Interview with Hysni Shaqiri, former DPA MP, now an ordinary soldier of the National Liberation Army Posted April 2, 2001
FAKTI 02 April 2001
Interview with Hysni Shaqiri, former DPA MP, now an ordinary soldier of the National Liberation Army
NLA SHOULD ALSO PARTICIPATE IN NEGOTIATIONS
Q: How is the situation on the field after the last attacks of the Macedonian Army and Police forces?
A: We are well organized. The military discipline of the National liberation Army is on a high level. We are monitoring the situation in case of an eventual provocation by the Macedonian army and police forces, to which we can respond. However, for the time being we are cautious as NLA itself is interested in solving the problems through political means, in case our demands underlined in our Communiqué Nr. 6 are accepted.
Q: Is the ceasefire declared by NLA still effective, or you have already taken a different stand?
A: It is still effective for the time being and our forces are present in most of the vicinities in Macedonia that are populated by ethnic Albanians. Nevertheless, I repeat, we are willing to solve the problems in a political way. Therefore we insist on the unconditional opening of a dialogue.
Q: The Government says there are about to complete the cleansing of the terrain from the, as they call you, ‘Albanian terrorists’. What is your opinion regarding such claims?
A: The Government can say whatever they want to, this might even be their wishful thinking. But one thing is for sure and that is that what they say is not true, as NLA is strong. The fact that many volunteers are joining our ranks every day clearly speaks about something different.
Q: Would NLA demand to participate at the eventual negotiations?
A: I think that it would be in the best interests of the Albanians in Macedonia if NLA sends own representatives…
Q: And how would NLA join those negotiations? A: The Macedonian side should deal with that. If they want stability and long lasting peace, they should deal with the military side starting from this moment, as everything depends on that.
Q: Have you prepared any political platform that you would present to the internal and international political factors?
A: Nothing can be done without having a political platform. That is in the competences of the NLA Political directorate.
Q: Are you included in that Directorate?
A: No, Those are the aspects that are related to our military program. I would do my best to offer my contribution wherever it is needed and my engagement would be within NLA, that is to say on the first front lines. I have joined NLA as a soldier and I demand to stay as a soldier.
Q: Despite the similarities between the demands presented by both NLA and the political parties, do you intend to unify them entirely?
A: It is not true that our demands are identical with those of the political parties. Facts point out to something different, and that is that so far the political parties, in which I was included as well, had not managed to implement the standings that were included in our party programs, which kept only a declarative form, but nothing specific had been achieved.
Q: Have you contacted the political parties and requested from them to unify their demands?
A: We are open to all. If we are willing to open a dialogue with the Government of Macedonia, the most certainly we stand ready to talk to our political parties, as they came from our people, the same people from which even NLA has originated from.
Q: Are you contacting relevant international factors?
A: For the time being we had few contacts, which I believe would continue in days to come.
Q: Could you tell us who are those international factors?
A: We asked them not to publicize our contacts for the time being.
Q: What is the true role of Ali Ahmeti in your ranks?
A: Ali Ahmeti is working within NLA. I think he holds a deserved position and he stands engaged as any other Albanian. Of course, he might have a higher responsibility due to the fact that he is playing an extraordinarily important role.
Q: Are we talking to Hysni Shaqiri the MP or to one of the NLA commanders?
A: You had been talking to Hysni Shaqiri, an ordinary soldier of the National Liberation Army. I have given up my MP position and my seat in the DPA central presidency. Now I am only an NLA member.
SKOPJE COURT FREED ALABANINS ACCUSED IN HARACINA CASE Posted April 2, 2001
SKOPJE COURT FREED ALABANINS ACCUSED IN HARACINA CASE
Balkanreport.com - April 2, 2001
Shkupi district court closed its work today and released the six accused ethnic Albanians, previously accused of killing three policeman on January 2000.
Judge Orovcanec explained that the decision was taken due 'to absence of strong arguments against the accused".
Defense attorneys wellcomed the decision and praised the Court. "This is a glimpse of hope that the judicial system of Macedonia has finally giving signs of becoming indpendent," defense atorney Numan limani stated.
Macedonian government under political fire as fighting stops Posted April 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010402/1/lu1e.html
Monday April 2, 7:50 PM
Macedonian government under political fire as fighting stops
SKOPJE, April 2 (AFP) -
Fighting on Macedonia's northern border had died down on Monday, but the government faced a political battle in responding to ethnic Albanian demands for equality without appearing pressured into making concessions.
The government faces a choice between taking a tough line on the Albanian demands, which would risk breaking up the coalition and provoking further fighting with armed rebels, and making concessions, which would play into hands of an opposition eager for signs of weakness.
Opposition leaders have called for members of the country's Slav majority to take to the streets to oppose concessions to the Albanians, some of whom joined a three-week armed rebellion which brought the country to the brink of civil war.
But the international community, in the form of visiting EU foreign policy chiefs Javier Solana and Chris Patten, is expected to press for a negotiated settlement to the dispute.
President Boris Trajkovski was to bring together the heads of all 11 political parties, both Albanian and Macedonian Slav, represented in parliament to thrash out differences ahead of Solana's arrival Monday.
Faced with Macedonia's gravest crisis since the former Yugoslav republic won independence in 1991, 44-year-old Trajkovski and the coalition are attempting to find a settlement without appearing to back down to foreign pressure or guerrilla violence, a western analyst said
No clashes between security forces and Albanian rebels have been reported since Saturday.
Former prime minister Branko Crvenkovski has urged that his Social Democrats (SDSM) be included in the coalition, which would give Macedonian interests a working parliamentary majority. He called on Slavs to take to the streets to support his demand.
The leader of the Albanian party in the government, Arben Xhaferi of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), told AFP that the SDSM wanted to make political mileage out of what was an ethnic issue.
"They want to replace the focus of the debate for the international community. But the essential problem is still ethnic, the political problem is not essential in Macedonia," he said.
Leaders of the DPA met with fellow minority coalition members the Liberal Party late Sunday, before making a joint statement vowing to seek a solution through "the institutions of the Republic of Macedonia".
Liberal leader Risto Gusterov accused Crvenkovski's Social Democrats of using "revolutionary pressure" to force their way into government.
"The political parties in the government have the capacity and knowledge to continue until the next legislative elections," he said after the meeting.
But if Gusterov is happy to work with the DPA to preserve the government, he gave no hint that his party may be prepared to make any concession on the central Albanian demand for national status under the constitution.
"We are not opposing the improvement of civil rights for all the people of Macedonia," he said, adding that any calls for constitutional changes to accord Albanians equal status should be debated in parliament.
Solana and Patten, the European commissioner for external affairs, were due to arrive in Skopje at around 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) for talks with the government and political leaders.
It is the high representative for foreign and security policy's fourth visit to Macedonia since mid-March when the international community mobilised to prevent the country falling into bloody civil war.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson, who gave the government's apparently successful counter-offensive against the rebels his full support, is expected to visit Skopje on Tuesday.
Macedonia Starts Talks, Albanian Party Boycotts Posted April 2, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010402/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_3.html
Monday April 2 9:16 AM ET
Macedonia Starts Talks, Albanian Party Boycotts
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's political leaders opened talks on Monday to address the Balkan country's ethnic tensions but the meeting was boycotted by the main ethnic Albanian opposition party.
European Union (news - web sites) security chief Javier Solana was due in the capital Skopje later to support efforts to tackle the grievances of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, which fueled a month-long insurgency.
President Boris Trajkovski invited leaders of all political parties to the talks, but the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) refused to send a representative, saying the meeting was ''badly organized.''
``The PDP thinks that this unofficial meeting is intended to daze the international community into believing that some talks are taking place in Macedonia and that dialogue continues,'' PDP spokesman Zahir Bekteshi told Reuters.
``We want the meetings to be well prepared with a definite agenda and we want international mediation.''
The EU has ruled out playing the role of mediator and Solana's spokesman Cristina Gallach told Reuters on Sunday his visit was aimed at ``reinvigorating'' the political process.
Solana was to be accompanied by European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten.
Fight For Rights
Macedonia's one-third ethnic Albanian minority complains of second-class treatment and a small guerrilla army took to the northern hills last month to fight for greater rights.
The fragile coalition government led by Slav Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski held together during the fighting.
But key coalition partner Arben Xhaferi, leader of the main ethnic Albanian party, says he will quit the government if his community's demands are not met soon.
Xhaferi sent his deputy, Menduh Thaci, to the talks.
Ethnic Albanians want to change the constitution, which names Macedonian Slavs as the primary nation, and have called for greater language rights and decentralization of government.
But Slav leaders fear a backlash from their own constituency if they concede too much.
The Macedonian army said last week that it had completed its operation to drive out rebels from their hillside hideouts.
But residents of the village of Tearce, close to the border with the U.N.-governed Yugoslav province of Kosovo, said they had heard a volley of heavy machine-gun fire early on Monday.
Alarmed by the prospect of another major conflict in the Balkans, Europe has offered greater links with the EU and increased aid as a reward for making progress toward ethnic reconciliation.
Slav and Albanian government leaders have been invited to Luxembourg on April 9 to sign a Stabilization and Association agreement, which is viewed as the first step toward EU membership.
But Xhaferi says he will not attend unless genuine negotiations on the demands of ethnic Albanians are under way.
With one eye on the EU, Macedonia prepares for talks with its Albanians Posted April 2, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,466877,00.html
With one eye on the EU, Macedonia prepares for talks with its Albanians
Ian Black in Brussels
Monday April 2, 2001
The Guardian
Macedonia is to begin a broad political dialogue with the leaders of its Albanian community in response to the European Union's attempt to defuse the country's crisis, it emerged at the weekend.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, who is holding talks in Skopje today, is expecting to see a "Europe committee" or "round table" designed to resolve the country's bitter inter-ethnic differences and pave the way for a EU-Macedonian agreement next week.
Mr Solana and the EU's commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten, are due to meet President Boris Trajkovski, opposition leaders and leaders of the Albanian parties.
President Trajkovski is said to be ready to join an all-party dialogue and to revise parts of the constitution to take into account Albanian sensitivities, after the weeks of fighting between Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
In return Brussels is offering a "stabilisation and association agreement", to be signed by foreign ministers in Luxembourg a week today, the first step towards EU membership for the tiny former Yugoslav republic.
Croatia is the only other Balkan state promised such a deal, at last November's Zagreb summit.
EU leaders, well placed sources said, bluntly told President Trajkovski in Stockholm last weekend to exercise restraint while fighting the ethnic Albanian UCK (national liberation army) rebels in the hills above the northern city of Tetovo.
"You have to keep the moderate Albanians on board and isolate the extremists," he was warned. "Any action which could undermine this goal would be a mistake."
Macedonia says it has now completed the military operation to drive the insurgents out of their mountain hideouts and across the border into UN-governed Kosovo.
"We have accomplished the goal of driving out the terrorists with minimum casualties," the prime minister, Ljubco Georgievski, said on Saturday.
"It was a text-book operation and was praised by the international community for its precision and efficiency."
The EU sees the successful resolution of the Macedonian military operation as due in part to the coherence of its foreign policy and a close working relationship with Nato, despite anger in Skopje that Nato has been lax in policing the Kosovo border.
Mr Solana also coordinated policy with the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and is urging him to visit Skopje.
But the feeling is that, at a time of disarray in Washington, this is a Balkan crisis in which Europe can finally take the lead.
Lord Roberston, the Nato secretary general, will meet Mr Solana this morning in Brussels to discuss the issue.
A peaceful solution is far from assured, however. Macedonian opposition groups have angrily criticised the government's readiness to meet EU demands. The main ethnic Albanian leader, Arben Xhaferi, a key partner in the fragile coalition government, has threatened to quit if his community's demands are not met within a month - leaving men with guns to fight for Albanian rights.
Mr Georgievski and other politicians of the ethnic majority are wary of a nationalist backlash from their own constituencies if they concede too much.
For this reason Brussels has presented inter-ethnic dialogue as an integral part of the path to EU membership rather than a concession to violence.
Ethnic Albanians form as much as a third of Macedonia's 2.2m population and say they are discriminated against in education, employment and politics.
EU sources say that rewriting the country's constitution is a key demand, but it is not clear whether the parties are prepared to do that.
Under pressure from the EU, the two sides are being asked to achieve within a few weeks what they have failed to do in the 10 years since independence from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991.
Mistrust runs deep and ethnic Albanian politicians accuse their Slav colleagues of repeatedly failing to keep their promises.
The Slavs, however, say the Albanians keep shifting the goalposts.
On Friday, Nato-led peacekeepers detained 30 men of "military age", some of them armed, along the hilly and wooded border between Kosovo and Macedonia.
Press-Releas: EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL CITIZENS OF FYR OF MACEDONIA: ALL CITIZENS EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW Posted April 2, 2001
Press Release
Equal Rights for all Citizens of FYR of Macedonia
All Citizens Equal Before The Law
"NATIONAL FREEDOM"
Humanitarian Foundation
456 River St., Paterson, NJ 07524
Tel: (973) 523-9203
April 2, 2001
The "National Freedom" Humanitarian Foundation, as well as the Albanian-American community and their societies throughout the US and Canada, are deeply concerned with the situation in FYR of Macedonia and the discriminatory treatment of the Albanian population by the Macedonian Government.
The current situation seems to be a natural consequence to the unresponsive nature of the Macedonian Government towards the legitimate demands of the Albanian population for equal rights in all aspects of life.
For many years, the Macedonian Government has systematically denied equal cultural, civil and human rights to its Albanian population, comprising at least 1/3 of Macedonia's total population. The discrimination stems from the Macedonian Constitution itself and spans across every aspect in the daily life of Macedonia Albanians, treating them as second-class citizens.
The Albanian population, respects the territorial integrity of the Macedonian state, with the following demands for equal rights for all of its citizens:
- Citizenship based Constitution, not an ethnic one: Changes in FYROM's Constitution to elevate Albanians and other ethnic groups to statehood forming citizens in peaceful coexistence. The current preamble of the Constitution privileges the Macedonian ethnicity above the others.
- Equal Employment Opportunities for every citizen. Macedonia Albanians are being systematically discriminated when applying for jobs in the public as well as the private sector. As a result, Macedonians fill most jobs in the police, army and the public sector, despite the availability of adequately trained Albanian professionals.
- Education in mother tongue at every level. As taxpayers and citizens of FYROM, Albanians are currently not entitled to state funded projects. Albanians shall be entitled to a state funded University whose language of instruction ought to be Albanian.
- Institutionalization of the Albanian language. Reforming the state and local laws to allow for equal use of the Albanian language alongside the Macedonian in every institution.
- ltural and religious heritage: FYROM Government ought to nurture the cultural and religious heritage of all of its ethnic groups, not only the Macedonian one.
We call on the international community to mediate immediate negotiations between the Macedonian Slav-led Government and the political representatives of the National Liberation Army (NLA), to address and peacefully resolve Macedonia Albanians' legitimate grievances and demands for equal rights.
It's not Over, Says Macedonian Ethnic Albanian Rebel Commander Posted April 2, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=326697&brief=text
It's not Over, Says Macedonian Ethnic Albanian Rebel Commander
PRISTINA, Apr 1, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A commander of the ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia dismissed claims by the government in Skopje Saturday that fighting with his forces was over.
"Nothing has changed. On the military front, we are in position. On the political front, there has been no progress," Ali Daja ("The Uncle") of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) told AFP by telephone.
Ali Daja, who said he was speaking from the Lipkovo region northeast of the capital, dismissed a statement by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski that it had achieved both its military and its political objectives.
"Skopje is lying," he said. "How can we lay down our weapons when the Macedonian army is using helicopters against us?" he added.
Last Sunday, the Macedonian army launched a major assault against the NLA rebels.
They dislodged the rebels from their positions in the mountain villages overlooking Tetovo in the northwest, before pursuing their operations north up to the villages near the border with the UN-run Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
The situation was calm on Saturday.
But Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) -- part of the ruling coalition -- warned Saturday that the guerrillas were not a spent force.
He told AFP there could be more trouble if no progress had been made towards constitutional reform by April 9, when Macedonia is to sign a stabilization and association pact with the European Union.
Albanians should have equal constitutional rights with Macedonia's Slav majority, he said.
The fighters of the NLA say they are fighting for the rights of the substantial -- 25 percent -- ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Main Albanian Party Gives Macedonians Ten Days to Open Talks Posted April 2, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=326703&brief=text
Main Albanian Party Gives Macedonians Ten Days to Open Talks
TETOVO, Apr 1, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The leader of Macedonia's biggest ethnic Albanian political party said Saturday that he had given the government until April 9 to open talks on constitutional reform and avoid further ethnic conflict.
"I suggested this date because April 9 is the day when Macedonia is to sign the stabilization and association pact," with the European Union, Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), told AFP.
He warned that if the government refused to open talks on granting Albanians equal constitutional rights with Macedonia's Slav majority before the deadline then DPA ministers in the ruling coalition could boycott the signing ceremony.
Such a move could be seen as a prelude to the party's pulling out of the coalition altogether, a move which observers have warned could cause many more ethnic Albanians to transfer their allegiance to the armed guerrillas who have fought a three week conflict with security forces.
Xhaferi, speaking in the DPA's Tetovo headquarters, said he was doing his best to achieve a "demilitarization of the dispute."
But he warned that the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) had not been defeated, as Skopje claimed, and would return to fighting if the Albanian community's demands were not met.
"They have not gone, they are here, in civilian clothes. They will see the outcome of our negotiations and if they are not happy they will continue again," he said.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said Saturday that the security forces had defeated the NLA "militarily and politically" after a week long offensive against the rebels in areas along Macedonia's border with UN-run Kosovo.
Xhaferi criticized the offensive, and said that any other such operations could force him to pull his party out of government.
"If the violence continues and we have casualties among civilians or the destruction of their villages we cannot stay in government," he said. "From the beginning we were against the militarization of the crisis."
He accepted, however, that by focusing attention on Albanian demands for reform of what he termed Macedonia's "mono-ethnic concept of the state" the NLA had proved itself "useful, but very dangerous."
((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Macedonia seeks diplomatic answer Posted April 1, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/04/01/macedonia.clash.03/index.html
Macedonia seeks diplomatic answer
April 1, 2001 Web posted at: 9:48 AM EDT (1348 GMT)
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia is to start talks with ethnic Albanians in an effort to bridge its bitter ethnic divide and resolve the violence.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski will chair talks between all of Macedonia's political leaders on ways to ease the grievances of the ethnic Albanian minority.
The main ethnic Albanian leader, a key partner in Macedonia's fragile coalition government, has warned he will quit if demands are not met within a month -- leaving the men with guns to fight for Albanian rights.
Slav politicians led by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski are wary of a nationalist backlash from their own constituency if they concede too much.
Ethnic Albanian politicians are seeking greater rights for their community, including constitutional change.
The European Union is backing efforts by politicians in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to work towards ethnic reconciliation.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is also to hold talks with Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders on Monday.
Solana will discuss a proposal to support the country's stabilisation following weeks of fighting between Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The latest clashes broke out before dawn on Saturday and continued for about five hours although no casualties had been confirmed.
Macedonian military spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said the clash with rebels had taken place near the village of Gracane, about six miles north of the capital, Skopje.
He said about 12 rebels has slipped across the border from Kosovo and began sniping at a Macedonian army watchtower at Caska, near the Blace border crossing.
The army responded with mortar and small arms fire, he said.
NATO troops in Kosovo detained 30 suspected rebels caught trying to cross the border into the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The insurgency has put Georgievski's coalition government under heavy strain, and there is intense international pressure for quick agreement on steps towards ethnic reconciliation.
Macedonia swaps guns for talks to prevent civil war Posted April 1, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010401/3/lr3v.html
Sunday April 1, 9:30 PM
Macedonia swaps guns for talks to prevent civil war
By Rosalind Russell
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Now the guns are silent, Macedonia will start talks on Monday in a last ditch political effort to bridge its bitter ethnic divide and stop the country plunging towards civil war.
Shaken by a month of violence and the prospect of another major Balkan conflict, the European Union is backing belated efforts by Macedonia's politicians to work towards ethnic reconciliation.
President Boris Trajkovski will chair talks between all Macedonia's political leaders on ways to ease the grievances of the ethnic Albanian minority which fuelled a weeks-long armed insurrection.
The stakes are high. The main ethnic Albanian leader, a key partner in Macedonia's fragile coalition government, says he will quit if ethnic Albanian demands are not met within a month -- leaving the men with guns to fight for Albanian rights.
Slav politicians led by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski are wary of a nationalist backlash from their own constituency if they concede too much.
"They are all very very nervous but they realise if they don't start soon they'll lose momentum," said Brenda Potter, a Balkans watcher at the International Crisis Group, a respected conflict prevention think-tank.
"This is the last chance for an integrated society."
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ALBANIANS
Ethnic Albanians make up roughly one third of Macedonia's population and say they are discriminated against in all walks of life.
They say only a change to the constitution, which names Macedonian Slavs as the primary nation, greater language rights and the decentralisation of government can start to redress this.
"They have to move quickly to things which make a practical difference, for example decentralisation so that Albanians have a say in issues like schools and hospitals," said Potter.
"This would satisfy minority aspirations without changing the whole country."
But it might not be so easy. The two sides are being asked to achieve within weeks what they have failed to do in the 10 years since independence from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991.
And there is still uncertainty over whether the constitution is up for discussion at all.
Last week Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim said the subject was not taboo, but a day later the spokesman of Georgievski's ruling VMRO-DPMNE party said talks about constitutional reform were unacceptable.
Mistrust runs deep and ethnic Albanian politicians accuse their Slav colleagues of repeatedly failing to keep promises. The Slavs say the Albanians keep shifting the goalposts.
"We have had 10 years to do something. Our demands are nothing new but up until now nobody wanted to listen," ethnic Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi told Reuters in a recent interview. "Now we have very little time."
EUROPE OFFERS SUPPORT
EU security chief Javier Solana will fly to the Macedonian capital Skopje on Monday to lend his support to the dialogue.
"We don't want to be mediators but Mr Solana hopes to find a way of reinvigorating the process and solidifying the national consensus at this time of trouble," Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, told Reuters by telephone from Brussels.
Solana and European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten will meet Trajkovski and opposition leaders and leaders of the ethnic Albanian parties.
Europe has dangled the reward of greater links with the EU and increased aid as a reward for making progress towards ethnic reconciliation.
Slav and Albanian government leaders have been invited to Luxembourg on April 9 to sign a Stabilisation and Association agreement, which is viewed as the first step towards EU membership.
But Xhaferi said in a statement, carried by Albanian radio on Saturday, that he would not go unless genuine negotiations on the demands of ethnic Albanians were already underway.
The Macedonian army says it has completed its military operation to drive out guerrillas from its northern mountains near the border with U.N.-governed Kosovo.
But the insurgents say they are merely regrouping and are ready to strike again if political negotiations fail.
"If nothing happens politically in April then May could be very dangerous," said ICG's Potter.
Macedonian politicians to start peace talks Posted April 1, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010331/3/lpwn.html
Sunday April 1, 3:12 AM
Macedonian politicians to start peace talks
By Kole Casule
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders begin talks on Monday to discuss ways to ease ethnic Albanian grievances that sparked a weeks-long insurgency by rebel forces in the tiny Balkan country.
President Trajkovski will chair the talks in the capital Skopje, his spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday.
"The President will invite leaders of all political parties represented in parliament on Monday to continue the political dialogue that should produce suggestions to ease up tensions in the country", the spokeswoman said.
Macedonia's Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said on Saturday parallel talks would take place in parliament and in the parliamentary commission for European integration.
The insurgency has put Georgievski's coalition government under heavy strain, and there is intense pressure for quick agreement on steps towards ethnic reconciliation. The European Union is also pressing hard for concessions to be made.
The leader of the main ethnic Albanian party, a key partner in the coalition, has threatened to quit the government if the demands of the Albanian minority are not met within a month.
"I will give the negotiations one month to succeed. If they fail, I will withdraw from government", Arben Xhaferi, leader of the main Albanian party, told Reuters on Friday.
Such a move would plunge the country into civil war, Xhaferi said. But the premier on Saturday played down such fears, saying another politician could fill Xhaferi's shoes.
"The ethnic Albanian population should have someone to represent it politically, so if it is not one party then it would be some other," said Georgievski told reporters.
ALBANIANS SEEK GREATER RIGHTS
Ethnic Albanian politicians are seeking greater rights for their community, including constitutional change.
The government must tread a difficult line between addressing the grievances of the one-third Albanian minority and heading off a potential backlash from Slav nationalists.
Added to the squabbles within government, the main Slav and Albanian opposition parties have called for the coalition to resign and for the formation of a new broad-based government to include them.
The main Macedonian Slav party, the Social Democratic Union (SDSM), said on Friday it would call for street protests to overthrow Georgievski's cabinet if it was not made part of the government coalition.
"We have no intention of just being bystanders while our country is sold out," SDSM head Branko Crvenkovski told reporters.
"So, if a new broad coalition government is not formed in a short time, we will call on citizens to protest."
Georgievski lashed back, accusing the opposition of trying to destroy the country. But he also said he would meet opposition leaders to discuss their concerns.
"If you are so eager to participate in our government, I invite you to talks in order for you to explain the idea of a broad coalition government," Georgievski said.
"We should first see what 'broad coalition' means and then decide if it is acceptable".
NATO, EU meet on Macedonia as Skopje warns war with Albanian rebels is over Posted April 1, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010401/1/lqw0.html
Sunday April 1, 6:48 PM
NATO, EU meet on Macedonia as Skopje warns war with Albanian rebels is over
BRUSSELS, April 1 (AFP) - NATO and EU hold a joint session on Macedonia here Monday as both prepare missions to the region amid conflicting reports on whether the ethnic fighting between Skopje's security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas had ended.
EU High Representative for Security and Foreign Policy Javier Solana and EU Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten were due in Skopje on Monday.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and all 19 NATO permament ambassadors were to follow on Tuesday.
Since the start of the crisis, NATO has ruled out an allied military intervention in Macedonia. But it has beefed up border patrols of KFOR, the international NATO-led peace-keeping force to cut rebel supply lines.
Robertson and Solana made a lighting visit to the Macedonian capital a week ago and hailed the government for its controlled response to rebel attacks, cautioning that tit-for-tat assaults risked sucking neighboring countries into a vortex of violence.
Both Brussels-based organizations had been stepping up efforts to stem violence on the Macedonian-Kosovo border when Skopje announced on Saturday that the fighting had effectively ended.
"Our objectives have been achieved on the military and political levels," Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski told reporters.
He said a week-long operation involving 3,400 troops had succeeded in defeating the guerrillas, and that the offensive had been "very energetic and very precise, causing a minimum number of casualties."
However, Ali Daja, a commander of the ethnic Albanian self-styled National Liberation Army, said, "Skopje is lying."
Speaking to the AFP by telephone from the Lipkovo region northeast of Skopje, Ali Daja dismissed Georgievski's claim that both military and political objectives had been met.
"Nothing has changed," he said. "On the military front, we are in position. On the political front, there has been no progress.... How can we lay down our weapons when the Macedonian army is using helicopters against us?"
Macedonian troops spearheaded by police special forces and backed by artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships launched their offensive on March 25, storming rebel-held villages above the western town of Tetovo.
During the week the fighting spread along the border with UN-administered Kosovo, which like northern Macedonia is mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, and sporadic clashes continued.
Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said the guerrillas were not a spent force, and warned the government that he could not guarantee his community would remain peaceful if no progress had been made towards constitutional reform by April 9.
"I suggested this date because April 9 is the day when Macedonia is to sign the stabilisation and association pact" with the European Union, Xhaferi told AFP at his headquarters in the ethnic Albanian majority town of Tetovo in northern Macedonia.
He warned that if the government refused to open talks on granting Albanians equal constitutional rights with Macedonia's Slav majority before the deadline, then DPA ministers in the ruling coalition could boycott the signing ceremony.
Such a move could be seen as a prelude to the party's pulling out of the government altogether, a move which observers warned would cause many more ethnic Albanians to transfer their allegiance to the guerrillas.
Xhaferi said he was doing his best to achieve a "demilitarisation of the dispute" but warned that the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) would return to fighting if the Albanian community's demands were not met.
"They have not gone. They are here, in civilian clothes. They will see the outcome of our negotiations and if they are not happy they will continue again," he said.
Copyright © 2001 AFP
Ethnic Albanian Village Angry, Afraid After Attack Posted April 1, 2001
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=326163§ion=Kosovo
Ethnic Albanian Village Angry, Afraid After Attack
KRIVENIK, Mar 31, 2001 -- (Reuters) Life in this once sleepy Kosovo village just a few hundred meters (yards) from the Macedonian border has been shattered.
Caught in the crossfire between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian forces, with a mortar attack that killed three people on Thursday followed by a day of protest, the population has been shaken to its core.
The conflict has also hardened hatred among ethnic Albanians living along the picturesque southern frontier of Kosovo at a time when the West is seeking to soothe flaring tempers.
Around 1,000 people from Krivenik and nearby villages gathered in its small, dusty central square to look on at the scene of the explosion, which killed two Kosovo Albanians and a British television producer.
The mood was one of sadness mixed with defiance and anger at Macedonian security forces trying to crush ethnic Albanian guerrillas across the border.
A small crater from a mortar shell can be seen a few meters from the mosque, a pool of oil from the engine of a car is still wet and the windows of the school nearby have been blown in.
In all, 13 mortar craters were found by U.S. peacekeeping troops who have moved in to monitor the volatile frontier region. Locals say it was more like 20.
A preliminary NATO investigation said the shells came from the direction of Macedonia, although Macedonian authorities flatly deny responsibility.
BITTER WORDS
But for the protesters, who marched for two hours from the border town of General Jankovic, there was no doubt.
"We condemn the killings by the Macedonian army," seethed Mahir, a swarthy young man in his twenties.
NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping troops looked on through binoculars from nearby hills and two U.S. Apache helicopters hovered in the distance.
"We support the Albanian guerrillas. (Minority Albanians) had no rights in Macedonia. They were looking for a peaceful solution but the Macedonians do not allow it," Mahir added.
When the march set off the crowd chanted "UCK, UCK", the initials in Albanian of both the Kosovo Liberation Army and the offshoot National Liberation Army, the guerrillas who started a revolt in northern Macedonia earlier this month.
But there was little noise in Krivenik. The marchers of all ages filed solemnly into the school where one of the dead ethnic Albanians had taught.
Young men pointed to the classroom where he took his last lesson and crunched shattered glass under their boots. They showed onlookers the cellar under the building where the wounded teacher had been dragged. Blood stains were on the floor.
For KFOR troops operating in the area, one fear is that the shelling will boost local sympathies for ethnic Albanian rebels whom they want to stop crossing in and out of Macedonia and destabilizing the region.
Another is that support for NATO among ethnic Albanians, whom it rescued from Serbian repression with 11 weeks of air strikes against Belgrade two years ago, may be waning in Kosovo.
"These people want more from NATO forces. I have friends who live here and they just want security," said Faruk, a 17- year-old boy on the march.
(C)2001 Copyright Reuters Limited.
Macedonia Talks to Throw Spotlight on Ethnic Gulf Posted March 31, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=324871&brief=text
Macedonia Talks to Throw Spotlight on Ethnic Gulf
SKOPJE, Mar 30, 2001 -- (Reuters) Macedonia's politicians could sit down to talk as soon as next week on easing ethnic Albanian frustrations. But the dialogue may only serve to highlight the gaping political divide in the country.
Already there is disagreement about what should be discussed and where the talks should take place.
Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said on Thursday President Boris Trajkovski was preparing a program for dialogue between all political parties to start in Skopje as soon as the rebel ethnic Albanian insurgency is quelled.
"The political dialogue between the parties will continue after the firing in Macedonia stops completely, which may be accomplished in a week," Milosovski told Reuters.
Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the main Albanian DPA party and a partner in the coalition government, said talks would probably start early next week and should take place outside Macedonia.
"The talks must start very soon," he told Reuters. "I would prefer in Europe, probably in Brussels, because Europe wants to take responsibility for the negotiations."
But Western diplomats say the European Union is resolutely opposed to playing mediator. They say Macedonia's governing institutions are the best forum for discussing legal changes addressing Albanian complaints they are second class citizens.
Most of Macedonia's Slav politicians are also opposed to foreign involvement in what they see as internal affairs.
Western leaders have urged the government to quench the resentment that fuelled the month-old rebellion by removing discrimination in education, employment and politics.
"There is no need to talk outside the country, because we have already established a political dialogue within the political system of the country," Milosovski said.
FIGHT OVER CONSTITUTION
Both Slavs and ethnic Albanians are walking a precarious tightrope, needing to be seen to be sticking up for their own constituencies without being dragged to political extremes.
Albanian parties will want to get political mileage out of the insurgency which raised fears of a new Balkan war. But Slav politicians will be wary of a backlash if they concede too much to the one-third Albanian minority.
The key demand of the ethnic Albanian political parties is a change to the constitution, which names Macedonian Slavs as the primary nation in Macedonia.
"We want to become a state-forming nation, and for that reason we want the constitution to say clearly this state also belongs to the Albanians," said Imer Imery, chairman of the opposition Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP).
He said his party also wanted all laws that deny ethnic Albanians equal rights with the Macedonians to be abrogated.
But Macedonia's main Slavic parties, including Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's ruling VMRO-DPMNE, have already ruled out the demand for a constitutional change.
"It doesn't matter who we talk to, because we will not accept any negotiations or talks that include the change of the constitution or its preamble," Igor Gievski, spokesman of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE told reporters on Thursday.
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT TO RESIGN
Opposition Slav and Albanian parties found some consensus -- both calling for the formation of a new coalition government.
"This government should resign and we should form a new broader coalition that will include the actual ruling and opposition parties", Nikola Popovski, vice president of the Slav SDSM party told Reuters. The idea was supported by PDP's Imery.
But government spokesman Milosovski said such a move was not a priority.
"The government has not ruled out the possibility of a broad coalition government that will include more parties, but at this moment the priority is the security situation in the country," he said.
Macedonia's Albanians Aim at Equality, Not Independence Posted March 31, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=325365&brief=text
Macedonia's Albanians Aim at Equality, Not Independence
By Ron Synovitz
SKOPJE, Mar 30, 2001 -- (RFE/RL) The Macedonian government says that ethnic Albanian militants have been fighting for a Greater Albania. RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz traveled across western Macedonia and found no support for the idea among ordinary Albanians.
What he did find was praise for the militants for attracting the world's attention to their problems. Here is his report:
In the western Macedonian town of Gostivar, Fazli Murati listens with irritation to a foreign radio broadcast reporting that extremists among the country's ethnic Albanian population are fighting to form a Greater Albania. Fazli, an unemployed Albanian language teacher, says nothing could be further from the truth.
"Being together with Kosovo or thinking about a Greater Albania is something that nobody here is talking about. I don't know who is behind the transmission of this news that we are for a Greater Albania. Probably it is somebody that wants to discredit us in the eyes of the European Union and the foreign media so that the world thinks Albanians in Macedonia are bad."
Our correspondent traveled across western Macedonia to speak with ordinary ethnic Albanians and found that Murati's sentiments were almost universally shared. Out of dozens of ethnic Albanians interviewed, all rejected the idea of breaking away from Macedonia to join with the UN-administered province of Kosovo, or with Albania. Public statements by ethnic Albanian militants in the National Liberation Army, or UCK, also reject the notion of carving out part of a Greater Albania from western Macedonia.
Nevertheless, the governments in Skopje, Belgrade, and Athens have all made statements in recent weeks that have stoked fears of a Greater Albanian insurgency. Remarks made by NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson also support the Macedonian government's position that the UCK is fighting in pursuit of a separate state.
But an overwhelming majority of ethnic Albanians in Skopje and the western part of Macedonia say they want only to live in a truly multiethnic society where all residents have equal rights. Most said they feel their cultural heritage is threatened by intolerance and xenophobia on the part of Macedonian Slavs. Rather than being protected by the country's legal institutions, they complain that the constitution itself allows for repressive policies of assimilation.
Ethnic Albanian political opposition leader Imer Imeri says Macedonia has been faced with an armed insurgency because of a deeply-rooted Slav hatred of Albanians. Imeri, who heads the Party for Democratic Prosperity, says the emergence of UCK guerrillas is the result of a lack of understanding by the Macedonians of the legitimate demands of ethnic Albanians.
Seated on a park bench in the center of Gostivar, a worker named Riza Shefiu told RFE/RL that the solution to the crisis in Macedonia is simple -- providing equal rights to all citizens.
"They should give us our rights. We should have our rights, just like other people. That is the way that things will improve. We should have equal rights like all people in the world. I'm expecting peace. That is only normal. It is good to live in peace, in the normal way, and not to resort to violence. We are people also. They [the Macedonians] are humans and we are humans. We should be treated equally."
South of Gostivar, in the city of Kicevo, many ethnic Albanians say they feel they are treated like second-class citizens.
Although Albanians have limited representation in the state sector of the Macedonian economy, they do have a stake in the system. There are many successful Albanians in the private sector. The Democratic Party of the Albanians, or DPA, is part of the governing coalition and has five ministers in the reformist government of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski.
Nevertheless, ailing DPA leader Arben Xhaferi has been unable to push through the constitutional changes demanded by his supporters for greater political and economic representation together with a state-funded Albanian-language university.
According to the latest census, about one-third of Macedonia's population is ethnic Albanian. But Xhaferi says the census is outdated. He says a new one would show that ethnic Albanians now comprise nearly half of the population -- a claim that is disputed by others.
But ordinary Macedonian Slavs also express fears that they will one day become a minority in Macedonia. Indeed, the country's two main communities of Slavs and Albanians have little communication with each other. Mutual distrust and suspicion appear to be widespread.
Statistics also suggest that ethnic Albanians are worse off than the Slav majority. The unemployment rate among Albanians is twice as high as the national average. Albanian reports say 80 percent of the inmates at the country's main prisons are ethnic Albanians -- with an inference of discrimination against Albanians by the legal system.
Cenan Ameti owns a small shop in southwestern Tetovo -- the same neighborhood from which government forces launched their assault last Sunday (25 March) against UCK fighters in the hills overlooking the city. Ameti says he still has confidence that DPA leader Xhaferi will be able to work within the governing coalition to resolve the grievances of ethnic Albanians through a political dialogue.
"He (Xhaferi) did a lot to bring prosperity during [the last two] years, and even [helped improve the conditions for ethnic Albanians] politically [and economically]."
But like most Albanians interviewed by our correspondent, Ameti offered praise for the UCK fighters who until last Sunday had controlled the heights visible from his front door.
"[The UCK] also was helpful to us. They started the fight so that we can have equal rights with Macedonians."
Nearby, an unemployed teenager named Arsim Loki expressed pro-UCK sentiments that are common among Tetovo's Albanian community -- even thought the homes and shops of ordinary Albanians in the neighborhood were damaged in the recent fighting.
"At the moment, we are happy and the situation is quiet, but there is meaning to the UCK. If they weren't up there fighting, people around the world would not know about the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia -- about [the inequality] of rights for us and about our situation."
But praise for the UCK does not necessarily mean that ordinary ethnic Albanians prefer military action to political dialogue.
Ramiz Selimi, a restaurant owner and municipal official in the western Macedonian village of Toplice, told RFE/RL that officials in Skopje are in a position to resolve the crisis immediately. He said they should launch a serious reform process that includes input from all of the country's legitimately-elected ethnic Albanian political parties -- whether from the opposition or from Xhaferi's DPA.
"The situation at the moment is such that only negotiations between [all the ethnic Albanian] parties and the Macedonian government can resolve the crisis. Things will calm down very soon. If the mediation from [western] Europe brings the start of negotiations [on reforms] then the UCK will calm down. Also, the UCK will respond to whatever the [ethnic] Albanian parties say."
Most ethnic Albanians in the country seem to agree on this critical point. They say it is time for the violence in Macedonia to end and for the government to start seriously addressing the Albanians' grievances. But if the political process fails to deal with those complaints, western Macedonia is likely to become more fertile ground for the recruitment of young people by UCK militants.
Copyright (c) 2001 RFE/RL
Rebels Says NATO Must Know Who Fired Fatal Shells Posted March 31, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=324869&brief=text
Rebels Says NATO Must Know Who Fired Fatal Shells
SKOPJE, Mar 30, 2001 -- (Reuters) An ethnic Albanian guerrilla leader fighting Macedonian forces near the Kosovo border said on Thursday that NATO must know who fired the shells that killed two civilians inside Kosovo, including a British journalist.
Both the Macedonian army and the rebel forces have denied responsibility for shelling the village of Krivenik, where Associated Press Television News producer Kerem Lawton and a local man, Baki Krasniqi, were fatally injured. NATO said it was urgently seeking clarification from the Macedonian authorities. Around 20 ethnic Albanian civilians in the village were wounded and NATO peacekeeping forces also had a close escape in an earlier shelling incident.
"Finding out who fired is very simple and can be verified very simply by NATO forces, by analyzing the trajectory of the shells," a rebel commander codenamed Sokoli told Reuters by telephone.
He was speaking from a location he identified as Han Elez, an area east of the village of Gracani which has been pounded by Macedonian heavy weapons for the past five days.
"We do not have heavy artillery. The biggest caliber we have is 82mm," Sokoli said, apparently referring to a mortar.
In Brussels, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said: "We have asked the government for clarification. We are obviously very upset about the tragedy and we are concerned to ensure no such thing happens again. But we obviously need to find out exactly what happened."
NATO-MACEDONIA LIAISON MISSION
The NATO allies this month established a coordination cell with the Macedonian defense and security authorities in the capital, Skopje, to exchange information on their various military operations on either side of the unmarked border.
Reuters reporters who went through Krivenik several times on Wednesday watched U.S. and Polish troops monitoring the shelling in the hills west of the village from lookout positions Polish troops said were just 250 meters (yards) from the border.
At that time, Macedonian shells were landing about 1,500 meters away.
The observation mission included U.S. Apache combat helicopters that hovered above the hills. The aircraft have laser range-finding systems and the capability to video-record heavy-weapons fire for later analysis.
A Reuters cameraman who witnessed the aftermath of Thursday's fatal shelling in Krivenik confirmed that U.S. and Polish troops had again been in the area and the Apaches were overhead at the time of the incident.
NATO military sources said that even if there was no helicopter data available to resolve which side fired the rounds, crater analysis and other evidence taken from the impact site could probably determine their caliber and direction.
Sokoli said his ethnic Albanian fighters were still sticking to their positions despite heavy shelling.
He said Macedonian forces crossed into Kosovo territory two weeks ago to shell guerrilla positions near the Macedonian villages of Malino and Brest.
Thursday's shelling was "nothing new for the Macedonians because they have been using Kosovo territory to attack our forces before", he added.
Last Friday, a Macedonian defense ministry spokesman acknowledged that state security forces had shelled targets inside Kosovo, saying guerrillas there were preparing to fire grenades.
(C)2001 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Macedonia Faces Moment of Truth Posted March 31, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=325592&brief=text
Macedonia Faces Moment of Truth
VIENNA, Mar 30, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Macedonia faces a "moment of truth" as it fights a rebel insurgency while promoting dialogue as the way to resolve Albanian demands for more rights, OSCE envoy Robert Frowick said Friday.
The U.S. diplomat, who was appointed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s special envoy to Macedonia amid the upsurge in violence this month, said he expects to spend months working on the process.
"The situation is very volatile still, smoke is still in the air," he told reporters after a special session of the OSCE's permanent council in Vienna devoted to the crisis in Macedonia.
"Passions are still very high. I think everybody knows it is a moment of truth for Macedonia," he added. "I think I will probably be involved for a few months."
But speaking after a week of talks in Skopje, he said he was encouraged by the willingness of all political leaders to pursue dialogue rather than to join the armed struggle.
He admitted there are differences between the Macedonian government's views of reforms needed, and the views of leaders of the Albanian community, which comprises over a quarter of the country's population.
"But these differences relate to procedures, technique and tactics, but the overall strategy and goals are remarkable similar," he told reporters, citing Skopje's ambition to join the European mainstream including the EU.
Frowick, a former U.S. ambassador to Albania and OSCE mission chief in post-war Bosnia, was named as its special envoy to Macedonia earlier this month amid the mounting crisis in the ex-Yugoslav republic.
Meanwhile Carlo Ungaro, head of the 16-man OSCE mission in Macedonia whose mandate includes monitoring its borders, refused to comment on a cross-border incident Thursday in which three civilians were killed.
The source of the mortar fire which caused the casualties was unclear, and it was also unclear if it was an accident, he said. "In the absence of factual information I would refrain from speculation," he said. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Tetovo Albanians Say Rebels Helped Their Cause Posted March 31, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=325623&brief=text
Tetovo Albanians Say Rebels Helped Their Cause
TETOVO, Mar 30, 2001 -- (Reuters) Ethnic Albanian guerrillas may have held the hills above Tetovo for less than two weeks, but townspeople say they achieved more for their community's cause than years of political maneuvering.
"In 12 days on the hills the Albanian cause was advanced at least 10 years," said Besnik Jakupi, an unemployed teacher.
"Now people are listening to us, they know about our problems and perhaps the government will do something about it."
If it doesn't, the guerrillas will be back, another resident warned.
The streets of mainly Albanian Tetovo are busy again with cars and shoppers after thousands fled or cowered indoors while Macedonian government forces pounded the hills with guns and mortars.
Young Albanians in leather jackets and jeans drink Turkish coffee and smoke cigarettes at pavement cafes. Many are jobless, relying on cash sent by relatives working in Germany and Italy.
"This is our country but we have no rights here," said 19-year-old Naim. "It's like we don't exist. We can't get jobs, or state benefits. The only right we have is to breathe the air."
The insurgents say they are fighting for greater rights for Macedonia's roughly one-third ethnic Albanian minority who complain of second-class treatment in all walks of life.
TACTICAL WITHDRAWAL
Rebel supporters in Tetovo describe what looked like a military defeat as a "tactical withdrawal", saying they are giving political leaders from the ethnic Albanian and majority Slav communities a last chance to meet their demands.
"We haven't lost the battle, we are just giving them a chance to negotiate," said one man. "But if they fail we are ready. The fighters are ready, in the hills, in this town, around this table."
Moderate Albanian politicians such as Arben Xhaferi, a key coalition partner in Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's government, feel the pressure to deliver quickly.
All political parties say they hope to start talks next week to discuss the grievances of the ethnic Albanian community.
The key Albanian demand is for a change to the constitution which names Macedonian Slavs as the primary nation.
There are also calls for the Albanian language to be used in state institutions, an Albanian-language television station and state funding for an unrecognized ethnic Albanian university in Tetovo.
The university under radical rector Fadil Sulejmani is seen as a breeding ground for the revolt, and some of its students left their studies to join the fighters.
RADICAL STUDENTS
Photographs of last year's graduates stare down from the walls in the entrance hall but the lecture halls are empty and silent.
Sulejmani is holed up in the basement. He says police snipers are trained on his second-floor office from the building opposite.
"Who knows where the students are? But they have the support of the Albanian people in whatever they are doing," he said. "We tried peaceful protests. Now we hope our youngsters in the hills will achieve our aims of equality and a better future."
A handful of guerrillas are still dug in on the craggy hillsides further east, beneath the snow-capped mountains which mark the border with UN-governed Kosovo.
In the battle to dislodge them, shellfire hit the Kosovo village of Krivenik on Thursday, killing two ethnic Albanian civilians and a British television producer.
The Macedonian government denied responsibility, but the deaths stoked the anger in Tetovo.
If their demands are not met soon, ethnic Albanians say Western fears of yet another Balkans war may be realized. Support and firepower would come readily from their ethnic kin in Kosovo, they say.
"If they want peace they need to do something quickly," said Jusuf Mustafai. "Macedonia is surrounded by Albanians on all sides. Next time the war will not just be in Tetovo."
(C)2001 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Statement by NATO Secretary General on the Mortar Explosions in Kosovo Posted March 30, 2001
http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2001/p01-045e.htm
Updated: 29-Mar-2001
NATO Press Releases
Press Release
(2001)045
29 March 2001
Statement by NATO Secretary General on the Mortar Explosions in Kosovo
I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the civilians killed and injured in connection with the mortar explosions near Krivenik, inside Kosovo, earlier today. NATO is deeply concerned about this incident, and I have asked KFOR to provide any additional information it may be able to obtain.
Immediately after the incident took place, the senior NATO liaison officer in Skopje, Ambassador Hans-Joerg Eiff, was in contact with the authorities of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (1), and I spoke by telephone with President Trajkovski late this afternoon.
President Trajkovski made clear to me that his government has launched an investigation to determine what occurred, and we agreed to set up a joint commission. We look forward to seeing concrete results from these investigations at the earliest possible time.
This incident is a regrettable reminder that the real victims of the recent violence in the southern Balkans are civilians. There is no place in a democratic society for the armed extremists who seek to impose their political views by force. It is important that all the parliamentary parties in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (1)
regardless of ethnicity - intensify their dialogue to address the legitimate concerns of the ethnic Albanian community through democratic processes. I call, once again, on all armed extremists to lay down their arms.
(1) Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.
NLA (Communique Nr. 4) Brigade Nr. 113 – ‘Ismet Jashari – Kuamnova’ Posted March 30, 2001
http://www.kosovapress.com/
NLA Brigade Nr. 113 – ‘Ismet Jashari – Kuamnova’
Communique Nr. 4
The liberation war of the National Liberation Army would finally unveil the true nature of the Macedonian criminal regime against the Albanian people.
Macedonian armed forces share the same course and use the same anti-Albanian direction as the Serbians. The Macedonian crimes against the Albanian population in Macedonia, and even in Kosova, are motivating the Macedonian criminals to continue further and dive deeper into crimes.
The village of Krivenik in Kosova had been shelled since the beginning of the war by the Macedonian army and police forces, and KFOR has been always informed about it. Macedonian Army has not only bombarded the Kosova territory, but has even violated the integrity of Kosova by launching attacks against Malina village from the territory of Kosova.
NLA strongly condemns the savage attack against the innocent Albanian civilians and reminds the Army of Macedonia that such behavior is not only criminal, but even acts of covardice. NLA appeals to international community to support our righteous struggle.
NLA expressed condolences to the families of victims and appeals to international factors to intervene immediately and effectively before it gets to late, as this is only the beginning for the Macedonians.
The offensive actions taken by Macedonian Army against NLA and the Albanian people, instead of entering a dialogue, is underimining the existence of the joint state of Macedonia.
30 March 2001 NLA Commander Mala.