Macedonian rebels commit to long-term ceasefire: leader Posted June 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/161fo.html
Tuesday June 26, 1:12 AM
Macedonian rebels commit to long-term ceasefire: leader
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 25 (AFP) -
Ethnic Albanian rebels who have been waging a guerrilla war with Macedonian forces signed up to a "long-term ceasefire" Monday, the guerrillas' commander Hoxha told AFP.
"We have decided on a long-term cease-fire in all of Macedonia", he said.
The previous ceasefire announced by the rebels is set to expire on June 26.
The truce was signed Monday on the sidelines of negotiations with NATO envoy in the Balkans Pieter Feith on the withdrawal of the rebel National Liberation Army from Aracinovo.
Macedonia parliament besieged Posted June 25, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1406000/1406076.stm
Monday, 25 June, 2001, 21:55 GMT 22:55 UK
Macedonia parliament besieged
Refugees have been fleeing to Kosovo
Several thousand angry demonstrators have gathered outside the parliament building in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, to protest against what they see as the government's leniency towards the ethnic Albanian rebels.
Some of the protesters are reported to have entered the parliament building.
Several foreign journalists, including those from the BBC, were harassed and kicked.
The protest followed a deal, brokered and implemented by Nato and European Union envoys, that allowed a group of ethnic Albanian rebels to leave the village of Aracinovo close to the capital and return to guerrilla-held territory.
'Guilty party'
When the protest started President Boris Trajkovski was holding talks with Macedonian and Albanian party leaders inside the building but they were reported to have left by another exit.
Our correspondent says that many Macedonians are furious that the guerrillas were allowed to leave with their weapons, and they are especially angry at the change of attitude in the West.
It was only a few weeks ago that Nato was describing the Albanians as terrorists.
Now they believe the West is treating Macedonia as the guilty party.
"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.
Some of the protesters chanted "Gas chambers for the Albanians."
A Reuters reporter at the scene said several reservists were shooting into the air from the square outside as the crowd cheered.
As the crowd sang the national anthem, a group of elderly women spotted a number of foreign journalists and began haranguing them.
The mood turned extremely menacing and a brace of reporters managed to escape, walking briskly away through a volley of spittle, coins and the odd kick.
Lynch mob
But a BBC producer and cameraman were singled out, repeatedly kicked and beaten.
Human rights observers are extremely worried by the lynch mob atmosphere.
Click here to see map of the region
Some Macedonians are describing this as the "long night", the deadline for Albanians to move out of parts of Skopje or risk being firebombed.
Thirty Albanian shopkeepers have abandoned their properties in a warehouse district of Skopje after receiving threats from a group calling itself Macedonia paramilitary 2000.
A written warning said that the ethnic cleansing would begin at midnight. Until now, Macedonia's conflict has been limited to fighting between two small armies.
But a spokesman for the group Human Rights Watch said that if it spilled over into the civilian population, there could be widespread bloodshed.
Rebel activity
In the north-eastern town of Kumanovo, it was reported that angry Macedonians were protesting against American troops, who escorted the Albanians to safety.
About 500 rebels left Aracinovo on buses, accompanied by troops from Nato and EU observers.
A rebel commander, known as Hoxha, told Reuters: "By this type of gesture we show that we are for peace."
The withdrawal came as fresh fighting erupted around Macedonia's second biggest city, Tetovo.
AFP news agency said the clashes followed a mortar attack on a police checkpoint.
Rapid results
EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg said on Monday there was "no military solution to the present crisis".
"The political dialogue must now resume... and lead to rapid results."
Future EU aid to Macedonia would depend on the results of political dialogue with the rebels.
The EU also decided to send a resident envoy - former French Foreign Minister Francois Leotard - to Macedonia, to try to stabilise the peace process.
Nato says it is ready to send in a peacekeeping force, but only after a peace deal has been reached.
The rebels, who call themselves the National Liberation Army, say they are fighting for equal rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up nearly a third of the population.
They began their uprising in February and still control a string of villages near the borders with Kosovo and southern Serbia.
Macedonia president flees protesters Posted June 25, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/25/macedonia.talks/index.html
Macedonia president flees protesters
June 25, 2001 Posted: 9:36 PM EDT (0136 GMT)
SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- Protesters stormed Macedonia's parliament building Monday, forcing President Boris Trajkovski and other politicians to flee.
Shooting broke out as at least 5,000 people gathered in front of the parliament building to demand the president's resignation on Monday evening.
Several police and at least 50 members of the army were said to have joined in the protests as the chaos erupted in capital Skopje.
CNN's Juliette Terzieff said the protesters were angered by the government's handling of a cease-fire with ethnic Albanian rebels.
She said they were furious that the rebels were being allowed to take their weapons with them as they withdrew from the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo.
They were also angry at the amount of involvement of the international community, saying it had too much influence in Macedonia's internal affairs.
Terzieff said sustained volleys of gunfire could be heard coming from four different directions.
She said the president and other politicians were evacuated. They were alive, but there were no details of their condition or their whereabouts, she added.
Police set up road blocks around the building, allowing people to leave the area, but not to enter, she added.
The demonstrators broke through a cordon of police, hurled stones through windows and then succeeded in storming the doors.
Once inside, protesters hurled office contents through the glass windows in the three-story, concrete Stalinist-era building, which occupies an entire block in the center of the city. Macedonian flags were planted on balconies.
Several cars, including the president's Mercedes, were destroyed.
Turzieff added that several police officers and several journalists were injured in the storming, including one BBC journalist who "was beaten up and received fairly severe wounds."
The president has not issued any statements since the demonstrations began.
The violent protests came during a day that started with great progress following the announcement of a European Union-backed cease-fire, but degenerated into virtual chaos in the streets of the capital by nightfall.
Earlier, two U.S. KFOR soldiers were wounded near the village of Nikustak while supervising the withdrawal of ethnic Albanian rebels.
Their battalion came under fire, apparently from Macedonian troops, diplomats in Macedonia confirmed. They say the incident was an accident.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter and their medical condition is unclear.
A NATO spokesman said 15 KFOR buses were transporting ethnic Albanian rebels from Aracinovo to the village of Nikustak, about two kilometers away.
The buses were provided by KFOR nations -- France, Italy and the United States.
The KFOR soldiers do not have a mandate in Macedonia. They were called into the area for logistical support. Several thousands of KFOR troops are stationed in Macedonia to assist with the rebel pullout.
KFOR is a NATO-led international force responsible for establishing a security presence in neighboring Kosovo.
Ethnic Albanian rebels agreed Monday to a general cease-fire in Macedonia and to pull back their forces one kilometer from Aracinovo, where they had been battling Macedonian troops since Friday.
The European Union had also called for a disarmament of the troops on Monday, but that failed to happen.
The rebels said they agreed to the pullback on the condition that Macedonian forces do not enter the village, and that the Macedonian side observed the cease-fire.
Elsewhere in the country, shelling and small arms fire could be heard, primarily in the northwest near Tetevo as rebels and government soldiers exchanged fire.
Locals were hired to drive the buses, the NATO spokesman said, and NATO-led KFOR soldiers were not involved in the rebel pullback.
cease-fire monitors from the EU and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are unarmed and the convoy is not being provided with an armed escort, according to the spokesman.
He said Macedonian government forces are being trusted not to attack the convoy.
EU and OSCE diplomats in Europe negotiated the rebel pullback from Aracinovo on Monday, a day after shelling there destroyed a brief truce in the village brokered by in European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The rebels had said they would pull out of Aracinovo on Sunday if international monitors were put in place in the region, which was part of the agreement brokered the same day by Solana.
But after Solana left the region on Sunday, Macedonia reneged on this stipulation.
The ethnic Albanians say they are fighting for more rights from Macedonia's government.
The government accuses the rebels -- who make up a third of Macedonia's two million people -- of trying to split ethnic Albanian-populated areas from the rest of the country.
Solana attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. He held out hope for a settlement despite the ongoing setbacks in Macedonia.
"It's going a little bit much slower than we thought but it's going well," he said.
EU Foreign Minister Chris Patten said earlier on Monday that the EU would not be able to approve aid and finance to Macedonia as long as it was spending much needed funds for reconstruction on arms and bullets.
"We would like to support confidence building measures, but it's difficult to build people's confidence when money in short supply is being spent on bombs and rockets," Patten said.
"So the sooner there can be a cease-fire permanently and the sooner there can be a political settlement, the sooner we'll be able to discuss investing the future peace, stability and prosperity."
CNN's Juliette Terzieff and Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly and journalist Vladimir Juzelov contributed to this report
Slavs Protest NATO Deal in Macedonia Posted June 25, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010625/wl/macedonia.html
Monday June 25 6:29 PM ET
Slavs Protest NATO Deal in Macedonia
By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A NATO (news - web sites)-brokered peace deal sparked riots in Skopje Monday by thousands of Slavs, some chanting ``gas chambers for the Albanians'' as they demanded that ethnic Albanian rebels be destroyed.
The rebels pulled out of a strategically important suburb near the capital earlier Monday under the NATO deal designed to revive peace talks here.
That prompted about 5,000 Macedonian Slavs - who outnumber ethnic Albanians by more than three to one - to gather in front of parliament in Skopje, nosily demanding harsher action against the rebels. Reservists in uniform among the protesters squeezed of bursts of submachine gun fire, but there were no reports of injuries.
Some of the chanting protesters pounded two police cars - one belonging to Interior Minister Ljuben Boskoski - while dozens broke into the parliament building, destroying furniture. A group made its way to a balcony and displayed the former Macedonian flag, replaced more than half a century ago by the communists when the country was still part of Yugoslavia.
The rebel withdrawal came just days after government forces began an offensive against ethnic Albanian militants holed up in the suburb not far from the country's airport.
Buses headed out of Aracinovo carrying ethnic Albanian rebels, said U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeepers. The alliance then sent at least four trucks to the village to take out the weapons belonging to the rebels.
But de-escalation of Macedonia's crisis was short lived. New fighting, near Tetovo, cast a pall at the success of the negotiated end to the Aracinovo standoff, and tensions rose as thousands of angry Slavic Macedonians demanded a more hard-line approach against the rebels.
Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rebels attacked police positions on the outskirts of the city and government forces returned fire, with fighting then moving away from Tetovo and near the village of Gajre in the hills overlooking the city.
In a smaller protest, a crowd near Kumanovo blocked a road, preventing empty buses from moving shortly after they were used to take some of the rebels from Aracinovo to Umin Dol, just outside Kumanovo. U.S. soldiers were with that convoy, along with Macedonian police who tried to negotiate their way through the crowd.
Johnson said more than 300 people, most of them rebels, were taken out of Aracinovo.
Talks had broken down last week after President Boris Trajkovski declared that ethnic Albanian negotiators were unwilling to budge on key sticking points in the negotiations.
The lack of progress has dismayed European Union (news - web sites) leaders, who have been trying for months to persuade the Macedonian Slav leadership and ethnic Albanian political leaders to compromise and avert civil war.
To back up that point, the EU told the country's foreign minister on Monday not to count on new financial aid unless the government and ethnic Albanian opponents settle their differences.
The EU foreign ministers held 45 minutes of talks with their Macedonian counterpart, Ilinka Mitreva, who pleaded for help.
EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten reiterated that was only possible if progress is made in national reconciliation talks.
``We would like to support confidence-building measures, but it is difficult to build people's confidence when money, which is very clearly in short supply, is being spent on bombs and rockets,'' Patten said.
An American, meanwhile, was wounded by gunfire.
The man's status was unclear - NATO officials suggested he might have been part of a monitoring mission or a diplomat. The man, overheard identifying himself as John Green, was emerging from the woods with two other Americans near the rebel-controlled village of Grusinovo when Macedonian troops fired warning shots.
Two of the shots wounded Green, one in the arm and the other in the leg, but apparently not seriously. In Washington, meanwhile, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said a U.S. army sergeant was wounded in the hand by gunfire on a road northeast of Skopje. Aracinovo is southwest of Skopje, but NATO officials could not rule out that the Pentagon report also referred to the man identifying himself as Green.
NATO-led peacekeepers are in Macedonia to provide logistical support to forces in Kosovo. It was not immediately clear which NATO countries were taking part in the operation.
EU Envoy Brokers Macedonian Accord Posted June 25, 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40892-2001Jun24.html
EU Envoy Brokers Macedonian Accord
Limited Deal May Not Halt Conflict
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post
Foreign Service
Monday, June 25, 2001; Page A08
SKOPJE, Macedonia, June 24 -- A European envoy secured an agreement today for government forces to halt their battle with ethnic Albanian rebels in a suburb of Skopje in exchange for a European-monitored withdrawal by the rebels to territory farther from the capital.
But shortly after the envoy, Spanish diplomat Javier Solana, left the country, gunfire could again be heard in Aracinovo. Officials said they still expected the rebels to withdraw, but the fragility of the cease-fire suggested it may have limited effect on the conflict.
Solana, the European Union's head of security affairs, wants the cease-fire accord to be "translated elsewhere" in the country, where rebel forces and government troops have skirmished for the past five months, an aide to Solana said. "We think that the conditions are back to resume the political process."
The reference was to occasional talks between leaders of Macedonia's two principal Slavic parties and two ethnic Albanian parties, which President Boris Trajkovski, a Macedonian Slav, called off last week to protest the breadth of constitutional reforms demanded by the Albanians.
No date was agreed upon for resuming talks, and Solana dropped his plan to bring all four political leaders to a meeting of European foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. Instead, he dispatched a French constitutional lawyer to Skopje to assist both sides in redrafting the country's constitution and said he planned to appoint a former French defense minister, Francois Leotard, as his representative in Skopje.
A convoy of humanitarian vehicles and European monitors reached Aracinovo shortly after the cease-fire took hold at 2 p.m., while Solana watched from a distance, the aide said.
The village appeared mostly deserted; many of its homes had been blasted for three days by artillery and helicopter gunships in an unsuccessful offensive by the Macedonian military. At least three Macedonian troops died in the fighting; the extent of rebel casualties was unknown.
Several Western diplomats said the fighting had sowed more distrust between the two sides and created a general air of gloom that the rift between Macedonia's Slavic majority and Albanian minority could be repaired. "The two groups are being pulled apart" so far that leaders on each side are forecasting they will not be able to live together, one diplomat said.
The conflict has caused many residents to flee the capital, with Slavic Macedonians heading to the east and Albanians to the west. More than 56,000 residents have also fled into neighboring Kosovo, a province of Serbia, from the areas besieged by government forces, including 6,500 on Saturday, according to humanitarian officials.
Roughly 10,000 Albanians are staying temporarily in the ethnically mixed Kosovo town of Vitina, and some aid officials said they were worried ethnic tensions in Macedonia would spill over there. But their principal worry is that wider conflict within the country, involving armed civilians on both sides, may cause more than 500,000 residents to flee into neighboring countries, where scant provisions have been made for assistance, an aid official said.
Albanian rebels discuss withdrawal with NATO Posted June 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/15vsb.html
Monday June 25, 3:10 PM
Albanian rebels discuss withdrawal with NATO
SKOPJE, June 25 (AFP) -
NATO officials met with ethnic Albanian rebels Monday to discuss the guerrillas' withdrawal from the Skopje suburb they still hold despite a massive pounding by the Macedonian army, a rebel commander told
"This evening we'll know something," said Commander Hoxha, the rebel chief in the besieged town of Aracinovo, who said that he was discussing the terms of a possible withdrawal with NATO officials.
NATO's top regional troubleshooter, Pieter Feith, arrived in Skopje last week just before the Macedonian army tore up a two-week ceasefire and hit Aracinovo with almost everything it had for three consecutive days.
Feith scored a major success in southern Serbia this year when he persuaded another ethnic Albanian rebel group in the Presevo Valley to down their arms and head across the border into UN-run Kosovo, where they received an amnesty.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana brokered yet another precarious ceasefire in Macedonia on Sunday after NATO Secretary General George Robertson called the army's sudden assault "madness."
Immediately after the ceasefire, NATO officials entered the battle-scarred town, which had been blasted by helicopter gunships, artillery, tanks, mortars and heavy machineguns since Friday.
The rebels said they would agree to withdraw from their strategic position on the edge of the capital -- which they had threatened to bomb -- if NATO evacuated them to another village in guerrilla territory to the north.
They also insisted on NATO monitors being employed in Aracinovo and a complete army withdrawal from th area.
Skopje, which fears any Western peacekeeping role will turn parts of the country into another Kosovo, said it wanted the rebels dumped en masse in the breakaway Yugoslav province, where it says they came from in the first place.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since NATO bombed Serb forces out in 1999. Despite the presence of around 40,000 NATO-led peacekeepers there, constant attacks by Albanian extremists have driven out more than 200,000 Serbs and members of other non-Albanian groups.
Aracinovo was quiet early Monday, although sporadic firing from heavy weapons broke out late Sunday, hours after the truce was announced.
Four civilian buses were seen parked outside the Hotel Bellevue, about 1.5 kilometres (one mile) from the edge of the town where Solana brokered the ceasefire deal Sunday.
Partial, Shaky Truce Reached in Macedonia Posted June 25, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/25/world/25MACE.html
June 25, 2001
Partial, Shaky Truce Reached in Macedonia
By IAN FISHER
SKOPJE, Macedonia, June 24 — A partial cease-fire was accepted today by the government and ethnic Albanian rebels, after three days of heavy fighting close enough to Macedonia's heart that visitors could see the smoke and shelling as they stepped off planes at the airport.
As government tanks and helicopter gunships whizzed rockets into Aracinovo, just six miles from this capital, foreign diplomats worked to press the government and the rebels to stop fighting or risk full-blown civil war. This afternoon Javier Solana, the European Union's chief envoy to Macedonia, announced a measure of success: a halt to fighting in Aracinovo, if not elsewhere.
"There's a cease-fire here," he told reporters. "It's good it is agreed. Skopje is not under threat."
Under the agreement, the rebels said they would leave the village, the airport and Macedonia's only oil refinery. Their positions in the village are near enough to bomb the capital, which they have threatened to do. In turn, the government agreed to call off its offensive, which it began on Friday after talks between the two sides broke down. Until then, a cease- fire had held for 11 days.
But today's agreement appeared shaky at best. There were signs that relations between the majority Macedonian Slavs and the Albanians, who make up roughly a third of the population, are eroding. And tonight sporadic gun fire and explosions rattled Aracinovo.
A top commander with ethnic Albanian fighters who call themselves the National Liberation Army said the rebels would leave Aracinovo only if they were replaced by a neutral outside force, like European Union monitors or NATO soldiers.
But a government spokesman, Antonio Milososki, called that "unacceptable" and said government soldiers must be permitted back into the town. "It is completely unlogical to accept that Macedonian forces are not allowed to take control of our own territory," he said.
Mr. Milososki also said it was the rebels who had asked, through foreign envoys, for a halt to the offensive. But the Albanian commander, who goes by the name Sokol, said they had in no way surrendered. "You have to understand one thing: The National Liberation Army does not have a white flag to raise," he said by mobile telephone.
Both sides claimed that they had accepted the cease-fire because they wanted to avert an ethnic war in Macedonia, which in 1992 declared full independence from Yugoslavia.
Historically, relations between the majority Macedonians, who are Christian Slavs, and the Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, have been less tense than in other areas of the Balkans. But Albanians contend that under the Constitution, they are second-class citizens, and this spring some of them took up arms for what they say is a fight for greater political rights.
The president has put forth such a plan, endorsed by the European Union. But the government says the Albanian fighters, often referred to officially as "terrorists," really want an independent state.
Last week NATO agreed to help nip the conflict by sending troops to Macedonia, but only if the two sides could come up with the start of a broader agreement on constitutional and other reforms. But talks on that broke down, and on Friday the government opened a fierce attack on Aracinovo.
Albanians and Macedonians alike say this latest fighting, so close to the capital, has hurt relations that were already strained.
Albanian shops closed down in one section of Skopje because of a threatening letter that was signed by a group calling itself Macedonia Paramilitary 2000 and ordered Albanians in the neighborhood to shut their shops within three days.
"After this time," the letter read, "all the shops are going to be burned, and if anyone stays behind to protect them, they will be killed without warning."
"What can I say?" asked one Albanian shopkeeper, who would give only a nickname, Asllan, as he and his workers moved boxes of milk out of the shop as they closed it down. "I don't know myself what to think of this." He and others shopkeepers said they had complained to the police but had been told that there was no way to protect them.
Mr. Milososki, the government spokesman, dismissed the note as the work of an "idiot."
Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch in Macedonia, said any such attack would "be the accelerator of this conflict."
"The military action has been limited in scope, with low casualties," he said. "Once the civilian population becomes involved, it will rapidly become a no-holds-barred civil conflict. The government won't be able to control it."
EU foreign ministers mull Macedonia envoy after truce Posted June 25, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010625/1/15vsd.html
Monday June 25, 3:16 PM
EU foreign ministers mull Macedonia envoy after truce
European Union foreign ministers were to name a special envoy to Macedonia here after their high representative for foreign policy brokered a ceasefire between the Macedonian army and ethnic Albanian rebels.
However, the decision to name a special Skopje-based EU envoy, taken at the EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, earlier this month, may have been overtaken by events on the ground.
Hours after EU High Representative Javier Solana announced the ceasefire, gunfire broke out near a rebel-held Skopje suburb late Sunday.
Regular detonations of either artillery or mortar fire cracked the silence only hours after both sides halted three days of intense fighting in Aracinovo, on the edge of the capital.
Bursts of heavy machingun fire were also heard.
A Western defense official said the firing was coming from the village of Nikustak, seven kilometres (four miles) north of Aracinovo in the Black Mountains, adding it was probably "tit-for-tat" shooting.
Solana had said earlier Sunday he had brokered the ceasefire, which appeared to open the way for a resumption of stalled political talks between the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels.
And Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski's office said the negotiations, which were deadlocked last week, would resume on Monday.
"There is a ceasefire here, it is agreed and it is good. Skopje now is not under threat," Solana told reporters outside Aracinovo, on the outskirts of Skopje.
Solana, who spoke after meeting with Trajkovski and his defense and interior ministers, Vlado Buckovski and Ljube Boskovski, did not specify the duration of the ceasefire.
EU heads of state and government, alarmed at the escalation in fighting between Macedonian government forces and the ethnic Albanian guerrillas, proposed at their Gothenburg summit the appointment of an ad hoc EU envoy to the region.
The envoy, to be named at Monday's General Affairs Council here, would be based in Skopje under Solana's authority, they said.
A rebel leader in northern Macedonia meanwhile told AFP that talks had been held with a NATO delegation -- which entered the town immediately after the truce was announced -- for the guerrillas to evacuate Aracinovo.
"There are negotiations underway for the National Liberation Army (NLA) to withdraw from Aracinovo," said Commander Sokoli, adding that the fighters wanted to pull out to the town of Lipkovo to the north, a rebel stronghold for six weeks.
"We have set as a condition that NATO observers are deployed in Aracinovo and that the Macedonian army does not enter the town," he said.
The EU foreign ministers were also to discuss the Middle East, Zimbabwe, West Africa and strengthened bilateral relations with Japan.
Macedonia keeps shelling rebels as deadline nears Posted June 24, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010624/3/15m1e.html
Sunday June 24, 8:54 PM
Macedonia keeps shelling rebels as deadline nears
By Philippa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia defied international appeals for a third day on Sunday, bombarding a strategic village held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in an assault that could push the country towards civil war.
Helicopter gunships unleashed rockets on the village, just 10 km (six miles) from the capital, as a top Western envoy headed for a meeting with President Boris Trajkovski at which he is expected to renew appeals for the attack to end.
A few hours later smoke engulfed the whole village after a heavier helicopter bombardment followed by Katyusha missiles.
Three members of the security forces have been reported killed during what officials say is an operation to "eliminate terrorists" in Aracinovo. Rebels have threatened to attack the nearby Belgrade-Athens highway and airport from there.
Macedonia launched the assault on Friday, tearing up an 11-day-old ceasefire in what one official said was an attempt to force Albanian politicians to drop demands for constitutional changes most diplomats say are unacceptably radical.
The guerrillas have fought back and at least 19 members of the security forces have been hurt, with little change in positions on the ground.
Diplomats have said since, however, that the Albanian side appeared prepared to compromise, having secured greater extra international presence in future talks. The sticking point now appears to be in the Macedonian camp.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said after talks with Trajkovski and top military leaders that Macedonia was not obliged to call off the attack unless the rebel National Liberation Army said it was ready to lay down its weapons.
"Our only obligation to cease fire, which is in line with President Trajkovski's plan, is at the moment when the NLA announces that it is ready to be disarmed," he said, without specifically ruling out an earlier resumption of the truce.
DEADLINE APPROACHES
European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, who has been shuttling back and forth to Macedonia to try to broker a peace agreement, is overseeing a twin-track process of guerrilla disarmament in return for more Albanian rights.
Diplomats fear that if the Macedonian assault is not stopped and some progress made on the political front by a Monday EU deadline, the guerrillas might resort to widespread attacks that could lead the two sides into all-out war.
Georgevski said that instead of all party leaders travelling to Monday's EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg to report on the peace process, as planned, Solana had agreed the foreign minister alone should represent the country. This change suggested there would be little progress to report.
Georgievski said peace talks, which began nine days ago but soon hit deadlock, were expected to resume after Monday.
The prime minister, who has been more hawkish than Trajkovski, dismissed Albanian politicians' complaints that they cannot continue negotiations while the assault continues.
The government had been prepared to talk even when its security forces came under guerrilla attack, he said.
The artillery and tank bombardment was clearly audible in the capital Skopje around 10 km (six miles) away as it began for a third day, in defiance of pleas from NATO and world leaders for a halt.
Reuters reporters in nearby Ilinden saw tanks manoeuvring into place on the slopes behind the village and smoke rising from buildings hit in the centre. Three Mi-24 helicopter gunships made repeated rocket attacks for a third successive day.
On Friday NATO had urged Macedonia, the only Yugoslav republic to have managed to break away from the former federation without a war, to stop the "madness".
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Trajkovski to urge him to call off the assault.
Macedonia Keeps Shelling Rebels As Deadline Nears Posted June 24, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010624/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_86.html
Sunday June 24 7:56 AM ET
Macedonia Keeps Shelling Rebels As Deadline Nears
By Philippa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia defied international appeals for a third day on Sunday, bombarding a strategic village held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in an assault that could push the country toward civil war.
Helicopter gunships unleashed rockets on the village, just six miles from the capital, as a top Western envoy headed for a meeting with President Boris Trajkovski at which he is expected to renew appeals for the attack to end.
A few hours later smoke engulfed the whole village after a heavier helicopter bombardment followed by Katyusha missiles.
Three members of the security forces have been reported killed during what officials say is an operation to ``eliminate terrorists'' in Aracinovo. Rebels have threatened to attack the nearby Belgrade-Athens highway and airport from there.
Macedonia launched the assault on Friday, tearing up an 11-day-old cease-fire in what one official said was an attempt to force Albanian politicians to drop demands for constitutional changes most diplomats say are unacceptably radical.
The guerrillas have fought back and at least 19 members of the security forces have been hurt, with little change in positions on the ground.
Diplomats have said since, however, that the Albanian side appeared prepared to compromise, having secured greater extra international presence in future talks. The sticking point now appears to be in the Macedonian camp.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said after talks with Trajkovski and top military leaders that Macedonia was not obliged to call off the attack unless the rebel National Liberation Army said it was ready to lay down its weapons.
``Our only obligation to cease fire, which is in line with President Trajkovski's plan, is at the moment when the NLA announces that it is ready to be disarmed,'' he said, without specifically ruling out an earlier resumption of the truce.
DEADLINE APPROACHES
European Union (news - web sites) foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, who has been shuttling back and forth to Macedonia to try to broker a peace agreement, is overseeing a twin-track process of guerrilla disarmament in return for more Albanian rights.
Diplomats fear that if the Macedonian assault is not stopped and some progress made on the political front by a Monday EU deadline, the guerrillas might resort to widespread attacks that could lead the two sides into all-out war.
Georgevski said that instead of all party leaders traveling to Monday's EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg to report on the peace process, as planned, Solana had agreed the foreign minister alone should represent the country. This change suggested there would be little progress to report.
Georgievski said peace talks, which began nine days ago but soon hit deadlock, were expected to resume after Monday.
The prime minister, who has been more hawkish than Trajkovski, dismissed Albanian politicians' complaints that they cannot continue negotiations while the assault continues.
The government had been prepared to talk even when its security forces came under guerrilla attack, he said.
The artillery and tank bombardment was clearly audible in the capital Skopje around six miles away as it began for a third day, in defiance of pleas from NATO (news - web sites) and world leaders for a halt.
Reuters reporters in nearby Ilinden saw tanks maneuvering into place on the slopes behind the village and smoke rising from buildings hit in the center. Three Mi-24 helicopter gunships made repeated rocket attacks for a third successive day.
On Friday NATO had urged Macedonia, the only Yugoslav republic to have managed to break away from the former federation without a war, to stop the ``madness.''
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) telephoned Trajkovski to urge him to call off the assault.
EU envoy upbeat on Macedonia truce but deal elusive Posted June 23, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010623/3/15dds.html
Sunday June 24, 5:01 AM
EU envoy upbeat on Macedonia truce but deal elusive
By Philippa Fletcher
SKOPJE (Reuters) - A top Western envoy said on Saturday he was optimistic a ceasefire could be reinstated in Macedonia but there was no sign of a formal announcement after the second day of heavy bombardment of Albanian rebels.
European Union envoy Javier Solana made his second flying peace mission to Skopje in three days to try to end an army assault on a guerrilla-held village that ripped apart an 11-day truce and threatened to spiral into a wider conflict.
Macedonian forces, blatantly defying stern NATO warnings to stop the "madness", continued attacks on Aracinovo as Solana drove past the battered village from the airport to Skopje on Saturday morning and sat down to talks with Albanian leaders.
Mi-24 helicopter gunships swooped in, tanks fired and Katyusha rockets slammed into the village, which the Macedonians have vowed to recapture in a risky bid to seize the upper hand in political negotiations aimed at ending the revolt.
Asked about the message the government was sending with the violence, which was accompanied by a noisy display by one of its four newly acquired warplanes, Solana said: "It doesn't need to send messages like that. I have a mobile telephone."
The EU's foreign affairs chief held separate meetings with the leaders of parties across Macedonia's ethnic divide to try to find a way out of the deadlock, which Macedonian leaders blame on unreasonable Albanian political demands.
'REALISTIC POSSIBILITY'
"I really think that a ceasefire is a realistic possibility," he said after meeting Albanian politicians.
Western allies fear that Albanians and ethnic Macedonians who have co-existed through months of guerrilla warfare and tensions may be driven irretrievably into hostile camps and that the conflict near the southern border of Kosovo could lead to wider, renewed conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Solana said talks with President Boris Trajkovski had gone well but he emerged from a joint session with Trajkovski and the more hawkish Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski with the same optimistic message, but no sign of a deal.
He said the talks would continue but gave no more details, giving the appearance that the process had hit a hitch.
Macedonian officials insist their goal is to "eliminate the terrorists" in Aracinovo, from which the rebels had threatened to attack the main Belgrade-Athens highway and nearby airport.
Officials said 19 security forces personnel had been hurt in the action so far and that one, a policeman, had died but that their forces had advanced. One guerrilla denied that claim.
'WE ARE HERE'
"They cannot be in the village. We are here," the man, who gave his name as Xhemia, said by telephone.
Western diplomats doubt the army has enough effective troops to take the village, suggesting the main objective may be a show of strength to pressure Albanian parties to drop demands for wholesale constitutional changes as part of a peace accord.
Albanians want a constitution giving them a veto on major decisions by the state, a position ethnic Macedonians say amounts to federalisation or partition. Albanians account for about one third of Macedonia's two million people.
A diplomatic source said Solana's meetings had yielded hopes the Albanian politicians might give ground if granted international participation in future talks on a deal designed to persuade the rebels to end their four-month insurgency.
"For the Albanians, the most important thing is to have an international presence if talks resume. They are not able to move forward alone," the source said.
Macedonian politicians refuse to consider full-scale foreign mediation, accusing the Albanians of seeking international backing for a partition of the tiny Balkan country.
But they have accepted the "facilitation" Solana is offering in the form of a permanent EU envoy to be appointed on Monday and other international expert help in future peace talks.
In return, the Albanians may be able to be persuaded to moderate their demands, the source said.
The guerrillas, who say they are fighting only to end discrimination against the minority, responded to the offensive with an attack on a police checkpoint in the village of Vorce, wounding five members of the security forces, officials said. Gunmen fired at a train in the same area, but no one was hurt.
Fearing more violence, more than 3,000 Albanians crossed from Macedonia into Kosovo on Saturday, the Kosovo Red Cross said. Some 50,000 have crossed since fighting began in February and many others have left their homes.
Macedonia Launches an Offensive Against Albanian Rebels Posted June 23, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/23/world/23MACE.html
June 23, 2001
Macedonia Launches an Offensive Against Albanian Rebels
By CARLOTTA GALL
ELGRADE, Serbia, June 22 — Macedonian forces launched a heavy offensive today against Albanian rebel positions just north of the capital, Skopje, breaking the tentative cease-fire in the southern Balkan republic and leaving diplomatic efforts for a peace agreement in tatters.
The operation, which started at 4 a.m. with an assault by helicopter gunships and tanks, and lasted throughout the day, was designed "to eliminate the terrorists," a Defense Ministry spokesman, Georgi Trendafilov, said. The main assault, which the rebels appeared to have repelled, was on the settlement of Aracinovo — just five miles from Skopje's center and within firing range of the city's airport. The rebels have occupied the settlement for more than two weeks.
But the Macedonian military also turned its guns against villages farther north in an assault strongly denounced by NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, as madness.
Lord Robertson, in a statement issued on behalf of NATO, which is planning to send thousands of troops to Macedonia if a peace settlement can be reached, branded the military action "complete folly."
"There is no military solution to this crisis, and overreactions at this moment simply deepen already critical divisions," the statement said.
Macedonia's prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, the most hawkish Slav politician in the leadership, warned today, "We've reached that red line that Macedonia cannot cross." Speaking after talks between the Slav and Albanian political parties to find a settlement had stalled once more, Mr. Georgievski added, "You cannot ask Macedonia to do something it cannot do."
In recent weeks, Mr. Georgievski has vociferously advocated a military solution to the insurgency. After the talks reached an impasse on Wednesday, President Boris Trajkovski, who like Mr. Georgievski is a member of Macedonia's Slav majority, also blamed the Albanian parties, saying they were not willing to compromise. As commander in chief of Macedonian forces, Mr. Trajkovski had the authority to order today's military operation.
The Macedonian Slav parties apparently feel at a disadvantage in negotiations with the Albanian parties while the rebels threatening to fire on Skopje and its airport, where NATO troops are based. Today's offensive, diplomats said, was intended as a move to gain the upper hand in the intraparty negotiations.
But it was not at all clear whether the talks would resume. The European Union's foreign policy director, Javier Solana, was expected back in Skopje tonight, after just 24 hours away on a visit to the Middle East.
Mr. Solana remained optimistic that he could bring the parties back to the negotiating table. "Neither side can defeat the other militarily, this is obvious from more than three months of fighting," he said.
But the Albanian parties, who remain part of Macedonia's deeply divided coalition government, are bitter that they were not even consulted before the offensive was launched and are pessimistic that talks could be resumed with such heavy fighting under way. The fighting will only strengthen the fighters and the radicals, the Albanian parties said.
"If we have several civilian casualties, I don't know how we can continue the dialogue," Zamir Dika, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, told Reuters. "The credibility of the Albanian parties will be diminished."
The Albanian political parties have been negotiating with the main Macedonian parties to forge a program of political reforms that would answer their demands and those of the rebels, and pave the way for the rebels to disarm and disband. NATO is already planning to send a force of at least 3,000 troops to Macedonia to assist with the disarmament if the parties reach a peace deal.
The Albanian parties' first request to Mr. Solana "will be to stop the fighting," Mr. Dika said. "Only a political dialogue can calm the situation, and I am very sure there will be no winners in the fighting," he said.
The rebels in Aracinovo appear to have fought off the offensive today and showed no signs of caving in under the pressure. Three civilians were killed and 18 wounded.
"It is a real fight," one rebel commander, who identified himself as Hoxha, told Reuters. "They tried to come in, but we broke them and they withdrew," he said of the government forces. He said one rebel was killed, and he claimed to have killed some members of the police forces, but a report by state radio said only that four men had been wounded.
The renewed fighting caused another surge of refugees fleeing into Kosovo. The United Nations refugee agency said 1,450 Albanians had crossed from Macedonia into Kosovo on Thursday, bringing the total since February to more than 50,000.
UK Macedonian army closes in on rebels Posted June 23, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1403000/1403840.stm
Saturday, 23 June, 2001, 19:34 GMT 20:34
UK Macedonian army closes in on rebels
The offensive is expected to last beyond Saturday
Macedonian forces have maintained a heavy bombardment of a village held by ethnic Albanian rebels, in defiance of a call by Nato to stop the fighting.
A Macedonian army spokesman said the infantry had recaptured one third of the village of Aracinovo, about 10km (six miles) from the capital Skopje, as part of a major offensive expected to last beyond Saturday.
The Macedonians' show of strength came just as the European Union's special envoy to the region, Javier Solana, returned to the region from the Middle East.
Mr Solana held talks with President Boris Trajkovski.
But the AFP news agency says he failed to get any assurances that the army would end the fighting before taking Aracinovo.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant says the army's latest acquisition, a Russian Sukhoi fighter jet, was flying over Aracinovo and a helicopter gunship practised manoeuvres nearby, as Mr Solana was being briefed by EU officials.
Click here to see map of the region
All the while, plumes of smoke were rising from the village as tank rounds, machine guns and howitzers found their mark
A member of the police special forces was reported to have been killed by sniper fire.
The military offensive - involving tanks, helicopters and heavy artillery - began at dawn on Friday, two weeks after the rebels seized Aracinovo.
The rebels responded with heavy machine gun fire and a few mortar rounds, showing no signs of giving up.
A Macedonian Government spokesman said the military action was necessary to "eliminate the terrorists in Aracinovo".
Rebel commander Hoxha told the BBC that if the attack on the village continued, he would shell Skopje.
It remains unclear whether the rebels - reported to number more than 700 - have the firepower to carry out their threat.
'Madness'
Nato Secretary-General George Robertson on Friday described the new offensive as "complete folly".
In a strongly-worded statement, Lord Robertson urged the government to cease hostilities.
"There is no military solution to this crisis and over-reactions at this moment simply deepen already critical divisions," he said.
"New outbreaks of violence, from whichever side, are madness at this sensitive time."
On Wednesday, Nato pledged to send 3,000 troops to Macedonia, but only if a political settlement was reached.
The Macedonian army has been locked in conflict with armed ethnic Albanian rebels - mainly based in the northern Macedonia - since they began an uprising in February.
The rebels retain control of a string of villages near the borders with Kosovo and southern Serbia as well as the village of Aracinovo.
Macedonia vows to fight on as NATO says stop the "madness" Posted June 23, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010623/3/15425.html
Saturday June 23, 12:28 PM
Macedonia vows to fight on as NATO says stop the "madness"
By Daniel Simpson
ARACINOVO, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Macedonian army blasted a village held by Albanian guerrillas on Friday and vowed to continue to attack, tearing up an 11-day truce in a risky bid for the upper hand in stalled peace talks.
Western powers, anxious to broker a deal before the conflict spirals into civil war, denounced the attack as "complete folly" in a strongly worded statement by NATO Secretary General George Robertson on behalf of the alliance's 19 members.
"There is no military solution to this crisis and over-reactions at this moment simply deepen already critical divisions," he said, demanding that the "madness" stop.
Plumes of smoke rose from the rooftops of Aracinovo hours after it was strafed by Mi-24 helicopter gunships in a dawn raid on positions from which the rebels threatened to shell the Macedonian capital Skopje and its airport.
There was no sign of major troop movement and analysts doubted if the army could implement a promise by army spokesman Blagoja Markovski to recapture the most strategic settlement occupied so far by Albanian rebels in a four-month insurgency.
"I would be staggered if Aracinovo fell to the Macedonians in the immediate future," a Western defence official said.
"They do not have the men for that kind of operation."
WHAT NEXT?
Friday's attack stuck to a well-worn strategy of long-range heavy bombardment. Tank shells slammed into terrain between the village on Skopje's fringes and the nearby Athens-Belgrade highway and two rounds of Katyusha rockets were unleashed.
The rebels, who responded with heavy machinegun fire and a few mortar rounds, showed no signs of giving up and could launch a counter offensive to distract the Macedonian army elsewhere.
"The ball is still with the rebels," one envoy said. "The big question is what (the Macedonian attack) will provoke."
The army said it had no intention of calling off its attack.
"Our ground troops are on the outskirts of Aracinovo...the next thing is to clear the terrain," Markovski told a news conference. "One thing is sure. It will not last only one day."
The rebels, who responded with heavy machinegun fire and some mortar rounds, showed no signs of giving up.
"It is a real fight," a commander codenamed Hoxha told Reuters by telephone. "We broke them and they withdrew."
Three civilians were killed, and one guerrilla injured, Hoxha said, adding that his men had killed five policemen.
TALKS ON HOLD
The attack cast a shadow over attempts to hammer out a peace deal. Parties from across a widening ethnic divide did not meet on Friday.
A government official said the action was intended to force Albanian politicians to drop demands blamed for blocking the cross-party talks, designed to persuade the guerrillas to end their insurrection in return for greater Albanian rights.
Albanians accounts for about one-third of Macedonia's two million people.
"Without any advances on the ground, you cannot advance in the political talks," he told Reuters.
Solana, in Israel on a separate peace mission, said he was still optimistic about rescuing peace talks in Skopje before a Monday deadline he has set for "substantial progress".
But Albanian parties, who are demanding full-scale foreign mediation in what diplomats worry may be a ploy to secure a partition of the tiny Balkan state, are refusing to compromise.
Responding to calls for intervention, Robertson warned that any attempt to drag NATO into "slicing up" the country of two million along ethnic lines would be a "blueprint for disaster".
In neighbouring Kosovo, a United Nations refugee agency spokeswoman said 1,450 Albanians had crossed from Macedonia on Thursday, bringing the total since February to more than 50,000.
All-out war is far from inevitable, but diplomats fear it may not take much to change that. "The gloves aren't quite off yet, but you can forget about ceasefires," one envoy said.
NATO Demands Macedonia Stop 'Madness' Posted June 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010622/wl/balkans_macedonia_nato_dc_1.html
Friday June 22 3:11 PM ET
NATO Demands Macedonia Stop 'Madness'
By Douglas Hamilton
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) Secretary General George Robertson denounced renewed fighting between Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas on Friday as ``complete folly'' and demanded that the ``madness'' stop.
In a blunt statement on behalf of the 19-member alliance, he said any attempt to drag NATO into ``slicing up'' the country along ethnic lines would be a recipe for disaster.
Macedonian security forces had launched a dawn assault with tanks and helicopters against a guerrilla enclave near the capital, Skopje, shattering a nine-day truce.
Robertson, currently in the United States, demanded an immediate reinstatement of the cease-fire.
``There is no military solution to this crisis and over-reactions at this moment simply deepen already critical divisions,'' he said. ``New outbreaks of violence, from whichever side, are madness at this sensitive time.''
The European Union (news - web sites) and NATO are currently engaged in a cliffhanger bid to broker a political deal to avert civil war.
``This help is being undermined and threatened by this unacceptable resort to violent action,'' the NATO chief said.
DON'T THINK YOU CAN DRAG NATO IN
Macedonia said it had launched the assault after 10 days of relative peace to ``eliminate'' the Albanian National Liberation Army from Aracinovo, an ethnic Albanian village which is practically a suburb of Skopje.
``I want to make it clear beyond any doubt at all that NATO troops will not get engaged in establishing or policing any form of partition or demarcation lines inside...Macedonia,'' Robertson said.
``NATO will not collude in the slicing up of this country on ethnic lines. That would be a blueprint for disaster.''
The Western allies fear that Albanians and ethnic Macedonians who have continued to co-exist through five months of guerrilla warfare and mounting tensions may be driven irretrievably into hostile camps.
War involving ethnic Albanian nationalists on the southern border of Kosovo is seen as the beginning of the end of nearly 10 years of high-cost efforts to stifle conflict and rebuild multi-ethnic democracy in the wreckage of former Yugoslavia.
Robertson urged Macedonian political leaders to ``get serious about producing a political solution...and to focus urgently on producing an agreement'':
``NO TIME FOR POSTURING''
``This is no time for half measures on the political side or time-wasting posturing. The people need their leaders to immediately chart the way to a peaceful future.''
He said Macedonia was ``on the brink of bloody civil war.''
Without directly blaming the Macedonian security forces for Friday's resumption of hostilities, Robertson said ``the breach of two unilateral declarations of military restraint put in place is deeply regrettable.''
European Union foreign ministers have invited Macedonian government and party leaders to a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday at which they have said they expect to see a peace settlement in writing.
This would pave the way for a NATO force of 3,000-5,000 troops to collect the arms of the NLA forces, surrendered voluntarily as part of the pact which would offer them amnesty.
But political negotiations have broken down over Albanian demands for a new constitution giving them a veto on all major decisions by the state -- a positions ethnic Macedonians say amounts to federalization or partition.
Macedonia, a republic of just two million people, is about the size of the U.S. state of Vermont.
Macedonia Ignores NATO, Resumes Assault on Rebels Posted June 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010623/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_79.html
Saturday June 23 8:07 AM ET
Macedonia Ignores NATO, Resumes Assault on Rebels
By Leon Malherbe
ILINDEN, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia resumed its assault on a village held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas on Saturday despite a blunt NATO (news - web sites) warning to stop and the arrival of a top Western envoy hoping to revive peace talks.
Ignoring NATO pleas to stop the ``madness,'' Mi-24 helicopter gunships swooped in on Aracinovo for a second day and tanks slammed shells into a village the Macedonians have vowed to recapture in a risky bid to seize the upper hand.
Reuters reporters beside the nearby Athens-Belgrade highway saw troops exchanging machinegun fire inside Aracinovo, just six miles from Skopje, and plumes of smoke rose from its battered rooftops as the artillery bombardment continued.
``The infantry are already in the village,'' army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said. ``We have already retaken one third of it, but we do not expect to conquer it fully today.''
Western diplomats doubt the army has enough effective troops to pull it off. They suggest the main objective may be a show of strength to put pressure on Albanian parties to drop demands for wholesale constitutional changes as part of a peace accord.
``They want to be seen to be doing something while they reinvent the plan,'' one envoy said. ``It achieves nothing unless it's for the Macedonian media.''
FLURRY OF DIPLOMACY
A Su-25 warplane roared over downtown Skopje and the area around Aracinovo four times Saturday morning, as European Union (news - web sites) foreign affairs chief Javier Solana arrived on his latest mission to coax both sides of the ethnic divide into a deal.
Markovski said the plane, clearly audible throughout the capital, was ``engaged in surveillance'' and would not attack.
Western diplomats, anxious to broker a deal before the four-month-old conflict spirals into civil war, met Albanian leaders Friday night in a bid to salvage peace talks which have effectively stopped, though informal negotiations continue.
Albanian parties, whom diplomats suspect of wanting to draw in NATO to police a partition of the tiny country, are refusing to resume formal dialogue unless the attack is called off. They appear to have taken heart from NATO's forthright condemnation.
``We are determined to talk,'' said Zamir Dika, a top Albanian politician, stressing the West had to get more involved. ``We expect a strong reaction by the international community, primarily NATO, to prevent the obvious danger of civil war.''
Macedonian officials, who say the assault sought to force the Albanians' hand by gaining the initiative on the ground, want Solana to lean on the Albanians to drop demands for concessions which the government and diplomats say go too far.
REBEL REACTION MUTED
The guerrillas, who are fighting back in Aracinovo and show no signs of giving up, responded to the Macedonian offensive with an attack on a police checkpoint in the village of Vorce, wounding five members of the security forces, officials said.
Diplomats had expected a major retaliation in other parts of Macedonia's northern hills seized by rebels since February, or even the shelling from Aracinovo they threatened two weeks ago.
``It is interesting that we have yet to see the implementation of their threats,'' one Western envoy said.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson demanded an immediate reinstatement of the ragged 11-day cease-fire torn up by the government Friday and major powers appealed for calm.
``New outbreaks of violence, from whichever side, are madness at this sensitive time,'' Robertson said in the United States. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) telephoned President Boris Trajkovski to urge Macedonian forces to show restraint.
Solana, who has set a Monday deadline for progress toward an accord, is expected to revive talks on concessions to Macedonia's one-third Albanian minority, for whose rights the rebels claim to be fighting. But few expect major breakthroughs.
``I've seen Solana come and go. I wonder what he'll achieve this time,'' one Western diplomat mused.
United States Urges Restraint by Macedonian Forces Posted June 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010622/wl/balkans_macedonia_usa_dc_1.html
Friday June 22 6:10 PM ET
United States Urges Restraint by Macedonian Forces
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Friday urged Macedonia to show restraint in its fight with ethnic Albanian forces after it tore up an 11-day truce by attacking a village held by rebels near the capital Skopje.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker issued a statement saying Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) had called President Boris Trajkovski to reiterate the need for a policy of military restraint.
Reeker said separately that U.S. Ambassador Michael Einik had also seen Trajkovski earlier to underscore the message.
He said Powell spoke at least twice to NATO (news - web sites) Secretary-General George Robertson and European Union (news - web sites) High Representative Javier Solana, whose groups are engaged in a cliffhanger bid to broker a political deal to avert civil war.
``The United States calls on the sides in Macedonia to cease fighting and focus on a political solution,'' Reeker said in his statement.
``The answer to the situation in Macedonia has always been progress in the political dialogue leading to demilitarization. There is a peace process for the situation in Macedonia. There is no military solution,'' he added.
Reeker said the United States was ``very concerned'' about the situation and Powell had relayed this message to Trajkovski.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Jim Swigert is in Skopje and will join Solana at meetings there this weekend, Reeker told reporters.
He said it was unclear whether the Macedonians were responding to provocations by the ethnic Albanians. ``Our message has been that the situation on the ground has to leave room for the political and demilitarization tracks to move forward,'' he added.
Earlier the army blasted the village of Aracinovo which the rebels had threatened to use to shell Skopje and its airport.
The attack cast a shadow over attempts to hammer out a peace deal. Parties from across a widening ethnic divide did not meet Friday.
A Macedonian government official said the action was intended to force Albanian politicians to drop demands blamed for blocking the cross-party talks, designed to persuade the guerrillas to end their insurrection in return for greater Albanian rights.
Albanians account for about one-third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
Peace Talks Resume in Macedonia Posted June 22, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010622/wl/macedonia_186.html
Friday June 22 4:39 AM ET
Peace Talks Resume in Macedonia
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Government forces pounded rebel strongholds near the capital Friday despite the resumption of talks between ethnic Albanian and Slav politicians aimed at ending the violence in Macedonia.
Before dawn, troops began firing artillery shells at rebels entrenched on the slopes between the towns of Aracinovo and Nikustak, a few miles outside Skopje. Sporadic machine-gun fire could be heard in return.
Macedonian army Col. Blagoja Markovski said the action was aimed at ``crushing and destroying terrorists'' in two hamlets, Orlanche and Grusino. At least one house was burning.
A rebel leader known as Commander Hohxa said three civilians were killed and ``many'' wounded, including one rebel fighter, in the attack, which he said began with helicopter gunships. He accused the Macedonian army of violating a week-old truce and promised to fight back.
``I'm warning the government if they want war they're going to get one,'' he said by telephone from Aracinovo. ``We will defend ourselves.''
Rebels have seized several villages in northern Macedonia in what they say is a fight for greater civil rights for the country's minority ethnic Albanians. The government accuses them of wanting to carve up the country and have launched several offensives to try to dislodge them.
Negotiations for a political solution resumed late Thursday after a visit to Skopje by European Union (news - web sites) security chief Javier Solana, a former NATO (news - web sites) secretary-general who has taken a lead role in efforts to head off another Balkan civil war.
Despite Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski's declaration that negotiations on his peace plan were at an impasse, Solana said he was optimistic progress could still be made.
``I think we will be able to solve the problem,'' he said. ``I think that we, all of us, will move only forward.''
Macedonian officials, who had broken off six days of talks Wednesday, resumed negotiations after Solana departed for Israel.
``We are talking and we will be able to make an agreement,'' said Imer Imeri, a key ethnic Albanian leader. ``First we will start with easier subjects and then we will follow to more difficult ones.''
On Wednesday, NATO offered to send 3,000 troops to Macedonia to supervise the disarming of ethnic Albanian rebels once a peace deal is reached.
A spokesman for Imeri's Party for Democratic Prosperity, Zehir Bekteshi, said Solana also offered to send more experts to work on constitutional changes - the main sticking point.
Despite the latest setbacks, Solana said he still was hoping for progress by an EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday.
Solana was expected to return to Macedonia on Friday night for more talks.
The talks had broken down because of demands by ethnic Albanians for sweeping constitutional reforms to create a federal structure for Macedonia. Macedonian Slav parties reject that as a move toward carving up the country.
``We've reached the red line that Macedonia cannot cross,'' Macedonia's prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, said before meeting Solana.
More than 1,000 villagers fleeing the fighting crossed into neighboring Kosovo on Thursday, pushing the total of refugees this year to nearly 50,000, said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency in Kosovo.
Macedonia hits rebels to try to recover initiative Posted June 22, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010622/3/14wbx.html
Friday June 22, 9:50 PM
Macedonia hits rebels to try to recover initiative
By Daniel Simpson
OUTSIDE ARACINOVO, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Macedonian army blasted a village held by Albanian guerrillas on Friday, tearing up a ragged 11-day truce in a high-risk bid to get the upper hand in stalled peace talks.
Mi-24 helicopter gunships, usually armed with rockets and four-barrel 12.7mm machineguns, began swooping in on Aracinovo at dawn, firing at the village from which the rebels have threatened to shell the Macedonian capital Skopje and its airport.
Impacts blew off the top of the minaret of a mosque and engulfed several buildings in flames. Tank shells also slammed into the area between the village, just 10 km (six miles) from the capital, and the nearby Athens-Belgrade highway.
Defence Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said it was an operation "to eliminate the terrorists in Aracinovo".
But the rebels, who responded with heavy machinegun fire and possibly mortar rounds, showed no signs of giving up.
"It is a real fight," rebel commander Hodzha told Reuters by telephone early on Friday afternoon. "They tried to come in but we broke them and they withdrew."
Three civilians had been killed, and one guerrilla injured, Hodzha said, adding that his men had killed five policemen and injured many others. Macedonian officials denied any casualties.
A government official told Reuters the operation was aimed at forcing Albanian politicians to compromise in stalled cross-party talks to persuade the rebels to end their four-month-old rebellion in return for greater Albanian rights.
"Without any advances on the ground, you cannot advance in the political talks. We haven't moved in several weeks, that's why the Albanians have such strong demands," he said.
OUTCOME UNCLEAR
Diplomats, who have themselves tried and failed to persuade the Albanians to compromise, said it was a high-risk move.
"It's an attempt by the Macedonian armed forces to wrest the initiative back from the rebels and on the face of it it's a good one. The big question is what it will provoke," said one.
"Although the Macedonians initiated this move, the ball is still with the rebels."
The attack is likely to undermine efforts by European Union envoy Javier Solana to salvage a deal before the Monday deadline he has set for "substantial progress" in concessions to Albanian minority grievances as part of the search for peace.
Solana, in Tel Aviv meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on a shaky Middle East truce, said he realised there had been "complications" in Macedonia overnight but hoped to return on Saturday or Sunday to try to get the talks moving.
A senior member of the main Albanian party said he did not understand the Macedonian attack, but declined to be drawn on what effect it might have on the negotiations.
"Neither side can defeat the other militarily, this is obvious from more than three months of fighting," he said.
In neighbouring Kosovo, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency said 1,450 Albanians had crossed from Macedonia on Thursday but that she did not know if more had fled on Friday.
Gangs of Macedonian youths gathered on the road leading up to Aracinovo, which the rebels seized two weeks ago in a move that fanned ethnic tension because of the threat to the capital.
Some threw stones at a Reuters vehicle as it drove past.
Hodza said he stood by his threat to attack the capital if he was ordered to do so by the rebel headquarters.
The government official said the capital was not in their range but that someone could easily attack from within the city.
"Definitely they don't have the technology or the weaponry to hit targets in Skopje from Aracinovo, but we cannot exclude the possibility of an urban terrorist attack," he said.
Diplomats said the fighting was some way from all-out war, but that it was far from clear if the Macedonians would pull off their gamble. "The gloves aren't quite off yet, but you can forget about ceasefires," said one.
Macedonia attack shatters ceasefire Posted June 22, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1401000/1401919.stm
Friday, 22 June, 2001, 09:21 GMT 10:21 UK
Macedonia attack shatters ceasefire
The rebels have held Aracinovo for two weeks
The Macedonian army is carrying out a ferocious offensive against a key village held by ethnic Albanian rebels, bringing an abrupt end to a fragile 11-day ceasefire.
"We have begun an operation to eliminate the terrorists in Aracinovo" - Macedonian government spokesman
A rebel leader known as Commander Hoxha told the BBC that if the attack on the village of Aracinovo continued, he would shell the capital Skopje, which is just 10km (six miles) away.
It is not clear whether the rebels - reported to number more than 700 - have the firepower to carry out their threat.
The BBC's Paul Anderson in Skopje says Friday morning's assault ends any hope that peace talks between the Macedonian Government and the ethnic Albanian rebels will resume.
'Eliminate terrorists'
The army attack began at dawn and involved helicopter gunships, backed by tanks and mortars.
A government spokesman called the assault "an operation to eliminate the terrorists in Aracinovo".
Security forces had blocked roads into the village
Reports from the area said a four-storey building had caught fire in the offensive, enveloping the eastern part of the village in heavy smoke.
There were also reports of machine-gun fire and grenades coming from rebel-held areas.
Commander Hoxha said three civilians had been killed and 18 injured in the assault, and that there was no medicine to treat the wounded.
The Macedonian army has denied that civilians were killed, saying the village contained only rebels.
Many non-combatants have fled the village since the guerrillas took control two weeks ago.
But reports from the area say there are still civilians in Aracinovo.
The town's ethnic Albanian parliamentarian said he had tried to contact the prime minister to protest about the attack, but had been unable to reach him.
A separate attack on rebel-held areas near the towns of Kumanovo and Tetovo was reported to be continuing into a second day.
EU intervention
The attack came only hours after European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was optimistic that a peace agreement could be worked out.
Mr Solana is due back on Friday
Mr Solana was in Macedonia on Thursday to try to push peace talks forward and is due back later on Friday.
On Wednesday peace talks collapsed with President Boris Trajkovski blaming excessive Albanian demands for the breakdown.
Mr Solana had aimed to get the Albanians to withdraw increased demands for constitutional change on his return to Macedonia.
Accusation
Mr Trajkovski accused the Albanian parties of blocking the talks with demands for changes to the constitution which he said would create a federal system, made up of two nations - Macedonian and Albanian.
But the ethnic Albanian politician, Arben Xhaferri, rejected Mr Trajkovski's comments, saying he was ready to continue talks.
Mr Trajkovski said Albanian demands were excessive
He accused Mr Trajkovski of trying to "create a climate of paranoia" and said his party's demands were nothing new.
A truce had been in place for the past 11 days but has been disrupted by sporadic clashes on an almost daily basis.
Both Nato and the EU had been stepping up their diplomatic efforts to prevent civil war in the country, with senior Nato envoy Peter Feith also visiting Skopje.
Nato on Wednesday pledged to send 3,000 troops to Macedonia, but only if a political settlement was reached.
The Macedonian army has been locked in conflict with armed ethnic Albanian rebels based in the north of Macedonia since they began an uprising in February.
The rebels retain control of a string of villages near the borders with Kosovo and southern Serbia as well as the village of Aracinovo.