Rights Group Accuses Macedonia Forces Posted September 5, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010905/ts/macedonia_human_rights_1.html
Wednesday September 5 3:18 AM ET
Rights Group Accuses Macedonia Forces
NEW YORK (AP) - A human rights group has accused Macedonian forces of killing civilians, burning houses and torturing suspects in a village near the capital during an August offensive against ethnic Albanian rebels that left 10 people dead.
In a report released Wednesday, Human Rights Watch charged that Macedonian police shot and killed six civilians and burned at least 22 houses, sheds and stores during a house-to-house sweep in the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten on Aug. 12. Indiscriminate shelling killed another three civilians and one more was fatally shot by government forces as he tried to flee the village, the report said.
Two days after the offensive, Macedonia's Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski denied there was a massacre of civilians in Ljuboten and said five ethnic Albanian ``terrorists'' had been killed in fighting. The government said the offensive was in response to a land mine that killed eight soldiers two days before.
Calling for an investigation into the deaths, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said its investigators found no evidence of guerrillas in the village at the time of the offensive.
The group's report also said that Boskovski was in the village during the government sweep.
``The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten,'' said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the group in Europe and Central Asia, in a statement.
``It is deeply disturbing that the Minister of the Interior appears to have been so intimately involved in one of the worst abuses of the war,'' Anderson said.
The rebels launched their insurgency in February, claiming to be fighting against discrimination toward ethnic Albanians, who make up a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
Under a western-backed peace plan, the rebels agreed to surrender their weapons to NATO (news - web sites) forces and Macedonia's parliament is expected to endorse constitutional changes that would boost minority rights.
In addition to the killings The report also accused Macedonian forces of abusing many of the hundreds of ethnic Albanians who fled Ljuboten during the government sweep.
Police separated more than 100 men and boys from their wives and families and took them to police stations in the capital, Skopje, where some were beaten, the report said.
``Endemic police abuse is a potential spark that could re-ignite the conflict in Macedonia,'' Andersen said.
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On the Net:
Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org
Macedonian Parliament Resumes Debate on Peace Plan Posted September 4, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010904/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_430.html
Tuesday September 4 7:14 AM ET
Macedonian Parliament Resumes Debate on Peace Plan
By Andrew Gray
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's parliament resumed debate Tuesday on a Western-backed peace plan, following an ambivalent appeal to support the blueprint by nationalist Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski.
Georgievski told deputies Monday night the plan rewarded ''military aggression'' by ethnic Albanian guerrillas but said parliament should push on with ratification as the small, poor Balkan state could not afford to defy Western pressure.
The guerrillas launched an insurgency in February, saying they were fighting for more rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority. Macedonians regard them as terrorists bent on grabbing land and ethnic cleansing.
``We are sending a great gift to all terrorists or all those that want to be terrorists all over the world -- the message that terrorism pays off,'' Georgievski said.
Under the NATO-sponsored peace plan, parliament should ratify constitutional changes giving more civil rights to Albanians while the rebels should disarm and disband. The guerrillas have already handed in more than 1,200 weapons to NATO troops.
Deputies are expected to vote late Tuesday or on Wednesday on whether to initiate the process of changing the constitution.
Western diplomats and analysts expect the 116-member parliament will vote to get the ball rolling by the required two- thirds majority, although they believe further pitfalls could lie ahead further on in the ratification process.
PREMIER DOUBTS PEACE WILL FOLLOW
But Georgievski cast doubt on whether the plan could permanently end the violence -- now halted by a shaky cease-fire -- which has brought the former Yugoslav republic to the brink of civil war.
``I have never thought the Macedonian constitution is the reason for the six-month crisis in the country,'' he said. ''Therefore, I do not consider that changing the constitution with 35 amendments will bring peace to Macedonia.''
The constitutional changes would allow greater use of the Albanian language and give deputies from ethnic minorities more power to block legislation they oppose. More jobs in the police force is another key part of the political package.
Western officials insist the plan simply enshrines modern European minority rights standards in Macedonia.
But some privately acknowledge that part of the rebels' agenda had to be tackled because they were too strong to be defeated militarily by Macedonia's state security forces, widely regarded by Western analysts as poorly equipped and trained.
The National Liberation Army guerrilla force has made clear it will not hand in any more weapons from its declared arsenal of 3,300 to NATO's task force in Macedonia until the parliament has held its first vote on the reform package.
But even if the current process goes smoothly, no one has any illusions that animosity and distrust between Macedonians and Albanians will evaporate in the 30 days the NATO's Task Force Harvest is meant to remain in Macedonia.
Six months of bloodshed has killed scores of people and displaced 140,000.
Western officials have begun discussing what sort of international presence should succeed NATO's current force, which is composed of more than 4,000 soldiers.
An expanded mission of unarmed civilian monitors looks likely to ensure neither Macedonian nor Albanian forces provoke new trouble and some officials have raised the question of whether the observers will need a foreign protection force.
After NATO, a Vacuum in Macedonia Posted September 4, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/europe/04MACE.html
September 4, 2001
MILITARY ANALYSIS
After NATO, a Vacuum in Macedonia
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Sept. 3 There is an embarrassing and potentially fatal omission in the West's plan to bring peace to Macedonia: nobody knows how to make the settlement work if NATO troops leave on schedule just a few weeks from now.
The looming security vacuum worries Western military commanders, diplomats and intelligence experts. Today, James Pardew, the American diplomat who helped broker the political settlement, brought their dilemma into the open in a series of interviews. He raised the prospect that some allied troops would be needed beyond the Sept. 26 deadline by which the alliance now hopes to complete its mission.
The Central Intelligence Agency has already warned the Bush administration that the political settlement intended to end the ethnic Albanian rebellion in Macedonia may collapse after the NATO force withdraws.
"The C.I.A. believes that without a NATO presence in Macedonia, there is a very high risk that this agreement will collapse in the implementation phase," an American official said.
The essence of the issue is this: after NATO completes its mission of collecting 3,300 weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels, diplomats envisage an unspecified number of unarmed foreign monitors coming to Macedonia to oversee the political settlement between the minority Albanians and majority Slavs. Those monitors, Mr. Pardew said today, will need protection to operate in the country's tense regions.
"In the post-NATO period, significant numbers of civil monitors are needed in these sensitive areas as called for in the framework agreement," Mr. Pardew said in an interview. "So security in the future for these monitors is a concern."
To understand the increasingly urgent problem, it is important to understand how limited and how brief NATO's operation is.
If the Macedonian Parliament does its bit by approving changes to the Constitution that enhance the rights of ethnic Albanians, the rebels are to reciprocate by disbanding and handing over 3,300 weapons to NATO by Sept. 26. Then the 4,500-member NATO task force dispatched here for the arms-gathering mission is to be withdrawn over a two-week period.
Only then are many of the most important provisions of the peace agreement to be put into effect, over a period of months. So NATO may be pulling out its task force just when the risks are the greatest.
Right now, the West has only a partly scripted plan for what happens after NATO collects the rebels' guns.
The basic plan is to call on the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe and the European Union to provide monitors who will live in some of Macedonia's most volatile towns and villages and see that the Albanians do gain the increased civic rights promised in the settlement.
One of the monitors' most important tasks would be to help Macedonia reform its police. The Macedonian police battled the Albanian rebels for months, and are both unwelcome and afraid to go into many Albanian-dominated regions.
The political settlement calls for the hiring and training of 1,000 Albanian policemen, and the monitors will have to guard against mischief. The head of Macedonia's Interior Ministry, Ljube Boskovski, who oversees the police, is a certified hard- liner and no fan of the peace agreement.
Even with the best of intentions, and those often seem scarce here, there is the potential for miscalculation as the Macedonian police try to re-establish authority in areas once controlled by the rebels.
The United States believes that some 200 monitors are needed and is prepared to contribute about 15 percent of them. Some NATO officials say as many as 400 may be required.
But lining up the monitors has been very difficult. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, for example, has balked at an earlier suggestion that it raise the current number of its monitors in Macedonia from 26 to 50. The French, among others, are worried that the monitors may not be safe.
The Russians, for their part, dislike the idea that the organization would, in essence, be helping to consolidate a settlement in which NATO played a vital part. Mr. Pardew hopes to overcome that objection during a coming trip to Moscow.
Security is the major hazard. Facing a potentially dangerous mission, neither the European Union nor the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is prepared to take on monitoring duties without some form of protection.
According to the current plan, NATO, the world's mightiest military alliance, is not preparing to play that part. Keeping the NATO task force, or at least some portion of it, in Macedonia would require a new mandate from the alliance's 19 members. So far, that is an option with few fans at NATO headquarters.
Another option is to remove the NATO task force from Macedonia on schedule but arrange for NATO troops in Kosovo and at the American logistics base in Macedonia to rush to the monitors' aid in an emergency. But it is far from clear that this would provide enough reassurance to the monitors.
Macedonia's president, Boris Trajkovski, has raised the possibility that United Nations troops might have a role in guarding the nation's frontiers to stop arms smuggling. But there seems to be little, if any, discussion of a more substantial United Nations role in protecting monitors within Macedonia.
Still another option would be for the British and other Europeans to decide among themselves to keep some sort of security force here in what diplomats are calling a "coalition of the willing." Again, there is no agreement on such a force.
With visits from the British, German and French defense or foreign ministers this week, the "what next" question is receiving increasingly intense consideration.
There is a growing recognition that Macedonia may soon find the rebels partly disarmed, the Macedonian authorities trying to re-establish their control over areas formerly held by the rebels, and NATO's soldiers gone.
Mr. Pardew stirred up a bit of a storm today by pointing out that the organizations that would provide the monitors are insisting that the West keep some sort of security force in Macedonia. But he was only saying in public what other Western officials say in private. And some are far less diplomatic.
"There is a general feeling," said one alliance official, "that something must be done, but nobody knows what to do."
Leaders Mull Post-NATO Macedonia Posted September 4, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010904/wl/macedonia_after_the_harvest.html
Tuesday September 4 4:39 AM ET
Leaders Mull Post-NATO Macedonia
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Cobbling together Macedonia's peace initiative was a study in diplomatic finesse and strong-arm persuasion. Now looms an equally complicated task: how to keep the country calm when NATO (news - web sites) leaves.
Looking past NATO's weapons collection mission - dubbed Essential Harvest - overseers of the accord are concerned about a possible ``security vacuum'' across the main battlefields of the ethnic Albanian uprising.
The overriding worry is how to introduce hundreds of international observers into rebel-held areas and give them adequate protection. Western leaders - and Macedonian supporters - say their presence is needed to ease the return of refugees and deter possible clashes between ethnic Albanians and state security forces.
The nightmare scenario, Western envoys say, is allowing police and paramilitary units to pour into ethnic Albanian areas without any international presence.
Already, there have been threats of retaliation by Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, who came into the government in May during the height of the six-month-old rebellion for greater ethnic Albanian rights.
But so far, there has been no firm decisions on either the composition of the proposed monitors or how they will be protected. NATO's mission to gather 3,300 rebel weapons is scheduled to end late this month.
``In the post-NATO period, significant numbers of international, civilian monitors are needed in these sensitive areas,'' U.S. Balkans envoy James Pardew said.
Pardew held talks Monday in Vienna, Austria, with representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe on possibly expanding its observer mission in Macedonia. But some members expressed clear concerns about security.
The OSCE (news - web sites) and European Union (news - web sites) have about 50 monitors in Macedonia and plan to double that number.
Pardew, however, said that was ``probably not adequate.'' He declined to give a specific figure, but other officials have suggested at least several hundred monitors could be needed.
The question of possible protection is even less clear.
Western officials say the prevailing options include changing the NATO mandate to protect observers, reactivating a former U.N. police mission or forming a coalition of foreign forces with permission to patrol by Macedonian authorities.
Each one, however, poses difficulties.
An extended NATO presence would require another exhaustive political debate in some member nations. The United Nations (news - web sites) could be highly reluctant to take on another peacekeeping commitment.
And any specially created force could raise fierce objections of foreign meddling from hard-liners in the Macedonian parliament.
Some Macedonian officials are openly encouraging some sort of long-term international contingent in the country.
``It is not taboo to think, `What next after Essential Harvest?''' said Macedonia's defense minister, Vlado Buckovski. ``We should be thinking about how to enable EU and OSCE monitors to enter rebel-held areas together with Macedonian forces.''
Western leaders also are starting to address concerns of instability after NATO's mission.
``Neither Europe nor the United States nor the other countries engaged in Macedonia can let this country down,'' said French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine on a visit to Macedonian on Monday.
Ethnic Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi has repeatedly begged for NATO to remain in some form as the community's best protection against government forces.
``If NATO stays then I'm an optimist. But if NATO withdraws, I'm a pessimist,'' he said. ``They would leave us in a very vulnerable position.''
Nato may extend Macedonia mission Posted September 3, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1523000/1523653.stm
Monday, 3 September, 2001, 17:23 GMT 18:23 UK
Nato may extend Macedonia mission
Mr Hoon is on a brief visit to Macedonia
UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has suggested that the Nato mission in Macedonia may last longer than the 30 days originally planned.
But Mr Hoon, speaking during a brief visit to the country, stressed this could only happen with the consent of the Macedonian Government.
"It's not only collecting weapons, it's also a political and constitutional process within Macedonia" - UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon
His remarks came as the Macedonian parliament resumed its debate on whether to accept proposals for resolving the seven-month conflict with ethnic Albanians.
Troops from several Nato countries who are supervising the collection of ethnic Albanian weapons are due to leave Macedonia by late September, if the mission is not extended.
They have so far collected more than one-third of the 3,300 weapons the rebels have agreed to hand over.
Parliamentary debate
Speaking to journalists, Mr Hoon said: "It is certainly possible" that the mission may continue beyond its current deadline.
Mr Andov had suspended debate in parliament
"The mission is for 30 days. Obviously what we want we to see as a result of that mission is confidence on both sides," he added.
"That will change the situation and in the meantime, clearly, we will be looking at what further steps might be necessary."
The parliament's discussions were suspended on Saturday by the parliament's speaker, Stojan Andov, sparking fears that moves towards peace could unravel.
Mr Andov stopped the parliamentary debate after a rebel roadblock near the country's second city, Tetovo, prevented a group of Macedonians from passing through.
Second phase
The resumption of debate was welcomed by Nato spokesman Mark Laity, who said that the second phase of weapons collection was due to resume once a vote was taken.
"I think an international presence to stabilise the situation in larger numbers than we have there now is probably essential in the near future" - US envoy James Pardew
But there were reports that only 63 of the 120 parliament members were present at the debate, and that many of those absent were from the main coalition partner, VMRO-DPMNE.
The party is led by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, who signed the peace deal.
US envoy to Macedonia James Pardew told the BBC on Monday the international presence in the country may have to be enlarged.
Protests
On Saturday, Mr Andov said the debate would only resume if there was an end to roadblocks by ethnic Albanians, and all 70,000 displaced Macedonians were allowed to return home within days.
Ethnic Albanian fighters are coming out into the open
Diplomats said they had told Mr Andov that the peace process could not stop and start after "every little incident in the field".
On Sunday, Mr Andov told a Macedonian TV station that he had received assurances from President Boris Trajkovski that his conditions would be met.
The first stage of the debate will end with a vote to decide whether the Macedonian parliament should consider constitutional changes that are meant to guarantee greater rights for the Albanian minority.
These include more participation in state institutions, and the adoption of Albanian as an official language in regions whose population is more than 20% ethnic Albanian.
Analysts say the parliament is likely to vote in favour of considering these proposals by a two-thirds majority on Tuesday or Wednesday.
But they are concerned that there may be further suspensions or hold-ups in the subsequent ratification process.
Slav paramilitary forces worry West Posted September 3, 2001
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001303638,00.html
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 03 2001
Slav paramilitary forces worry West
BY MICHAEL EVANS
THE build-up of two paramilitary-style Slav Macedonian forces is causing increasing alarm among Western diplomats in Skopje. One is an aggressively promoted official police unit called the Tigers and the other is an unauthorised body of former police and military reservists known as the Lions.
A huge video monitor in the centre of Skopje, urging young Macedonians to join the Interior Ministrys feared Tigers, serves as a daily warning to the West that, once Nato troops have left after their arms-collection mission, these highly trained men, alongside the unofficial Lions, also sponsored from within the same ministry, pose a potential threat to the peace settlement. Its these groups were worried about, not dissident Albanian rebels, one Western diplomatic source said.
The Tigers are a legitimate force, coming under the control of Risto Galevski, the Macedonian police chief, but the man who holds the real power over their activities is Ljube Boskovski, the hardline nationalist Interior Minister and former head of the secret services, who has openly talked of clearing out remaining Albanian rebels from occupied villages after Nato leaves.
He has also espoused the cause of the Lions, referring to them as noble citizens. The potential for trouble after Nato has gone is evident. There are reports of rebels from the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army handing over weapons, then being followed home and beaten up by assailants in ski masks.
Peace Plan Roadblock Removed in Macedonia Posted September 3, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/europe/04SKOP.htmlSEP 04, 2001
Peace Plan Roadblock Removed in Macedonia
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Sept. 3 The Macedonian Parliament resumed debate today about constitutional and political reforms that are crucial to the country's peace plan. A preliminary vote is expected on Tuesday.
In a phased process, ethnic Albanian rebels were to hand over a third of the 3,300 weapons they had agreed to surrender to NATO, followed by the initial action by Parliament. Once the package is passed on a first vote, the rebels are to hand over another third of the weapons.
The hard-line nationalist speaker of the Parliament, Stojan Andov, suspended the session on Saturday demanding guarantees that Macedonians displaced by the fighting be allowed to return home. He reconvened the session after intense pressure from the West and the intervention of President Boris Trajkovski.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski made a speech late this evening, advising Parliament to approve the bill and accept NATO's participation in the peace effort, although he expressed strong reservations.
The opposition of the governing party appears to be aimed at pleasing its nationalist core. But political analysts expect the bill to pass its first reading. The opposition Socialists and the two main Albanian parties, which took part in the peace negotiations, have said they will vote for the bill.
Vainly, Macedonians Plead for Wider NATO Role Posted September 3, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/03/international/europe/03MACE.html
September 3, 2001
Vainly, Macedonians Plead for Wider NATO Role
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
TETOVO, Macedonia, Sept. 2 One week into NATO's mission in Macedonia, there is a yawning gap between the expectations of civilians and the limited mission that NATO troops have set for themselves.
NATO insists that it has come here only to collect arms from ethnic Albanian rebels, who say they are putting down their weapons in return for greater rights from a mostly Slavic government. The mission, the alliance says, is not to protect civilians.
But when NATO soldiers traveled the dusty, mountainous roads of this Balkan country on Friday, they were beseeched by Albanian civilians for greater protection. And the soldiers of the world's most powerful military alliance insisted that there was little they could do.
The exchange came about when British soldiers in the NATO force came upon a roadblock in this tense corner of the country.
"Will you let us by?" a British officer asked the crowd of ethnic Albanians occupying the road.
"Tell the Macedonians to stop harassing us at their checkpoint, and we will take our roadblock down!" one shouted back.
"That's not our mission," the British officer replied quietly. "I will speak to the police, but that's all that I can do."
The Albanian barricade remained overnight, trapping a group of Macedonian refugees in the Albanian- dominated foothills and provoking a mini-crisis in the country's already superheated political scene.
Macedonia is contending with thousands of displaced people from months of fighting, bitter ethnic tensions and a government and police force that still cannot assert itself in rebel-held areas.
Ultimately, the answer to solving those troubles is supposed to lie in reform of the Macedonian police, including the hiring of ethnic Albanians.
But with NATO defining an already narrow mission narrowly, and the prospects for police reform uncertain, it is not clear when life in this tense corner of the country will return to normal and civilians will feel secure enough to travel freely.
Certainly, there is little trust now. In the villages northwest of Tetovo, ethnic Albanian civilians complain that Macedonian Slavs are blocking their trips to the city and occasionally arresting them for no reason.
While NATO is welcomed primarily by the Albanians, even some Macedonian Slavs say they need outside protection. Many Slavs have been generally critical of NATO. But they are outnumbered in the Tetovo region, and say the Macedonian authorities are unable to help them.
"Is there any chance that NATO will come here?" Tatyana, 54, asked plaintively at her home in Tearce.
There is, in fact, little chance that NATO will come.
When NATO sent some 4,500 troops to Macedonia, it set itself a single goal: the collection of 3,300 arms that ethnic Albanian rebels had promised to turn over within 30 days. Unlike neighboring Kosovo, NATO troops here do not protect civilian convoys or guard churches.
A machine-gun-armed British Land Rover working with the NATO force was positioned in Lesok, a village north of Tetovo, when hundreds of Macedonian Slavs made a pilgrimage last week to a bombed-out Orthodox church.
But senior NATO officials said that the British teams were in the area because it was near a weapons collection site and that Macedonian civilians should not expect the alliance's soldiers to oversee their activities in the future.
Nor does NATO consider that it has a responsibility to keep Macedonian's roads open.
"We don't have any role in the removal of the roadblocks," Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange, the Danish commander of the NATO force here, said in an interview. "That is the not our problem. I am here to collect arms that are voluntarily handed over."
Explaining their mission, NATO's officials say the collection of rebel arms will give the warring parties a chance to make peace; after that, it will be up to them to make the best of it. And Macedonia, NATO officials add, is a sovereign state, not a Western protectorate like Kosovo.
Perhaps more powerful is the alliance's fear of "mission creep" that it may gradually get bogged down in yet another Balkan conflict.
Western diplomats, however, also acknowledge that the peace effort here is still very fragile and that there is no one to provide security in some of the most volatile regions of the country, a role that no Western organization seems prepared to fill.
While a roadblock might seem to be a little thing, it is part of a broader emotional debate over the fate of refugees and Macedonian fears that their country will be partitioned.
Now that a political settlement seems possible, many Macedonian Slavs who fled their homes in the Tetovo region have returned to their villages, if only to pick up whatever belongings have not been destroyed or stolen and then leave again the same day.
They have no protection, although the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sends unarmed monitors along to discourage attacks.
A group of Macedonian Slavs accompanied by the monitors arrived on Friday without incident. But the Slavs were unable to return before the Albanians blocked the way back to Tetovo.
An Albanian flag was strung over the road. Women and children sat in the street. Men complained that ethnic Albanians were being harassed and sometimes even detained when they tried to go to town.
"NATO please help us," read a sign in English held by Albanian child. "We don't want to be in a ghetto."
Trapped, the Macedonian Slavs and their European escort spent the night on the wrong side of the Albanian blockade.
On Saturday, the Macedonian Parliament responded by suspending its debate on constitutional changes intended to a enhance the rights of ethnic Albanians, changes that are at the core of the political settlement between the Albanian rebels and the Macedonian authorities.
Then the Macedonian Slavs in Tetovo responded by erecting a new barricade of their own on the outskirts of town.
Trying to ease the tensions, the European organization and the Macedonian police eventually persuaded both sides to remove the barriers so that the refugees could leave. Parliament agreed to resume its deliberations on Monday.
But today the Macedonian roadblock was back, guarded by angry Slavs who say six of their relatives were abducted last month by Albanian rebels.
That has raised the very real prospect of a tit-for-tat roadblock war. The Albanians are threatening to trap the next group of Macedonian refugees who dares to venture to their homes north of Tetovo, Western officials say.
Nikola Bozinovsky, 60, is one of the few Macedonian Slavs who have moved back to Lesok, the town with the bombed-out church.
Mr. Bozinovsky said NATO had been of some help. After the Albanian rebels asked for the names of the Macedonian Slavs who had returned, a British officer went to inquire about the rebels' intentions. He returned with an assurance that the Slavs would not be harmed.
But there clearly is a limit to how much help Mr. Bozinovsky and other civilians expect from NATO troops. Mr. Bozinovsky said he would not try to make the 15-minute drive to Tetovo, explaining that he does not want to run an Albanian gantlet.
"I can't go to Tetovo," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't dare. We live here like Indians in a reservation."
Western diplomats try to re-start Macedonian peace debate Posted September 2, 2001
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010902/world/afp/Western_diplomats_try_to_re-start_Macedonian_peace_debate.html
Sunday, September 2 7:11 PM SGT
Western diplomats try to re-start Macedonian peace debate
SKOPJE, Sept 2 (AFP) -
Western diplomats were working hard Sunday to persuade the speaker of Macedonia's parliament to reconvene debate on implementing a peace accord to end the troubled state's seven-month ethnic Albanian uprising.
The session was suspended Saturday in a surprise move by speaker Stojan Andov, a powerful figure in Macedonian politics, who declared it would not resume until displaced people were allowed to return home and rebel fighters withdrew to positions they held in early July.
Officials from the European Union, the United States, Europe's OSCE security organisation and NATO shuttled to parliament for talks with Macedonian leaders and those meetings were continuing, diplomatic sources said.
While the diplomats insist the stalemate is a minor problem and should be resolved soon, there are some fears the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels could respond by not handing in their weapons.
NATO has a mission to collect 3,300 NLA arms by September 26. The alliance is to gather the weapons in three phases, with the first phase having already netted more than a third of the total.
The political process of implementing the framework peace agreement, which grants the rebels an amnesty and greater civil rights for ethnic Albanians, is operating in phases parallel to Operation Essential Harvest.
The parliamentary session, which began on Friday, was scheduled to run through the weekend with deputies voting on whether they would go ahead with plans to modify the constitution by about Tuesday.
NATO's second phase of collections is due to begin once that process is ratified by a two-thirds majority in the 120-seat assembly.
Alliance military spokesman Major Barry Johnson said Sunday that no plans had been made to change Task Force Harvest's mandate and that the mission was continuing as planned.
The US and European Union envoys to the Balkans vehemently rejected Andov's decision to hold up the process and place conditions on implementing the August 13 framework agreement.
"I told Andov last evening that his actions Saturday disrupted the democratic process and prevented a free and open debate in the parliament on issues important to Macedonian's future," US envoy James Pardew said Sunday.
Andov said that both envoys had agreed with his position on displaced Macedonians during their talks.
"We made no agreement on conditions and there are no conditions or linkages in the framework agreement," Pardew said.
"Of course refugees should return, but progess of the peace agreement including passage of the constitutional changes and the law of self government create the conditions to enable people to return to their homes," he said.
More than 125,000 have been displaced by the conflict since it began in February, according to the UN refugee agency, while a local organisation says some 67,000 Macedonians are still waiting to return home.
"Last night we urged Andov not to allow incidents in the field to disrupt a democratic debate and I urged him to resume the parliamentary debate immediately," Pardew said.
Late Saturday, EU envoy Francois Leotard said the accord "contains no written conditions and adding a new condition each day is a way to delay peace."
"We cannot have constant threats hanging over the NATO operation and a return to peace," Leotard said after meeting the Macedonian authorities.
"The only condition on this accord is a verbal one, and that concerns the weapons," Leotard said, underlining that NATO had accepted the principle of linking debate on the accord and collecting rebel arms in three phases.
"In the document signed on August 13, there is no other condition," he insisted.
Macedonia Peace Plan Stalled Posted September 2, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010902/ts/macedonia_576.html
Sunday September 2 12:44 PM ET
Macedonia Peace Plan Stalled
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's parliament speaker held firm Sunday against demands to reopen debate necessary to move along the peace effort with ethnic Albanian insurgents.
Pressure came from all sides: political foes in parliament and the Western architects of the accord for rebels to give up arms in exchange for greater ethnic Albanian rights.
But parliament speaker Stojan Andov gave no sign of relenting quietly. His demand - apparently backed by Macedonia's main political party - seeks a presidential guarantee that all those who fled fighting can return home safety.
President Boris Trajkovski gave Andov ``assurances that the existing problems would be overcome,'' a statement said. Trajkovski, however, did not offer the demanded guarantee.
It's a tall order, with up to 120,000 people displaced by the fighting, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Even clearing the latest impasse offers only short-term relief for backers of the deal to end the six-month-old rebellion.
The question before parliament now is only whether to move the process to the next step. The political quagmire is expected deepen as events move toward approving the wider political and language rights to the ethnic Albanians, who comprise about a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
The current limbo left the accord's supporters frustrated but not yet in panic. ``This type of political games do not surprise us,'' said a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A joint statement from European Union (news - web sites) envoy Francois Leotard and U.S. Balkan adviser James Pardew urged Andov ``to move the process forward immediately.''
NATO (news - web sites)'s ambassador to Macedonia, Hansjorg Eiff, warned of risks to the alliance's mission to collect 3,300 rebel weapons by late September. More than a third already have been surrendered.
Radmila Secerinska, a parliament member for the Social Democratic Union, described the debate freeze as ``small-minded political maneuvers to win political points.''
``Every day lost represents a huge danger for new incidents to break out,'' she said.
A firebomb early Sunday destroyed a teahouse in an ethnic Albanian district of Skopje, police said. Other bomb attacks damaged an ethnic Albanian house and a car belonging to a Macedonian company.
Two Macedonians from the northwestern village of Belovisite were kidnapped by ethnic Albanians, police said.
The Albanian National Army - a splinter group from the main rebel force - vowed it was still ready to fight.
``If the Macedonians want a war, they will have one,'' the group said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Macedonian politicians are embroiled in their own skirmishes in advance of general elections scheduled for January.
The parliament block was widely seen as face-saving bid by the main VMRO party, whose leader, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, signed the peace accord. But now he - and the party's 47 parliament members - must answer to a conservative base outraged by the perception that the ethnic Albanians won concessions through violence.
Trying to add side conditions, such as demanding the refugee return, is interpreted as a show of independence against NATO and Western leaders.
But it has rattled the entire peace process.
VMRO, which has the largest bloc in the 120-seat assembly, promised full support for the accord. Yet some members spoke against the deal before Andov suspended debate. Widespread defections could kill the pact aimed at halting another Balkan civil war.
NATO, too, is left in an unexpected corner.
The alliance had envisioned resuming weapons collection once parliament gave its overall backing to the accord. Now NATO could be forced to decide whether to move ahead to the second phase with no goodwill gesture from the Macedonians.
Outside the city of Tetovo, a commander of the main rebel National Liberation Army told The Associated Press that his fighters might be willing to surrender some more weapons without the parliament vote.
``We never expected the Macedonians to follow through with their bargains,'' said the commander, who goes by the name of Sokoli, or Falcon.
U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson, the NATO spokesman in Skopje, told the AP that the collection could resume if the rebels are ``willing and state that to us.''
Macedonia sets new peace conditions Posted September 1, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1520000/1520514.stm
Saturday, 1 September, 2001, 22:53 GMT 23:53 UK
Macedonia sets new peace conditions
Nato troops have not been well received
The speaker of parliament in Macedonia says new conditions must be met before parliament resumes a debate on a vital package of reforms to end the conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels.
Stojan Andov, a hardline nationalist, said all the people displaced by the fighting must be given guarantees that they can return home.
Mr Andov said debate could not continue
But the European Union's envoy, Francois Leotard, said the peace agreement contained no written conditions and said that adding new terms would only delay peace.
The West is trying to restore peace between the Macedonians and ethnic Albanian rebels after six months of fighting.
The Macedonian parliament suspended its discussion of greater rights for ethnic Albanians on Saturday, after a convoy of buses carrying displaced Macedonians was stopped by villagers in rebel-held territory.
Legislators 'cannot continue'
Mr Andov said at a news conference that legislators "cannot continue while terrorists continue to harass and block [Macedonian] refugees trying to return to their homes".
Nato hopes to be out in 30 days
The ethnic Albanians have now lifted their blockade but the political impasse continues.
Mr Andov said he wanted written guarantees that all displaced people would be able to return to their homes within 15 to 20 days. Only then would he reconvene parliament he said.
The parliament is due to debate reforms which would improve the position of the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia.
In exchange, ethnic Albanian rebels are surrendering a number of arms agreed by Nato.
Many Macedonians are opposed to the agreement because they say it rewards violence by Albanians.
The BBC's correspondent in Skopje, Jacky Rowland, says Mr Andov may be looking for a justification to stall the process.
Nato gathering arms
It is not clear what impact a protracted delay in the parliamentary session would have on the wider peace process.
Before the latest delays deputies said they would not vote the changes into law until Nato confirmed that ethnic Albanian rebels, who have been fighting the Macedonian army, had handed over all the arms they have undertaken to surrender.
Nato officials have collected about 1,500 weapons from Albanian rebels in the last week and they say they are prepared to continue their mission.
Rebel weapons include this captured tank
The Macedonian Government, however, says the rebels could possess as many as 60,000 weapons and some politicians claim the guerrillas have only handed over obsolete arms while hiding their more modern equipment in the mountains.
On Friday, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski urged deputies to implement the terms of the deal that brought six months of conflict to an end in August.
He said the agreement was not perfect "but it is the best thing we have right now".
The reforms include proposals to give greater rights to the ethnic Albanian minority, and they form part of an agreement to end fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
But the BBC correspondent in Skopje says the reforms are unpopular with many Macedonians.
Macedonia Assembly Halts Peace Debate, Cites Rebels Posted September 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010901/ts/balkans_macedonia_dc_2.html
Saturday September 1 12:11 PM ET
Macedonia Assembly Halts Peace Debate, Cites Rebels
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's parliament suspended crucial debate on a Western-sponsored peace plan on Saturday to protest at alleged intimidation by ethnic Albanian rebels preventing displaced Macedonians from returning to their homes.
An ethnic Albanian roadblock that marooned 350 Macedonians trying to revisit homes behind guerrilla lines overnight was lifted a few hours after parliament halted deliberations, Defense Ministry and Western liaison officials said.
There was no immediate indication whether parliament might reconvene as a result. But a Defense Ministry official said the cabinet led by moderate President Boris Trajkovski would meet shortly to see how to get the debate back on track.
The hold-up demonstrated how easily a controversial pact envisaging guerrilla disarmament for constitutional reforms benefiting Macedonia's Albanian minority could be derailed by deep ethnic enmity and mistrust on the ground.
Parliament speaker Stojan Andov said Macedonians trying to revisit or move back into homes along the main road from Tetovo were the constant prey of NLA militants.
Problems would cease if the rebels withdrew from the route as required by a demilitarization pact, he said.
``Yesterday parliament showed it is ready to debate and reach a decision. But that can not happen while there is terror against civilians because this will cause public outcry and humiliate parliament,'' Andov told a news conference.
Ethnic Albanians who had barricaded the road said they were only reacting to police brutality against their kin in government-controlled areas along the ill-defined front lines.
Legislators began discussing the peace plan on Friday but only six hours late, after riot police ousted nationalist protesters who had sealed off parliament in downtown Skopje over ``this sellout to Albanian terrorists.''
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas holding the northern hills have pledged to disband if parliament overhauls the constitution to improve the rights of their minority compatriots to education, public service and police jobs, and official use of their language.
NATO (news - web sites) COLLECTS 1,210 GUERRILLA GUNS IN DAYS
NATO said on Saturday the guerrilla National Liberation Army (NLA) had already surrendered 1,210 of 3,300 weapons targeted by an alliance force just a week into a 30-day mission in Macedonia overseeing voluntary disarmament of the rebels.
President Trajkovski, in a speech launching parliamentary deliberations, said Macedonia had no choice but to ratify the accord to avert catastrophic civil war and qualify for a place among modern, prosperous European nations.
Many Macedonians dislike the pact for appearing to reward secessionist violence and exposing Macedonia to partition by decentralizing power without severing potential rebel sources of re-supply across lawless borders with Kosovo and Albania.
To placate resentment, Trajkovski called for a U.N. security force to help police borders, a U.N. Security Council pledge to threaten force against guerrillas if they resurface, and a big Western financial aid package to compensate for ''broken promises'' after Macedonia sheltered 230,000 Kosovo war refugees in 1999.
Andov insisted parliament could not act in good conscience as long as Macedonians could not freely return to homes from which they were driven during six months of intermittent fighting.
``We could finish this session in two to three days if all goes well,'' he said, alluding to what had been expected to be a vote on Tuesday for a constitutional rewrite to be submitted for ratification as soon as NATO declares the NLA disarmed.
Andov rejected criticism that he was playing nationalist games to sabotage reforms.
``This is not to block, this is to unblock the process. This is pressure to create conditions for peace, for the process of constitutional change to begin.''
Radmila Sekerinska of the moderate SDSM party in Skopje's fragmented governing coalition did not agree. She said Andov's move was ``an obvious attempt to obstruct the work of parliament.
``These problems existed yesterday but that didn't stop the session and that makes today's alibi look really thin. Every day lost by parliament heightens the chances for those (hard-liners) who prefer that the war continue,'' she told Reuters.
The fate of the constitutional venture may rest on whether NATO can ease the suspicions of many Macedonians that the NLA will conceal the bulk of its arsenal to wage an undisguised separatist campaign later.
Government hard-liners blame NATO for failing to stamp out rampant Albanian arms smuggling and warn they will not enact reforms until they believe the NLA is truly a spent force.
NATO says arms collection, which it views as a success so far, will resume next week irrespective of events in parliament.
On Saturday it released a breakdown of its tally so far -- 944 assault rifles, 194 machine guns, 69 mortar and anti-tank weapons, three air defense systems, as well as 627 mines and grenades and 118,212 rounds of ammunition.
NATO has also hailed a new, steady migration of mostly unarmed rebels into neighboring Kosovo, a Yugoslav province under U.N. rule since NATO intervened to stop Serb repression of its Albanian majority in 1999, as proof the NLA is dissolving.
But few Macedonians believe the process can deliver lasting peace unless refugees are quickly resettled. Many demand the immediate return of state security forces to rebel-held zones.
Scores of people have been killed and more than 125,000 displaced in the conflict.
Macedonian parliament session delayed by protesters Posted August 31, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010831/1/1dygw.html
Friday August 31, 8:06 PM
Macedonian parliament session delayed by protesters
SKOPJE, Aug 31 (AFP) -
Macedonian nationalists opposed to a peace plan granting new rights to minority ethnic Albanians blocked entrances to parliament on Friday delaying debate on constitutional changes needed to implement the accord.
Up to 200 people, some bearing Macedonian flags and placards, were stopped from entering the assembly building by dozens of guards in helmets and flak jackets.
Some of the protesters tried to attack one unidentified official in the parliament car park. They kicked and struck his car as he sped away, smashing the vehicle's tail-lights.
The assembly issued a communique saying that the session, which was due to start at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Friday, would be pushed back to 4:00 pm, but it did not say if the protest was behind the delay.
Some of the demonstrators -- angry that the assembly would even discuss the Western-backed August 13 framework agreement aimed at ending the seven-month ethnic Albanian uprising -- had been in the area since Thursday.
Long traffic jams formed in downtown Skopje as security services blocked major roads leading to the building.
At a press conference a few hundred metres (yards) from the scene, NATO's senior civilian representative said he was confident the protesters did not speak for all Macedonians.
"I would not conclude from the fact that there is a demonstration going on that the public perception is... entirely negative," said German ambassador Hans-Joerg Eiff.
"There are certain parts of the public, certainly for whom this is not acceptable, who criticise it," Eiff said, adding: "I am confident that the authorities will find a way to assert the law in this case and will protect the parliament in the appropriate way."
NATO claims its mission to collect weapons from the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) has met its interim target of gathering one-third of rebel arms and that the politicians should respect their side of the agreement.
The deputies will debate implementing the accord over the next few days and are expected to vote on it early next week.
The accord envisages constitutional changes that will make Albanian an official language in some areas and provide more minority jobs in the police force and administrative posts.
It also grants an amnesty to rebels who demobilise and who would not be wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
A hefty two-thirds majority is required from the 116 deputies taking part for the agreement to be passed, but western diplomatic sources are reasonably confident that the four main parties will vote in favour.
"The four main parties, who together constitute about 90 percent of the members of parliament, have signed this document and so have undertaken an obligation to rally their parliamentarians to the cause," Eiff said.
"We would expect this to be a positive result," he said.
Of the four main parties, most of over 20 ethnic Albanian DPA and PDP representatives were certain to vote for the agreement. The Socialist Democrat SDSM, which holds some 25 seats, was also expected to support it.
Even a majority of the 43 nationalist VMRO-DPMNE of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski is thought to be willing to follow the party line and vote for the accord.
The six members of the more hardline VMRO-VMRO were certain to reject it.
EU Balkans envoy Francois Leotard was also cautiously optimistic, but warned of the consequences if the agreement is rejected.
"I remain confident in the sense of responsibility among the main leaders of this country, because they signed a political agreement a few days ago now," Leotard said.
"The question behind this vote is simple. If ever the Macedonians say no to peace, my feeling is that European public opinion could say no to Macedonia," he said.
Macedonian president urges MPs to implement peace accord Posted August 31, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010831/1/1dyph.html
Friday August 31, 11:53 PM
Macedonian president urges MPs to implement peace accord
SKOPJE, Aug 31 (AFP) -
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski called Friday for deputies to ratify a peace accord ending an ethnic Albanian uprising, saying the agreement is not perfect but "it is the best thing we have right now."
The parliamentary session to debate the accord got underway just after 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) following several hours of delay caused by some 200 protesters who blocked access to the assembly.
In an address to parliament as it began the session, Trajkovski said: "The agreement is not perfect, but no agreement ever is. It is the best thing we have right now and it does have many positive points."
Macedonia head backs peace deal Posted August 31, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1518000/1518067.stm
Friday, 31 August, 2001, 20:02 GMT 21:02 UK
Macedonia head backs peace deal
Nationalist protesters hold a bible outside parliament Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski has urged deputies at a historic parliamentary debate to ratify a peace accord.
He says the agreement is not perfect "but it is the best thing we have right now".
The debate got underway several hours late after huge crowds of angry protesters blocked entrances to the Macedonian parliament, preventing deputies from entering.
But riot police moved in and cleared a path to the door.
There are now about 80 of the nation's 116 parliamentarians inside the building and they have begun debating reforms seen as crucial to the peace process.
The reforms up for debate include proposals to give greater rights to the ethnic Albanian minority, and they form part of an agreement to end six months of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
Rebels unarmed
Meanwhile, the United Nations has announced that 140 Albanians who say they have left the Macedonian rebels have crossed into Kosovo.
UN spokesman Andrea Angelli said the men were unarmed and, because they held valid Macedonian passports, were not detained unlike a similar group last week.
Spokesmen of the K-For peacekeepers said it was a good sign if former rebels were leaving the combat zone.
Zehir Bekteshi from the ethnic Albanian Democratic Prosperity Party had to outrun a protester after being punched and kicked.
The BBC correspondent in Skopje says the reforms are unpopular with many Macedonians.
Deputies will not vote the changes into law until Nato confirms that ethnic Albanian rebels, who have been fighting the Macedonian army, have handed over all the arms they have undertaken to surrender.
No to Nato
Demonstrators shouted slogans and waved Macedonian flags and banners saying "Nato and USA - leave Macedonia within 48 hours" and "We demand the resignation of the whole government".
Under the peace accord, the Macedonian parliament should begin discussing the reforms once one third of rebel weapons had been handed over to Nato troops.
On Thursday, Nato said its forces had collected more than 1,400 weapons out of an agreed total figure of 3,300 in the first three days of its 30-day mission.
The Macedonian Government, however, says the rebels could possess as many as 60,000 weapons and some politicians claim the guerrillas have only handed over obsolete arms while hiding their more modern equipment in the mountains.
The BBC's Jacky Rowland in Skopje says strong international pressure and the votes of Albanian deputies will probably make parliament pass this initial hurdle, although plenty of other sticking points lie ahead.
Gunfire
The measures which are being debated include making Albanian an official language in some parts of the country, increasing the number of Albanians in the police force and granting greater autonomy to local governments in ethnic Albanian areas.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, on a one-day visit to Macedonia on Thursday, said he had won commitments to the reforms from the country's main political parties.
"One doesn't have to spell out the consequences of the alternative. The future of this agreement is in the hands of 116 members of the Macedonian parliament," he said.
Mr Straw's visit came amid reports of isolated outbreaks of gunfire, and an explosion in the Albanian quarter of Skopje - the fourth to hit the capital in as many days.
Macedonia Mob Threatens U.S. Medics Posted August 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010829/wl/macedonia_angry_at_nato_1.html
Wednesday August 29 3:12 PM ET
Macedonia Mob Threatens U.S. Medics
By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A mob apparently angry at NATO (news - web sites)'s role in Macedonia threatened U.S. medics as they treated a British soldier who was fatally injured this week when youths hurled pieces of concrete at his vehicle, the Americans said Wednesday.
The attackers remain unknown. However, Sunday's death of Ian Collins, the first casualty of the NATO mission here, occurred at a time when many Macedonians are angry at the alliance. Many believe NATO's mission to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas has deprived the Macedonian army of the opportunity to crush the insurgents once and for all.
Other Macedonians are angry that NATO never managed to cut off the flow of weapons to the rebels from Kosovo, which has been under NATO control for two years.
On Monday, NATO spokesmen announced that Collins, of Britain's 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers, had been fatally injured when someone hurled an object at his vehicle while he was traveling under an overpass on the main road between the northern city of Kumanovo and Skopje.
The NATO statement gave few details of the incident and did not identify those responsible. However, new details which emerged Wednesday in interviews with U.S. Army personnel who were at the scene suggested it was clearly an attack on a NATO soldier.
During interviews with The Associated Press, medics of the U.S. Army's 407 Ground Ambulance Company said a hostile crowd gathered behind them as they were trying to save the soldier's life.
One medic, Staff Sgt. Edna Flores of Morovis, Puerto Rico, described her 20-yard sprint to escape the mob as the longest moment of her life.
``On the way back I started thinking ... `Oh my God, where have I been?''' she said Wednesday.
The medics said they thought they were heading for a traffic accident when they responded to a call for help late Sunday. They were surprised to find the vehicle intact.
When they came around to the front of the vehicle, they found the windshield shattered and a British captain trying to assist his comrade.
Sgt. First Class Joseph Kaiser, 39, of Newport, R.I., Island started to work on Collins, while the others radioed information on his condition back to the hospital.
Flores noticed people coming from the shadows. She and her colleague, Sgt. Dencil Vargas, 28, of San Juan, Puerto Rico estimated the crowd numbered about 30.
Members of the crowd were making obscene gestures, shouting, waving their hands, yelling in a language the medics couldn't understand.
Nervous, they picked up Collins on a stretcher and headed back for the car. The run seemed forever.
``As I drove away,'' Flores said. ``I realized I was not safe.''
Anger at the alliance began building as the six-month old insurgency grew. Many began to blame NATO for failing to cut off the flow of rebel arms from neighboring Kosovo, widely believed to be a supply base for the militants.
Frustration surged in June after NATO evacuated ethnic Albanian rebels - and their weapons - from a village on the outskirts of the capital, Skopje. Macedonians rioted and accused the West of siding with the rebels.
Nowhere is this hard-line anti-NATO sentiment more clear than in the media, which is still largely state-controlled, and there's no better example than its coverage of Collins' death.
While NATO said Collins was struck by a flying projectile, Macedonian media suggested he may have died in some other way. Some reports said the incident was suspicious because NATO did not allow the vehicle to be photographed and waited for hours before announcing the death.
``We doubt the incident happened at all,'' an unnamed Interior Ministry official was quoted as saying by the country's major daily newspaper, Dnevnik.
Aware that its message of being the guarantor of the peace deal is not reaching the general public, NATO has taken out newspaper advertisements, featuring an explanation of the mission and photos of the two senior generals, smiling benevolently.
U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson, the NATO spokesman, has tried to meet with individual journalists and editors, but with mixed success.
``I've been very frustrated by the misinformation and the way the facts have been presented by the Macedonian media, which has seemed to allude that NATO has been less than forthright'' about the Collins case, Johnson said. ``In general, they will report the facts when they are presented to them, but the commentary that goes with it is notably anti-NATO.''
The anti-Western propaganda makes life that much tougher for the soldiers. The American medical team based at Camp Able Sentry no longer ventures into the capital, Skopje, to talk with colleagues at the hospital or look in on an orphanage they liked to visit.
But Flores and others in the unit insist they are determined to carry out their mission.
``There are a lot of people who want peace here,'' he said. ``We cannot turn our backs on them.''
NATO Boss Says Ball in Macedonia Parliament's Court Posted August 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010829/wl/balkans_macedonia_minister_dc_1.html
Wednesday August 29 4:18 PM ET
NATO Boss Says Ball in Macedonia Parliament's Court
By Andrew Gray
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites)'s secretary-general said on Wednesday it was now up to the Macedonian parliament to ratify a political agreement in exchange for ethnic Albanian rebels handing over some of their weapons to the alliance.
George Robertson told a news briefing at the end of a one-day visit to the former Yugoslav republic that disarmament going hand-in-hand with constitutional reform favoring the Albanian minority could avert another bloodbath in the Balkans.
``This country has the chance to show that it is possible to deal with an internal conflict before the blood starts to pour down the streets,'' he said.
Earlier in the day he traveled to the southern military base at Krivolak to inspect armory collected by the alliance from fighters of the National Liberation Army (NLA).
NATO has said it was pleased with the first three days of the mission, during which it aimed to have one third of a total of 3,300 NLA weapons so parliament could start tackling one third of its agenda on political reforms on Friday.
``They (weapons collection teams) have given me every confidence that we'll achieve the objective this week that was expected,'' NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson told Reuters.
Many Macedonians dispute NATO's weapons target, arguing that the NLA's real arsenal is many times larger and could be dusted off if the movement had grievances in the future.
``It is not just the number of weapons that matters,'' Robertson said in Krivolak, where some of over 750 arms surrendered by NLA fighters were laid out on a green tarpaulin.
``It is the fact that the so-called NLA is handing over these weapons and disbanding as an organization,'' he declared.
PARLIAMENT NOW IN FOCUS
Western diplomats say that parliament's adoption of reforms is far from guaranteed.
Many Macedonians accuse NATO of treating the rebels with kid gloves, despite the fact that they launched a six-month insurgency on Macedonian troops in February, bringing the tiny Balkan state of two million people close to civil war.
Hawkish Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski dismissed NATO's hopes that the NLA would disband permanently, and hinted at the kind of security crackdown the alliance fears will trigger a new wave of fighting once the mission is over.
``We have to act repressively, to show we are serious as a country and that we intend to disarm all those bandits that can upset the peace in Macedonia,'' he told Reuters in an interview.
Robertson urged the Macedonian parliament to keep its part of the bargain.
``NATO is continuing with its mission but it will be for the parliament of Macedonia over the weekend to start the ratification process of the political agreement,'' he said.
``In many ways that is the most critical aspect of what is before the people of Macedonia now.''
GERMANS FLY IN
Task Force Harvest, due to operate for 30 days only, has nearly 4,000 NATO soldiers on the ground in Macedonia.
Around 500 German troops were set to join the multinational force late on Wednesday after parliament gave the go-ahead in a vote in Berlin.
Acutely conscious of its militaristic past, Germany needs parliament to approve any mission.
Small NATO liaison teams spent last week making discreet contacts with rebel commanders to coerce them into laying down arms, paving the way for weapons collection sites to gather hundreds of assault rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and other hardware this week.
Wednesday's collection took place near the village of Tanuse on the Albanian border. Two Chinook helicopters flew into the rugged, wooded mountain terrain before reappearing shortly afterwards with a red container dangling below each.
Antonio Milosovski, the Macedonian government spokesman, said on Tuesday NATO's ``Essential Harvest'' disarming operation should be renamed ``Museum Harvest'' as the weapons collected would be nothing more than museum pieces.
Although many of the 350-odd arms, mainly Kalashnikov assault rifles, collected on Tuesday were in worse condition than those among Monday's haul of more than 400, Robertson said such disputes were missing the point.
``You can kill with old weapons just as you can with new weapons,'' he said. ``This is NATO on a mission here to collect and destroy weapons that have been part of the politics of Macedonia and take out the guns from politics.''
Tensions have risen to the surface in recent days as the peace process moves tentatively ahead.
An explosion went off at a school for Albanian children in the capital early on Wednesday, but nobody was hurt. A British soldier died after a cement block was thrown at his vehicle by a group of anti-NATO youths just outside Skopje on Sunday.
A Macedonian Hawk Vows to Extend Pursuit of Rebels Posted August 30, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/30/international/30MACE.html
August 30, 2001
A Macedonian Hawk Vows to Extend Pursuit of Rebels
By CARLOTTA GALL
Ljube Boskovski, Macedonia's interior minister, is taking a hard-line stance against ethnic Albanian rebels and wants to continue efforts to disarm them after NATO ends its operation to seize illegal weapons.
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Aug.29 Macedonia's interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, said today that NATO's operation to collect weapons from rebels was only a "symbolic disarmament," and he warned that his anti-terrorist police would seize any remaining illegal weapons as soon as NATO was finished with its 30-day mission.
While Mr. Boskovski promised to deal definitively with any continuing threats from the rebels, it was not clear if Macedonia's coalition government would ultimately take such action. Mr. Boskovski wields considerable influence in the government, particularly through his association with the prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, who shares his views.
But Mr. Boskovski, who is a founding member of the nationalist Macedonian party that leads the government coalition, also represents the hard-line faction within that coalition. Ultimately, the government might not go along with Mr. Boskovski's ideas as it tries to find common ground in carrying out a peace plan with the rebels.
Despite the government's backing of the peace plan, Mr. Boskovski and Mr. Georgievski have continued to criticize international efforts to head off a civil war here, and they have blamed the West for supporting the ethnic Albanian insurgents. They have also been seen to encourage anti-Albanian sentiment in Macedonia and among the police, which Mr. Boskovski, through his ministry, has the power to order into action.
Mr. Boskovski, 40, made it clear today that he would use that power to begin anti-terrorist operations against rebel bases after NATO finished its operation to disarm the insurgents.
"Basically we have to clear the field of weapons according to our laws," Mr. Boskovski said, "and take weapons away from those who illegally possess them. That would be done and is done by every democratic state, because weapons threaten the stability of democracy."
His comments, of course, were not expected to go down well with the rebels, or with NATO mediators, who have already complained that his hard-line positions have only complicated the peace process. A NATO task force of 4,500 troops is trying to help that process along by collecting 3,300 weapons in the next 30 days. NATO hopes that its operation will defuse tensions and end the rebel insurgency.
Mr. Boskovski is a hawk who has supported a military solution to the ethnic Albanian insurgency, and who has been accused of allowing his police forces to inflict violence on ethnic Albanian civilians. Human rights organizations and even government officials have criticized him for arming thousands of Macedonian Slav reservists, encouraging attacks on ethnic Albanian properties and the Macedonian Parliament, and organizing paramilitary units that, among other things, have hindered NATO troop movements around the country.
Mr. Boskovski's promise of further action against the rebels came as NATO's secretary general, Lord Robertson, was visiting Macedonia today to assess the NATO operation. Lord Robertson, who met with Mr. Boskovski, urged Macedonian politicians to adopt political changes that are a crucial part of the internationally mediated peace plan to end the six-month conflict.
After the meeting, Lord Robertson said that Mr. Boskovski had agreed to prevent any illegal paramilitary groups from operating in the country something the secretary general stressed was an important commitment.
In an interview today, Mr. Boskovski voiced support for President Boris Trajkovski's peace plan and for NATO's presence in Macedonia.
"There are no dilemmas regarding this issue," he said. But he said he would pursue the rebels "to the end," because, he said, they were set on creating a greater Albania and seizing control of territory from the government.
He expressed his distrust of NATO's special envoy in Macedonia, Pieter Feith, who has negotiated with the ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia and in Macedonia. He blamed Mr. Feith and the rebel leader, Ali Ahmeti, for failing to ensure that the July cease-fire agreement was observed by the rebels, and for allowing attacks on as many as 20 Macedonian Slav civilians in western Macedonia.
And one diplomat made it clear that Mr. Boskovski was not trusted, saying: "We are concerned about him and his stunts and tricks. There is a lot that could knock this thing off its tracks."
NATO Says Ahead of Schedule in Macedonia Mission Posted August 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010830/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc.html
Thursday August 30 7:45 AM ET
NATO Says Ahead of Schedule in Macedonia Mission
By Mike Collett-White
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) said on Thursday it was well ahead of schedule in its mission to collect weapons from rebels in Macedonia, and put the onus on parliament to start ratifying political reforms the guerrillas demand in return.
Major-General Gunnar Lange, the Danish commander of the operation, delivered a letter to President Boris Trajkovski confirming the total arsenal gathered so far from the National Liberation Army (NLA) ethnic Albanian guerrilla force.
``I have just handed in a letter to the president informing him that during the first phase of the Task Force Harvest mission, more than one third of the weapons being declared by the so-called NLA...now have been collected,'' Lange said.
``I really hope that this will contribute to the parliament process.''
NATO's 30-day mission to the former Yugoslav republic aims to collect 3,300 weapons from the NLA in return for constitutional changes favoring the ethnic Albanian minority.
A NATO spokesman said the alliance had gathered more than 1,400 weapons so far. It wanted to have 1,100 gathered by the end of the week so parliament could begin debating one third of the political reforms on Friday.
The NLA launched a six-month insurgency against Macedonian forces in February, raising the specter of another Balkans bloodbath. But the cease-fire and political agreement signed earlier this month raised hopes of a return to stability.
An explosion overnight in a mainly Albanian district of the capital Skopje and another blast outside the Albanian-majority town of Tetovo to the west underlined continuing tension.
Nobody was hurt in the Skopje blast and two people received superficial wounds in the Tetovo incident.
NATO PLEASED
The 1,400 weapons surrendered by the rebels are the fruits of weeks of planning and discreet contacts between alliance soldiers and NLA commanders deep in rebel-held territory.
``Within eight days we are at where we expected to be at about day 20 of this operation,'' NATO spokesman in Macedonia Major Barry Johnson told a news briefing.
Weapons collection would resume early next week, irrespective of events in parliament.
``We're conducting our planning for the future sites independent of anything that may happen politically,'' he said.
Johnson added that the 30-day program would not be cut short if the target number was reached early.
About two weeks after the first advance party of British soldiers, hundreds of NATO troops are still arriving by road and air each day to make up a total force of 4,500. Around 4,000 are on the ground.
The first German contingent arrived late on Wednesday after parliament in Berlin ratified the mission.
EYES TURN TO PARLIAMENT
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson visited Macedonia on Wednesday to inspect rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and mortars yielded by the NLA and to urge parliament to keep its side of the bargain.
``NATO is continuing with its mission, but it will be for the parliament of Macedonia over the weekend to start the ratification process of the political agreement,'' he said.
``In many ways that is the most critical aspect of what is before the people of Macedonia now.''
But parliamentary approval is far from guaranteed. Macedonians are deeply suspicious of the NLA and its promise to disband, and accuse NATO of treating the rebels with kid gloves. The alliance says it believes the NLA will permanently disband.
Some alliance officials privately agree with Macedonians who say the target of 3,300 weapons is nowhere near the full NLA arsenal and share local concerns that the rebels could take up arms at an instant if the political process snagged.
Hawkish Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said on Wednesday that the NLA would still be around after NATO pulled out.
``We have to act repressively, to show we are serious as a country and that we intend to disarm all those bandits that can upset the peace in Macedonia,'' he told Reuters in an interview.
It is exactly the kind of strong-arm tactics that NATO wants to avoid if and when it leaves after its lightning mission, fearing that it could trigger reprisals and an eventual return to a full-on rebel offensive.
But by defusing tension and through diplomatic shuttling, which includes a visit to Macedonia by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Thursday, the alliance believes it can tread the tightrope to a lasting solution to the crisis.
Satisfied NATO Says Onus on Macedonia's Parliament Posted August 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010829/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_402.html
Wednesday August 29 6:14 PM ET
Satisfied NATO Says Onus on Macedonia's Parliament
By Mike Collett-White
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) proclaimed itself satisfied with the first phase of its mission to Macedonia on Thursday, but urged parliament to start ratifying political concessions demanded by ethnic Albanian rebels.
Fighters of the National Liberation Army (NLA) have handed over hundreds of weapons to the alliance during the last three days in return for constitutional reforms granting the ethnic Albanian minority greater civil rights.
NATO officials said that ``Operation Essential Harvest'' had got at least close to hitting its target for the first three days of collecting one third of a total of 3,300 NLA arms.
In return NATO wants Macedonia's parliament to keep its side of the bargain by tackling one third of the agenda on controversial political reforms when it meets on Friday.
By keeping both the weapons collection and political process on track NATO hopes it can avert another bloody Balkans conflict fought on ethnic lines. Its mission is due to last just 30 days.
``NATO is continuing with its mission, but it will be for the parliament of Macedonia over the weekend to start the ratification process of the political agreement,'' NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said.
``In many ways that is the most critical aspect of what is before the people of Macedonia now,'' he told reporters late on Wednesday at the end of a one-day visit to the former Yugoslav republic of two million people.
But parliamentary approval is far from guaranteed. Macedonians are deeply suspicious of the NLA and its promise to disband, and accuse NATO of treating the rebels with kid gloves.
The NLA launched an insurgency against Macedonian forces in February which was to last for six months and bring the country to the brink of civil conflict. The rebels now control a crescent of territory in the north and northwest of the country.
NATO TROOPS STILL ARRIVING
About two weeks after the first advance party of British soldiers, hundreds of NATO troops are still arriving by road and air each day to make up a total force of 4,500.
The first German contingent was due in late on Wednesday after parliament in Berlin ratified the mission. Still deeply conscious of its militaristic past, Germany needs parliament to approve any foreign deployment.
NATO set up three weapons collection sites this week. The hundreds of assault rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and mortars they gathered were the fruits of discreet visits by alliance troops to rebel strongholds during the previous days.
Wednesday's collection took place near the remote village of Tanuse on the Albanian border. Two Chinook helicopters flew out of the area each carrying a large red container, presumably with the day's haul inside.
On Tuesday a motley crew of NLA fighters queued patiently outside a house to give in their weapons and walk away unarmed.
No more weapons will be collected until NATO has seen parliament's reaction to the first week's progress.
Alliance officials and Western diplomats privately admit the target of 3,300 weapons is nowhere near the full NLA arsenal, and they share Macedonians' concerns that the rebels could take up arms at an instant if the political process snagged.
Hawkish Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said on Wednesday that the NLA would still be around after NATO pulled out.
``We have to act repressively, to show we are serious as a country and that we intend to disarm all those bandits that can upset the peace in Macedonia,'' he told Reuters.
It is exactly the kind of strong-arm tactics that NATO wants to avoid if and when it leaves after its lightning mission, fearing that it could trigger reprisals and an eventual return to a full-on rebel offensive.
But by defusing tension and through diplomatic shuttling, which includes a visit to Macedonia by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw later on Thursday, the alliance believes it can tread the tightrope to a lasting solution to the crisis.