Robertson, Solana in Skopje in Macedonia peace bid Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/1/x5nw.html
Thursday June 14, 4:12 PM
Robertson, Solana in Skopje in Macedonia peace bid
SKOPJE, June 14 (AFP) -
NATO Secretary General George Robertson and top EU foreign policy official Javier Solana arrived in Skopje Thursday in another bid to push for peace in the trouble-hit Macedonia.
Robertson said that NATO had already supported the peace plan proposed by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, insisting that the "key thing now is to translate a plan on paper into a peace in place."
Their visit comes as the rebels took their fight to the outskirts of the Macedonian capital Skopje for the first time.
"We are here to encourage that process, of dialogue and reform and the reform being delivered," Robertson said on arrival here.
On Wednesday, NATO leaders met in Brussels to discuss the crisis for the first time with US President George Bush, who said he was opposed to sending troops into the country without government leaders first coming up with a political solution.
The two officials were expected to urge Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to back Trajkovski's plan to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels, while simultaneously pursuing political talks on Albanian demands for more rights.
NATO and the European Union fear the insurgency could blow up into yet another Balkans war.
The army and rebels agreed on a ceasefire Monday, but the government accused the rebels of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) of violating it after just a few hours and injuring two policemen.
The top political leaders in Macedonia were to meet either Thursday or Friday in the western resort of Ohrid to thrash out the details of Trajkovski's plan, calling for the rebels to be disarmed, with the procedure to be overseen by international troops.
Robertson said he would meet the leaders in Skopje Thursday before they headed to Ohrid for the crucial talks on the plan, which also offers an amnesty to guerrillas holding Macedonian citizenship.
He was expected to put pressure on the government to come up with a deal to present a united front against the guerrillas.
Despite backing the plan Tuesday, the head of the Democratic Party for Albanians, Arben Xhaferi, said all parties involved in the conflict should be allowed to sit in on talks to address Albanian grievances, a clear reference to the NLA.
The dominant Slav parties have refused to talk to the NLA, who they say are led by Kosovo Albanian extremists seeking to annex swathes of northern Macedonia and attach them to Kosovo, a mainly Albanian-populated Yugoslav province run by the United Nations and patrolled by NATO.
An agreement at Ohrid would leave the guerrillas more isolated than ever and clear the way for a possible deployment of NATO troops.
Albanian rebels announce ceasefire in Macedonia Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/1/xkys.html
Friday June 15, 7:30 AM
Albanian rebels announce ceasefire in Macedonia
Ethnic Albanian rebels fighting government troops in northern Macedonia announced an immediate ceasefire late Thursday, in a bid to seek a political solution to their four-month conflict.
"To create favourable conditions for dialogue, the NLA (self-styled National Liberation Army) announces a ceasefire until June 27 2001," the rebels' political leader Ali Ahmeti said in a statement on the NLA website (shqiponjapress.com).
"The ceasefire takes effect from midnight June 14," the statement continued.
"The NLA is looking closely at all measures that could bring the war to an end and we welcome particularly the message of NATO Secretary General George Robertson and the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana to calm the situation," Ahmeti said.
Earlier Thursday Macedonia had officially asked NATO and the European Union for help in disarming the ethnic Albanian rebels, but the guerrillas had vowed they would only down their weapons if they are given a seat in upcoming reform talks.
As fighting flared in the flashpoint northwest, Robertson and Solana emerged from intensive emergency discussions with President Boris Trajkovski in Skopje with a package of proposals to crack the four-month insurrection.
The plan, which received NATO's full backing, involves a prolonged army ceasefire and a weekend of marathon talks to address ethnic Albanian gripes, with even the "most difficult and sensitive issues" on the table, Trajkovski said.
An aide said that meant discussing for the first time reforms to the constitution, which the Albanians want amended to give them equal legal status.
Robertson said there was no place at the negotiating table for the rebels, who have held several villages in the Black Mountains north of Skopje since early May.
"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 Macedonian government had dismissed outright a rival peace plan submitted by Ahmeti, demanding a general amnesty for all the rebels, a seat in the talks and the chance for the guerrillas to join the police or army.
Macedonian rebels offer peace plan Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/3/x7gl.html
Thursday June 14, 5:42 PM
Macedonian rebels offer peace plan
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian rebels outlined their demands for ending a four-month insurgency for the first time on Thursday, calling for political reforms, amnesty and the deployment of NATO troops.
The plan, signed by Ali Ahmeti, the political representative of the self-styled National Liberation Army, contained several demands already rejected by Skopje's unity government.
It demanded an immediate ceasefire, constitutional reforms to bolster the rights of ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of Macedonia's population, a general amnesty and an agreement on demilitarisation.
A copy of the plan, sent to Reuters, also called for "intervention of NATO forces in the whole territory of Macedonia, as a guarantee for...reaching a lasting peace." A shaky four-day-old truce was in place in Macedonia on Thursday.
NATO told Skopje on Thursday that foreign help will stop short of military intervention. The alliance's Secretary General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana were visiting Skopje on Thursday.
NATO chief calls on Albanian rebels to leave Skopje outskirts Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/1/xc8y.html
Thursday June 14, 9:03 PM
NATO chief calls on Albanian rebels to leave Skopje outskirts
SKOPJE, June 14 (AFP) -
NATO Secretary General George Robertson called on the ethnic Albanian guerrillas operating in Macedonia to "leave Aracinovo," a village just at the outskirts of the capital Skopje, as a first step of a withdrawal from the territories the rebels have gained control of.
"I call on the armed extremists to withdraw from the occupied territories and to disarm. I call them to immediately leave Aracinovo," Robertson said.
Aracinovo, located only 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the center of Skopje, was taken over by the rebels of the so-called National Liberation Armyon June 8.
Macedonian rebels call for NATO peace role Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/3/xc96.html
Thursday June 14, 9:05 PM
Macedonian rebels call for NATO peace role
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian rebels urged deployment of NATO troops in Macedonia on Thursday to underpin any peace deal as Western powers stepped up pressure on Skopje to halt a slide towards civil war.
The self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels, outlining formal demands for ending the four-month-long insurgency for the first time, also called for a ceasefire, amnesty and wide-ranging reforms to raise the status of minority Albanians.
A copy of the rebel plan, sent to Reuters, called for "intervention of NATO forces in the whole territory of Macedonia, as a guarantee for...reaching a lasting peace."
The plan included demands rejected by the government, which refuses to negotiate with rebels it calls terrorists. The rebels say ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of the population, suffer discrimination by the majority Slavs.
A fragile ceasefire was in effect in the former Yugoslav republic on Thursday for a fourth day in a row. But the army accused the rebels of a mortar attack near the northwestern city of Tetovo. No one was hurt.
The NLA announced its demands as NATO Secretary General George Robertson and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana pushed leaders of Macedonia's fractious unity government to flesh out their own plans for ending the crisis.
"The key thing is to translate a plan on paper into a peace in place," said Robertson, arriving in Skopje for talks with President Boris Trajkovski and other leaders.
NO MILITARY INTERVENTION?
NATO leaders at a summit in Brussels on Wednesday played down speculation they were considering military intervention despite calls for bolder action from alliance leaders.
But diplomats say support is growing for some sort of role for NATO troops -- possibly to help disarm the guerrillas after a peace plan is in place.
Solana, who has taken a leading role in trying to untangle a conflict in which dozens of people have died, said Skopje needed to deliver quick reforms to answer Albanian minority grievances.
"We'd like to see it move as fast as possible," Solana said.
He has told Macedonia he wants tangible action before a meeting of EU foreign ministers on June 25, a deadline which a diplomatic source said was "very serious".
Publication of rebel demands was widely seen as a big step forward because it gives the two sides in the conflict a starting point after the main ethnic Slav and Albanian political parties agreed this week to Trajkovski's plan.
Trajkovski foresees incentives for the rebels to disarm -- stopping short of amnesty -- reforms to the police and army and an acceleration of political reforms. But agreement, especially on incentives for rebel disarmament, will be tough.
The rebel plan was signed by Ali Ahmeti, the political representative of the self-styled NLA. It said negotiations should be mediated by the United States and European Union.
The proposal also called for controversial constitutional reforms, including making Albanians equal to the Macedonian Slavs in the wording of the entire constitution and making Albanian an official language without conditions.
Slav leaders are afraid that rewriting the constitution could unlock calls for federalisation and even autonomy.
The leaders of all Macedonia's main parties will begin a two-day-long meeting later on Thursday to discuss Trajovski's plan, which remains thin on details.
The NLA also called for Albanians to get public sector jobs in proportion to their population. Currently, fewer than 10 percent of ethnic Albanians are employed in state institutions.
It also wants more power for municipalities and to limit the power of a majority to overrule an ethnic minority, release of political prisoners and reconstruction of villages destroyed during the fighting.
NATO, Macedonian leaders push to end rebel insurgency Posted June 14, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010614/1/xg7z.html
Thursday June 14, 11:05 PM
NATO, Macedonian leaders push to end rebel insurgency
- Macedonia officially asked NATO to help disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas fighting its troops, while pledging for the first time to discuss Albanian demands to change the country's constitution.
As fighting flared in the northwest, NATO Secretary General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana emerged from intensive emergency discussions with President Boris Trajkovski with a package of proposals to crack the four-month crisis.
But the government rejected as "absolutely unacceptable" a rival plan by the National Liberation Army (NLA), calling for a general amnesty, a place in reform talks and the chance to join the army and police.
Trajkovski asked Robertson to send NATO troops to oversee the disarmament of the NLA, who under his proposal will be given an amnesty only if they are Macedonian citizens and did not help organise the escalating rebellion.
Robertson, who told the rebels to get out the Skopje suburb of Aracinovo which they occupied last week, said he would take the request back to Brussels.
NATO leaders said at a summit in Brussels Wednesday they would not send in troops until a political agreement was reached on reforms to address Albanian complaints that they are second-class citizens in Macedonia.
Robertson said there was no place at the bargaining table for the rebels, who also hold several villages north of Skopje and who moved closer to the flashpoint northwestern town of Tetovo in fighting overnight.
"I call upon the armed extremists to lay down their arms and decommission their weapons. If these people are interested in political progress in this country they must leave it to the politicans," he said.
Trajkovski said an intensive round of political dialogue with the four parties -- two Slav, two ethnic Albanian -- in the emergency unity coalition would start immediately in Skopje.
He said no subject would be excluded from the talks, even "the most difficult and sensitive issues," which an aide said was a reference to the constitution.
The ethnic Albanians insist on changing the document to give them equal status as a founding nation with the Macedonian Slavs, something the government has so far balked at doing.
Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, said after meeting Robertson: "We are close to the condition in which all the stages of the plan will start to become reality."
He insisted that all hostilities must cease.
"The people of the NLA have understand very clearly that no political advantage can be obtained through violence," added Solana.
Robertson gave no concrete pledge to send in troops, but said three teams of NATO experts were in Skopje advising on the disarmament plan.
"We will help all we can," he said.
"What is vital now is for the political progress to demonstrate that politics works and politics delivers," he said.
Macedonians appeal to Nato Posted June 14, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1388000/1388059.stm
Thursday, 14 June, 2001, 21:29 GMT 22:29 UK
Macedonians appeal to Nato
Rebels say they will disarm if Nato guarantees a truce Macedonia has asked Nato to be ready to help it disarm ethnic Albanian rebels if the guerrillas agree to peace terms now on offer from the government.
The move came after the authorities in the former Yugoslav republic extended a four-day ceasefire until after the weekend to allow political leaders - including representatives of Albanian parties - to discuss a peace plan drawn up by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.
The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, meanwhile, outlined for the first time their demands for ending a four-month insurgency.
They too want the Western military alliance to get involved. They asked for Nato troops to be deployed throughout the country to police the ceasefire and also demanded an amnesty for their fighters, wide-ranging reforms to improve the status of Albanians in Macedonia and a place at the peace talks.
The Nato Secretary-General, George Robertson, visiting the capital Skopje with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, ruled out Western military intervention but praised the president's peace plan, which envisages an intermediary role for Nato.
"It provides for a system of disarmament and decommissioning, and President Trajkovski has asked... if we will help with that process," Lord Robertson said.
"I will be taking that request back to Nato headquarters to see what we can do."
But he added there was no talk of bringing in elements of the 36,000-strong Nato-led K-For force from neighbouring Kosovo.
A ceasefire in Macedonia has broadly held since Monday, but Wednesday night saw rebels fire mortars toward army barracks in the north-western city of Tetovo. No-one was hurt.
The president's peace plan foresees incentives for the rebels to disarm - but not the general amnesty demanded by rebels - as well as reforms to the police and army, and an acceleration of political and constitutional changes.
However, he has refused to engage in direct negotiations with them.
Violence broke out in Macedonia in February when ethnic Albanian militants took up arms.
Macedonian authorities have led several offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, contending they are separatists bent on carving up the country.
The United Nations refugee agency in Kosovo, a province bordering Macedonia, said on Thursday that it had registered about 42,000 refugees from Macedonia. That figure includes 22,000 people in the last six days.
Rebels say they will disarm if Nato guarantees a truce Macedonia has asked Nato to be ready to help it disarm ethnic Albanian rebels if the guerrillas agree to peace terms now on offer from the government.
The move came after the authorities in the former Yugoslav republic extended a four-day ceasefire until after the weekend to allow political leaders - including representatives of Albanian parties - to discuss a peace plan drawn up by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.
The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, meanwhile, outlined for the first time their demands for ending a four-month insurgency.
They too want the Western military alliance to get involved. They asked for Nato troops to be deployed throughout the country to police the ceasefire and also demanded an amnesty for their fighters, wide-ranging reforms to improve the status of Albanians in Macedonia and a place at the peace talks.
The Nato Secretary-General, George Robertson, visiting the capital Skopje with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, ruled out Western military intervention but praised the president's peace plan, which envisages an intermediary role for Nato.
"It provides for a system of disarmament and decommissioning, and President Trajkovski has asked... if we will help with that process," Lord Robertson said.
"I will be taking that request back to Nato headquarters to see what we can do."
But he added there was no talk of bringing in elements of the 36,000-strong Nato-led K-For force from neighbouring Kosovo.
A ceasefire in Macedonia has broadly held since Monday, but Wednesday night saw rebels fire mortars toward army barracks in the north-western city of Tetovo. No-one was hurt.
The president's peace plan foresees incentives for the rebels to disarm - but not the general amnesty demanded by rebels - as well as reforms to the police and army, and an acceleration of political and constitutional changes.
However, he has refused to engage in direct negotiations with them.
Violence broke out in Macedonia in February when ethnic Albanian militants took up arms.
Macedonian authorities have led several offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, contending they are separatists bent on carving up the country.
The United Nations refugee agency in Kosovo, a province bordering Macedonia, said on Thursday that it had registered about 42,000 refugees from Macedonia. That figure includes 22,000 people in the last six days.
Macedonia Asks NATO to Help Disarm Rebels Posted June 14, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010614/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc.html
Thursday June 14 1:28 PM ET
Macedonia Asks NATO to Help Disarm Rebels
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia asked NATO (news - web sites) Thursday to be ready to help it disarm ethnic Albanian rebels -- if the guerrillas eventually agree to peace terms now on offer.
In an effort to avert a new Balkan civil war, authorities in the former Yugoslav republic also extended a four-day cease-fire as NATO and EU officials visited Skopje. European Union (news - web sites) leaders met President Bush (news - web sites) and urged a political settlement, making clear NATO military action was not on the cards, for now.
The guerrillas, meanwhile, outlined for the first time their demands for ending a four-month insurgency.
Wary of the government, they too wanted the Western alliance to get involved. They asked for NATO troops to be deployed throughout the country of 2 million and demanded an amnesty for their fighters and wide-ranging reforms to improve the status of Albanians, who account for a third of the population.
In a flurry of diplomacy, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Skopje. EU leaders, at their first summit with Bush in Sweden, urged political, not military, solutions.
Robertson ruled out Western military intervention. He and Solana praised a peace plan unveiled by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski under which NATO could become an intermediary.
``It provide for a system of disarmament and decommissioning and President Trajkovski has asked (NATO) officially if we will help with that process,'' Robertson told a news conference.
``I will be taking that request back to NATO headquarters to see what we can do.''
But he added there was no talk of bringing in elements of the 36,000-strong NATO-led KFOR force from neighboring Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
``We haven't started thinking about alterations to mandates,'' Robertson said.
Diplomats say the alliance might accept a limited role in disarmament if politics first succeeded in defusing the crisis.
TIME TO DELIVER
Both Robertson and Solana told the fractious national unity government, which contains both Slav and Albanian parties, that it was time to deliver reforms to improve the lot of the Albanians. But the plan on the table only partly meets rebel demands.
Robertson said he would ``look with interest'' at the rebel proposals, which he said he had not yet read.
Support for the guerrillas, who say they are fighting for an end to discrimination against Albanians by the Slav majority, could still be undercut if reforms were passed quickly, he said.
``What's important now is political progress to demonstrate that politics works,'' he said, as the shaky cease-fire broadly held. Rebels fired mortars toward army barracks in the northwestern city of Tetovo overnight but no one was hurt.
In Sweden, the United States and EU teamed up to stress that Macedonia should rely on political means to end the crisis.
A joint statement issued by Bush and EU leaders said, ''Together, we are endeavoring to prevent extremism from undermining the democratic process and stress the need for political, not military, solutions.''
Robertson said the Macedonian government had agreed to extend a unilateral truce, declared Monday and matched by the rebels, until after weekend talks between parties in the coalition to hammer out details of Trajkovski's plan.
REBEL DEMANDS
The president's proposal foresees incentives for the rebels to disarm -- though it stops short of the general amnesty demanded by rebels -- reforms to the police and army and an acceleration of political and constitutional changes.
Slav leaders, who are prepared to consider a range of Albanian demands, fear that rewriting the constitution could unlock calls for breaking up the state.
The rebel plan, a copy of which was sent to Reuters, also called for ``intervention of NATO forces in the whole territory of Macedonia, as a guarantee for...reaching a lasting peace.''
It said negotiations should be mediated by the United States and the EU. But Macedonia has so far refused any such direct talks, branding the rebels terrorists.
NATO leaders, including Bush, played down speculation at a summit in Brussels Wednesday that they were considering a full-scale military intervention despite calls for bolder moves.
Robertson said that three NATO teams were already in Macedonia, where about 4,000 KFOR support personnel are based, mostly at Skopje's airport. Britain said Thursday it had offered to send training teams to help Macedonia's army.
He also urged the rebels to withdraw from the town of Aracinovo on the fringes of Skopje, captured by the rebels late last week. Many residents of the capital, woken up by a violent thunderstorm early Thursday, feared a guerrilla bombardment.
Macedonia turns back aid convoy but ceasefire holds Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/3/vwnz.html
Wednesday June 13, 3:21 AM
Macedonia turns back aid convoy but ceasefire holds
By Daniel Simpson
BEDINJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - A shaky ceasefire was holding in Macedonia on Tuesday, although the government blocked a deal to get aid to civilians in rebel-held villages after the guerrillas demanded journalists be allowed in too.
In a bid to keep the day-old truce going, ethnic Albanian rebels even expressed regret for an overnight attack in which several policemen were hurt and said they would extend a 24-hour ceasefire declared in response to a government move on Monday.
However, a convoy of 26 trucks laden with food and medical kits was turned back by the authorities after waiting seven hours in sweltering heat at the village of Bedinje in an attempt to reach another settlement which is held by rebel forces.
As a result, engineers seeking to restore water to the nearby town of Kumanovo were also denied access to a reservoir, which lies near the village of Lipkovo behind the rebel lines.
The food-for-water swap would have been a major development just days after ethnic Albanian rebels threatened to shell the capital, Skopje, and risk a full-scale civil war. This is the first bilateral truce in four months of the Albanian insurgency.
But Tuesday's cautious test of confidence was thwarted by official reluctance to give in to rebel requests that journalists accompany the aid convoy to check their assurances that Kumanovo's water shortage was due to a technical fault and not to the rebels deliberately shutting off the supply.
"The Macedonian government will not allow the convoy to pass because of the journalists," Labour Minister Bedredin Ibrahimi told reporters on the road to the battle zone from Kumanovo, which has gone without water for a week of Balkan summer heat.
CIVILIANS TRAPPED
However, the Red Cross was allowed to take three trucks up to Lipkovo, where thousands of civilians are holed up after fleeing other parts of a hillside battle zone scarred by five weeks of almost continuous fighting.
Although the trucks left with only basic medical supplies, they were expected to return full of civilians. A visit late on Monday evacuated a 44 people, two of them wounded.
"If we had been able to have more space yesterday, we had the impression that many more people would have come with us," International Red Cross spokeswoman Amanda Williamson said.
PEACE PLAN SUMMIT
Macedonia's government used the lull in the fighting, which has hampered slow progress in agreeing on reforms to address the grievances of the Albanian minority, to discuss peace plans.
The multi-ethnic emergency coalition gave its backing to an initiative proposed by President Boris Trajkovski last week and leaders of all the main parties will retreat to a lakeside resort this week for a crisis summit to flesh out the plan.
Both sides will discuss demands for Macedonia's constitution to be rewritten to improve the status of Albanians, who make up about a third of the population, and of their language. But agreement is unlikely on what would be the toughest changes to sell to a Slav majority which fears its country could collapse.
"This meeting will only be successful… if followed by concrete steps towards military stabilisation and productive finalisation of constitutional changes," warned Aziz Pollozhani, vice-president of the Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity.
NATO leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush, who will meet in Belgium on Wednesday, are expected to urge Macedonia's fractious government, formed last month under international pressure, to speed up reforms in order to undercut support for guerrillas who claim to fight for ethnic rights.
Aside from the overnight incident in which six policemen were wounded by rebel fire near the northwestern city of Tetovo -- an attack the guerrillas said they regretted and put down to self-defence -- the MIA state news agency reported sporadic shooting in mountains near Tetovo on Tuesday.
The army, which unleashed helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks on rebel territory for four days in a row after a fatal rebel ambush last week, said it was continuing to hold its fire.
But 30 hours after the NLA matched a surprise Macedonian ceasefire, major humanitarian aid has yet to reach the hills.
A rebel commander codenamed Shpati said engineers from the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe would not be allowed to turn on reservoir taps until aid was brought in.
Crowds in Kumanovo queued at tankers for water rations.
Time running out for Macedonia, but NATO reluctant to wade in Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wo7c.html
Thursday June 14, 1:09 AM
Time running out for Macedonia, but NATO reluctant to wade in
SKOPJE, June 13 (AFP) -
Time is running out for Macedonia, Western diplomats warned Wednesday, as fighting broke out on the edge of the capital for the first time and NATO ruled out sending in troops, aiming for a political solution instead.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson was to rush to Skopje Thursday to urge Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to back a plan by President Boris Trajkovski to disarm the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA), while simultaneously pursuing political talks on Albanian demands for more rights.
While the plan met with cross-party support this week, Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, said the guerrillas must be involved in the political dialogue, which the Slav parties refuse point-blank.
One senior Western diplomat said that with the rebels on the doorstep of the capital, the flare-up of tensions could drive a wedge of fear between between the two communities, who have until now lived side by side, albeit largely separate.
He said it was "not long" before the multi-ethnic country passed the point of no return, after which the conflict in the north could set the whole country aflame.
Many of the rebels had probably started off with an idea of fighting for more rights, he said, but as the poorly-equipped security forces struggled to cope, the idea of seizing territory had probably taken hold.
The NLA walked into the small town of Aracinvo on the edge of the capital last week unopposed, although the police say they have sealed off the town.
"If you're the NLA, it just looks very easy now," the diplomat said.
The Trajkovski plan is based on a similar strategy used to dismantle another ethnic Albanian guerrilla organisation in southern Serbia last month, with NATO overseeing their disarmament and allowing the rebels an amnesty in Kosovo if they downed their arms.
But the Western diplomat said there were significant differences between southern Serbia and Macedonia -- the first was a much smaller area, the rebels were facing a more formidable military opponent in the Yugoslav army, and the government agreed to direct talks.
"Even then it took five or six months, which Macedonia just doesn't have," he said.
He said the rebels had often been met with suspicion or hostility by ethnic Albanian villagers at the start of the insurrection in February and March. But the army's blunt tactic of surrounding rebel-held villages and shelling had succeeded in polarising the population without hurting the guerrillas.
Another Western diplomat said NATO countries were "reluctant" to jump into one more murky Balkans conflict, but were "resigned to the fact that there's a need to get involved at some point."
"History has proved that if you don't get involved early on there's a much worse mess to clear up afterwards," he said, in a reference to Western reluctance to step into conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia a decade ago.
French President Jacques Chirac said at a Brussels meeting of NATO leaders with US President George Bush that no course of action should be ruled out in trying to prevent another bout of Balkans bloodletting.
But Bush said Macedonia must agree on a political solution before the troops are sent in, a motion Robertson backed.
Robertson is likely to press Slav Macedonian leaders to step up political and social reforms to address persistent Albanian complaints of discrimination, while urging the ethnic Albanians to drop their insistence on the rebels' place at the bargaining table.
The Albanians want the preamble of the constitution changed to name them alongside Macedonian Slavs as an equal national group, rather than just another minority in the hotchpotch of Serbs, Roma gypsies, Turks and other small ethnic groups.
They also want Albanian officially recognised as a national language, as well as more access to jobs and education, which they say they are shut out of.
Trajkovski's plan also creates an elite anti-terrorist force drawn from police and army special units, which Skopje wants Western armies to train to give it more room to manoeuvre.
The rebels have vowed to fight on until they have a place in the talks, but if a cross-party political deal is closed in the next few days at the lakeside western resort of Ohrid, they will find themselves more isolated than ever.
NATO, for now, rules out military intervention in Macedonia Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wms7.html
Thursday June 14, 12:19 AM
NATO, for now, rules out military intervention in Macedonia
BRUSSELS, June 13 (AFP) -
NATO on Wednesday ruled out sending in troops for the moment to help the embattled Balkan country of Macedonia stave off civil war, as French President Jacques Chirac said the alliance could intervene as "a last resort".
US President George W. Bush said after his first ever meeting with fellow leaders in the transatlantic military alliance that NATO was putting its weight behind a political solution to the violence pitting the Macedonian government against ethnic Albanian rebels.
"Most people think there's still a political solution available before troops are committed...The sentiment I heard is that there's still a possibility for a political settlement, a good possibility, and we must work to achieve that settlement," he told a news conference.
"The idea of committing troops within Macedonia was one that most nations were troubled over. They want to see if we cannot achieve a political settlement first."
Earlier Chirac urged his NATO partners not to rule out intervening if other means fail.
"We must state clearly that we will not accept a new outbreak of violence and intolerance, as this would jeopardize the stability of the entire (Balkan) region," Chirac told the meeting, according to comments distributed to reporters.
"We must not preclude any form of action needed to thwart such developments," he said.
He later admitted at a news conference NATO was reticent about taking military action, and was pinning its hopes on helping achieve a political solution in Macedonia.
"We are in full consultation and we have not got much further in this exercise," he said. He said military action would be "the last resort in that no other action would be possible."
NATO Secretary General George Robertson announced at the meeting he will travel to Skopje on Thursday to discuss the worsening crisis in Macedonia over the ethnic Albanian insurgency.
He stressed at the news conference NATO was not weighing a military option for the time being.
"We are not considering any other option at the moment but the bilateral support that has been given at present and by encouraging a political process which is the only way to a sustainable peace in Macedonia," he said.
He said NATO leaders were "deeply concerned" that Macedonia's elected government was under threat under the armed rebellion.
He said NATO supported President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan that envisions help from NATO allies in disarming the National Liberation Army (NLA).
The Macedonian government this week approved the plan, which also provides for amnesty for the rebels.
Macedonia already serves as a major logistical springboard for the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in neighboring UN-administered Kosovo.
Robertson was to meet with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to review further assistance to Macedonia.
Macedonian govt gears up for key crisis talks Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wg7r.html
Thursday June 14, 12:31 AM
Macedonian govt gears up for key crisis talks
- Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders geared up for crucial negotiations on a deal to end the rebellion by ethnic Albanian guerrillas, amid mounting international pressure to break the political deadlock before the conflict sinks into all-out war.
A creaking ceasefire between the security forces and the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) was still in place Wednesday despite more shooting in hills above the northwest town of Tetovo overnight.
Leaders of the Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties in the fragile emergency coalition were to head for the western lakeside resort of Ohrid to thrash out details of President Boris Trajkovski's plan to disarm the rebels with international assistance.
The government on Tuesday backed the plan, which would give Macedonian-born rebels a chance to put down their arms and return to civilian life, but not their leaders.
But Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, voiced doubts about the dominant Slav parties' refusal to allow the guerrillas to join talks to address Albanian grievances, saying all those involved in the conflict should be in on negotiations.
The plan sets out a ceasefire, a disarmament monitored by NATO troops and Western observers, as well as the formation of elite anti-terrorist groups drawn from both the army and police special forces.
A Western diplomat said Wednesday there had been no formal request for international troops yet.
He said he was hopeful the political process could advance at the Ohrid meeting.
"They probably could and should make significant progress," he said, but warned he would be "surprised if the two sides could close a deal without some sort of international presence."
The plan aims to break the logjam in Macedonia, where the NLA has been fighting the security forces since February, demanding equal legal status with Macedonian Slav majority and official recognition of their language.
The government says they are led by Kosovo Albanian extremists who want to see swathes of the northwest, where the large Albanian minority is concentrated, attached to Kosovo.
The crisis deepened last week when a rebel unit took a small town on the very edge of Skopje, sending a shockwave through the capital and causing more than 20,000 ethnic Albanians to flee across the border into UN-run Kosovo.
Many Macedonian Slavs have also evacuated the area.
The crisis was to feature high on the agenda for the first NATO summit attended by US President George W. Bush in Brussels, with pressure likely to be exterted on Macedonia to end the stalemate.
Both the security forces and the NLA agreed on separate but simultaneus ceasefires Monday, though the interior ministry said two police were injured in an ambush near Tetovo just hours after the rebel truce was decalred.
Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said there was more shooting overnight near the flashpoint, mainly-Albanian town where heavy fighting broke out in March.
But Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski denied an earlier government statement that 400 rebels had moved into the Sar mountains above between Tetovo and the Kosovo border in recent days.
Fears were nevertheless rising of an escalation of the conflict, with the daily Dnevnik citing security sources as saying the guerrillas planned to declare the land they occupied as "liberated territory" at the weekend.
Western Powers to Push Macedonia on Insurgents Posted June 13, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/wl/balkans_macedonia_nato_dc_3.html
Wednesday June 13 4:38 PM ET
Western Powers to Push Macedonia on Insurgents
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites), the United States and the European Union (news - web sites) will push Macedonia on Thursday to do more to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency after telling Skopje that foreign help will stop short of military intervention.
A cease-fire in the former Yugoslav republic was generally holding on Wednesday for a third day, giving respite to civilians holed up in guerrilla-occupied villages, but a convoy was blocked from ferrying in food and medical supplies.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced they would jointly visit President Boris Trajkovski and party leaders in the fractious national unity government on Thursday.
U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs Jim Swigert will travel with them from Brussels, a U.S. official said.
The Skopje government has made scant progress in solving the four-month-old conflict even though political parties representing both ethnic Slavs and Albanians have agreed to a peace plan put forward by Trajkovski.
``They need to get on with it,'' a senior Western diplomat said. ``We need to see more progress.''
At a NATO summit in Brussels on Wednesday, the United States, France, Britain and other powers called for bolder moves to defuse the crisis, which risks triggering a new Balkan civil war. But they quashed speculation that they were considering military intervention.
VISIBLE, ACTIVE ROLE
President Bush (news - web sites), opposed to any new commitment of troops to the Balkans, said: ``NATO must play a more visible and active role in helping the Macedonian government.''
NATO has balked at the idea of any peacekeeping operation in Macedonia but diplomatic sources said a group of NATO experts had been in the capital in recent days probing a possible role.
``There is space for cooperation,'' Macedonian government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said.
He said a peace plan presented by Trajkovski on Friday, and backed by the European Union, sees a role for NATO -- and the 36,000 KFOR peacekeepers it leads in neighboring Kosovo -- to help disarm guerrillas. About 4,000 foreign troops serve in Macedonia as part of KFOR's rear logistics chain.
``No one in NATO wants to send troops now,'' a diplomat in Skopje said. ``The Macedonians have to do a lot more to end the insurgency first. Then NATO or individual member states might agree to a limited role.''
Macedonian Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski predicted a peace deal could come within months under Trajkovski's plan.
``The phase of disarmament should begin at the start of next month and it is estimated that we will need at least two months for the implementation of the whole plan,'' he told the weekly Kapital.
KFOR TO HELP GUARD SKOPJE AIRPORT
In a sign of growing ties between KFOR and the Macedonian forces, KFOR agreed on Wednesday to step up cooperation with Macedonia in guarding Skopje airport, where about 3,000 of KFOR's troops are stationed.
The conflict moved to the fringes of Skopje on Friday when rebels grabbed a nearby town, within firing range both of the capital and the international airport, where Robertson and Solana will land on Thursday morning for a three-hour visit.
The rebels say they are fighting to end what they call discrimination in all walks of life by the majority Slavs against ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of the two million population. Albanians want the constitution rewritten to give them equal status.
Leaders of Macedonia's main political parties, under pressure to reach a deal before they report to an EU foreign ministers' meeting on June 25, will meet for two days in the southern town of Ohrid from late Thursday.
Police said that a prominent ethnic Albanian political activist, Naser Hane, was killed overnight in a southern town. They said they had few details because the family refused to allow police to approach.
An aid convoy of about 14 trucks stacked with rice, flour and other food and humanitarian supplies failed again on Wednesday to supply citizens in rebel-held villages about 25 miles northeast of Skopje for the third day in a row.
The government said it could not let reporters go in with the convoy as demanded by the rebel NLA (National Liberation Army) on the ground that it was unsafe.
Ethnic Albanian Activist Mourned Posted June 13, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010613/wl/macedonia_163.html
Wednesday June 13 2:26 PM ET
Ethnic Albanian Activist Mourned
By MERITA DHIMGJOKA, Associated Press Writer
VELESTA, Macedonia (AP) - Sobbing and shouting the Albanian word for ``glory,'' hundreds gathered Wednesday to bury an ethnic Albanian activist whose assassination threatened to undermine peace talks between militants and the government.
Gunmen shot Naser Hani four times Tuesday night as he resisted efforts to kidnap him in the southwestern town of Struga. The town is a few miles from a lake resort where key players in Macedonia's ongoing crisis are set to meet Thursday to discuss a peace plan.
His death threatened a fragile truce that has eased clashes between government forces and ethnic Albanians. Western leaders, meanwhile, hinted at the prospect of military intervention.
Hani, 42, a father of three, had acted as an intermediary linking ethnic Albanian militants to political parties in Macedonia's government. Some ethnic Albanians angered by his death insisted such slayings would only feed sympathy for the rebels, known as the National Liberation Army.
``If such attacks continue, the day when this country will explode will come very soon,'' said Avni Kica, an economist who came to the funeral with others from villages around Velesta, 110 miles southwest of Skopje.
Also at the funeral was a key ethnic Albanian political leader, Arben Xhaferi, who said the attack jeopardized the talks at the Lake Ohrid resort in southwestern Macedonia.
``I don't believe tomorrow's talks will be a success,'' Xhaferi said.
Hani's cortege wound its way through this village's dusty streets led by several dozen high school students who wore black shirts and slacks in a sign of unity and mourning.
Before the procession snaked into the cemetery, the crowd shouted ``Lavdi'' - the Albanian word for glory and the traditional word of praise once uttered in Kosovo at the burials of guerrillas who died fighting for the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Men sobbed as Hani's body, draped in Albanian flags and a green banner with Islamic symbols, was lowered into the grave. The stretcher was still stained by fresh blood.
Peace talks remained on schedule despite an exchange of gunfire Wednesday between police and rebels entrenched near Macedonia's second-largest city, Tetovo. No casualties were reported.
Rebels and police also shot at each other near Aracinovo, barely four miles from Skopje, the capital, spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said.
Fighting near Aracinovo has become a major threat to Macedonia's stability, and many fear violence might spread to urban areas. The town is also close to Skopje's international airport.
Violence erupted in Macedonia in February when ethnic Albanian militants took up arms in a fight they say is for more rights. Macedonian authorities have led several offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, and say they are separatists who want to carve up the country.
After both the government and the rebels declared cease-fires Monday, President Boris Trajkovski reiterated his peace plan to end the insurgency by upgrading the status of ethnic Albanians, who account for nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
Trajkovski has threatened to defeat the rebels militarily if they refuse to disarm. But he has also offered a partial amnesty for those who lay down their weapons.
Western leaders dropped hints Wednesday that military involvement may become a possibility in Macedonia to prevent new violence.
``We must not preclude any form of action needed to thwart such developments,'' French President Jacques Chirac said at a NATO (news - web sites) meeting in Brussels, Belgium. In Athens, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said sending international peacekeepers to Macedonia may be unavoidable.
Details of Trajkovski's peace offer, which is supported by NATO and the United States, are to be worked out by representatives of the Slavic majority and the ethnic Albanians. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is expected to arrive Thursday before the talks.
Ethnic Albanian political leaders have approached the peace offer with reservations. Xhaferi said the plan must be restructured and suggested the government agree to let militants participate in the negotiations.
Senators, Others Favor Intervention in Macedonia Posted June 13, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010613/pl/macedonia_usa_intervention_dc_1.html
Wednesday June 13 3:46 PM ET
Senators, Others Favor Intervention in Macedonia
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Influential U.S. senators and opinion-makers advocated on Wednesday that the United States take the lead in seeking a political settlement in Macedonia, if necessary using American and NATO (news - web sites) troops
Sen. Joseph Biden (news - bio - voting record), the Delaware Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked President Bush (news - web sites) to consider appointing a special envoy to Macedonia, where ethnic Albanian guerrillas threaten to wreck a coalition government.
``This country must increase its involvement. The stakes in Macedonia are simply too high for us to choose to play a secondary role,'' he told a hearing into the Macedonian crisis and the U.S. engagement in the Balkans.
``Like it or not, only the U.S. has the military and political credibility with all ethnic groups to successfully manage and resolve the crisis in the Balkans,'' he added.
Sen. Richard Lugar (news - bio - voting record), an Indiana Republican who favors a global role for the United States, criticized hesitation by successive U.S. administrations in the Balkans and said that delay could prove costly in the long run.
``Why isn't it a better course simply to indicate that this type of violence (in Macedonia) is unacceptable, we have the forces to stop it, we will stop it and the United States will take the lead in doing it?'' he asked.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO commander during the war over Kosovo in 1999, said in written testimony that NATO troops in neighboring Kosovo should move into northern Macedonia, where Macedonian troops have been fighting guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (NLA).
In Macedonia they would take part in joint patrols and help government troops restore a presence in the north, he said.
``Even if there's a political agreement ... it's going to take NATO backing and that's going to take U.S. leadership and U.S. commitment and no doubt U.S. troops on the ground to enable the Macedonian army to get into the areas where there has been fighting,'' Clark told the hearing.
``It seems clear that the situation on the ground is going to continue to deteriorate unless NATO actively intervenes... The time is now to move ahead with a NATO mission supporting diplomacy in the region,'' he added.
BUSH IS CAUTIOUS
The State Department official at the hearing, reflecting the same caution as President Bush showed in Brussels on Wednesday, said the United States had no plans for military intervention in the Macedonian conflict.
``Before you ever get to the kind of options that you're talking about, there are an awful lot of steps, there would be many alternatives in that kind of a melt-down scenario,'' said James Pardew, senior adviser on the Balkans.
``As for the issue of troops, that is not on the table now. We don't think we're even close to requiring consideration of that option,'' Pardew added.
Bush told reporters after talks with NATO leaders in Brussels: ``The idea of committing troops within Macedonia was one that most nations were troubled over. They want to see if we cannot achieve a political settlement first.''
``Most people believe there is still a political solution available before the troops are committed,'' Bush said. ``The sentiment I heard here was that there's still a possibility for a political settlement, a good possibility.''
At the Senate hearing, conservative opinion-maker Richard Perle also favored an active U.S. role in Macedonia, on the grounds that the Europeans could not do the job.
``I don't think there is any substitute for involvement at the highest level of the U.S. government,'' said Perle, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
``It may well require peacekeeping force, including from the United States,'' he added.
Opinions varied in the hearing on the rights and wrongs of the Macedonian conflict, in which the guerrillas are demanding an end to discrimination against the ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up about one third of the country's population.
Biden, who has visited the Balkans many times, said he did not have the impression that Slav leaders in Macedonia were prepared to make ``the basic concessions needed.''
North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms (news - bio - voting record) acknowledged Albanian grievances but called the guerrillas ``terrorists.''
Time running out for Macedonia, but NATO reluctant to wade in Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wo7c.html
Thursday June 14, 1:09 AM
Time running out for Macedonia, but NATO reluctant to wade in
SKOPJE, June 13 (AFP) -
Time is running out for Macedonia, Western diplomats warned Wednesday, as fighting broke out on the edge of the capital for the first time and NATO ruled out sending in troops, aiming for a political solution instead.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson was to rush to Skopje Thursday to urge Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to back a plan by President Boris Trajkovski to disarm the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA), while simultaneously pursuing political talks on Albanian demands for more rights.
While the plan met with cross-party support this week, Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, said the guerrillas must be involved in the political dialogue, which the Slav parties refuse point-blank.
One senior Western diplomat said that with the rebels on the doorstep of the capital, the flare-up of tensions could drive a wedge of fear between between the two communities, who have until now lived side by side, albeit largely separate.
He said it was "not long" before the multi-ethnic country passed the point of no return, after which the conflict in the north could set the whole country aflame.
Many of the rebels had probably started off with an idea of fighting for more rights, he said, but as the poorly-equipped security forces struggled to cope, the idea of seizing territory had probably taken hold.
The NLA walked into the small town of Aracinvo on the edge of the capital last week unopposed, although the police say they have sealed off the town.
"If you're the NLA, it just looks very easy now," the diplomat said.
The Trajkovski plan is based on a similar strategy used to dismantle another ethnic Albanian guerrilla organisation in southern Serbia last month, with NATO overseeing their disarmament and allowing the rebels an amnesty in Kosovo if they downed their arms.
But the Western diplomat said there were significant differences between southern Serbia and Macedonia -- the first was a much smaller area, the rebels were facing a more formidable military opponent in the Yugoslav army, and the government agreed to direct talks.
"Even then it took five or six months, which Macedonia just doesn't have," he said.
He said the rebels had often been met with suspicion or hostility by ethnic Albanian villagers at the start of the insurrection in February and March. But the army's blunt tactic of surrounding rebel-held villages and shelling had succeeded in polarising the population without hurting the guerrillas.
Another Western diplomat said NATO countries were "reluctant" to jump into one more murky Balkans conflict, but were "resigned to the fact that there's a need to get involved at some point."
"History has proved that if you don't get involved early on there's a much worse mess to clear up afterwards," he said, in a reference to Western reluctance to step into conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia a decade ago.
French President Jacques Chirac said at a Brussels meeting of NATO leaders with US President George Bush that no course of action should be ruled out in trying to prevent another bout of Balkans bloodletting.
But Bush said Macedonia must agree on a political solution before the troops are sent in, a motion Robertson backed.
Robertson is likely to press Slav Macedonian leaders to step up political and social reforms to address persistent Albanian complaints of discrimination, while urging the ethnic Albanians to drop their insistence on the rebels' place at the bargaining table.
The Albanians want the preamble of the constitution changed to name them alongside Macedonian Slavs as an equal national group, rather than just another minority in the hotchpotch of Serbs, Roma gypsies, Turks and other small ethnic groups.
They also want Albanian officially recognised as a national language, as well as more access to jobs and education, which they say they are shut out of.
Trajkovski's plan also creates an elite anti-terrorist force drawn from police and army special units, which Skopje wants Western armies to train to give it more room to manoeuvre.
The rebels have vowed to fight on until they have a place in the talks, but if a cross-party political deal is closed in the next few days at the lakeside western resort of Ohrid, they will find themselves more isolated than ever.
Chirac sounds Macedonia alarm Posted June 13, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1386000/1386553.stm
Wednesday, 13 June, 2001, 11:26 GMT 12:26 UK
Chirac sounds Macedonia alarm
Tension remains high after four months of unrest
French President Jacques Chirac has told a Nato summit in Brussels that the alliance must "rule nothing out" to restore peace to Macedonia.
He said the conflict between ethnic Albanian fighters and the Macedonian army was threatening the stability of the region, and a strong message had to be delivered.
Chirac: Whole region at risk from the conflict
"We should signal clearly that we will not accept the opening of a new cycle of violence and intolerance that imperils the stability of the entire region," said President Chirac.
"We should rule out nothing in order to put a stop to it."
His comments came at a summit attended by US President George W Bush, who is on the second day of a visit to Europe.
Mr Bush later rejected the idea of an early deployment of forces, but did not rule it out.
Thousands of villagers have fled the fighting
"Most people believe there's still a political solution available before troops are committed," Mr Bush told a news conference after his talks.
"The sentiment I heard is that there's still a possibility for a political settlement, a good possibility, and we must work to achieve that settlement."
Diplomats have been reported as saying that three Nato teams are on their way to Macedonia as an advance unit of military advisers to the government.
Nato Secretary-General George Robertson will also fly to Macedonia on Thursday for more talks.
He has previously stressed that Nato has no mandate to operate inside Macedonia, and has not been invited in by Macedonia.
It does operate just across the border in Kosovo, and has boosted its forces there to try to cut off the supply of arms to the rebels.
First hint
Nato and the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, have been involved in intensive diplomatic efforts to steer the country back from the brink of war.
But President Chirac is the first leader of a major Nato country to hint that direct involvement may be necessary.
On Wednesday, Greece said an international peacekeeping force would be needed in Macedonia "sooner or later".
The conflict started in February near Macedonia's northern border with Kosovo. Thousands of refugees have fled across the border.
Mixed signals
There have been mixed signs in recent days over whether peace is any nearer.
A fragile ceasefire - the latest in a series of attempts to halt the conflict - has held since Monday, and a peace plan put forward by the president has been formally adopted by the national unity government.
But rebels still hold a village less than 10km (6 miles) from the capital, Skopje, and have threatened to attack the capital itself.
On Wednesday the commander of the Macedonian army, General Jovan Andrevski, resigned, citing low morale among his troops.
The rebels say they are fighting to improve the rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia.
Macedonia Gunmen Kill Top Albanian Posted June 13, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010613/wl/macedonia.html
Wednesday June 13 9:47 AM ET
Macedonia Gunmen Kill Top Albanian
By MERITA DHIMGJOKA, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Gunmen killed a top ethnic Albanian activist, threatening to undermine a fragile truce ahead of talks aimed at ending months of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
Naser Hani, 40, was shot late Tuesday from a passing van in the center of the southwestern town of Struga, near a lake resort where peace talks will be held Thursday.
Hani's death was ``another indication how insecure and chaotic the situation is,'' said Ernat Fejzulahu, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Albanians, the largest party representing Macedonia's restive ethnic Albanian community.
The peace talks remained on schedule despite an hourlong exchange of gunfire early Wednesday between police and rebels entrenched near Macedonia's second-largest city, Tetovo. No casualties were reported.
Violence erupted in Macedonia in February when ethnic Albanian militants took up arms in a fight for broader rights. Macedonian authorities have led several offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, contending they are separatists bent on carving up the country.
After both the government and the rebels declared cease-fires Monday, President Boris Trajkovski re-offered a peace plan to end the insurgency by upgrading the status of the ethnic Albanians, who account for nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people. He also has offered a partial amnesty for those who lay down their weapons.
Details of the deal, which has U.S. and NATO (news - web sites) backing, are to be worked out by representatives of the Slavic majority and the ethnic Albanians.
After meeting with NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, who is expected to arrive here Thursday morning, the leaders will gather for talks at the Lake Ohrid resort in southwestern Macedonia.
Ethnic Albanian political leaders have had some reservations about the peace offer. Arben Xhaferi, the head of the Democratic Party of Albanians said the plan ``must be restructured'' and suggested the government should drop its opposition to the participation of militants in the negotiations.
Western leaders on Wednesday dropped hints that military involvement may be becoming a possibility in Macedonia.
During a NATO meeting in Brussels, French President Jacques Chirac said, ``we must state clearly that we will not accept a new outbreak of violence and intolerance, as this would jeopardize the stability of the entire region. We must not preclude any form of action needed to thwart such developments.''
In Athens, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said that sending international peacekeepers to Macedonia may be unavoidable.
``In the case where the political process for the isolation of the Albanian extremists does not progress, we will go from crisis to crisis and the international community will be called on to act militarily as well in order to guarantee the integrity'' of Macedonia, Papandreou told Athens' Flash radio.
NATO peacekeepers currently in Macedonia provide logistical support for NATO personnel in neighboring Kosovo, but play no role in Macedonia's conflict.
Expressing support for the government, German Ambassador Bernhardt Burkart donated 20 trucks, 50 night vision goggles and 5 tons of medical equipment for the army Wednesday.
The International Red Cross took advantage of the cease-fire Tuesday to evacuate 300 civilians from an area northeast of the capital which is controlled by the ethnic Albanian insurgents.
The evacuees were provided with emergency shelter and other help in the northeastern city of Kumanovo and in Skopje, said IRC spokeswoman Amanda Williamson.
Meanwhile, the rebels were expected to allow drinking water to reach Kumanovo's 100,000 residents. Insurgents control a reservoir vital to the northern city.
NATO chief to travel to Macedonia Thursday Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wg7q.html
Wednesday June 13, 8:39 PM
NATO chief to travel to Macedonia Thursday
BRUSSELS, June 13 (AFP) -
NATO Secretary General George Robertson announced Wednesday he will travel to Skopje on Thursday to discuss the worsening crisis in Macedonia over an ethnic Albanian insurgency.
"I will myself be going to Skopje and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for consultations with the government," Robertson told reporters as a one-day NATO summit continued.
He said NATO leaders were "deeply concerned" that Macedonia's elected government was under threat from an armed rebellion, and that NATO supported President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan that envisions help from NATO allies in disarming the National Liberation Army (NLA).
French President Jacques Chirac, speaking at the summit, called on NATO to spare no effort to help Macedonia put an end to the rebellion that has left the country reeling on the brink of a new Balkan war.
"We must state clearly that we will not accept a new outbreak of violence and intolerance, as this would jeopardize the stability of the entire region," Chirac said, according to an English translation of his remarks distributed to reporters by his staff.
"We must not preclude any form of action needed to thwart such developments," the French leader added.
Under the Macedonian peace plan, the government would take up a NATO offer to send in alliance troops to oversee the disarmament of the rebels.
Macedonia already serves as a major logistical springboard for the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in neighboring UN-administered Kosovo.
Robertson said he would be meeting later Wednesday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to review further assistance to Macedonia.
Shooting near Skopje as Macedonians arm: govt Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010613/1/wi9i.html
Wednesday June 13, 9:52 PM
Shooting near Skopje as Macedonians arm: govt
SKOPJE, June 13 (AFP) -
Ethnic Albanian rebels fired on Macedonian police positions from a village on the edge of Skopje overnight, the first time that fighting has broken out so close to the capital, an interior ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
Sporadic shooting, including sniper fire, targetted police checkpoints in the villages of Stracinci and Brnjarci, just over a kilometre (half a mile) from the rebel-held town of Aracinovo, spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said.
The guerrillas moved into Aracinovo on Friday without being opposed by police, who quickly put roadblocks around and sealed off the area.
No one was injured by the occasional firing, which went on through the night, Pendarovski said.
He also said the police were giving out weapons to reservists as part of a mobilisation to tackle the growing crisis, which for four months has dragged the multi-ethnic country closer to another Balkans war.
Asked about the move, Pendarovski told a news conference: "Yes, the people are arming, but only according to the plan of the general mobilisation of reserve units of the police."
Pendarovski said Monday that a group of Macedonian villages in Stajkovci, which neighbours Aracinovo, had tried to form an armed group to defend their village from the nearby rebels.
He said police had stopped them doing so but had promised to mobilise reservists.
The self-proclaimed National Liberation Army, which says it is fighting for more Albanian rights, also holds several villages in hills further to the north of Skopje.
An aid convoy with food and medication was blocked from entering the battle-scarred area under rebel control for a second day Wednesday, as the authorities and guerrillas squabbled over the presence of journalists in the convoy.
An ethnic Albanian government minister said the rebels insisted on having the media on the convoy, while the interior ministry had refused.
The humanitarian mission also aims to allow engineers into the area to restore water supplies to the nearby city of Kumanovo, which has been without water for eight days as temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius.
Government spokesman Antonio Milososki appealed to international aid groups and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to pressure the rebels into allowing engineers in to inspect two reservoirs supplying the city.
He said the WHO should "use their authority to restore water to Kumanovo, where 100,000 people have been brought close to a humanitarian catastrophe by those who say they are fighting for human rights."
Kumanovo's citizens are having to line up for water from tanker trucks brought in by neighbouring Bulgaria and NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo.