Albanians live in fear of forced exodus from Macedonia Posted June 27, 2001
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=80419
Albanians live in fear of forced exodus from Macedonia
With the Macedonian parliament stormed by the Slavs who are furious with the Nato deal, ethnic Albanians cower in suburbs
By Justin Huggler in Skopje
27 June 2001
Internal links
Straw pulls out of Skopje visit as war looms
Fear was running through the Macedonian capital last night as ethnic Albanians gathered in nervous huddles on street corners to discuss the storming of parliament by army reservists the night before.
When Macedonia's parliament was stormed on Monday night, there was shooting in the dingy Albanian suburb of Gazibaba too. The local people say the Macedonian police, who have a checkpoint just up the road, started shooting in the air for no apparent reason. "They were trying to frighten us," one man said. "They want us to leave."
They were cleaning up the debris around Macedonia's parliament building yesterday.
There have been no reports of casualties in Skopje since the city saw its first serious disturbances, as angry Macedonian Slavs broke into parliament, incensed at a Nato-brokered ceasefire with Albanian rebels.
In the poor Albanian districts on the far side of the Vardar river, the sight of angry crowds chanting "Albanians to the gas chambers" has had its effect.
A young Albanian journalist, who gave his name only as Xhemal, had just returned to Gazibaba from driving his sister to Kosovo, where she will join more than 50,000 refugees who have already fled there from the crisis in Macedonia.
Almost half the people in Gazibaba are already refugees. They fled here, to Skopje, from the towns and villages affected by earlier rounds of fighting.
Now some are considering moving on again, as the capital begins to look a less safe place to stay. Some of those here came from the village of Aracinovo, just a few miles up the road. It was a Nato ceasefire deal, under which Albanian rebels were escorted safely out of Aracinovo, that enraged the mob who stormed parliament.
"I wanted my parents to leave but they refused," says Xhemal. He says he will not go either. "I was born here. This is my home," he says. "We are prepared to surrender our lives. It's a hard thing to say, but I am ready to die."
Xhemal said he had heard that Macedonian Slavs were planning to attack Albanian areas, to intimidate Albanians into fleeing, but this could not be verified.
The Human Rights Watch organisation (HRW) says riots in the southern city of Bitola, where hundreds of Albanian homes and shops were set alight earlier this month, were a pogrom deliberately aimed at driving Albanians out of town.
"Skopje will not be like Bitola," says Xhemal. "Here we have the means to defend ourselves." Others in the district agree, though they say they have no guns.
The Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Amry (NLA) yesterday threatened to enter Skopje if there were attacks on Albanians there. A rebel commander called Sokolli claimed the UCK had "two brigades in the outskirts of Skopje". It echoes a claim made a few days ago by another rebel commander.
Opinion is hardening on both sides of the river. "All my life, I have never been a nationalist, but now I have become one," insisted Milo, a young Macedonian. "Nato is holding back our army," he said angrily. "If they allowed us, we could kill all the terrorists in two days." But the Macedonian army was losing on the battlefield months before the controversial Aracinovo ceasefire.
Questions are being asked over how much the Macedonian government did to prevent Monday night's riots. Witnesses say police did little to interfere.
President Boris Trajkovski, in a nationally broadcast radio address, said yesterday that his government's aim was to "eliminate the terrorists from Macedonia". But he pledged that government forces would do so "with as little loss of human life as possible".
The government was forced into accepting the Aracinovo ceasefire by Nato and EU diplomats furious it had begun an offensive there behind their backs, even as they were announcing that peace talks were working. But the Macedonian government is still smarting over its climbdown. When the Macedonia crisis first began, Nato and the EU were desperate to shore up the Macedonian government against the rebels. In the Slav-dominated centre of Skopje yesterday, graffiti showed Nato depicted with a swastika. That is a sign of how successfully the rebels have changed the agenda.
Some Americans Leave Macedonia Posted June 27, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010627/wl/macedonia.html
Wednesday June 27 2:58 PM ET
Some Americans Leave Macedonia
By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday ordered up to 30 Americans to leave Macedonia following riots that revealed rising anti-Western sentiment in the tense nation.
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.
``This is something the U.S. Embassy does not want to fool around with,'' Embassy spokeswoman Yolanda Robinson said. ``It's a very unsettled situation and potentially dangerous.''
Canada issued a travel warning Wednesday, saying Canadians should consider leaving Macedonia. Germany and Britain also published travel warnings, but did not order citizens to leave.
Western officials noted that the United States has more contract workers in Macedonia than other Western nations, and is therefore more exposed. About 2,000 Americans live in Macedonia, compared with some 120 Britons, for example.
The mood in the country was tense even before Monday, when armed Macedonian reservists fired on the Parliament during a violent protest by some 5,000 ethnic Slavs.
The protesters were angry about a cease-fire with ethnic Albanian rebels who had occupied the village of Aracinovo just outside the capital. U.S. troops, acting under a NATO (news - web sites) umbrella and supporting a cease-fire brokered by the European Union (news - web sites), escorted the rebels out of Aracinovo and released them in the mountains about seven miles away - with their weapons.
While there have been no reports of violence against Americans or other Westerners in the capital, some American residents have noted a recent subtle change of attitude. And there have been minor incidents, like anti-American graffiti on homes, or windows broken on cars that have plates identifying them as American-owned.
``There are some kids in the neighborhood kind of hassling my kids with a couple of dirty words in English as they ride by,'' said Stephen Haynes, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Macedonia. ``It's hard to say if it's related. It could just be some kids who have learned some filthy language.''
For the moment, he and his family, including children aged 6 and 9, are staying.
But about 20 Americans on U.S. government contracts funded by USAID are leaving. They hope it will only be temporary. For some, the orders coincide with vacations.
Americans Richard and Amy Hurelbrink of Edinburgh, Ill., finished packing six boxes and two suitcases containing everything they brought with them four years ago. The Hurelbrinks have lived in 25 countries in the last 27 years - including four years in Sri Lanka - and they are leaving reluctantly.
But they don't question the order. Over the weekend, they watched from their hillside balcony overlooking Skopje as Macedonian helicopters bombarded the village of Aracinovo.
``It was surreal,'' said Hurelbrink, who has been helping to develop the dairy industry under a U.S. government contract with Land O'Lakes Inc. - and plans to continue work from the couple's permanent residence near Munich, Germany.
The project's staff of 37 grew more nervous as violence drew closer to the capital after being mostly contained to northern border towns during the four months of insurgency by Albanian rebels. The decision to pull out Americans sends a signal to the local population, he added. ``When the foreign community makes mandatory evacuations it makes them very nervous because they think the diplomatic community knows more than they do.''
Some said they did note the decision to pull out.
``Maybe I'll bring my two children now on a summer holiday in Greece sooner than I have planned,'' said economist Livija Jankulovska.
None of the anger displayed outside Parliament earlier in the week was evident Wednesday as Macedonians made their way home from work. But some said they felt the Americans had exposed Macedonians to danger by escorting armed rebels.
``I consider Americans and Britons as our friends, I believe in their honest wishes to help Macedonia. Why have they helped terrorists?'' asked Ilija Noveski, a retired police officer.
Hopeful that the cease-fire will take root, NATO moved forward Wednesday on a proposed plan for a 3,000-strong force to come in and disarm rebels who give up their weapons voluntarily.
Bush Takes Steps Against Macedonia Rebels Posted June 27, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010627/pl/macedonia_usa_bush_dc_1.html
Wednesday June 27 1:47 PM ET
Bush Takes Steps Against Macedonia Rebels
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) barred some ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia from entering the United States and took steps to stop them from being financed by U.S. citizens, the White House said on Wednesday.
Seeking to shore up Macedonia's embattled government, which has been fighting ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the Balkan nation for several months, the White House also condemned what it called ``terrorist violence'' by the rebels.
Bush issued an executive order barring U.S. citizens from financing a specific list of people ``involved in violent and obstructionist actions.'' The White House did not immediately release the list, but a U.S. official said it targeted ethnic Albanians engaged in violence in Macedonia.
The White House also said in a statement that Bush issued a proclamation restricting the entry into the United States of people seeking to ``undermine peace and stability in the region'' or ``responsible for wartime atrocities'' committed since 1991.
``This is meant to combat the violent extremists in Macedonia,'' said a U.S. official who asked not to be named. He said the proclamation targeted people operating in Macedonia, southern Serbia and Kosovo and in some cases all three.
``The purpose of these two actions is to send a clear message to the extremists and their supporters in the region, who actively obstruct and undermine peace and stability, that such tactics are unacceptable and that we will use the means at our disposal to isolate these groups and individuals and cut their access to financial support,'' the White House said.
Western officials, desperate to prevent another Balkan war, have been trying to foster government talks with politicians representing the ethnic Albanians to try to find a political solution to the conflict.
``The United States has joined with its European allies and other countries of the United Nations (news - web sites) in strongly condemning the terrorist violence perpetrated by armed extremists determined to destabilize the democratic, multiethnic government of Macedonia,'' the White House said.
``Their violent tactics threaten U.S. and international efforts to promote regional peace and stability and pose a potential danger to U.S. military forces and other Americans supporting peacekeeping efforts,'' it added.
A European Union (news - web sites) envoy on Wednesday urged Macedonia to talk to the ethnic Albanian guerrillas, but the former Yugoslav republic, seeming more keen to crush them with force, shelled a rebel stronghold. Western officials have not previously urged that the armed rebels be brought into negotiations.
In its statement, the White House praised the efforts at finding a solution to the problem through political dialogue but did not suggest talking directly to the armed rebels.
``Macedonian President (Boris) Trajkovski has asked for our support to combat these extremists, who are undermining the political dialogue currently underway among Macedonia's legitimately elected leaders,'' it said. ``This dialogue offers a real opportunity for a negotiated and peaceful settlement.''
State Department Issues Macedonia Warning Posted June 27, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010627/ts/macedonia010627_1.html
Wednesday June 27 01:26 PM EDT
State Department Issues Macedonia Warning
By ABCNEWS.com
As social and political unrest continues in Macedonia, the U.S. State Department is urging Americans to stay out of the country.
As social and political unrest continues in Macedonia, the U.S. State Department is urging Americans to stay out of the country - and authorized the departure of all non-emergency embassy personnel.
"The situation in Macedonia is unsettled and potentially dangerous as a result of armed clashes between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian radicals," the advisory reads, noting that anti-Western sentiment has been particularly strong.
U.S. Forces Under Fire in New Violence
On Monday, fresh violence broke out in the wake of a White House-approved mission that saw U.S. forces come under fire when they helped evacuate hundreds of ethnic Albanians from a besieged village.
The American personnel, 81 well-armed combat troops of the 101st Airborne Division and 20 contractors, on Monday transported some 100 rebels and about 250 other civilians men, women and children out of Aracinovo and to a village 11 miles away under a plan to end clashes in the village.
The ethnic Albanians were escorted in a convoy of 15 buses, three trucks, three ambulances and 16 Humvees for security, officials said. The U.S. troops, part of a contingent located in the nearby capital of Skopje, were shot at during the operation, but did not shoot back. There were no reports of U.S. casualties.
Officials said the evacuation was quickly, but heavily planned. More troops were on standby, as were helicpters ready to conduct an evacuation of the forces.
But all did not go exactly according to plan. At one point, the U.S. forces were in visual sight of Macedonian government combat vehicles, though an agreement had required Macedonian forces pull back out of sight, so the convoy would not be in the vehicle's gunsights, NATO (news - web sites) sources say. The U.S. troops asked the Macedonians to pull back, and they did.
At another point point, the convoy was held up at a Macedonian government checkpoint, allowing a large armed crowd to quickly gather around the troops, a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman confirmed. "The U.S. commander on scene made the call and, rather than try to continue through the checkpoint and continue the process, I'm gonna turn around and seek another way and defuse the situation," said Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley.
Quigley said the evacuation had the support of the Macedonian government. He also noted there are elements within Macedonian society that clearly opposed it.
Following the operation, anti-ethnic Albanian rioting broke out in Skopje. The protesters demanded harsher government action against ethnic Albanians.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson praised the evacuation, calling it "a major step forward in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia peace process."
NATO and European Union (news - web sites) envoys had earlier brokered a deal allowing the ethnic Albanians to pull out of Aracinovo and return to guerrilla-held territory. The deal, which came just days after government forces began an offensive on the violence-torn, strategically important area, was designed to revive peace talks.
Violence Persists
However, violence continued Tuesday in a number of areas.
There were reports of intense fighting near the northwest town of Tetovo, as rebels attacked police positions on the outskirts of the city and government forces returned fire. A policeman was killed and four others were wounded, a U.S. official confirmed.
Macedonian governement forces hunted rebels in several villages, including in Nikustak, where the rebels in Aracinovo were were taken by NATO before further relocation, according to news reports.
Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, urged that a cease-fire be extended across the country. "I stress what I have said before: There is no military solution to the current crisis. The cessation of violence must now be made permanent."
Efforts to Make Peace
For more than a week, U.S. and European diplomats have been attempting to broker a cease fire agreement between Macedonian government forces and ethnic Albanian guerillas, hoping to prevent an all-out civil war in the country. NATO announced last week a peace agreement would be enforced with the introduction of NATO peacekeepers into the country.
The evacuation Monday signaled a surprising improvisation of U.S. policy. Reluctant to further involve U.S. forces in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, the Bush administration has lately suggested U.S. forces would play only a supporting role in NATO peacekeeping operations in Macedonia.
U.S. officials said the U.S. troops and vehicles were used because they were the most quickly available.
"NATO requested the countries on an urgent basis, contribute vehicles to that effort, said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher at a press briefing. "We had some assets that were available for that purpose. And after approval by our chain of command, we deployed them for that use."
U.S. officials said the White House approved the operation. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) told reporters President Bush (news - web sites) was informed of the mission ahead of time. But he did not answer directly the question of who in the administration had authorized using American troops.
Pentagon spokesman Quigley told reporters the evacuation did not signal a formal change in U.S. policy. "This particular event, I would not point to this as a turning the corner and proceeding down a path where we will now continuously provide this level of support."
There are currently between 500 and 700 U.S. military personnel in Skopje, introduced in 1993 to symbolize U.S. opposition to instability spreading from neighboring Kosovo and Serbia proper. They provide logistical support for NATO forces in the region, and also include a contingent of combat troops for force protection.
U.S. military planning continues for supporting a peacekeeping mission, if there is a peace agreement. They are, so far, considering offering logistics, airlift, intelligence and communications support, but not direct troops for assisting in disarmament.
Rioting in the Capital
In Skopje Monday night, several angry Macedonian reservists stormed the parliament building, made their way to the balcony, and fired gunshots into the air, cheered on by the crowd of about 5,000 outside.
Others destroyed furniture inside the building, or hung the former Macedonian flag from the building. The flag was replaced more than half a century ago by communists when the country was still part of Yugoslavia.
Outside, crowds pounded on police cars and shouted: "Gas chambers for the Albanians," "Traitors, traitors," "Give us weapons" and "Death to the Albanians!"
In separate incidents, a U.S. Army soldier patrolling the Kosovo side of the Kosovo-FYROM border stepped on a land mine Monday while on routine. The wound was not life-threatening, according to Quigley, but the soldier lost his foot.
Also, a U.S. Army soldier in Macedonia was wounded southwest of Skopje, when the unmarked vehicle that he and some Macedonian officials were riding in received some small arms fire. The soldier was struck in the hand and possibly elsewhere and is being treated.
Albanians in Macedonia are outnumbered by Slavs more than 3 to 1. Armed rebels have been demanding more autonomy. Moderate ethnic Albanian leaders have been demanding greater participation in Macedonian civil society.
ABCNEWS' Barbara Starr, Terry Moran and David Ruppe contributed to this report.
Macedonian army resumes shelling Posted June 27, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1409000/1409959.stm
Wednesday, 27 June, 2001, 14:47 GMT 15:47 UK
Macedonian army resumes shelling
Fighting continues but the capital is calm
Macedonian forces have resumed shelling of positions held by ethnic Albanian rebels, in defiance of calls from the European Union for military restraint.
The shelling of the village of Nikustak, which began on Tuesday, follows the evacuation of rebels from nearby Aracinovo in a Nato-led operation.
An army spokesman said the latest bombardment was in response to an attack by the rebels.
"We are not fighting against one another - this is what the enemy wishes"- President Trajkovski
Correspondents say the army's latest action is seen by some as an attempt to placate public opinion over the ceasefire in Aracinovo.
Calm was maintained in the capital, Skopje, on Wednesday following an address by President Boris Trajkovski aimed at soothing public fears in the wake of rioting that brought the country to the verge of civil war.
Mr Trajkovski said the decision to evacuate the rebels from Aracinovo, which sparked Monday night's violence, was a victory, not a defeat, for the government.
Clashes have persisted outside Skopje however, and Reuters news agency reports that, as the army was shelling Nikustak, troops reinforced a position outside the neighbouring village of Umin Dol and appeared to be preparing a ground assault on rebel positions.
EU pressure
Western diplomats, in the meantime, repeated calls for renewed talks.
The US and UK have imposed travel bans after Monday's riots
Francois Leotard, the EU's newly appointed permanent representative in Macedonia, said the government should negotiate directly with the rebels - something it has so far refused to do.
"The Macedonian Government must talk with the leaders of the guerrillas so that a consensus can be found and peace can be ushered in," he told French radio.
He urged the government to reform the constitution in order to grant the minority ethnic Albanian population the greater recognition it is demanding.
Mr Leotard - who will travel to Macedonia on Thursday - will establish a permanent EU presence in the country in an attempt to keep up pressure on the two sides to strike a deal.
Travel bans
Monday's rioting, which saw nationalists burning pictures of Western leaders in the streets around the parliament building, prompted the US and Britain to warn their citizens not to travel to Macedonia.
According to President Trajkovski, the riots "could easily have turned into civil war".
"We are not fighting against one another. This is what the enemy wishes. If we accept that way, defeat will be inevitable," he said.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said the armed forces could clear the guerrillas from Macedonia without outside help.
Ethnic Albanian rebels began their armed uprising in February and, despite repeated efforts by the Macedonian army, they have retained control over a string of villages near Macedonia's northern border.
Albanians in Macedonia Blame the Police for Violence Posted June 27, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/world/27ALBA.html
June 27, 2001
Albanians in Macedonia Blame the Police for Violence
By CARLOTTA GALL
Macedonian Leader, Warning of Civil War, Urges Calm (June 27, 2001)
STRUGA, Macedonia Several prominent ethnic Albanian community leaders have disappeared in Macedonia in recent months, and here in the southwestern region, where one local Albanian political leader was killed, the Albanians increasingly blame the police force, which is dominated by the country's majority Slavs.
Government officials and foreign observers talk of increasing signs that elements in the Interior Ministry have been arming and organizing paramilitary groups and are behind some of the violence against Albanian civilians.
Some officials have accused Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski himself of orchestrating attacks and stirring up ethnic tensions.
Those tensions are now palpable in most communities in this country of 1.9 million people, up to one-third of them Albanians.
In the lake resort of Struga, armed police officers have begun regular patrols. In the surrounding region, many Albanians are alternately seething and fearful over the disappearances of a prominent businessman and a political activist, and the killing of a local politician, Naser Hani, 43.
Mr. Hani's friends say he died when gunmen trying to kidnap him pumped a half-dozen bullets into him and fled.
"It was like when there is a lot of gasoline spilled and it takes only one thing to happen and the whole thing blows up," Tahir Hani, a relative of the dead man and mayor of Velesta, Mr. Hani's home village, said in an interview. "It needs only a small thing and the whole of Struga would be at war."
Relatives and colleagues of the victims blame members of the police for what they say is a conscious effort to attack local leaders and members of the main Albanian political party, the Democratic Party for Albanians, which is in the national government coalition of two Slavic and two Albanian parties, and with which Mr. Hani and the two missing men were associated.
The Interior Ministry says it is looking into those and other cases. Some ministry officials and reports in Macedonian Slav media have suggested that Mr. Hani and the missing men were somehow linked to shady business dealings and even organized crime, and that Albanian business rivals are behind the killing and the kidnappings.
The Struga area, near the border with Albania, is known for the smuggling and trafficking of women, the officials point out. But relatives and Albanian politicians tell a different story, backed by the justice minister, Ixhep Mehmeti, an Albanian, who two weeks ago presented a list of 56 Albanians he said had been arrested by the police or disappeared.
At a meeting of the newly formed government crisis committee, he requested that the Interior Ministry report on their whereabouts and the circumstances of the arrests. Numerous arrests and beatings of Albanians by the police have been reported in the three to four months since ethnic Albanian rebels known as the National Liberation Army began their armed insurgency.
The first man from Struga to disappear was Islam Veliu, 37, who was reported missing on April 17. A member of the Democratic Party for Albanians, he disappeared while driving home one evening from the western town of Tetovo and has not been heard from since, his brother-in-law, Lutvi Mahmuti, said in an interview.
Then Sultan Mehmeti, 38, the owner of a bingo hall, was apparently arrested by the police. His relatives say they have not seen him since, nor received any firm word of his whereabouts.
"It is our obligation to clear up all these cases," said Stevo Pendarovski, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, who is also a member of the new committee intended to defuse tensions. "We have to restore the trust of all Macedonians, regardless of their ethnicity."
But diplomats and officials within the government and the presidential administration are concerned that elements within the Interior Ministry may have helped stir up trouble reportedly taking part, for instance, in anti-Albanian riots in the southern town of Bitola.
The Interior Minister, Mr. Boskovski, has also been criticized for issuing hundreds of weapons to Macedonian Slav reservists in and around Skopje, including some former criminals, since the rebels advanced close to the city.
For the Albanians in Velesta, the killing of Mr. Hani was political and aimed against them all. "The message is clear," said Mayor Hani. "It is to scare the Albanian people from pursuing political issues and to scare Albanians from speaking out and acting in Macedonia."
Sitting in the courtyard of his relative's house in Velesta as groups of men from miles around arrived to pay their respects to the family, the mayor said Mr. Hani had been closely involved in politics since helping to found the first Albanian party after independence in 1991.
Mayor Hani said he believed that the police, or a special unit working for the police, were responsible for the killing, because it had happened just yards from the police station and no ordinary car could have made such a clean getaway through police checkpoints on all of the roads that lead out of town.
In the case of Sultan Mehmeti, who was mayor of his village near Struga and a member of the Democratic Party for Albanians, a witness told his brother, Filizon, that he had seen Mr. Mehmeti being stopped on a road into Struga by heavily armed police officers and handcuffed.
His brother suggested that Mr. Mehmeti might have come under suspicion of organizing an armed rebellion in the area because he had called a meeting in his village to urge calm as fighting surged near the predominantly Albanian town of Tetovo.
"At the time he was taken, he was very successful as a leader but was not thinking at all of military things," Filizon Mehmeti said. "If they kidnapped him for money, they would have called me right away. I think it is the secret police, very high-level, who are responsible."
Macedonia eerily calm after presidential appeal Posted June 27, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010627/3/16g9v.html
Wednesday June 27, 8:08 AM
Macedonia eerily calm after presidential appeal
By Philippa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The Macedonian capital was eerily calm early on Wednesday after an appeal by the president seemed to cool inter-ethnic tensions brought to boiling point by nationalist riots.
Fears of a second evening of protests by majority Macedonians outraged that NATO had helped evacuate ethnic Albanian guerrillas from a strategic village with all their weapons kept many people off the streets.
But the demonstrators did not materialise, allowing cafes and bars to stay open for business after shutting their doors early the previous night against crowds massing in front of parliament, where police reservists fired shots in the air.
Predominantly Albanian districts of the capital, where the one-third minority lives side-by-side with Macedonians, were almost deserted, with shutters lowered long before nightfall.
In a televised address to the nation, President Boris Trajkosvki said he needed everyone's help to restore peace.
"The shooting in the parliament building could have easily thrown us into civil war," Trajkovski said.
"I can understand the anger of those who were peacefully protesting but I cannot understand the others who attacked the parliament building," he said. "What was their goal?"
FEARS OF ALL-OUT WAR
If the calm lasts, it will come as a huge relief to many on both sides of the ethnic divide who had feared the riots marked the beginning of the latest all-out war to tear through the Balkans since former Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991.
It will also encourage Western diplomats and policymakers, who had feared that the ground-breaking evacuation from Aracinovo, instead of defusing tensions, had increased them to a point where they could easily get out of control.
On Tuesday afternoon a prominent ethnic Albanian rebel commander known as Hoxha announced he had entered the capital, which he had earlier threatened to attack from Aracinovo, to "defend civilians".
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, a hawk in the opposite camp, said the armed forces could clear the guerrillas from Macedonia without outside help and announced that a new elite military unit would be formed for hand-to-hand combat.
"We have to fight for ourselves and we are capable of doing that," Georgievski told state television.
But he steered away from a direct call for confrontation, acknowledging some serious training would be needed to deal with the four-month-old revolt in which the rebels have taken over a string of Albanian-populated villages.
Diplomats worked frantically on Tuesday to try to put across the message that clearing Aracinovo of guerrillas was in the interests of stability and had been organised with the full agreement of the entire Macedonian government.
They were also at pains to point out that it did not mean NATO was being dragged into another Balkan war.
The Pentagon, under scrutiny over the participation of dozens of U.S. troops in such a sensitive operation, told reporters it had been the right thing to do in the circumstances and did not mark a departure from existing policy.
On Tuesday the Macedonian army fired artillery, tank shells and machineguns at three villages near Aracinovo from where automatic gunfire signalled the rebel presence.
Mitko, a Macedonian entrepreneur sitting glumly in a Skopje cafe, said the country was still a tinderbox.
"When there's petrol everywhere you never know where it's going to explode," he said.
NATO, EU solidly behind political solution to Macedonian violence Posted June 27, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010626/1/16d01.html
Wednesday June 27, 2:09 AM
NATO, EU solidly behind political solution to Macedonian violence
BRUSSELS, June 26 (AFP) -
NATO and the European Union put their heads together Tuesday on a political solution to the escalating violence in Macedonia, vowing that "radicals" on both sides would have to abandon violence and "learn to behave like Europeans."
"The only way through the current dilemma is to ensure that political dialogue produces results and that there is an end to violence," NATO Secretary General George Robertson told reporters after a meeting of the alliance and the EU's Political and Security Committee.
Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, backed a speech by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, in which he defended a controversial NATO-brokered evacuation of ethnic Albanian rebels from Aracinovo, a suburb of the capital Skopje.
The ethnic Albanian rebels have been waging a tenacious armed struggle against Macedonian forces for five months in the name of winning more rights for ethnic Albanians in the country.
Solana acknowledged there were "radicals" on both the Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian sides, and "we just have to work with the non-radicals."
He said Trajkovski's speech earlier Tuesday had made "a very clear statement that he wants to lead his country in the direction of Europe."
But Europe, added Solana, "does not resolve problems through the use of force ... but through dialogue and negotiations, and if they want to be part of the family of European countries, they have to learn to behave like Europeans."
Robertson said the "evacuating and demilitarizing of Aracinovo ... was a very substantial success ... an action taken with the full agreement of the government of Skopje."
The suburb was "a direct threat to the city of Skopje, to the airport and to vital infrastructure, and this evacuation was an important first step to achieve a cessation of all the violence," he said.
He made clear that NATO would under no circumstances be drawn into a shooting war, saying the alliance "stands ready to help with disarmament as part of an overall settlement."
"Planning is being urgently completed within NATO," he said, referring to a 3,000-troop force that was being readied to move in and collect surrendered weapons from the ethnic Albanian rebels once a political settlement was achieved.
"Political solutions are the only way forward," he said. "Violence no longer has a place here. I strongly condemn the armed extremists for challenging democratic institutions in Macedonia.
"I want NATO and the European Union to help the people of Macedonia to regain their own future and avoid a bloody civil war," he said.
White House approved use of US troops as rebel escorts Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010626/1/16e83.html
Wednesday June 27, 4:23 AM
White House approved use of US troops as rebel escorts
WASHINGTON, June 26 (AFP) -
The Pentagon defended the use of US troops to escort ethnic Albanian rebels with their weapons from a besieged town in Macedonia as "the right thing to do," but insisted it did not mark a shift in US policy.
The action set off violent protests in the Macedonian capital by angry Slavs who stormed the parliament, and crowds brandishing weapons blocked the path of the US convoy on its return to base.
In a separate incident, a US soldier was slightly wounded Monday when a vehicle he and three other US embassy officials were riding in came under fire southwest of Kumanovo, apparently from Macedonian troops, Pentagon officials said.
A US soldier lost a foot after stepping on a landmine in southeastern Kosovo while patrolling the border with Macedonia to stop the flow of weapons to the ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia, the Pentagon said.
The US troops -- 81 soldiers in four armored Humvees -- escorted buses carrying 350 rebels and civilians from Aracinovo, on the edge of the Macedonian capital, to a rebel-controlled village 11 miles away Monday in an attempt to defuse three days of fighting, a Pentagon spokesman said.
On its return, the convoy was stopped at a Macedonian government checkpoint where a large crowd gathered, said Rear Admiral Craig Quigley.
"Weapons were visible in the crowd, and the US commander on the scene made the decision to again defuse that situation and seek another route," he said.
A Hunter unmanned reconnaissance plane sent to scout out an alternate route detected a large crowd at another checkpoint several miles away, forcing the convoy to halt until a clear route was found, he said.
The convoy, which had delivered the rebels at 8 pm local time Monday, arrived back at the US headquarters at Skopje's international airport at 5 am Tuesday, he said.
In Skopje, angry Slavs stormed the parliament building in a violent protest against the Macedonian government decision to allow the rebels to leave Aracinovo under a US escort.
It was the first time the 700 US troops based in Macedonia have been put in the middle of an intensifying conflict between Slav-dominated government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels.
"It was a new event. We've not done this before," Quigley acknowledged.
But the spokesman denied that the action represented a policy shift by the new administration, which until now had been reluctant to commit US troops even as part of a negotiated settlement of the conflict.
"It is very situational," he said. "In this case, we think it is the right thing to do. But I don't know if I read here the creation of a new US or NATO policy, for that matter, to always do this sort of activity."
US Air Force General Joseph Ralston, NATO's supreme commander and the commander of US forces in Europe, agreed to the use of the US troops Sunday night after receiving a request from NATO Secretary General George Robertson, Quigley said.
Quigley said the White House was informed of the decision and that it had Pentagon approval. But it was unclear whether either President George W. Bush or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally approved the operation.
Macedonia ceasefire only when rebels accept peace plan: PM Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010626/1/16et5.html
Wednesday June 27, 5:30 AM
Macedonia ceasefire only when rebels accept peace plan: PM
Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said there will only be a permanent ceasefire when ethnic Albanian rebels accept a government peace plan and agree to hand over their weapons to NATO.
In a televised address to calm public fears about the government handling of the escalating insurrection, Georgievski said the army had only observed military restraint as a sign of goodwill or a pause in their campaign against the guerrillas.
President Boris Trajkovski, who made a national address earlier after rioters trashed the parliament to protest a NATO-brokered deal to evacuate the rebels and their arms from a town on the edge of Skopje, also appealed for calm, defending the evacuation as a first step in his peace plan.
Both leaders said the political dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders, which deadlocked last week, could and should continue to resolve the large minority's complaints that they do not have equal status with the Macedonian Slav majority.
But Georgievski, who has become increasingly hawkish during the five-month insurrection, said his ethnic Albanian partners in the fragile coalition not only had the same agenda as the rebels but accused them of having "become their political wing."
The army pounded the rebel-held town of Aracinovo for three days with little visible success over the weekend before NATO negotiated a deal between the rebels and the government for the rebels to withdraw with their weapons under US army escort.
The move infuriated Macedonian Slavs, prompting thousands to head to the parliament, where a group of them trashed Trajkovski's office and fired assault rifles in the air.
Echoing Trajkovski's and NATO's stance that the riot was the work of agitators trying to deepen the already grave crisis, Georgievski said he could understand the people's anger "but not attacks on state institutions."
"We already have an enemy using weapons against us. Now we are doing it ourselves," he said.
Georgievski said the appointment of former French defence minister Francois Leotard as special EU envoy to Macedonia would help to facilitate talks, although he said there was more pressure on the Macedonians than the rebels to make concessions.
"We have the impression were are being blackmailed by the terrorist," he said.
EU says Macedonia can still avoid civil war Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010626/3/16ayn.html
Tuesday June 26, 10:49 PM
EU says Macedonia can still avoid civil war
By Gareth Jones
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union appealed for calm in Macedonia on Tuesday after a night of clashes and said the former Yugoslav republic could still pull back from the brink of civil war if its citizens showed restraint.
EU leaders also pledged full support for Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and vowed to step up their efforts to mediate an agreement between the tiny country's ethnic Slav and Albanian communities.
"We strongly condemn the violence overnight in (the capital) Skopje," Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten said in a joint statement.
Sweden holds the rotating EU presidency.
"We will not be deflected from our determination to do all in our power -- working closely with NATO and other international organisations -- to assist the democratically elected government...to achieve a solution to this crisis through dialogue," the statement said.
Earlier, Lindh told reporters in Luxembourg that the EU had received assurances that Trajkovski and his government were "in full control of the military and the police".
She said Trajkovski, who has forged close political and economic ties with the 15-nation EU, would address his country of two million later on Tuesday.
WAR STILL AVOIDABLE
In its statement, the EU said there was still everything to play for in Macedonia.
"There is still every chance of restoring peace and stability. But it will require the courage and the resolve of every citizen to stand back now from the brink and to seize the remaining chance of peace, based on dialogue," it said.
On Tuesday, Macedonian troops fired at three rebel villages, but the guerrillas, who say they are fighting for Albanian minority rights in the Balkan country, vowed to stay put.
On Monday night, police reservists fired off their guns in parliament to protest at NATO's evacuation of armed rebels from the village of Aracinovo after an EU-brokered ceasefire. Thousands of Macedonian Slavs cheered on the reservists.
Asked whether the EU and NATO had been right to put pressure on the government to allow the rebels to leave Aracinovo with their arms, Lindh said there had been no other option available.
"What was important was to have them (the rebels) leave Aracinovo," she said.
WIDER CONFLICT FEARS
Lindh said the EU and NATO would remain closely involved in the search for a way out of the conflict in Macedonia.
"This is not only a Macedonian conflict, this is a conflict of utmost international importance," she said, referring to Western fears that meltdown in Macedonia could draw in neighbouring states like Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece.
"Therefore we have to stay committed and we have to be present, even if we are not very welcome at this very moment."
On Monday, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg held talks with their Macedonian counterpart, Ilinka Mitreva, and expressed disappointment about the lack of progress on political reforms aimed at healing the inter-ethnic rift.
The ministers also appointed former French Defence Minister Francois Leotard as the EU's resident envoy in Macedonia. He will report to Solana, who until now has been spearheading the international effort to restore peace in Macedonia.
Lindh said on Tuesday that Leotard was in Luxembourg for consultations about his mission before leaving for Skopje.
HRW: Pamphlet Raises Ethnic Tensions. [ Ethnic cleansing in making? ] Posted June 26, 2001
"We order all Shiptars [derogatory term for ethnic Albanians-tr.] who
have objects for sale-shopkeepers here and around the Kwantaskhi
bazaar-to leave within three days, and for those Shiptars from
Aracinovo, the deadline is 24 hours. After this deadline, all the shops
will be burned, and if someone tries to protect [them], the same will
be killed without warning."
Excerpt from the "MACEDONIA PARAMILITARY 2000 ORDER"
"This pamphlet is exactly the kind of thing that could lead to
widespread ethnic violence. The government and international
community have to stop it now."
Holly Cartner,
HRW Executive director
Europe and Central Asia division
-----
http://hrw.org/press/2001/06/macedon0625.htm
Macedonia: Pamphlet Raises Ethnic Tensions
Tens of Thousands in Skopje Streets Tonight
(New York, June 25, 2001) As tens of thousands of Macedonians gathered in the streets of Skopje tonight, Human Rights Watch warned that the threat of ethnic violence in the country was rising sharply. Army and special police forces were seen joining the crowd, which took over the parliament building.
A pamphlet being circulated in the vicinity of Skopje by a group calling itself Macedonia Paramilitary 2000 has warned that ethnic Albanians must leave Macedonia by tonight, or be killed and have their homes and shops burned.
"This pamphlet is exactly the kind of thing that could lead to widespread ethnic violence," said Holly Cartner, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "The government and international community have to stop it now."
MACEDONIA PARAMILITARY 2000 ORDER:
We order all Shiptars [derogatory term for ethnic Albanians-tr.] who have objects for sale-shopkeepers here and around the Kwantaskhi bazaar-to leave within three days, and for those Shiptars from Aracinovo, the deadline is 24 hours. After this deadline, all the shops will be burned, and if someone tries to protect [them], the same will be killed without warning.
We inform Shiptars of the Macedonian republic that for every killed police officer or soldier 100 Shiptars who do not have citizenship or who took citizenship after 1994 will be killed. For every police officer or soldier disabled, 50 Shiptars will be killed. For every wounded police officer or soldier wounded, 10 Shiptars will be killed, no matter what gender or age.
We inform Shiptars who do not have citizenship or got it after 1994 to leave Macedonia before June 25 this year, at midnight. After this deadline, we will start with the cleansing--"The Longest Night" courtesy of Macedonia Paramilitary 2000.
We order every Macedonian, Turk, Roma, Turbesh, Bosniak and others not to shop in Albanian stores while the war is on, because with such actions they directly support the Shiptar terrorist narco-gangsters. Otherwise all the shops of those who trade with Shiptars will be burned down.
We order to everyone to stick this pamphlet on their shops to allow for mass information. Those dwellings who receive this pamphlet and who do not show it in a visible place will be potential targets, no matter to whom they belong.
The pamphlet was stamped with a purple rubber stamp with the image of a lion and M P 2000 written around the seal.
Macedonian capital erupts over rebel withdrawal Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/3/163um.html
Tuesday June 26, 6:41 AM
Macedonian capital erupts over rebel withdrawal
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Fierce protests broke out in Macedonia's capital Skopje on Monday night over the government's handling of an ethnic Albanian rebellion and armed police reservists broke into the parliament building.
At least three reservists fired several volleys of automatic gunfire into the air from the building's balcony. Other reservists shot in the air from the square outside and thousands of people cheered.
The protest followed a deal, brokered and implemented by NATO and the European Union, that allowed a group of ethnic Albanian rebels to leave the village of Aracinovo close to the capital and return to guerrilla-held territory with their arms.
It was further aggravated by news that a policeman was killed and three others were injured in fighting with ethnic Albanian guerrillas near the northwestern city of Tetovo.
When the protest started President Boris Trajkovski was holding talks with Macedonian and Albanian party leaders inside parliament but they were reported to have left by another exit before the crowd stormed the building.
Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski tried to calm the crowd but more reservists arrived by bus as well as several dozen unarmed army conscripts on foot. The crowd surged towards the building, throwing stones at the windows.
A dozen unarmed protesters were the first inside, one climbing on top of the entrance and waving a Macedonian flag, while reservists, some armed with machineguns, outside shouted "Traitors! Traitors!" to protest against the government's policies.
Other police took up defensive positions but made little attempt to stop the crowd.
The reservists, in police uniforms, said they had been on the "front line" for three and a half months and were angry with their leaders for not letting them fight properly against the guerrillas.
CLOSE TO CIVIL WAR
Boskovski, whose limousine was vandalised, told them they would not have to wait long.
"Wait a day or two and we'll bring you victory," he said.
The protest highlighted Macedonia's proximity to civil war after four months of the rebellion which saw dozens of Macedonian troops killed and anti-Albanian riots in the country's second city, Bitola.
"Albanians are in a panic and everyone's preparing to leave. For now, we are staying at home and waiting what will happen," said one young Albanian man who lives in an Albanian-populated quarter of Skopje.
"We are hearing gunfire outside but we don't know what's going on."
The fighting in Tetovo broke out as NATO and international monitors escorted hundreds of ethnic Albanian guerrillas out of the strategic village of Aracinovo under a Western-brokered deal to end a three-day-old army offensive against the village.
The evacuation was completed without incident but a group of diplomats, international monitors and U.S. soldiers were blocked from returning to Skopje by an angry Macedonian crowd that threw rocks at some of the vehicles.
The EU issued a strong warning to Macedonia on Monday not to try to solve the crisis militarily and to begin serious talks on improving the rights of Macedonia's one-third ethnic Albanian minority in order to help persuade the gunmen to disarm.
Macedonian Slavs riot over Nato peace deal Posted June 26, 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=005355297342253&rtmo=gGgl7n7u&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/26/wmac26.html
26 June 2001
Macedonian Slavs riot over Nato peace deal
By Christian Jennings in Skopje and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
SLAV nationalists stormed the Macedonian parliament in Skopje last night, as up to 10,000 people demonstrated against their government's co-operation with Nato in escorting besieged Albanian rebels to safety in an effort to bring peace to the country.
The demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Boris Trajkovski, while a small group of several dozen protesters smashed their way through police cordons and broke into the parliament building. Mr Trajkovski was in the building, meeting the heads of the country's political parties, as a screaming crowd gathered in the square outside waving Macedonian flags and shouting, "Resign, Trajkovski" and "Nato traitors".
Police in body armour and with assault rifles struggled to form defensive lines outside the parliament, but protesters reached a balcony at the front of the building where they tore down the national flag.
Earlier there were enormous cheers as lines of military reservists, waving flags, pushed to the front of the crowd, which smashed black limousines belonging to the presidential motorcade and hurled computers out of the parliament building's windows. Dozens of police stood by and did nothing to stop the riots.
They did not even react when a small group of demonstrators pulled out guns and opened fire into the air. But heavy machine-gun fire was later heard outside the parliament, and the crowds were said to have scattered.
Slav paramilitary organisers were believed to be behind the protests, which followed a deal between Nato, the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels whereby the self-styled National Liberation Army was allowed to leave the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo under heavy Nato escort after being pinned down by four days of heavy government artillery and tank fire.
A convoy of coaches left Aracinovo in what rebel commanders claimed was a "sign of goodwill". The start of the evacuation brought closer the possibility that hundreds of British troops could deploy under a Nato plan to disarm the ethnic Albanian rebels, whose five-month insurgency had brought them to within three miles of Skopje.
But last night Macedonian artillery again opened fire on rebel positions in the western town of Tetovo after rebel forces allegedly fired rockets at a police checkpoint. Western officials said as night fell that up to 50 American and French Nato vehicles were inside Aracinovo waiting to escort out about 300 armed rebels as well as more than 100 Albanian civilians, terrified of revenge attacks by Macedonian Slavs. Another Western diplomat said Aracinovo was now a demilitarised zone.
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers sent a warning to Macedonia that it could face diplomatic isolation and a suspension of further EU aid if it tried to crush the ethnic Albanian rebels rather than negotiate.
EU steps up Macedonia peace drive, appoints envoy Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/160tv.html
Tuesday June 26, 12:05 AM
EU steps up Macedonia peace drive, appoints envoy
LUXEMBOURG, June 25 (AFP) -
The European Union on Monday stepped up its peace efforts in Macedonia, naming a special envoy to the conflict-torn country a day after an EU-brokered ceasefire and hours before resumption of talks in Skopje.
EU foreign ministers meeting here appointed former French defense minister Francois Leotard, a member of the national assembly, to travel to Skopje possibly this week, sources said.
He will be based there on a "short-term" mission of weeks or months, said French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. He will answer to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and will "facilitate" talks between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political parties.
Those talks, which broke down last Wednesday, were set to resume Monday evening, Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva said here after meeting with her EU counterparts.
"There is no military solution to the present crisis," Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, whose country holds the EU presidency until June 30, told a press conference.
"The political dialogue must now resume with the facilitation of the international community and lead to rapid results," she said.
The appointment of a special envoy to Skopje was mandated 10 days ago in Gothenburg, Sweden, by an EU summit increasingly concerned about yet another Balkan flareup.
Solana, who brokered the Sunday ceasefire in the rebel-held town of Aracinovo on the edge of Skopje, said it appeared to be holding and that he hoped it would extend to other Macedonian hot spots.
An evacuation of ethnic Albanian rebels from Aracinovo meanwhile got underway Monday as four buses, a truck and several cars carrying the fighters were seen leaving the besieged town.
The National Liberation Army (NLA) took control of the town on June 8 but came under heavy attack Friday from the Macedonian army, who tried to drive them from the town.
"I hope very much the ceasefire will last," Solana told a press conference here. "We have to continue to have faith that the dialogue will continue. And for this dialogue to proceed, it will need some international facilitation."
In addition to Leotard, another European envoy will be heading to Macedonia this week, although not officially from the EU.
An EU source said Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski had personally "invited" Robert Badinter, a former president of the French Constitutional Council, to Skopje as an expert to help with constitutional reform.
The source said Badinter, whose mission would be private, was expected in Skopje on Tuesday.
"Now we have a crucial agreement by the Macedonians for international facilitation" of the talks, said an EU source. "Now we have full agreement on the role of the international community in these talks.
"This is very important, because it is a guarantee that the talks will produce results," said the source, adding that the Macedonian government "not only agreed" to the European involvement "but has been asking for that for quite a long time."
The NLA said in a statement issued here that "from the beginning" they had "clearly stated they respect the territorial integrity of Macedonia."
It said the NLA demanded "equal rights to be given to ethnic Albanians by amending the constitution, giving to the Albanian language the status of an official language, a proportional participation in the state administration and an end to discrimination."
Sweden's Anna Lindh said the EU was "disappointed" over the lack of progress in political talks, which had been at a standstill prior to Monday night's resumption.
"We had wanted to see more progress reported, but unfortunately little has happened. Instead, we've seen a deterioration in the (political) situation and also of the security situation," she said. "We have conveyed that message" to Mitreva, she said.
But Mitreva, seated beside Lindh, was of a different mind, saying that "despite the recent impression that there has been no progress in political dialogue, it is my conviction that that qualification is too harsh."
Heavy firing breaks out around Macedonian town Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/3/162zi.html
Tuesday June 26, 4:49 AM
Heavy firing breaks out around Macedonian town
By Anatoly Verbin
TETOVO, Macedonia (Reuters) - A policeman was killed at the Macedonian town of Tetovo on Monday in heavy firing just as ethnic Albanian rebels were escorted from a village where they had been attacked by the army for three days.
Interior ministry officials said one policeman was killed and five were wounded when the rebels attacked their positions in the Sar mountains above Tetovo.
As darkness fell, heavy smoke rose from several houses in the village of Gajra, less than two km (one mile) from Tetovo, the northwestern town that is the unofficial capital of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up one third of its two million population.
One house was ablaze and repeated mortar detonations, occasional automatic gunfire and a few explosions came from the direction of Gajra, recaptured by Macedonian troops in March but now apparently back in the hands of the guerrillas.
The fighting began at around the same time as a first convoy of buses moved out of Aracinovo, a strategic village close to the capital Skopje, carrying ethnic Albanian guerrillas who had agreed to withdraw in return for an end to a three-day army offensive on the village.
"The moment the convoy departed, our forces were attacked in several places above Tetovo," a police official told Reuters."
In Tetovo, some people gathered at street corners to have a better view of the village, but most paid little attention. Children roller-skated down the street and people sat in cafes ignoring the distant thump of the fighting.
"They often fire at the village but today is the heaviest shelling in weeks," said one man shortly before the 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) curfew.
Fighters of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army fought security forces around Tetovo in March before withdrawing and striking again in the northeast in early May.
But occasional clashes continued around Tetovo, most in the mountains which separate Macedonia from Kosovo, ethnic Albanian dominated province of Yugoslavia run by an U.N. administration.
Five Macedonian soldiers were killed by the rebels near Gajre 40 km (25 miles) west of Skopje in early June.
There was no immediate word on how Monday's violence had started.
Later in the day a crowd of angry villagers blocked the return of the convoy while in Skopje, dozens of armed army reservists gathered in front of the parliament to protest against what they called government's inaction against the rebels.
An unarmed group of protesters made it inside the building.
Macedonia on brink after protests and fresh fighting Posted June 26, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010626/3/164j8.html
Tuesday June 26, 8:49 AM
Macedonia on brink after protests and fresh fighting
By Philipa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia teetered on the brink of civil war on Tuesday after a Western bid to end an army assault on ethnic Albanian rebels sparked fierce protests in the capital and heavy fighting elsewhere.
Police reservists armed with Kalashnikovs broke into parliament and fired volleys into the air while thousands of Macedonian Slavs, including some unarmed army conscripts, cheered them on.
"Albanians to the gas chambers! Give us weapons!" people chanted while others fired shots in the air from the square. The numbers grew as news spread that a policeman had been killed.
Macedonia's hawkish Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski slammed NATO for escorting "terrorists" out of the village of Aracinovo under a ceasefire deal and pledged to wipe them out, saying they had launched an attack on police within minutes of the pullout.
"Peace will be restored only when we clean up terrorists from the state," he told reporters outside parliament.
"How can we have a ceasefire when they killed a policeman and wounded three right above Tetovo?" he said, before being chased back inside the parliament building by the mob.
Heavy exchanges of fire broke out around the western town of Tetovo shortly after the guerrillas left Aracinovo under an escort including U.S., French and Italian soldiers as well as international monitors.
The evacuation was completed without incident, but a crowd of Macedonians stopped one of the convoys from returning to the capital, throwing stones and blockading the road.
The convoy, led by U.S. soldiers, waited for several hours before turning back. A diplomat with the group, contacted by telephone, said it had returned to Aracinovo, where it appeared to be preparing to stay the night.
PANIC AMONG ALBANIANS IN CAPITAL
The crowd in the centre of the capital began to filter away after midnight. Most of the streets in the suburbs became eerily quiet, with cafes and bars closed.
"Albanians are in a panic and everyone's preparing to leave. For now, we are staying at home and waiting to see what will happen," said one young Albanian man who lives in an Albanian-populated quarter of Skopje.
The violence left Western diplomats at a loss. They had been hoping the Aracinovo deal would be a first step towards easing tensions and edging towards a political settlement involving rebel disarmament in return for more rights for the minority.
If any conclusion could be drawn from the day's events it was that neither of the warring sides was ready for peace.
One Western envoy who had been sceptical of the Aracinovo agreement from the start said the resulting violence was predictable but would not be drawn on what might happen next.
"I think there's a lot of understandable frustration out there and trying to figure out what's going to happen is extraordinarily difficult," he said.
There were fears that mobs might attack Albanian property overnight, as happened in the southern town of Bitola in early June after police from the town were killed in rebel ambushes, but there were no signs of that by the early hours on Tuesday.
The rebel commander of Aracinovo, contacted by telephone on Monday, claimed that the Albanian guerrillas had two "brigades" in the capital which could be activated if necessary.
So far the four-month-old ethnic Albanian guerrilla revolt has been mostly confined to skirmishes with the security forces, but diplomats fear it could take just one incident to tip the country over into an all-out war.
Protestors call for Macedonian president to quit over ceasefire Posted June 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/163k7.html
Tuesday June 26, 5:55 AM
Protestors call for Macedonian president to quit over ceasefire
SKOPJE, June 25 (AFP) -
Gunfire erupted outside the Macedonian parliament late Monday as at least 5,000 angry demonstrators protested a ceasefire with rebels and demanded the resignation of President Boris Trajkovski.
As police stood by, a section of the crowd gained entry to the building which also houses Trajkovski's residence.
One protester armed with a Kalashnikov rifle emerged onto a balcony and fired celebratory bursts into the air, to the cheers of the crowd below.
Trajkovski was inside meeting with the leaders of the main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties in a bid to kick-start negotiations on political reforms, which stalled last week amid renewed fighting.
At least a dozen people, including a policeman, soldiers and civilians, fired in the air from amongst the crowd, an AFP correspondent said.
Some demonstrators got inside the building and immediately began throwing computer equipment out of the windows, while others began smashing up official cars parked outside.
Parliament security guards pegged back some protesters who tried to get in, but police outside the building appeared to do nothing to quell the crowd, while unarmed, uniformed army reservists joined the demonstration, an AFP reporter said.
The crowd chanted that if Trajkovski and his Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski didn't come out to address them, they would no longer recognise them as their political leaders.
The demonstration took place as hundreds of ethnic Albanian guerrillas filed out of a village on the outskirts of Skopje under a ceasefire brokered by the European Union, which guaranteed them safe passage without disarming.
The mainly Macedonian Slav crowd outside the parliament were incensed at the leniency of the deal, under which the guerrillas were bussed out of the village to the Black Mountains further north after three days of pummelling from government forces.
"We don't understand what's happened, we don't understand why the rebels could leave with their weapons, and stay here in the country, where they want to kill other people," said one of the demonstrators, who were faced by a line of police.
As darkness descended on the capital, the situation remained extremely tense, with Trajkovski being branded a traitor for signing the ceasefire.
The crowd chanted "Trajkovski, resign!" and "NATO, traitor!"
Some also chanted "Shiptari", a derogotary name for ethnic Albanians. Trajovski is a Slav Macedonian, like the vast majority of the crowd.
One demonstrator was seen taking the Macedonian flag off the building's flagpole and holding it up to the jeering crowd.
The crowd were joined by uniformed military reservists, who had been mobilised at the start of the conflict with the guerrillas.
Some of the crowd carried Albanian flags. Others laid candles on the ground to commemorate members of the security forces killed since the conflict began.
Macedonia Violence Flares After Rebels Evacuated Posted June 25, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010625/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_95.html
Monday June 25 5:24 PM ET
Macedonia Violence Flares After Rebels Evacuated
By Philippa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Fighting raged around a west Macedonian town on Monday even as NATO (news - web sites) helped evacuate ethnic Albanian guerrillas from a strategic village under a cease-fire deal, while violence flared in the capital Skopje.
A heavy exchange of fire erupted in the hills around the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo just as convoys of buses left the village of Aracinovo, around 50 km to the east, in an elaborate operation involving the United States, France and Italy.
A Macedonian interior ministry official said one policeman had been killed and five wounded around Tetovo when guerrillas attacked from several directions as the convoys withdrew under a Western-brokered deal to end a three-day army offensive.
The deal, brokered in frantic shuttle diplomacy by NATO and European Union (news - web sites) envoys, was supposed to reduce the threat of fighting spilling over into civil war.
But the evacuation appeared to have enraged the Macedonian population and sent inter-ethnic tensions soaring.
In the Macedonian capital Skopje, a crowd of protesters including several interior ministry reservists, some armed with machineguns, stormed the parliament building. Twelve people got inside but they were not armed.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski had been meeting Macedonian and Albanian politicians inside parliament to discuss stalled talks on improving the rights of the Albanian minority to undercut the guerrilla revolt when the riot began.
The politicians were reported to have left by another exit.
CEASEFIRE ``MEANINGLESS''
Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski told reporters that a cease-fire begun almost two weeks ago, but torn up by an army assault on Macedonia over the weekend, was meaningless.
``Peace will be restored only when we clean up the state of terrorists. How can we have a cease-fire when they killed one policeman and wounded three right above Tetovo?'' he said.
The second of two convoys to pull out had deposited the guerrillas and their weapons safely in rebel-held territory and were on their way back when their way was blocked by a crowd of angry Macedonians who threw stones and stopped them. After several hours the convoy turned back to try another route.
The army said earlier it was holding its fire but was ready to ``finish the job'' on Aracinovo if the agreement on the rebel pullout in return for an end to a three-day Macedonian army assault on the village broke down.
The European Union, increasingly impatient at the failure to achieve a settlement, told Macedonia it must stop seeking a military victory, resume negotiations on political reforms and make rapid progress if it wanted further EU aid.
``There is no military solution to the present crisis,'' a toughly-worded draft communique by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg said, calling for a resumption of political dialogue with the ``facilitation of the international community.''
NATO agreed last week to start preparations for an operation to help disarm the guerrillas, but stressed it would begin only once a peace settlement had been agreed, fearing the rebels might try to draw the Alliance into policing demarcation lines.
Rebel commander Hoxha confirmed to Reuters by telephone that his men were moving out of Aracinovo. ``By this type of gesture we show that we are for peace,'' said Hoxha, who had earlier threatened to attack Skopje and its nearby airport.
He said NATO would not remain in Aracinovo, ``just monitors in white clothes and without arms.''
The EU had hoped that Macedonia would achieve ``substantial progress'' by Monday's meeting. But Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva had little to tell the ministers in Luxembourg and the EU told Mitreva of its disappointment with the lack of progress on reforms to avert civil war.
Mitreva told her EU counterparts that assessment was ``too harsh'' and said Macedonia urgently needed economic support.
Trajkovski's office said in Skopje he would host a new meeting of all party leaders on Monday to discuss constitutional changes to improve Albanian political rights.
But it was not clear what they would achieve. Albanian politicians have previously sought international mediation in the talks, something the Macedonian side has refused.
In its draft communique the EU used its strongest language in three months of intensive diplomatic efforts to avert civil war in Macedonia, issuing its first public warning that Macedonia's formal links to the bloc were in jeopardy.
External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten would not say whether the EU was threatening to suspend Macedonia's Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) but an aide said some 90 million euros ($77.5 million) in various aid projects was now at risk.
US official wounded in Macedonia shooting Posted June 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/161r4.html
Tuesday June 26, 2:38 AM
US official wounded in Macedonia shooting
WASHINGTON, June 25 (AFP) -
An official with the US embassy in Macedonia was shot and wounded Monday when the convoy of observers he was riding with came under fire, the State Department said.
Spokesman Philip Reeker said the observers had been fired upon while traveling near the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo but had few details of the attack other than that the shooting appeared to have been "accidental" and that wounded man was expected to recover.
"An embassy observer team came under fire southwest of Kumanovo from an unidentified source," Reeker said.
"One member of the team was wounded and is being brought to the Kumanovo military hospital for treatment," he added. "His condition is not life threatening."
Reeker thanked Macedonian officials for their cooperation in helping to transport the injured observer to the military hospital after the shooting.