the council expressed concern that Albanian extremists in Kosovo were aiding their ethnic counterparts in Macedonia, and demanded NATO-led peacekeepers put a stop to it.
The Serbian province of Kosovo, under UN administration since June 1999, is the guerrillas' principal base of operations and supply line.
Macedonia peace 'back on track' Posted July 26, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1458000/1458867.stm
Thursday, 26 July, 2001, 17:45 GMT 18:45 UK
Macedonia peace 'back on track'
Refugees could be heading home soon
The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said that Macedonia's peace process is back on track after last-ditch diplomatic efforts to avert a civil war.
His comments followed an announcement from Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski that peace talks with ethnic Albanian rebels would resume in the northern town of Tetovo.
Ethnic Albanian rebels have also started withdrawing their forces around Tetovo, in line with a Nato-brokered ceasefire deal.
This has to be the very last push for a political process - Diplomatic source
Defence ministry officials said rebels were dismantling road blocks and barricades near Tetovo and Macedonians who had fled the region would be bussed back in the afternoon.
There have been no reports of any serious fighting in the area since the truce was agreed.
The withdrawal is a crucial part of the Nato deal aimed at reinstating an earlier ceasefire and allowing thousands of Macedonians driven from their villages during four days of fighting to return home.
Speaking after a day of talks in the capital Skopje, Mr Solana described both the ceasefire and resumption of talks as "of tremendous importance."
Macedonia's hardline Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski was reported as saying peace talks with ethnic Albanian leaders would resume on Friday.
Diplomatic effort
The talks, which were also attended by Nato Secretary-General George Robertson, were aimed at halting renewed clashes between government troops and rebels.
The government was threatening an offensive
On arrival, Lord Robertson told reporters he was cautiously optimistic.
"We can help to take the negotiators back on track, and I hope we'll see this country out of the killing," he said.
Tensions had risen a day before when the Macedonian Government repeated its earlier threat to mount an all-out military assault on rebel positions.
But despite the apparent renewal of the truce, a rebel commander near Tetovo warned that his forces might not be able to respect the ceasefire.
Commandant Leka, a 35-year-old veteran of campaigns in neighbouring Kosovo, said his men had moved into nearby villages to protect ethnic Albanians because Macedonian residents had been given guns.
Panic
The previous ceasefire was shattered on Sunday night by fighting in Tetovo, which government officials said caused thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
Macedonians protest at peace proposals
But the government warning of a renewed military campaign has apparently prompted thousands more people in a wider area to leave their homes.
Albanian representatives pulled out of peace talks last week after Macedonian officials rejected a draft settlement proposed by envoys James Pardew of the United States and Francois Leotard of the EU.
The plan apparently called for Albanian to become an official language in areas where ethnic Albanians are a majority, and for greater Albanian representation in the country's police force.
New Cease-Fire Raises Hopes for Macedonia Talks Posted July 26, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51029-2001Jul25.html
New Cease-Fire Raises Hopes for Macedonia Talks
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 26, 2001; Page A18
TETOVO, Macedonia, July 25 -- Macedonia pulled back again from the edge of full-scale civil war tonight, as the government announced a new NATO-brokered cease-fire with an ethnic Albanian rebel army that had reached this city's outskirts.
The deal, which raised hopes for restarting deadlocked political negotiations, calls for the rebels to withdraw from territory they occupied in recent days, in apparent violation of a stay-in-place provision of an earlier cease-fire. Macedonian Slavs, whom they expelled in what Western observers here called a campaign of ethnic cleansing, would be able to return to their homes.
The announcement came after government and rebel leaders exchanged a series of ultimatums and threats over control of key roads and villages around Tetovo, a predominantly Albanian city of 80,000 people about 25 miles west of the capital, Skopje.
The town, and the mountainous villages surrounding it, have been the scene of intense firefights and mortar attacks in recent days. They were largely quiet today but still tense; from the top of an apartment building here, residents pointed to new rebel positions on the city's outskirts.
The agreement, negotiated by NATO envoy Pieter Feith, provides that the government would transport displaced people back to their homes, and that rebels and Macedonian soldiers would stay 500 yards away from villages in disputed territories.
"There was no alternative [to the cease-fire] but war between the Macedonians and Albanians that would lead to the division of the country," said a spokesman for President Boris Trajkovski. The president has been under pressure from the Macedonian majority to wipe out the rebels.
It was unclear whether local rebel soldiers would honor the pledge to pull back. Western diplomats say many are out for their own gain and may not obey orders from the commanders of the rebel group, known as the National Liberation Army.
Western governments worry that Macedonia's conflict, if not contained, could touch off a new round of secessionist movements in the Balkans. The security chief of the European Union, Javier Solana, and NATO Secretary General George Robertson were scheduled to fly to Skopje on Thursday in yet another effort to negotiate a political settlement between leaders of the country's Slavic majority and Albanian minority. A senior European official said they would bring no specific new proposals.
NATO has pledged that if the sides reach a firm peace deal, it will send a 3,000-member force into the country to collect arms from rebels and then leave in 30 days.
A Bush administration official said that Washington has been considering how to respond if no deal is struck. "We're looking at a lot of possibilities: What are the worst-case scenarios and how do we address them?" the official said. "But for the time being, we have a process in place," he added, referring to the new cease-fire. "We want to keep focused on that."
Some European officials are increasingly pessimistic and wonder if the alliance will have to resign itself to a larger, more assertive role in Macedonia. With NATO troops already patrolling in Kosovo and Bosnia, there is little appetite for a third peacekeeping mission.
U.S. defense officials said today that there had been no discussion of the United States stepping up its military involvement in Macedonia.
The major concern of the U.S. government at the moment, said one official, is protecting the NATO contingent based near the Skopje airport that provides logistical support for the peacekeeping force in Kosovo. That rear detachment includes about 300 U.S. troops.
Speaking about White House reluctance to wade into a new Balkan crisis, one Pentagon official said, "You get involved in this one, you're choosing sides in a war." So, he said, "these guys may just have to kill each other for a while to sort this out."
Meanwhile, an elite Marine Corps team has been dispatched to Skopje to help protect the U.S. Embassy, a defense official said. The embassy was attacked by about 200 rock-throwing Macedonian Slav rioters on Tuesday.
The unit, known as the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team, consists of 46 Marines specializing in defending besieged embassies and is equipped with machine guns, grenade launchers and crowd-control gear. Its mission does not include interceding in any ethnic fighting.
With Western mediation, political leaders from the two sides in Macedonia have been negotiating on and off for weeks, but the talks deadlocked a week ago over ethnic Albanian insistence that their language be officially recognized. That was followed by growing anti-Western sentiment among Macedonian officials, many of whom feel that U.S. and European Union mediators favor the Albanians. Hard-line nationalists have increased calls to renew full-scale fighting against the rebels.
Macedonia's nationalist prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, sent a letter to President Trajkovski, a moderate, on Tuesday urging him to order a military strike to drive the rebels back. "I'm calling on you as commander-in-chief to use your constitutional authority to give the necessary orders," he said.
Thousands of Tetovo residents fled the city today, expecting new fighting that by late tonight had not materialized. Many people scrambled to shop and visited with friends in the morning, and by mid-afternoon the town was eerily deserted and thick with an air of anticipation.
"We are really very frightened," said Milosecvska Milka, 36, a Macedonian mother of two, as she dashed out of a tall apartment building on a quick trip to the store. "I came here a week ago with my children to stay with my mother, and we are scared to death, but we have nowhere else to go." She said that during the recent fighting, she and her family huddled in the central hallway of the building, away from windows, because they were afraid to join the ethnic Albanian residents in the basement.
Maintaining the peace has been complicated by what international observers described as numerous rebel violations of the July 5 cease-fire. "The rebels have doubled the area under their control since the cease-fire started," said an international observer who asked not to be identified.
There have been "numerous allegations of kidnappings, beatings, robberies and intimidation of ethnic Macedonians at [rebel] checkpoints, checkpoints that are themselves a violation of the cease-fire agreement," according to a recent report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The rebel actions were "consistent with an attempt to ethnically cleanse" the region and were "destabilizing the cease-fire and discouraging a political settlement."
Over the five months of the conflict, tens of thousands of people have fled in advance of violence. But a key distinction between this and other Balkan conflicts has been the relative absence, until recently, of deliberate ethnic cleansing. That has given many analysts hope that Macedonia can restore peace fairly quickly, without deep and long-lasting ethnic scars that can divide communities for generations.
Western observers said that in recent weeks, rebels blatantly pushed their lines forward and reinforced their positions. In one four-mile stretch of road between the small towns of Tearce and Jegunovce north of Tetovo, for instance, rebels constructed six sandbag bunkers during the cease-fire, an observer said.
Under the new agreement, the rebels must dismantle new bunkers and remove any explosive devices or land mines seeded in the areas from which they withdraw.
Staff writers Alan Sipress and Thomas E. Ricks in Washington contributed to this report.
War Crimes Move Clouds Macedonia Peace Mission Posted July 26, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010726/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_188.html
Thursday July 26 11:46 AM ET
War Crimes Move Clouds Macedonia Peace Mission
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) and European Union (news - web sites) leaders met Macedonian officials on Thursday in a ``last-ditch'' bid to stave off a Balkan civil war but a government move to charge guerrillas with war crimes muddied prospects for a solution.
``This has to be the very last push for a political process,'' said a diplomatic source said as NATO Secretary General George Robertson and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana huddled with Macedonian government leaders.
For a second day, there were no reports of heavy fighting between government troops and guerrillas of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA). The capital Skopje, scene of violent anti-Western riots on Tuesday, was calm.
Robertson said that under an accord hurriedly brokered on Wednesday by a NATO envoy to prevent a total collapse of a 20-day-old cease-fire, NLA guerrillas had begun to retreat from territory occupied since the truce took effect.
But the NATO-EU mission was clouded from the start, first by the resistance of a rebel commander to heed a NATO-brokered withdrawal deal and then by a statement from the Interior Ministry, headed by nationalist hard-liner Ljube Boskovski.
The ministry said it had collected evidence allowing it to charge 11 guerrilla chiefs with crimes against humanity, international law and the state, a step sure to infuriate rebels who say their cause is more rights for minority Albanians.
Robertson said he and Solana were aware of the scale of what was at stake as they tried to revive collapsed peace talks.
``If we can help to get the negotiations back on track, then I hope we will save this country from the killing and carnage that has become the hallmark of Balkan civil wars,'' he added.
The guerrillas control swathes of Macedonia's hilly north, near the border with Kosovo, after five months of conflict.
Their delegation included Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, current head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe, whose Skopje office was vandalized by Macedonian nationalist rioters on Tuesday.
VISIT FOLLOWS DEAL
Robertson and Solana decided to visit Macedonia for talks with the president, the government and political leaders on Wednesday as NATO secured a deal to save the rocky cease-fire.
Under the pact, agreed between NATO envoy Pieter Feith and NLA political director Ali Ahmeti, guerrillas were to retreat from territory occupied since the truce, torn by three days of fighting earlier this week, took effect on July 6.
Ahmeti is one of 11 NLA leaders the Interior Ministry said should be charged with crimes.
``According to proof gathered by the Interior Ministry, the suspects -- ideological and military leaders of the so-called NLA, have created this vicious terrorist band with the goal to federalize and tear apart the territory of Macedonia,'' the ministry said in a statement.
It said it expected prosecutors to issue arrest warrants.
The volatile region affected by Wednesday's accord is in the vicinity of Macedonia's largest predominantly ethnic Albanian town, Tetovo, and is to become a demilitarized zone.
Robertson said after arriving that guerrillas had begun to fall back, and a Tetovo resident told Reuters that rebels and armed Albanian civilians had left their positions in Terce and Drenovac, eastern and western suburbs of the town.
Rebel Commandant Leka, who commanded checkpoints on a volatile road running northeast of Tetovo toward the border with Kosovo told Reuters early on Thursday he would not retreat.
But in the afternoon, he said his men had left.
``We respect the agreement, we have pulled back from the road,'' Leka, a 35-year-old veteran of the 1998-99 ethnic Albanian guerrilla uprising in the neighboring Yugoslav province of Kosovo, said by mobile phone.
But he said his fighters would stay in the nearby village of Poroj to defend Albanian civilians there.
Under Wednesday's accord, the government said that in return its forces would exercise restraint. This would allow thousands of displaced Macedonian villagers, who had taken part in violent anti-Western protests in Skopje on Tuesday night, to return.
Another diplomatic source said the scope of the deal was limited. ``This agreement is about (the villages of) Lesok and Neprosteno so that they are safe for people to return.''
POLITICAL TALKS
Plans had been drawn up for Macedonians to return to their village homes later on Thursday but a convoy did not leave Skopje as scheduled and it was not clear if it would go ahead.
If the Tetovo withdrawal deal works, the key task for Solana and Robertson will be to revive talks between mainstream political parties on ending alleged discrimination against minority Albanians to remove grassroots support for rebels.
The talks have stalled over whether Albanian should become an official language in some parts of Macedonia.
But Western analysts have questioned whether either side is serious about the peace process, suggesting their main aim is to shift the blame for any eventual failure onto their foes.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Simpson)
Ethnic Albanian killed by Macedonian police in Tetovo Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010726/1/19rut.html
Friday July 27, 1:10 AM
Ethnic Albanian killed by Macedonian police in Tetovo
TETOVO, Macedonia, July 26 (AFP) -
An ethnic Albanian was killed on Thursday when resisting arrest by Macedonian police in the northwestern flashpoint town of Tetovo, police sources said.
The sources gave no further information about the identity of the victim, nor the circumstances which surrounded the killing.
Top Western envoys fly in as rebels withdraw in NW Macedonia Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010726/1/19rkb.html
Thursday July 26, 7:56 PM
Top Western envoys fly in as rebels withdraw in NW Macedonia
Top Western envoys flew into Macedonia on a new mission to help avoid war in the Balkan country as ethnic Albanian guerrillas began retreating from northwestern areas they have controlled for the past three weeks.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson told reporters on arrival at Skopje airport with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana he had been told "that the withdrawal is underway".
"I hope they will recognise that they have commitments that they have made and everything here has got to be based on trust," Robertson said on Thursday.
The two envoys, accompanied by the chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Mircea Geoana, would try to "get the negotiations back on track", Robertson said.
"I hope we will save this country from the killings and carnage that has become the hallmark of the Balkan civil wars," Robertson said, adding that the Western troika would "back up the negotiators" who have done an "extensive job".
Their peace mission was arranged hastily after the former Yugoslav state appeared headed for all-out war on Wednesday.
Intense fighting earlier this week in the northern flashpoint town of Tetovo between government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas left two dead and around 30 injured and anti-western, anti-Albanian riots hit the capital Skopje late on Tuesday.
The envoys were to meet Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and other Macedonian and Albanian political leaders.
Roberton said that according to Trajkovski only "five percent" of the problems in peace talks remained to be solved.
"If the remaining 5 percent can be solved, this country can avoid the civil war and return to peace," he said.
In Brussels, the European Union issued an urgent appeal for calm and the full restoration of the July 5 ceasefire in Macedonia.
Meanwhile, NATO spokesman Barry Johnson told AFP the withdrawal of the guerrillas was "underway". He said no incidents had been reported.
Under the withdrawal agreement, brokered by NATO special envoy Pieter Feith late on Wednesday, the retreat by rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA) had been scheduled to start around 6 am (0400 GMT) on Thursday and be completed within seven hours.
OSCE teams in Macedonia were charged with observing the retreat from a number of villages and roads around the northwestern town Tetovo, which was calm on Thursday.
The rebels' political representative Ali Ahmeti signed the accord on Wednesday, under which all rebel checkpoints on the road are to be dismantled, while all paramilitary forces are to pull back 500 metres (yards) from the last house in all the villages controlled by the guerrillas since July 5.
The withdrawal was a condition of the Macedonian government for it to continue respecting the ceasefire and to refrain from further violence.
Macedonia Rivals Agree to Restore Their Cease-Fire Posted July 26, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000060836jul26.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection
July 26, 2001
Macedonia Rivals Agree to Restore Their Cease-Fire
Balkans: Despite uncertainty over rebels' willingness, the deal brings hope that reform talks on ethnic Albanian issues will move forward.
By DAVID HOLLEY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- After several days of localized clashes, ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian government agreed Wednesday to restore a cease-fire, with the rebels promising in the NATO-brokered deal that they will withdraw to positions held early this month, Western diplomats said.
The agreement, signed by the defense and interior ministers and the political representative of the rebels, restored hope that reform talks aimed at addressing ethnic Albanian grievances might move forward. There was some uncertainty, however, whether all guerrilla units were willing to honor the deal, which was due to take effect at 6 a.m. today.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson announced that he and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will visit Macedonia today to push forward Western mediation efforts aimed at heading off the threat of civil war. "Any efforts to resolve the situation militarily can only result in the wreckage of the country and the inflicting of grave civilian casualties," Robertson said in Brussels. "The situation . . . is critical."
The mood among Western mediators was boosted, however, by the deal to restore the truce, which had been shattered in the region of the northwestern city of Tetovo, the scene of several days of fierce clashes. Thousands of frightened people fled the city Wednesday, before word of the restored cease-fire began to spread.
"There has been an agreement," a NATO official said Wednesday evening, speaking on condition that he not be further identified. "The agreement . . . is to go back to the July 5 positions" held when the cease-fire began. He called the deal "very significant."
"A lot of people had lost a lot of hope that the cease-fire could be continued or restored," the NATO official said. "This quite possibly breathes some new life into it and is an opportunity to settle this peacefully."
The key focus of the agreement, he said, calls on the rebels to withdraw to at least 1600 feet from a road leading from Tetovo to the country's border with Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia. North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeeping forces are based in Kosovo, which is under U.N. administration.
Ethnic Macedonians have fled villages along these roads in recent days as their homes came under rebel control.
"All the displaced persons from those towns will be allowed to return," the NATO official said.
The key figure in mediating the deal was NATO special envoy Pieter Feith. It was signed by Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and Ali Ahmeti, political representative of the rebel National Liberation Army, Western diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Macedonian state television, which reported the agreement by quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, said Macedonian civilians were expected to begin returning to their homes this afternoon.
Earlier Wednesday, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and Buckovski made statements sharply distancing themselves from remarks Tuesday by a government spokesman who had severely criticized the Western role in attempting to mediate the ethnic conflict here.
"We should welcome the role of NATO in our country," Trajkovski said. "We hold in high regard the contribution of NATO in cutting the illegal traffic of people and weapons across the border [from Kosovo], which they have been doing with great efficiency every day."
Trajkovski also charged that the ethnic Albanian rebels had launched a campaign to drive ethnic Macedonians out of guerrilla-held territory. In resisting this, "our country has the support of the international community," he said.
"We have to realize that only partnership with the international community can restore peace and stability in Macedonia," he said.
The president's praise for Western efforts came shortly after NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo announced unusually great success in arresting suspected guerrillas and capturing weaponry.
The peacekeepers Wednesday reported arresting 62 suspected guerrillas. That included 55 men detained Tuesday morning near Prizren in southern Kosovo. The men had been traveling with 50 mules from Macedonia to Albania by way of Kosovo, a spokesman said. In a separate incident, seven people leading horses carrying ammunition and weapons were arrested near the Macedonian border.
Tetovo Mayor Murtezan Ismaili, an ethnic Albanian, complained bitterly Wednesday about the warfare that had engulfed his city but welcomed word of the cease-fire deal.
"From this 'free shooting,' as I call it, four bullets ended up in our offices," Ismaili said. "That implies a permanent risk for the lives of the civilians."
Ismaili also charged that paramilitary groups were being formed by ethnic Macedonian civilians.
"But we shouldn't lose optimism because we heard today that the NATO representative, together with the political representative of the NLA, has reached an agreement for a cease-fire," Ismaili said. "We hope that, after all this, there will be the political strength to reach a democratic solution for all the problems in Macedonia."
Skopje issues arrest warrants for rebel leaders Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010726/1/19rox.html
Thursday July 26, 10:07 PM
Skopje issues arrest warrants for rebel leaders
Macedonia has issued international arrest warrants for 11 ethnic Albanian guerrilla leaders on war crimes charges, including their main political representative Ali Ahmeti, the Interior Ministry said.
"Judicial procedures have been launched, as well as the international arrest warrants against 11 Albanians for crimes against humanity and war crimes," the ministry said in a statement.
The announcement came as top NATO and European Union envoys held talks in the capital Skopje after NATO brokered a deal with the rebels late on Wednesday aimed at reviving a shattered ceasefire there.
The ministry said there was enough "evidence gathered between 1998 and 2000, proving that their terrorist activities were aimed at federalising and tearing apart the territory of Macedonia, creating a greater Kosovo," referring to the neighbouring UN-administrated Yugoslav province.
The men "have presented themselves as defenders of human rights," the statement said, noting the National Liberation Army (NLA) stance that their five-month long rebellion was aimed at improving the rights of the ethnic Albanian community in Macedonia.
Besides Ahmeti, who had on Wednesday signed the accord with NATO on the withdrawal by rebels to the positions they held before a violated July 5 truce, the warrant was issued for Fazli Veliju, who is living in Switzerland, and branded by Skopje as one of the main financial backers of the NLA.
Other suspects were Gezim Ostreni, a "senior officer", Daout Hajredini and Rusmet Mustafa, also NLA fighters.
Sources said that except Veliju, all the other wanted men were in neighbouring Kosovo, which is considered the main logistical and supply base for the guerrillas.
During his visit to Kosovo on Tuesday, US President George W. Bush had warned ethnic Albanians that they would not be allowed to stoke trouble in the region.
"Kosovo must not be a safe haven for people causing insurgency elsewhere," Bush said.
On June 27, Bush signed two presidential decrees announcing measures that deprived all financial or material support to "Albanian extremists" seen as threatening the stability of Macedonia. The decrees also barred them from entering the United States.
Rebels in Macedonia want NATO accord to complete pull-out Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010726/1/19rmx.html
Thursday July 26, 8:54 PM
Rebels in Macedonia want NATO accord to complete pull-out
SKOPJE, July 26 (AFP) -
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas are waiting for a full accord with NATO to complete their withdrawal from positions held in the northwest of Macedonia, their spokesman said Thursday.
"We are still awaiting a final agreement to be signed with NATO to end our withdrawal from the positions that should be abandoned," captain Shpeti, spokesman of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA), told AFP.
Under an agreement brokered by NATO special envoy Pieter Feith, the retreat of the NLA rebels from their positions around the northwestern town of Tetovo will lead to a resumption of the July 5 truce, which was violated earlier this week.
Macedonian defence ministry spokesman Marjan Djurovski told AFP that some rebel commanders have refused to leave their positions.
"In many spots, the terrorists' withdrawal is underway, this is the fact, but there are also commanders who do not want to do this," Djurovski said.
But he added that NATO representatives were "on the ground and I expect they would solve the problems."
NATO officials said the retreat should be over by 1:00 pm (1100 GMT), but other sources set the end for an hour later.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General George Robertson, visiting Skopje on a mission with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was "told that the withdrawal is underway."
Robertson urged the full respect of the agreement.
"I hope that they will recognise that they have commitments that they have made and everything here has got to be based on trust," he said.
OSCE teams in Macedonia were charged with observing the NLA retreat from a number of villages and roads around the northwestern town Tetovo.
The rebels' political representative Ali Ahmeti signed the accord on Wednesday.
Under the accord, all rebel checkpoints on the road are to be dismantled, while all paramilitary forces are to pull back 500 metres (yards) from the last house in all the villages controlled by the guerrillas since July 5.
The withdrawal was a condition of the Macedonian government for it to continue respecting the ceasefire and to refrain from further violence.
Although the accord was signed between the representatives of the government and the NLA rebels, sources close to the Skopje authorities insisted the agreement was sealed solely between NATO and Albanian "terrorists".
Mission to Macedonia already under a cloud Posted July 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010726/3/19rgl.html
Thursday July 26, 6:44 PM
Mission to Macedonia already under a cloud
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO and European Union chiefs arrived in Macedonia on Thursday in yet another bid to stave off civil war, but their mission was clouded by the refusal of an ethnic Albanian commander to heed a Western-brokered deal.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said on arrival that ethnic Albanian guerrillas had started pulling back from areas near the western city of Tetova, as agreed in the deal.
But a National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrilla chief told Reuters his men were not withdrawing because they did not want to leave civilians unprotected.
Mr Robertson said he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana were aware of the scale of what was at stake as they try to revive collapsed peace talks.
"If we can help to get the negotiations back on track, then I hope we will save this country from the killing and carnage that has become the hallmark of Balkan civil wars," he added.
The delegation also included Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose Skopje office was vandalised by nationalist rioters on Tuesday.
"This is a very critical moment for this nation," Geoana said at the airport as a Macedonian Sukhoi-25 warplane roared down the runway.
Robertson and Solana decided to visit Macedonia for talks with the president, the government and political leaders on Wednesday as NATO brokered a deal with the NLA guerrillas to revive a ragged ceasefire.
Under the deal, agreed between NATO envoy Pieter Feith and NLA political chief Ali Ahmeti, guerrillas were to retreat by 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) from villages on a road out of the city of Tetovo on condition the area became a demilitarised zone.
The region was the scene of the fiercest fighting between the rebels and Macedonia security troops earlier this week.
The government in return said its forces would exercise restraint around the volatile, predominantly Albanian Tetovo, diplomats said. The deal was signed by the chiefs of the Macedonian police and army.
NLA SAYS PROBLEM IS VILLAGE OF POROJ
"I am told that the withdrawal is under way," Robertson said. "I hope they will recognise that they have commitments that they have made and that everything here has got to be based on trust."
But rebel Commandant Leka, who was due to implement a retreat from a key area, told Reuters by mobile phone he could not do so.
"No, we have not retreated, it is impossible," said Leka, a 35-year-old veteran of rebel campaigns in neighbouring Kosovo.
"We cannot leave wives and children in the hands of Tigers and Wolves," Leka said, in reference to the names of Macedonia's special forces. "People have asked us for help and we are here to help them."
A senior officer at the NLA headquarters, who goes by the nom de guerre of Gjini, told Reuters by telephone the main problem was the village of Poroj, under Leka's command.
"I cannot order him to pull back because there are (NLA) soldiers who are in Poroj and they are from that village. One has lost a mother, another a father, a third lost a daughter and they cannot leave the village...because they feel their presence is necessary to protect other civilians," he said.
"I do not think that this agreement will work, but we did our best," he said.
Macedonians who say they were "ethnically cleansed" from villages seized by NLA guerrillas on a road from Tetovo towards the Kosovo border staged a protest rally in central Skopje on Tuesday that degenerated into anti-Western riots.
Protesters attacked Western embassies after nationalist Macedonian politicians accused the West's peace envoys of supporting a separatist rebel agenda.
Plans had been drawn up for people to return to their homes later on Thursday as NLA fighters were expected to retreat to around 500 metres (yards) from their current positions.
In Tetovo itself, armed Albanian civilians in the western suburb of Tece have dismantled one sandbagged barricade from which they fought a battle on Tuesday, local residents said.
Another barricade, though still in place, was unmanned.
SERIOUS DOUBTS
The chance of serious progress in the talks, after five months of fighting and broken truces, appears slim.
Western diplomats working around the clock to wrest the former Yugoslav republic from the verge of full-blown ethnic war acknowledged the task ahead remained daunting.
"These guys walked right up to the brink in the past couple of days," U.S. special envoy James Pardew told Reuters.
"Maybe they've made a decision that peace was better than war because that's exactly where they were heading."
The NLA guerrillas say they are fighting for better rights for Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority.
Pardew said the main sticking point in any peace deal was whether Albanian should become an official language in some parts of Macedonia.
But Western analysts have questioned whether either side is serious about the peace process, suggesting their main aim is to shift the blame for any eventual failure onto their foes.
NATO confirms rebel pledge to pull back Posted July 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010725/1/19q8l.html
Thursday July 26, 4:43 AM
NATO confirms rebel pledge to pull back
A NATO spokesman in Skopje confirmed that an accord was signed with ethnic Albanian rebels under which they would pull back from positions in northwest Macedonia they had taken this month.
"The retreat will start at 6:00 am (0400 GMT Thursday) and be over by 1:00 pm (1100 GMT). That is what I have understood," the spokesman, Major Barry Johnson, said.
He added that the the accord was signed between the representatives of the government and the rebels of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA), operating in Macedonia.
Earlier, private Macedonian television channel A1 reported that the rebel political representative, Ali Ahmeti, and NATO envoy Pieter Feith signed a deal under which the rebels would withdraw from around the town of Tetovo, the focus of recent clashes, and from parts of the road leading to nearby Jazince.
But Johnson said that while Feith had helped broker the accord he did not sign it.
The document was signed after a meeting between Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, Feith, and the Macedonian interior and defence ministers.
He added that the rebels should withdraw to the positions they held when a July 5 ceasefire was declared, notably from the road between Tetovo and Jazince, near the border with the neighbouring UN-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
All rebel checkpoints on the road are to be dismantled, while all paramilitary forces are to withdraw 500 meters (yards) from the last house in all the villages controlled by the guerrillas since July 5, according to the terms of the agreement.
The accord came on the eve of a hastily arranged visit by NATO Secretary General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to Skopje after an outbreak in fighting threatened to scupper the ceasefire and after mobs went on an anti-West and anti-Albanian rampage late Tuesday in the capital.
The withdrawal of the rebels was a condition of the Macedonian government for it to continue respecting the ceasefire and to restrain from further violence.
A1 Television also reported that Trajkovski gave guarantees to a delegation of Macedonian Slav villagers who were expelled from their houses in the Tetovo region that they would be able to return home late Thursday.
Their security is to be guaranteed by observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union, the channel reported.
Macedonian rebels agree to withdraw from Tetovo: report Posted July 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010725/1/19q5p.html
Thursday July 26, 2:29 AM
Macedonian rebels agree to withdraw from Tetovo: report
SKOPJE, July 25 (AFP) -
Ethnic Albanian rebels fighting security forces in Macedonia signed an agreement Wednesday with a NATO peacebroker to withdraw from positions in the northwest of the country, the A1 television channel reported, quoting the Macedonian presidency.
The channel said the rebel political representative, Ali Ahmeti, and NATO envoy Pieter Feith signed a deal under which the rebels would withdraw from around the town of Tetovo, the focus of recent clashes, and from parts of the road leading to the town of Jazince.
The pull-out is to take place at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) Thursday, it said.
Combatants Agree to Renew Macedonia Truce-Diplomats Posted July 25, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010725/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_183.html
Wednesday July 25 2:20 PM ET
Combatants Agree to Renew Macedonia Truce-Diplomats
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) has won the agreement of Macedonian government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas to reinstate a cease-fire shattered by three days of fighting, diplomatic sources said late on Wednesday.
Under the deal, brokered by NATO special envoy Pieter Feith, the National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas would retreat from territory they have occupied since the truce took effect on July 6. This would allow displaced Macedonian villagers to return.
``It was made clear to them (the NLA) that they were derailing a political process which they say they support,'' the diplomatic source said.
The government was presented with the NLA agreement and in return said its forces would exercise restraint around the volatile, mainly ethnic Albanian town of Tetovo, he added. The deal had been signed by the chiefs of the Macedonian police and army.
No further details of the deal were immediately available. Macedonians who say they were expelled from villages seized by the NLA on a road from Tetovo toward the Kosovo border staged a protest rally in downtown Skopje on Tuesday that degenerated into anti-Western riots.
NATO chief on mission to Macedonia with EU, OSCE envoys Posted July 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010725/1/19q1c.html
Thursday July 26, 12:12 AM
NATO chief on mission to Macedonia with EU, OSCE envoys
BRUSSELS, July 25 (AFP) -
Describing the situation in Macedonia as "critical", NATO Secretary General George Robertson announced he will travel to Skopje Thursday with top EU and OSCE officials to try to pull the country back from the brink of all-out war.
Robertson told a news conference here Wednesday that he will press for a return to a ceasefire following riots and fighting around the flashpoint town of Tetovo that threatened to bring more bloodshed to the Balkans.
"The situation in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is critical," said Robertson after announcing the visit with EU foreign policy representative Javier Solana and the president of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Mircea Geoana.
"The country faces grave decisions. And I call on all those involved to demonstrate leadership by taking the right decisions to follow the path to peace and not to war," Robertson said.
The secretary general warned Skopje to veer away from a military option to end the conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels who are fighting government forces to demand minority rights.
"Any efforts to resolve the situation militarily can only result in the wreckage of the country and the inflicting of grave civilian casualties," he said.
NATO diplomats said the goal was to avoid at all cost a slide toward all-out war between Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian communities.
The NATO chief accused "key figures" in the Macedonian government of stoking tensions, lashing back at Skopje for charging that NATO was siding with ethnic Albanian rebels in the conflict.
The government tirade against NATO was followed by rioting in Skopje during which about 2,000 mainly Macedonian Slav demonstrators, many of them young, hooded and armed with sticks set fire to vehicles and buildings, smashed the windows of the British and German embassies and a McDonald's restaurant.
"Some key figures have used their position of authority to inflame public opinion... about NATO's role in the conflict," Robertson said. "That has helped to create the environment for such attacks."
"Such irresponsible behaviour must end," he asserted.
"It is not fair, it is not right, it is not accurate in any way to accuse NATO of being one-sided in this conflict," Robertson said.
The government in Skopje on Tuesday accused NATO of siding with the rebels and of seeking to turn Macedonia into an international protectorate under the control of the alliance.
"NATO is not an enemy of Macedonia, but, at the same time, it is a big friend of our enemies," government spokesman Antonio Milososki said.
The three envoys will meet with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, members of the government and political leaders during their visit.
Robertson said he would not be seeking an immediate political settlement, noting that the EU envoy Francois Leotard and his US counterpart James Pardew were tasked with that effort in Skopje.
But he asserted that seeking a political settlement was "the only viable option available."
"All provocations must cease. We believe that a political solution is possible. It is very close," he said.
A European diplomat noted that the only obstacle in the way of a political settlement was the language issue with ethnic Albanians pressing for Albanian to be made an official language.
Macedonia's Slav majority opposes bilingualism, arguing it would open the door to secession.
NATO, EU Brave Macedonia Mayhem Despite Ultimatum Posted July 25, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010725/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_180.html
Wednesday July 25 12:25 PM ET
NATO, EU Brave Macedonia Mayhem Despite Ultimatum
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Top NATO (news - web sites) and European Union (news - web sites) officials announced a last-ditch peace mission to Macedonia on Wednesday, undaunted by a storm of anti-Western rhetoric and riots as the country slides toward inter-ethnic anarchy.
Macedonia demanded that Western powers blame ethnic Albanian guerrillas for ripping up a cease-fire or be exposed as their backers -- a charge fiercely denied by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.
Germany, its embassy stoned by a nationalist mob on Tuesday, and Greece quickly obliged. But Macedonia's relations with Western peace brokers have hit rock bottom after talks on a peace deal and a NATO-brokered truce both fell apart.
Nationalist mobs ran riot through Skopje after dark on Tuesday, hurling rocks at embassies and torching vehicles used by peace monitors after the government accused Western mediators of helping rebels tear Macedonia apart.
A third straight day of fierce street firefights in the flashpoint town of Tetovo, 25 miles to the west, ratcheted tensions a notch higher. Although fighting died down in the early morning hours, both sides were digging in.
National Liberation Army guerrillas showed no signs of retreating from a road outside Tetovo, despite a government ultimatum to pull back by noon and allow expelled Macedonian villagers to return or face an all-out military strike.
Western diplomats trying to secure an NLA pullback looked to have had minimal success as the government launched its second tirade against their mediation in as many days.
Spokesman Antonio Milosovski challenged them to answer one simple question to prove their commitment to peace.
``Who is guilty of breaking the cease-fire?'' he asked. ``If they do not respond, then it will be clear that they are protecting those who attacked democratic Macedonia.''
WEST HITS BACK
Robertson and Solana, due in Skopje on Thursday for a crisis bid to revive talks, said the allegations were unfair.
``The only side NATO is on is that of democracy, peace,'' Robertson said in Brussels. ``The situation...is critical.''
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said such government outbursts were fanning a ``violent internal political climate.
``The German government condemns in the strongest terms the break in the cease-fire by armed extremists of Albanian origin,'' he said in a statement, later echoed by the Greek government.
The streets of Tetovo, from which carloads of Macedonians have fled toward Skopje, were largely deserted as police marksmen searched out rooftop positions in the town center.
Angry protests in the capital, by refugees from villages in the mountains above Tetovo who said the area was being ethnically cleansed, degenerated into Tuesday's riots.
On the ground, the NLA presence was conspicuous. Carloads of bearded guerrillas raced between rebel checkpoints a few hundred yards from Macedonian lines on Tetovo's outskirts. NLA fighters were fortifying new positions.
Behind a sports stadium separating the two forces, four houses were burned out and a gaping hole in one building suggested a Macedonian tank shell had ripped it open.
Although the NLA has seized swathes of northern and western Macedonia, where most of the tiny Balkan state's large Albanian minority lives, it denies that its five-month revolt in the name of Albanian civil rights has a territorial agenda.
``The war will go on until the Macedonians accept our demands,'' warned the burly, tattooed commander of NLA forces on Tetovo's eastern fringe, whose nom de guerre is Hamzi.
NATIONALIST AGENDA
Diplomats said the government appeared to be pursuing an outright nationalist agenda in preference to granting greater rights to Albanians, who comprise a third of the population, to end a revolt that has widened Macedonia's ethnic divide.
NLA advances into Tetovo under cover of a cease-fire which held for 18 days have enraged the Macedonian majority. Losing territory in fierce fighting, which has forced hundreds from their homes, has strengthened the government's ``war'' camp.
Dissenting political voices still exist, however.
``We are deeply convinced that waging war with the whole world will not save Macedonia,'' said Branko Crvenkovski, the leader of Macedonia's second biggest political party.
``Because of the situation we are in, our priority must be gaining international support...That's the job of a responsible government and not to offer the people suicidal politics,'' he said.
Police did little to stop Tuesday's rampage, which was fueled by a deep-seated fear among Macedonians that their 10-year-old country is being ripped apart by the rebels.
Macedonians incensed by the security forces' failure to crush the NLA, blamed on Western calls for restraint, camped outside parliament demanding tougher action. The crowd was expected to swell as scorching daytime temperatures dropped.
One man, who declined to give his name, repeated calls heard at Tuesday's riots for civilians to be armed, saying: ''They should give us weapons. If they can't do it we'll take care of the terrorists. And not just in our village.''