Some 2,000 Macedonian Albanians flee to south Serbia: UNHCR Posted May 25, 2001
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Friday May 25, 10:06 PM
Some 2,000 Macedonian Albanians flee to south Serbia: UNHCR
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, May 25 (AFP) -
About 2,000 civilians fled their Macedonian homes into southern Serbia Thursday and Friday to escape an army offensive against ethnic Albanian rebels in the area, a UN official said.
The refugees, mostly women and children from the northern Macedonian village of Lojane, arrived in the ethnic Albanian village of Miratovce on the Macedonian-Serbian border, Astrid van Genderen Stort of the UN refugee agency told AFP.
The refugees found shelter with relatives and friends in southern Serbia, she said.
Macedonian forces went on the offensive Thursday to force the guerrillas out of about 10 ethnic Albanian villages they control since early this month in the Kumanovo region in the north of the country.
The UNHCR spokeswoman said Lojane was still being bombarded on Friday, the second day of the army's most intensive operation yet against the rebels.
Since the start of the army's campaign against the rebels on May 3, some 11,500 people have fled the region, most of them going to the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo, which also has an ethnic Albanian majority.
Fighting bars medics from Macedonian villages Posted May 25, 2001
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Friday May 25, 10:27 PM
Fighting bars medics from Macedonian villages
By Douglas Hamilton
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Fighting between government troops and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in northeast Macedonia prevented Red Cross medical teams from reaching shelled villages on Friday where at least seven civilians were reported killed.
About 2,000 villagers were reported by the U.N. refugee agency to have fled north into Serbia on Thursday after the army launched an offensive, and smaller groups were evacuated by Macedonian police.
But many more men, women and children are thought to be still sheltering in their homes, afraid to move.
A high civilian toll could tip the balance towards the breakup of a crisis-hit coalition that is holding the ethnically mixed republic together and staving off the threat of a civil war that could enflame the Balkans.
Despite some unsourced reports of up to 60 dead, a senior guerrilla commander called Sokoli told Reuters by telephone on Friday that he knew of no more deaths than the seven victims he had named 24 hours earlier.
Six were from the Zymberi family, reportedly killed when a shell pierced the concrete ceiling of their basement shelter.
In the capital, Skopje, diplomatic sources said "careful" contacts were continuing between estranged Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders to save the country's national unity coalition government.
The heads of the two main Albanian parties, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri, are so far refusing to repudiate a "peace deal" they made in secret talks with Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of the insurgents.
The revelation so outraged some Slav leaders that Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said there was nothing for it but to pursue the military option with "no mercy".
But the language of other Slav ministers has been cooler. President Boris Trajkovski insisted the two parties must renounce the deal otherwise "we cannot work together" but conceded it may have been "an error of judgment".
NO RECONCILIATION YET
"They do not want to be seen as driving the Albanians off, so they are offering this wiggle room but they've got to swallow this repudiation. It was their mistake," a Western diplomat said.
The European Union and the NATO countries have condemned the agreement as an inadmissable legitimisation of violence, but so far the ethnic Albanian leaders are defending it. The army on Friday again attacked Vakcince, one of a cluster of rebel-held villages in northeast Macedonia. Two armoured helicopter gunships swooped in, drawing some ground fire, a Reuters TV crew near the scene said.
One man who left Vakcince on Thursday after the first wave of the army offensive said the village was still full of civilians, and that there were "many wounded".
"We are in regular contact with the Macedonian army but so far it has not been possible to enter," said Annick Bouvier of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"We need a ceasefire but so far it has not been possible to get this security guarantee. We want to get in to assess the situation and evacuate any injured."
The villages have been occupied by guerrillas and under attack by government forces for three weeks.
Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski astonished reporters at his regular briefing on Thursday by claiming, in the teeth of days of eyewitness reports and reels of video evidence, that no houses had been shelled.
CASUALTY REPORTS UNCONFIRMED
According to the guerrillas, eight civilians had been killed in the previous three weeks of often heavy shelling before Thursday's offensive. Most civilians keep to their basements and cellars when there is fighting.
"Of course there is no way for us to confirm these reports without being there," Bouvier said.
She said Red Cross teams which visited the villages in the period before the army launched its offensive had been able to deliver basic medical supplies for war wounds, such as plaster of paris, antiseptic, dressings and salves for treating burns.
Reuters correspondents saw Macedonian armour and infantry concentrated on the edge of Vakcince, parts of which were taken on Thursday, while artillery pounded other rebel-held areas.
In the west, where there were once again daily reports of clashes in the Sar mountains above Tetovo, scene of big battles in March, there were signs of army reinforcements moving up.
Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski, who took office 12 days ago when a national unity government was formed, resumed appeals for civilians to leave the northeastern Kumanovo area where a number of villages are held by insurgents.
"If they leave the crisis area, we will just handle the terrorists, if they do not, the operation will be very complicated," the state MIA news agency quoted him as saying.
Interior Minister Ljube Boshkovski, also new in office, told the news agency four policemen had been wounded on Thursday. "The operation will continue until we get back every centimetre of the Macedonian land," he said.
The nation pulled back from disaster 12 days ago when an emergency coalition government was formed, bringing in more ethnic Albanian parties but vowing to exclude guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army.
Controversial OSCE envoy withdrawn from Macedonia Posted May 25, 2001
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Friday May 25, 6:26 PM
Controversial OSCE envoy withdrawn from Macedonia
BUCHAREST, May 25 - A special OSCE envoy to Macedonia has been withdrawn and was expected here Friday after coming under fire for encouraging dialogue with ethnic Albanian rebels.
Official sources here said US diplomat Robert Frowick was transferring to Bucharest. Romania currently chairs the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a pan-European security body.
Frowick is the official representative for the Macedonian crisis of the OSCE's chairman-in-office, Romanian Foreign Minister Geoana Mircea.
Carlo Ungaro, the OSCE permanent mission chief in Macedonia, said Thursday Frowick's views did not correspond to those of the OSCE mission and were "contrary to the official positions of the international community."
Frowick was being withdrawn for an indefinite period, he said.
A European diplomat based in Skopje told AFP Frowick's plan to encourage dialogue with ethnic Albanian rebels was unacceptable.
"We cannot negotiate with terrorists," he said, describing the row that had blown up as "an unpleasant episode" and the international community's role as "damage limitation".
He said high-level meetings were being held with ethnic Albanian leaders to try to persuade them to back off from their contacts with the guerrillas and press on with political dialogue with Macedonian Slavs in the government.
A declaration to take "common action" on separatist unrest signed this week by Albanian parties -- who joined the country's national unity government only last week -- and rebels in the north has thrown Macedonia into political crisis, with Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski slamming the move "a call for Albanians to wage war against Macedonia."
Macedonian leaders have criticised Frowick for proposing an amnesty for ethnic Albanian rebels and for addressing the political representative of the rebel fighters, Ali Ahmeti, by name in a public call for peace.
Meanwhile more than 1,000 ethnic Albanian civilians fled from Macedonia into Serbia on Friday as a government assault on rebel held villages continued, provoking an intense political crisis.
Both the rebels and mainstream ethnic Albanian parties are seeking a change to the constitution which would give Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority the same legal status as the majority Slav population, and make Albanian an official language.
Macedonian government in turmoil Posted May 25, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/05/25/macedonia.fighting/index.html
Macedonian government in turmoil
May 25, 2001 Posted: 4:26 AM EDT (0826 GMT)
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia's multi-ethnic emergency coalition government is in turmoil after revelations of negotiations with armed ethnic Albanian rebels.
The political storm broke as the Macedonian army made major advances against ethnic Albanian rebels in the north of the country, including taking their village stronghold of Vakcince.
The national unity government was formed less than two weeks ago, drawing ethnic Albanian parties together with those of the majority Slavs, and had vowed to exclude the National Liberation Army from the political process.
But on Thursday, diplomats and politicians confirmed a deal had been agreed earlier in the week by senior officials of ethnic Albanian parties in government and NLA commanders.
The agreement would offer rebels an amnesty if they stop fighting and a veto over political decisions about ethnic Albanian rights.
The government has opposed negotiations with the rebels -- who it claims are trying to split the state -- and leaders of Slavic parties in the coalition expressed outrage at what they called secret negotiations.
But, defying domestic as well as international condemnation, the leaders of Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian parties rejected demands to renounce the pact.
The leader of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, Imer Imeri, suggested that the talks had at least tacit government approval, according to the Associated Press.
"The government was encouraging us to approach the NLA and we did it for peace," he was quoted as saying. "Peace is very near."
The head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, Arben Xhaferi, said his group had "never acted behind the government's back" and was not seeking to leave the coalition.
But Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski warned that he and the Slav parties could not continue to work with them unless they tore up the agreement.
And Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski accused the parties of openly merging with the rebels. "Albanians are siding against (Slavic) Macedonians," he told Associated Press.
The furore has forced a senior envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Robert Frowick, to leave the country with diplomats and government officials saying he had helped mediate the deal.
"It's good that he has gone," Reuters quoted Georgievski as saying.
On Thursday, the Macedonian army launched a major offensive against the rebels in the area bordering the Serbian province of Kosovo and escorted over 100 ethnic Albanian villagers from Vakcince.
"They were moved out of a ditch by the police. They were making their way across fields and maybe there was some fire. I'm not sure. I could see them ducking down," a Reuters cameraman said.
One elderly man said there were a lot of wounded people in the village. He said "almost the whole village" were still in their homes.
The government has said that the thousands of villagers remaining in the area were being held as human shields.
Armed conflict broke out in February with the rebels saying they want more rights for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, where they make up as much as a third of the two million population.
The government accuses them of trying to grab land and unify it with Kosovo, which is also dominated by ethnic Albanians.
Excluding the rebels from the political process has the backing of the United States and the European Union.
A U.S. embassy statement condemned the deal as a "totally unacceptable ... effort to bring this insurgent group into the state structures."
"There should be no accommodations made for violence or violent groups."
The 15-nation EU bloc said the rebels had "no place at the negotiating table."
Deal Pushes Macedonia Into Crisis Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24 4:18 PM ET
Deal Pushes Macedonia Into Crisis
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A secret peace deal with ethnic Albanian rebels mediated by a senior Western diplomat plunged Macedonia deeper into crisis Thursday, outraging Slavic leaders and drawing U.S. condemnation for giving legitimacy to the insurgents.
On the battlefield, government spokesmen reported major advances by army units fighting the rebels in the northern highlands, including the taking of their village stronghold of Vaksince.
The peace deal, confirmed by diplomats and politicians, was secretly negotiated this week between senior officials of the ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia's emergency government and rebel commanders.
It provided that the rebels would agree to stop fighting in exchange for amnesty guarantees by the ethnic Albanian coalition partners. The rebels would also get the power to veto political decisions about ethnic Albanian rights.
Leaders of Slavic parties in the coalition government expressed outrage that their coalition partners had secretly negotiated with the rebels.
President Boris Trajkovski urged the ethnic Albanian party leaders involved in the deal to distance themselves from it, declaring: ``If they don't do that, it will be impossible for us to work together.''
The government opposes negotiations with the rebels and rejects including them in the political process - stances supported by the United States, the European Union (news - web sites) and other Macedonian allies opposed to investing the rebels with legitimacy.
But Imer Imeri, head of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, suggested his party had dealt with the rebel National Liberation Army with government approval.
``The government was encouraging us to approach the NLA and we did it for peace,'' he said. ``Peace is very near.''
Arben Xhaferi of the Democratic Party of Albanians refused to renounce the deal but said his party had ``never acted behind the government's back,'' adding his group did not seek to leave the governing coalition.
Adding to government outrage was the role attributed to Robert Frowick, a former U.S. career diplomat and now a senior envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe. Diplomats and government officials said Frowick mediated the peace deal.
OSCE (news - web sites) representative Carlo Ungaro said in Skopje that Frowick had been ``acting on his own.''
Frowick refused to comment, but an OSCE official in Vienna who spoke on condition of anonymity said his services generated discord in Skopje. Frowick later left for Romania, officially to report to the country's foreign minister, who is also OSCE chairman.
A U.S. Embassy statement condemned the deal as a ``totally unacceptable ... effort to bring this insurgent group into the state structures.''
``There should be no accommodations made for violence or violent groups,'' said the statement.
The European Union said the rebels had ``no place at the negotiating table. NATO (news - web sites) Secretary-General Lord Robertson condemned the deal in similar language.
In fighting, three tanks and an armored personnel carrier moved across hills overlooking Vaksince. Special police teams with loudspeakers moved into the outskirts of the village, urging rebels to surrender.
``We are satisfied with our results so far,'' Interior Minister Ljuben Boskoski said.
Col. Blagoja Markovski said the army had started a major offensive against 11 villages in the north.
Helicopter gunships strafed Vaksince and neighboring Slupcane and Lojane. A rebel leader known as Commander Sokoli said shelling in Slupcane had killed seven civilians, including six members of one family.
Fighting erupted in February. The guerrillas say they want more rights for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, who make up as much as a third of the 2 million population.
The government accuses them of trying to grab land and unify it with neighboring Kosovo, which is also dominated by ethnic Albanians.
Civilians Said Killed in Macedonia Offensive Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24 11:03 AM ET
Civilians Said Killed in Macedonia Offensive
By Douglas Hamilton
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Seven ethnic Albanian civilians were reported killed on Thursday in an artillery bombardment of guerrilla-held villages by the Macedonian army.
If confirmed, the deaths were likely to further embitter relations between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders, who were already trying to save their grand coalition emergency government from a collapse of trust.
The casualty report came in as President Boris Trajkovski issued a statement demanding ethnic Albanian political leaders renounce a peace pact they made with the guerrillas that has muddied the waters of official policy rejecting any such talks.
``If they do not,'' he said, ``it will not be possible to work together.'' The major Western powers all issued strong statements condemning the deal and urging that it be torn up.
The republic's improving political fortunes were abruptly reversed on Wednesday night when it emerged that ethnic Albanian party leaders had made a peace deal in secret talks with Albanian guerrillas, with OSCE (news - web sites) involvement.
ANGER AT OSCE BALKANS ENVOY
Senior OSCE Balkans envoy Robert Frowick left the country under a cloud after his mediation bid to clinch a deal with the rebels was denounced from nearly all sides, by the government's Slav majority as well as the major powers.
An ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander said army shelling had killed the seven civilians and wounded at least five others, shortly after an offensive was launched on Thursday aiming at isolating rebel-held villages.
Commander Sokoli told Reuters by telephone that six members of the Kymberi family were killed when a shell pierced the concrete roof of a basement in which they were sheltering in the village of Slupcane, a key army target.
A man was also killed by shelling in nearby Orizare. Sokoli named all seven dead and provided their ages. He said he believed the Slupcane house was hit by a 155 mm artillery shell.
``NORMALITY'' IN NEIGHBORING SERBIA
In stark contrast, some 4,000 Yugoslav troops moved without resistance into a nearby strip of territory in southern Serbia which was vacated by ethnic Albanian guerrillas this week in a NATO (news - web sites)-brokered deal that shut down their 16-month insurgency.
``I think normality can return after this day,'' said Serbian Prime Minister Djindjic, as Operation Bravo met virtually no resistance.
Less than 20 miles to the south, the hills of northeastern Macedonia were shaken by tank fire and wreathed in smoke.
``This is the fiercest shelling we have withstood so far. We have unconfirmed reports that shells have hit the shelters,'' a guerrilla called Shpati told Reuters.
In the capital, Skopje, senior Western diplomats were deep in talks to hold the ethnic coalition government together, pressing the two main ethnic Albanian leaders to revoke the deal they made with the guerrillas.
Photos
Reuters Photo
``It's difficult to believe that the democratically-elected leaders of the Albanians took such a risky step that does not contribute to resolving the crisis but only throws fuel on the burning fire,'' said government spokesman Antonio Milosovski.
Ethnic Albanian politicians said it was the army offensive which could risk breaking up the coalition.
CONDEMNATION OF DEAL
The European Union (news - web sites) strongly condemned the deal between the two main Albanian parties and the guerrillas, whom it accused of committing ``terrorist acts'' and said it should be torn up.
``We can only guess at the pressures which may have led representatives of PDP and DPA to sign this document. But we call on the two parties to renounce the document in a way which shows no ambiguity,'' an urgent EU statement said.
The United States embassy issued a statement of behalf of Washington fully supporting the EU declaration, denouncing the pact and urging Albanian politicians to renounce it.
``There should be no accommodation made for violence or violent groups,'' the United States said. NATO Secretary General George Robertson and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also issued statements on the same lines.
Macedonia said security forces had moved into Vakcince, a guerrilla stronghold in a string of occupied villages that have been under bombardment for the past three weeks.
A government minister at the scene said troops were moving house to house to avoid causing civilian casualties.
No outside medical assistance was known to have reached nearby Slupcane to treat the wounded reported there, although urgent calls for help were made to international agencies.
A Red Cross source said no ``window'' had yet been established permitting a team to move in safely.
Despite almost daily appeals, only a few thousand villagers have heeded the call to leave the area of conflict. In the frontline villages, women, children and old men have cowered in basements and cellars for many days.
The battlefield lies just a few km (miles) west of the main Athens-to-Belgrade highway.
Breakup of the unity government, forged 11 days ago under heavy Western pressure, could open a gulf between majority Slavs and the one-third Albanian minority, propelling the republic of two million people toward civil war.
``If anyone had any illusions that the so-called NLA (National Liberation Army) has international support anywhere, they had better forget them, the EU said. ``The fundamental message is simple: Go now.''
It said Macedonia had the right to take proportionate action to defend its territory and its citizens. ``It is the so-called NLA who have put civilian lives at risk and deliberately kept them at risk,'' the statement said.
Balkans Envoy Frowick Leaving Macedonia Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24 7:00 AM ET
Balkans Envoy Frowick Leaving Macedonia
By Douglas Hamilton
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Balkans envoy Robert Frowick was leaving Macedonia on Thursday after promoting a deal with ethnic Albanian rebels denounced by the government and the international community, diplomatic sources said.
The special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)) was ``on his way to the airport,'' a diplomatic source told Reuters in Skopje.
``It is necessary that he should go,'' he added.
Diplomatic sources said Frowick's initiative had been ''extremely damaging,'' threatening the unity of a grand coalition government forged with Western help 11 days ago to resolve a five-month old crisis provoked by ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
Frowick, an American with long experience in the Balkans, was expected to fly to Romania, which currently holds the chairmanship of the OSCE.
He was leaving after it emerged that ethnic Albanian political leaders held secret talks with armed insurgents and concluded a peace deal, apparently with OSCE help.
The Macedonian unity government, dominated by ethnic Slav parties but embracing both main ethnic Albanian political parties, said dealing with ``terrorists'' was totally unacceptable.
The European Union (news - web sites) issued a strong statement urging ethnic Albanian mainstream leaders to renounce the agreement in the clearest terms and added that a similar declaration was expected in the course of the day from the United States.
``If anyone had any illusions that the so-called NLA has international support anywhere, they had better forget them.''
``The fundamental message is simple: Go now.''
The statement, faxed to Reuters by the British embassy in Skopje, said the EU's 15 member states ``consider the joint agreement between representatives of the PDP, the DPA and the so-called NLA is totally unacceptable and in more than one way.''
Photos
Reuters Photo
The PDP and DPA are the two main Albanian political parties.
``We can only guess at the pressures which may have led representatives of PDP and DPA to sign this document. But we call on the two parties to renounce the document in a way which shows no ambiguity,'' the statement said.
It added that the Macedonian government had ``the right to take proportionate action to defend its territory and its citizens.''
``It is the so-called NLA who have put civilian lives at risk and deliberately kept them at risk.''
The Macedonian Army on Thursday launched an offensive to dislodge the guerrillas from villages they have held for the past three weeks despite heavy long-range shelling.
Tanks were seen advancing closer to the village of Vakcince.
Ethnic Albanian deal threatens new Macedonia crisis Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24, 6:06 PM
Ethnic Albanian deal threatens new Macedonia crisis
By Douglas Hamilton
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia battled to save its national unity coalition on Thursday after it emerged that ethnic Albanian party leaders had made a peace deal in secret talks with Albanian guerrillas.
Reports of the deal emerged in local media and were quickly confirmed by government and political party officials speaking to Reuters on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, an army spokesman said Macedonia had ordered its armed forces to launch an offensive to drive ethnic Albanian guerrillas from villages they have held for the past three weeks.
"Today at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), the army took offensive measures with the goal of surrounding villages, isolating and dispersing the terrorists from this area," Colonel Blagoja Markovski told Reuters.
The country appeared to be teetering between the birth of a peace accord and the death of compromise which has so far prevented a slide into civil war.
Break-up of the grand coalition government, forged 11 days ago under heavy Western pressure, would plunge the republic of two million people deeper into crisis, opening a gulf between majority Slavs and the one-third Albanian minority.
Macedonian Slav leaders want the guerrillas to withdraw unconditionally, not under any "back door" compromise deal that might give them political legitimacy.
Diplomatic sources said top Western envoys were meeting in the capital, Skopje, to thrash out a joint position on the political crisis.
Controversy surrounded the role played by senior diplomat Robert Frowick of the United States, who is Balkans envoy of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and who is believed to have facilitated secret talks.
"Is Frowick to leave Macedonia quickly?" asked Dnevnik, the country's main independent political heavyweight newspaper.
It said the envoy's activities were seen as "interfering in the internal affairs of the country". Macedonia's main private television network speculated that Frowick might be declared persona non grata.
SHELLING RESUMES
Macedonian army guns resumed shelling ethnic Albanian rebel positions on Thursday, and army sources said the military planned to surround 10 villages and go in with infantry, village by village. Civilians would then be evacuated.
The army has been impatient to launch an all-out offensive which it is confident could succeed in a matter of days. But the government and its Western backers have been concerned that many lives would be lost among civilians still in the villages.
Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski said after a late-night meeting of top officials and Western ambassadors on Wednesday that the deal worked out by the Albanians was "extremely unacceptable".
"It violates the principle promoted by the international community that, with terrorists, you don't talk or negotiate," he said.
"Instead of isolating the terrorists we have the opposite situation," he said. "The legitimate representatives of the Albanians are the ones who're being isolated."
Buckovski said the situation was serious and it would be resolved in the next 24 hours. He did not expand.
The military leader of the self-styled National Liberation Army (UCK) Gezim Ostreni, was quoted as saying the guerrillas were braced for an army assault but would prefer talks.
"War is an everyday reality and we are prepared for this offensive. But it would be better that the offensive takes place at a round table," he told the Albanian newspaper Fakti.
But if the guerrillas agreed to lay down their weapons, ending the five-month-old insurgency, it could present Slav parties with a fait accompli impossible to resist.
"If the terrorists honestly want to stop fighting and lay down their weapons, common sense dictates that we must allow them to do so," said the main Macedonian Slav daily Dnevnik in an editorial.
"But we should not accept any preconditions for that step.
Any whiff of a pact with the rebels risks provoking a backlash from the country's Slav majority, which rejects any deal with "terrorists" and fears the guns may come out again to back future Albanian demands.
"A New Anti-Macedonian Conspiracy?" was the headline of a dispatch on the secret talks published on Wednesday evening by the state news agency MIA.
Macedonian army in intensive offensive on rebel positions Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24, 7:52 PM
Macedonian army in intensive offensive on rebel positions
NEAR VAKSINCE, Macedonia, May 24 (AFP) -
Macedonia's army launched an intensive offensive Thursday using tanks, mortars and heavy machineguns against ethnic Albanian guerrillas holed up in villages in the north of the country.
Thick smoke rose from numerous houses in flames in the villages of Vaksince and Slupcane, as two Mi-24 combat helicopters flew over the area, targetted by fire from T-55 tanks, mortars and heavy machineguns.
There was no sign at midday of an imminent ground offensive against the two villages, seized along with several others early this month by the self-styled ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA).
Up to 10,000 civilians remain in the villages, located near Kumanovo in the north, close to Macedonia's border with Serbia, and international humanitarian groups have expressed growing concern over their fate in the fighting.
An army spokesman, Colonel Blagoja Markovski, said the army was trying to "encircle" Vaksince, which along with Slupcane has been the target of sporadic army fire since May 3.
He told AFP that "offensive actions" were launched at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) in order to "surround the region of conflict, to arrest and push back the groups of terrorists and create conditions to allow civilians to leave the region."
He said the action was a response to "more and more frequent and arrogant actions in the region of Lipkovo," a village in the Kumanovo region, one of the main strongholds of NLA.
Macedonian Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski described the situation as "serious" adding that it should be "resolved during the day," the state TV reported.
"It is unacceptable that the terrorists, through a tiny door, enter the political scene," the minister said.
The first military operations against the NLA positions in the Kumanovo region were launched on May 3 after rebels killed two soldiers in an ambush on an army patrol in Vaksince.
On May 17, Skopje announced that it was suspending its military operations against the guerrillas in order to avoid "bloodshed," but warned that the army would respond to provocations.
Sporadic clashes have since been reported daily, with both sides accusing the other of being behind the attacks.
Thursday's offensive came after reports in the Macedonian media that representatives of ethnic Albanian parties who joined a national unity government last week had signed a joint declaration with rebel leaders on taking "common action" to find a solution to the separatist unrest.
The leaders of the two ethnic Albanian parties within Macedonia's coalition government -- Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri -- held talks on Wednesday with Ahmeti, the only known political representative of the NLA, according to private television channel A1.
It said the participants laid out the claims of the large ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia, while "keeping in mind that territorial claims" are not acceptable to the international community.
The ethnic Albanian claims centre around a sought-for modification of the constitution, which would give Macedonia's Albanian minority a legal status to match that of the majority Slav Macedonians, as well as making Albanian an official language.
After insisting it would seek a "peaceful" solution of the crisis, the Skopje government has changed its tone in recent days, opting more for military action.
Skopje has also been showing signs of deep disatisfaction with perceived international pressure on the government to dialogue with the rebels.
The country's national security council, chaired by President Boris Trajkovski, met Tuesday and ruled out negotiating with the guerrillas.
Macedonian authorities "will never accept a dialogue with the terrorists," the council said in a statement.
It went on to accuse "certain members of the international community" of having the "same attitude towards the terrorists and the legitimate political representatives."
However, the European Union said in a statement issued by the British embassy in Skopje that, "If anyone has an illusion that the so-called NLA has international support anywhere, they had better forget them."
The statement went on to say that the reported joint agreement between the Albanian political leaders and rebels forces "was totally unacceptable."
Macedonia launches anti-rebel offensive in north Posted May 24, 2001
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Thursday May 24, 4:27 PM
Macedonia launches anti-rebel offensive in north
SKOPJE, May 24 (AFP) -
The Macedonian army launched a new offensive early Thursday against ethnic Albanian guerrillas near Kumanovo in the north of the country, the military said.
"Offensive actions" were launched on Thursday 8:00 am (0600 GMT) in order to "surround the region of conflict, to arrest and push back the groups of terrorists and create conditions to allow civilians to leave the region," army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski told AFP.
He said the action was a response to "more and more frequent and arrogant actions in the region of Lipkovo," a village in the Kumanovo region, one of the main strongholds of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA).
On May 17, Skopje announced that it was suspending its military operations against the guerrillas in order to avoid "bloodshed," but warned that the army would respond to provocations.
Sporadic clashes have since been reported daily, with both sides accusing the other of being behind the attacks.
Deadlock as Macedonia spurns talks with rebels Posted May 24, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010523/3/px2x.html
Wednesday May 23, 11:36 PM
Deadlock as Macedonia spurns talks with rebels
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Ten days after the formation of a government of national unity, Macedonia's bid to douse an ethnic Albanian insurgency was in trouble on Wednesday, with military stalemate and political dialogue on hold.
The Slav-dominated national Security Council said there could be no progress on improving the status of the ethnic Albanian minority as long as guerrillas defied all appeals to withdraw and instead were trying to spread the conflict.
The three-month-old crisis was further confused by a diplomat's apparent suggestion that there should be negotiations with the rebels, contradicting a united international stand against any talks with gunmen branded here as "terrorists".
Analysts said the fact that it came from a senior American diplomat, Robert Frowick, could revive the rebels' belief that Washington, contrary to all its public denunciations, is privately sympathetic to their cause.
The Council said all Macedonians were concerned by "certain initiatives of individual representatives of the international community who are trying to promote the leaders of the terrorist groups as legitimate representatives" of Macedonia Albanians.
Since the 1999 NATO military intervention in Kosovo to end Serb repression, the United States has been seen by most Albanians as their all-powerful guardian angel.
Kosovo guerrillas were brought into top-level, high-profile peace talks in France, and ethnic Albanian insurgent groups in southern Serbia were also engaged in negotiations, leading to their NATO-brokered agreement this week to disarm and disband.
APPEASEMENT OR REALPOLITIK?
Frowick, in fact, has no official links to the United States government. He is special Balkans envoy of the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Diplomatic sources said his written proposals, presented to President Boris Trajkovski, had angered the government, which saw them as overtures to appeasing the insurgents.
On the military front, there were some signs that the army might be building up strength for a full-scale assault.
Macedonian security forces are believed to feel they have held back too long already, their hands tied because of Western fears that Albanian civilians will die, the population will be totally polarised, and insurgency will become open civil war.
With the backing of all the major powers, Macedonia has steadfastly refused any kind of negotiation with the gunmen.
It was stunned by what it saw as Frowick's thinly disguised invitation to open talks.
"None of the Macedonian official bodies ever considered accepting such initiatives and would never accept negotiations with the terrorists," a statement from the Council said.
The government said the United States, NATO and the European Union had all clearly supported Skopje's decision not to invite the self-styled National Liberation Army (UCK) to the negotiating table.
"If we compare the official standpoints of Bush, Powell, Robertson and Solana, we can only ask in whose name is Frowick acting?" government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said.
"Is it in the name of the United States or in his own name?"
The OSCE was instrumental in negotiating the release on Tuesday of a Macedonian soldier captured by the UCK.
According to a Kosovo newspaper report on Wednesday, Frowick has had talks with UCK political leader Ali Ahmeti and top Macedonian Albanian political leader Arben Xhaferri.
"TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT"
At a news conference in Skopje last week, Frowick urged ethnic Albanian guerrillas to end their rebellion, raising the prospect that they might enter mainstream politics if they laid down their arms.
He said he believed Ahmeti had the authority to order an end to the uprising and "set in motion a new process".
"These ideas are take it or leave it," he stressed.
The national unity government, in which both ethnic Albanian parties are included, was formed under strong international pressure as a means of rapidly addressing the grievances of Albanians and undercutting any rebel claim to be their champions.
But there has been no sign that rebels occupying some 10 villages in northern Macedonia -- and now apparently re-emerging in the western mountains -- have any intention of leaving their strongholds or giving up the fight.
The Council said the guerrillas' "totally unacceptable" position jeopardised conditions for political dialogue, which could not be expected to achieve the expected results under such conditions.
A spokesman for the UCK's Ahmeti told Reuters on Wednesday that the guerrillas were still insisting on "a true dialogue with international mediation in order to end the fighting through political means".
The release of the Macedonian soldier was a gesture of good will, he said.
Secret 'Peace' Talks Rock Macedonia Posted May 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010523/wl/balkans_guerrillas_dc_17.html
Wednesday May 23 3:27 PM ET
Secret 'Peace' Talks Rock Macedonia
By Douglas Hamilton
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The disclosure of secret talks to end Macedonia's five-month-old rebel crisis threatened to split the coalition government Wednesday and undermine a deal some believe could bring peace.
Macedonia's Slav government leaders were surprised by reports that moderate ethnic Albanian party chiefs had met in Kosovo Tuesday with the political leader of the guerrilla National Liberation Army to persuade it to stop fighting.
Any whiff of a back-door deal with the rebels risked provoking a backlash from the country's Slav majority, which rejects any deal with ``terrorists'' and fears the guns may come out again to back future Albanian demands.
``A New Anti-Macedonian Conspiracy?'' was the headline of a dispatch by the state news agency MIA. It said Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian party leaders held secret talks in Pristina with guerrilla political leader Ali Ahmeti.
They had ``signed a document committing themselves to cooperation and joint action.'' But Macedonia's Slav president and prime minister had not been informed of these contacts.
The Macedonian government of national unity had agreed, with international backing, that the guerrillas must be kept in total political quarantine and not invited to talks.
INSIDER CONFIRMS DEAL
A senior official of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, or PDP, confirmed to Reuters that the two leaders met Ahmeti Tuesday.
``They agreed on a cease-fire and on a common political platform ... for future negotiations,'' said the official, who requested anonymity.
He said Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of the Albanians and the PDP's Imer Imeri had discussed an amnesty for members of the self-styled National Liberation Army, called the UCK.
As news of a possible political settlement spread, Macedonian troops and guerrillas again exchanged fire.
An UCK commander named Sokoli said his forces had not received any orders to stop firing and they were in a heightened state of alert, ready to continue the fight.
The sound of gunfire could be distinctly heard as Sokoli talked on the telephone. He said the Macedonian forces had resumed ``sporadic'' shelling at 13:45 (7:45 a.m. EDT).
``The Macedonian government has rejected our requests which we sent through the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe,'' Sokoli said.
According to the PDP official, the ``agenda'' set out by OSCE (news - web sites) Balkans envoy Robert Frowick would be part of the agreement.
CLOSE TO PEACE?
A spokesman for Frowick said earlier that talks were at a delicate stage. ``We are very close to peace,'' he added.
A well-informed diplomat said that sounded like ``the high end of optimism'' and urged caution.
Western diplomats are telling the guerrillas they are friendless and have no political role to play, sources said.
``They are under very heavy pressure. They are being told: you have no friends,'' a diplomat in Skopje told Reuters.
``There is intensive diplomatic activity. We are sure the message is reaching them, and the message is: You have no political role, so go,'' he said.
Guerrillas estimated to number several hundred have carried out attacks on the Macedonian police and army since January, occupying ethnic Albanian villages in what they claim is a movement to assert Albanian rights.
The Skopje-based diplomat said the UCK was being urged to follow the example of ethnic Albanian guerrillas who are leaving their strongholds in nearby southern Serbia and laying down their guns, or moving back to Kosovo under an amnesty.
New front opens in Macedonia Posted May 23, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1346000/1346587.stm
Wednesday, 23 May, 2001, 10:50 GMT 11:50 UK
New front opens in Macedonia
Clashes first began near Tetovo in March
Explosions are shaking the hills above Macedonia's second city, Tetovo, a day after ethnic Albanian rebels ambushed and wounded several policemen.
The region had been quiet for more than two weeks, and the new fighting represents a second front in the three-month-old conflict between guerrillas and government forces.
Heavy clashes continued on Tuesday evening on the conflict's other front, situated north of the capital, Skopje, where the rebels have been occupying a string of villages for the last three weeks.
Though the area was quiet on Wednesday, the Macedonian army was reported to be reinforcing its units in a possible prelude to a larger attack.
Neighbouring Bulgaria has called for an international peacekeeping force to be sent to Macedonia, describing the situation there as worrying.
Retaliation
The BBC correspondent in Skopje, Nick Thorpe, says there are fears that the rebels may be trying to re-occupy villages in the hills near Tetovo - the country's unofficial ethnic Albanian capital.
We retaliated with force
Macedonian police spokesman
Police said the officers who were wounded had been driving along a country road outside the city when they were hit by mortar-fire.
"We immediately sent reinforcements to the area," said a police spokesman.
"We retaliated with force."
Serbia's Tanjug news agency reported that powerful explosions were coming from four villages in the region of Mount Sar, which overlooks Tetovo.
Trapped civilians
Macedonia's security council said on Tuesday that holding peace talks with the rebels was out of the question, and denounced them for refusing calls to disarm.
The village of Vakcince under bombardment
Though they say they are fighting to improve the situation of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, they are widely believed to be seeking to join parts of the country to Kosovo or Albania.
Aid agencies say around 10,000 civilians may remain in the rebel-held villages in the north of the country, huddling in basements when they come under bombardment.
Ethnic Albanian political leaders have warned that if these civilians are hurt they may plunge the country into an even deeper crisis by withdrawing from a broad coalition government formed last week.
Missing commander
In neighbouring Serbia, ethnic Albanian rebels in the Presevo valley, have agreed to continue their struggle by political rather than military means.
Hundreds have passed into UN-administered Kosovo in the past few days, handing in their weapons to Nato-controlled peacekeepers.
However, correspondents say that some hardline rebels may remain in the area.
Confusion still surrounds the whereabouts of one die-hard rebel leader, Muhamed Xhemajli, who was reported on Tuesday to have been arrested.
However, both the Yugoslav authorities and Nato peacekeepers deny having him in their custody.
Diplomats and Macedonian officials have expressed fears that some of the guerrillas could cross from Serbia into Macedonia to reinforce the rebels there.
Fighting Rages Again Near Macedonia Posted May 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010523/wl/macedonia.html
Wednesday May 23 7:09 AM ET
Fighting Rages Again Near Macedonia
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Detonations shook the hills above Tetovo Wednesday, marking the resumption of fighting between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the army near Macedonia's second-largest city.
Government authorities recently declared the rebels defeated in the region, but the sounds of battle reflected their continued strength despite several major government offensives against them.
On Tuesday, eight policemen were wounded near the village of Lisec, on the Tetovo-Popova Sapka road, when their cars were targeted by mortar fire, police said. Six remained in the hospital Wednesday.
The sounds of fighting ceased before noon above Tetovo, and low cloud and rain hung over the mountaintops.
``The situation is now calm but still unclear,'' said Col. Blagoja Markovski, the army spokesman, suggesting that poor visibility had led to the lull.
To the northeast, the Kumanovo area also was quiet Wednesday after clashes that lasted late into the previous evening. Refugees from that region spoke of a raid Monday on their village by black-clad government troops flown in by helicopter.
``They burned the houses with gasoline and lighters,'' refugee Agim Hyseni said from a hospital room in the Kosovo town of Gnjilane.
Hyseni said the torchings and shell-fire left the entire village of about 60 houses aflame and forced its inhabitants to flee. About 40 of them escaped to Kosovo, he said. Hyseni and other members of his family claimed there were no guerrillas in the village.
Macedonia's security council reviewed the crisis late Tuesday and decided that talking with the militants remained out of the question. The government has long insisted that the rebels are terrorists bent on carving off a piece of the country and uniting it with Albania or Kosovo.
The clashes followed tentative gains made by the army in clashes with insurgents in northern villages where thousands of civilians remain trapped as the army continues its offensive.
``There's every reason for concern over the state of refugees in these villages,'' said the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross's mission in Macedonia, Francois Steamm. ``The time spent in cellars is taking its toll on the population both physically and psychologically.''
The government claims that refugees are being used as human shields. Steamm said that the ICRC ``does not exclude some kind of pressure, but there's also a strong sense of solidarity'' among the civilians with the rebels. He did not elaborate further.
The intensity of the fighting underscored earlier government threats to ``eliminate'' the rebels unless they abandon their armed struggle.
Fighting first erupted in February. The guerrillas say they want more rights for the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia who make up as much as a third of the 2 million population.
In a related conflict across the border in southern Serbia, Serbian officials said that the lone rebel commander holdout - Muhamet Xhemajli - had been detained. Initial reports said Serbian security forces had arrested him, but officials later said it had been NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeepers on the boundary between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.
NATO and the United Nations (news - web sites) took over Kosovo after former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) agreed to pull out his troops to end a 78-day air war launched to stop attacks on Kosovo Albanians. Once Milosevic was ousted in October, the alliance slowly began permitting Yugoslav troops back into the buffer zone.
The final phase of that deployment is set to occur on May 24. Rebel commanders have agreed to disband their forces by the end of the month.
Albanians Say Macedonian Troops Empty, Burn Hamlet Posted May 22, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010522/wl/balkans_guerrillas_village_dc_1.html
Tuesday May 22 1:26 PM ET
Albanians Say Macedonian Troops Empty, Burn Hamlet
By Douglas Hamilton
CERKES, Macedonia (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians on Tuesday alleged that masked Macedonian troops attacked their remote mountain hamlet in a pre-dawn raid, evicted them and set fire to their homes, mosque and school.
The Macedonian authorities angrily denied the charge, and gave a totally different account of events at the village of Runica in the early hours of Monday.
There was no immediate way of checking the accounts on the spot. Runica lies in the hills above the villages of Slupcane and Vakcince, held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas and heavily bombarded by the army for much of the past three weeks.
The United Nations (news - web sites) refugee agency (UNHCR) in Kosovo said on Tuesday that 43 civilians from Runica had arrived in Kosovo late Monday night after trekking over the mountains.
``Some of them are wounded,'' UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort told Reuters. The civilians said they had fled because of shelling.
Arjeta Kamberi, a 19-year-old student, told Reuters there were no armed insurgents of the self-styled National Liberation Army (UCK) in Runica, which was suddenly filled with troops at around 4 A.M. Monday.
``The soldiers all wore black clothes and masks. They smashed our windows when everyone was asleep and dragged us out. Then they poured petrol on buildings and set them on fire,'' she said.
``They burned our school which was built for us by (Italian charity) Caritas, and they burned the mosque and the cattle and horses in their stalls.''
Kamberi said the villagers were herded onto a slope above Runica to see it burn before they were chased off. She said 12 families from Runica fled into the hills, but the Ahmedi family of seven was brought by helicopter to the main police station in the city of Kumanovo and held for six hours.
ARMY, GOVERNMENT DENY VILLAGERS' STORY
The army told a wholly different story.
``This is the first time I hear something like that. I have no information about anyone burning houses,'' army spokesman Colonel Blagoje Markovski told Reuters.
At a regular briefing Monday, Markovski said the army had answered ``a call for help from people asking to be evacuated because they were being held hostage and terrorized by a 25-member terrorist gang.''
Troops ``destroyed and dispersed'' the gunmen and were trying to get the civilians out, he told reporters.
Defense Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov Tuesday told Reuters seven civilians had been evacuated by helicopter -- the only apparent detail in which the stories coincide.
``I have no intention of commenting on what these so-called refugees are saying,'' he said. ``This is like the accusations made during the Kosovo crisis about us kicking their teeth out.''
Shaip Ahmedi, the 63-year-old head of the evacuated family, lay in a house in the ethnic Albanian suburb of Cerkes, outside Kumanovo, with a bruised-looking face, a heavily bandaged chest, and an intravenous drip in his arm.
He appeared listless and unable to speak.
Family members around him said he had been badly beaten by soldiers, one of whom pushed the barrel of his Kalashnikov rifle into Ahmedi's mouth while another kicked him, demanding he tell all he knew about the movements of the guerrillas.
Ahmedi's 31-year-old son Shukri, displaying bruises to the ribs, said soldiers had doused him with petrol and were going to set him alight. But his sisters and mother Advie, whose undershirt was stained with blood, prevented them.
``There were no UCK in our village,'' said Kamberi. ``And our village has never been attacked.''
Kamberi said a Cerkes doctor had seen Shaip Ahmedi but the family were afraid to move him to the main city hospital. ``We must contact the Red Cross, the international Red Cross,'' she said.
VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE ROAD
Runica, a poor village of dirt lanes, lies at the end of an unpaved road up steep slopes some 25 km (15 miles) north of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, and just three km (1.5 miles) south of the border with Serbia.
Control of the area would give the army access to the high ground overlooking the rebel-held villages and place government forces behind guerrilla lines, obstructing easy access to Kosovo -- the insurgents' rear base.
According to the Ahmedi family, around 10 ``grenades'' were fired at Runica at the start of the alleged army assault.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that roughly 10,000 civilians are still living in a cluster of villages west of Kumanovo that are held by the UCK and subject to attack by government security forces.
The army has said only the presence of civilians, whom it says are being held as human shields, is preventing a full-scale assault that would clear the area of ``terrorists'' in no more than a few days.
``Since May 3, in eight separate missions, medical supplies have been taken to every village in the rebel-held zone and 336 civilians have been given help to evacuate the area,'' ICRC spokesman Francois Stamm told a news conference.
``There is no sign of massive evacuation of civilians from the villages. Last time we went there was Sunday and most people are in basements in bad hygienic conditions.''
Asked why they did not leave to escape army bombardment by tanks and artillery -- as the government has repeatedly urged them to do -- Stamm said: ``There is no single, unique answer.''
``We cannot exclude some pressure by the armed men, or that some others are staying in solidarity, and a certain number are not leaving because they do not feel like encountering the Macedonian army.''
YMER YMERI: YESTERDAY'S SHELLINGS CONTRADICT COLITIONAL AGREEMENT Posted May 22, 2001
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YMER YMERI: YESTERDAY'S SHELLINGS CONTRADICT COLITIONAL AGREEMENT
Skopje, 22 May 2001 (CHOM)
Yesterday's shelling contradict the agreement of Coalitional Parties in Macedonia. The term given by PDP to participate in this Coalition was the immediate discontinuation of military attacks on Albanian villages", declared to DW, the president of PDP, Ymer Ymeri.
Regarding the Consitutional changes, Mr. Ymeri was sceptical. According to him, it is not likely that the present Government will change to Constitution that soon, as the procedure for Contutional changes needs to be respected.
ALBANIAN HOMES IN THE VILLAGE OPAJE ARE BEING ROBBED Posted May 22, 2001
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ALBANIAN HOMES IN THE VILLAGE OPAJE ARE BEING ROBBED
Skopje, 22 May 2001 (CHOM)
The inhabitants of the village Opaje who were forced to leave their homes and to settle in Kumanovo, report that they found their homes completely robbed when they came back in the village. Hamzi Sallahu from Opaja says that the Macedonian police forced him to leave the house, and when he returned five days later he didn't find anything left. Similar stories are heard from other inhabitants of Opaje who report that the whole cattle has been taken away and all the farming machinery has been destroyed.
IN SLUPCAN 75 CIVILIANS WOUNDED FROM HELICOPTER BOMBINGS Posted May 22, 2001
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IN SLUPCAN 75 CIVILIANS WOUNDED FROM HELICOPTER BOMBINGS
Skopje, 22 May 2001 (KOSOVAPRESS)
In the village Slupcan, 75 Albanian civilians have been wounded when the Macedonian forces bombarded the civilians with helicopters, stated Dr.Fatmir Hasani, who's been helping the inhabitants of the village since the beginning of the clashes.
He confirmed that during the helicopter-attack, an improvised ambulance in Slupcan was bombed wounding 75 persons, the majority of them children and women among whom one woman is in critical condition.
Dr.Fatmir, once again confirmed that the humanitarian and physical conditions in Slupcan are catastrophically adding that the situation is not better in the villages Vaksince, Hotel and Orizare as well as the village Runice where some civilians have been wounded today.
Macedonia Reopens Sharri Highland Road Posted May 22, 2001
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Macedonia Reopens Sharri Highland Road
May 21, 2001
TETOVA (KosovaLive) - After a relatively quiet weekend, with shelling occurring only on Sunday afternoon near Brodec and Vejc, Macedonian authorities announced they have reopened the road to Sharri Highland villages.
Shipkovica municipality president Zalqufli Ajvazi confirmed the reopening. "Today at 7:00 in the morning the Macedonian police unblocked the main road that links the city of Tetova and the villages of Sharri Highland," Ajvazi told KosovaLive.
The main road linking the region to Tetova was blocked after eight members of Macedonian special units were killed. The blockade made life difficult for local inhabitants because of the large presence of Macedonian police and military.
According to army sources, Macedonian troops fought armed Albanian groups near the river Vejca. Ajvazi told KosovaLive that shelling took place near Brodec and Vejca.
Tetova Police Chief Shaip Bilalli advised inhabitants of these regions that they should report any police abuse to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tetova.
According to Bilalli, the curfew is being respected. "Until now there were no incidents between the two nationalities." Said Bilalli.
Vice-Minister Joins Appeal For Humanitarian Aid in Likova Villages Posted May 22, 2001
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Vice-Minister Joins Appeal For Humanitarian Aid in Likova Villages
May 21, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - The humanitarian situation in the villages of Likova continues to alarm some officials, with residents still stuck in their basements. Macedonian authorities are not allowing humanitarian aid convoys to enter, although the International Red Cross is evacuating people in danger.
"The hard humanitarian circumstances continue," PDP spokesman Zahir Bekteshi told KosovaLive.
According to Bekteshi, a meeting is scheduled between Vice President Qemail Musliu and Prime Minister Lupco Georgievski, to discuss how humanitarian organizations might be allowed to enter the Likova region.
Likova Municipality President Husamedin Halili has been asking for humanitarian aid since the fighting began, to ease the difficult situation created by the lack of food and medicine.
Halili met Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to explain the situation. Halili has also appealed to the Macedonian police and military to stop shelling, so humanitarian agencies can visit villages in the conflict zone.
It was also announced that President Trajkovski will meet with leaders of Macedonia's parliamentary parties on Tuesday or Wednesday. (ar)