Deadlocked Macedonia Peace Talks Given NATO Carrot Posted June 18, 2001
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Monday June 18 3:14 PM ET
Deadlocked Macedonia Peace Talks Given NATO Carrot
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's politicians are under heavy international pressure to agree on a peace plan by Wednesday if they want NATO (news - web sites) troops to help them disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas, diplomatic sources said Monday.
Some European NATO allies are ready to send in troops to help collect guns if the rebels agree to end their four-month insurrection, according to NATO and European Union (news - web sites) sources.
An initial decision could be announced at a NATO meeting Wednesday, but only if there are results from cross-party talks in Skopje to thrash out terms for averting civil war, including concessions to Macedonia's one-third ethnic Albanian minority.
``NATO is being asked to do things to help and when they meet they want to see their help is relevant and worth offering,'' said a Western diplomatic source. ``That means we need progress.''
The talks, described by diplomats as spasmodic, are deadlocked over Albanian demands for wholesale changes to the tiny Balkan state's 10-year-old constitution, which closely resemble key parts of the guerrillas' own conditions for peace.
Leaders of Macedonia's majority are resigned to making sweeping changes but balk at demands for a consensual democracy, meaning all sensitive decisions would need Albanian approval.
Government sources said the Albanian parties in a fractious coalition, formed to try to prevent war, also want a new post of vice president to be created and reserved for an Albanian.
``If this isn't just a negotiating tactic, they're in trouble,'' a diplomatic source said. ``The consensual democracy model is in effect a recipe for non-government.''
NATO MUSCLE NEEDED
Western powers, anxious to broker a peaceful solution rather than be called upon to pick up the pieces, are putting Macedonia under heavy pressure to agree quick constitutional changes designed to undercut support for the guerrillas, who say they are fighting for minority rights.
But they accept that diplomatic backing will not be enough and, led by Britain, are preparing another Balkan operation, with peacekeepers in neighboring Kosovo likely to take part.
While there is no intention to disarm the guerrillas by force, there is a risk that renegades may try to wreck a peace deal by provoking violence. So even a small operation would require adequate ``force protection,'' NATO sources said.
Under the peace plan being hammered out, Macedonia is forming a crack military unit to strengthen its meager armed forces for a possible attack on rebels dug in on Skopje's outskirts. But that threat is not as likely to persuade rebels to give up as the NATO deployment they demand, diplomats say.
DEADLOCK
The carrot of NATO involvement, the one thing politicians of all stripes can agree on, may help the search for compromise when parties resume a fourth day of haggling Monday evening.
``Failure to sort it out by Wednesday is not a showstopper,'' a diplomatic source stressed, pointing to an EU deadline of next Monday as more decisive. ``But we want progress not talks.''
A major obstacle is the wording of the constitution's preamble, which labels Albanians as one of several minorities in a country of ``the Macedonian people.'' Albanian leaders want this changed to describe them as one of Macedonia's founding peoples.
But majority leaders of Slav descent would rather delete all ethnic references than approve changes that would in their eyes deny Macedonians their own nation, after years of denials by their neighbors that Macedonians were a true ethnic group.
Russia, which shares their Orthodox Slav roots, launched an attack on Western policy Sunday. On a brief visit to Kosovo, Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said NATO had failed to stop Albanian gunmen spreading from the U.N.-run Yugoslav province and was now forcing Macedonia to cave in to their demands.
Although both sides called cease-fires last Monday, the rebels until June 27, their shaky truce is punctured almost daily by exchanges of light fire. Gunmen have targets, such as the airport, in range from the village of Aracinovo on Skopje's fringes.
Macedonia Peace Talks Drag On, Albanians Push Hard Posted June 18, 2001
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Monday June 18 5:57 AM ET
Macedonia Peace Talks Drag On, Albanians Push Hard
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's politicians limbered up for fresh haggling on Monday as a cross-party summit intended to avert a civil war dragged into its fourth day, with ethnic Albanian parties pushing hard for major concessions.
Albanian guerrillas, who have widened Macedonia's ethnic divide with a four-month rebellion which they claim is a fight for minority rights, have called a truce while political leaders debate Western-backed plans to persuade the rebels to disarm.
But the talks, which a diplomatic source said were ``best described as spasmodic,'' are deadlocked over Albanian demands for a wholesale rewrite of Macedonia's 10-year-old constitution.
Leaders of the country's Slav ethnic majority are resigned to making sweeping changes.
But they balk at Albanian demands for a consensual democracy, where all sensitive decisions would have to be approved by the one-third Albanian minority.
Citing government sources, Macedonian newspapers said the two Albanian parties in a fractious coalition, formed to try and prevent a new Balkan war, were also pushing for a new post of vice president to be created, reserved for an Albanian leader.
Western diplomats, anxious to broker a peaceful solution rather than be called upon to pick up the pieces, are putting Macedonia under heavy pressure to agree constitutional change.
``They don't seem to have made much progress,'' a diplomatic source said. ``But at least they haven't gone backwards.''
A major obstacle is the wording of the constitution's preamble, which labels Albanians as one of several minorities in a country of ``the Macedonian people.'' Albanian leaders want this changed to make them one of Macedonia's founding peoples.
But majority Slav leaders would rather delete all references to ethnicity than approve a document which declares there is no such thing as a Macedonian nation, after years of denials by their neighbors that Macedonians were a true ethnic group.
Russia, which shares their Orthodox Slav roots, launched an attack on Western policy on Sunday. On a visit to neighboring Kosovo, Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said Macedonia was being forced to cave in to the demands of armed extremists.
Western powers, whose troops have been stationed in Kosovo as NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeepers since 1999, should stamp out Albanian ''terrorism,'' not allow it to spread across the Balkans, he said.
Diplomats expect NATO to accept an official Macedonian request for help in collecting guns from the National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas, if the rebels agree to the terms being debated.
Though both the rebels and government forces called cease-fires last Monday, the truce is punctured almost daily by exchanges of light fire.
The summit could drag on for days, diplomats warn, as the European Union (news - web sites) has set next Monday as a deadline for results. The carrot of a potential decision by NATO members to put troops in Macedonia under a final disarmament plan may prove decisive.
``The irony is that the one thing the Macedonians and the NLA can agree on is for NATO to get involved,'' a Western envoy said.
3rd Day of Macedonian Talks End Posted June 18, 2001
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Sunday June 17 3:48 PM ET
3rd Day of Macedonian Talks End
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Negotiators in Macedonia ended a third day of talks Sunday with no word on whether a deal to prevent full-scale war between ethnic Albanian militants and government forces was any closer.
After meeting privately for several hours Sunday, the talks broke up because negotiators were exhausted, a government official said.
Skopje's A1 television station reported ethnic Albanian negotiators had made demands that were ``unacceptable'' to government officials, including a veto right over government decisions and a post of deputy state president.
Politicians are considering a peace proposal drafted by President Boris Trajkovski that calls for a cease-fire, amnesty for most rebels who disarm voluntarily and greater inclusion of minority ethnic Albanians in state institutions.
Trajkovski's plan may also include the removal of references to ethnicity or religion from the constitution and adding Albanian as a state language.
The proposal won backing Saturday from European Union (news - web sites) leaders, who promised more aid if it succeeds. They also said they will send an EU envoy to be based in Skopje to bolster the talks, but were bickering over who to send.
Meanwhile, government forces and rebels exchanged gunfire near the village of Aracinovo, a rebel stronghold on the outskirts of the capital, Skopje.
Later in the day, Macedonian forces fired several mortars in retaliation, media reported. There was no word on casualties, but the explosions apparently ignited large fires in a field of grain, which sent a cloud of smoke toward Skopje.
A U.S. State Department official touring the region, James Swigert, called for an immediate withdrawal by rebel forces.
``The occupation of Aracinovo is a potential threat to NATO (news - web sites) supply lines'' into the neighboring Serb province of Kosovo, he said after meeting with Albanian President Rexhep Meidani.
Meidani also appealed for a withdrawal ``to allow political dialogue to continue.''
Military spokesman Col. Blagoja Markovski said Albanian insurgents also fired several mortar bombs toward the army's positions near the town of Tetovo, but the army did not return fire.
The militants, known as the National Liberation Army, took up arms in February in a fight they say is for broader rights.
Macedonian authorities contend the rebels are bent on carving up the country and have led several offensives to dislodge them from their strongholds.
The British Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that it has offered specialized military training to the Macedonian army as it battles ethnic Albanian rebels.
The offer has not been accepted by Macedonia yet, a defense spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
The six-man, short-term training teams would work with patrols that operate ``in front of the front line,'' mostly providing reconnaissance on enemy positions.
However, the training would take place far away from the battlefield. British troops would ``definitely not be involved in combat operations,'' the spokesman said.
Macedonian Politicians Talk Peace Posted June 18, 2001
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Sunday June 17 10:35 AM ET
Macedonian Politicians Talk Peace
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A third straight day of talks broke up Sunday with no sign Macedonia's political leaders were any nearer a deal to prevent full-scale war between ethnic Albanian militants and government forces.
Representatives of Macedonia's majority Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority are considering a peace proposal drafted by President Boris Trajkovski.
The proposal calls for a cease-fire, amnesty for most rebels who disarm voluntarily and a larger role for ethnic Albanians in government.
Macedonian officials say Trajkovski is also willing to remove references to ethnicity and religion from the Balkan nation's constitution and granting the Albanian language official status.
The proposal won backing from European Union (news - web sites) leaders, who promised more aid to economically struggling Macedonia if it succeeds. They also said they will send an EU envoy to Skopje, the capital, to bolster the talks.
A government spokesman said negotiators needed a rest but would resume talks later Sunday or Monday. Meanwhile, government forces and rebels exchanged sporadic gunfire near Aracinovo, a rebel-held village on the outskirts of Skopje. No casualties were reported.
The army and militants fired at each other later Sunday near the northern village of Slupcane, and rebels fired several mortar shells at army near the town of Tetovo, a military spokesman said.
Military spokesman Col. Blagoja Markovski said one bomb landed near a military barracks but did not explode. He said Macedonia's forces did not return fire near Tetovo.
In another incident near Tetovo, two rebels approached a police checkpoint with hand grenades but were disarmed, but government spokesman Antonio Milososki said.
Rebels declared a cease-fire Friday and the government had promised ``military restraint.'' Most of the fighting has been concentrated in towns and villages in northern Macedonia.
On Saturday, Arben Xhaferi, the leading ethnic Albanian politician in Macedonia, expressed optimism about the negotiations and the peace process is being ``pushed forward.''
EU leaders, meeting in Sweden, also suggested they were moving closer to endorsing Trajkovski's request for NATO (news - web sites) troops to help collect weapons if the insurgents agree to disarm.
Representatives from the United States and the 18 other NATO nations were expected to meet Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, to consider that request.
The rebels are demanding a full deployment of NATO peacekeepers before they will accept a peace plan. But EU security chief Javier Solana said a large-scale NATO operation was not being considered.
The militants, known as the National Liberation Army, took up arms in February in a fight they say is for broader rights for ethnic Albanians.
Authorities contend the rebels want to carve up Macedonia, where between one-quarter and one-third of the population of 2 million is ethnic Albanian.
In Yugoslavia on Sunday, the Russian and Yugoslav presidents blamed ethnic Albanian ``terrorists'' for the instability in Macedonia and neighboring Kosovo. They called for a regional agreement on borders and minority rights to end the violence.
Albanians Take Hard Line on Macedonian Peace Plan Posted June 18, 2001
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Sunday June 17 2:35 PM ET
Albanians Take Hard Line on Macedonian Peace Plan
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Leaders of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority are taking a hard line in cross-party talks intended to avert another Balkan war, diplomatic sources said on Sunday.
Politicians from both sides of an ethnic divide widened by a four-month Albanian guerrilla rebellion are struggling to agree on major constitutional concessions to Albanians under a Western-backed plan designed to persuade the rebels to disarm.
``The tone is hard going and the Albanians are being tough but I don't think we're on the verge of breakdown,'' a diplomatic source said, adding the talks would probably resume Monday.
Another source said the summit was ``best described as spasmodic.''
The main stumbling block is how to rewrite a constitution drawn up just 10 years ago. Slav majority leaders are resigned to making sweeping changes, but not necessarily to meeting Albanian demands that Macedonia become a consensual democracy in which all sensitive decisions would have to be backed by the one-third Albanian minority.
This and the elevation of the Albanian language to official status throughout public life are tough proposals for the Slav majority to stomach, especially with Albanian gunmen at large on Skopje's outskirts.
``They don't seem to have made much progress,'' a diplomatic source said. ``But at least they haven't gone backwards.''
NATO (news - web sites) ROLE AWAITED
The rebel National Liberation Army (NLA), which has called a truce until June 27 while the politicians haggle, is waiting to see what role NATO will play after demanding troops be deployed.
Diplomats expect the alliance to accept a government request for NATO help in disarming guerrillas and decommissioning their weapons, provided the rebels agree to the terms being debated.
The talks could drag on for days, diplomats warn, and the carrot of a potential decision by NATO members to put troops in Macedonia under a final disarmament plan may prove decisive.
``The irony is that the one thing the Macedonians and the NLA can agree on is for NATO to get involved,'' a Western envoy said.
In Belgrade, Russia and Yugoslavia urged Western powers to disarm ``terrorists'' in Macedonia and neighboring Kosovo, blamed for spawning Albanian guerrilla groups across the Balkans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said failure to clamp down on armed extremists in the U.N.-run Yugoslav province meant the ``Kosovo scenario,'' where gunmen wield power, was spreading.
``The leadership of (Macedonia) is under serious pressure to force it to meet the demands of extremists,'' Putin warned later on a brief visit to Kosovo. ``It is very important that nobody in the region has illusions that the international community will accept... attempts to solve political problems by force.''
HEADACHE
In Skopje, politicians are under heavy European Union (news - web sites) pressure to produce a deal by June 25 and have to grapple with a tough agenda that also includes more civil service and police jobs for Albanians. But the constitution is the biggest headache.
Experts propose deleting ethnic references in its preamble, which Albanians say is discriminatory because it labels them a minority in a country of ``the Macedonian people.''
The aim is to undercut support for rebels who say they are fighting for ethnic rights, and to sidestep the issue of direct talks with the NLA, which the government refuses to countenance.
``The basic Albanian demands are essentially all the same, so I don't think this is necessarily a show stopper,'' one diplomat said. But the blanket amnesty rebels want is not on the agenda.
Though both sides called cease-fires Monday, the truce is punctured almost daily by exchanges of light fire.
Sporadic shooting was audible near Aracinovo, a village on Skopje's fringes from which the rebels have threatened to shell the capital, and reporters saw smoke rising from burning fields.
Saturday night, the government authorized a cautious test of the truce. After five days of haggling over terms, it let aid take supplies to civilians behind rebel lines in exchange for access to a reservoir to reconnect a major town's water supply.
Macedonian crisis talks to resume late Sunday Posted June 17, 2001
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Sunday June 17, 6:38 PM
Macedonian crisis talks to resume late Sunday
SKOPJE, June 17 (AFP) -
Crisis talks between Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders aimed at undermining a rebel uprising creating havoc in the country were due to resume later Sunday, sources close to negotiators said.
The main leaders from the parties making up Macedonia's emergency national unity government -- two Slav and two ethnic Albanian -- met for a second round of talks which went on late into the night Saturday, after an initial meeting Friday.
The long weekend of negotiations, held by President Boris Trajkovski, are aimed at hammering out a series of political reforms to bring the two communities closer together and halt a four month uprising by ethnic Albanian rebels.
Guerrilla fighters from the National Liberation Army (NLA) are demanding large concessions from the Macedonian government, and have agreed to observe a ceasefire while talks continue.
But Skopje considers many of their demands to be unacceptable, signalling possible sticking points in the talks.
Trajkovski has promised to broach all subjects in the marathon cross-party discussions with coalition leaders, "even the most difficult and sensitive issues."
Aides said that was a reference to plans to discuss the question of the constitution, which ethnic Albanian political leaders and guerrillas want changed to name them as an equal community with the Macedonian Slav majority.
The status of the Albanian language and Islam, which ethnic Albanians hope to see officially recognised, are also on the talks' agenda.
Trajkovski is also anxious to persuade rebels to lay down their arms under an amnesty and disarmament plan which international KFOR peacekeepers over the border in Kosovo have yet to say if they will supervise.
Four months of fighting between rebels and Macedonian security forces in the north of the country have seen a lull since a ceasefire took hold last Monday, despite daily breaches in the truce.
Rebel leaders have agreed to keep to the ceasefire until June 27 to allow talks to run their course, but many of their demands are deemed unacceptable to Skopje, including their demand for a general amnesty for NLA fighters.
Trajkovski's proposal for an amnesty concerns only Macedonian citizens who took up arms under pressure and rules out rebel leaders and guerrillas who have crossed into the country from the neighbouring separatist Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
Mortar lands near barracks in Macedonia shoot-out Posted June 17, 2001
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Sunday June 17, 10:18 PM
Mortar lands near barracks in Macedonia shoot-out
SKOPJE, June 17 (AFP) -
A mortar round landed near an army barracks in the latest outbreak of hostilities in northern Macedonia Sunday, despite promises from both the army and ethnic Albanian rebels to hold fire during crucial peace talks, an army spokesman said.
The mortar bomb did not explode or cause any casualties when it crashed into the courtyard of a house close to an army barracks in the northern city of Kumanovo, Colonel Blagoja Markovski said.
The incident occurred during a firefight near the rebel-held village of Slupcane in the hills above Kumanovo, as the self-styled National Liberation Army targeted troops based nearby.
The army responded with artillery fire, Markovski said.
Meanwhile, a man was injured in an exchange of fire Sunday afternoon in the center of the flashpoint town of Tetovo in northwestern Macedonia, government spokesman Antonio Milososki said.
Two men in a vehicle tried to lob an explosive device at policemen who had flagged them down at a checkpoint, Milososki said.
The police opened fire, wounding one of the two men, he added, without giving the victim's identity.
A number of police checkpoints have been set up in and around Tetovo, a town with a mainly ethnic Albanian population in northwestern Macedonia.
Heavy fighting erupted on the edge of the town in March when NLA guerrillas occupied hills overlooking the town before being driven back by a concerted army and special police counter-offensive.
Both sides said last week they would cease hostilities during talks between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders in the coalition to try to agree on a political reform package to address Albanian claims of discrimination.
A third round of talks focusing on changes to the constitution and official recognition of the Albanian language were due to get under way later Sunday.
Macedonia and rebels test confidence as talks drag on Posted June 17, 2001
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Sunday June 17, 7:08 PM
Macedonia and rebels test confidence as talks drag on
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia allowed food supplies into areas held by ethnic Albanian rebels in a cautious test of a shaky truce while politicians remained locked away for a third day on Sunday to hammer out a blueprint for peace.
After five days of haggling over terms, the government let aid agencies ferry food and medicines late on Saturday night to civilians holed up behind rebel lines in exchange for access to a reservoir to reconnect a major town's water supply after 11 days without.
The exchange, brokered by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, marked the first ever deal struck between the fractious multi-ethnic government and the guerrillas, whose four-month rebellion has threatened to start a civil war.
But the details of a full-scale peace plan to persuade the rebels to hand in their guns were still being thrashed out.
Politicians from both sides of Macedonia's ethnic divide were locked away together for the weekend under intense pressure at home and from abroad not to emerge without the basis of a deal.
NATO ROLE AWAITED
The self-styled rebel National Liberation Army (NLA), which has called a truce until June 27 while the politicians debate, is waiting to see what role NATO will play in the process after calling for the deployment of troops throughout Macedonia.
Diplomats expect the alliance to accept a government request for NATO help in disarming guerrillas and decommissioning their weapons, provided the rebels agree to the terms being debated.
"The irony is that the one thing the Macedonians and the NLA can agree on is for NATO to get involved," a Western envoy said.
The European Union, which has led foreign efforts to broker a deal, told Macedonia's leaders to leave no issue undiscussed, especially not constitutional change, in its efforts to solve the grievances of the one-third ethnic Albanian minority.
Experts propose deleting all ethnic references in the preamble, which Albanians feel is discriminatory because it labels them a minority in a country of "the Macedonian people".
But this would anger the majority of Slav descent, anxious to preserve the definition of Macedonians as an ethnic group.
"The good thing is that they're discussing the ethnicity issue," a Western diplomat said. "What they haven't been able to crack yet is what to do about it. And I doubt they will today."
ALBANIAN RIGHTS
Other reforms on the agenda, designed to undercut support for rebels who claim to fight for greater ethnic rights, include wider official use of the Albanian language and more jobs for ethnic Albanians in the civil service and police.
The government brands the NLA a terrorist group and refuses to negotiate with it, but diplomats say this may not be a barrier to peace.
"I'm not sure how serious the NLA really are about getting a place at the table," one senior Skopje-based diplomat said. "The basic Albanian demands are essentially all the same, so I don't think this is necessarily a show stopper."
But some of the rebels' demands are not up for negotiation.
"A blanket amnesty that covers the commanders was, is and always will be the most difficult thing for the Macedonians to swallow," a diplomatic source said.
Although both sides called ceasefires on Monday, the truce is punctured almost daily by exchanges of light fire.
Rebel-held areas were quiet on Sunday. But the front line is a village on the outskirts of Skopje from which the rebels have threatened to shell the capital -- a prospect which means the threat of another Balkan ethnic war is far from being averted.
Macedonia Brutality Fuels Rebels Posted June 17, 2001
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Saturday June 16 12:40 PM ET
Macedonia Brutality Fuels Rebels
By MERITA DHIMGJOKA, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - It was not the cracked bones or the painful back injuries that made Nazim Bushi's teeth clutch with anger.
It was disappointment that the people who caused those injuries were fellow men in uniform, who he says turned against him solely because he belonged to the wrong ethnic group.
Supporters of Bushi, an ethnic Albanian officer serving with the Macedonian police at the military airport in Skopje, say he is a victim of police brutality that has proliferated since ethnic Albanian militants took up arms in February, demanding broader rights and claiming discrimination by majority Macedonian Slavs.
The incidents not only undermine government promises to improve the situation of ethnic Albanians, once the insurgency is dealt with. They could also draw ethnic Albanians to the militants and away from political parties willing to negotiate with the government.
Already, the rebels claim police harassment of ethnic Albanian civilians is feeding them with new recruits.
``Young men who are beaten up by police are joining us every day,'' a rebel commander known as ``Commander Hoxha'' told The Associated Press from the rebel-controlled village of Aracinovo, barely four miles from the capital. ``They're more than we can supply with weapons.''
Independent agencies say authorities higher up are overwhelmed by the crisis and often unaware of excesses by local police, themselves stressed out by long hours and often the targets of rebel attacks.
``No action is taken against police,'' said Saso Klekovski of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, a nonprofit humanitarian agency. ``Those in the higher levels of the government don't know what is going on in the lower levels.''
About a dozen Albanian friends and relatives came to visit Bushi last week after they'd heard the bad news. They sat listening and smoking cigarettes as he told how about 40 policemen broke into his house Sunday morning, arrested him and searched the house for weapons.
None were found, he said, but he was taken to a nearby police station. There, he said he was beaten by two masked policemen, who accused him of collaborating with the rebels.
``They wanted me to admit that I had given the rebels airport maps and flight schedules of the army helicopters,'' Bushi said.
About 35 hours after the arrest, police dropped him unconscious on a hill outside Skopje, where his family found him.
Another ethnic Albanian serving with the Macedonian police at the airport, 1st Capt. Muhaedin Bela, was also allegedly arrested and beaten up by police last week after rebels threatened to attack the airport.
Police spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said he couldn't confirm or deny the reports.
A police source who spoke on condition of anonymity said some police units ``are completely out of control and take orders from no one.''
Government forces have led several offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, contending they are separatists bent on carving up the country.
In a move expected to heighten tensions, authorities have started arming a number of civilians, apparently Slavs, as part of a ``mobilization of police reservists.''
``The distribution of weapons is done not only exclusively on ethnic basis but also on party basis,'' Klekovski said, suggesting that police were arming mainly supporters of the party of Prime Minister Lubco Georgievski.
Similar measures helped fuel earlier wars in other former Yugoslav republics like Croatia and Bosnia.
Ethnic Albanian parties in the coalition government have called on the prime minister to stop arming civilians. Many Macedonian Slavs are also frightened by the move.
A Macedonian cab driver who was afraid to give his name said police knocked at his door at 4 a.m. to register his son as a reservist and hand him a gun. He said he'd rather have his unemployed son find a paying job instead of being a reservist, adding ``Give him a job, not a gun.''
Macedonia leaders retreat to debate peace plan Posted June 17, 2001
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Sunday June 17, 2:56 AM
Macedonia leaders retreat to debate peace plan
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Politicians from both sides of Macedonia's ethnic divide locked themselves away together for the weekend under intense pressure not to emerge until they hammer out a deal to prevent a new Balkan war.
European Union leaders told Skopje's fractious multi-ethnic government to address every possible issue, including major constitutional concessions to ethnic Albanians -- a key demand by Albanian guerrillas for ending a four-month insurrection.
A declaration adopted at an EU summit in Sweden said the 15-nation bloc, which has taken the diplomatic lead in the search for a peace deal, wanted "a true dialogue covering all issues on the agenda, including the constitutional issues".
The rebels, who have called a truce until June 27 while the emergency unity coalition thrashes out details of a disarmament plan, are waiting to see what role NATO will play in the process after calling for the deployment of troops throughout Macedonia.
Diplomats expect the alliance to accept a government request for NATO help in disarming guerrillas and decommissioning their weapons, provided the rebels agree to the terms being debated.
But the New York Times quoted senior U.S. officials on Saturday as saying the United States had told its NATO partners it would not take part, leaving Europe to take the lead.
"There is a clear logic for NATO to get involved," a senior Western diplomat in Skopje said, pointing to Macedonia's role as the main supply route for 36,000 NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo.
TRUCE REMAINS FRAGILE
Although both sides called ceasefires on Monday, daily exchanges of light fire punctuate the shaky truce.
The rebels say they have Skopje in their sights, raising the prospect of all-out civil war if they strike. To defuse tension, Macedonia is recalling guns issued to reservists to bolster the capital's defences, fearing some had got into dangerous hands.
Witnesses have reported men roaming the city brandishing assault rifles and firing into the air.
"Yesterday, a group of them was ordered to give back their weapons, which they did and the procedure of handing out weapons has been stopped," a security forces spokesman said.
Aid agencies have tried unsuccessfully all week to use the lull in fighting to ferry food and medical supplies to Albanian civilians holed up in rebel territory. But witnesses said police had finally allowed a 10-truck convoy to enter on Saturday.
HIGH STAKES
The closed-door talks could drag on past the weekend, a government source said. After weeks without action, they have to produce results if the crisis is to be contained, diplomats say.
"I know it sounds cliched but no news is good news. At least they're in there talking about it," one Western envoy said.
Top of the agenda are reforms to improve the lot of the one-third Albanian minority, including changes to its status in the constitution, greater use of the Albanian language and more jobs for Albanians in the civil service and police.
Experts propose deleting all references to ethnic groups in the preamble, which Albanians feel is discriminatory because it labels them a minority in a country of "the Macedonian people".
This would anger a majority of Slav descent, anxious to preserve the definition of Macedonians as an ethnic group.
Politicians are being pressed by foreign powers to reach a deal by June 25, when they have to present results to the EU, which announced it would appoint a special envoy to Skopje.
After one of his frequent visits to Macedonia on Thursday, EU security chief Javier Solana predicted NATO would help to collect guns if the rebels agreed to disarm under the proposed deal, which falls short of their demands for a blanket amnesty.
Diplomats expect a group of NATO members to back sending troops into Macedonia if rebels sign up to a disarmament plan.
EU Leaders Urge Macedonia Peace Plan Posted June 17, 2001
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Saturday June 16 4:39 PM ET
EU Leaders Urge Macedonia Peace Plan
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - European leaders threw their weight Saturday behind a peace plan pushed by Macedonia's president, amid reports of new skirmishes and worries about the arming of civilians against ethnic Albanian insurgents.
European Union (news - web sites) leaders meeting in Goteborg, Sweden promised more aid if President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan succeeds. They also said they will send an EU envoy to be based in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, to help shore up the talks.
Meanwhile Saturday, Macedonian media reported an exchange of infantry fire near the village of Aracinovo, a rebel stronghold on the outskirts of Skopje, although rebels declared a cease-fire Friday and the government had promised ``military restraint.'' There was no word on casualties.
Despite the violence, the leading ethnic Albanian politician in Macedonia expressed optimism about talks to end the crisis and head off a full-scale war in this Balkan country.
``We are pushing this process forward,'' Arben Xhaferi said. He and other politicians representing Macedonia's majority Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority held more talks on Saturday.
Trajkovski's plan calls for a cease-fire, amnesty for most rebels who disarm voluntarily and greater inclusion of ethnic Albanians in state bodies and institutions.
A Macedonian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trajkovski also is willing to remove references to ethnicity or religion from the constitution and add Albanian as an optional state language.
EU officials disagreed Saturday over who they should send as a Macedonian peace envoy but said their foreign ministers will try to agree on a candidate when they meet June 25 in Luxembourg.
The EU members also suggested they were moving closer to agreement among themselves on Trajkovski's request for NATO (news - web sites) troops to help collect weapons if the insurgents agree to disarm.
Representatives from the 19 NATO nations were expected to meet Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, to consider that request.
The militants are demanding a full deployment of NATO peacekeepers in Macedonia before accepting any peace proposal. But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that no consideration was being given to a large-scale NATO operation.
The militants, known as the National Liberation Army, took up arms in February in a fight they say is for broader rights.
Macedonian authorities contend the rebels are bent on carving up the country and have led several offensives to dislodge them from their strongholds.
They also recently began arming civilian police reservists, a move that has worried both Macedonian Slavs and ethnic Albanians. There were reports that guns were going mainly to Slavic supporters of the prime minister's party.
On Saturday, police spokesman Stevo Pendarovski admitted there had been ``certain problems'' with some of the recently mobilized reserves in the Skopje area.
Pendarovski said some of the reservists had been dismissed and returned their weapons, and said the government would explain the problems Monday.
Also Saturday, the government's interethnic Crisis Management Body began working on coordinating military and police efforts against the insurgents, as well as inter-ethnic confidence-building measures, relations with international organizations and media campaigning.
Engineers also restored running water from a reservoir controled by the rebels to Kumanovo, a town of 100,000 to which rebels have cut off water for the past 11 days, Macedonian television reported.
The rebels allowed the engineers to work in return for supplying food and other aid to civilians in rebel-held villages, according to the report.
Nato prepares for role in Macedonia Posted June 16, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,507136,00.html
Nato prepares for role in Macedonia
Special report: Macedonia
Richard Norton-Taylor, and Nicholas Wood in Tetovo
Friday June 15, 2001
The Guardian
Nato countries are drawing up contingency plans to send troops into Macedonia, western diplomats and defence officials said yesterday.
Defence sources said Germany was putting together plans for a multinational "stabilisation force" several thousand strong.
Britain and other Nato allies were also preparing to extend their peacekeeping operations to Macedonia.
Although Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary general, insisted during a visit to Skopje yesterday that western military intervention was not on agenda, there is a growing belief that it is a matter of when, not whether, Nato troops will be sent there.
Nato military commanders, do not want to get involved in fighting in Macedonia. "We do not want to go in without something in place," one diplomat said, meaning the peace plan put forward by the Macedonian government.
Nato's military plans are for a force to shore up a peace agreement.
Lord Robertson said Boris Trajkovski, the Macedonian president, had asked Nato for help in disarming the rebels.
"I will be taking that request back to Nato headquarters to see what we can do," he said.
The rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) is also asking for help: it wants Nato to underpin a peace plan, including political reforms and an amnesty.
The Macedonian government has agreed to extend its ceasefire and is offering the Albanian minority greater involvement in state institutions and the guerrillas an amnesty if they lay down their arms.
The offer is based on the scheme which resulting in the Albanian rebels in southern Serbia disarming.
Lord Robertson said the government had agreed to prolong its period of military restraint "during the current political dialogue" .
He was in Skopje to put his weight behind an agreement to dissolve the NLA. "What is vital is for the political process to demonstrate that politics works and delivers," he said after meeting party leaders.
But he ruled out the rebels' involvement in talks, a key NLA demand.
"If the people are interested in political progress in this country, they must leave it to the politicians," he said.
Yesterday the guerrillas recaptured some of the high ground overlooking Tetovo, Macedonia's second city, and the villages of Shipkovica and Gajre.
Government troops continued to shell the hillside, destroying two houses.
SAS is preparing Macedonia for Nato to intervene Posted June 16, 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=005270390100264&rtmo=gGfjZNbu&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/15/wmac15.html
June 15th, 2001
SAS is preparing Macedonia for Nato to intervene
By Julius Strauss in Skopje and Michael Smith Defence Correspondent
GERMANY is assembling a Nato force of 10,000 troops, including British units, to prevent the Macedonian conflict erupting into another full-blown Balkan war.
SAS troops are in southern Kosovo preparing the ground by cutting off supply lines and reinforcements to the Albanian separatist National Liberation Army, defence sources said yesterday. The Ministry of Defence said it had no knowledge of any Nato force being readied for Macedonia but The Telegraph understands that British troops have already been committed.
Representatives of the so-called Quint, the top five military countries in Nato - America, Britain, France, Germany and Italy - met in Brussels to discuss plans to put troops into Macedonia.
The big question mark remained over what contribution if any, the Americans would make. President Bush apparently ruled out military intervention on Wednesday at the Nato summit. But yesterday he was more vague.
He said: "Our government is committed to working with Nato and the EU to bring peace and democracy and stability to that part of the world." Lord Robertson, Nato Secretary-General, said yesterday that Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski had made an official request for Nato help in disarming the ethnic Albanian rebels.
Lord Robertson said in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, whose eastern suburbs are now front-line territory, that he would be taking the request back to Nato "to see what we can do". But with the NLA making Nato involvement a pre-requisite for their agreement to disarm, there seemed little doubt the force would go in.
Mr Trajkovski's blueprint for a solution to the conflict calls for an immediate ceasefire, a partial amnesty for the guerrillas and the inclusion of more Albanians in state institutions.
It also envisages the deployment of Nato soldiers in ethnic Albanian areas to oversee the demilitarisation of the NLA. Western diplomats say such an operation may be an acceptable compromise between full-scale Nato intervention and the policy of watch-and-wait adopted so far.
Nato troops would enter the country from Kosovo, fan out across northern Macedonia to set up arms collection points, perhaps without seeking a new mandate. Around 3,000 of the Kfor troops already in Macedonia are based at Skopje airport, which is now thought to be within range of guerrilla mortars.
Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting, which first broke out in February, have been given added impetus in recent weeks as the conflict has worsened. Albanian guerrillas have seized ever more territory and, as a reaction, there has been a rash of anti-Albanian riots in large cities in the south of the country.
Western officials are anxious not to repeat the mistakes made in Bosnia and Kosovo when lengthy procrastination and a series of half-measures allowed early clashes to spiral out of control. The Ministry of Defence yesterday reiterated an offer to the Macedonian government to train a small, elite unit that could be used in combat against the guerrillas.
A spokesman said the operation could be modelled on Britain's involvement in Sierra Leone where it is training a new government army.
Javier Solana, the EU security chief who accompanied Lord Robertson to Skopje yesterday, was reported to have told Macedonian officials that the EU may step in if Nato balks at providing peacekeepers to support the Trajkovski plan.
Following the meetings in Skopje, leading Macedonian and Albanian parties were set to begin a two-day summit near Lake Ohrid in the south of the country to hammer out the details of the Trajkovski plan. The NLA, which has not been invited to the talks, responded by releasing its own plan for peace.
On the ground, a shaky ceasefire entered its third day yesterday. Analysts say the Macedonian army has all but given up on attempts to shell the NLA into submission. The guerrillas for their part appear content to consolidate their grip over newly-conquered territories.
Macedonia seeks breakthrough Posted June 15, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1390000/1390176.stm
Friday, 15 June, 2001, 12:27 GMT 13:27 UK
Macedonia seeks breakthrough
Politicians aim to implement the president's peace plan
Macedonian and Albanian political leaders are locked in urgent negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the insurgency by rebel ethnic Albanians.
Leaders from the two Macedonian and two ethnic Albanian parties which make up Macedonia's government of national unity are holding talks with President Boris Trajkovski at a secret location in the capital, Skopje.
They hope to find a political settlement which will allow a peace agreement to disarm the rebels, drafted by President Trajkovski, to be implemented with Nato backing.
The rebels extended their unilateral ceasefire for an additional 12 days from Thursday midnight, keeping up the uneasy truce which is currently holding between the guerrillas and the Macedonian army.
Constitution
Diplomatic sources say the politicians are under intense pressure to make a breakthrough in the current talks if the government is to retain the backing of the European Union and Nato.
The West demands that the Macedonians make significant concessions to ethnic Albanian demands for increased rights and recognition.
Refugees continue to flood across the border to Kosovo
President Trajkovski said the discussion would include, "even the most difficult and sensitive issues".
This meant, according to his aides, that the thorny question of changes to the country's constitution would be on the table for the first time.
Ethnic Albanians want the constitution to accord their population equal status with the Macedonians. Currently they are considered an ethnic minority alongside others.
But some Macedonians fear this would only incite further nationalism and lead to the break up of the country.
Disarmament
President Trajkovski's plan calls for a ceasefire, partial amnesty for rebels who disarm voluntarily and more inclusion of the Albanians into state bodies and institutions.
A truce is generally holding
Nato has expressed a willingness to oversee the disarmament, but has stopped short of offering a peacekeeping force like those deployed in Kosovo and Bosnia.
The rebels have demanded that Nato forces guarantee the proposed ceasefire and police any political settlement.
They also want to be included in the negotiations - a demand the government refuses.
Refugees
On the ground, brief incidents of shooting and shelling overnight disturbed the ceasefire which is otherwise holding.
But refugees continued to flood across Macedonia's borders to the north.
The UN refugee agency said 28,000 people had left Macedonia this week, most of them to Kosovo though some to southern Serbia.
Armed ethnic Albanians began their insurgency in February and, despite heavy military deployment by the Macedonian army, have succeeded in taking control of one village near Skopje and a string of villages in the north of the country.
50,000 refugees, 20,000 displaced persons in Macedonia: UNHCR Posted June 15, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010615/1/ydno.html
Saturday June 16, 3:56 AM
50,000 refugees, 20,000 displaced persons in Macedonia: UNHCR
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 15 (AFP) -
50,000 ethnic Albanians have fled Macedonia in the country's four-month old conflict, with more than 20,000 people internally displaced, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday.
The vast majority of the refugees -- 46,500 -- have fled to Kosovo, with 3,500 seeking refuge in southern Serbia, agency spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.
In recent days, refugees had been arriving from the Macedonian capital Skopje and its outskirts, which ethnic Albanian rebels have threatened to attack in their conflict with Macedonian forces.
Since the conflict began in February, the number of internally displaced persons within Macedonia has risen to 23,500, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
More than 28,000 people have left Macedonia within the past week alone, the UNHCR said.
Most of those crossing into southern Serbia were "ethnic Albanians who then head on to Kosovo, but there are also ethnic Serbs and Macedonians among them," the UNHCR's Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva.
Refugees complained that Macedonian border guards had stopped some men from crossing the border, the agency said.
Macedonian leaders locked in reform talks to end crisis Posted June 15, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010615/1/ydnq.html
Saturday June 16, 4:01 AM
Macedonian leaders locked in reform talks to end crisis
SKOPJE, June 15 (AFP) -
Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders on Friday emerged from the first round of a long weekend of crucial talks designed to end a four-month Albanian insurrection, as sporadic fighting continued despite a rebel ceasefire announcement.
President Boris Trajkovski and the leaders of the four parties in the government of national unity -- two Slav, two Albanian -- met in Skopje's parliament for the highly sensitive talks, in a bid to finally break the political and military deadlock which has threatened to spark all-out war in the small former Yugoslav republic.
Little news about the first round of the talks on Friday emerged, with only Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski expressing his moderate optimism that the talks would lead to a resolution of the conflict.
Trajkovski said Thursday he would put on the table "even the most difficult and sensitive issues", which aides said meant discussing possible changes to the constitution for the first time.
Ethnic Albanian political leaders and rebels want to change the constitution to elevate their status to that of a nation equal to the Macedonian Slav majority, instead of being just another ethnic minority.
The Macedonian Slav parties, which dominate the fragile ruling coalition, have so far refused to amend the constitution, fearing this would pave the way to Albanian federalism and the breakup of the country.
The government is hoping a breakthrough on the political front will persuade NATO to deploy a limited number of troops to oversee a government-backed disarmament plan while the rebels take advantage of an amnesty for Macedonian-born fighters.
The rebels have so far refused to quit until they are given a place in the talks, which Slav leaders reject outright.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson flew into Skopje on Thursday for tough talks with all party leaders and Trajkovski, accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Robertson gave his full backing to the plan but NATO said at a summit this week it would only get involved in overseeing the rebel disarmament if Macedonian leaders reach a political agreement on reforms to allay persistent Albanian complaints of discrimination.
Solana said before an EU summit in Sweden Friday he thought NATO would give a "favourable" response to the Macedonian request for assistance.
A NATO spokesman said later in the day a decision would come after the Alliance's permanent council meets on Wednesday.
Robertson said the army would stick to its policy of restraint, announced at the start of the week, for the duration of the talks.
In response to Robertson's appeal for the rebels to do the same, the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) declared its own 12-day ceasefire, valid as of midnight (2200 GMT) on Thursday.
But like most previous ceasefires, the truce was quickly shattered by mortar fire that the army said targeted its positions near Opaje, in the rebel-held hills between Skopje and the northern city of Kumanovo.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said more than 28,000 people had fled Macedonia in the last week, 25,000 of them -- including a 103-year-old woman in a wheelchair -- ethnic Albanians heading for Kosovo.
The government on Thursday rejected as "absolutely unacceptable" a rival rebel peace plan, which would allow the guerrillas a place at the negotiating table, a general amnesty and the chance to join the security forces.
That rebel plan also called for NATO to monitor a ceasefire.
Robertson likewise said the rebels should end their armed struggle and allow the political leaders to represent the Albanian people.
"I call upon the armed extremists to lay down their arms and decommission their weapons. If these people are interested in political progress they must leave it to the politicians," he said.
The rebels occupy a small town on the outskirts of Skopje, as well as a string of villages in the Black Mountains, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the northeast.
Police said Friday they had shot dead a rebel trying to smuggle arms into the suburb of Aracinovo after he tried to run a police checkpoint.
They added they had also found the body of an ethnic Albanian civilian in a house on the outskirts of Tetovo in the northwest, the scene of clashes in recent nights.
NATO considering Skopje's request to oversee amnesty, disarming Posted June 15, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010615/1/yaze.html
Saturday June 16, 2:04 AM
NATO considering Skopje's request to oversee amnesty, disarming
NATO will respond to Macedonia's plea for help in disarming ethnic Albanian rebels after a meeting of the Alliance's permanent council next week, a NATO spokesman said.
"NATO will as soon as possible give its answer to Skopje's request, which will be on Wednesday's agenda at the NATO council," Yves Brodeur announced.
NATO experts will study the options available to the Alliance between now and the weekly meeting, he added.
Earlier Friday, at the European Union's summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he thought that the military alliance would agree to the request.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski made the official plea for NATO help in overseeing an amnesty with the National Liberation Army (NLA) and the disarmament of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas in a letter on Thursday.
But on Wednesday, NATO leaders had ruled out an immediate deployment of international troops in Macedonia during meetings in Brussels with US President George W. Bush.
Timetable of troubles in Macedonia Posted June 15, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010615/1/xzl3.html
Friday June 15, 7:51 PM
Timetable of troubles in Macedonia
PARIS, June 15 (AFP) -
The announcement by ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia of a ceasefire until June 27 brings a promise of respite for the troubled former Yugoslav republic which has been gripped by violence for four months in its biggst crisis since independence a decade ago.
Following is a timetable of the troubles:
January 2001
22: A policeman is killed in a rocket attack on a police station in the northern region around Tetovo, an area with a majority ethnic Albanian population situated 45 kilometres (27 miles) west of the capital, Skopje.
The attack is the first by a hitherto unknown ethnic Albanian group calling themselves the National Liberation Army (NLA). The NLA shares the same initials in Albanian -- UCK -- as the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
February
12: Fighting breaks out between Macedonian security forces and NLA rebels in the mountainous northwest of Macedonia, around the predominantly Albanian village of Tanusevci.
26: Macedonian army and NLA forces again exchange fire on border between Tanusevci and Debelde, inside Yugoslavia.
March
4: After three Macedonian soldiers killed near Tanusevci, Skopje closes the border with Kosovo and calls for an urgent sitting of the United Nations Security Council, and the creation of a buffer zone between the two regions.
5: Skopje mobilises army reservists and police.
6: President Boris Trajkovski vows to expel extremists from Macedonian territory.
7: NATO-led peacekeepers in neighbouring Kosovo tighten controls along the border to halt the movement of arms and guerrillas into Macedonia, shooting and wounding two armed Albanian rebels.
8: NATO authorises Yugoslav forces to enter the southern end of security zone set up around Kosovo in June 1999, a move hitherto banned, to prevent incursions by extremists into Macedonia.
11: Creation of a new Albanian political party in Macedonia, the National Democratic Party (NDP), which calls for country to be split into two entities, one of them an Albanian enclave. Demand rejected the following day by Foreign Minister Srdjan Kerim.
13: Macedonian forces reclaim villages occupied by the NLA in the Lipkovo valley as more than 20,000 Albanians demonstrate in Skopje for peace and their rights as a minority.
14: One dead, 17 injured, in fighting between Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian forces in hills around Tetovo.
18: Curfew declared in Tetovo as Skopje accuses the West of failing to act against the guerrillas. NLA says it wants talks with government and names a negotiator.
20: Macedonian forces in action against rebels, giving them a 24-hour ultimatum to surrender or leave the hill positions.
21: Ultimatum rejected by rebels who threaten to open new fronts but announce a unilateral ceasefire and re-affirm they are prepared to negotiate.
One policeman killed and another injured when gunmen open fire on them in Albanian quarter of Skopje.
22: Macedonian forces begin shelling rebel positions in hills above Tetovo as ultimatum expires and government orders "uncompromising" assault on rebels.
24: Helicopter gunships fire rockets on rebel positions above Tetovo.
25: Police and infantry launch "final assault" on guerrillas, claiming to have cleared them from six villages, including Selce, where rebels had their headquarters.
29: Two Kosovar civilians and a British news cameraman are killed by mortar fire in the village of Krivenik, close to the frontier with Macedonia.
30: Skopje says it has regained control of all positions held by rebels.
April
9: Skopje promises talks with all ethnic groups "by June".
23: NLA outlines demands in written submission to UN Security Council, EU, NATO and US State Department.
28: Eight soldiers and policemen killed near Tetovo in an ambush claimed by Albanian rebels, the deadliest incident yet in the conflict.
May
1: Anti-Albanian violence erupts in Macedonia's second city of Bitola, where four of the slain police officers lived.
3: Two soldiers are killed in Vaksince, a village near the northern city of Kumanovo, sparking an army artillery offensive against several rebel-held hamlets.
7: Arben Xhaferi, head of an ethnic Albanian party inside the Skopje government, says his party will leave the coalition if authorities follow through on a threat to declare a state of war in the country.
8: Government spokesman Milososki announces formation of a government of national unity with parties representing Majority Slavs and ethnic Albanians.
UNHCR says more than 6,500 villagers from the Kumanovo region have fled across the border to Kosovo since May 3.
23: Renewed political crisis as the two Albanian parties in government and NLA sign an agreement on "common action" to end the conflict -- a move widely condemned by Macedonian Slav leaders and the international community.
24: New government offensive in the north.
June
8: Trajkovski offers a partial amnesty to Albanians who have joined guerrillas.
10: NLA forces take control of a Skopje suburb, Aracinovo, and threaten to attack the capital unless the bombardments in the north cease.
11: Army and rebels announce ceasfires.
12: The government, until now divided on the way out of the conflict, adopts a Trajkovski peace plan which, apart from the amnesty, calls for NATO support in disarming the rebels.
13: In Brussels, NATO leaders reaffirm support for a political solution and discount a possible intervention by alliance forces in Macedonia.
14: Guerrillas offer to lay down their arms if NATO deploys troops in Macedonia and brings rebel leaders into negotiations. Skopje rules out any talks with the guerrillas.
Trajkovski offically asks NATO to supervise the disarming of guerrillas and the amnesty plan. NATO chief George Robertson, visiting Skopje, says the alliance will consider the request.
The rebels announce a ceasefire until June 27 in a bid to seek a political solution to the conflict.
Macedonian rebels extend truce as leaders meet Posted June 15, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010615/3/y2cd.html
Friday June 15, 9:27 PM
Macedonian rebels extend truce as leaders meet
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian rebels extended a ragged truce with Macedonian forces for 12 days on Friday as political leaders across the ethnic divide met to hammer out terms for preventing a new Balkan civil war.
European Union security chief Javier Solana predicted that NATO would agree to a role in disarming rebels and collecting weapons if a peace deal were reached -- short of insurgent demands for full NATO military intervention.
The self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) offered an olive branch by saying it was extending a unilateral ceasefire until June 27 "to create conditions for dialogue" to end the four-month conflict.
Both sides have had fragile truces in place since Monday. But the army accused the insurgents of firing mortars overnight near Opae, a village about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the capital, and said it responded with artillery fire.
There were no reports of injuries. Sporadic detonations and shooting could be heard near rebel-held villages in the area on Friday.
Parties in the fractious coalition government, formed last month and including two big Slav and two Albanian parties, started a two-day summit in parliament in Skopje to work on details of a deal to end the insurgency.
President Boris Trajkovski's plan offer rebels incentives to disarm -- short of their demands for amnesty -- and acceleration of constitutional reforms to improve the status of Albanians, who make up 30 percent of the population.
ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
Government sources said the party leaders were preparing separate proposals for constitutional reforms, including wider official use of the Albanian language and changes to a preamble mentioning Albanians as a minority and not one of two "founding peoples".
Trajkovski has said the army will show restraint during the meetings of politicians who are under mounting NATO and European Union pressure to reach a deal.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, visiting Skopje on Thursday, said NATO would consider a formal government request for help to oversee disarmament of the rebels if a peace deal was struck.
On the fringes of an EU summit in Gothenburg on Friday, Solana predicted NATO would accept. "I think the answer probably is yes, but only on the collection of weapons from the disarmament of rebels," he said.
Robertson also said he would "look with interest" at a rebel peace proposal on Thursday, which called for EU and U.S. mediation in negotiations. The government has branded the NLA terrorists and refuses to talk.
Despite moves towards peace, the newspaper Dnevnik said Macedonia had formed a crack paratroop unit dubbed "Beasts" and would receive new four helicopter gunships and four small bombers in the coming days to bolster its airforce.
A rebel commander in the village of Aracinovo on the fringes of the capital, who threatened to shell Skopje on Sunday, said he would respect the truce declared by NLA political representative Ali Ahmeti.
"We respect the orders given to us," the commander, codenamed Hoxha, told Reuters.
Diplomats say the EU, Macedonia's main financial backer, has made veiled threats of a chill in ties with the former Yugoslav republic if government parties fail to make quick reforms to help ethnic Albanians.
"These talks have to be productive. They are very much under pressure," a Western diplomatic source said.
But big concessions to Albanian demands could incense Slav voters, who would see them as a capitulation to terrorism, and might raise the level of fighting and tear Macedonia apart.
Solana has invited leaders of Macedonia's political parties to an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on June 25 -- setting a deadline for a deal. The rebel ceasefire seemed timed to reflect that meeting.
NLA's PROJECT FOR ENDING THE WAR IN M ACEDONIA Posted June 15, 2001
http://www.shqiponjapress.com/html/shkresa/projang.htm
PROJECT FOR ENDING THE WAR IN M ACEDONIA
June 14, 2001
The National Liberation Army;
Oriented towards peace and with the aim of ending the war in Macedonia;
Willing to contribute towards stability and overall regional security;
Willing to open the venue for a diplomatic solution;
Willing to co-promote Macedonia as a model of a multiethnic state within its present boundaries, through realization of the well-known demands of equality of the Albanians with the Slavs in Macedonia, proposes these activities in these fields:
A) Military
B) International implementation
C) Political
A. Within the military group of activities the following should be undertaken:
I. Immediate declaration of ceasefire on both sides
II. General amnesty for all, except for the crimes committed which are within the competencies of the Hague Tribunal; Macedonia should adopt a Law for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
III. Reaching an agreement for the demilitarisation and transformation of the NLA.
IV. Reaching an agreement for reformation of the Macedonian police and Army.
B. Within the international implementation the following should be undertaken:
V. Intervention of NATO forces in the whole territory of Macedonia, as a guarantee for the realization of this agreement and for the reaching a lasting peace.
C. Within the political group:
VI. A negotiating process, mediated and guaranteed internationally by the US and EU, with the participation of the NLA, within which a political agreement will be reached, as a basis for the change of the Macedonian constitution.
Referring explanation:
1. Immediate announcement of a ceasefire
The ceasefire needs to be signed by the NLA and the Macedonian Army, guaranteed by NATO. This would be a step towards cessation of hostilities and would create conditions for the commencement of the dialogue and reaching of an agreement, and naturally, would create facilities for the deployment of NATO forces in Macedonia.
II. The agreement for the transformation and demilitarisation of the NLA
With the presence of NATO it would be possible to reach the agreement for the transformation and demilitarisation of the NLA. Such an agreement, guaranteed by NATO would create the possibility that NLA members could integrate in the Army, police, politics and other fields.
III. Reform of the Macedonian police and army
Reaching an agreement for the reform of the Macedonian army and police towards clear Euro-Atlantic concepts. This reform must be in the interest of the citizens and in clear proportionality with the ethnic numbers of the people of Macedonia.
Immediate measures should be taken for the expulsion of all foreign citizens for the Macedonian Army and Police.
IV. NATO intervention in all of the territory of Macedonia as a guarantee for the realization of the agreement
For the full realization of the abovementioned agreements, we ask that NATO be the implementing authority for all the agreements signed by both sides and to be responsible for both sides.
V. Changing of the Macedonian constitution towards the democratic and multiethnic transformation of the Macedonian state
During the work for the changes in the Constitution and the political transformation, we will abide by these principles:
-recognition that the aimed reforms preserve the integrity and multi-ethnic character of Macedonia
-recognition that there are no "ethnic territorial" solutions to the problems envisaged and that any attempt to "ethnically break" territories will bring harm to the citizens of Macedonia and peace in the region
-recognition that there is no military solution for the problems in the Republic of Macedonia
-recognition that the transformation of RM should lead the country into Euro-Atlantic integrations
Based on these principles , the process of the political dialogue should be organized , with the participation of the representatives of the Macedonian state, the political representative of the NLA, representatives of the Macedonian and Albanian political parties, and the international representatives, including NATO whose role is irreplaceable.
Within the process of this constitutional reform, the following should be dealt with:
-the amendments to the Preamble and the normative part of the Constitution of Macedonia
-the unrestricted use of the Albanian language as one of the official languages in Macedonia
-the ethnic proportionality in institutions of the state
-the enlargement of the powers of the municipalities
-the full secularisation of the Constitution/i.e. state
-the introduction of consensual democracy in areas concerning ethnic rights /i.e. the limitation of majority over-voting in areas that directly concern ethnic rights
-the right to free communication within the Albanian cultural space
-release of all political prisoners and kidnapped
-reconstruction of villages , parts of cities and family economy destroyed during the fighting as well as care for the victims of war (war invalids, family of the killed, parentless children)
Political representative of the NLA
Ali Ahmeti