MACEDONIA: TIME FOR CONTINGENCY PLANNING? (2/2) Posted June 13, 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2001/06/5-NOT/not-130601.html
MACEDONIA: TIME FOR CONTINGENCY PLANNING?
The following is Part II of a two-part series; Part I appeared on 12 June.
By Patrick Moore
...Macedonia thus seems to be a country where ethnic tensions are ready to boil over, but where the politicians have their eyes only on the next elections. In a growing realization that this is indeed the case, some Western commentators have recently called for the international community to think about and discuss what it is prepared to do to help prevent a civil war in this strategically important Balkan country.
The key lesson that was learned in the previous conflicts in the former Yugoslavia is that the international community can be effective only if it speaks with one voice and only if it is prepared to assemble and use a credible amount of force to back up its views. If civil war breaks out in Macedonia or comes much closer to doing so, it thus will not be sufficient for the international community to send individual envoys into the region without a clear plan and without the potential means to bring recalcitrants or troublemakers into line.
Some observers have suggested that the "international community" in the Macedonian case should be the EU for two reasons. First, the EU has become more determined since the Kosova conflict -- in which the Americans dominated the scene -- to show that it can manage crises in its own backyard. Macedonia could give Brussels an opportunity to prove that it can do so. Second, many argue that it is unlikely that the Bush administration would be willing to undertake a new Balkan mission, and that the EU would be best advised not to count on Washington should Brussels contemplate some form of more active involvement in Macedonia.
What the Bush administration is or is not willing to do remains to be seen. But what is clear is that, while the EU may be welcome in the Balkans as a source of money, it has yet to establish itself everywhere in the region as a completely credible military or, for some, even political partner. In concrete terms, no international endeavor is likely to win the confidence and cooperation of ethnic Albanians anywhere in the Balkans unless the Americans are involved. That seems to be a fact of life, at least at present.
What would be the political program on offer? Most observers agree that it would be basically what OSCE envoy Robert Frowick suggested in his recent dealings with the Albanian parties and the UCK, which is similar to the proposals put forward by the EU's Javier Solana. In essence, this would mean constitutional changes making the Albanians and their language coequal to the Macedonians and their language. A greater role for Albanians would have to be ensured in public service and the economy. There would have to be an amnesty for at least most of the fighters, as was the case in Presevo. In return, the UCK would disarm and end the conflict, returning to civilian life. As in Presevo, the guerrillas would have to be part of the peace process, even if only indirectly.
There will be two big practical difficulties for the international community in bringing such a settlement about, according to many familiar with the crisis. The first is how to bring military muscle into play, at least as a deterrent against any brash steps by extremists on either side. Perhaps the international community -- which probably means NATO -- could start out with a basic peacekeeping force -- a revived UNPREDEP -- and expand it as the situation warranted. It is not clear whether it would be beneficial to introduce unarmed monitors into a situation where the potential for conflict remains high, despite some suggestions in the press for the OSCE to do so.
A second question regards the nature of the mission. Unless a clear political road map and timetable are set down for the reintegration of a single state, the danger is that a peacekeeping mission to Macedonia could come to resemble that in Cyprus. There is also the danger that Macedonia could come to look like Bosnia, with two essentially independent entities -- each with its own military -- linked by only a few fragile institutions.
13-06-01
NATO Urging Macedonia to Grant Albanian Rights Posted June 13, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010612/wl/balkans_nato_dc_2.html
Tuesday June 12 1:26 PM ET
NATO Urging Macedonia to Grant Albanian Rights
By Douglas Hamilton
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) leaders including President Bush (news - web sites) were expected to urge Macedonia to speed up political reforms needed to end an ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency, a senior NATO official said Tuesday.
In addition to practical arrangements for voluntary disarmament of the rebels, there must be rapid progress on giving Albanians and their language formal status in the Macedonian constitution, he told reporters.
``I'm quite sure that this will figure high on the agenda tomorrow,'' the official said at a briefing ahead of a one-day meeting Wednesday of the leaders of NATO's 19 member states, convened for Bush's inaugural visit to Europe.
``So far the international community has not succeeded in convincing the government in Skopje to speed up the political process, because we feel if the process is not sped up then the chances for the NLA to lay down their weapons and accept the usefulness of political dialogue will not be there,'' he said.
The NLA is the National Liberation Army, which says it took up arms in January to win equal rights for a one-third Albanian minority who are treated as second class citizens by Macedonia's majority Slavs.
A tenuous cease-fire -- the first mutual truce in five months of rebel ambushes and long-range shelling by the army -- was holding Tuesday, but guerrillas said they were now in range of the capital, Skopje and its international airport.
ALBANIAN STATUS, LANGUAGE ARE CRUCH ISSUES
Macedonian political leaders were due to have further consultations at Lake Ohrid in the south of the former Yugoslav republic at the weekend, with alliance and European Union (news - web sites) representatives present to facilitate final accord.
The EU and NATO have been closely involved for the past three months in efforts to broker a political solution to the conflict, which threatens to spread from northern border areas into urban centers, igniting a civil war.
``This is of major concern to us,'' the NATO official said, noting that the allies have 40,000 peacekeeping troops in neighboring Kosovo who rely on rear logistics bases in Macedonia close to the scene of recent fighting.
He said one part of the political solution was a disarmament plan by the coalition government of Slavs and Albanians.
It aimed ``to create confidence building measures, to set out a timetable for the NLA to lay down their weapons, the possible question of an amnesty and what have you.''
``This is one part of a package which we think is very relevant. But the other package is the really political package, which means to provide the Albanian part of the population equal rights and responsibilities,'' he continued.
It was ``absolutely essential'' for concrete discussions very soon of ``possible change of the constitution to make the Albanians a constitutional part of this nation and also with regard to Albanian as a second official language.'' The Kosovo Albanian newspaper Zeri Tuesday said 90 percent of the political deal was complete, including proportional representations for Albanians in all state institutions, a state-funded Albanian university, and secularization to remove the primacy of the Orthodox Church.
But the sticking points were the preamble to the constitution -- which mentions Albanians as a minority but not as one of the two founding peoples -- and official status for Albanian as Macedonia's second language.
20,000 ethnic Albanians flee Macedonia fighting for Kosovo: UN Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/1/vvw8.html
Wednesday June 13, 1:59 AM
20,000 ethnic Albanians flee Macedonia fighting for Kosovo: UN
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, June 12 (AFP) -
More than 20,000 ethnic Albanians have fled fighting in northern Macedonia to seek refuge in Kosovo over the last five days, the United Nations refugee agency said here on Tuesday.
Most of those fleeing are from the capital Skopje and nearby towns including Saraj and Aracinovo, a spokeswoman from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kosovo said.
Although the capital has not seen any fighting, residents feared the conflict between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas could spill over from further north, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.
During the day Tuesday, and despite a ceasefire, more than 2,000 more people had made the journey into Kosovo, she said.
Some 5,300 people left Macedonia via the main border crossing at Blace on Monday, Kris Janowski, the spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Geneva, told a news briefing earlier Tuesday.
Those arriving in Kosovo on Monday also mostly came from Skopje and its outskirts, saying they feared the threat of a military confrontation near Skopje, Janowski said.
Men without proper documentation were being turned back by Macedonian border guards, he added, saying that most of the new arrivals were women and children.
Many people had been driven by friends and relatives to within a few kilometres of the border and had walked the last few kilometres. Some people had crossed in their vehicles, the Geneva-based UNHCR said.
A few said they walked the 12-kilometre (seven-mile) stretch from Skopje to the border.
On Monday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers warned of a refugee crisis in a region already hosting more than one million displaced people from earlier conflicts.
"The fighting must stop now because tomorrow may already be too late," he said in a statement.
Since fighting first flared in the region four months ago, 18,000 people have been internally displaced in Macedonia while a further 38,000 have fled to the UN-controlled majority Albanian province of Kosovo, the UNHCR said.
Civilians evacuated as Macedonia ceasefire holds Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/3/vyzw.html
Wednesday June 13, 6:38 AM
Civilians evacuated as Macedonia ceasefire holds
By Daniel Simpson
BEDINJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Red Cross used a shaky ceasefire in Macedonia on Tuesday to evacuate hundreds of civilians from villages held by ethnic Albanian rebels.
But government troops turned back a convoy of food and medical supplies to the same area as a deal underpinning the first mutually declared truce in four months of conflict in the former Yugoslav republic ran into trouble on its second day.
The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for equal rights for minority Albanians, expressed regret for an overnight ambush in which several policemen were hurt and they extended a 24-hour ceasefire announced on Monday in response to a government move.
The government ceasefire declaration came after the rebels threatened to shell the capital, Skopje, and risk all-out war.
But few in the Balkans expected it to last for long and a police source in Skopje said reservists were being called in.
The Red Cross seized its chance to enter rebel territory, evacuating by far the highest number of people yet brought down in a single day from hill villages scarred by weeks of shelling.
About 330 tired ethnic Albanians, mainly old men, mothers and children from the overflowing village of Lipkovo, crowded into trucks and minibuses to join relatives in nearby Kumanovo, which has been without water for a week of Balkan summer heat.
"A large number of people wanted to leave, probably because the military activity around them has got closer," International Red Cross spokeswoman Amanda Williamson said.
AID FOR WATER SWAP STALLED
However, a convoy of 26 trucks laden with food and medical kits was turned back by the authorities after waiting seven hours under a beating sun at the village of Bedinje.
As a result, engineers seeking to restore Kumanovo's water supply were also denied access to a reservoir near Lipkovo in territory held by the rebels, who deny turning off the taps.
The government, keen to avoid being seen to give in to rebel demands, blocked the food-for-water swap after guerrillas requested that journalists accompany the convoy to check their assertions the water shortage was due to a technical fault.
"The Macedonian government will not allow the convoy to pass because of the journalists," Labour Minister Bedredin Ibrahimi said. The decision blocked the first major relief operation to rebel-held villages in six weeks of almost continuous conflict.
PEACE PLAN SUMMIT
Political leaders 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 government formally backed an initiative proposed by President Boris Trajkovski last week and leaders of all major parties will retreat to a lakeside resort this week for a crisis summit to flesh out the plan.
Both sides will discuss demands for the constitution to be rewritten to improve the status of Albanians, who make up about a third of the two-million population, and of their language. But the gulf is wide on what would be the toughest changes to sell to a Slav majority which fears the country could break up.
"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 machine gun attack that wounded six policemen near the northwestern city of Tetovo, which the rebels said they regretted and put down to self-defence, state news agency MIA reported sporadic shooting above 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 a day and a half after rebels matched a surprise Macedonian ceasefire, major aid has yet to reach the hills.
A rebel commander codenamed Shpati said engineers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe would not be let near the reservoir until humanitarian aid was brought in.
Crowds in government-controlled Kumanovo queued at tankers for water rations, while a steady stream of Albanians continued to cross the mountainous northern border to join ethnic kin in Kosovo, the Serbian province run by the United Nations.
About 2,000 crossed on Tuesday, taking the total in the past four days towards 20,000 -- about half the number who have fled since February, when the rebel insurgency began.
US backs Macedonian peace plan, condemns rebels anew Posted June 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/1/vx1l.html
Wednesday June 13, 3:34 AM
US backs Macedonian peace plan, condemns rebels anew
WASHINGTON, June 12 (AFP) -
The United States on Tuesday gave its firm support to a peace plan endorsed by the Macedonian government to end an ethnic Albanian rebellion there.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington "very much welcomed" the proposal put forward by President Boris Trajkovski offering partial amnesty to ethnic Albanian rebels and for the first time allowing international troops to oversee the guerrillas' demilitarization.
At the same time, Reeker condemned renewed attacks by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), which late Monday launched an ambush that wounded nine Macedonian police officers.
"With this attack, the extremists violated their own declaration of a cease-fire," Reeker said. "They continue to defy calls by the international community to lay down their weapons and withdraw immediately.
"It brings into question their sincerity in pursuing a political process."
Earlier Tuesday in Skopje, Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski said the government had accepted Trajkovski's plan amid an uneasy ceasefire despite the ambush rebel leaders called an "unfortunate accident."
But highlighting the dissonance in the multi-ethnic coalition, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians said there were still conditions to the plan awaiting discussion for when the government meets on Thursday.
Arben Xhaferi said one of the conditions was that "all the parties involved in the conflict should be involved in the plan," a clear reference to NLA.
The government refuses to talk to the NLA, branded by a majority of the international community as extremists and thugs, and no rebel leader was available for immediate comment on the government's acceptance of the peace plan.
The NLA has vowed to fight until they are given a place at the negotiating table to address Albanian complaints that they are treated as second-class citizens.
Under Trajkovsky's plan, the government would take up an offer by NATO Secretary General George Robertson to send in alliance troops based in neighbouring Kosovo to oversee the disarmament of the rebels.
Trajkovski has said he hopes his plan will break the political and military stalemate which has dogged his country for four months, threatening to drag it into civil war.
The amnesty would apply only to Macedonian Albanian rebels and not the NLA leadership, which Trajkovski says are estremists from Kosovo.
Reeker said Washington believed Trajkovski's outline for peace was the only path for stability in the region.
"We very much welcome President Trajkovski's plan," he said. "There's no military solution to the problems in Macedonia. There can only be a peaceful solution through dialogue, through the institutions and structures of the civic society that exists there."
Macedonia turns back aid convoy but ceasefire holds Posted June 12, 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.
Macedonia Government Backs Peace Plan Posted June 12, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010612/wl/macedonia.html
Tuesday June 12 2:17 PM ET
Macedonia Government Backs Peace Plan
By MISHA SAVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's government on Tuesday gave formal backing to a NATO (news - web sites)-endorsed peace plan to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency as a fragile cease-fire appeared to hold.
The plan was outlined by President Boris Trajkovski last week and endorsed by the European Union (news - web sites) and NATO, which has sent a team of experts to the capital, Skopje, to work on its implementation.
It envisages ``combined military and political'' actions to disarm the insurgents, repair damage done in four months of clashes, and negotiate a lasting settlement between the majority Slavic population and the ethnic Albanians who make up nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
It also includes tough military action against rebels who don't lay down their weapons in exchange for a limited amnesty.
Cabinet spokesman Antonio Milososki said the peace initiative had the Macedonian government's full support. Ethnic Albanian members of government declined comment as they left the session. Later, Arben Xhaferi, who heads one of two ethnic Albanian parties in the coalition, said the plan ``must be restructured.''
``We all say that the fighting must stop, but those who could stop it are not addressed in this peace plan,'' he said, alluding to the government's refusal to negotiate with the rebels.
The rebels say they are fighting for more rights for ethnic Albanians, while the governments contend they are bent on carving out an independent state.
In Brussels, Belgium, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said he welcomes Trajkovski's ``intention to move forward on a comprehensive proposal for ending the crisis.''
On Monday, both sides declared cease-fires. The government gave no time frame for the truce while the rebels said the would hold their fire until Tuesday morning. Hours after that deadline, there were no reports of major clashes.
The truce was disrupted overnight near Macedonia's second-largest city, Tetovo. Nine policemen were injured when a police truck was fired on by rebels. But the rebels said the attack was a mistake and was not meant to break the cease-fire.
The government hopes to use the lull in fighting to persuade the rebels to let aid groups bring drinking water to Kumanovo - where the northern city's 100,000 people have been without water for days after insurgents took control of its reservoir. The cease-fires also are meant to help thousands of civilians in rebel-held villages who need food.
By Tuesday afternoon, Kumanovo residents were still without water and a convoy of humanitarian vehicles carrying 300 tons of food was turned back at an army checkpoint, and returned to Skopje. Troops at the checkpoint apparently objected to reporters accompanying the convoy.
Trajkovski on Tuesday named a new army chief of staff and said a new elite unit to fight the insurgents was nearly complete.
Lt. Gen. Pande Petrovski was appointed army chief of staff, replacing Gen. Jovan Andrevski who stepped down ``upon his own request,'' a government statement said.
The elite unit will include soldiers and police troops, and be run by Macedonia's defense, interior and foreign ministers, along with the army chief of staff.
The rebels last week gained control of Aracinovo, a town a few miles from Skopje. Before the cease-fires were announced, the rebels threatened to attack the capital and its airport, along with police stations and other targets.
Tens of thousands have fled their homes since violence began in February, among them some 37,000 ethnic Albanians who have crossed into Kosovo. Of those, more than 18,000 arrived since Friday, said Kris Janowski, spokesman for the United Nations (news - web sites) High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.
Macedonia army chief resigns Posted June 12, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1385000/1385200.stm
Tuesday, 12 June, 2001, 15:16 GMT 16:16 UK
Macedonia army chief resigns
The commander of the Macedonian army, General Jovan Andrevski, has resigned.
Quoting army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski, the AFP news agency said General Andrevski had said he was stepping down because of the low morale affecting his troops.
President Boris Trajkovski had accepted his resignation, Markovski said. A new chief of staff, General Jovan Petkovski, has been named as his replacement.
More than 26 Macedonian soldiers have been killed in clashes with ethnic Albanian rebels fighting mainly in northern Macedonia.
The army declared a ceasefire on Monday, hours after the rebels threatened to attack the capital Skopje if the government forces continued shelling their positions.
The Macedonian Government, which includes ethnic Albanian representatives, has accepted President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan to end the four month-old conflict. Among others, the plan envisages an amnesty for the rebels.
Macedonian government adopts peace plan Posted June 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/1/vtie.html
Tuesday June 12, 10:47 PM
Macedonian government adopts peace plan
SKOPJE, June 12 (AFP) -
Macedonia's multi-ethnic government on Tuesday adopted a peace plan proposed by President Boris Trajkovski, which provides for an amnesty for the rebels and NATO support in disarming them, Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski said.
"The government today adopted the plan of President Trajkovski and decided to be involved in its implementation," Buckovski said.
He said a civil committee of cabinet ministers and defence experts would be set up to tackle the crisis, and that it would oversee a new anti-terrorist force of special police and elite troops.
MACEDONIA: TIME FOR CONTINGENCY PLANNING? (1/2) Posted June 12, 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2001/06/5-NOT/not-120601.html
MACEDONIA: TIME FOR CONTINGENCY PLANNING?
The following is Part I of a two-part series.
By Patrick Moore
The Macedonian crisis is threatening to spin out of control,
leading some to argue that the time has come for the international
community to make some serious plans about how it intends to deal with
it.
Something has gone terribly wrong in Macedonia. What had long been
hailed as the one Yugoslav republic that managed to leave the former
federation without a bloody conflict now appears headed for a full-blown
civil war. This is one conflict in that region that cannot be blamed on
Serbia or former President Slobodan Milosevic. Indeed, even though the
ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (UCK) are
clearly receiving some help from across the border in Kosova, it is
obvious that this conflict has very deep domestic roots.
The intensity of the mutual hatreds in Macedonia has truly been
striking. Mistrust and a lack of mutual comprehension or respect quickly
brought about a polarization of the republic's two largest ethnic
communities, starting in the spring. The mood has often been ugly; one
recalls especially the ethnic Macedonian mobs of Bitola and the calls by
some Macedonian leaders to "crush" the UCK. There is, in fact, language
to be heard on both sides of the ethnic divide that seems to describe
the other group in terms that are less than human. This is but one more
version of the "hate-speech" familiar to students of the previous
conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Matters have not been helped by the glaring lack of leadership in
Macedonia. This is particularly the case among the ethnic Macedonians,
because President Boris Trajkovski and Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski
are not only Slavic nationalist political leaders. They are at the same
time the head of state and the head of government, respectively, of a
multiethnic country.
That means that they have an extra burden on their shoulders to be
statesman-like and conciliatory. Trajkovski seems to assume such a role
in many of his public statements, but his roundtable talks have failed
to lead to any practical resolution of the Albanians' constitutional
grievances over status and language. This has led some Albanians to
conclude that Trajkovski speaks one way but acts another. Moreover,
Trajkovski shocked some top U.S. officials during his recent visit to
Washington by saying things in private that suggested that he regards
the Albanians -- who form at least 23 percent of the population -- as
foreigners and interlopers and not as fellow citizens.
This problem of leadership is even more pronounced in the case of
Georgievski. Having made apparent concessions to the Albanians on the
constitutional issue about two weeks ago, he retracted his remarks some
days later, claiming that he had spoken ironically or had been
misquoted. Indeed, Georgievski has rarely adopted a statesman-like
posture in the course of the crisis, preferring instead to rail against
"terrorists," whom he will "destroy."
The case of Georgievski illustrates an important aspect of the
leadership problem: the prime minister speaks to his nationalist
supporters as though he were the head of a national state's government
and as though complex social and political issues could be dealt with by
force. And matters probably will not become better -- as far as the
conduct of any of the major politicians is concerned -- as early
elections draw nearer (they are expected either in January 2002 or in
the fall of this year).
To single out Georgievski is not necessarily to say that his
rivals have been much more prudent. Elder statesman Kiro Gligorov also
speaks as though he believes that there is a military solution to the
crisis. The Social Democrats, with whom he is closely connected,
similarly take an ethnic Macedonian hard line. Of the Albanian leaders,
Arben Xhaferi of the Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH) at least
chooses his words carefully and talks of a need for dialogue and
solutions. But Georgievski has a point when he says that none of the
Albanian politicians has sharply condemned the UCK and its resorting to
violence in what had been a peaceful country.
Albanian rebel advance sends shockwave through capital Posted June 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/1/vstm.html
Tuesday June 12, 9:52 PM
Albanian rebel advance sends shockwave through capital
STAJKOVCI, Macedonia, June 12 (AFP) -
Macedonians in the village of Stajkovci, on the edge of Skopje, are scared.
Four days ago they saw ethnic Albanian guerrillas walk into a neighbouring village and seize control without firing a shot. They don't trust outsiders now.
"Everyone is scared. The terrorists can fire at us any time from Aracinovo," said one man, pointing across the summer fields to the small town which suddenly became the front line Friday after the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army arrived on the very doorstep of the capital.
On Monday, interior ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said the Slav Macedonians who make up the population of Stajkovci, less than a kilomtre (half a mile) from Skopje, had tried to form an armed group to defend their village from a possible rebel advance.
Police stopped them, and villagers refused to talk about the incident to journalists, accusing them and the West in general of being pro-Albanian. A group of residents outside the village shop melts away, while one young man -- clearly as scared as he was angry -- remonstrated with the press.
"Just turn around and get out," he shouted. "We have nothing to say to you." He warned the one villager prepared to talk that his words "will only be distorted."
Macedonian Slavs fear that their plight is being overshadowed by the stream of ethnic Albanian refugees streaming over the border -- almost 20,000 in four days -- to seek refugee in Kosovo.
"The Albanians are sending their women and children away from Singjelic," said the villager, nodding at a village only a couple of hundred metres from Stajkovci. "This is a bad sign for us. It means the NLA are coming."
In Singjelic, Albanian villagers accuse the Macedonian police of harassment and maltreatment. Any inter-community trust has evaporated as tensions skyrocket.
The Albanians are fleeing to Kosovo, from where around 300,000 Albanians fled to Macedonian from Serbian repression two years ago. They fear the rebel advance heralds more fighting with the army, struggling to contain the insurrection.
In the centre of the capital, the proximity of the gunmen and their threat to bombard the city has sent a shockwave through the city.
Prices are going up and demand for hard currency has pushed the exchange rate of the German mark -- the unofficial parallel currency -- from 31 to 35 dinars in just a few days.
There are press reports of panic buying of petrol, flour and oil, and people in the centre say they are frightened.
"It's only to be expected that people are scared," said Blagoja, a 65-year-old Macedonian pensioner who says he doesn't have the money to do any panic buying.
He blamed the mounting crisis on a decade of war in former Yugoslavia and the West's failure to bail out Macedonia's weak economy when it was flooded with Kosovo refugees two years ago.
"This will last a long time. It won't be easy to get out of," he says. "It's the people who are suffering, both Albanians and Macedonians."
Across the Vardar river in the Albanian-dominated old town, support for the rebels' armed struggling is in short supply among a population already struggling to cope in a moribund economy.
"Most of the vegetables for the market came through Aracinovo. Now that it's blocked off, prices have shot up in the market here," said Nedjat Ukshini, a 61-year-old shopkeeper.
The cobbled street of small clothes shops, ironmongers and barbershops, overlooked by a mosque, is a mishmash of Albanians, Macedonian Slavs, Roma gypsies and Turks. The shopkeepers said the guerrillas should down their weapons and seek a political solution.
"We don't support people with weapons at all. We don't have any problems with the Macedonians. We drink coffee with them in the cafes. The army should pull out and the rebels down their arms. Nobody wants a war," said Albanian barber Tasim Husseim, 45.
Only one group of young Albanian men selling black market cigarettes, set out on cardboard boxes, supported the fighters.
"You think we want to be doing this?" said one vendor, aged 22, who hastily hid his wares as two Macedonian inspectors drove past. "Sure we have a lack of rights. I'll join the rebels if it comes to it. They'll fight to the last man.
But Reshat, a 45-year-old Albanian car mechanic, said the problem was economic rather political: "I don't feel a lack a rights. All I'm feeling is poverty."
Shaky ceasefire as Macedonian govt discusses peace plan Posted June 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/1/vrlk.html
Tuesday June 12, 8:19 PM
Shaky ceasefire as Macedonian govt discusses peace plan
SKOPJE, June 12 (AFP) -
The Macedonian army and ethnic Albanian rebels faced each other in an uneasy truce Tuesday as the multi-ethnic government coalition met to overcome political differences and ink a peace deal proposed by President Boris Trajkovski.
A day after guns fell silent in rebel-held villages just north of Skopje, the two sides refrained from their daily clashes despite police accusations that the guerrillas had broken the truce within hours of declaring it.
Interior ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said two policemen were injured when the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA) opened fire on police taking supplies to a position near the Kosovo border late Monday.
The attack came despite a 24-hour rebel ceasefire announced from 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) Monday in response to a halt in army operations to allow an international humanitarian mission into battle-torn northern villages.
The halt in the five-week army shelling was to allow experts to inspect dams in the rebel-held zone and try to restore water supplies to the nearby city of Kumanovo, which has been dry since last Wednesday, officials said.
The International Committee for the Red Cross also evacuated 46 people from the area where around 10,000 civilians are still living in increasingly difficult conditions.
Meanwhile in Skopje the government was meeting to discuss in detail a peace plan proposed by Trajkovski to end the four-month rebellion that has brought the multi-ethnic Balkan state to the edge of all-out civil war.
One official close to the government said the plan was expected to be pushed through by the emergency coalition, set up last month to tackle the escalating crisis and which includes the two main Slav Macedonian and two leading ethnic Albanian parties.
The plan features an amnesty for Macedonian Albanians who lay down their weapons, monitoring of the disarmament by NATO troops and European Union observers, as well as a ceasefire.
It includes a political and diplomatic push to resolve the issue, with Trajkovski to travel Wednesday to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to discuss the situation, while all the coalition partners will meet at Lake Ohrid in the west Thursday to address outstanding issues.
The ethnic Albanian rebels and guerrillas are demanding equal status with the Slav Macedonian majority, more job opporutunities, better educational facilities and official recognition of their language.
The proposal also sets out a joint command of special police and the army, and reserves the right to settle the crisis by both military and polictical means.
The two Albanian parties -- the Democratic Party of Albanians and the Party for Democratic Prosperity -- have opposed the use of force by both sides since the start of the crisis.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met political leaders here on Saturday and said they had all backed the Trajkovski plan, though DPA president Arben Xhaferi criticised it for being too vague.
But any peace plan will also depend on the guerrilla reaction The NLA insist on a place at the negotiating table, something Prime Minister Georgievski and Trajkovski have vehemently opposed.
Trajkovski's peace plan allows no amnesty for the rebel leaders, who he says are Kosovo extremists trying to undermine his country.
Tensions shot up over the weekend after the NLA occupied for the first time a small town on the edge of Skopje and threatened to mortar bomb the city if the army did not halt its operations in the northern Black Mountains.
The army stepped up its shelling of the rebels the next morning, but suddenly declared a ceasefire, though it denied it had bowed to the guerrilla threats.
More than 18,000 ethnic Albanians have fled into Kosovo since Friday fearing the widening conflict, while scores of Macedonian Slavs have been pushed out of their homes by the rebel advance.
In Skopje, food prices were rising and many people were buying German marks as security in the growing crisis, with the exchange rate jumping from 31 to 35 marks in the past few days, dealers said.
Several international airlines, including Swiss Air and British Airways, cancelled flights into Skopje Monday after the guerrillas threatened to bomb the airport from Aracinovo.
Special police have surrounded the suburb but have not made any move to take on the NLA fighters there.
Macedonian ceasefire holds as civilians await aid Posted June 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/3/vs4e.html
Tuesday June 12, 8:59 PM
Macedonian ceasefire holds as civilians await aid
By Alister Doyle
KUMANOVO, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's army stuck to a shaky ceasefire on Tuesday as aid agencies attempted to ferry supplies to civilians stuck in rebel-held villages and engineers tried to reconnect a nearby town with water.
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas said they would extend a brief truce beyond a noon GMT deadline, provided the army held fire to allow the first major relief convoy access to a hillside battle zone scarred by five weeks of almost continuous fighting. The fragile pause in a four-month conflict, already broken by an overnight ambush on a police patrol, is unlikely to last.
Rebels said they would allow taps to be turned on at a reservoir behind their lines only after emergency aid was delivered. Such an exchange would be a major development, just days after the crisis escalated towards all-out civil war.
A line of 26 battered trucks stacked with flour, sugar, long-life milk and basic medical kits from a mix of local and international aid groups queued at an army checkpoint near Kumanovo, which has been without water for a week in a heatwave.
They were denied access on Monday after Macedonia's surprise ceasefire announcement, later matched by a 24-hour rebel truce which will lapse unless major humanitarian aid gets through.
The Red Cross, which evacuated 42 civilians from Lipkovo on Monday along with two wounded, plans a separate trip later, but like the multi-agency convoy it is still waiting for clearance.
FRAGILE CEASEFIRE
A rebel commander codenamed Shpati told Reuters his men were acting in self-defence when they fired machineguns at policemen returning to the northwestern city of Tetovo after dark, wounding six. They would do so again if threatened, he added.
"From our side we will respect the ceasefire," he said by telephone. "But this doesn't mean we won't defend ourselves."
The army, which unleashed helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks on rebel territory for four days in a row after a fatal ambush last week, said it was holding fire after the new attack.
"During the night and until now, everything is calm," army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said of the main front just east of the capital Skopje, which the rebels have threatened to shell.
If the first agreement by both sides to hold fire was to continue, the army had to extend a temporary halt to bombardment of northeastern rebel-held villages to 48 hours, Shpati said.
Engineers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would only be taken up to the reservoirs above Lipkovo once emergency supplies had been delivered, he added. But he denied his men had cut off the water in the first place.
URGENT RELIEF
The mayor of Lipkovo, Hysamedin Halili, said 20,000 people were stuck in his village and were in dire need of outside help.
The National Liberation Army, which says it is fighting to end discrimination against ethnic Albanians by majority Slavs, denies holding them as shields to prevent an army assault.
"The situation for the civilians here is a big catastrophe," Halili said at the checkpoint where the aid convoy remained stuck. "This would be the first emergency aid they get."
The Red Cross said it wanted to return to Lipkovo, the main village in the area, because it felt many more civilians were now ready to leave after holding out against weeks of shelling.
"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. About 40,000 people have fled Macedonia since February -- more than a third in the past three days after rebels threatened to fire mortars at downtown Skopje from a newly taken village.
Defence experts doubt they have the firepower to carry this out, but the threat has been enough for many Albanians, who have joined ethnic kin over the mountainous border with Kosovo.
Leaders of Macedonia's main parties will hold crisis talks on a peace plan at the weekend, a cabinet spokeswoman said.
European Union security chief Javier Solana, the leading architect of Skopje's emergency coalition government, has given it until June 25 to start delivering concessions. But meeting demands to make Albanian a second official language and for the constitution to be rewritten could incense the Slav majority.
Rebel ambush imperils Macedonia ceasefire Posted June 12, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010612/3/vfu6.html
Tuesday June 12, 8:09 AM
Rebel ambush imperils Macedonia ceasefire
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE (Reuters) - A short ceasefire in Macedonia looked doomed on Tuesday after ethnic Albanian rebels ambushed a police patrol, despite a promise to hold their fire.
The army called a surprise halt on Monday to a four-day bombardment of guerrilla-held villages and the rebels, who had been threatening to launch attacks on the capital Skopje itself, matched that by agreeing to call off their gunmen for 24 hours.
Yet when darkness fell, guerrillas fired on a police vehicle near the city of Tetovo, wounding its occupants and endangering fragile hopes that the first bilateral truce in four months of conflict might be nursed into a serious peace bid.
Four policemen were treated for bullet wounds after the machinegun attack. It took place near the scene of another ambush last week that killed five soldiers and brought simmering tensions between Albanians and majority Slavs back to boiling point. The Tetovo area is home to many of Macedonia's Albanians.
Many from the minority community, which accounts for about a third of the former Yugoslav republic's population, were not waiting to see if the latest retreat from the prospect of all-out civil war would last beyond Tuesday's rebel deadline.
More than 6,000 refugees poured over the mountainous border into the Albanian-dominated Serbian province of Kosovo on Monday, the biggest exodus in since the insurgency began.
"Most of them were from parts of Skopje," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR refugee agency. "There was general panic that the battle was about to explode."
They may still be right.
END TO RESTRAINT
Macedonia's multi-ethnic coalition government, formed under international pressure last month to try and patch up the ethnic divide, denied it was caving in to rebel threats by calling off its tanks, helicopters and artillery.
It said its ceasefire was to allow engineers behind rebel lines to restore water to the government-held city of Kumanovo.
But if precedents over the past four months are anything to go by, the latest attack on its forces seems likely to spell an end to restraint that has been praised by Western allies.
And despite pressure from Macedonia's Slavs to hit back, Kumanovo remains cut off from a reservoir that lies behind rebel lines after six sweltering days of a seasonal heatwave. A rebel commander named Shpati insisted his men are not to blame.
The other side of a deal, described as a confidence-building test by a government source, was to let the Red Cross drive in emergency medical kits and evacuate a handful of wounded from a rebel-held village where refugees became bottled up last month.
Shpati said more supplies were needed.
Military stalemate was shattered last week by the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) ambush and the guerrillas seizure of a town on Skopje's outskirts, from which they threatened to wreak havoc on the nearby capital unless army shelling stopped.
But international efforts to defuse a crisis that many fear could yet unleash the sort of ethnic bloodbath seen elsewhere in the Balkans are still deadlocked.
Ethnic Albanians want an end to what they say is official discrimination. But meeting demands for Albanian to be made a second official language and for the constitution to be rewritten could incense the Slav majority.
European Union security chief Javier Solana, the chief architect of Skopje's emergency coalition government, has given it until June 25 to start delivering concessions.
A peace plan presented by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski last week stopped short of offering amnesty to rebel gunmen but offered incentives for them to surrender.
The NLA responded with its threats to shell government ministries, Skopje airport and other strategic targets which it claims are in range from freshly captured Aracinovo.
Although defence experts doubt the rebels have the firepower to carry this out, they won a psychological victory. Some airlines cancelled flights to Skopje on Monday and streets, cafes and shops in the centre were less bustling than normal.
Macedonia and rebels call temporary ceasefires Posted June 11, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010611/3/vbnq.html
Tuesday June 12, 2:14 AM
Macedonia and rebels call temporary ceasefires
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's government and ethnic Albanian rebels both declared brief ceasefires on Monday for a first time in a four-month conflict, with the insurgents shelving a threat to bombard the capital, Skopje.
"The activities of the security forces have been temporarily suspended," Nikola Dimitrov, national security adviser to President Boris Trajkovski, said in a surprise announcement on the fourth day of an army assault on rebel-controlled villages.
He said the ceasefire would restore water supplies to a government-controlled city of 100,000. Kumanovo's water was cut off amid a heatwave six days ago by rebels who seized control of a reservoir dam. In return for water, emergency supplies will be allowed into the rebel-held village of Lipkovo, at the dam.
Dimitrov denied that the government was buckling after the rebels threatened on Sunday to bombard Skopje unless the army halted an onslaught with helicopter gunships, tanks, artillery and machineguns on villages northeast of the capital.
The rebels responded by declaring a 24-hour ceasefire of their own, running until noon GMT on Tuesday. It was the first time that both sides had officially declared ceasefires at the same time since the conflict started in February.
"The General Staff of the National Liberation Army declares a 24-hour ceasefire," the NLA said in a statement signed by Ali Ahmeti, the rebels' political leader.
An attack on Skopje would have been the biggest escalation so far of a conflict in which dozens have died.
Fearing attacks, some airlines cancelled flights from Skopje airport on Monday. Streets, cafes and shops in the centre of the city were less bustling than normal.
FEW HOURS, MAYBE LONGER
Asked how long the government ceasefire might last, security adviser Dimitrov said: "Maybe a few hours, maybe longer."
The insurgents say they are battling for more rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of the population, in everything from education to jobs. They also want the majority Slavs to accept Albanian as an official language.
The Western-backed government dismisses the NLA rebels as terrorists who want to plunge the Balkan state into chaos.
NATO-led peacekeepers in the neighbouring Albanian-populated Serbian province of Kosovo said on Monday they had detained 19 suspected Macedonian rebels, some of them with heavy weaponry.
A Macedonian government source said the ceasefire was an effort to defuse a surge in inter-ethnic tensions since five Macedonian soldiers were killed last Tuesday.
He said that Monday's government offer, exchanging water for emergency supplies, would test rebel willingness to cooperate. "If they let water run, they have accepted the game. If not, it's possible that the fighting will continue," the source said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the main humanitarian organisation in the area, was taking basic supplies to Lipkovo and offering to evacuate any wounded. It was the ICRC's first visit to the area in a week.
A mission from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was taking engineers to the rebel-controlled reservoir to try to reopen water valves to the city of Kumanovo. An OSCE official said the dam's structure seemed intact.
Earlier on Monday, the army blasted rebel-held villages about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of the capital with artillery and helicopter gunships, ignoring the rebel ultimatum. But it abruptly halted the attacks at 0700 GMT.
The ceasefire decision was made jointly by Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the ministers of defence and interior. "They decided to make an effort to stop two humanitarian catastrophes," Dimitrov told a news conference.
The government has declared temporary ceasefires in the past to allow relief efforts. The rebels offered a ceasefire on June 7, saying they would only fight back if attacked.
RIGHTS FOR ALBANIANS
In Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers said they were deeply worried by the latest fighting and condemned the "terrorist actions" of the rebels.
A website linked to the NLA said two fighters were killed in the fighting in recent days and four wounded. The army said a soldier died on Monday.
Separately, ethnic Albanians said that Macedonian police bludgeoned a 70-year-old Albanian man to death in Skopje on Monday and severely injured another.
The rebel threat to attack Skopje had come from a rebel commander codenamed Hoxha, whose forces seized a town 10 km (six miles) from the capital on Friday to bring the conflict to within firing range of the capital.
He said that the Macedonian government called a temporary ceasefire because it knew "the NLA had formed another brigade closer to Skopje, had enough weapons to attack and many Albanians were joining their ranks".
But military experts said it was unclear whether the rebels could hit the city centre from the small town of Aracinovo.
The NLA says it has rockets and 120-mm mortars in Aracinovo. Defence experts say the range of their mortars is up to about seven km (four miles).
But the rebels could cause chaos by simply firing onto the nearby highway, the main route from Belgrade to Athens.
Many residents have packed up and fled eastern suburbs, fearing they would be caught in the firing line.
The airport was open but some airlines, including British Airways, Swissair and Greece's Olympic cancelled direct flights. Many residents expressed fear of rebel attacks while others shrugged them off, saying they were a bluff.
"I'm really frightened. This is the most terrible time for me," said Maria Rusjakova, a Macedonian Slav, walking through a shopping mall. "I hope they withdraw and both sides calm down."
Albania Rebels Declare 24-Hour Macedonia Ceasefire Posted June 11, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010611/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_35.html
Monday June 11 11:48 AM ET
Albania Rebels Declare 24-Hour Macedonia Ceasefire
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian rebels declared a 24-hour cease-fire in Macedonia on Monday, shelving a threat to bombard the capital, after the government announced a pause in an army assault on rebel-held villages.
The National Liberation Army said in an official statement signed by its political leader, Ali Ahmeti, that it was declaring a unilateral 24-hour cease-fire until 1200 GMT on June 12.
Earlier, the NLA had said it would not fight unless attacked by Macedonian forces after the government ordered a temporary halt to a four-day assault on rebel-controlled villages. This was to allow restoration of water supplies to a government-controlled town and enable food to reach a rebel-held village.
The government denied it was bowing to threats on Sunday by a rebel commander, code-named Hoxha, to shell Skopje if the army kept up its attacks with helicopters, tanks and heavy artillery.
IS MACEDONIA'S PRIME MINISTER THE PROBLEM? Posted June 11, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 110, Part II, 11 June 2001
website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline
IS MACEDONIA'S PRIME MINISTER THE PROBLEM?
Several British journalists over the weekend of 9-10 June described the government as "dysfunctional," suggesting that all parties share in the blame for the turmoil and impasse. Observers note that the political environment is becoming increasingly polarized and will likely become more so as election day draws nearer, possibly as early as September. But one "senior government official," speaking on condition of anonymity, told "The Observer" of 10 June that Georgievski is responsible for hamstringing the government. "With that man in charge, we are going to have civil war," the official argued. UCK Commander Hoxha told Reuters on 9 June that "I can injure the government of Ljubco Georgievski [militarily], but it is him who wants war. We don't want war." PM
HOPES DIMMING FOR PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT IN MACEDONIA Posted June 11, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 110, Part II, 11 June 2001
website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline
HOPES DIMMING FOR PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT IN MACEDONIA
Trajkovski announced a peace plan on Macedonian television on 8 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 June 2001). It provides for the proportional representation of ethnic Albanians in government at republican and local levels and increased use of the Albanian language in official dealings, as well as a partial amnesty for UCK fighters, unspecified confidence-building measures, and the gradual return of Macedonian forces to their barracks.
It is not clear whether Trajkovski's proposal includes changes to the constitution to give the Albanians and their language full equality with the Slavs and the Macedonian language, which are minimum Albanian demands. Ethnic Albanian political leader Arben Xhaferi criticized the proposal as vague. EU security policy chief Javier Solana visited Skopje on 9 June, saying afterward that "all political leaders support [Trajkovski's] plan," Reuters reported. He has given the political leaders until a 25 June EU meeting in Luxembourg to improve the Albanians' legal status. PM
Macedonia calls brief ceasefire against rebels Posted June 11, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010611/3/v99j.html
Monday June 11, 10:17 PM
Macedonia calls brief ceasefire against rebels
By Alister Doyle
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Macedonian government declared a temporary ceasefire on Monday in its four-month battle against ethnic Albanian insurgents but denied it was caving in to rebel threats to shell Skopje.
"The activities of the security forces have been temporarily suspended," said Nikola Dimitrov, national security adviser to President Boris Trajkovski.
He said the pause in a four-day army offensive against rebel-held villages would enable the restoration of water supplies to a town cut off during a heatwave and allow food to reach civilians trapped in the rebel-held village of Lipkovo.
Dimitrov denied that the government was backing down after a rebel commander said on Sunday that the insurgents would strike targets in downtown Skopje unless the army stopped its offensive against villages held by the guerrillas.
Earlier on Monday, the army blasted rebel-held villages with artillery and helicopter gunships, ignoring the rebel ultimatum. It halted the attacks at 0700 GMT.
Asked how long the ceasefire might last, Dimitrov said: "maybe a few hours, maybe longer." The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was sending a mission to Lipkovo on Monday with basic supplies and to evacuate wounded.
The ceasefire decision was made jointly by Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the ministers of defence and interior. "They decided to make an effort to stop two humanitarian catastrophes," Dimitrov told a news conference.
The government has declared temporary ceasefires in the past to allow relief efforts but the timing of Monday's announcement was striking after the rebel threats to hit the capital.
RIGHTS FOR ALBANIANS
The insurgents say they are battling for more rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of the population, in everything from education to jobs. They also want the majority Slavs to accept Albanian as an official language.
The western-backed government dismisses the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels as terrorists who want to plunge the Balkan state into chaos.
In Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers said they were deeply worried by the latest fighting and condemned the "terrorist actions" of the rebels.
A website linked to the NLA said two insurgents were killed in the fighting in recent days and four wounded. The army said a soldier died on Monday.
The rebels did not respond immediately to the ceasefire announcement.
A rebel commander codenamed Hoxha, whose forces seized a town near Skopje on Friday to bring the conflict to the fringe of the capital, said earlier he was awaiting orders to strike after the army ignored his ultimatum issued on Sunday.
But military experts said it was unclear whether the rebels could hit the city centre from the small town of Aracinovo.
The rebels say they have rockets and 120 mm mortars in Aracinovo, about 10 km (six miles) from central Skopje and about seven km from its international airport. Defence experts say the range of their mortars is up to about seven km (four miles).
CHAOS
But the rebels could cause chaos by simply firing onto the nearby highway, the main route from Belgrade to Athens. The gathering ethnic tension within the city also has the potential to trigger a deadly incident.
The airport was open but some airlines, including British Airways, Swissair and Greece's Olympic cancelled flights. Germany's Lufthansa said it would stick to its flight schedule.
Analysts say a rebel attack from Aracinovo would risk high civilian casualties and spark retaliation by Macedonian Slavs against ethnic Albanians, bringing Macedonia closer to civil war.
Shops opened as usual and traffic filled Skopje's streets on Monday as the government tried to reassure nervous citizens. "There is no danger that can threaten the life and property of the citizens," the Interior Ministry statement said.
Many residents expressed fear of rebel attacks while others shrugged them off, saying they were a bluff.
"I'm really frightened. This is the most terrible time for me. I hope they withdraw and both sides calm down," said Maria Rusjakova, a Macedonian Slav, walking through a shopping mall.
Hoxha, who threatened on Sunday to shell targets in Skopje like the defence ministry, the airport, an oil refinery and government buildings unless the Macedonian attacks stopped, is a key commander involved in many major clashes in the insurgency.
The rebels say that their orders come from a general headquarters somewhere in Macedonia. Any attack on Skopje would be the biggest escalation yet of the insurgency.
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in the rebel villages, cowering in shelters with little water or medical supplies. Thousands more from areas not yet hit by the fighting fled into neighbouring Kosovo on Sunday.
Macedonia shells rebels despite threat to attack capital Posted June 11, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010611/3/v6c7.html
Monday June 11, 5:49 PM
Macedonia shells rebels despite threat to attack capital
By Sean Maguire
NEAR LOPATE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Macedonian army blasted villages held by ethnic Albanian rebels with artillery and helicopter gunships on Monday, ignoring threats by insurgents to attack the capital Skopje unless the onslaught ceases.
A rebel commander, whose forces seized a town 10 km (six miles) from Skopje on Friday to bring the four-month conflict to the fringe of the capital, said he was awaiting orders to strike after the army ignored his ultimatum.
Military experts said it was unclear whether the rebels, who say they are fighting for more rights for minority Albanians, had mortars or rockets with sufficient range to hit the centre of the city from the small town of Aracinovo.
The army hit the villages of Slupcane and Matejce shortly after dawn at 6:15 a.m. (0415 GMT) with a heavy artillery pounding that subsided into sporadic firing.
Two helicopter gunships later blasted the village of Matejce, one of a group of villages around 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Skopje which the rebels have held for more than a month.
From a hill outside Lopate, near the combat zone, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from around the villages as the echo of impact blasts rolled around the valley. The attacks did not seem intense enough to support a ground assault on the villages.
The National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgents did not immediately back up their threats, which the Macedonian government dismissed as empty but which have spread fear in the capital city.
"I am awaiting orders to strike at Skopje. They have not only ignored our warning but have also wounded civilians. So, they have to hear our guns now," the rebel commander codenamed Hoxha told Reuters by mobile telephone.
ROCKETS, MORTARS
The rebels say they have rockets and 120 mm mortars in Aracinovo, about 10 km (six miles) from central Skopje and about seven kms from its international airport. Defence experts say the range of their mortars is up to about seven km (four miles).
But the rebels could cause chaos by simply firing on to the nearby highway, the main route from Belgrade to Athens. The gathering ethnic tension within the city also has the potential to trigger a deadly incident.
Analysts say a rebel attack from Aracinovo would risk high civilian casualties and spark retaliation by Macedonian Slavs against ethnic Albanians, bringing the small Balkan state closer to a much-feared civil war.
Shops opened as usual and traffic filled Skopje's streets on Monday as the government tried to reassure nervous citizens.
"There is no danger that can threaten the life and property of the citizens," the Interior Ministry statement said.
The airport was open but some airlines, including British Airways, Swissair and Greece's Olympic cancelled flights. Germany's Lufthansa said it would stick to its flight schedule.
Hoxha, who threatened on Sunday to shell targets in Skopje like the defence ministry, the airport, an oil refinery and government buildings unless the Macedonian attacks stopped, is a key commander involved in many major clashes in the four-month insurgency.
The rebels say that their orders come from a general headquarters somewhere in Macedonia.
Hoxha said five civilians had been wounded by army shelling in the village of Lipkovo on Monday. Despite the attacks the army had no chance of taking Slupcane, he added.
Monday's shelling maintained the daily sequence of attacks which the Macedonian forces have mounted since last Friday.
Any attack on Skopje would be the biggest escalation yet of the insurgency, which the rebels say is aimed at securing better rights for the 30 percent ethnic Albanian minority.
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in the rebel villages by the fighting and are cowering in shelters with little water or medical supplies. Thousands more from areas not yet hit by the fighting fled into neighbouring Kosovo on Sunday.
In Monday's action, bursts of machinegun and small arms fire could also be heard, but there was no indication when or if the army would launch the ground assault needed to sweep the rebels from the terrain they control.
The army has been cautious about committing itself to combat at close quarters which would risk heavy losses.