Little Progress in Macedonia Talks Posted July 12, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010712/wl/macedonia_276.html
Thursday July 12 3:58 AM ET
Little Progress in Macedonia Talks
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Clouding hopes of a quick peace agreement, a senior ethnic Albanian official says Macedonia's two major ethnic groups are far apart at negotiations meant to bridge differences and end the threat of fullscale civil war.
``Opinions are very distant,'' said Abdylhadi Vejseli, deputy chairman of the Party for Democratic Prosperity. ``The talks are very difficult.''
Speaking amid a third round of talks Wednesday, he said the Macedonians are resisting ethnic Albanian demands that a new constitution give ethnic Albanians formal equality with majority Macedonians.
U.S. envoy James Pardew and EU envoy Francois Leotard, who have been at the forefront of international mediation, said both sides ``reviewed work on the constitutional drafts.'' Their statement did not say if any progress had been made.
Vejseli again called for an inclusion of ethnic Albanian rebels in the talks - something the government rejects as totally unacceptable.
Ethnic Albanians - more than a quarter of Macedonia's population of 2 million - demand broader rights, including better political representation at all levels of society and government, official use of the Albanian language and the rewritten constitution.
The Macedonian majority has rejected those demands, which they view as part of a strategy to carve out an ethnic Albanian mini-state and unite it with adjacent Kosovo, the province of neighboring Serbia where ethnic Albanians are in the majority.
An agreement could lead to the next critical phase: the deployment of up to 3,000 NATO (news - web sites) forces to oversee the disarmament of ethnic Albanian rebels. NATO has emphasized it will only get involved if a deal is reached, and if the insurgents are willing to give up their guns.
The ethnic Albanian insurgency started in February. The rebels, who call themselves the National Liberation Army, have taken control of dozens of villages along the border with Kosovo where they've been fighting the government troops.
The front lines in northern and northwestern Macedonia remained largely quiet Wednesday, completing almost a week of relative calm since a NATO-mediated truce took effect.
But officials said ethnic Albanian rebels and government troops were using the cease-fire to strengthen their battlefield positions.
US and Britain back Macedonia peace talks Posted July 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010711/1/194pz.html
Thursday July 12, 2:40 AM
US and Britain back Macedonia peace talks
WASHINGTON, Jul 11 (AFP) -
The United States and Britain on Wednesday threw their full weight behind talks aimed at ending an Albanian insurgency in Macedonia, saying they represented the only way out of the conflict.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters after meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that he was happy with the Skopje talks so far, despite the apparent lack of immediate progress.
"I am pleased frankly that the political track has shown quite a bit of movement in the last couple of weeks," Powell said.
"Both sides are now staking out negotiating positions but I think the framework ... is a good framework," said Powell, who was due to meet Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva later Wednesday.
Straw said there was no alternative to the talks which have moved into a third day of discussions on an European Union-US plan to end the insurgency.
"The only way forward in Macedonia is through these negotiations," Straw said.
"Now, it often happens in such situations of conflict that there are highs and lows in the negotiations, but currently they are in a better position than I think many of us expected or feared two or three weeks ago."
Teams of legal experts and politicians have been working since Monday on a draft document, presented by EU envoy Francois Leotard and his US counterpart James Pardew to address demands by the Albanian minority for constitutional change.
The EU-US plan is aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian insurgency that flared in February, pushing Macedonia to the brink of war and reviving fears of another Balkans quagmire.
The talks aim to capitalise on a ceasefire, brokered by NATO, which came into force at midnight July 5.
NATO is ready to send in thousands of troops to help disarm the Albanian rebels if a political deal is reached and the current ceasefire, which has been in place since last Friday, is respected.
Macedonia talks grind on without breakthrough Posted July 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010711/1/194qk.html
Thursday July 12, 3:13 AM
Macedonia talks grind on without breakthrough
Legal experts and politicians ended a third day of talks Wednesday on an EU-US plan to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency in Macedonia, but failed to yield any concrete progress, officials said.
"I am not optimistic," said Muhamed Halili of the Albanian Party for Democracy and Prosperity (PDP). "But we must continue to discuss."
The teams have been working since Monday on a draft document, presented Saturday by EU envoy Francois Leotard and his US counterpart James Pardew to address demands by the Albanian minority for constitutional change.
Sources close to the talks said several key demands of the Albanians held up Wednesday's round of talks, aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian insurgency that flared in February, pushing Macedonia to the brink of civil war.
The talks aim to capitalize on a fragile ceasefire, brokered by NATO, which came into force at midnight July 5.
Officials said the draft peace deal falls short of ethnic Albanian demands that Albanian be made an official language of Macedonia, that the minority's representatives be given veto rights in parliament and that the vice-president be ethnic Albanian.
Slav-dominated Macedonia's ethnic Albanians are also asking for greater control over the local police force.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters after meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that he was happy with the Skopje talks so far, despite the apparent lack of immediate progress.
"I am pleased frankly that the political track has shown quite a bit of movement in the last couple of weeks," Powell said.
"Both sides are now staking out negotiating positions but I think the framework ... is a good framework," said Powell, who was due to meet Macedonian Foreign Minister Ikinka Mitreva later Wednesday.
Straw said there was no alternative to the talks.
"The only way forward in Macedonia is through these negotiations," Straw said.
"Now, it often happens in such situations of conflict that there are highs and lows in the negotiations, but currently they are in a better position than I think many of us expected or feared two or three weeks ago."
The proposals on the table were put together by international and Macedonian legal experts headed by top French judicial expert Robert Badinter, who stressed the need for more decentralisation.
The talks deadlocked last month when Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski accused the Albanian leaders of trying to split the country into two federal units based on ethnicity.
But negotiations resumed on Monday, under huge pressure from the international community, which sees political reform as the only way to defuse the five-month-old crisis.
NATO is ready to send in thousands of troops to help disarm the Albanian rebels if a political deal is reached and the current ceasefire is respected.
Britain's Straw Discusses Macedonia Crisis in U.S. Posted July 11, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010711/pl/britain_usa_dc_1.html
Wednesday July 11 12:38 PM ET
Britain's Straw Discusses Macedonia Crisis in U.S.
By Elaine Monaghan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Britain's new foreign secretary, Jack Straw, made his first visit to the United States on Wednesday with his main focus on Macedonia, where Western envoys were scrambling to broker a quick peace deal.
Straw, who took the post from Robin Cook in a post-election Cabinet reshuffle last month, subsequently had to cancel a trip due to violence in the Balkan state.
NATO (news - web sites) countries have offered to send in a 3,000-strong force to disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas once a deal is in place.
Straw told reporters over breakfast at the British Embassy that Macedonia was at the top of an agenda that included the Middle East peace process, sanctions against Iraq, relations with Russia, climate change and world trade.
After meeting National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) he said they were looking at ``common solutions'' to problems including their differences over the 1997 Kyoto accord on climate change. He was also due to meet Vice-President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites).
President Bush (news - web sites) opposes the Kyoto accords in which industrialized states agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2010.
``We hope that by a further process of discussion, it may be possible to get the United States to agree to some levels of climate change, albeit not within the treaty,'' Straw said at the embassy.
He repeated a familiar sentiment expressed by European foreign ministers passing through Washington since Bush came to power in January determined to field a defense system to counter a threat from what it calls rogue states in the post-Cold War era.
Straw noted that Bush had promised a process of bilateral consultations and with other countries, including Russia and China, which oppose the missile defense system and fear it is designed to neutralize their nuclear arsenals.
He declined to specify exactly how British and U.S. views coincided on the nature of the threat, which in Washington is seen as coming from North Korea (news - web sites), Iran and Iraq.
But he said there was a ``thirst for information'' about missile defense and quoted British parliamentarian Kali Mountford in the Financial Times newspaper expressing concerns the system might be technically flawed, fail to deal with the threat or deepen the problem of nuclear proliferation.
``Those are the questions in people's minds, the questions that everyone is thinking about,'' Straw said, but added, ``I think people are relatively benign on the issue.''
The Bush administration views a Soviet-era pact called the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that barred broad defense systems as defunct because it was drawn up in a bipolar world.
Russia wants to keep the ABM intact, which restricted to two sites where each side could keep missiles to shoot down incoming missiles, one over a major city.
``The world has changed. We accept that analysis. What we are looking at are the prescriptions to deal with that change,'' Straw said.
Part of the Balkans that hasn't exploded Posted July 11, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/07/11/p1s3.htm
Jul 11, 2001
Part of the Balkans that hasn't exploded
As national politicians negotiate a peace on paper, town mayors are working among the neighbors.
By Peter Ford (fordp@csps.com)
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KUMANOVO, MACEDONIA
This bustling town in northern Macedonia could be a perfect petri dish for fermenting a culture of "ethnic cleansing."
The government has given arms to men of fighting age from the ethnic-Macedonian majority. Macedonians fear that ethnic Albanians - who make up a quarter of Kumanovo's population - harbor sympathies for the guerrillas battling government forces. For five months, tensions have mounted with every thump of artillery from the nearby hills.
Yet while politicians in Skopje negotiate a new political system to resolve the crisis, local leaders in Kumanovo and elsewhere are working hard to keep a lid on a potentially catastrophic situation.
The nervous residents of this town have not so much as broken one another's windows, and for this they credit ethnic-Macedonian Mayor Slobodan Kovacevski, who is working closely with Feriz Dervishi, an ethnic-Albanian friend and fellow city councilor.
On the street, on the phone, and on television, the two men carry a joint message to their respective communities, says Mr. Kovacevski. "Macedonians have to understand that they must not attack their neighbors, and Albanians must not think of every soldier and every policeman as their enemy."
It is not easy to make that message heard in a country teetering on the brink of civil war. Ethnic-Albanian guerrillas in the National Liberation Army (NLA) have been pushing back Army troops from Macedonia's northern border with Kosovo, fighting for greater rights for their minority community.
The ethnic-Albanian mayor of Tetovo - 50 miles west of here - has had similar success in his town, with its dominant Albanian population. "Everywhere I go, I appeal for calm and tolerance, so that we can look each other in the eye tomorrow," says Mayor Murtezan Ismaili. "Neither community has anywhere else to go."
Dispelling rumors
Mr. Kovacevski, once an executive in a leather factory, and Mr. Ismaili, a former chemistry professor, are vigorously doing the daily work of calming angry spirits. A large part of their job is squashing provocative rumors before they fan the flames of fear among mistrustful people who are often too ready to believe the worst of their neighbors.
Recently, Kovacevski says, he sent an assistant to investigate reports that armed ethnic Albanians were digging defensive positions on the outskirts of Kumanovo. The scout discovered a single unarmed man with a shovel, digging a well in his back yard. Kovacevski went on local television to explain the truth.
Likewise, he recalls, he recently summoned local ethnic Albanian shopkeepers who had shuttered their businesses after a mob in a southern Macedonian town had attacked Albanian stores.
He explained that ethnic Macedonians in Kumanovo believed they had closed up because they had advance word of a guerrilla attack, and convinced them to open their doors again.
Mr. Dervishi, meanwhile, channels ethnic-Albanian worries to the authorities. He has persuaded the local police chief to forbid ethnic-Macedonian Army reservists from carrying their weapons on the streets, and ensured that there was no repetition of the incident when police in camouflage uniforms and balaclava masks descended on the town market to check IDs, terrifying ethnic-Albanian shoppers.
Keeping the violence at bay is not always possible, though. Last week, Tetovo's Mayor Ismaili sat talking in his downtown office to a reporter about his peacemaking efforts when an Army helicopter gunship roared by, drowning out his words as the pilot fired rockets at rebel positions on a nearby hillside.
"This sort of thing only undermines my position as mayor," he complained, gesturing through the window at the flames belching from the gunship's rocket pods. "Citizens don't understand that there are some things I simply cannot control."
Rectifying economic disparity
Both Kovacevski and Ismaili say they are trying to address deeper communal grievances over discrimination by distributing municipal jobs more evenly - a direct challenge to the pork-barrel tradition here that a mayor gives jobs to people only from his own party and ethnic group.
"I cannot claim that I love you, but deny you a job," says Kovacevski, who found only three ethnic Albanians among 30 municipal employees when he took office last October.
Slowly, he is trying to rectify that situation by setting up one multiethnic committee to sift through tenders from local businesses for city construction projects, and another to choose laborers to work on them.
Other small steps help build trust, city officials say. Kovacevski spent some of the money he received from the United Nations Development Project to build a fence around a Muslim cemetery, which had long stood unprotected. Ismaili makes sure he is seen drinking coffee in local cafes with his ethnic-Macedonian friends.
Both men say that the imminent danger of civil war has pushed them to new limits in their discovery of the other side's feelings.
"I wasn't always like this," admits Kovacevski. "I used to be completely different. But I have a son, and when you have children who might have to go to war, you think differently."
In Tetovo, Ismaili says he has come under fire from ethnic Albanians who voted for him and now accuse him of being too soft on ethnic Macedonians.
"Some people may say that I am too moderate," he acknowledges. "But I don't care whether I am re-elected or not. I just care that this madness ends."
Rival Albanian Peace Plan Hampers Macedonia Talks Posted July 11, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010711/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_151.html
Wednesday July 11 8:40 AM ET
Rival Albanian Peace Plan Hampers Macedonia Talks
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Papers are flying around clandestine meetings in Skopje as ethnic Albanian leaders debate conflicting peace plans with their Macedonian rivals and Western envoys scramble to broker a quick deal.
Talks on political reforms designed to end an Albanian guerrilla revolt remained bogged down on Wednesday, despite the arrival of new foreign experts hoping to bridge a gulf between Albanian demands and the joint U.S.-EU proposals on the table.
``It's very tough indeed,'' one senior Western diplomat said, conceding it was like banging one's head against a brick wall.
U.S. special envoy James Pardew and the European Union (news - web sites)'s Francois Leotard have held talks late into the night to discuss a rival document presented by Albanian party leaders, which contains demands unpalatable to Macedonians and the West.
The new draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for radical constitutional changes, including an effective veto right for Albanians over almost any government decision they object to.
Diplomats say Macedonia's leading Albanian politician, Arben Xhaferi, is proving a formidable negotiating partner.
They suspect his hard-line stance is a bargaining ploy to capitalize on the success of the guerrilla National Liberation Army, whose rebellion in the name of Albanian minority rights has brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war in five months.
``Xhaferi is a cunning fox,'' one senior diplomat said, adding that the ailing 53-year-old with Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) appeared to be fighting for his political life. ``He knows what he's doing.'' Xhaferi insists the veto idea, dismissed by the West as a non-starter and a recipe for gridlock, is essential to ensure the minority -- about one third of the population in this small Balkan republic -- is not discriminated against by Macedonians.
``They have an aggressive policy within my land and I have a defensive policy,'' he told Reuters in an interview this week.
LONG HAUL Diplomats say the U.S.-EU framework plan, which leaves room for debate, is the best deal available. Macedonian leaders have described it as broadly acceptable in its current form.
The plan would strengthen local self-government, give the Albanian language official status and contain mechanisms to ensure sensitive laws on cultural and clearly ethnic issues would require minority backing.
But the Albanians are unfazed by the heavy pressure being put on them to sign up, saying the proposal is not sufficient to persuade NLA rebels to hand in their guns to NATO (news - web sites) as planned.
``What was offered to us cannot eliminate the consequences that led to the crisis we have now in Macedonia,'' said Abdylhadi Veseli, a senior Party for Democratic Prosperity official.
To bolster efforts to secure compromise, Max van der Stoel of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe has joined the growing number of envoys on the ground in Skopje.
Analysts say the search for a quick deal looks increasingly farcical and warn that Western powers trying to narrow the tiny republic's ethnic divide might have to commit themselves to the long haul if a lasting agreement is to be reached.
``There is effectively no common ground on which to have a dialogue,'' said Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank. ``If we are really serious about this, we are going to have to take into account that we are going to be there for a long time.
This could also apply to NATO, which refuses to countenance an effective partition of Macedonia by policing military lines.
Desperate to avoid troops in body bags and a third Balkan peacekeeping force alongside those in Bosnia and Kosovo, the alliance is hoping its offer of 3,000 soldiers to collect NLA arms will be enough to kick-start the talks and secure peace.
``NATO and Macedonia want different things,'' one military source warned. ``NATO wants to move in quickly, collect a few weapons and get out without any casualties. Macedonia wants something slightly longer term.''
Envoys Work on Macedonia Peace Plan Posted July 10, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010710/wl/macedonia_275.html
Tuesday July 10 11:10 AM ET
Envoys Work on Macedonia Peace Plan
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A new foreign envoy joined a mounting international effort to nudge Macedonia's feuding factions toward common ground on a peace plan to defuse the country's ethnic Albanian insurgency.
Max van der Stoel of the Netherlands sat down Tuesday with ethnic Albanian and Macedonian negotiators trying to agree on a legal framework for the future political composition of the Balkan country. Van der Stoel represents the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe.
The talks were going ``pretty well,'' said Aggie Kuperman, a spokeswoman for U.S. mediator James Pardew. A cease-fire that took effect last week appeared to be generally holding Tuesday despite reports of sporadic shooting overnight near Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city.
The Defense Ministry said rebels fired at an army helicopter that was trying to bring food and other supplies to isolated Macedonian guards on the border with Kosovo. The helicopter was not hit and there were no casualties.
The ministry also said insurgents in the Tetovo region were trying to profit from the cessation of hostilities by regrouping, reorganizing and taking control of at least two roads.
The first round of negotiations Monday was mediated by European Union (news - web sites) special envoy Francois Leotard and his U.S. counterpart, James Pardew, both trying to turn the tenuous NATO (news - web sites)-brokered cease-fire into a permanent peace and avoid full-scale civil war.
In a statement, the two said: ``The parties expressed their commitment to engagement in this process.''
But majority Macedonian and minority ethnic Albanian politicians insisted little headway had been made.
``There has been very little progress,'' said ethnic Albanian politician Abdylhadi Veiseli.
Macedonian officials said Tuesday that contrary to earlier reports, French constitutional expert Robert Badinter was not planning to join the talks in the next few days. Badinter has played a key role in drafting the plan, particularly parts meant to address ethnic Albanian grievances.
Ethnic Albanians - who account for between a quarter and a third of Macedonia's 2 million people - want equal status with the Macedonians. The government argues that would lead to an ethnic division of the country.
They also want official status for their language, greater participation in government and a right to veto decisions in parliament.
An agreement could lead to the next critical phase: the deployment of NATO forces to oversee the disarmament of the rebels.
Macedonian official Nikola Popovski described the talks, which are continuing without a deadline, as ``rather difficult, with considerable pressure from the international community on all sides.''
The ethnic Albanian insurgency started in February. The rebels, who call themselves the National Liberation Army, have taken control of about two dozen villages along the border with Kosovo, where they have been fighting government troops.
The recent relative calm has encouraged the return of some people. As of Monday, more than 8,000 ethnic Albanians refugees had returned to Macedonia from Kosovo, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. More than 60,000 still remained in Kosovo, the agency said.
Macedonia Rebels Say They'll Trade Guns for Rights Posted July 10, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010709/ts/balkans_macedonia_dc_21.html
Monday July 9 4:34 PM ET
Macedonia Rebels Say They'll Trade Guns for Rights
By Paul Casciato
SOMEWHERE IN MACEDONIA'S HILLS (Reuters) - In the mountains south of the Kosovo border three guerrilla commanders said Monday they would end their armed rebellion in Macedonia only if the state granted ethnic Albanians equal rights.
Surrounded by a guard of young men armed to the teeth with automatic rifles, grenades and huge knives, front-line officers of the Albanian rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) said they were respecting a NATO (news - web sites)-brokered truce to give peace a chance.
``We are giving the Macedonian government and the international community the chance to solve this problem peacefully,'' a congenial man in combat fatigues, whose nom de guerre was Commandant Matoshi, told Reuters.
His fellow commandant, Leka, a tall man with a Che Guevara beard, said he hoped politicians from the country's divided communities could hammer out a formula to make Albanians and Macedonians equal partners in a society where jobs, education and cultural freedoms are available to all.
``We don't want to kill or be killed,'' he said as a small boy served orange drinks. ``But we have children. We are fighting for their rights and a better future, for freedom.''
On Monday, U.S. and European envoys put a brave face on intense political haggling over their proposals to end the guerrilla rebellion that has brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war in less than five months.
Leaders of Macedonia's Albanian minority have dismissed the plan as inadequate, clouding Western hopes for it to form the basis of a framework that would narrow the tiny Balkan republic's ethnic divide and stop the conflict spreading.
WITHIN OUR GRASP
In the same room of the hastily prepared meeting house a fresh-faced Commandant Clirime said the NLA took up arms because Albanians tired of pleading for concessions.
``We are not asking anybody for anything because what we have wanted for 100 years is within our grasp and we are not going to let it go,'' he said twiddling a bullet between his fingers.
The commandants all said Macedonia's Albanians suffered from systematic discrimination that denied them work and a recognized university education in their mother tongue.
``Albanians are discriminated against in every field,'' Leka said. ``For example 90 percent of Tetovo's population is Albanian, but they have just 2 percent of the jobs and in some fields even less.'' Tetovo is the main ethnic Albanian city.
But the rebels rejected any suggestion that their aim was to break up the former Yugoslav republic.
``We do not want to divide (Macedonia). We want to be equal within Macedonia and step into the European Union (news - web sites) together with the Macedonians,'' the 31-year old Matoshi said.
Besides access to jobs and education the rebels said they wanted Albanian to be a second official language, an accurate representation of the Albanian community in a census, equal access to public finances and services as well as a fair political representation in the parliament.
``I am a citizen of Macedonia and I am fighting for my rights,'' Matoshi said before donning a black vest stuffed with the paraphernalia of war and going out.
Macedonia truce respected, but rebels digging in: Skopje Posted July 10, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010710/1/191l9.html
Tuesday July 10, 6:17 PM
Macedonia truce respected, but rebels digging in: Skopje
SKOPJE, July 10 (AFP) -
A crucial ceasefire in Macedonia, which could open the door to a NATO deployment, is being respected, the defence ministry said Tuesday, but warned that ethnic Albanian rebels were using the truce to consolidate their positions.
Defence ministry officials said the NATO-brokered ceasefire which came into force at midnight (1000 GMT) last Thursday was being "globally respected."
But the ministry also reported "intense activities" by guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) in the north and northwest regions, where the rebels have been fighting for five months.
An army spokesman said the guerrillas had been reinforcing their positions for several days near Tetovo, a largely ethnic Albanian town in the northwest near the border with the breakaway Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
He said guerrilla movements had been reported along the road leading to the Jazince border crossing, near the villages of Germo, Neprosteno, Tearce,and Lesok.
President Boris Trajkovski met a delegation from the Lesok area late Monday to hear complaints that they had been driven from their homes by the rebel advance.
There was also automatic rifle fired aimed at the ruined Turkish fortress of Kale on a hill above Tetovo where the army has set up positions, the spokesman said.
And NLA fighters fired on army positions near the village of Opaje, just west of the large northern town of Kumanovo, the army said.
The shots came from the village of Slupcane, which has been a rebel stronghold since NLA fighters stormed into the foothills of the Black Mountains in early May, capturing a swathe of land close to the Serbian frontier and provoking heavy fighting.
NATO is putting together a force of around 3,000 troops to deploy in northern Macedonia to disarm the NLA if the ceasefire holds and the fighters agree to an amnesty proposal.
But NATO has said it will not move in until a political settlement is signed to address Albanian complaints of widespread discrimination by the Macedonian Slav majority.
The political dialogue reopened Monday under intense international pressure after more than two weeks of stalemate.
Talks between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders in the strained emergency coalition were continuing Tuesday to examine Albanian demands to change the constitution and grant their language official recognition.
Macedonian leaders hold key reform talks despite Albanian doubts Posted July 9, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010709/1/18zmp.html
Monday July 9, 11:50 PM
Macedonian leaders hold key reform talks despite Albanian doubts
- Macedonia's leaders renewed talks on a key Western-backed proposal for constitutional reforms designed to end an ethnic Albanian uprising, but Albanian politicians voiced reservations even before the negotiations begin.
The main ethnic Albanian party in the fractious emergency government coalition, the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said the reforms proposal presented to the parties on Saturday by EU envoy Francois Leotard and his US counterpart James Pardew was "undoubtedly not sufficient".
"We have yet to give our official response, and our experts are examining the proposed text," said Zamir Dika, head of the DPA parliamentary group.
"But the text will probably have to be reviewed, since the proposals are undoubtedly not sufficient to solve the crisis," he said.
Officials of the dominant Macedonian Slav parties said they had "some serious remarks" but said the proposal was generally acceptable.
Leotard said as the first round of talks wound up after two hours that they had been "positive and interesting," adding that expert groups were to go on to discuss the major points included in the proposal.
Pardew said "everybody is still engaged in the process and there is no deadline" for results to emerge.
The draft framework, prepared by a group of foreign and Macedonian experts and edited by top French legal specialist Robert Badinter, was submitted to President Boris Trajkovski and the heads of the Macedonian Slav and Albanian political parties.
The talks aim to capitalise on the uneasy peace introduced by an open-ended ceasefire, brokered by NATO, which came into force at midnight on Thursday after a flare-up of intense combat.
Accepted by both Skopje and the self-styled National Liberation Army of ethic Albanian rebels, it aims to end a five-month rebel uprising that has brought the multi-ethnic state to the brink of civil war and displaced more than 100,000 people.
Progress on constitutional reform -- a central demand of both ethnic Albanian politicians and guerrillas -- is seen as the key to whether the ceasefire holds and political dialogue can bring about a lasting peace settlement.
The rebels have also demanded an end to alleged discrimination against ethnic Albanians by the Macedonian Slav majority.
If a reform package is signed and the ceasefire holds, NATO is to send in around 3,000 troops on a one-month disarmament mission. That operations is designed to let rebels take advantage of an amnesty offer and hand in their weapons.
In an interview in the French daily Le Figaro, the rebels' political representative Ali Ahmeti rejected Skopje's accusations that his fighters were seeking to divide the country along ethnic lines.
"The partition of Macedonia has never been included in our political platform," said Ahmeti, adding that he was seeking a "federal solution based upon the European model".
Skopje says the rebels are Kosovo trouble-makers seeking to annexe Albanian-populated chunks of northern Macedonia to the breakaway Yugoslav province.
Envoys put brave face on Macedonia peace haggling Posted July 9, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010709/3/18zsv.html
Tuesday July 10, 3:14 AM
Envoys put brave face on Macedonia peace haggling
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - U.S. and European envoys put a brave face on intense political haggling on Monday over their proposals to end an Albanian guerrilla rebellion in Macedonia after talks resumed with little sign of compromise.
Leaders of Macedonia's Albanian minority have dismissed the plan as inadequate, clouding Western optimism that it would form the basis of a political effort to narrow the tiny Balkan republic's ethnic divide and avert the threat of civil war.
"I didn't start the war, I want to stop the war," Macedonia's foremost Albanian politician, Arben Xhaferi, told Reuters in an interview. "This offering cannot stop the war."
The joint U.S.-EU proposals, obtained by Reuters, would devolve some power and make Albanian an official language, but Albanian parties say it fails to guarantee minority rights.
U.S. special envoy James Pardew said the first session of talks had at least agreed not to tear the draft up completely.
"It was a very good first meeting and we will all engage on the specifics of the proposal," he told reporters. "All parties are committed to work productively with the document."
A statement issued by Pardew and EU envoy Francois Leotard said the discussions "were conducted in a constructive manner".
BEST DEAL ON OFFER
Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said he wanted the West to send in NATO troops to keep the peace and back radical demands for constitutional change -- terms which the Macedonian majority blames for crippling the talks.
Diplomats, who brokered a truce last week to ease pressure on the talks, hope for quick progress towards a deal under which NATO troops would go in, although only for a limited period and only to collect weapons from rebels who agree to disarm.
In the mountains south of the Kosovo border, a man calling himself Commandant Matoshi said his band of young Albanian men -- armed to the teeth with automatic rifles, grenades and huge knives -- would give up if their community won equal rights.
"We are giving the Macedonian government and the international community the chance to solve this problem peacefully," the 31-year-old guerrilla said.
But Albanian politicians said a swift solution was unlikely.
"I'm not very confident that a serious agreement can be reached this week," the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) leader Imer Imeri told Reuters in a separate interview.
Western diplomats, who say a new Balkan peacekeeping force is not on the agenda, say that the proposals, which leave room for further debate, are the best deal the Albanians can expect.
"What's on the table is what the international community is prepared to give and what the Macedonians are prepared to stomach," one diplomat said. "The Albanians won't get any more."
As well as strengthening local government and giving the Albanian language official status, the plan contains mechanisms to ensure laws on ethnic issues can only be passed with minority backing -- measures largely acceptable to the Slavic majority.
"The only problematic point at this minute for us is the free use of the Albanian language in parliament," Social Democratic Party Vice President Radmila Shekerinska said.
But Xhaferi said he would not drop demands for an effective veto on any law deemed not to be in the interests of Albanians and said the plan left too many issues open to interpretation.
REFUGEES RETURNING
Encouraged by a ceasefire which is broadly holding but unlikely to last unless the talks yield quick results, refugees are returning in their thousands, the United Nations said.
Almost 9,000 people have returned from neighbouring Kosovo in recent days, but more than 100,000 remain displaced in the region, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.
However, daily exchanges of sporadic fire continue and the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels said one of their soldiers was killed overnight in a skirmish near the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo, the scene of fierce battles for territory last week.
Albanian politicians concede the NLA is setting the agenda.
"If there was no NLA no one would seriously get involved in dialogue with Albanians," PDP leader Imeri said.
But Western diplomats said the Albanians' hardline stance appeared self-defeating unless it was just a negotiating tactic.
"They're going to have to ask themselves do they really want to return to a state of war with more refugees, more tragedy and they still don't have their issues resolved, so it would be tragic if they don't seize this opportunity," one diplomat said.
U.S. Offers Troops to Macedonia Posted July 9, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010709/pl/us_macedonia_1.html
Monday July 9 3:15 PM ET
U.S. Offers Troops to Macedonia
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has offered troops to a potential NATO (news - web sites) mission in Macedonia - but only in a supporting role, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.
Speaking with reporters following a Pentagon (news - web sites) meeting with French Defense Minister Alain Richard, Rumsfeld was questioned about potential NATO involvement in disarming ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia.
Rumsfeld pointed out that discussions on the issue are still taking place among the NATO allies.
``The arrangements between the parties in Macedonia have not been completely concluded and of course, any NATO activity would be dependent upon the resolution of those understandings which are currently being negotiated,'' Rumsfeld said.
He said the United States has offered to aid with logistics, such as transportation, food and medical support, and intelligence gathering.
Rumsfeld added that ``a number of other countries have indicated they would participate in various ways, and of course it all depends on the situation on the ground in Macedonia.''
For his part, Richard said the two had ``a good discussion on a range of issues,'' and that their talks had been ``very rich and very complete.''
Pentagon officials have welcomed negotiations to end a four-month rebel insurgency in Macedonia that is being brokered by NATO and European Union (news - web sites) officials.
The plan is an attempt to reconcile the country's majority Macedonians, who are mostly Slavs by origin, and its minority ethnic Albanians, who bitterly complain they are treated as second-class citizens. Although the ethnic Albanian rebels are not involved in the talks, the negotiations could lead to the rebels' disarming under the supervision of NATO peacekeepers.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said last week that there are about 500 U.S. troops in Macedonia, some of whom could aid in a potential disarmament effort. They are primarily logistics specialists helping the U.S. peacekeeping effort in neighboring Kosovo.
Envoys Increase Macedonian Pressure Posted July 9, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010709/wl/macedonia.html
Monday July 9 3:56 PM ET
Envoys Increase Macedonian Pressure
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Western envoys increased pressure on Macedonia's feuding political factions Monday to agree on a peace plan to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency.
U.S. envoy James Pardew and his European colleague, Francois Leotard, praised the atmosphere of the talks and expressed optimism. But participants reported the sides were far apart on a Western-backed plan to reconcile the majority Macedonians, who are mostly Slavs by origin, and Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority.
The negotiations are aimed at translating a tenuous cease-fire into a permanent peace and avoiding the risk of a civil war.
Ethnic Albanian rebels who have been battling government troops for months are not involved in the talks. But if ethnic Albanian political leaders back a deal, it could lead to the next critical step: rebels' agreeing to disarm under supervision of NATO (news - web sites) peacekeepers.
In Washington on Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States has offered troops to a potential NATO mission in Macedonia, but only in a supporting role.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said last week that there are about 500 U.S. troops in Macedonia, some of whom could aid in a potential disarmament effort. They are primarily logistics specialists helping the U.S. peacekeeping effort in neighboring Kosovo.
In a joint statement, Pardew and Leotard said the negotiations were ``conducted in a constructive manner'' with the parties expressing commitment ``to this process.''
However, Macedonian and ethnic Albanian politicians insisted little headway had been made.
``There has been very little progress,'' said an ethnic Albanian politician, Abdylhadi Veiseli. ``We insist on our demands; it will be difficult to finish the negotiations.''
The ethnic Albanians - more than one-fourth of Macedonia's 2 million people - want equal status with the majority Macedonians guaranteed in a rewritten constitution. The government rejects this, arguing it would lead to a breakup of the country.
The ethnic Albanians also insist that their language be declared official, thus acquiring the status of the Macedonian language, and that their participation in state institutions be increased. They also called for a right to veto decisions in the Macedonian parliament.
Another key ethnic Albanian politician, Arben Xhaferi, complained that ``the Macedonians are denying what is important for us.''
``The Macedonian side has fears but those fears are not realistic - we are not jeopardizing vital interests of the state,'' Xhaferi said.
Macedonian official Nikola Popovski also described the talks as ``rather difficult, with considerable pressure from the international community on all sides.''
Pardew has called the peace plan a ``comprehensive framework,'' broadly based on a proposal by French constitutional expert Robert Badinter. Badinter and Max van der Stoel of the Netherlands, who represents the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe, were expected in Skopje Tuesday, increasing the international presence at the talks.
The ethnic Albanian insurgency started in February. The rebels, who call themselves the National Liberation Army have taken control of about two dozen villages along the border with Kosovo where they've been fighting the government troops.
On Monday, military sources confirmed that the rebels abducted two Macedonian army reservists two days ago, after the pair strayed from their posts into rebel-held territory near the northern village of Slupcane. A rebel commander, known as Sokolli, said the two soldiers ``surrendered without violence and are being treated as prisoners or war.''
Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski expressed concern over reports from another area, the western Tetovo region, where ethnic Albanian militants reportedly were gaining ground and erecting barricades Monday around villages under their control.
A high-ranking rebel commander operating near Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city, told The Associated Press on Monday that Macedonian troops killed a rebel fighter Sunday in clashes there.
Haggling Over U.S.-EU Macedonia Peace Plan Begins Posted July 9, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010709/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_149.html
Monday July 9 8:29 AM ET
Haggling Over U.S.-EU Macedonia Peace Plan Begins
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Intense haggling over political reforms to end an ethnic Albanian guerrilla revolt in Macedonia resumed on Monday as U.S. and European envoys sought to muster support for their new peace proposal.
Leaders of Macedonia's Albanian minority have dismissed it as inadequate, clouding Western optimism that the plan delivered to politicians across the tiny Balkan republic's ethnic divide would form the basis of a political effort to avert civil war.
``I didn't start the war, I want to stop the war,'' Macedonia's foremost Albanian politician, Arben Xhaferi, told Reuters in an interview. ``This offering cannot stop the war.''
In Brussels, NATO (news - web sites) Secretary General George Robertson put a brave face on the task ahead for envoys seeking a quick deal.
``We are not disappointed,'' he said of the Albanian parties' stance. ``This is the beginning of a serious negotiation.''
The joint U.S.-EU proposals, obtained by Reuters, would devolve some power and make Albanian an official language, but Albanian parties say it fails to guarantee minority rights.
U.S. special envoy James Pardew said the first session of talks had at least agreed not to tear the draft up completely.
``It was a very good first meeting and we will all engage on the specifics of the proposal later today with all the parties individually,'' he told reporters in Skopje. ``All parties are committed to work productively with the document.''
BEST DEAL ON OFFER
Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said he wanted the West to send in NATO troops to keep the peace and back radical demands for constitutional change -- terms which the Macedonian majority blames for crippling the talks.
Diplomats, who brokered a truce last week to ease pressure on the talks, hope for quick progress toward a deal under which NATO troops would go in -- though only for a limited period and only to collect weapons from rebels who agree to disarm.
But Albanian politicians said a swift solution was unlikely.
``I'm not very confident that a serious agreement can be reached this week,'' the Party for Democratic Prosperity leader Imer Imeri told Reuters in a separate interview. ``There is no substantial difference from what was on the table before.''
Western diplomats, who say a new Balkan peacekeeping force is not on the agenda, warn that the proposals, which leave room for further debate, are the best deal the Albanians can expect.
``What's on the table is what the international community is prepared to give and what the Macedonians are prepared to stomach,'' one diplomat said. ``The Albanians won't get any more.''
As well as strengthening local government and giving the Albanian language official status, the plan contains mechanisms to ensure laws on ethnic issues can only be passed with minority backing -- measures largely acceptable to the Slavic majority.
``The only problematic point at this minute for us is the free use of the Albanian language in parliament,'' Social Democratic party vice president Radmila Shekerinska said.
But Xhaferi said he would not drop demands for an effective veto on any law deemed not to be in the interests of Albanians and said the plan left too many issues open to interpretation.
REFUGEES RETURNING
Encouraged by a cease-fire which is broadly holding but unlikely to last unless the talks yield quick results, refugees are returning in their thousands, the United Nations (news - web sites) said.
Almost 9,000 people have returned from neighboring Kosovo in recent days, but more than 100,000 remain displaced in the region, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.
However, daily exchanges of sporadic fire continue and the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels said one of their soldiers was killed overnight in a skirmish near the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo, the scene of fierce battles for territory last week.
On a nearby road leading to the mountainous Kosovo border, camouflaged NLA guerrillas in black berets emblazoned with the Albanian acronym UCK in red relaxed with Kalashnikov rifles.
Albanian leaders concede these men are setting the agenda.
``If there was no NLA no one would seriously get involved in dialogue with Albanians,'' PDP leader Imeri said.
But Western diplomats warned the Albanians' hardline stance appeared self-defeating unless it was just a negotiating tactic.
``They're going to have to ask themselves do they really want to return to a state of war with more refugees, more tragedy and they still don't have their issues resolved, so it would be tragic if they don't seize this opportunity,'' one diplomat said.
'Hopeful' start to Macedonia talks Posted July 9, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1430000/1430162.stm
Monday, 9 July, 2001, 12:17 GMT 13:17 UK
'Hopeful' start to Macedonia talks
The ceasefire has brought some Albanians back from Kosovo
Talks between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian politicians aimed at ending the country's five-month-old conflict have begun in the capital, Skopje, behind closed doors.
The talks are the first formal face-to-face negotiations for nearly three weeks, and Western sources say they got off to a positive start.
The two Macedonian and Albanian parties taking part had shown up and no-one was shouting at each other, the sources said.
The United States special envoy, James Pardew, said all the parties were committed to working productively with the framework peace document drawn up by international experts.
"The people here need to resolve their own differences and not have a military occupation force" - Western diplomat in Skopje
A BBC correspondent in Skopje, Paul Anderson, says the problems will start when the two sides begin negotiations on the details of the document.
On Sunday Albanian leaders issued grave warnings that the document falls far short of what they want.
The vice-president of one of the Albanian parties taking part in the talks, Azif Pollozhani, said the plans were unacceptable because they failed to address key Albanian demands for more equal language, educational and constitutional rights.
The document is thought to propose:
- greater use of the Albanian language in official business
- more Albanians in public service jobs
- the devolution of power to mayors and municipalities
- increased opportunities for study in the Albanian language
- constitutional changes so that Albanians feel they are equal citizens
The United States special envoy to Macedonia and his European Union counterpart presented the document after a Nato-brokered ceasefire between government troops and the ethnic Albanian rebels cleared the way for political dialogue.
If the ceasefire does stay in place and progress is made in the political talks, then Nato has said it will authorise the deployment of about 3,000 troops to disarm rebels in the north of the country, possibly before the end of the month.
Shaky ceasefire
Reports from Macedonia say the ceasefire, which began shakily on Thursday, is clearly under strain, with both sides reporting minor violations over the weekend.
However, there is much more optimism about this ceasefire than previous attempts to end hostilities between government forces and the guerrillas, who have been battling for control of villages in the north of the country since February.
Some ethnic Albanians who fled to Kosovo have been returning in the last couple of days.
Macedonia key moments
26 February
Clashes between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian army begin
11 May
Government of national unity formed
11 June
Rebels threaten capital, Skopje
24 June
Nato-backed truce sparks riots outside parliament
5 July
Government and rebels sign Nato-brokered ceasefire
A truce, struck with the help of EU's foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, had technically already been in place since 24 June, but was broken on an almost daily basis.
Nato will only send troops into Macedonia if the rebels are ready to disarm voluntarily.
One Western diplomat warned that Albanians should not expect another Nato mission on the same scale as those sent earlier to Bosnia and Kosovo.
"The people here need to resolve their own differences and not have a military occupation force," the diplomat said.
"Talk here, talk now, that is the best option you have."
Guerrillas' Shadow Hovers Over Macedonia Peace Efforts Posted July 9, 2001
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,166357,00.html
Guerrillas' Shadow Hovers Over Macedonia Peace Efforts
BY TONY KARON
The warring sides agree on a cease-fire. But the dangers of ethnic cleansing are still very much there
Macedonian army soldiers walk together with a villager during a lull in fighting
Thursday, Jul. 05, 2001
The Macedonian government has agreed to a cease-fire with the ethnic-Albanian rebels of the National Liberation army, to begin at midnight local time tonight. Despite that welcome development, there's still a significant possibility of a broader conflict to come, because the guerrillas' insurgency appears to have triggered the beginnings of that by-now familiar Balkan ritual of "ethnic cleansing." The rebels reportedly expelled some 600 non-Albanians from the villages they captured on Sunday, while elsewhere in Macedonia ethnic-Albanian business owners have shut up shop and fled following threats by a shadowy Macedonian militia group. And if the chain of "ethnic cleansing" is allowed to gather momentum, Macedonia will effectively be in the grip of a civil war whose outcome will likely realize the rebels' original objective of partitioning the country and drawing NATO into yet another permanent peacekeeping operation.
Although NATO has vowed to send a force of 3,000 troops to Macedonia to help disarm the rebels, the alliance has said it will only go in once there's a political accord in terms of which the rebels agree to be disarmed. The Western alliance had initially denounced the guerrillas as "terrorists" and "murderers," and its insistence on dialogue was aimed at pressing the authorities in Skopje to address the grievances of Macedonia's ethnic-Albanians grievances the guerrillas had sought to exploit to build support for their insurgency. But NATO's position appears to be moving inexorably towards recognizing the guerrillas as a legitimate party to discussions over Macedonia's future. Last week, the alliance enraged Macedonians by ferrying armed NLA fighters from a village overlooking the capital to another territory held by the guerrillas, as part of a truce brokered by Western mediators. And on two different occasions, prominent European mediators have called for direct talks between the government and the rebels, only to be diplomatically corrected by their superiors.
NATO is all too aware of the palpable failure involved in legitimizing the rebels. Far from stabilizing the region's ethnic conflicts, it actually sends the message that nothing succeeds quite as well as resorting to arms and that creates an incentive for nationalist extremists to keep on fighting to redraw Balkan borders. The Macedonian insurgency began with small groups of men infiltrated from NATO-controlled Kosovo, who then launched attacks on security force personnel. And despite some verbal wrist-slapping from NATO, the reward for that strategy may turn out to be a place at the negotiating table to determine Macedonia's future. The failure of the alliance to act on its harsh criticisms of the rebels also signaled an ambivalence to the mainstream ethnic-Albanian parties in Skopje, who have ratcheted up their political demands for a bi-national state to the point that accord seems beyond reach.
The current talks being encouraged by the U.S. involve constitutional changes to accord the Albanian minority greater rights in Macedonia. But having so successfully determined the agenda through their insurgency, it takes a substantial leap of faith (and blindness to the region's recent history) to imagine that the hard men in the hills will simply turn in their Kalashnikovs when the lawyers in Skopje have finessed constitutional changes.
NATO's reluctance to put its foot down in Macedonia is understandable: Confronting Albanian extremism which the alliance itself appears has identified as the primary source of the current violence there potentially exposes alliance troops to risks of a backlash both in Macedonia and in Kosovo. And there is no doubt that the Macedonian military's tendency to rain down bombs and shells on villages occupied by the guerrillas will drive many Macedonian Albanians into the arms of the rebels. Yet the absence of any strong disincentive for the guerrillas to continue fighting may be the fatal flaw of NATO's strategy, which appears to be accelerating the slide to civil war, an outcome the alliance had desperately hoped to avoid and which would inevitably drag NATO in to clean up the mess, but only after yet another embarrassing conflagration has exploded right under the noses of the U.S. and European troops sent to the Balkans to keep the peace.
Massacre waiting to happen (Scotland On Sunday, July 8, 2001) Posted July 8, 2001
http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/world.cfm?id=SS01025113&feed=N
Destruction: government officials supported by police have bulldozed Albanian houses claiming they contravene planning laws.
Massacre waiting to happen
Conal Urquhart (curquhart@scotsman.com)
July 8, 2001
A SENIOR government official has warned that Macedonian armed forces could massacre Albanian civilians unless the international community intervenes in the country’s burgeoning civil war.
He said some elements of the police were not under government control and one of the major Macedonian political parties, a partner in the coalition government, was actively destabilising peace efforts and fomenting ethnic hatred.
The official, a Macedonian Slav, said there was a real danger of some Macedonians committing war crimes on a scale seen in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. "We have our own Karadzic and Mladic (Bosnian Serbs indicted by the Hague for massacres of Bosnian Muslims) in our midst. We need the European Union to make it clear to some members of this government that they will be sent to The Hague to answer for their actions if they step outside acceptable boundaries."
The Macedonian government will struggle to deliver the ceasefire it signed on Thursday because of the malevolent power wielded by some members of VMRO, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, which holds a number of key ministries.
The ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) control a large swathe of border territory and have resisted the attempts of the Macedonian security forces to dislodge them. British soldiers will lead a Nato peacekeeping force, when and if a political solution is agreed, which will feature improved rights for Albanians in Macedonia.
The VMRO, whose name derives from its roots as a nationalist party opposed to Turkish occupation a century ago, has used its ministries to arm civilians, create paramilitary groups and persecute Albanians, according to Macedonian government sources.
The nationalists have also become increasingly anti-Nato, blaming them for the resurgence of Albanian guerrillas and a recent agreement where NLA fighters were removed from the outskirts of Skopje. "There is a clear anti-Nato structure emerging within the government of Macedonia. It is not inconceivable that when Nato comes they will be fired on by these elements rather than the NLA," said the government official.
As the fighting continued this week, hundreds of Albanians were re-building their homes after government officials supported by police bulldozed and destroyed Albanian houses claiming that they contravened planning regulations. The action appalled Macedonian moderates in the government but they were unable to take action because the two ministries involved are controlled by VMRO elements pursuing an anti-Albanian agenda.
Garip Azemi, 46, returned to his home in the suburbs of Skopje to find its supporting walls knocked out and the roof on the point of collapse. "I was devastated. My home is all I have."
Veli Mici, 31, a relative, said the police inspector was sympathetic to their appeals to halt the destruction but each time he tried to stop the demolition he was over-ruled by his superiors.
Telephone calls to the ministry responsible for planning were not answered and it was left to local politicians to intervene on the ground in other areas. Imer Selmani, the mayor of a local council outside the capital, managed to prevent bulldozers from levelling an Albanian house.
"I warned the official and the policemen in attendance that if they began flattening houses here they were declaring war on 80% of the population here or 20,000 people. I told them that they were creating a crisis and they would be responsible for its consequences."
Tens of thousands of Albanian homes are not recognised by the state and some Albanian villages that have existed for decades cannot be found on official maps because the central government has not recognised their right to own land or build property. Historically a visit from a planning official was dealt with by a bribe which would supposedly lead to legal recognition but simply gave the owners a few years grace until the next visit.
The destruction of houses is just one of a host of hostile actions taken by extremists in the government which have radicalised the Albanians in Macedonia, who make up one-third of the population.
The NLA began their uprising in February purportedly to demand equal rights for Albanians in Macedonia. Some Macedonians believe the NLA aims to separate Albanian-dominated areas from the rest of Macedonia to create a Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo.
Boris Trajkovski, the Macedonian president and a member of the VMRO, is keen to reach a political settlement with the ethnic Albanian community but he and other moderates are undermined by his fellow VMRO cabinet ministers, including Ljupco Georgievski, the prime minister, and Ljube Boshkovski, the interior minister who controls the country’s main military force, the police.
The two ministers have been described as "completely insane" by government colleagues, a view which is shared by western diplomats. They are believed to have been behind recent anti-government, anti-Nato demonstrations during which foreigners were beaten up and shots were fired through the window of the president’s office.
The senior government official said: "We do not know what will happen next. Some of the police reservists are not under any official control. I would not be surprised if there was a bombing attempt in the capital or some kind of political assassinations. There is a battle for the government between those who want a political solution and those who want a purely military solution. It is not clear who will win."
The VMRO also controls television stations and newspapers which feed the Macedonian Slav public their prejudices in which the terms ‘Albanian’ and ‘terrorist’ have become synonymous. One report featured a presenter placing a round in a mortar and then firing it at an NLA position. Faced with such reporting, Macedonians, who have mostly co-existed peacefully with Albanians, are coming to distrust and fear them.
The Albanian community have become increasingly alienated since the dispute began in February. Every military assault on a rebel-held village begins with the shelling of the mosque, which to Albanians symbolises not merely an attack on the NLA but an attack on their faith.
This week has seen the arrest and harassment of senior Albanian figures and Albanian journalists . According to Human Rights Watch, some refugees have been refused re-entry into Macedonia. In one incident confirmed by the government, police reservists harassed and threatened civilians in the village of Rasce where there has been no NLA activity.
Over 100,000 refugees, mostly Albanian, have left Macedonia. In Kosovo, the international community is preparing for many more. Eight miles north of the Macedonian border, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has prepared a large refugee transit camp with water, sanitation and plenty of room for expansion.
The Macedonian government has increased its firepower, leasing or buying an airforce of eight helicopters and four ground attack fighters from the Ukraine. The aerial power has flattened Albanian villages but made only minimal impact on the NLA, whose numbers have swelled from 300 to 3,000 over the past five months. Government officials admit they do not have the equipment or the ability to defeat the rebels.
The NLA is likely to carry on growing as instability continues and it develops new supply routes to circumvent increased policing of the Kosovo border by Nato troops. It can draw on the arms and manpower of the Kosovo Liberation Army, from which it emerged, while recruiting disaffected Macedonian Albanians.
In the Kosovar town of Elisan, Vebi, 28, said that he was resting after fighting with the NLA in Gracani. A former KLA fighter, he said that there were around 150 men from his town currently with the NLA, while dozens of others were waiting to be summoned into action.
"Crossing the border into Macedonia and avoiding Nato troops is easy. I have been smuggling here for years and guiding supplies into Kosovo during the war. They would need to build a wall to stop us.
"And even then, we would just tunnel under it," he said.
Conflict in Macedonia - washingtonpost.com discussion with With Frederick C. Abrahams Posted July 8, 2001
http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/01/world_abrahams_062701.htm
Conflict in Macedonia
With Frederick C. Abrahams
Authour, Human Rights Researcher
Wednesday, June 27, 2001; 11:00 a.m. EDT
European Union envoy Javier Solana secured a limited cease-fire agreement Sunday in Macedonia. The Post's R. Jeffrey Smith reports that government forces will halt offensives in exchange for a European-monitored withdrawal of ethnic Albanian guerillas near Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Still, tensions are high and a permanent cease-fire throughout the country remains elusive.
Frederick C. Abrahams, a project fellow at the Open Society Institute focusing on developments in Kosovo and Macedonia since 1989, will be online Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 11 a.m. EDT to discuss the effects hostilities have had on the Slavic and ethnic Albanian populations of Macedonia.
Many Macedonian citizens have been forced to flee their homes to escape violence with as many as 56,000 Albanians traveling to neighboring Kosovo.
Abrahams was a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch monitoring events in the southern Balkans from 1994 to 2000. He also provided research and analysis for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavian in The Hague. Since 1989, Abrahams has conducted research and worked in Albania and is writing a book on the country.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
washingtonpost.com: Mr. Abrahams, could you please describe the situation facing Macedonian citizens in light of ongoing violence?
Frederick C. Abrahams: I don't want to be fatalistic, but the current situation in Macedonia is dire. The experience of the past decade shows how violent wars in the Balkans can be, especially for civilians. And a conflict in Macedonia would be no different,and perhaps worse. The capital Skopje, for instance, is at least 20% ethnic Albanian, so fighting there would be tragic.
Rolling Meadows, Ill.: Why don't NATO and the U.S. send troops to Macedonia to stop the violence before it becomes another Kosovo? Why Wait so long so we can dig the graves years later? Since you have been doing research in that part of the Balkans, you know the kind of people the Albanians are dealing with, people that kill kids and women or unarmed innocent civilians.
Thank You Mr.Abrahams
Frederick C. Abrahams: I agree that NATO and the West generally should be more involved now to avoid bloodshed later. As you say, the West has acted to late in the past, at the expense of civilian lives.
I believe there are people in the U.S. government and in NATO who agree with this. But there are also many people and certain institutions that are reluctant to intervene. For one, the Bush administrations stated aim has been to play less of a role in the Balkans, leaving it more to Europe. There are also those who do not believe that intervention is in the U.S. national interest. In my opinion, U.S. involvement is crucial, not only to avoid bloodshed in Mac. but also to help avoid a wider regional conflict.
Skopje, Macedonia:
THE QUESTION IS: How can we explain to Macedonians in order to understand once and forever that their crisis of identity can not be cured by violating rights of Albanians?
Thank You in advance
Vullnet POSHKA, TV Editor, Skopje
Frederick C. Abrahams: I don't have a set answer for this. But I do believe that the international community shares some of the blame. First, the UN sanctions against Yugoslavia during the war (1992-1995) and the embargo on Macedonia by Greece (because of Greece's objection to the name "Macedonia") both hurt Macedonia economically. The West did not do enough to provide Macedonia with economic assistance during this difficult time. Unemployment is currently around 37%, which affects people of all ethnicities. I believe this economic factor is one of the factors behind this conflict.
washingtonpost.com: What type of intervention or involvement in Macedonia by the U.S., NATO and/or the EU would you like to see?
Frederick C. Abrahams: Although I have my criticisms of US foreign policy, I do believe that resolving the Mac. crisis requires US leadership. For one, the EU is too divided and full of competing agendas to act effectively. The US has the ability to act with one voice. In addition, the Albanian rebels -- the NLA -- have the most trust for the US.
As for the type of intervention, I personally believe that an expanded military presence of NATO will be required to guarantee any political deal that is reached. A kind of MFOR (Macedonia Force) is in order, but only on the invitation of the Mac government, of course.
Duluth MN.: Frederick C Abrahams: What is the position of the State Department at this time, beyond the assistance of troops for withdrawal?...Are refugees being stacked like cordwood in villages already overflowing with refugees?
Is it 'too little too late' or what would aid the situation most effectively at this late date?(what could our State Department do now, to effect a possible peace and deactivate this 'powderkeg'?)
Frederick C. Abrahams: Although I don't know all the inner opinions of the State Dept., I believe there are competing ideas. As I said, the Bush administration has been trying to play a less active role in the Balkans. But others understand that this is simply not possible. The US must play a major role in Kosovo, Bosnia and now Macedonia.
My personal opinion is that State, together with the EU, must apply strong pressure on all sides - the Mac. government and the NLA - to reach a political solution. An escalation of violence will certainly be a disaster for ALL involved, and this must be avoided. The US should also be ready to provide troops to enforce a political settlement.
Brooklyn, NY: Was the ethnic Albanian population of Macedonia subject to -human rights- abuses before the current conflict, i.e. active political repression and abuse as distinct from less overt forms of discrimination?
Frederick C. Abrahams: The ethnic Albanians of Macedonia were not treated as badly as Albanians in neighboring Kosovo - but it is not correct to use Slobodan Milosevic as the yardstick for human rights.
Albanians in Macedonia had some legitimate complaints:
* police abuse
* discrimination in unemployment (underrepresented in state jobs)
* restricted access to Albanian-language education (especially on the university level)
In general, they were treated as second-class citizens. I would call it an ongoing and low to middle level discrimination. They were, for instance, very free to have their media, conduct business, organize politically etc. Blatant repression there definitely was not.
I would say that, while many ethnic Albanians in Mac. do not agree with the violence of the NLA, the rebels do represent an extreme form of the frustration that many Albanians in Mac. share. And, of course, as the gov't confronts the rebels in an indiscriminantly violent way, more Albanians will join the militaristic cause.
Cumberland, Md.: I have seen statements that there are approximately 120,000 illegal Albanian immigrants in Macedonia and this has contributed to the crisis. Would you care to comment on this?
Frederick C. Abrahams: I don't know exactly how many illegal Alb workers are in Mac - I am sure there are some from Albania. But I don't believe this has much or any impact on the current crisis.
Cumberland, Md.: What has it taken NATO/K-FOR so long to control the border between Kosovo and Macedonia?
Frederick C. Abrahams: This is a very interesting question. Some, especially people in the Mac. gov't, hase suggested that NATO purposefully allowed Albanian rebels to remain active in the border region. I believe it has more to do with force protection. NATO troops (and the sector along the Kosovo-Mac border is run by US forces) are primarily concerned with avoiding casualties of their own.
Also, the border is very difficult to patrol. The mountainous terrain makes for easy smuggling, arms transfers etc.
New York, NY: Do you think the international community has thus far played a positive role in mediating this conflict? Do you think they have a united plan of action with regard to solving this crisis?
Frederick C. Abrahams: Firstly, the international community has failed in Macedonia over the past ten years. Since the country achieved its independence, the West has been concerned with protecting its territorial integrity and stability. The first ever UN preventive deployment force was sent there, I believe in 1992 (UNPREDEP). The OSCE was there too.
But the West's approach has always been to support the government without pressing it to improve its human rights record - against ethnic Albanians as well as other citizens. As far as conflict prevention is concerned, the West totally failed.
Now the situation is much more complicated, and there is the definite danger that the conflict will spill out of control. And I am not convinced that the international community is satisfactorily of the same mind to act effectively.
Cumberland, MD: Doesn't the recent outbreak of anti-NATO rioting in Skopje, underscore the point that NATO and the US are both viewed as too pro-Albanian to have any leverage with Macedonian authorities, short of financial blackmail?
Frederick C. Abrahams: It is true that many ethnic Macedonians, in and out of gov't, increasingly view NATO and the US as pro-Albanian. But I don't believe that this precludes the West's strong involvement in resolving this crisis. First, it is important to know that there are different opinions within the Mac government. President Trajkovski, for instance, has been much more willing to pursue political dialogue and make concessions, whiile PM Georgievski has pursued the military option, along with the Minister of Interior. Also, as you say, the West can bring tremendous pressure to bear, economically and politically, on the Mac authorities, as well as the NLA, to resolve this politically.
Rockville, MD: Mr Abrahams, what international involvement beyond military assistance would you suggest? Should the OSCE expand its mission there in relation to rule of law, human rights, and democratization?
Frederick C. Abrahams: The experience of Kosovo with the OSCE's KVM mission in 1998 shows that international monitors can help reduce human rights violations. Monitors from the OSCE, the EU, as well as non governmental organizations, should increase in Macedonia.
I also believe that the West should consider economic packages for Macedonia and the Southern Balkans. Aid, linked to concrete improvements in political reform and human rights, would help the country prosper, which is so crucial for any long-term stability.
washingtonpost.com: Is it possible to effectively deal with the situation in Macedonia independent of the situation in Kosovo? How closely tied are the two and how effectively can the current governments of Macedonia and Yugoslavia deal with them?
Frederick C. Abrahams: Having been formerly part of one country, the situations in Mac and Kosovo are intricately linked. For instance, the unresolved status of Kosovo is one of the factors behind the fighting in Macedonia today.
I have always been concerned that the West approaches the Balkans like a firefighter putting out the individual blazes without looking at the deeper reasons for trouble.
Ultimately, there must be a regional approach. Economic development (including a strong fight against corruption and organizaed crime), the contruction of democratic institutions, and perhaps even regional security structures should be examined.
Lastly, as I mentioned above, the status of Kosovo must be addressed.
Quince Orchard, MD: The Balkans has been a killing zone for centuries. Memories are long and thirst for revenge is handed down like family heirlooms. Why should we put our children at risk by sending in troops when the locals seem to view the bloodsheed as ongoing history that cannot be avoided?
Frederick C. Abrahams: While it is true that the Balkans has a long history of ethnic hatred and fighting, I strongly dispute the notion that this fighting is unavoidable. On the contrary, the fighting in former Yugoslavia is the result of concrete actions by individuals and institutions.
As for putting US troops at risk, I would admittedly have a difficult time convincing a parent in Idaho or New Jersey to send their child into a Balkan war. But I do believe that the US government is in a position to help avoid major bloodshed in a region of the world where the US government has been very active for over a decade. In addition, there are US interests at stake. I don't believe it is an exxageration to say that full-scale fighting in Mac. could envelope the neighboring countries of Greece, Albania, and Bulgaria, and perhaps also Turkey. Greece is a EU and NATO member, as is Turkey (NATO).
Gullsgate Minn.: If there is any criticism of the State Department, is it in the State Department's reluctance to get involved initially...then only stepping in militarily at the time of crisis; and then being reluctant to enforce the parameters they are there to protect?
Do we become the 'cop-on-the-block' because all we offer is military hardware and 'consulting troops' who create more tension?
Do we need a viable human rights watch division within the State Department to focus on potential human casualty before it happens?
Has State Department methodology outlived its credibility?
Frederick C. Abrahams: I believe one of the crucial mistakes of US foreign policy is that it gets involved only after a situation has become a crisis.
In Macedonia, the inter-ethnic tension and human rights violations have existed for the past ten years. After the Kosovo war, it was predictable that more problems would arise. Yet, the West did not take serious action until recently.
Unfortunately, the message here is that to get your agenda on the table, one should pick up arms. This is what the Albanians learned in this case. Ten years they waited without serious international involvement to help improve their status in Mac., so now they have taken the militaristic road. It is not the force of arguement but the argument of force.
Washington, DC: Given the track record of the international community in Balkans, how realistic do you believe it is to hope for robust and effective economic assistance? In Bosnia, that aid (while hampered by corruption) has lagged behind other more visible and politically attractive aid such as elections.
Frederick C. Abrahams: I agree that the West's track record with aid in the Balkans has not been stellar. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't push in that direction. Hopefully, the international donor community can learn from its past mistakes.
Alexandria, VA: Ever since the conflict in Macedonia began, there has been mounting criticism directed toward the efforts of humanitarian organizations on the ground. At issue is whether those organizations, such as the International Red Cross, are providing sufficient humanitarian assistance to displaced ethnic Macedonians from the Tetovo and Kumanovo regions, as well as the villages neighboring the capital, Skopje, where much of the recent fighting has taken place. More specifically, the gripe is that the humanitarian organizations have shown a bias toward assisting ethnic Albanian refugees, while ignoring the plight of the ethnic Macedonian refugees.
Allegations that humanitarian assistance has not been provided to (or has been slow in reaching) ethnic Macedonian refugees have surfaced in the Macedonian press, but nothing concerning this matter has been covered by the Western media.
I would appreciate it if you would you comment on the status of this issue.
Frederick C. Abrahams: I have not heard this allegation before, so I cannot comment on its veracity. However, I will say that the vast majority of internally displaced persons inside Mac. has been ethnic Albanians. This is for the simple reason that the fighting has taken place primarily in areas where ethnic Albanians live (Tetovo and Kumanovo area). I will add, however, that there are some ethnic Serb and ethnic Macedonian villages in the conflict zone as well, such as Umni Dol near Kumanovo, and these people have been forced to flee. Some of the civilians, ethnic Serbs, have also been subjected to violence by the NLA. But I have not heard of the international humanitarian orgs. treating them any differently than other IDPS.
Alexandria, VA: Considering some argue that the NLA's intention is to win greater rights for and the deeper socioeconomic integration of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, based on your knowledge of the country, is there anything to indicate that ethnic Albanians have made a sincere attempt to integrate themselves within the existing state structures?
After all, you're probably aware that one of the criticisms that ethnic Macedonians have of Albanians in Macedonia is that they are, by and large, isolationists, be it for cultural and/or religious reasons. Ethnic Macedonians seem to hold the view that Albanians do not share the loyalty to and mutual respect for the state.
Frederick C. Abrahams: Without question, the ethnic Albanian community in Mac. also shares some of the blame, for various reasons. First, the Albanian politic cannot always agree on what it wants. There is intense competition for power within the Albanians that sometimes prohibits them from agreeing. Also, there are clearly certain politicians and individuals who benefit from Albanians' second-class status. They require the "oppression" of the state to maintain their positions. Lastly, the Albanian community has been plagued by corruption (as has Mac. generally). Individuals in positions of power, such as in the gov't., prefer to stay there because of the economic benefits they enjoy.
I would also add something not pleasant for Albanians to hear but, in my opinion, true and relavent. That is the Albanians' inferiority complex, which is a factor in Mac and Kosovo. After years of oppression, they are used to being victims. They are comfortable in that role. This does not mean that they don't strive for improvements - of course they do.
Cleveland Park, D.C.: Can you give us a clear idea of the specific grievances claimed by the ethnic Albanian guerillas in Macedonia? They say they are "second class citizens", but what does that mean exactly? I've seen no reports that they suffer nearly as egregious oppression as the Kosovar Albanians did under the Serbs. And since these guerillas are closely tied to the KLA, is it fair to suppose that the current conflict in Macedonia is a somewhat opportunistic pursuit of the "greater Albania" goal that has been thwarted in Kosovo by NATO?
Frederick C. Abrahams: The NLA is an extreme and violent reflection of a frustration felt by many ethnic Albanians. Although many Albanians don't agree with the means, they sypmathize with the stated aims.
Since 1991, Albanians in Mac. have experienced state discrimination in employment and education. As documented by human rights organizations, they are also disproportionately affected by police abuse. Of course, their status was not nearly as bad as in Kosovo, but this does not lessen their grievances.
As for the aims of the NLA, there are many. I believe that some individuals within the NLA are genuinely fighting for improved rights. But there are clearly many others who are striving for at least the federalization of Macedonia, or even succession. Flush from "victory" in Kosovo, many Albanians see this as a historical opportunity to correct the wrongs done to them in the past (i.e. change borders). There are also those motivated by profits and crime. After the fall of Milosevic in Serbia, there has been a mad rush for control of the illegal activities and smuggling routes in the region - both Albanians and Macedonians have taken part in this. It is not a coincidence that the NLA's activities started in the village of Tanushefci on the Kosovo-Mac border, a place long known for its smuggling activity.
Tirana, Albania: What is the possibility that escalating conflict in Macedonia can involve neighbouring countries, like Albania, Greece and Bulgaria?
Frederick C. Abrahams: The possibility of the conflict spreading is real, but it is also not inevitable. First, I am still hopeful that this will not come to war inside Macedonia. I believe there is enough awareness in the EU countries and the US that something must be done to reach a political agreement.
washingtonpost.com: Thank you for joining us today Mr. Abrahams.
Check back at washingtonpost.com for more coverage of the situation in Macedonia and other live discussions on the Balkans.
Frederick C. Abrahams: Thank you for the provocative questions.
Macedonia's leaders given key draft Posted July 8, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1427000/1427792.stm
Saturday, 7 July, 2001, 16:21 GMT 17:21 UK
Macedonia's leaders given key draft
The envoys are keen to move forward swiftly
Leaders of Macedonia's political parties have been given a draft document setting out proposed constitutional changes designed to bring about an end to the fighting against ethnic Albanian rebels.
The US special envoy to Macedonia and his EU counterpart presented the document after a Nato-brokered ceasefire between government troops and armed ethnic Albanian rebels cleared the way for political dialogue.
The document, prepared by a group of foreign and Macedonian experts, was given to President Boris Trajkovski, as well as to other Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders.
It is understood to propose greater use of the Albanian language in official business, more Albanians in public service jobs and the devolution of power to mayors and municipalities.
Pressure
Consultations with the Macedonian parties on the draft are expected to take place on Monday.
"We need to have reactions, comments, amendments to the document," EU envoy Francois Leotard said. "It is the basis for future negotiations."
Asked about details of the plan, the US envoy, James Pardew would only say: "It's a comprehensive framework."
The BBC's Paul Welsh in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, says the party leaders are under pressure to work swiftly, because Nato will only deploy its troops to collect weapons from Albanian fighters if the talks have made substantial progress and the ceasefire lasts.
Our correspondent says the ceasefire, which began a little shakily on Thursday, is now holding well.
Optimism
The Macedonian Government signed up to the Nato-brokered agreement on Thursday after ethnic Albanian rebels agreed to do the same.
There is much more optimism about this ceasefire than previous attempts to end hostilities between the government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas who have been battling for control of villages in the north of the country since February.
A truce, struck with the help of EU's foreign policy representative, Javier Solana had technically already been in place since 24 June, but was broken on an almost daily basis.
Nato has 3,000 troops from 15 countries at the ready for deployment in Macedonia, once its conditions have been met.
The force, which is likely to be led by British troops, will oversee voluntary disarmament of the ethnic Albanian rebels.
U.S.-EU Present Framework for Macedonia Talks Posted July 8, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010707/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_144.html
Saturday July 7 3:56 PM ET
U.S.-EU Present Framework for Macedonia Talks
By Paul Casciato
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy to Macedonia and his European Union (news - web sites) counterpart presented a negotiating framework to Macedonia's multi-ethnic parties on Saturday in a bid to re-start deadlocked political talks.
The presentation came after a NATO (news - web sites)-brokered cease-fire between government troops and armed ethnic Albanian rebels on Thursday cleared the way for political dialogue.
``At this point we have a single document that all the parties have agreed to use as a negotiating instrument in reaching a political settlement,'' U.S. envoy James Pardew told Reuters after he and EU envoy Francois Leotard met the parties.
Talks stalled about three weeks ago and a ragged 11-day truce in place then was torn to shreds by a government assault on the rebel-held village of Aracinovo near the capital Skopje.
Pardew said the leaders of Macedonia's divided communities had the rest of the weekend to study the U.S.-EU document before intensive negotiations start on Monday morning.
``We hope we can get (it) accomplished very quickly because the cease-fire is in effect and we don't want war to resume in Macedonia,'' he said in a brief interview.
NATO and European Union envoys secured separate cease-fire agreements with government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrilla National Liberation Army (NLA), whose armed rebellion in the name of improved Albanian rights has brought the country to the brink of civil war in less than five months.
DISCRIMINATION
Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian parties published demands on Saturday that were barely changed from those which have kept talks deadlocked for weeks.
The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) published their demands in Koha Ditore newspaper. They were topped by the call for a quick agreement on political rights at U.S.-EU mediated talks to be held outside Macedonia.
The foreign participation Albanians want, also a key rebel demand, is a non-starter for Macedonians. They fear a more formal Western role in the shape of an international peace conference could promote a breakaway Albanian agenda.
At stake is the official status of Albanians in Macedonia, who argue they are discriminated against and want to be defined as one of the tiny Balkan state's founding ethnic groups, which Macedonians worry could be used as a separatist springboard.
Minority Albanians demand equality in job, education and cultural spheres but their formula -- radical constitutional change -- is rejected by the Macedonian-dominated government fearful it would dismember the Balkan state along ethnic lines.
TENSIONS HIGH
Tensions remain high and witnesses said they heard artillery fire near the village of Radusa Friday night.
Macedonian army spokesman Blagoja Markovski told Reuters the cease-fire had been respected overnight aside from some minor episodes.
``There were some individual incidents...but there was no organized military activity that broke the truce,'' he said.
NATO and the European Union have welcomed signs the cease-fire was holding after a fierce battle for territory in Macedonia's northern hills ended on Thursday.
However, diplomats cautioned the cease-fire was only the start of an intensive effort to revive talks. So far there are few bridges over an ethnic chasm that widens every day armed guerrillas remain at large.
``Without a cease-fire there'd be no political dialogue and attentions have to focus on that fast,'' one Western envoy said.
But diplomats, remain cautious after unidentified gunmen attacked a German NATO convoy, an angry crowd spat on the U.S. Ambassador's car and the appearance of inflammatory pamphlets from shadowy groups.
NATO's peacekeeping force in neighboring Kosovo has a logistical unit of about 3,000 troops based in Macedonia.
Previous NATO involvement in the evacuation guerrillas from Aracinovo after government forces failed to dislodge them sparked rioting by Macedonians angry at the alliance's role.
Diplomats said talk of a NATO arms-collecting mission within two weeks looked premature, despite an NLA statement promising to end its armed rebellion if reforms were agreed.
``It will be some time before you see the NATO operation kick in,'' one Western envoy said. ``They want to see something solid.''