July 2, 2001 - July 8, 2001

Kosovo peacekeepers seize guerrilla suspect and weapons Posted July 8, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010707/3/18x5p.html
Sunday July 8, 6:32 AM

Kosovo peacekeepers seize guerrilla suspect and weapons

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo said on Saturday they had detained one suspected member of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group and seized large amounts of weapons near the border with Macedonia.

U.S. soldiers patrolling smuggling routes on Friday morning came across five suspected members of the National Liberation Army (NLA), which has been battling Macedonian government forces over the last five months, the peace force said in a statement.

They captured one of them as well as five pack animals carrying 23 anti-tank weapons, six rocket launchers, 25 assault rifles, 43 rocket propelled grenades and ammunition.

"We caught them as they were headed for the border," squad leader Kenneth Chaney said in the statement.

"Our soldiers are working hard to stop the spread of violence along the border. At least these weapons won't fall into the hands of the NLA."

The NATO-led force has stepped up patrols on the Kosovo side of the border to prevent the smuggling of weapons since fighting erupted in Macedonia in February.

On Thursday in Macedonia, NATO brokered a ceasefire between government troops and the rebels, clearing the way for political dialogue.

Envoys Hand Over Macedonian Plan Posted July 7, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010707/wl/macedonia.html
Saturday July 7 2:13 PM ET

Envoys Hand Over Macedonian Plan
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Hoping to turn a cease-fire into permanent peace, international envoys on Saturday handed the framework of a reconciliation plan to leaders in Macedonia's ethnically mixed government.

European Union (news - web sites) envoy Francois Leotard emphasized that the plan, based on a draft constitution written by a French legal expert, was just the beginning of an attempt to reach a negotiated settlement to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency that threatens to drag Macedonia into civil war.

``It is the basis for further negotiations. Now, we need to have ... comments and amendments to this document,'' Leotard told reporters, adding that Macedonian parties were expected to discuss it Monday. American envoy James Pardew called the draft a ``comprehensive framework.''

The leaders of Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties agreed Saturday that the framework will form the basis for discussions of a settlement plan, a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. He stressed the need to reach agreement quickly to preserve the cease-fire.

``They have to decide if they want war or peace. That's a fundamental decision,'' the diplomat said. ``There is nothing to indicate that this is going to be easy.''

NATO (news - web sites) has said it is willing to deploy forces to monitor rebel disarmament if a peace deal is reached, and President Boris Trajkovski is seeking international aid to help the country rebuild damaged villages.

But such aid won't be made available until the framework is implemented through constitutional and legislative changes, the diplomat said.

Officials would not reveal details of the plan. Macedonia's ethnic Albanians - nearly one-third of its 2 million people - want better representation in public institutions, expanded official use of their language and constitutional changes that would give them more political influence.

Albanian parties now hold 25 seats in Macedonia's 120-seat legislature, meaning laws can be passed without a single ethnic Albanian vote.

Ethnic Albanian rebels launched their insurgency in February, demanding equal status with majority Slavs in language, education and other rights. They have been excluded from the political process, but have indicated they would lay down their arms if a political agreement satisfies their demands.

Macedonian Slav leaders have resisted constitutional changes, saying they could lead to the breakup of the country and claiming rebels want to create a new state linking part of Macedonia with neighboring Albania and Kosovo.

The Western proposal came amid cautious optimism that a NATO-mediated cease-fire was generally holding in its second day, but tensions remained high.

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador Michael Einik was mobbed by villagers venting their frustration over being expelled from their homes after rebels captured six villages earlier in the week.

More than 30 Slavs driven from their homes by the fighting mobbed Einik following his meetings with the mayor of Tetovo, a mostly ethnic Albanian city, and with representatives of the homeowners.

Bodyguards whisked the ambassador into his vehicle, but the crowd swarmed and pounded on the car, according to Forte Plus radio in Tetovo.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Yolanda Robinson said the ambassador was not seriously threatened and that she did not believe the episode indicated anti-American or anti-Western sentiment.

Macedonia's government has refused to negotiate with the rebels, but some Macedonians advocate a harder line and oppose any cease-fire.

NATO and Macedonian officials said the cease-fire held Friday, with only sporadic gunfire. Saturday also appeared mostly calm, but Army spokesman Col. Blagoja Markovski said troops exchanged fire overnight with rebels he said were trying to cross into Macedonia from Kosovo.

Cease-Fire in Macedonia Stops the Guns but Not the Distrust Posted July 7, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/07/world/07BALK.html
July 7, 2001

Cease-Fire in Macedonia Stops the Guns but Not the Distrust
By IAN FISHER

TEARCE, Macedonia, July 6 — "For the moment, it's quiet," Rexhep Rexhepi, 45, an ethnic Albanian taxi driver, said in this village today. But he would not put it past the other side to stir up trouble.

Not a mile down the road, which had been a war zone only 12 hours before, the other side was sitting at a gas station, every bit as worried.

"Look at this," said Svetozar Trpcevski, 43, a Slavic Macedonian. He pointed to the small car of a family fleeing their village near here. "People are leaving their own place."

"We are the majority here, and we are being terrorized by the minority," he said. "For four months our children have not been able to play outside. And the West is surprised!"

It was, without question, a good sign that a cease-fire agreed to on Thursday was still holding today. In the very tense Balkan nation of Macedonia, there were no reports of fighting.

But the cease-fire alone does little to overcome the chasm of anger and distrust between the two major ethnic groups in Macedonia: the majority Slavic Macedonians and the ethnic Albanians who make up one-third of the population.

The four-month-old insurgency by Albanian guerrillas, fighting for greater political rights, has pushed the country perilously close to full- fledged civil war. In recent days, the outside world has become fully engaged, desperate to stop another ethnic war in the Balkans.

And until a halt was put to the fighting this morning after midnight, each day brought more casualties and more hate.

"Now it's going to be very different," Giorgi Zafirofski, 50, a Slavic Macedonian, said with bitterness on a recent morning as he wandered around the rubble of his house, in a town that was captured for two weeks by Albanian rebels.

"We used to have a life together," he said. "Now I don't think it's possible."

Like almost everything in the Balkans, the roots of the conflict in Macedonia are complex. But at base, it is a story of two peoples who lived side by side for centuries, if uneasily, and who now view the same facts through different eyes.

The former nation of Yugoslavia was a mix of Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Slovenes and Albanians, all entwined in delicate power-sharing. When Yugoslavia fell apart in the early 1990's, the groups began to compete inside new, smaller units, sparking violence, especially in the ethnic stew of Bosnia.

In Macedonia, the southernmost of the new Balkan countries, this meant that Slavic Macedonians — Orthodox Christians with their own culture and language — were suddenly in charge.

And while there was peace, there was also little argument that the new Macedonian state and its Constitution denied the largest minority group, the Albanians, full rights — to education, to recognition of their language, to jobs in the civil service.

For 10 years, the Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, pushed for greater rights, but, they argue, with little success.

"Slavic Macedonians feel the state is their property," said Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, which takes part in the government. "Obviously, something that is private property cannot be shared with others. And they do not want to share the state with us."

Slavic Macedonians say they are willing to share — but not to the point of giving up what they believe makes them Macedonian, that is, their own language and culture.

They also insist that Albanians' demands are a veneer for another agenda: to carve from Macedonia a new, separate state for Albanians. Albanians deny that, but the issue is nonetheless a delicate one, because ethnic Albanians already have a state in Albania and dominate the Serbian region of Kosovo.

"They are 20 percent," a Macedonian cab driver said, understating the Albanians' numbers somewhat. "And we must give them our country?"

It is one thing to push for rights politically, something else to pick up a gun. And many experts say talks between Albanians and Macedonians might have gone on benignly for years, if it were not for what happened in Kosovo in 1999.

In short, Kosovar Albanians facing repression and violence from Slobodan Milosevic's forces in Serbia created an army, won the support of the outside world in the form of a NATO bombing campaign and are now, in effect, independent of Serbia, under United Nations administration. That success, maybe inevitably, spilled over into the political struggle in Macedonia.

"The story that Yugoslavia is telling us is not to underestimate the power of nationalism," said Denko Maleski, a former foreign minister of Macedonia. "Now Albanian nationalism is on the table. And it's very strong."

For four months now, the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army, a close cousin of the Kosovo Liberation Army, has been capturing villages in the hills of northwestern Macedonia. In early June, it upped the ante considerably by taking Aracinovo, a village just outside Skopje. The war was suddenly within range of the capital. In fact, the rebels threatened to lob shells into downtown Skopje.

With the rebels so close, emotions hardened on both sides. To Albanians, the rebels have become freedom fighters, a status they did not seem to have earlier this year.

"When everything started, we didn't realize what the problem was," said Arben, 25, an Albanian on a motorcycle in Skopje. "But after a while, you see how bad the lot of Albanians here is."

But to Slavic Macedonians, the rebels are "terrorists" with ties to the smuggling and drug-running of some of their counterparts in the Kosovo Liberation Army. And they say they have a complete right to defend their territory.

"The terrorists have run amok," said Lence Giorginovska, 50, who works in a fabric store. "They should all go back to Kosovo."

What complicates the issue is that Albanians here, by their own admission, have lived much better than Albanians in Kosovo. Albanians may earn half of what other Macedonians do, but there have been no systematic purges of universities or the civil service as there were in Kosovo.

"This is not a government of thugs, as we saw in Belgrade under Milosevic," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Macedonia. "But there certainly are thugs in the government."

Many outside experts believe that the Macedonian government has been unwittingly creating martyrs of the Albanians with tactics like the Interior Ministry's handing out of perhaps 30,000 weapons to ill-trained police reservists. One possibility for full-scale civil war, so far avoided, is that Macedonian reservists or paramilitaries start clearing out Albanian villages or Albanian sections of Skopje. The National Liberation Army has already threatened to fight back if this happens.

Wading into this volatile mess are the powers of the West, drawn into the fight almost helplessly, as they were in the previous Balkan conflicts. Officially, NATO has offered 3,000 troops to come in, for only 30 days, to disarm the National Liberation Army. But it says it will do so only after a peace settlement has been reached.

On Saturday, a group of outside experts from Europe and the United States are to present Macedonia with a proposal for that settlement — aimed at meeting the Albanians' demands without making the Macedonians leave the negotiating table.

"It's going to have things in it that will please both sides, and it's going to have things in it that will be uncomfortable for both sides," a Western diplomat said today. "And that's right about where we should be."

Unofficially, NATO took a first, unplanned step last week, when American soldiers with the alliance helped escort some 300 armed rebels away from Aracinovo, as part of a partial cease-fire to push the war back from the capital.

In a sign of the dangers of any international mission here, more than 5,000 angry Slavic Macedonians flooded the streets, firing off guns and taking over Parliament as they claimed that the West had sided with the Albanians.

The next day, the shaken president, Boris Trajkovski, who is considered a moderate, went on television to tell the nation that it had stepped to the very edge of civil war.

"That was a warning sign," said a Macedonian government official. "If they want, they can gather 50,000 people, or 100,000 people. It was a warning to Trajkovski."

That warning, the official said, is not to deal gently with the National Liberation Army.

That may make finding a final agreement difficult. Everyone involved in the negotiations believes that the political deal must be struck soon, in the next week or so. Otherwise, fighting could resume.

But the cease-fire does seem to have provided needed breathing room. Today, Slavic and Albanian Macedonians sat together, somewhat uncomfortably, on the steps of a grocery store in the village of Romanovce, about 10 miles northeast of the capital. For the first time in recent days, there was no sound of artillery or machine-gun fire.

This village has been mixed ethnically, as one man said, longer than the United States existed. But that does not mean it will stay that way.

"Romanovce at the moment is a little Macedonia," said Bekir Shabedini, 51, a waiter and an Albanian, sitting on the steps. "There is a little bit of everything. We have Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs, Turks."

"If people try, this village could be an example for good things," he added. "If Macedonians don't want that, this village could explode.

Macedonian ceasefire appears to be holding Posted July 6, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010706/1/18wje.html
Saturday July 7, 4:11 AM

Macedonian ceasefire appears to be holding

SKOPJE, July 6 (AFP) -
An uneasy calm returned to Macedonia Friday as both ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian forces appeared to be respecting a NATO-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending a five-month uprising.

The ceasefire came into effect at midnight (2200 GMT) Thursday, but firing raged well beyond the deadline, the army said.

Both sides in the conflict, which has threatened to degenerate into another Balkans war, blamed each other for provoking the exchanges of mortar and artillery fire.

Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski accused the rebels of using the lull to consolidate their positions near the flashpoint northwest town of Tetovo.

"We cannot say we are fully in control of certain areas," he said, referring to villages close to the town.

"The situation is complex and the terrorist groups are not fully respecting the orders they received from NATO," Boskovski told national television. He said he hoped that a presidential peace plan could nevertheless be fully implemented.

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski has offered an amnesty for rank-and-file guerrillas who agree to hand over their weapons to a NATO disarmament force, which alliance officials say is ready to deploy the minute a political deal on reforms is signed and a durable ceasefire in place.

Later Friday, Trajkovski met with Macedonian ethnic minority leaders accompanied by the EU and US special envoys to the region.

The EU's Francois Leotard and US envoy James Pardew, who were sent to the region to kickstart peace initiatives, joined the meeting with representatives from 13 parties not represented in the country's parliament who want a say in expected constitutional reforms.

The party leaders, from Serb, Gypsy and Turkish minorities say they are concerned about being sidelined in talks between the country's Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders.

Leotard and Pardew said that they wouldn't take sides in the debate but that they favoured the concept of citizens' democracy.

"It is not acceptable to hold talks with one minority alone. We want to be involved in the process," the head of Macedonia's Turkish Democratic Party said, referring to talks with ethnic Albanian leaders.

The progress of constitutional reforms -- a central demand of the ethnic Albanians -- is seen as key to whether or not the ceasefire holds and political dialogue can hammer out a lasting peace settlement.

Fighting went on two hours after the midnight deadline, although no other firing has been reported since then.

The ceasefire was brokered by NATO's regional troubleshooter, Dutchman Pieter Feith, between the rebels' political chief Ali Ahmeti and the authorities in Skopje to open the way for a NATO deployment.

An operation codenamed Essential Harvest would see NATO deploying 3,000 troops from 15 countries on a one-month mission to supervise a rebel weapons hand over.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson said Thursday the NATO troops would deploy only when the ceasefire had proven to be "durable."

A deployment also hinges on Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders agreeing on political reforms to shore up the rights of Macedonia's large Albanian minority, who complain of widespread discrimination.

Both sides agreed this week to discuss constitutional changes put forward by French legal expert Robert Badinter, who was invited to Macedonia by Trajkovski to formulate a constitution acceptable to both sides.

And EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has played a key role in efforts to quell the rebellion, said he was "more optimistic" about an end to the conflict.

"The ceasefire is holding at this point in time.... We hope very much it will continue to be so," Solana said after meeting Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva in Brussels.

He also said he saw "progress" being made in the EU-brokered political dialogue in Skopje.

"I'm more optimistic now about how things are going," he said.

Albanian Exodus: The fighting in Macedonia has prompted tens of thousands of Albanians to flee across the border into Kosovo (IWPR) Posted July 6, 2001
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr/bcr_20010704_4_eng.txt

Albanian Exodus

The fighting in Macedonia has prompted tens of thousands of Albanians to flee across the border into Kosovo.

By Nehat Islami in Kacanik, Kosovo (BCR No. 261, 4-Jul-01)

"Macedonian paramilitaries wearing masks came and told us to leave if we wanted to save our skins," said an elderly Albanian woman from Skopje, surrounded by her family's suitcases in the newly-opened transit camp at Kacanik.

Afrim Aliu, from Gulmova near Lake Treska, west of Skopje, said he and his neighbours were forced to leave because the Macedonian armed forces would not let them harvest their land. "We live on it! We're peasants," he said.

They were among the 14,000 Albanians from Macedonia who entered Kosovo last weekend as EU envoy Javier Solana hammered out a fragile truce between the Skopje authorities and the National Liberation Army.

The camp at Kacanik, on the Skopje-Pristina highway, was opened on June 24 by the UN High Commission for Refugees. "UNHCR must be prepared for a worst-case scenario," said the agency's regional envoy Eric Morris.

Two years and 15 km separate this new wave of Albanian refugees from the legendary Blace camp, across the Macedonian border, where half a million Kosovo Albanians found sanctuary after their lives were threatened by Serbian security forces in 1999.

Since fighting broke out in Macedonia in late February, nearly 1,000 Albanian refugees a day have been entering Kosovo. When the NLA seized Aracinovo, 8 km north of Skopje, at the end of May, the number soared to 4,000 a day.

The Skopje authorities have established a sand-bagged checkpoint at an intersection 10km from Blace, where police and soldiers search the refugees' vehicles and inspect their documents.

"Many families report that they had tried two or three times to cross the frontier but were turned back (by Macedonian police)," said UNHCR spokeswoman Mercedes Rose. "Others, exhausted after five hours of waiting, decided to return home and try again the next day."

Burhamedin Qazimi had just crossed the border at Hani I Elezit with his wife and two small daughters, having fled the fighting in Lisec, near Tetovo."The Macedonian police checked me four times," he said, "they were very rude. I am sorry that the girls had to experience this. Those scenes in Lisec will be forever in their minds."

"There won't be peace in Macedonia unless the NATO troops arrive," said another man, bathed in sweat and newly arrived at Kacanik. "We are shelled by helicopters and jets bought with our own taxes."

On June 26, the UNHCR appealed for $17.5 million to provide emergency assistance to more than 65,000 refugees in Kosovo and 35,500 registered by the Red Cross as internally-displaced in Macedonia.

Designed to accommodate 14,000 people, Kacanik camp provided shelter for only 10 per cent of the 2,000 new arrivals on its first day of operation about 10 days ago. After registration, the refugees wash, eat and make their way to other parts of Kosovo.

Most settle close to the border - in communities such as Dragash, Hani I Elezit, Kacanik, Vitina, Ferizaj and Gjilan - so as to be free to slip across the border and visit their homes as soon as the fighting dies down. Many are living in houses, without doors, windows, water or electricity, still being repaired after the ravages of the Kosovo war. The population of Kacanik has almost doubled in the last few weeks.

The Kosovo Red Cross pays 40 German marks per month to local families for each refugee they house. "It's not enough," said shopkeeper Hysen Syla in Ferizaj, "but we use our family reserves." He is sheltering 20 refugees in his home.

The current influx largely comes from villages between Skopje and Tetovo. "Luckily, the refugees from the Presevo valley, who came to Kosovo months before, are now going back home," said Red Cross secretary Qerim Spahiu. But there are still big problems with overcrowding.

Adem Salihaj, mayor of Ferizaj, said that 200 families with 1,100 members had arrived on June 25 alone, mostly from the suburbs of Skopje, increasing the number of refugees in the district to 12,000. He called on other Kosovan towns to share the burden by taking in more people.

The Red Cross is currently using Kacanik as a centre from which to trace and re-unite relatives who became separated in the rush to leave Macedonia. "We've managed to establish contact between four children from Slupcan and their parents," said Ylber Tufa. "Slupcan, near Kumanovo, has been totally destroyed by army shells. The parents are still living in the cellar of their house there."

Nehat Islami is the IWPR project manager in Kosovo.

Skopje and Albanian guerrillas sign NATO-brokered ceasefire Posted July 5, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010705/1/18ufp.html
Friday July 6, 12:54 AM

Skopje and Albanian guerrillas sign NATO-brokered ceasefire

SKOPJE, July 5 (AFP) -
The Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian guerrillas have agreed to a NATO-mediated ceasefire to start at midnightThursday, in the latest bid to end more than five months of conflict in the country.

But as the announcement was made, clashes between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels continued in the north of the country, only hours before the cessation in hostilities was due to come into place.

Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski told reporters that NATO representative Pieter Feith had "reached a ceasefire accord with Ali Ahmeti," political representative of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation army (NLA) late Wednesday in the Kosovo town of Prizren.

Ahmeti "has guaranteed that he has absolute control" over the guerrillas operating in Macedonia, Buckovski said.

Following the accord with the rebels, Macedonian army chief Pande Petrovski and police commander Risto Galevski, signed a similar accord with Feith on Thursday in Skopje, he added.

An NLA spokesman told AFP by phone that the rebels had agreed to a "durable ceasefire, until the peaceful solution of the conflict."

But fighting was reported Thursday around the northwestern town of Tetovo and the northern village of Radusa, Macedonian colonel Blagoja Markovski said, while further clashes were reported in other northern villages around Kumanovo.

In Tetovo, five civilians were injured when two mortar rounds exploded in the town, hospital sources said. Police blamed the attack on rebels holding out in the surrounding hills.

If the ceasefire does hold, it would pave the way for a deployment of NATO troops in Macedonia, which would supervise disarmament of the guerrillas, Buckovski said, adding that the mission, starting in the "third week of July, would last for 40 days."

An operation codenamed Essential Harvest would see NATO deploying 3,000 troops from 15 countries on a one-month mission to disarm rebels.

The military alliance hailed Thursday's news from Skopje.

"We very much welcome this positive development," a NATO official told AFP. But the alliance's Secretary General George Robertson said in Kiev that NATO would deploy troops in Macedonia only "when there is a durable ceasefire."

Meanwhile in Skopje, the European Union and US envoys for Macedonia, Francois Leotard and James Pardew, also welcomed the ceasefire accord, describing it as an "important step towards a political solution."

"The dialogue should continue over the next few days and clarify certain parts of the constitutional reform project," a joint statement by the two envoys said.

Defence minister Buckovski added that the accord "is an important step towards pursuing political dialogue over military pressure."

Buckovski said he hoped political negotiations would be completed before July 15, when NATO troops could begin deployment.

The announcement came a day after President Boris Trajkovski announced that leaders of the two sides had reached a breakthrough agreement to discuss constitutional changes in a bid to stem an escalating Albanian uprising.

A previous ceasefire was announced on June 24 by the EU top foreign policy official Javier Solana, but has been broken almost daily, with both sides trading accusations of violations.

The constitutional project was proposed by Robert Badinter, one of France's most respected elder statesmen who has been in Macedonia for more than a week at the request of Trajkovski to advise on constitutional changes demanded by both ethnic Albanian politicians and rebels.

"This accord preserves the unitary character of the state," said Trajkovski, who had earlier broken off talks, accusing the rebels of trying to split Macedonia into two federal units based on ethnicity.

The rebels have also demanded an end to alleged discrimination by the Macedonian Slav majority, a struggle that has brought the country to the brink of civil war and displaced more than 100,000 people.

Macedonia truce raises hopes Posted July 5, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1423000/1423658.stm
Thursday, 5 July, 2001, 13:24 GMT 14:24 UK

Macedonia truce raises hopes

The current ceasefire has frequently been broken

Macedonia has signed a Nato-brokered ceasefire agreement to stop hostilities with armed ethnic Albanian rebels, raising hope that an end to the conflict is in sight.

"Now is the time for leadership and vision to chart the future of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"- Joint EU Nato statement

The government agreed to the deal after receiving guarantees that ethnic Albanian guerrillas had signed a separate ceasefire with Nato.

The ceasefire, which will take effect nationwide from midnight (2200GMT), was welcomed by the European Union and Nato.

It is seen as the first step towards the deployment of Nato troops to oversee a rebel disarmament.

The conflict has at times threatened to spill into an all-out civil war which could pull in other Balkans countries.

Nato conditions

"It is a major step forward," said President Trajkovski's national security adviser, Nikola Dimitrov, "we think and we hope this will bring peace to the Macedonian citizens".

"We are certainly a lot more optimistic about this one ... it's the first signed ceasefire we have seen" - Nato spokesman Mark Laity

A truce, struck with the help of the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana on 24 June is, technically, already in place but it has frequently been broken.

Clashes were reported in the north of the country even as the deal was announced.

"We are certainly a lot more optimistic about this one ... it's the first signed ceasefire we have seen..." said Nato spokesman Mark Laity.

Nato deployment

A general ceasefire and a stable political environment are among the preconditions laid down by Nato for the deployment of its troops in Macedonia.

President Boris Trajkovski: Ceasefire will help advance political talks

It has 3,000 troops at the ready to oversee rebel disarmament once the conditions are met.

"We urge all political parties to use the opportunity afforded by these ceasefires to make significant progress in the ongoing political dialogue," Nato Secretary-General George Robertson and EU foreign policy representative Javier Solana said in a joint statement welcoming the ceasefire.

"Now is the time for leadership and vision to chart the future of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," they said.

Macedonia's Defence Minister, Vlado Buckovski has suggested Nato might begin its deployment by 15 July, but Lord Robertson took a more cautious line.

"We will have to make an assessment when the circumstances are right for a Nato deployment, that is, where there is a ceasefire and a sustainable political settlement that makes our deployment both necessary and safe," he said.

Constitutional change

Talks between the four main political parties reached an important stage towards a settlement on Wednesday, President Trajkovski said.





The EU and US envoys, Francois Leotard and James Pardew, are mediating

A new constitution drafted by French expert Robert Badinter is being considered by Macedonian and ethnic Albanian politicians.

Ethnic Albanians, who comprise up to 30% of the population, are pushing for increased rights, including having Albanian made an official second language.

The BBC's Paul Welsh in Skopje has been told that an agreement has been struck to allow more official use of the Albanian language in areas with a large Albanian population.

The guerrillas launched their insurgency in February and despite repeated offensives by the Macedonian forces have maintained control over several villages in the north of the country.

The conflict has sparked a flood of refugees over Macedonia's borders into Kosovo and southern Serbia.

Macedonia, Rebels Sign Truce to Facilitate Talks Posted July 5, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010705/ts/balkans_macedonia_dc.html
Thursday July 5 9:04 AM ET

Macedonia, Rebels Sign Truce to Facilitate Talks
By Kole Casule

SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonian forces and Albanian guerrillas signed up to an indefinite NATO (news - web sites)-brokered cease-fire on Thursday in a surprise bid to foster progress in deadlocked peace talks and pave the way for rebel disarmament.

The separate truce agreements, the first such concrete deal in an Albanian rebellion that has brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war in less than five months, take effect from midnight (6 p.m. EDT), a government source said.

Diplomats cautioned that the truce was merely the first step on a rocky road to peace and stressed that Macedonian government hard-liners had only agreed to halt their daily artillery bombardment and helicopter attacks on the rebels on that basis.

``If the hawks didn't believe this was the necessary catalyst to get things moving, they wouldn't have signed up,'' a diplomatic source said. ``And if it doesn't prove to be that catalyst, then this cease-fire will just unravel like so many others.''

A Macedonian Defense Ministry official said the truce was part of a plan to secure a political deal by July 15, allowing NATO troops to enter Macedonia on a weapons collecting mission if the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) agrees to disarm.

NATO WADES IN

The alliance, whose special envoy Pieter Feith secured the NLA cease-fire first with European Union (news - web sites) help, has become a major player in the search for a deal despite its public insistence it would only get involved on the ground after a lasting truce.

``This is an agreement between the NLA and NATO and the Macedonians and NATO. The two sides did not talk,'' a diplomatic source said, adding there were strong signals from the NLA it was prepared to disarm, but only after a political deal.

Western envoys in Skopje warned, however, that the arrival of NATO troops remained a distant prospect and that considerable doubts existed about the chance of buying off all the guerrillas with the political reforms they say their rebellion seeks.

``This is really just a confidence-building measure. There's a long way to go in this horse race,'' one diplomat said.

Albanian politicians, whom the Macedonians have blamed for stalling peace talks with radical demands for constitutional change, welcomed the truce as a victory for Western involvement.

``A cease-fire creates a better climate for political dialogue under international mediation,'' said Azizi Pollozhani, the vice-president of the Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity.

But the foreign participation Albanians want, a key rebel demand, is a non-starter with the Macedonians. They fear a formal Western role in the shape of a peace conference touted by several EU countries could play into Albanian hands.

Photos

Reuters Photo


U.S. envoy James Pardew and the EU's Francois Leotard have moved to Skopje in the past week to nurse the peace talks back to life, but they were not involved in the cease-fire, diplomats said.

``The dialogue, encouraged and supported by the international community, should continue over the next few days,'' Leotard told reporters.

DEADLOCK REMAINS

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 springboard for separatism.

President Boris Trajkovski said on Wednesday politicians had agreed to base the search for a deal on proposals by a French constitutional expert, which excludes the most radical Albanian demands, but Albanian leaders have denied they are backing down.

The military situation is equally precarious. Macedonia's army greeted a rebel advance to the outskirts of the main Albanian city of Tetovo with heavy shelling on Wednesday and the guerrillas control an arc of territory in the northern hills.

An army spokesman said there had been fighting overnight in the Kumanovo area about 16 miles northeast of the capital.

A shaky truce called in June collapsed along with stalled talks when the army launched an all-out assault on Aracinovo, a village from which rebels were later evacuated with NATO help.

NATO and the EU, which welcomed the cease-fire as creating a positive atmosphere for talks, urged both sides to respect it.

``We call upon all parties...to act with utmost discipline and restraint in avoiding incidents that could lead to a return to violence,'' said a statement signed by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson.

Diplomats say the fact that this is the first signed truce, backed by the Macedonian army, gives some grounds for optimism.

``Ask me tomorrow if it's holding and I'll tell you then how seriously we can take it,'' one envoy cautioned.

(With additional reporting by Shaban Buza in Pristina)

Macedonian leaders agree to resume talks on constitution reform Posted July 4, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010704/1/18km1.html
Wednesday July 4, 7:26 PM

Macedonian leaders agree to resume talks on constitution reform

SKOPJE, July 4 (AFP) -

Leaders of Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties agreed Wednesday to discuss a project for changing the constitution, in a bid to stem an escalating Albanian uprising, President Boris Trajkovski said.

The project was proposed by Robert Badinter, one of France's most respected elder statesmen and a former justice minister.

Badinter has been in Macedonia for more than a week at the direct request of Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to advise on constitutional changes demanded by both ethnic Albanian politicians and rebels fighting the government.

Ethnic Albanian academic held as tensions Posted July 4, 2001
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0703/wor9.htm
Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Ethnic Albanian academic held as tensions

Macedonian forces attacked rebels in villages north of Tetovo over the weekend, writes Chris Stephen

BALKANS: Tension in Macedonia was ratcheted up another notch yesterday when police arrested the dean of the main ethnic Albanian university, Mr Fadil Suleymani, accusing him of links to terrorists.

Mr Suleymani has had a leading role in establishing the university, which has become a source of tension because the Macedonian government re fuses to recognise it.

The arrest further complicates the peace missions of two envoys, Mr James Pardew from the US and Mr François Léotard from the EU, who spent the day trying to persuade both sides to hold talks.

"We have protested to the government that he be freed, but we've had no answer," said Mr Abduladi Veseli, a parliamentarian with the Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity.

The university, in Tetovo, teaches in the Albanian language.

In 1994 clashes between students and police left one Albanian dead.

The arrest took place against a background of worsening violence. Macedonian helicopter gunships and artillery attacked rebels in four villages they seized over the weekend north of the town of Tetovo.

More fighting broke out farther east around the village of Radusa, and there were clashes close to the main border crossing with Kosovo at Blace.

The ethnic Albanian rebel army, the UCK, its ranks swelled by new recruits in recent days, said it would start fresh offensives throughout the week.

One ray of hope for the negotiators is that the UCK is reportedly sticking to a deal made last month which allows two mainstream ethnic Albanian parties to negotiate on its behalf.

The Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity and the Albanian Democratic Party agreed the common front with the guerrillas at a meeting in the Kosovo town of Prizren last month.

This removes one important obstacle for the mediators, the refusal of the Macedonian government to talk to the guerrillas.

Since then fighting has escalated between security forces and the UCK.

A source in Kosovo told The Irish Times that the guerrillas were nevertheless sticking by their pledge.

"Of course, the UCK is keeping the power to veto any plan if they don't like it, but they are sticking to the deal," said the source.

Mr Pardew and Mr Léotard are expected to announce a new round of talks or a possible round table for all sides later this week.

But the Albanians' key demand, for a new constitution giving them equal status with the country's Slavic majority, has so far been rejected by the government.

Macedonian leaders agree to resume talks as fighting flares Posted July 4, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010704/1/18ldq.html
Wednesday July 4, 9:33 PM

Macedonian leaders agree to resume talks as fighting flares

SKOPJE, July 4 (AFP) -

Leaders of Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties made a breakthrough agreement Wednesday to discuss a new project for changing the constitution, in a bid to stem an escalating Albanian uprising, President Boris Trajkovski said.

But even as the deal was announced fresh fighting was reported in the north of the country, where the guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) have been fighting since February.

The constitutional project was proposed by Robert Badinter, one of France's most respected elder statesmen and a former justice minister.

Badinter has been in Macedonia for more than a week at the direct request of Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to advise on constitutional changes demanded by both ethnic Albanian politicians and rebels fighting the government.

The leaders of the four parties -- two Macedonian Slav and two ethnic Albanian -- in the fractious national unity government met late Tuesday with Trajkovski and US and EU envoys to resume their stalled dialogue on political reforms.

The meeting resulted in an "important accord which should allow a visible and rapid development in the political process," Trajkovski told reporters.

"This accord preserves the unitary character of the state," said Trajkovski, who had earlier broken off talks to accuse ethnic Albanians of trying to split Macedonia into two federal units based on ethnicity.

Badinter's proposal would boost local powers in the multi-ethnic state and provide a "basis for discussions" by Macedonian and international legal experts, Trajkovski said.

The French legal specialist presided over the EU-sponsored international arbitration committee that in 1991 ruled that Macedonia's constitution conformed to the principles of human rights and democratic standards.

Ethnic Albanian rebels have been fighting for constitutional change and an end to alleged discrimination by the Macedonian Slav majority, a struggle that has brought the country to the brink of civil war and displaced more than 100,000 people.

Ethnic Albanians see an amendment of the 1991 constitution as the key plank in the reforms process, though they have also asked for official recognition of their language and a reserved vice-presidential post.

The political dialogue, started in April and seen by the West as the only way of restoring peace, broke down on June 20 amid mutual recriminations.

The leaders met five days later but that meeting was interrupted by a storming of parliament by a mob furious at Trajkovski allowing NATO to escort the rebels and their weapons out of a Skopje suburb they occupied.

The discussions have faltered over Albanian demands for recognition of their ethnic differences, while Trajkovski says he wants to create a civic society based on individual citizenship rather than ethnic affiliation.

Badinter proposed a development of local democracy as the way out of the impasse and to shore up the rights of minorities.

The agreement was immediately hailed by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, whose country took over the rotating presidency of the European Union this month.

And European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten reminded Skopje of its promises to respect minority rights when it signed an EU Association and Stabilisation Accord in April.

"That agreement includes important commitments by the government in Skopje about respect for human rights including the rights of minorities," he said.

"It's not too late to avoid catastrophe but it requires the courage of every citizen of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to pull back from the brink," Patten added.

NATO has offered to send in around 3,000 troops to Macedonia to help disarm the rebels if a ceasefire and political reform deal is reached.

There was no immediate reaction from the rebels to the breakthrough, but fresh fighting was reported near Radusa, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Skopje and near Tetovo in the northwest.

Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said a police checkpoint came under mortar fire just after midday (1200 GMT) near Radusa, where the rebels have been moving in men for the past week, causing hundreds of locals to flee across the nearby border into Kosovo.

The army responded with tank fire.

Troops also came under sniper and mortar fire for an hour near the village of Sipkovica, in the mountains that tower over Tetovo, Markovski said.

UK Macedonia breakthrough 'imminent' Posted July 4, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1422000/1422024.stm
Wednesday, 4 July, 2001, 11:34 GMT 12:34

UK Macedonia breakthrough 'imminent'

The president said too many precious lives were lost

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski has said the country is close to a breakthrough in talks to end the four-month old insurgency by ethnic Albanian rebels.

After meetings with the United States and European Union envoys to Macedonia, he said "tangible" and "speedy" breakthroughs were imminent.


He said the two diplomats had helped to intensify talks in recent days.

Mr Trajkovski invited the EU's Francois Leotard and US envoy James Pardew to attend his talks with ethnic Albanian leaders and other Macedonian politicians on Tuesday.

Nato conditions

Mr Trajkovski said the conflict had polarised Macedonia's citizens and taken many precious young lives, but said he and other political leaders were dedicated to making quick progress to bring it to an end.

His priority is to meet the preconditions - a political agreement, a stable security environment and a comprehensive ceasefire - laid down for the deployment of Nato troops.


Nato has promised 3,000 forces to oversee rebel disarmament if these conditions are met.

Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders agree on the broad directions of a peace plan put forward by President Trajkovski, but differences remain over details.

A new draft constitution put forward by French constitutional expert Robert Badinter has also been under consideration.

On Tuesday, Mr Trajkovski rejected the idea of an international conference on the future of his country, suggested by Greece and currently being considered in western capitals.

"The process for settling the crisis is, and must remain, within Macedonia and its institutions as an internal affair," he said in a statement.

Ethnic Albanians, who comprise up to 30% of the population, are pushing for increased rights.

However, it is widely believed that the rebels want to annex part of Macedonia to Kosovo or Albania.

Slavic Macedonians Show Their True Colors Posted July 3, 2001
National Albanian American Council
2000 L Street, N.W., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 416-1627 Fax: (202) 416-1628
Email: NAACDC@aol.com
_________________________________________________________________

http://www.naac.org/macedoniacrisis.html

Press Release

Slavic Macedonians Show Their True Colors

Washington, July 3, 2001: The National Albanian American Council issued the following statement regarding the stalled peace process in Macedonia.

The world is witnessing first hand the disdain that many Slavic Macedonians have for their Albanian countrymen.

The Slavs in the Macedonian government have been reckless in their approach to the conflict. They have repeatedly bombed Albanian villages. Once the government "liberates" areas from the National Liberation Army ("NLA"), troops then proceed to burn the homes of Albanians and beat and arrest the "freed" civilians, including women and the elderly. Westerners, such as NATO leader Lord Robertson, have rightly called the military campaign "madness" and "pure folly," and human rights groups have denounced these practices (see attached summary). Indeed, the nearly 100,000 Albanian refugees that have fled Macedonia have done so because they fear the government, not the NLA, and because of threats from Slavic paramilitaries.

Such threats are dramatically on the rise. Slavic radicals have destroyed stores and homes, killed Albanians, and called for sending all Albanians to the gas chamber. How has the government responded to this? By taking little action to prevent crimes committed by Slavs, by providing arms to nearly 20,000 Slavic paramilitaries, and by recognizing, as President Trajkovski did recently, that the violent mobs are rightfully angry. Clearly, the situation in Macedonia is quickly escalating into a full-scale conflict.

We commend the Bush Administration for sending Special Envoy James Pardue to resurrect the peace process by talking some sense to the Macedonian government. We have repeatedly called for the appointment of a special envoy and are pleased that the Administration sent a diplomat with a great deal of experience in the region. Pardue's impact on the peace talks has been swift. We welcome his statement that "Those [in the government] who favor use of force here are undermining the peace process."

Perhaps with America's help in facilitating the peace process, those talks will begin in earnest. If talks do resume, it will be critical for Western leaders to take into account the recent behavior of Slavs within and outside the government as an example of what Albanians have to live with all the time. Albanians are not trying to break up Macedonia. They are hoping, however, to better their lives by securing changes to the Constitution that will make them equals and allow for meaningful protection of their rights.

The National Albanian American Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering in the United States a greater understanding of Albanian issues, and to promoting peace, human rights, and economic development in the Balkans. NAAC is also committed to helping train future leaders in the region and provide targeted humanitarian assistance to children and their families who are recovering from the after-effects of war. For more information, please contact Martha Vedder at (202) 466-6900.

###Human Rights Abuses Against Albanians in Macedonia

During the current conflict in Macedonia, innocent Albanians are suffering human rights abuses from the government and individuals. Below is a summary of some of those abuses:

Government Burns Down Entire Village

On May 29, 2001, Human Rights Watch reported that Macedonian government forces arbitrarily shelled and burned the ethnic Albanian village of Runica and beat some of its civilian inhabitants. Six members of one family were wounded by mortar fire and one man was killed. Seven others civilians were severely beaten, including a 53-year-old woman.

Our investigations show that Macedonian forces burned civilians homes and beat some villagers last week in the village of Runica, said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. These crimes must be impartially investigated, and those responsible brought to account.

HRW Condemns Murder of Teenager, Attacks on Civilians

On May 4, 2001, Human Rights Watch wrote Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to express the organizations concern with human rights violations perpetrated by the Macedonian government against the Albanian population.

This concern is strengthened by our findings following the March 2001 actions by the security forces against armed ethnic Albanian groups in the western part of the country. Available evidence suggests that government forces were responsible for the deliberate killing of 16-year-old Omer Shabani on April 3 in the village of Selce. We also received reports that families of ethnic Albanians arrested on suspicion of membership in the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA) were unable to obtain any information on the whereabouts of their relatives. Finally, our documentation suggests that government forces were responsible for the wanton destruction and looting of villages perceived as being pro-NLA, including the villages of Selce, Gjermo, Gajre, Drenovec, and Kolte. We urge you to make these incidents the subject of prompt, thorough, and transparent investigations.

Hundreds of People Arrested Arbitrarily

On April 10, 2001, The Guardian reported that international monitors in Macedonia complained to the government about the arrest and beating of scores of ethnic Albanian civilians, and the vandalizing of dozens of houses, by security forces "cleaning up" after the offensive against Albanian guerrillas:

In other villages the police arrested 200 people in the first two days of their sweep. The monitors have photographs of dozens of severely bruised men. Many of them were treated in Tetovo hospital. Several had broken ribs and noses, and your kidneys don't function too well after you've been with the police," one of the monitors said yesterday. "People were just rounded up on their way to work."

Hundreds of Albanians rounded up by the Macedonian police are still missing or unaccounted for.

Violence Against Albanian Police Officers

On June 16, 2001, the Associated Press reported the cases of two Albanian members of the Macedonian police force who were severely beaten by their colleagues while being interrogated on charges of collaborating with the NLA. According to Nazim Bushi, an ethnic Albanian officer serving with the Macedonian police at the military airport in Skopje, about 40 policemen broke into his house Sunday morning, arrested him and searched the house for weapons. None were found, he said, but he was taken to a nearby police station. There, he said he was beaten by two masked policemen, who accused him of collaborating with the rebels. ``They wanted me to admit that I had given the rebels airport maps and flight schedules of the army helicopters,'' Bushi said. About 35 hours after the arrest, police dropped him unconscious on a hill outside Skopje, where his family found him. Another ethnic Albanian serving with the Macedonian police at the airport, 1st Capt. Muhaedin Bela, was also allegedly arrested and beaten up by police last week after rebels threatened to attack the airport.


Police Indifference to Mob Activity Against Albanians

According to a Human Rights Watch report of June 8, 2001, "police in the Macedonian city of Bitola did not attempt to stop rioting crowds on Wednesday night, and some police officers actively participated in the violence. As a result, dozens of ethnic Albanian homes and as many as 100 shops were burned by the mob." "The available evidence strongly suggests that the Bitola police did not take any actions to stop the anti-Albanian attacks and that a significant number of Bitola police officers, in and out of uniform, took part in the rioting. The rioting crowds claimed to be revenging the deaths of Bitola police officers that were ambushed near Tetovo.""A village mosque was also vandalized by the rioters. Grave markers were broken, and several graves had been broken open. The windows of the mosque were broken, and rioters had set the carpets inside the mosque on fire but did not succeed in burning it down. On the exterior wall of the mosque, rioters had painted several swastikas and written "Death to the Shiptars." The term "Shiptar" is an ethnic slur when used by non-Albanians""Anti-Albanian sentiment in Bitola is rapidly growing into a campaign by extremists to rid Bitola of its ethnic Albanian population. Witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch stated that the rioters had yelled slogans including "Death to Albanians," "Pure Bitola," "Albanians Out of Bitola," "Get Out Albanians," and other such statements. The rioters told some of the ethnic Albanians that they had a week to get out of town before being targeted again. Many ethnic Albanians have fled their homes in Bitola in the aftermath of Wednesday's riot because they are afraid of further attacks."