Heavy fighting greets new U.S. envoy to Macedonia Posted July 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010702/3/182k3.html
Monday July 2, 11:13 PM
Heavy fighting greets new U.S. envoy to Macedonia
By Paul Casciato
SKOPJE (Reuters) - New U.S. envoy James Pardew held crisis talks with Macedonian political leaders on Monday even as ethnic Albanian guerrillas said they planned to advance after heavy fighting shattered a weekend lull.
The army said it fired artillery and sent out helicopter gunships on Sunday evening following the death of a soldier in an ethnic Albanian guerrilla assault on army positions near the western town of Tetovo, just a half-hour drive from the capital.
Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said three soldiers and two Macedonian civilians had also been hurt near the rebel-held village of Radusa, northwest of Skopje, and another village to the northeast in the fighting, which died down at midnight.
A spokesman for the National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas said they had moved forward after repeated government shelling over the past few days.
"We have been forced to extend our territory and will continue to do so in all directions in Macedonia," NLA spokesman Dren Korabi told Reuters.
Both sides said later a guerrilla had been killed and Albanian sources said an Albanian woman had been injured.
The violence erupted just hours after Pardew arrived on Sunday, urging the country's multi-ethnic leadership to take responsibility for ending a four-month-old Albanian rebellion before it turns into civil war.
"It is important to recognise that finding a solution here is really the responsibility of the leaders of Macedonia and so we look to them to take that responsibility," Pardew told reporters ahead of his first meetings.
HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS ATTACK
The renewed violence was a reminder that it will remain difficult for Pardew and his European Union counterpart Francois Leotard to restart Macedonia's stalled peace talks and convince all parties there is no military solution to the conflict.
On Monday morning the two envoys crossed paths as they held a separate series of meetings with Macedonian leaders.
The new U.S. envoy on Sunday repeated Western criticism of both the Albanian rebels for using violence to highlight the plight of their ethnic brethren in the country and the Macedonian government's heavy-handed response.
"Those who favour the use of force are undermining the peace process," Pardew said.
Although both the EU and U.S. appointments are signs of growing international efforts, Pardew is the real heavyweight with plenty of experience as a senior Balkans adviser at the State Department and his posting reflects rising U.S. concern.
The Albanians are demanding international mediation and are sure to welcome U.S. involvement. The Macedonian side has so far resisted formalised international participation.
A senior military expert said he believed the rebels were aiming to advance on the ground before resuming talks.
NATO has given final approval to a plan to send up to 3,000 peacekeeping troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels. The force would be deployed only after a lasting ceasefire had been declared and a political agreement reached.
Some 100,000 mostly ethnic Albanian villagers have been displaced since the conflict erupted. Over 70,000 have gone to live with Albanian families in neighbouring Kosovo.
ISO RUSI: You Asked for It! Posted July 2, 2001
http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200107/10701-006-trae-sko.htm
SUN, 01 JUL 2001 23:43:28 GMT
You Asked for It!
President of Macedonia Boris Trajkovski and those who, together with him, decided to launch an offensive against the village of Aracinovo, controlled by the NLA members, couldn't have dreamed that after they had "bottled in the terrorists", what they tried to show as "NATO and EU saving their skins" would twice blow up in their faces: once from Luxembourg and the second time in the form of popular protests.
AIM Skoplje, June 26, 2001
It is now almost clear that at the moment Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski addressed the nation last Wednesday to say that the dialogue conducted through his mediation between leaders of four largest parties, was blocked because of the maximalistic demands of the Albanian political parties he had already decided, as Supreme Commander of the Macedonian Security Forces, to engage all his power in the liberation of the largest Skoplje village Aracinovo, which only fifteen days before that was under the control of members of the Macedonian UCK or National Liberation Army (NLA).
It would be otherwise hard to explain why after his announced peace plan, which won him a strong support of the West, and which he initiated by organising meetings with party leaders, and with announcements of a truce from both warring sides, after he came across the first obstacle in negotiations and managing to persuade the Albanian leaders to give up their clumsily formulated demands formulated after the arrival of Xavier Solana, Trajkovski ordered the Macedonian Security Forces to advance towards Aracinovo on the day of his departure.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson called this intervention sheer madness and demanded its suspension. Trajkovski, as a Supreme Commander of the Macedonian Security Forces, received Robertson's message, but did not accept it. Therefore, after his visit to the Near East, Robertson returned to Skoplje on Saturday and had a very hard time trying to persuade the Macedonian state leaders to agree to a ceasefire (rumour has it that he achieved that by threatening with the sanctions unless the offensive was not stopped and war operations in other regions suspended). On Sunday, he succeeded in gaining his purpose after 14 hours, after the strongest action of the Macedonian forces against the NLA members. As many as 6 helicopters Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-24, together with tanks and heavy artillery shelled Aracinovo for a full hour. The village was shrouded in thick smoke when the electronic media, positioned around the village, reported about white flags on village houses, as a sign of NLA's surrender, which explained the ceasefire.
That same evening, quoting reliable sources, the MTV's central News informed that some 250 NLA members had been wounded and three times more killed (altogether 750 of them) in Aracinovo during the operation of the Macedonian security forces! Private TV Sitel (which has a national concession to broadcast on the entire national territory) euphorically started its last TV News with a statement that when Europe, USA and NATO were not interfering so as to stop the actions of the Macedonian security forces, these forces proved that they could easily liberate territories controlled by the NLA.
In such an atmosphere everyone disregarded the information that the Macedonian forces were controlling one third of the village and that the number of wounded and killed NLA members was much greater than the one mentioned by the Defence Minister, Vlado Buckovski a day earlier.
The state leadership met that evening, as a strange substitution for President's Security Council, a constitutional category which, apart from the Prime Minister, President of Parliament, Defence Minister and Foreign and Internal Affairs Ministers (as the "state leadership"), includes three members elected on the proposal of the President of the state, one of which in this specific case is an Albanian (Vice-President of Parliament), Ilijaz Halimi. After the session, usually very talkative members of the top ranks avoided the press, while Chief of President's cabinet addressed them with a rather cheerful statement.
On Monday, the front pages of practically all dailies featured articles on "the hoisting of the white flag". The "Vecer" (The Evening) went the furthest in its euphoria vividly describing "the dramatic resolution of the crisis in Aracinovo" when "terrorists were bottled, with NATO and EU saving their skins".
Foreign sources were much more reserved. The AFP carried a statement of the NLA Commander, Hoxha that he accepted the ceasefire after the orders he received from his Command. Quoting his statement, the Reuters informed that the NLA claimed that it did not surrender in Aracinovo, but that direct negotiations with NATO representatives would be continued on Monday morning. That entire Monday morning the public was informed of what was really going on in Aracinovo: the NATO and OSCE were preparing the pull-out of NLA members, together with their arms so as to transfer them to an unknown location near Kumanovo, on the Macedonian territory.
Very little was left of the triumphant victory. Luxembourg, where EU Foreign Ministers met expecting the Macedonian report of "some progress" in inter-ethnic relations (as was announced at the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement on April 9), expressed its dissatisfaction with the progress achieved so far, emphasising that the Macedonian situation could be resolved only by political means and making the granting of aid to Macedonia conditional upon the progress in political dialogue (along the way, the Ministers rebuked Macedonia that it could not expect European assistance while it was at the same time buying expensive arms). The meeting assessed that EU mediation in this dialogue was necessary and entrusted that task to the former French Defence Minister.
That same afternoon President of the state held a meeting with leaders of parliamentary parties, which his cabinet announced as the continuation of a dialogue conducted with four Albanian party leaders just before the offensive on Aracinovo. Before this meeting, the PDP leader, Imer Imeri said that the only purpose of this meeting was to reassure the public, while the real dialogue would be continued on Thursday, while VMRO-VMRO President Boris Stojmenov announced that he would ask the President to explain the reasons for suspending the security forces' action in Aracinovo and how was the agreement reached to pull out NLA members from the village. Another participant in this meeting, President of the Socialists Ljubisav Ivanov, asked similar questions in his interview for his own TV Sitel.
The meeting started with some delay because of the meeting President Trajkovski had with the Macedonian inhabitants of Aracinovo, who asked his the same questions. Just when Trajkovski's meeting with leaders of political parties was starting, the reserve police forces. which took part in actions in Aracinovo, joined the gathered Aracinovo villagers in front of the Parliament building. On the other side, people from Macedonian villages and Kumanovo denizens, who swore to stop the convoy of American buses carrying NLA members, rallied along the route by which NLA members were supposed to be pulled out from Aracinovo.
That is how the popular riots started at two points. If a clash was avoided on the pull-out route of NLA soldiers by leaving them in Aracinovo, the events in front of the Parliament building took a dramatic turn.
The crowd in front of the Parliament kept growing and at one moment filled the entire vast space in front of the building. Minister of the Interior tried to persuade the reserve police units that the authorities did not make any concessions regarding Aracinovo, but failed. The atmosphere became increasingly tense as the number of gathered reserve police forces, in full battle kit and with side arms, increased. Minister himself barely avoided the attack of the masses, while his official car parked in front of the Parliament building was wrecked. At one moment the crowd broke through the police cordon line and barriers and entered the Parliament building, venting its dissatisfaction on everything they came across.
In the end, it eventually turned out that these riots did not have a destructive potential of events that happened in Bitolj twice before. But, it is obvious that a part of leadership, led by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, is increasingly successful in its attempts to create chaos and exact(as he is convinced)a quick military show-down with the NLA members, which (according to some sources) control almost one third of the Macedonian territory.
The pulling out of NLA members from Aracinovo was not carried out and it is still unknown how will the American soldiers who accepted to do it, realise it. But, even greater uncertainty is created by the announced interview of Prime Minister Georgievski for the national MTV. In case, as it is expected, he persists on his option and tries to use the most powerful medium for that purpose, literally anything can happen.
ISO RUSI
(AIM)
U.S. Envoy Urges Macedonians to Make Peace Posted July 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010701/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_117.html
Sunday July 1 10:20 AM ET
U.S. Envoy Urges Macedonians to Make Peace
By Paul Casciato
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Washington's special envoy to Macedonia James Pardew urged the country's politicians on Sunday to take responsibility for resolving a rebellion by ethnic Albanian rebels before it erupts into full-blown civil war.
``It is important to recognize that finding a solution here is really the responsibility of the leaders of Macedonia and so we look to them to take that responsibility,'' Pardew told reporters after his arrival in Skopje on Sunday afternoon.
The Macedonian government has been unable to quell an ethnic Albanian revolt that began in February and could unleash a wider conflagration in the turbulent Balkans.
``There are some who believe the use of force is appropriate in this circumstance, but that's not true. Those who favor the use of force are undermining the peace process,'' Pardew said.
He said he will work closely with European Union (news - web sites) peace envoy Francois Leotard. Both were appointed in an increasingly active international effort to resolve the conflict before it spreads.
CIVILIANS REMAIN TRAPPED
Government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels exchanged some fire overnight and the atmosphere remained tense, despite a drop in the level of violence from Monday's heavy fighting.
Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said troops and ethnic Albanian rebels skirmished briefly both in the northwestern mountains above the city of Tetovo and in the northeastern Kumanovo area.
Talks between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders to improve minority rights that would undercut the rebellion have stalled.
One of the latest rounds was disrupted on Monday when armed police reservists stormed into parliament during a nationalist riot and participants in the talks escaped through a back door.
The Albanians are demanding a more formalized international participation, and are sure to welcome U.S. involvement.
The Macedonian side has so far resisted, fearing it will play into their opponents' hands.
NATO (news - web sites) has given final approval to a plan to send up to 3,000 peacekeeping troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels.
The force would be deployed only after a lasting cease-fire had been declared and a political agreement reached.
The International Red Cross said it planned to resume efforts to reach thousands of civilians believed trapped in the Kumanovo area after delivering the first humanitarian aid since June 12 to one village on Saturday.
Annick Bouvier, spokeswoman for the International Red Cross, said its team reached the village of Orizare on Saturday to deliver medical, hygienic materials and some candles to people who have been hiding out in their cellars since May 3.
But because of security concerns, the team was unable to go to the village of Lipkovo, where most of the estimated 15,000 civilians still in the area are concentrated, or Grusino, a new troublespot from which civilians had called for help.
MIA news agency said that one Macedonian civilian had been killed by rebels in the village of Brezno above Tetovo.
Some 100,OOO mostly ethnic Albanian villagers have been displaced since the conflict erupted. Over 70,000 have gone to live with Albanian families in neighboring Kosovo.
Macedonia brings in war tax Posted June 30, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1415000/1415518.stm
Saturday, 30 June, 2001, 15:20 GMT 16:20 UK
Macedonia brings in war tax
The tax will help to support the Macedonian war effort
The Macedonian Government is introducing a special war tax, intended to raise around $30m towards the cost of fighting ethnic Albanians rebels in the north of the country.
The tax will go into effect on Sunday and extends to the end of the year, the state news agency MIA said.
It will be levied at the rates of either 0.5% or 1% on most private-sector transactions.
Correspondents say that Macedonia's impoverished economy has been further weakened by the costs of buying weapons for the army.
Fresh fighting
A recent lull in the fighting ended on Saturday with clashes between Macedonian troops and guerrillas on the slopes of the Sar Mountain near the border with Kosovo.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict continue.
The United States has appointed a Balkans expert, James Pardew, as its peace envoy to the former Yugoslav republic.
Mr Pardew is expected to work closely with his European Union counterpart, Francois Leotard, who was appointed earlier in the week.
The two appointments reflect growing international involvement in Macedonia, where the five-month-old ethnic Albanian rebellion threatens to unleash all-out civil war.
Mr Pardew has Balkans experience as a senior regional adviser at the US State Department, and was involved in negotiating a peaceful end to the conflict in Serbia's Presevo Valley, where ethnic Albanian guerrillas recently laid down their arms.
Mr Leotard, who arrived in Macedonia on Thursday, met President Boris Trajkovski for talks on the constitution on Friday.
Nato support
Nato on Friday gave final approval to a plan to send a 3,000-strong force to Macedonia, to help disarm ethnic Albanian rebels in case of a lasting ceasefire.
Nato spokesman Yves Brodeur said the alliance was ready to send the troops to Macedonia "provided the proper environment exists".
And the US State Department said Washington was prepared to offer logistical, medical and other support to the Nato force.
New Fighting Breaks Out in Macedonia Posted June 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010630/ts/macedonia.html
Saturday June 30 11:49 AM ET
New Fighting Breaks Out in Macedonia
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Clashes shattered a lull in fighting between Macedonian troops and ethnic Albanian rebels early Saturday, a day before a new American envoy was due to arrive in a bid to renew stalemated peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeepers in neighboring Kosovo detained 90 suspected ethnic Albanian rebels from Macedonia in two days, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force said Saturday.
In Macedonia, militants attacked government positions on the slopes of Mount Sara, close to the northern border with Kosovo, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
The rebels opened fire from Gajre village, along the Pena River canyon and near the Popova Sapka ski resort, prompting a response from the Macedonian troops, he said. The clashes, described by Markovski as ``occasionally fierce in intensity,'' died down around 6 a.m., but flared again later in the afternoon.
Gunfire also echoed Saturday from inside the rebel-controlled village of Nikustak. Markovski said government troops were not targeted there, indicating the shooting likely was the result of a dispute among the insurgents.
The latest exchange of fire came a day before the arrival of the new U.S. envoy to Macedonia, sent by President Bush (news - web sites) to help jump-start peace negotiations between ethnic Albanians and the Slav-dominated government.
The State Department was dispatching its European Bureau's special adviser, James Pardew, to Skopje, Macedonia's capital. Pardew, who is well known in the Balkans, will be working closely with his European Union (news - web sites) counterpart, Francois Leotard.
In Kosovo, the suspected rebels were all stopped in the U.S.-run sector, close to the border with Macedonia. Among the 90 were a group of 48 ethnic Albanians detained in one house in eastern Kosovo, close to the border, on suspicion they are rebels fighting Macedonian government forces, said squadron leader Roy Brown, a spokesman for the peacekeepers.
``They are under investigation,'' Brown said.
On Friday, NATO approved plans to deploy a 3,000-member task force to Macedonia to oversee a voluntary disarmament of Albanian rebels if a peace deal is reached. NATO's role would be limited to collecting ethnic Albanian rebels' arms. But a peace deal seems far off for now.
Bush has left open the possibility of an expanded U.S. military role in Macedonia. Any troops sent in would likely be drawn from forces already deployed here and in Kosovo.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on Friday rejected an initiative to demobilize police reservists who have been battling the rebels.
The reservists were initially to be withdrawn from their positions around the capital, Skopje, as a sign of good will amid fresh international efforts at peace.
Some reservists have been accused of being behind recent rioting in Skopje when thousands of demonstrators stormed parliament, protesting a cease-fire agreement with the militants.
The militants launched a rebellion in February, demanding the constitution be changed to guarantee ethnic Albanians equal status with the Slavic majority in Macedonia - something the government rejects, contending this would eventually lead to the division of the country.
Ethnic Albanians make up a third of Macedonia's two million population.
United States Appoints Special Envoy to Macedonia Posted June 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010630/ts/balkans_macedonia_dc_1.html
Saturday June 30 11:18 AM ET
United States Appoints Special Envoy to Macedonia
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The United States announced on Saturday the appointment of a special envoy to Macedonia, beefing up international efforts to prevent a new war from engulfing the Balkans.
The U.S. embassy in Skopje said James Pardew would arrive on Sunday and work alongside European Union (news - web sites) peace envoy Francois Leotard who began work in the Macedonian capital on Thursday.
These two appointments reflect growing international involvement in Macedonia, where an ethnic Albanian rebellion, which government forces have been unable to quell, threatens to unleash all-out civil war and a wider Balkan conflagration.
Unlike Leotard, Pardew has Balkans experience as a senior adviser on the Balkans at the State Department.
He has been involved in pacifying Serbia's Presevo Valley where another ethnic Albanian guerrilla group had confronted Serbian troops before agreeing to disarm.
In March, Pardew told an ethnic Albanian party in Kosovo to stop backing the National Liberation Army rebels in Macedonia.
He has also advocated a decision, ordered by President Bush (news - web sites) earlier this week, to impose a travel ban on ethnic Albanians from Macedonia and Kosovo suspected of links with the guerrillas.
NATO (news - web sites) FORCE
Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said both northeastern and northwestern crisis zones were generally quiet for most of the day with the exception of a brief exchange of fire between troops and the rebels near the city of Tetovo.
In Kosovo's provincial capital Pristina, NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping forces said nine suspected rebels had been detained on Friday and another 48 on Saturday. All were being questioned.
On Friday, NATO said in Brussels it had given final approval to a plan to send up to 3,000 peacekeeping troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels.
The force would only be deployed once a lasting cease-fire had been declared and a political agreement reached between Macedonian political parties -- one of the tasks facing the new EU and U.S. envoys.
``The ball is now firmly in the court of the Macedonian government to deliver on the political dialogue and the cease-fire in order to allow NATO's help to come into effect,'' NATO Secretary-General George Robertson told Reuters in London.
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders have been discussing ways to improve minority rights to undercut the four-month-old rebellion, but talks have stalled.
The latest meeting was disrupted on Monday when armed police reservists stormed into parliament during a nationalist riot and participants in the talks escaped through a back door.
Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said on Friday he had ordered demobilization of some police reservists.
The Albanians are demanding a more formalized international participation, and are sure to welcome U.S. involvement.
The Macedonian side has so far resisted, fearing it will play into their opponents' hands.
Leotard made his task more difficult when he said on Tuesday the Macedonian government should talk to the rebels.
He later clarified his comments to make clear the EU policy -- in favor of negotiations with the one-third minority's political leaders, but not the guerrillas -- remained unchanged.
In a move of immense significance for the Balkans, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites), blamed for much of the ethnic cleansing and brutal conquest in a decade of warfare, was transferred from Belgrade to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague (news - web sites) on Friday. NATO has had what it calls ``technical'' contacts with Macedonia's ethnic Albanian insurgents, brokering a deal this week to end an army onslaught in a strategic village. NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur told Reuters in Brussels that 15 of the 19 NATO member countries, including the United States, had pledged to take part in the operation under which 3,000 NATO troops would come to help disarm Macedonia's rebels.
The government of one of the poorest states in Europe which has recently spent large amounts of money buying weaponry introduced a war tax on all non-cash transactions in Macedonia to cover a widening budget deficit.
Macedonia's Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski left on a visit to Ukraine which has already sold Macedonia helicopter gunships.
The tax goes into effect on Sunday and extends to the end of the year. It is supposed to bring to state coffers about 2.3 billion denars ($30 million), the state MIA news agency said.
Germany denies report it will not participate in NATO Macedonia force Posted June 30, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010630/1/17k0s.html
Sunday July 1, 3:52 AM
Germany denies report it will not participate in NATO Macedonia force
BERLIN, June 30 (AFP) -
The German defense ministry Saturday denied a press report that it would not participate in a potential NATO intervention in Macedonia to help disarm ethnic Albanian rebels.
"The article in (the daily) Welt am Sonntag is wrong," a spokesperson for the ministry and for the head of the German Bundeswehr said in a statement.
The head of the Bundeswehr, General Harold Kujat, had reportedly told the Sunday paper that NATO units due to head to Macedonia after a political settlement has been reached had already been designated, and Germany was not part of them.
"The 3,000 soldiers come mostly from France, Britain, Italy and Greece with support from the United States," he was quoted as saying.
The spokesperson said the German government had publicly told NATO its army would participate in an intervention in Macedonia only under strict NATO guidelines, and with "parliamentary approval of the mission."
Germany's Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had last Thursday offered his country's military support -- with up to 600 German soldiers -- for the intervention force, saying Germany could not remain outside any such operation.
Such support will likely create tension within the ruling Red-Green coalition as well as draw fire from the opposition conservatives.
NATO suggested ten days ago that volunteer countries could send troops to Macedonia to establish collection sites in a possible guerrilla disarmament operation.
Macedonia president halts police demobilisation Posted June 30, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010630/1/17ij6.html
Sunday July 1, 12:18 AM
Macedonia president halts police demobilisation
SKOPJE, June 30 (AFP) -
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski overruled an interior ministry order to demobilise police reservists drafted to help tackle the growing ethnic Albanian uprising, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Trajkovski, who is also commander-in-chief of the army and police force, "called the interior minister and asked him to keep the reservists mobilised," the ministry said.
The countermanding order came a day after Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski announced a demobilisation of thousands of police reservists called up three weeks ago after the rebels seized a town on the edge of the capital.
The swift reversal of Boskovski's order hinted at the discord within the coalition government, dominated by Macedonian Slav leaders but also including two ethnic Albanian parties, as it struggles to quell the Albanian insurrection.
Fighting on the ground has tapered off since a NATO-brokered evacuation of the rebels and their weapons from the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo on Monday.
There have however been exchanges of fire between the rebel and the army around guerrilla-held villages in the hills north of Skopje, with both sides accusing the other of having fired first.
Shooting also broke out in the mountains above the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo in the northwest, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
Interior Minister Boskovski had announced the demobilisation on Friday "in order to make space for the implementation of President Trajkovski's peace plan."
He admitted it was a "very risky action" given the the rebels' reticence on the Trajkovski plan, which includes an amnesty for guerrillas who agree to give up their arms to a planned NATO demilitarisation force.
Trajkovski wants the guerrillas to agree to a ceasefire and demilitarisation, while pushing ahead with talks with elected ethnic Albanian leaders on political reforms to address the large minority's complaints of widespread discrimination.
But several hours after Boskovski's announcement, Trajkovski asked him to "withdraw the decision," saying the reservists were "necessary for the protection of our territorial integrity."
Government sources said around 7,000 weapons were handed out in the mobilisation, while a ministry investigation was called for afterwards amid reports that arms had been given to people with criminal backgrounds.
Boskovski said there were only around 20 or 30 such cases.
But during a riot late Monday by Macedonian Slavs enraged at the evacuation of the ethnic Albanian geurrillas in a US army convoy, at least 100 reservists marched through a protesting crowd, with a dozen automatic rifles being fired in the air.
EU Envoy Starts Macedonia Mission, NATO Urges Deal Posted June 29, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010629/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_113.html
Friday June 29 2:25 PM ET
EU Envoy Starts Macedonia Mission, NATO Urges Deal
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The European Union (news - web sites)'s new Balkans envoy, Francois Leotard, met Friday with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on the first step of his mission aimed at averting a new war in the Balkans.
Macedonian troops fired occasional machine-gun and mortar rounds at ethnic Albanian rebel positions just above the city of Tetovo, but Reuters reporters said there were no fresh skirmishes in the northeast.
In Brussels, NATO (news - web sites) said it had given final approval to a plan to send up to 3,000 troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels.
The force would only go once a lasting cease-fire had been declared and a political agreement reached between Macedonian political parties -- the task Leotard is due to facilitate.
``The ball is now firmly in the court of the Macedonian government to deliver on the political dialogue and the cease-fire in order to allow NATO's help to come into effect,'' NATO Secretary-General George Robertson told Reuters in London.
Western nations have been engaged in intensive diplomacy to try to halt the four-month-old rebellion in Macedonia, fueled from neighboring NATO-patrolled Kosovo.
``I indicated to President Trajkovski that there were several levels of dialogue,'' Leotard told reporters after the meeting.
``There is the political dialogue among parliamentary representatives, but there's another dialogue which is carried out between the authorities of this republic with the international community and the opinion of the European Union has its place in this.''
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders have been discussing ways to improve minority rights to undercut the four-month-old rebellion, but talks have stalled.
The latest meeting was disrupted Monday when armed police reservists stormed into parliament during a nationalist riot and participants in the talks were evacuated through a back door.
Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said on Friday he had ordered demobilization of some police reservists.
Photos
Reuters Photo
LEOTARD STARTED WITH A SNAG
The Albanians are demanding a more formalized international participation, something the Macedonian side has so far resisted, fearing it will play into their opponents' hands, but diplomats say such a move is crucial to get negotiations moving.
Leotard made his talks ever more difficult when on Tuesday, one day after his appointment, he said the government should talk to the rebels.
He later clarified his comments to make clear the EU position -- negotiations with the one-third minority's political leaders, but not the guerrillas -- remained unchanged.
Another Leotard task is to avoid the prospect of NATO getting dragged into yet another conflict in former Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites), blamed for most of the wars, was transferred to an international court in The Hague (news - web sites) Thursday.
NATO has had what it calls ``technical'' contacts with the insurgents, brokering a deal this week to end an army onslaught in a strategic village.
CIVILIANS SUFFER
NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur told Reuters in Brussels that 15 of the 19 NATO member countries, including the United States, had pledged to take part in the operation under which 3,000 NATO troops would come to help disarm the rebels.
About 100,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanian villagers, have been displaced. Thousands of others remain trapped in the northern hills held by the rebels in conditions described by some aid workers as close to a humanitarian catastrophe.
A doctor in the northeastern village of Slupcane, held by the rebels and shelled by the troops since early May, said the situation there was ``catastrophic.''
``We have a lot of infection. We do not have food. There are a lot of dead animals. If they do nothing to bury them, it is possible there will be an epidemic,'' said the doctor who preferred to be called by his first name, Fatmir.
In Kosovo, the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force said 20 suspected guerrillas from Macedonia were detained Thursday near the border. Three of them had gunshot wounds.
Macedonia to Demobilize Reservists Posted June 29, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010629/wl/macedonia_226.html
Friday June 29 10:29 AM ET
Macedonia to Demobilize Reservists
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia will demobilize police reservists who have been fighting ethnic Albanian rebels to give peace negotiations a chance, the interior minister said Friday.
Ljube Boskovski, whose ministry is in charge of internal security forces, also said some troops might be withdrawn from their positions around the capital, Skopje, as a sign of good will amid fresh international efforts at peace.
``I have to take this risky step so that I can give a chance to those who call themselves peacemakers to solve the crisis peacefully,'' Boskovski told reporters.
The move would still leave regular army forces in the field. There have been widespread accusations that forces under Boskovski's ministry, particularly the reservists, were behind recent rioting in Skopje when thousands of demonstrators stormed parliament, protesting a cease-fire agreement with the militants.
The riots have sparked fears that clashes in Macedonia could spread to engulf other cities.
The region near the Kosovo border where fighting has been concentrated was quiet Friday, an army spokesman said.
The European Union (news - web sites)'s new envoy for Macedonia, Francois Leotard, met Friday with President Boris Trajkovski - part of a new mission to mediate a deal between the Slav-dominated government and ethnic Albanians.
Peace talks broke down after fighting last week in the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo.
Militants launched a rebellion in February, demanding the constitution be changed to guarantee equal status for the country's ethnic Albanian minority - about a third of the population - with the Slav majority. The government has rejected the demands, which it says would eventually divide the country.
In Kosovo, U.S. peacekeepers detained 30 suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas near Macedonia border, a statement from the peacekeepers said Friday.
Meanwhile, NATO (news - web sites) ambassadors formally approved plans to send a 3,000-strong force for Macedonia to help disarm the rebels if a peace deal is reached. Alliance spokesman Yves Brodeur underlined that the operation would be launched only if rebels commit to giving up their weapons voluntarily under a peace agreements.
NATO ambassadors had reviewed the plan Wednesday but did not approve it until Friday.
Nato approves Macedonia force Posted June 29, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1413000/1413991.stm
Friday, 29 June, 2001, 14:12 GMT 15:12 UK
Nato approves Macedonia force
Fifteen nations may take part in the Nato force
Nato has given final approval to a plan to send a 3,000-strong force to Macedonia, to help disarm ethnic Albanian rebels, if a political agreement brings a lasting ceasefire.
The decision came as Macedonia's Interior Minister, Ljube Boskovski, announced the demobilisation of thousands of police reservists in order to give peace negotiations a chance, and as calm returned to the country for the first time in weeks.
Uniiformed men played a key role in Monday's riot
The European Union's new permanent envoy to Macedonia, the former French Defence Minister Francois Leotard, also got down to work on Friday meeting President Boris Trajkovski for talks on the constitution.
Nato spokesman Yves Brodeur the alliance was ready to send the troops to Macedonia "provided the proper environment exists".
Goodwill gesture
He said Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders would have to settle their differences, adding: "Rebels also have to commit to laying down their arms and stop fighting."
"I have to take this risky step so that I can give a chance to those who call themselves peacekeepers to solve the crisis peacefully" - Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski
Fifteen of the 19 Nato member countries have promised to take part in the operation, though the US is expected to provide only logistical support.
The plan to demobilise police reservists comes less than a month after they were called up, in response to the arrival of Albanian guerrillas in the village of Aracinovo, on the outskirts of the the capital, Skopje.
The reservists were widely accused of being behind rioting in Skopje on Monday night, as thousands protested against a decision to allow the guerrillas to leave Aracinovo under Nato escort.
Mr Boskovski also said that some forces would be withdrawn from positions around Skopje, as a sign of goodwill.
"I have to take this risky step so that I can give a chance to those who call themselves peacekeepers to solve the crisis peacefully," he said.
'Guerrillas' detained
Mr Leotard is seeking to jump-start talks between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian politicians that broke down last week.
Mr Leotard: First meeting with President Trajkovski
He gave no details of his talks with President Trajkovski, except to say that they had touched on the Macedonian constitution.
The ethnic Albanian minority - some 30% of the population - has demanded constitutional changes to give them equal rights with the majority population.
On the border with Kosovo, US peacekeepers detained 30 suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
Nato peacekeepers in Kosovo have been trying to hinder guerrilla movements across the border ever since the ethnic Albanian insurgency began in February.
Blair in top level talks on Macedonia Posted June 29, 2001
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1414000/1414548.stm
Friday, 29 June, 2001, 18:04 GMT 19:04 UK
Blair in top level talks on Macedonia
The Macedonian army has continued bombardment of rebels
Tony Blair has held discussions with US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on the Macedonian crisis.
In separate telephone calls to each leader, the prime minister spoke of what steps could be taken to help the political process in the troubled Balkan state.
It comes as Nato ambassadors formally approved plans to send a 3,000-strong force to the country to help disarm ethnic Albanian rebels if a lasting political agreement and ceasefire takes hold.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said the 15-minute telephone calls with each leader were "to underpin further the political process and help parties reach agreement."
On Thursday Mr Blair met Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and the Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce to discuss Macedonia.
Mr Straw told the meeting, convened before the weekly Cabinet, that the situation in the Balkans republic was now "serious".
There were riots outside parliament there this week to protest at the Macedonian government's ceasefire with rebels who held the strategic village of Aracinovo for two weeks.
More active
The Foreign Office has warned Britons not to travel to the area and Mr Straw cancelled a planned visit to the capital Skopje earlier this week.
Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude said Britain must be "far more active in helping suppress those forces still willing to use violence to achieve their ends" in Macedonia and in Kosovo.
"There is a void in political leadership in Kosovo and Macedonia - this is acting as a festering sore and may lead to a new round of violence," Mr Maude added.
"In Kosovo we need to begin the process of working towards a final status settlement."
Destabilising
Shadow defence secretary Iain Duncan Smith called on Mr Hoon to make a statement to the House of Commons "as soon as possible" on the plans to send Nato troops into Macedonia.
"We have always called for tough action against the Albanian rebels, who are deliberately destabilising the Macedonian government, and we support this action."
But he added: "Questions need to be asked about how many British troops will be involved, what length of time they will be in place and whether they are prepared for a peaceful disarmament or if they will have to do this by force."
Council of Europe calls for peace in Macedonia Posted June 28, 2001
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0628/wor4.htm
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Council of Europe calls for peace in Macedonia
From Denis Staunton, in Strasbourg
MACEDONIA: The Council of Europe has denounced this week's violence in Macedonia and called on both sides in the conflict to exercise restraint.
Lord Russell-Johnston, president of the council's Parliamentary Assembly, which is meeting in Strasbourg, said it was essential for all citizens of Macedonia to avoid violence or the threat of it.
"Whatever the frustration they may feel, they should understand that the present crisis can only be resolved through dialogue, patience and tolerance.
"I strongly and unequivocally condemn the armed actions by ethnic Albanian extremists, but I equally denounce the rioting that took place in Skopje on Monday night, and in which, regrettably, some members of the country's police and military forces have been taking an active part," he said.
Lord Russell-Johnston said the recent history of the region offered ample evidence of the tragic consequences that any further aggravation of tensions would produce.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Ruud Lubbers, urged the council's 43 member-countries to adhere more closely to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees. The convention defines refugee status and the conditions people must meet to qualify for it, and lists the rights and obligations of refugees and the obligations incumbent on states.
"Closing the doors to immigrants is the quickest way to ensure illegal immigration and human trafficking. Refugees are no small concern for Europe. Today Europe has opened its doors to more than seven million people whose fate concerns the High Commission for Refugees," Mr Lubbers said.
"Refugees need our help, true, but they also deserve our respect, for their skills, their culture, their knowledge and the active role they can play in society,"
The assembly recommended that politicians and the media refrain from exploiting the sensational side of asylum issues for their own short-term benefit, which only encouraged racial discrimination and violence.
The Fine Gael TD, Mr Tom Enright, presented a report on conditions for allowing foreign prisoners to complete jail sentences in their home countries. The Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons has been in force for 16 years, and all but three of the council's member-countries have adopted it.
But Mr Enright said that, because procedures were unwieldy and lacking in clarity, they were not used as frequently as they should be.
He pointed out that the families of foreign prisoners faced great obstacles in maintaining contact, not least because of the cost of travel. And many foreign prisoners were unable to make use of recreational and educational facilities because of language difficulties.
"Prisoners are in prison as a punishment, not for punishment. The loss of liberty is the punishment," Mr Enright said.
He called for the system to be streamlined and for cases to be processed within a specified time-frame.
He said it must be made clear that prisoners were transferred to their home countries to complete their sentences, not to be released.
West starts to evacuate diplomats as Macedonia defies calls for restraint Posted June 28, 2001
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=80625
West starts to evacuate diplomats as Macedonia defies calls for restraint
By Stephen Castle in Brussels and Justin Huggler in Aracinovo, Macedonia
28 June 2001
Britain warned its citizens against travelling to Macedonia, and the United States began evacuating diplomats as government forces launched fresh attacks on Albanian rebels yesterday in defiance of Western calls for restraint.
Despite the deepening threat of civil war, Nato insisted it has no plans to intervene unless the Macedonian government and the Albanian minority reach a political agreement.
Nato officials believe that, in the event of intervention, troops might have to be drawn from a "coalition of the willing", effectively delaying any deployment. It said it was pressing ahead with plans for the deployment of 3,000 soldiers to help disarm rebels if a peace deal can be clinched. But diplomats conceded that this prospect remains distant, although last night the US President, George Bush, did not rule out sending US troops to Macedonia.
Although the capital, Skopje, was calm yesterday, Macedonian forces shelled positions held by ethnic Albanian rebels, throwing efforts to salvage a peace deal into further disarray.
The US prepared for the worst, authorising the evacuation of non-emergency personnel from its Skopje embassy, and Washington and London advised people not to travel to Macedonia because of growing anti-Western sentiment. The Foreign Office also urged Britons in the country to leave.
The West insists that the conflict cannot be solved militarily and the European Union's new envoy to the region, the former French defence minister Francois Leotard, will arrive in Macedonia to try to revive the political dialogue.
But his appointment had an unhappy start when Mr Leotard told French radio that the "Macedonian government must talk with the leaders of the guerrillas" something the Slav politicians have vowed not to do. Officials insisted that this was a slip of the tongue and the policy was for negotiations with the democratically elected Albanian parties.
President Bush issued an executive order last night barring US citizens from funding the Albanian rebels, in a move aimed at shoring up the government in Skopje. Riots by Macedonian nationalists in Skopje on Monday night were sparked by the evacuation of about 250 Albanian rebels from the town of Aracinovo in buses belonging to American K-For troops. Nato and the US insisted that the move came in response to a request from the Macedonian government.
The EU is increasingly alarmed at the split in the Macedonian government. Europe's foreign policy supremo, Javier Solana, referred for the first time to "radicals on both sides".
* The United States said pledges for aid toYugoslavia will depend on co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal. The Yugoslav Constitutional Court is due to rule today on the extradition Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague.
Albanian Officers Purged: Conditions for ethnic-Albanian officers in the Macedonian army are rapidly deteriorating Posted June 28, 2001
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr/bcr_20010627_2_eng.txt
Albanian Officers Purged
Conditions for ethnic-Albanian officers in the Macedonian army are rapidly deteriorating
By Adnan Musliu in Skopje (BCR NO. 259, 27-Jun-01)
Ethnic-Albanian officers in the Macedonian army are increasingly finding themselves the targets of harassment and brutality.
Many of them have been intimidated into leaving the armed forces, while those who remain have been sidelined by their Macedonian colleagues.
The latest alleged victims are two officers who say they were mistreated by Macedonian police officers simply because of their ethnic origin.
Nazim Bushi, a member of the technical staff at Skopje's military airport, was arrested on June 16 after dozens of armed policemen turned up at his home on the pretext of a weapons search.
No weapons were found. However, Bushi told IWPR that he was taken to a police station where two masked men accused him of collaborating with the ethnic-Albanian National Liberation Army, NLA.
After being beaten unconscious he was dumped on a hillside outside Skopje where his family found him some 35 hours later on Monday, June 18.
"They wanted me to admit that I had given the rebels maps and flight schedules of army helicopters," Bushi was quoted as saying from his hospital bed.
Mujadin Bela found himself in a similar situation days later when Macedonian officers held him at gunpoint while a search was carried out on his house and car. Again, nothing was found but Bela was detained overnight.
He too reported that police had interrogated him about the NLA and his opinions on the conflict.
"If they treat military personnel like this, can you imagine what they would do to ordinary Albanians?" commented an Albanian in Skopje who wished to remain anonymous.
The Macedonian army is one of the few remaining multi-ethnic institutions in the country. National service is obligatory for all men aged between 18 and 26, regardless of ethnic origin.
But while Albanians make up at least one third of army conscripts, they comprise just two per cent of the officer class. Other small minorities such as Serbs, Montenegrins and Croats tend to be better represented in the upper echelons of the armed forces.
Given the current crisis, it's not surprising that Albanian youngsters are refusing the draft. Some of them told IWPR that they were concerned for their safety. Besides, they said, they did not want to take up arms against their brothers.
"I cannot risk going and fighting against my own cousin who has joined the NLA," said one. " We are fighting for more rights, while the Macedonians are just fighting to preserve their privileges."
The number of high-ranking Albanian officers in both army and police began to fall immediately when the crisis began back in February this year. They are in an unenviable position, caught as they are in the firing line between their own people and the Macedonian state.
Many are taking medical leave to avoid taking sides. Some have simply been forced to go. Those who've managed to retain their posts complain that they had been prevented from participating in important decision-making processes.
The same goes for Albanian officials in the ministry of defence who say they are rarely, if ever, consulted. Since his appointment as defence minister, Vlado Buckovski, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Macedonia, SDSM, has apparently excluded his deputy Kadri Kadriu, an Albanian, from all important meetings.
Other Albanian officials in the ministry say Buckovski consults only with Macedonian colleagues.
The situation seems to be the same at military headquarters. Albanian General Zededin Tusha, number two in the chain of command, says he is ignored by the chief of staff General Pande Pandovski. If Macedonian top brass do not change their stance towards ethnic-Albanian officers, many will begin asking themselves why they should pay lip service to an army which serves only the Macedonian community.
Adnan Musliu is a pseudonym of a journalist based in Skopje
EU Balkan Envoy Faces Daunting Task Posted June 28, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010628/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc.html
Thursday June 28 8:08 AM ET
EU Balkan Envoy Faces Daunting Task
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - European Union (news - web sites)'s new envoy, mired in controversy at the very outset of his mission, arrived in Macedonia on Thursday to try to prevent another Balkan war.
Former French defense minister Francois Leotard faces a daunting task.
Diplomats say neither the Macedonian government nor the rebels have so far demonstrated a sincere desire to bring to an end the four-month-long conflict that has brought the nation to the brink of civil war.
About 100,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanian villagers, have been displaced. Thousands of others remain trapped in the northern hills held by the rebels in conditions described by some aid workers as close to a humanitarian catastrophe.
Leotard's task is to try to kickstart stalled peace talks and avoid the prospect of NATO (news - web sites) getting dragged into yet another conflict in former Yugoslavia.
Reuters reporters said there were no fresh skirmishes between the troops and the insurgents, but a prominent rebel commander reiterated threats of taking the war to the capital of the tiny Balkan state.
Leotard, appointed on Monday, said the Macedonian government should talk to the rebels.
He later clarified his comments to make clear the EU position -- negotiations with the one-third minority's political leaders, but not the guerrillas -- remained unchanged.
SKIRMISHES OVERNIGHT
Leotard offered no comment on his arrival in Skopje airport.
Meanwhile Macedonian army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said
guerrillas targeted troops outside two villages they hold in the northeastern Kumanovo area overnight.
``The army responded adequately,'' he said.
A commander of the National Liberation Army who goes by the name of Hoxha appeared unconcerned about the clashes, which have inflicted little losses on his rebel force since February, but he warned government troops not to attempt a ground assault.
Photos
Reuters Photo
``If they attack, we will do the same,'' he told Reuters, repeating his earlier claim that the NLA had ``two battalions in Skopje which we can activate when necessary.''
He also repeated that he was still in the capital where he said he arrived on Tuesday ``to defend civilian Albanians'' after Macedonian nationalist riots.
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders have been discussing ways to improve the minority's rights to undercut the rebellion, but talks have stalled.
The latest meeting was disrupted on Monday when armed nationalists stormed into parliament and participants in the talks were hurriedly evacuated through a back door.
The Albanians are demanding a more formalized international participation, something the Macedonian side has so far resisted, fearing it will play into their opponents' hands, but which diplomats say is crucial to get negotiations moving.
Earlier this week, the EU warned that the poverty-stricken country's ties with the European Union could be at stake if it did not agree to a greater international role.
GROWING INTERNATIONA INVOLVEMENT
On Wednesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, whose country holds the EU presidency, reiterated the EU's appeal to allow structured international ``facilitation.''
Leotard was likely to play a major part in the process, but he will have to reassure the Macedonians that he made a slip when he proposed that they talk to the guerrillas if he wants to get them on side.
NATO has had what it calls ``technical'' contacts with the rebels, brokering a deal this week to end an army onslaught in a strategic village from which the rebels had threatened to attack Skopje and its nearby airport.
U.S., French and Italian troops helped evacuate the guerrillas, with their arms, in return for a cease-fire from the military, whose three-day-long onslaught had shown little sign of success and risked a serious rebel backlash elsewhere.
NATO is preparing to deploy a force to help disarm the rebels, but only once a peace deal is in place.
Washington was originally thought to be ready to provide only logistical backup to the force of about 3,000 troops. But President Bush (news - web sites) refused to rule out committing troops.
Employing a new tactic to try to choke off the guerrilla revolt, Bush also barred some known rebels from entering the United States on Wednesday and took steps to stop U.S. citizens financing the four-month-old insurgency.
Rebel Funders Targeted As Arms Flow to Macedonia Posted June 28, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010628/wl/balkans_nato_dc_1.html
Thursday June 28 9:40 AM ET
Rebel Funders Targeted As Arms Flow to Macedonia
By Douglas Hamilton
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) chief George Robertson on Thursday endorsed U.S. moves to make life difficult for ethnic Albanian extremists by barring their fund-raisers, and said Europe may follow suit.
He noted that the European Union (news - web sites) ``is already looking at visa restrictions and at closing off money supplies.''
``But since we know a lot of the money has come from the United States, this is a very powerful tool that has now been handed to the international community,'' Robertson told Reuters.
Albanian exiles in America and Europe have run a ``Homeland Calling'' funding operation for the past several years, at first to support armed insurrection in Kosovo but recently to pay for fighters in Serbia and Macedonia who have no Western sympathy.
Robertson had no comment on a classified NATO assessment which, according to diplomatic sources, shows the Macedonian armed forces have received substantial supplies of weapons and ammunition in the past five months from 10 NATO allies.
Diplomatic sources said allies and three non-NATO states in the region had provided materiel, including some items useful in counter-insurgency such as flak jackets and night-vision gear.
But according to a military source, not all of the weapons shipped to Macedonia are appropriate to limited anti-guerrilla operations of the kind NATO would like Macedonia to restrict its forces to, and some were obsolete or surplus goods.
``They have very few modern sniper rifles,'' he said. ``That's the kind of thing they really need, not thousands of tank rounds.''
The allies have been critical of the Macedonian Army's stand-off bombardments, using artillery, Bulgarian-supplied tanks, and Ukrainian-supplied helicopter gunships to blast Albanian villages occupied by the rebels.
Robertson referred obliquely to a notoriously indiscriminate Soviet-era weapon recently showed up on the battlefield -- the ''Katyusha'' multiple rocket-launcher. ''There is no military solution to this conflict,'' he stressed.
Bush: More Balkan Troops Possible Posted June 28, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010627/wl/us_macedonia_1.html
Wednesday June 27 6:01 PM ET
Bush: More Balkan Troops Possible
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) moved Wednesday to restrict the funds and mobility of ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia and left open the possibility of greater U.S. military involvement in the troubled Balkan country.
``I take no option off the table in terms of the troops,'' Bush said when asked if American forces might be used to help prevent civil war in Macedonia.
Later, a U.S. official said the president's remark, which came during a meeting with congressional Republicans, was made in the context of a NATO (news - web sites) peacekeeping proposal for Macedonia.
The official, asking not to be identified, said the president wasn't trying to foreshadow an aggressive military action.
Under the plan, NATO would deploy a task force to oversee the voluntary disarmament of the Albanian rebels once an agreed cease fire is in place and there is a clear commitment by armed groups to surrender their weapons.
The United States is prepared to assist the process by providing command and control, communications, medical assistance and logistical support.
Earlier, Bush issued an executive order prohibiting, effective Wednesday, U.S. citizens from having financial or other types of commercial dealings with the ethnic Albanian rebels.
He also barred their entry into the United States.
Bush told reporters he has some evidence that the ``ethnic Albanian extremists are raising money not only in America but in Europe.''
He said the United States must not be a conduit for funds used in support of extremist activities that destabilize Macedonia's democratically-elected government.
Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said the United States ``must face down extremists in Macedonia and elsewhere who seek to use violence to redraw borders or subvert the democratic process.''
In an incident Monday in Macedonia, a convoy of about 20 U.S.-contracted buses, protected by 81 U.S. troops and armed Humvees, transported ethnic Albanian fighters and civilians from a suburb of Macedonia's capital to a mostly ethnic Albanian village to the north.
The move sparked rioting and shooting in the capital, Skopje, by thousands of Macedonian Slavs who demanded harsher action against the rebels and an end to outside intervention.
There are about 700 U.S. troops in Macedonia - mainly providing logistical support for the American peacekeeping forces in neighboring Kosovo - but they had not previously intervened directly in the hostilities in Macedonia.
The unsettled situation in Macedonia was highlighted on Wednesday when the U.S. Embassy in Skopje ordered up to 30 Americans to leave Macedonia following the riots, which revealed rising anti-Western sentiment.
An embassy spokeswoman said the order to evacuate some 10 non-essential embassy staff and 20 contract workers was intended to shield U.S. citizens from ethnic violence.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the situation in Macedonia is potentially dangerous because of continuing armed clashes between Macedonian security forces and rebel forces.
Reeker noted that an earlier warning to American citizens to defer all travel to Macedonia has been updated.
He said the department suggests that U.S. citizens living in Macedonia should continue ``to review their personal security situations and exercise caution. And if appropriate, depart the country.''
EU special envoy arrives in Skopje to push for peace Posted June 28, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010628/1/16rdk.html
Thursday June 28, 8:25 PM
EU special envoy arrives in Skopje to push for peace
SKOPJE, June 28 (AFP) -
The European Union's new special envoy to Macedonia, Francois Leotard, arrived in Skopje Thursday to push for a ceasefire after a night of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels around guerrilla-held villages in the north.
Leotard, a former French defence minister, aims to quell escalating tensions generated by the five-month ethnic Albanian guerrilla rising that has threatened to push the multi-ethnic state into another Balkans bloodbath.
His four-month mission will be to represent EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana and will start "immediately", an official in Brussels said before his departure.
Leotard was obliged to clarify late Wednesday a statement he made earlier on French radio when he appeared to be calling for direct talks between the guerrillas and the Macedonian government, something Skopje refuses outright.
He later specified that EU policy had not changed and that no representatives of the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army -- whose insurrection has plunged the country into crisis -- would have a seat at the political talks.
He said his first mission was to negotiate a ceasefire. Solana announced a truce during a visit here Sunday which allowed NATO to escort hundreds of rebels out of a town on the edge of Skopje to remove a direct threat to the capital.
The move provoked an anti-government and anti-Western backlash among Macedonian Slavs in the capital, who saw the operation as their leaders caving in to Western pressure to go soft on the rebels.
Rioters fired automatic rifles in the air and dozens stormed parliament to trash the office of President Boris Trajkovski, while graffiti protests on the walls of the capital said "Solana = Satan," with the name of NATO scrawled next to a swastika.
There was a lull in the fighting in the north of the country as the French diplomat flew in after a night of clashes between the rebels and the army around the guerrilla stronghold of Slupcane, in the Black Mountains between Skopje and the city of Kumanovo.
After a day of artillery and mortar duels, the night saw rebel snipers firing at Macedonian army positions near the village, army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said.
The army responded with mortars and machineguns, Markovski said.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said this week there could be no permanent ceasefire until the rebels agree to down their weapons under a presidential peaceful plan which would grant them an amnesty if they allow NATO troops to disarm them.
NATO has said it is ready to deploy around 3,000 troops in Macedonia for a brief operation to collect the guerrillas' weapons, but there has been no response yet from the rebel leaders.
The alliance, whose chief George Robertson said there would be no talks with "murderous thugs" and "terrorists" of the NLA, said it had "facilitated" the rebel withdrawal from the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo to remove the threat to the city and build confidence between the two sides.
The West sees a negotiated package of political reforms to give Albanians more rights as the only way to end the crisis, and has urged elected leaders from both ethnic groups to hammer out a deal and allow NATO to move in and decommission rebel arms.
But the talks have been hampered by mutual recriminations and broke down completely last week. They were about to resume when around 6,000 furious Macedonian Slavs descended on the parliament in protest at the rebel evacuation from Aracinovo.
No date has been set for a resumption of dialogue, while fighting was also reported by Markovski around Tetovo late Wednesday and Nikustak, the village where US troops dropped off the rebels from Aracinovo.
Rebel mortars landed on the edge of Kumanovo in heavy fighting Wednesday, Markovski said, although no injuries were reported.
New EU envoy says extending Macedonian ceasefire is first task Posted June 28, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010628/1/16ozc.html
Thursday June 28, 3:40 PM
New EU envoy says extending Macedonian ceasefire is first task
The EU's new permanent representative in Macedonia, Francois Leotard, will make extending the ceasefire between government troops and Albanian rebels one of his first tasks.
In an interview with Le Figaro, the former French defence minister said talks could not be held while fighting was going on.
"One of my first tasks is prolonging the ceasefire. A political dialogue cannot take place against a backdrop of violence. The ceasefire must be extended to the rest of the country," he said.
"Those who use violence distance themselves from the values that Europeans offer," said Leotard, who takes up his functions in the Macedonian capital Skopje on Thursday.
In a separate statement to AFP, Leotard corrected an earlier statement in which he urged Skopje to enter direct talks with ethnic Albanian rebels.
"Following my statement this morning in the French media, I would like to clarify that the position of the European Union has not changed. The ethnic Albanian guerrillas have no place in political dialogue which should take place solely between the legitimate representatives of political parties," he said.
"My activities in Skopje as the EU representative in Macedonia will be totally based on this position," he added.
The envoy had earlier, in an interview with France's Europe 1 radio station, said: "They (the Macedonian government) must talk with the guerrillas, with the leaders of this Albanian-speaking part of their country, so that a consensus be found and peace can be installed."
The remark shocked many observers in Skopje, where Macedonian leaders have consistently refused to talk with the rebels, who they regard as "terrorists".
The EU envoy said it was not in the interest of the Albanian communities in the Balkans to call into question the borders in the states where they are living.
"A failure in Macedonia would call into question everything that we have achieved, at a price of much difficulty and suffering, in Bosnia and Kosovo," Leotard said.
Rebels from the so-called National Liberation Army have been battling government troops for about five months to win what they say are more rights for Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority.
Leotard said on Wednesday that he plans to stay in Skopje for several months and that the purpose of his post was to be in "permanent contact with the different authorities."
EU foreign ministers appointed the former him special envoy when they met in Luxembourg on Monday.
His brief is to "facilitate" talks between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political parties. He will answer to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.