NLA Hands Over Eight Romanian Hostages To Red Cross Posted May 16, 2001
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NLA Hands Over Eight Romanian Hostages To Red Cross
May 16, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - Members of the National Liberation Army (NLA) handed over eight Romanian nationals to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which they captured four days ago in the village of Lojan, Red Cross officials reported Wednesday in Skopje.
After their release by the NLA, the eight illegal Romanians were deported to Romania through the territory of "Yugoslavia" after being prohibited to enter the territory of Macedonia for a period of one year, Macedonian authorities reported in Skopje.
The Romanian nationals were taken hostage on May 12 near the village of Lojan, a village near Macedonia's border with Serbia. The NLA captured them when they accidentally entered the territory controlled by them. They had intended to travel to Greece, said authorities in Macedonia. (ar)
The Population Is In Destiny's Hands, Says Likova's Prefect Hysamedin Halili Posted May 16, 2001
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The Population Is In Destiny's Hands, Says Likova's Prefect Hysamedin Halili
May 15, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - The humanitarian situation in the villages of Likova is alarming as there is no sufficient medication or food. Whereas, the villages of Hotel, Orizar and Slupcan were shelled for two hours Monday night, the head of the Likova municipality, Hysamedin Halili, said Tuesday.
Halili told KosovaLive Tuesday that the situation was very serious Monday night as Macedonian forces shelled the villages of Hotel, Orizar and Slupcan from 7 p.m. that last for two hours.
"The population is in the hands of destiny. We are trying to look at the situation closely and see if there are killed or wounded people, but we have no such information until now," Halili said.
According to Halili, the situation is calm at the moment and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been allowed to enter the villages. However, there are still no humanitarian caravans and the demands that the head of the municipality has made, still show no results. Halili hopes that after contacts with the Albanian political structures including the Democratic Party, the situation will change because, according to him, a humanitarian caravan was promised to arrive Wednesday.
The spokesman of the Macedonian army, Blagoja Markovski said in Skopje Tuesday that there were no serious provocations from Albanian armed groups in the region of Kumanova and Likova.
"Macedonian security forces are still in their fight positions, ready to respond to any incidents," Markovski said at a press conference.
According to Markovski, a visit of the Red Cross representatives is also announced for Tuesday in the villages of this region in order to give humanitarian help to the people.
During Monday's mission of the representatives of the Red Cross, 88 residents of Slupcan, Vaksinc, Lojan, Likova and Orizar were evacuated.
On the other hand, according to sources of the Macedonian army, explosions were heard in Tetova and its surrounding Tuesday around 10 a.m. which seemed to come from the Shari mountains from the direction of the Kobilica hills.
"The précising of the location of the explosion is being worked on," the spokesman of the Defense Ministry, Djordji Trendafilov, said Tuesday. (ar)
Skopje under pressure to keep truce in battle with Albanian rebels Posted May 16, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010516/1/pdow.html
Thursday May 17, 2:37 AM
Skopje under pressure to keep truce in battle with Albanian rebels
SKOPJE, May 16 (AFP) -
The international community on Wednesday urged Macedonia's new government of national unity to back down from a threat to launch an all out assault on ethnic Albanian rebels if they do not surrender.
On Tuesday the multi-ethnic coalition, set up to deal with the rebellion, demanded the rebels lay down their arms by midday (1000 GMT) Thursday or face attack.
But senior EU officials, fearing that civilian casualties in Albanian-populated villages held by the rebels would drive ethnic Albanian parties out of the new coalition, jetted into Skopje Wednesday to urge caution.
"We think the new coalition government gives a key message that the armed extremists and thugs that are trying to destroy the country are isolated. The NLA (guerrillas) must withdraw," said Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
"Of course the new goverment now has a heavy responsibilty to ensure that the military response will be proportional," she added, after she and EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten had met Macedonian leaders.
A western diplomat based in Skopje told AFP that foreign representatives were urging the government to forget the deadline, which has increased fears about the fate of more than 1,000 civilians trapped in frontline villages.
Aside from the risks to the civilians, who have been sheltering in cellars since Macedonian army tanks, helicopters and artillery started battering rebel positions on May 3, any renewed assault would have political fall-out.
Arben Xhaferi, leader of Macedonia's largest ethnic Albanian party, told AFP Wednesday: "I'm against this deadline. Flexing your muscles will do no good."
"If they are casualties among the civilians, it will be very difficult to continue this coalition," he warned, "We must be conscious that the civilians are not guilty, they are victims."
But Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said Skopje "will not allow the terrorists to win."
He insisted that the government forces have been ordered to avoid any risk to civilians, but warned that the troops would "deal decisively" with the guerrillas.
"We will not allow violent and undemocratic forces to act freely, to occupy territories and to govern them," Trajkovski said in a statement issued by his office.
"There is no need of violence and is time the extremists to lay down the weapons. All citizens can be represented through the new coalition," he said.
The unity coalition was formed at the weekend by the two main parties representing Macedonians and the two main ethnic Albanian groups, in a bid to present a united front to the rebels and prevent extremists exploiting ethnic tensions.
Were it to collapse, or lose its ethnic Albanian component, it would be seen as a disaster for the fragile ex-Yugoslav republic, which both local and international leaders have said is on the brink of civil war.
Radmila Severinska, vice-president of the mainly-Slav Social Democratic Union, said last minute talks were underway to find a solution to the crisis.
"That is being talked about both in the cabinet and the presidency. Their attempts will be to solve this by other means. They are trying to get the majority of the local population out of the area," she said.
Severinska's party is in favour of military action against the rebels, but she said the civilians must be protected.
She warned, however, that if the government let the deadline pass without some kind of action, it would appear weak.
The most fundamental disagreements between the two government partners are over whether to open talks with the rebels.
Xhaferi told AFP: "We must have some kind of communication with them, because they are actors in this crisis."
But Severinska said her party remained firmly opposed to this: "Then we would have lost everything, because then there is no politics, it will be seen that violence works."
Sporadic shelling and shooting erupted again Wednesday, with both sides blaming each other for provoking the fighting.
The rebels, led by former commanders from the Kosovo Liberation Army, claim to be fighting for the rights of Macedonia's Albanian minority.
The government has branded them "terrorists" bent on destabilising the state, and Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski angered Albanian leaders even as they agreed to join his coalition by calling the rebels "a cruel enemy who must be crushed."
Two weeks ago a strong guerrilla force fighting under the name of the National Liberation Army (NLA) took control of a 400-square-kilometre (150-square-mile) swathe of territory, including a dozen villages, in hills just north of Skopje.
More than 1,000 civilians are thought to be trapped in the five villages closest to the fighting, and Red Cross officials say conditions in the overcrowded cellars in which they are sheltering are deteriorating.
Trajkovski appealed for civilians "to leave the zone of conflicts," promising the move would be "only temporary."
"Your security is our primary concern," Trajkovski said.
A.XHAFERI: THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO TALK TO NLA Posted May 15, 2001
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A.XHAFERI: THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO TALK TO NLA
Skopje, 15 May 2001 (CHOM)
NLA's enrolling in the process of negotiations is of crucial importance for the total stability in Macedonia, declared the President of DPA, Arbën Xhaferi. NLA is definetely an important factor and Albanians in Macedonia favor NLA's enrolling in the negotiating proccess for the future of Macedonia; but, in these conselations something like that is energeticaly being refused by Macedonians and the International Community.
FOUR INDIVIDUALS DIED DUE TO THE LACK OF MEDICATION Posted May 15, 2001
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FOUR INDIVIDUALS DIED DUE TO THE LACK OF MEDICATION
Skopje, 15 May 2001 (CHOM)
Over 500 inhabitants of the village Slupcan are in need of medical treatment, stated doctor Fatmir Asani adding that the most needed supplies at the moment are the antibiotics and drinking water. He appealed to the International Humanitarian Organizastions to be pertinacious with the Macedonian Authorities and insist to visit the war- affected villages. "Dead animals can be seen lying all around the villages; and, we do not dare to take them away as we are constantly aimed by Macedonian sneipers", he said
Macedonia tries again for difficult unity Posted May 15, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/05/15/fp6s2-csm.shtml
Macedonia tries again for difficult unity
The fragile coalition government formed on Sunday faces big demands, little patience.
By Arie Farnam
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
SKOPJE, MACEDONIA
Macedonia is clutching at a tenuous second chance for peace, in the two-month-old conflict between ethnic-Albanian rebels and the Macedonian Army.
On Sunday, Parliament ratified a fragile unity government, which many observers say is the country's last hope to avoid civil war in a region where ethnic insurgencies and territorial claims threaten to touch off wider conflict.
Even so, it almost didn't happen.
Just minutes before the vote, an angry debate raged in the offices of the Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP), the opposition ethnic-Albanian party that presented the main stumbling block to formation of the coalition.
TOUGH MATCH: Ethnic Albanians play chess beside a wall bearing the initials of the Party of Democratic Prosperity, a crucial ally in Macedonia's new government. PHOTO BY JULIE DENESHA
Analysts regard the party as the political wing of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA), which controls 11 villages in the northwest of the country.
"The PDP holds the keys to stability in this part of the Balkans," says Sam Vaknin, an analyst for Central European Review and United Press International. The relationship between the PDP and the NLA "is very akin to the relationship between [Northern Ireland's] Sinn Fein and the IRA. If the PDP were left out of the coalition, it would be proof positive to the less sophisticated elements of the Albanian community that the Macedonians are not ready for compromise."
But the party is wracked by internal disputes, and its politically weak leader, Imeri Imeri, is suffering from severe health problems.
On Sunday, after the shouts had subsided to a murmur of discontent, it was a smiling Azis Polozhani, the party vice president, who emerged to announce: "We have decided to give peace a last chance."
Mr. Polozhani, who has become the public face of the PDP during Mr. Imeri's illness, said, "This is probably the last opportunity to solve the interethnic problem through democratic institutions, and we must take it."
The governing Macedonian VMRO-PMNE party and its partner, the Democratic Party of Albanians, were joined by the Macedonian Liberals and Social Democrats a week ago. The PDP initially refused to join the coalition, demanding a cease-fire as a precondition to negotiations.
Yesterday, the Macedonian Army reportedly called a temporary halt to its assault on rebel-held villages near the northern city of Kumanovo, giving civilians until 8 p.m. to leave. Heavy shelling was reported in the area on Saturday.
Polozhani pushed to bring the PDP into the governing coalition over the objections of more radical elements.
A surgeon from the southern town of Struga, Polozhani likes to present himself as an accidental politician, but a civil rights activist at heart. He claims he and his party have no control over the NLA, but admits that he sympathizes with the rebels' struggle.
"I appreciate their sacrifice for Albanian rights," he says. "The demands of the rebels are the same issues we have been bringing to the Macedonian Parliament for 10 years, and nothing happened until they took up arms."
AZIS POLOZHANI: Wants a cease-fire, talks with rebels. PHOTO BY JULIE DENESHA
Polozhani says he believes the NLA would end its insurgency if four main demands are met: first, for Albanian to become an official state language in schools, Parliament, and other state institutions; second, a publicly funded Albanian-language university; and third, proportional employment in the public sector for ethnic-Albanians, who comprise 1/3 of Macedonia's 2 million inhabitants but hold only 4 percent of the state jobs.
The rebels' most contentious demand is a constitutional change that would make Albanians a "founding nation" of the state, along with Macedonian Slavs. Many Macedonians see this as paramount to a declaration of independence by ethnic-Albanian areas in western Macedonia.
Polozhani rejects the idea of secession, and not even the NLA has called for autonomy or independence, unlike the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Yugoslav security forces during the Kosovo crisis two years ago.
Polozhani is now lobbying for a bilateral cease-fire and talks between the new coalition and the NLA. It's a suggestion Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, who has called called the NLA a "terrorist organization," has rejected repeatedly in the past.
Polozhani says the PDP finally joined the government largely because NATO and European Union leaders promised him a quick resolution of ethnic-Albanian grievances.
"There needs to be a cease-fire in the next few days, otherwise the dialogue will break down," warns Iso Rusi, editor in chief of the Albanian political magazine Lobi. "The positions of the parties in the coalition are often complete opposites, and none show signs of giving ground."
Even as prospects for peace improved slightly in Macedonia, the most violent clashes in weeks were reported in southern Serbia, along the border with NATO-run Kosovo. Two people were reported killed Sunday in fighting between Serbian police and ethnic-Albanian rebels near Presevo.
Two Friends Stand Against Forces Dividing Macedonia Posted May 15, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27028-2001May15.html
Two Friends Stand Against Forces Dividing Macedonia
Ethnic Leaders Try to Persuade Compatriots to Get Along
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 15, 2001; Page A12
KUMANOVO, Macedonia -- Less than 20 miles northwest of here, Slobodan Kovacevski's ethnic kin in the Macedonian army for the past week have been furiously fighting Feriz Dervishi's ethnic kin in a guerrilla army.
But in Kumanovo's city hall, a long friendship and professional collaboration between the two men are helping promote peace and tolerance. Sitting together, they work the phones and plot strategy toward their mutual goal of keeping their country from splitting apart.
Kovacevski, a member of the Slav majority, steps outside briefly during a joint meeting with a reporter to make sure that Dervishi, an ethnic Albanian, can speak freely. Dervishi speaks well of Kovacevski, in Albanian, then politely switches to Macedonian the instant Kovacevski returns.
In a nation filled with quarrelsome, angry citizens slowly being pulled into opposing ethnic camps by a guerrilla rebellion, Kovacevski and Dervishi are a small ray of hope, a counterpoint to the image of a state at war with itself. The stocky and energetic Kovacevski is the mayor of this ethnically mixed city of 70,000; Dervishi, a smartly dressed man, is the head of its inter-ethnic relations commission.
"We really have great cooperation," says Dervishi.
Since the rebellion ignited in February in a border village 15 miles from here, they have conferred daily, often at a cafe, and then they have carried urgent messages to their respective constituencies. The traditions of Macedonian society make it counterproductive for them to spread the word together.
Dervishi's chief plea to ethnic Albanian adults is to be patient and stop their children from enlisting in the guerrilla army. Kovacevski's talks with Macedonian Slavs emphasize the difference between average ethnic Albanians and those he calls terrorists; he also condemns vigilante attacks like those that gutted dozens of ethnic Albanian shops in the southern city of Bitola on May 1 and left them covered with spray-painted swastikas.
Kumanovo, though close to the fighting in the hills, has remained quiet. "Everybody thought Kumanovo would be a disaster," says Dervishi, who also runs a taxi and ambulance service. "But the population itself [still] likes to live together."
Both Dervishi, 50, and Kovacevski, 52, graduated from a local high school where ethnic Albanians and Slavs still attend class together. They met as each rose to the top local ranks of their respective, ethnically based political parties. Now their families sit together for coffee, with each man fielding a stream of mobile phone calls in his own language.
Theirs is a daunting struggle after more than 80 days of intermittent clashes. Despite wide understanding that ethnic war would bring immense suffering, despite strong Western pressure on the Slavs to redress grievances of the Albanian minority, despite a political breakthrough Friday with the creation of a new "unity government" encompassing both ethnic groups, Macedonia's condition seems more precarious each day.
Like road signs on a highway to hell, small and potentially irreversible changes in Macedonia's villages and towns are already obvious.
Here in Kumanovo, a curfew takes effect at 10 p.m. and many shops -- especially ethnic Albanian ones -- are padlocked even during normal business hours. As in Jerusalem, hourly news broadcasts now often bring cafe conversation to a halt.
Most industry is at a standstill, as key workers have moved from ethnically mixed towns like this one to "pure" ones, or left Macedonia altogether. Some Slavs say they no longer frequent ethnic Albanian shops, and vice versa. Many ethnic Albanians say they can no longer stomach the bias of the principal Slav newspaper.
The municipal buildings now have sandbag bunkers at their entryways. The few pedestrians on the streets hurry, with their heads down and their eyes alert, as if looking for escape. Checkpoints have been established on roads leading toward the fighting; the army reservists manning them grumpily search cars and rough up occupants before sending them back where they came from.
Refugees from outlying villages are beginning to fill apartments vacated by others, the bow wave of a potentially massive population shift like those accompanying other Balkan wars. "If one village gets evacuated, then another one next to them thinks it should happen to them," says Kovacevski. "What I don't like is that it goes like a chain."
He spoke just hours after all 750 residents of the nearby village of Cerkez had fled in fear, following the organized evacuation of Lopata, a village of 800 Slavs and 2,000 ethnic Albanians who became alarmed by the sound of gunfire.
Widespread poverty in Macedonia's post-communist economy helps provide a breeding ground for hate, officials say. The average wage is no more than $150 a month; unemployment rates outside a few large cities can exceed 60 percent. Many in the Slav majority, whose fortunes were closely tied to failed state businesses, resent the wealth of many members of the ethnic Albanian minority, which became more entrepreneurial after being shut out of state jobs and also receives income from relatives abroad.
"People who don't have much to lose are much more likely to become radicals," said Saso Klekovski, director of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, a humanitarian group.
Macedonia was a republic of the former Yugoslavia, but broke away peacefully in 1991. The country has "been an ethnic model for the region since its founding," said U.S. Ambassador M. Michael Einik. He added that while one could argue about "the quality of the model," Western governments nonetheless consider its rescue urgent.
Although the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia and Croatia dissolved headlong into ethnic war in the early '90s, Macedonia has resisted this disaster. In the Bitola riot, it "walked to the edge and came back," Einik said. "The legitimate [political] leadership does not want to lead its parties into war. They are nervous and concerned, but don't want to kill each other."
Tellingly, most of the vigilante violence of the past two months has occurred in neighborhoods or towns with only one ethnic group instead of mixed ones, a contrast with Kosovo after the 1999 war. Extremism is mostly increasing where residents have less experience with diversity, said Klekovski.
Western officials say one urgent task is to give moderate ethnic Albanians more opportunities to broadcast a message of peace. State-run TV here now broadcasts just four hours a day in the Albanian language; European Union officials are helping to establish a separate all-Albanian channel.
Ethnic Albanians have also demanded a larger share of government jobs, which are still regarded here as sinecures. But this poses a serious challenge, since the bloated government is trying to downsize and officials fear a backlash if some Slavs are fired to make way for ethnic Albanians.
Albanians want increased use of their language by government, a task closely related to the jobs issue, and official recognition of an underground, Albanian-language university in the western city of Tetovo.
None of these demands is new. "The rebellion is a reflection of . . . what the community has wanted for years and years," said Selajdin Musliu, an Albanian who is also a member of the Kumanovo inter-ethnic committee. Interviewed in the besieged town of Slupcane, a rebel fighter agreed. "This was not prepared in one or two months. We have been thinking about this for the past 10 to 15 years."
A spokesman for the prime minister predicted yesterday that laws supporting the decentralization of government and wider use of the Albanian language could be approved by the end of June. But Nikola Dimitrov, the president's national security adviser, says he fears the two principal ethnic Albanian political parties "want to build a state of two nations, with two official languages, and two groups in a confederal democracy. Our conception is a state of individuals."
His idea seems a tougher sell each passing day. Kovacevski and Dervishi nonetheless soldier on. Not long ago, they settled a thorny dispute over public funding for an ethnic Albanian graveyard, showing that cooperation is possible even on the most sensitive of issues.
Kovacevski was on the phone with the police chief last week to try to get one full-time officer stationed at every vehicle checkpoint. He hopes that will reduce the frequency with which army reservists beat up ethnic Albanian civilians; it may also reduce army looting of evacuated towns.
He acknowledges that "there are people saying, 'Let's finish with Albanians, this is the time' " -- a phrase that means either all-out war or their expulsion from the country. At a meeting with Slav municipal leaders last week in the former headquarters of the Communist Party's central committee, "people were concerned, they were worried, they were scared," he said.
"I told them Albanians are their neighbors and in the future they will still live together," he said. "That's why Macedonians should be careful and responsible for their behavior."
Macedonia rebels given 'final warning' Posted May 15, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1331000/1331884.stm
Tuesday, 15 May, 2001, 13:35 GMT 14:35 UK
Macedonia rebels given 'final warning'
Macedonia's new government of national unity has ordered ethnic Albanian rebels to end their uprising by Friday, or risk a major military assault.
The government said the ultimatum - ordering the rebels to lay down their arms or leave the country - was a final warning.
This is the last deadline we are giving to the civilians to leave the villages and the terrorists to leave their positions - Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski
The deadline is the first decisive move against the rebels by the new government, which includes two ethnic Albanian parties.
The new administration - formed only last Thursday after days of wrangling - is attempting to stop the country being sucked into a civil war by the rebel campaign.
"This is the last deadline we are giving to the civilians to leave the villages and the terrorists to leave their positions," said government spokesman Antonio Milosovski.
"After this we will take adequate measures to finally eliminate the threat," he said.
The fighting has sent thousands fleeing to Kosovo
Mr Milosovski said that in the meantime, security forces would not launch any fresh offensives, but they would respond "if provoked".
Macedonian forces have been shelling and firing on several rebel-held villages for the past fortnight, leaving thousands of civilians trapped.
Around 9,000 other civilians have fled across the border into neighbouring Kosovo.
The Macedonian army said it had killed 30 rebels during a massive operation on Saturday, but the militants have denied losing any fighters.
The rebels have so far insisted they will keep fighting
The new government's ultimatum comes a day after Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said he would crack down on the rebels, saying a "frontal assault" was under consideration.
BBC correspondents say the new government faces a difficult task in persuading the rebels to withdraw without more bloodshed, while striking a deal to improve relations between Macedonia's ethnic communities and preparing for new elections.
Macedonia's new defence minister, Vlado Buckovski, confirming that a policeman had been injured in a rebel attack, warned that instant peace was not likely.
"We must not bear any illusions that such attacks will halt overnight," Mr Buckovski said.
"The new government has no magic wand but we will work painstakingly to solve our country's problems."
Xhaferi Hopes New Government Will Create Contacts With NLA Posted May 15, 2001
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Xhaferi Hopes New Government Will Create Contacts With NLA
May 14, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - The leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) in Macedonia, Arben Xhaferi, expressed hope that the new government will find ways to make contact with political representatives of the National Liberation Army (NLA).
"Because responsibility is a mainly personal category, I feel personally responsible for the situation and until we bring peace to the country I will continue to feel a burden regarding all the happenings in Macedonia," Xhaferi said after the meeting of the Parliament, which selected the government of political unity.
Asked if he is convinced that the forming of the new government will bring stability and if there is a time limit until stability is secured, Xhaferi said, "it is possible that we won't have success but it is the only solution in our hands with which the international community and other factors in the country agree with. Nobody had a more clever solution than this coalition made today."
Regarding the comment as to why there is pessimism toward the achievement of stability by the government, Xhaferi said, "I did not say that we will not have success, but even if there was a hypothetic possibility to not achieve success, there still are no other possibilities except for the voting we did. It must certainly be this way, and all political parties should take their part of responsibility and pull Macedonia out from this situation of war," Xhaferi said.
Asked to comment the statement of the National Liberation Army for not accepting the new government in Macedonia and their demand to take part in the future talks regarding the Albanian status or otherwise they would not accept the results of the talks, Xhaferi said that it is most crucial for Macedonia to engage in negotiations in order to bring completely stability to the country.
The NLA, said Xhaferi, is by all means a very important factor and the Albanian subject in Macedonia wants to include the NLA in the negotiation process, meanwhile this is strongly opposed by the Macedonian side and the international community. (ar)
MACEDONIAN FORCES DO NOT ALLOW HUMANITARIAN HELP Posted May 14, 2001
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MACEDONIAN FORCES DO NOT ALLOW HUMANITARIAN HELP
Skopje, 14 May 2001 (CHOM)
Macedonian Army did not give permission to the humanitarian caravan to enter the war effected regions. The spokesperson of the MA said that the amount of medications and food was larger than it was declared to be. At the same time, the secretary of the Humanitarian Organisation “El Hilal”, Behixhudin Shehapi, stated that this is not true and that the permission was denied so that the Albanians were not given the elementary food & medication supplies.
THE VILLAGE SLUPÇAN FACING A HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHY Posted May 14, 2001
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THE VILLAGE SLUPÇAN FACING A HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHY
Skopje, 14 May 2001 (CHOM)
The number of wounded civilians has grown in the last bombings. Some of the wounded civilians, that were helped by the humanitarian workers and were being taken to the hospital in Kumanovo have been arrasted by the Macedonian security forces, instead of being treated in the hospital.
”I would have rather remained wounded in my basement than asked for medical help”, declared H. S. from Slupcan
ALBANIAN CIVILIANS DO NOT CONSIDER THE PLEADS TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES Posted May 14, 2001
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ALBANIAN CIVILIANS DO NOT CONSIDER THE PLEADS TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES
Skopje, 14 May 2001 (CHOM)
The villagers of Likovo, Slupcan, Vaksince, Orizare and Hotel will remain in their basements regardless the outcome, stated the Mayor of Likovo, Husamedin Halili, denoncing the spokesperson of the Macedonian Army, Blagoja Markovski who had stated that Albanians “are held as a human shield by NLA". Inhabitants of these villages don't even consider the possibility of leaving their centuries-old parental homes, said Mr. Halili
Macedonia Endorses Unity Posted May 14, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010514/wl/macedonia.html
Monday May 14 7:25 AM ET
Macedonia Endorses Unity
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's Parliament has approved a coalition designed to ease ethnic strife and violence, but clashes that raged as the lawmakers convened suggested the multiparty Cabinet will not guarantee an end to fighting with rebels.
After hesitation by a party representing ethnic Albanians, Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a ``national unity government'' that represents both majority Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority.
As the lawmakers gathered for the vote Sunday, ethnic Albanian rebels attacked government positions in two northern villages and government troops retaliated with artillery and tanks in clashes that lasted nearly five hours, the army said.
In Brussels on Monday, European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers stressed their support for those seeking peace, condemning what they called ``new acts of terrorist violence'' in northern Macedonia as ``utterly unacceptable.''
``The purpose of these attacks is to provoke the government of (Macedonia) into a full-scale war,'' the EU ministers said in a statement. They called on the government to exercise the maximum restraint and to avoid civilian casualties.
The EU and NATO (news - web sites) fear the conflict in Macedonia, surrounded by countries with historical claims on its territory, could spread into a regional war in the Balkans.
The coalition Cabinet will comprise 14 ministers and four deputy prime ministers. A total of 104 lawmakers voted for the new government, one voted against it and four abstained.
The coalition includes the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, two ethnic Albanian parties - the Democratic Party of Albanians and the Party for Democratic Prosperity - the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia, and three other Slav parties.
``Under the circumstances, this government is the best we could get so we can move out of the crisis, said Mersal Biljali, a leader of the Party for Democratic Prosperity, which hesitated to join almost to the last minute.
``All other solutions would lead to disaster,'' he said.
But some leaders were doubtful about the prospects for a permanent resolution of Macedonia's problems.
``Such a 'grand coalition' will postpone difficulties and won't bring any solutions,'' said Jordan Boskov, a lawmaker from the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party.
For most of Sunday, Macedonia's army and police halted their assault on rebel positions in the north, but Col. Blagoja Markovski said that rebel forces attacked government troops later in the day near the villages of Slupcane and Orizare and the army fired back.
Macedonia has been struggling to contain the ethnic Albanian insurgency, which began in February, subsided in late March and flared again two weeks ago after rebels killed eight government soldiers in an ambush.
Ethnic Albanian rebels are demanding equal rights with the majority Slavs and are calling for the constitution to be changed.
The militants of the National Liberation Army, who have not been invited to the bargaining table, say the changes are a basic step to empowering Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who account for as much as one-third of the country's population of 2 million.
Macedonia coalition gets to work Posted May 14, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1327000/1327815.stm
Monday, 14 May, 2001, 06:14 GMT 07:14 UK
Macedonia coalition gets to work
Hostilities resumed as parliament voted
A new government of national unity in Macedonia is due to begin efforts on Monday to end the ethnic Albanian insurrection which has led to heavy fighting in the north of the country.
The parliament in Skopje overwhelmingly endorsed Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski's new government, which includes the two main parties of the ethnic Albanian minority.
A BBC correspondent in Skopje says the main task of the new administration will be to restore peace to a country teetering on the brink of civil war.
Ljupco Georgievski: "Rebels must be crushed"
But he says the government faces a difficult task in persuading the rebels to withdraw without more bloodshed, while striking a deal to improve relations between Macedonia's ethnic communities and preparing for new elections.
Deputies voted 104-to-one in favour of the new government. There were four abstentions.
The parliamentary approval vote was delayed by several hours after one of the Albanian parties - the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) - said it was opposed to harsh language used by Mr Georgievski when submitting his cabinet before deputies.
Fiery speech
In his speech, Mr Georgievski said the ethnic Albanian rebels were a "cruel enemy that had to be crushed".
The prime minister said: "The Republic of Macedonia is facing a difficult test, perhaps the most difficult since the proclamation of independence.
The rebels have pledged to continue fighting
"We shall make maximum preparations - political, organisational, military and financial - to crush the force of this dangerous enemy whose activities our state has to endure."
The BBC's Nick Thorpe says the PDP, which reluctantly agreed to join the government under intense international pressure, was clearly upset by Mr Georgievski's language.
The party said it was the speech of a party leader, not of a man leading a whole nation in a time of crisis.
Ahead of the session, the Macedonian army stopped shelling villages where the militants were believed to be positioned. But heavy exchanges subsequently resumed.
Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski told reporters that the rebels had attacked government troops later in the day near the villages of Slupcane and Orizare and the army had fired back, using heavy artillery and tanks.
There were no casualties on the Macedonian side. There has been no word from the rebels of the National Liberation Army.
The spokesman said hostilities had ceased by the evening.
The Macedonian army said it had killed 30 rebels during a massive operation on Saturday, but the militants have denied losing any fighters.
Macedonia Rebels Deny Claim of 30 Dead Posted May 13, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-macedon.html?searchpv=reuters
May 13, 2001
Macedonia Rebels Deny Claim of 30 Dead
By REUTERS
SKOPJE - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas in northern Macedonia on Sunday dismissed an army claim to have killed about 30 of the rebels, saying it was untrue.
``We haven't had a scratch,'' a guerrilla spokesman called Commander Hoxha told Reuters by telephone from the rebel-held area west of the city of Kumanovo.
``This is a lie,'' he added. ``Although they have heavy weapons they haven't managed to come even close to our positions.''
Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said on Saturday that about 30 insurgents had been killed in a ``massive operation'' involving tanks, artillery and helicopters.
Three tanks were seen firing.
Markovski said the army struck twice at ``columns'' of guerrillas near the villages of Slupcane and Vakcince, two villages that government forces have been bombarding for the past 10 days without advancing any significant distance.
``We don't give them the opportunity to inflict that many casualties on us,'' Hoxha said. The National Liberation Army, armed mainly with Kalashnikov rifles, machineguns and light mortars, has lost one man killed four days ago, he added.
``Our morale is extremely high. All we lack is tanks and helicopters,'' the guerrilla spokesman said.
On Sunday, Macedonian police prevented Reuters from entering the area to see the situation in the villages and talk to the guerrillas, insisting it was not safe although the NLA itself encourages reporters to visit.
The Macedonian parliament was due later on Sunday to ratify a new government of national unity, encompassing all main political parties including the two major ethnic Albanian groups, one of which is calling for a cease-fire.
Despite government appeals to them to leave their homes and seek safety in Macedonia or across the border in Kosovo, many civilians remain in the rebel-held villages crammed into sandbagged shelters and living on dwindling food supplies.
The government says they are being held against their will as human shields to prevent an all-out army assault. Civilians have told reporters they do not want to leave their homes and are afraid of the Macedonian army and police.
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
Macedonia Halts Assault on Rebels Posted May 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010513/8/p395.html
Sunday May 13, 8:28 PM
Macedonia Halts Assault on Rebels
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's army and police halted their assault on ethnic Albanian rebel positions Sunday ahead of a parliament session called to approve a new national unity government.
In a fresh effort to contain the budding ethnic Albanian insurgency, the Macedonian parliament was scheduled to meet Sunday afternoon to endorse a new, all-party multiethnic government.
Formation of the national unity Cabinet in Macedonia is a major development. Backers hope the new Cabinet will help bridge ethnic divisions and unite political forces in finding a negotiated solution to the crisis.
Hours before the session, last-minute negotiations were under way on the composition of the future Cabinet. The current prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, is likely to keep his post, but his foreign minister has been replaced.
The government deal was reached Friday after an ethnic Albanian party dropped its objections. The Party of Democratic Prosperity had demanded that the government first halt its push against the rebels.
The party's spokesman, Zehir Bekteshi, said Sunday that PDP will hold the ministries of justice and local self-rule in the new Cabinet, as well as one of the vice-premier positions.
``If everyone in this coalition takes its part of responsibility, it will have the capacity to help overcome the crisis in the country,'' Bekteshi told The Associated Press.
In a sign of goodwill, the Macedonian army would show restraint Sunday in its offensive against the rebels in the north, military spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
Markovski said the rebel-held north was quiet overnight and Sunday morning following a strong government push against the insurgents one day earlier.
Machine-gun, rocket and tank fire shook the villages of Vaksince and Slupcane on Saturday. Markovski claimed the rebels suffered heavy losses, but refused to confirm reports that more than 30 of them were killed.
Ethnic Albanian rebels are demanding equal rights with the majority Slavs, and are calling for the constitution to be changed. The militants of the National Liberation Army say the changes are a basic step to empowering Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up as much as one-third of the country's 2 million people.
The rebels themselves, however, were not invited to the bargaining table. The government refuses to negotiate with the militants, describing them as terrorists bent on carving up Macedonia to create a separate country.
Thousands of people from northern villages have been streaming from the area of the fighting and into Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian-majority province in neighboring Yugoslavia.
About 9,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanian women, children and old men, have fled across the border since Monday, the U.N. refugee agency said.
In Skopje, Amanda Williamson, the spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said civilians who remain in the fighting area need water and food.
Macedonian government under pressure from outset as fighting continues Posted May 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010513/1/p37f.html
Sunday May 13, 7:08 PM
Macedonian government under pressure from outset as fighting continues
SKOPJE, May 13 (AFP) -
Macedonia's new government of national unity was under early pressure Sunday as fighting continued between the army and ethnic Albanian guerrillas and a key party in the coalition warned it could collapse.
Parliament was to meet Sunday to approve Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's new ruling coalition, set up in a bid to prevent Macedonia slipping into civil war, but cracks had already begun to appear in its united front.
Muhamed Halili, secretary general of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), said that he was "not very optimistic" about the future of the government his party was about to join.
"I think it's our last hope, we have to try," he said.
Georgievski formed the government in a bid to isolate ethnic Albanian guerrillas who burst onto the scene in March and have since seized a string of villages in the north of Macedonia and killed at least 10 troops and police.
Under international pressure to pull his country back from the brink of civil war, he agreed to begin "intense political dialogue" with elected parties on ethnic Albanian demands for greater constitutional rights.
But the government has consistently rejected calls for direct talks with the guerrillas, which it brands "terrorists". The Macedonian army has been bombarding rebel-held villages in the north of the country for 10 days.
"We knew that they would continue fighting and we are sending them a message that we will continue fighting as well. We have no other alternative. Macedonia is facing a brutal aggression," Georgievski said.
"The new government is being created in order to deal with this situation. The goal of the new government is to provide stability to the country," he said, in a televised address.
On Saturday, army officers spoke of killing "several" guerrillas in the bombardment, and defence ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said that tank and artillery shells had "destroyed a terrorist group".
Sporadic shelling continued Sunday, state television reported.
Georgievski said that the decision by both major ethnic Albanian parties to work with his mainly Macedonian Slav government exposed the guerrillas as extremists without outside support.
"With this large coalition we clearly say that dialogue can take place only through institutions. We know the attitude of the extremists gathered inside NLA, which is rejected by two Albanian political parties," he said.
But just hours before his PDP was to be voted into the government, Halili repeated his call for the rebels to be included in negotiations.
"The problem cannot be solved without them," he told AFP.
The rebels themselves have dismissed the coalition as irrelevant and condemned the PDP and the larger Democratic Party of Albanians for taking part.
"The government will not calm the situation. The coalition will bring nothing. Nothing will change, the combat will continue," Commander Hoxha, one of the rebels' leaders, told AFP.
The renewed fighting has increased fears for the safety of thousands of ethnic Albanian civilians trapped in the dozen villages situated in the 400 square kilometre (150 square mile) zone in rebel hands.
Trendafilov said that the army was taking care to only "destroy selected targets" and said that no offensive would be launched to retake the villages while civilians remained in danger.
Western analysts believe the NLA has mobilised around 800 fighters, many of them veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla group which in 1998 launched an armed rebellion against Yugoslav rule in the southern Serbian province.
Albanian guerrillas [NLA] denied the loss of 30 rebelsMacedonia parties haggle over emergency unity government Posted May 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010513/3/p360.html
Sunday May 13, 6:35 PM
Macedonia parties haggle over emergency unity government
By Benet Koleka
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonian politicians haggled over top jobs in an emergency all-party government on Sunday while in the northern hills ethnic Albanian guerrillas denied the loss of 30 rebels to army tank and artillery fire.
A rebel spokesman dismissed army claims that about 30 fighters had been killed in a blitz of rebel-held villages on Saturday. The attack followed a three-day-long lull to facilitate a coalition deal seen as the best defence against possible civil war.
"We haven't had a scratch," a spokesman called Commander Hoxha told Reuters by telephone from the conflict zone about 30 km (20 miles) northeast of the Macedonian capital Skopje.
"This is a lie," he said. "Although they have heavy weapons they haven't managed to come even close to our positions."
Leaders of Macedonia's main political parties met to hammer out the composition of a new government designed to answer the longstanding grievances of the one-third Albanian minority.
Parliament is due to convene at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) to ratify the coalition, which was conceived under heavy Western pressure in an effort isolate the ethnic Albanian gunmen and prevent the conflict degenerating into a wider Balkan war.
MILITARY STALEMATE
Despite battering a cluster of rebel-controlled hamlets for the past 10 days, the Macedonian army has failed to advance any significant distance. It says the continued presence of civilians in the villages stops it moving in to retake the area.
The Red Cross, which warns of ever-worsening conditions in the basements where villagers cower as shells shatter their homes, hopes to take them food, medicines and blankets soon.
"We are on standby to go to the villages which were shelled yesterday but we need security guarantees on both sides and so far we have none," Red Cross spokeswoman Amanda Williamson said.
The army's four elderly Soviet-built tanks were silent on Sunday morning after Saturday's assault, described by army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski as a "massive operation".
But the National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas, armed mainly with Kalashnikov rifles, machineguns and light mortars, say they have lost one just one man, killed four days ago.
"We don't give them the opportunity to inflict that many casualties on us," rebel spokesman Hoxha said. "Our morale is extremely high. All we lack is tanks and helicopters."
NEW GOVERNMENT, SAME PROBLEM
The continuing skirmishing with the NLA puts the new government, and the inter-ethnic relations it is supposed to improve, under more pressure. One of its two Albanian parties, which wanted a ceasefire before signing up, was angry that shelling resumed soon after a deal was struck on Friday.
"We are in constant contact with Western diplomats and the government to urge them to stop the offensive," said Zahir Bekteshi, a spokesman for the ethnic Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP).
"That was the point of us joining the coalition."
One-third of ministers in the government will be new, state news agency MIA quoted Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski as saying. Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim, a member of the small Liberal party, has already offered to resign to make way.
Parliament is also scheduled to ratify a decision to postpone a new census of Macedonia's two million people until October 15, by which time the coalition is due to have passed laws to rebalance ethnic relations.
The census, which Albanians say will show they are a much bigger ethnic group than officially recognised, was due in May.
Although the new government's main aim is to pass laws ending perceived discrimination against Albanians in jobs, education, language rights and the wording of the constitution, the other top priority is to defeat the NLA, Georgievski said.
"Macedonia faces a brutal aggression," he said, reiterating the government's view that the rebels were imported from Albanian guerrilla groups in neighbouring Kosovo and Serbia.
Four Albanian Citizens Maltreated By Macedonian Police In Qafe Thana Posted May 12, 2001
http://www.kosovalive.com/english/english.htm
Four Albanian Citizens Maltreated By Macedonian Police In Qafe Thana
May 12, 2001
TIRANA (KosovaLive) - Macedonian police returned four Albanian citizens from the border checkpoint of Qafa Thane to Pogradec, while mistreating the passengers.
Festim Osmani, 31, Hekuran Mucina 18, Pellumb and Shpend Salaj, 36 and 24, all four of them villagers of the Trebisht (Bulqize) were forced by Macedonian police to return to their village, around 10:24 Saturday, informed the media official sources of the Ministry for Public Order.
With orderly Macedonian visas, these four persons had crossed the Albanian-Macedonian border around 16:00 o'clock Friday. They were stopped, insulted and threatened by some Macedonian soldiers, and later physically maltreated, according to the official sources from the department.
Signs of physical mistreatment were found in almost all parts of the body in all of the four Albanians following the medical examination (ap)
Albanians Mixed on Macedonian Coalition Outlook Posted May 12, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010511/wl/macedonia_dc_18.html
Friday May 11 6:41 PM ET
Albanians Mixed on Macedonian Coalition Outlook
By Daniel Simpson
SKOPJE (Reuters) - In the decade since Macedonia's independence it has been ruled by two coalitions of Slav and Albanian parties. This weekend it gets its third, an all-party affair seen as the best defense against the threat of civil war.
Ask the Albanians playing chess in a Skopje park if the new government can end a stalemate in inter-ethnic relations soured by a guerrilla rebellion and you hear a typically Balkan answer.
Yes and no.
The coalition deal struck on Friday under intense Western pressure aims to isolate ethnic Albanian gunmen by forcing parties to unite and pass laws which answer the long-standing grievances of Macedonia's one-third Albanian minority.
Unemployed men gathered in Cair Park to while away a hot day hope the politicians they distrust will surprise them with quick results. But dig deeper and their sympathies lie with the rebels whose guns have pushed political leaders into each others arms.
``No one wants a war,'' said a 53-year-old called Niazi. ``But we cannot endure being oppressed and we have to fight back.''
National Liberation Army guerrillas, dug in near the capital Skopje, say the deal is irrelevant because it fails to include them. The NLA has popped up along the mountainous Kosovo border repeatedly since February and few expect it to disappear now.
``They are not going to get a place at the negotiating table,'' a senior Western diplomat said. ``It will be a critical 48 hours because their recent record shows the NLA may try to do something dramatic and violent in a bid to divide the society.''
Ordinary Albanians, who want a new constitution to declare them equal citizens and an end to discrimination in education, jobs and language rights, oppose violence but not its influence.
``The NLA is indispensable,'' said Rami, 60, as he planned his next chess move. ``If this new government does not deliver more than empty promises then we will see the NLA back again.''
FOREIGN HELP
NATO (news - web sites), the United States and the European Union (news - web sites) have piled on the pressure to try and avoid just that, fearing armed conflict could ignite a wider Balkan war. The coalition has until October to deliver the goods before early elections next year.
The alternative is the bloodshed which Macedonia escaped when it broke from Yugoslavia in 1991, unlike its neighbors.
``Macedonia has been one of the most privileged states in the Balkans but political short-sightedness could destroy it,'' warned an editorial in the Albanian language newspaper Flaka.
With both Macedonia's Albanian parties in the government, it will be less dominated by the two-thirds Slav majority.
But Albanians believe that only Western support, if necessary even on the scale given to their ethnic brethren in Kosovo when NATO intervened against Serb oppression in 1999, can help.
``We can live together with Slavs under the conditions the U.S. and Europe have urged them to give us,'' said a 36-year-old called Emin. ``Without foreign pressure it will not happen.''
Diplomatic and financial aid are likely, but the West's only military help has been to advise the army how to defeat the NLA.
Given the links the guerrillas are believed to have with other armed Albanian groups in the region, that is a tough task.
Macedonia's army, which scaled down a nine-day blitz of rebel-held villages to help facilitate a coalition deal, resumed shelling on Friday night and is now expected to try and reoccupy the hills 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Skopje taken by the NLA.
But much of the area's largely Albanian civilian population, which the NLA denies using as ``human shields,'' remains.
The NLA may be isolated, but it still has to be dealt with. And that challenge can only raise the pressure on the coalition and the deep inter-ethnic distrust it is designed to address.