Albanian rebels begin giving up weapons Posted August 24, 2001
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/24/wmac24.xml
Albanian rebels begin giving up weapons
By Michael Smith in Radusa
(Filed: 24/08/2001)
THE ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army began bringing weapons, including a tank, to collection points in Macedonia yesterday, ready for the first handover of arms to the British-led Task Force Harvest.
As Nato troops poured into the country, four British soldiers, likely to be members of the SAS, were said to be monitoring the collection in the northern village of Radusa, a mile south of the border with Kosovo.
The British soldiers had been there for four days but were not prepared to meet the media.
Nearly 600 members of the 2nd Bn the Parachute Regiment flew into Skopje's Petrovec airport yesterday, followed by 200 Dutch infantrymen, who will make up the rest of the British-led battlegroup.
More than 1,500 British soldiers are due to join the 500-strong advance party.
The British force is nearly double the expected contribution, after Canada and Poland said they would not be able to provide troops as promised, though Canada appeared to have been embarrassed yesterday into agreeing to supply an armoured reconnaissance unit.
British cavalry units with Coyote armoured vehicles will provide a stop-gap until it arrives.
But attempts to move a British armoured reconnaissance unit into Macedonia from Kosovo to make up for a shortfall foundered after angry Slavs closed a border crossing.
Several hundred Macedonians who fled their homes in the north when the NLA took control have been blocking the main border crossing into Kosovo at Blace in protest at the government's concessions to the Albanians.
Britain has put pressure on the Macedonian government to lift the blockade after the army was forced to airlift in from Pristina eight Scimitar light tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards now serving with Kfor.
Under the "conditionality package" signed by the Macedonian government with Nato, the task force must have freedom of movement, including cross-border journeys into Kosovo and Greece.
Defence sources in the Balkans said they believed the hardline nationalist Interior Minister, Ljubce Boskovski, was using the refugees as part of his plans to pull the agreement apart.
He was described by one senior source close to the negotiations with the government as "a very unsavoury character who had links to the dead Serb paramilitary Arkan".
The Interior Ministry has control over the 3,500-strong paramilitary special police, who have been accused of starting many of the outbreaks of shooting that have continued every night of the ceasefire.
The border blockade is also preventing the British Army from moving engineers from Kosovo into Macedonia to build the headquarters from which Brig Barney White-Spunner will co-ordinate the weapons collection.
"For the past five days Nato has been promised that the border will be open, but each day the Macedonian government has failed to keep its promise, raising the question of who is in control of the border," a source said.
A local rebel leader calling himself Cdr Msusi insisted he and his men would not give the task force any problems, as they proudly showed off the T-55 tank, still where it was captured three miles from the village, in a clash with government forces.
"I have two men who can drive the tank," said the bearded rebel. "We will drive it up to the village to hand it over to Nato. They say they will destroy it."
In Radusa the NLA rebels have assembled AK-47 assault rifles, SAM-7 hand-held anti-aircraft missiles, RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and heavy machine-guns. Western intelligence sources confirmed that the rebels had assembled their weapons at other locations and given the grid references to liaison officers.
The first handover would take place "very soon", defence sources said. But despite promises to hand over their arms, NLA commanders are known to be trying to smuggle their best weapons across the border.
The mountain paths into Kosovo have been lit up for the past few nights by star-burst shells fired by American artillery. Operation Bright Sky has been co-ordinated by British forward observation officers.
The powerful shells light up areas of the border for several minutes, allowing Nato units to intercept the NLA rebels and confiscate their weapons. Radusa is just one of 15 weapons collection points, all of which are in the hills above the towns of Kumanovo and Tetovo.
Representatives of Nato, the government, and the NLA will observe each site to verify the process. Those rebels who hand over their weapons are due to be granted amnesty by legislation expected shortly after the 30-day operation ends.
NATO Sets 'Credible' Disarmament Goal in Macedonia Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24 4:37 PM ET
NATO Sets 'Credible' Disarmament Goal in Macedonia
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) has set a ``credible'' target of more than 3,000 weapons to be collected from ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian government is likely to accept the figure despite misgivings, diplomats said on Friday.
NATO officials briefed Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on the disarmament target on Friday night and sought to allay Skopje's concern by saying that prospects for the return of Macedonians driven from their homes by guerrillas and for the release of 13 captured Macedonians had improved.
Nikola Dimitrov, Trajkovski's security adviser, told Reuters an agreed figure for the number of guerrilla weapons to be surrendered over a 30-day period starting next week would be announced on Sunday after further consultations with NATO.
But he cautioned that whatever the target, the NATO mission would fail if violence resumed after it ended -- an allusion to Macedonian fears that guerrillas will hide guns from NATO -- and 69,000 displaced Macedonians could not safely go home.
Rebel commanders, who agreed to disarm in return for reforms granting minority Albanians greater rights, initially said they had 2,000-2,500 weapons, differing wildly from Macedonian government figures of anywhere from 8,000 to 80,000.
Major-General Gunnar Lange, commander of the 4,500-strong weapons-collection force now streaming into Macedonia, earlier declined to confirm the sensitive figure but warned the target would have to ``be credible in quantity and quality.''
``The first figures we got from the (guerrillas) were not really credible. So there were further discussions. I believe the numbers are credible now and close to our own intelligence assessments,'' the Danish general told a news conference earlier.
A Western diplomat close to the NATO mission said it had now settled on an estimate of ``somewhere over 3,000 weapons'' that was ``credible, accurate and non-negotiable.''
Ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas in nearby Kosovo withheld numerous high-grade weapons from NATO peacekeepers in a post-war disarmament process two years ago. Some of that firepower may well be in guerrilla hands in Macedonia now.
GOVERNMENT TAKES NATO'S WORD ON REBEL ARSENAL
A senior Macedonian official said before NATO's meeting with Trajkovski the government would shelve its own estimates and approve the new figure, as it agreed to do in the peace accords.
``I don't think the Macedonian government is in a position to make any kind of ultimatums or set a minimum of weapons that must be collected so the peace process can continue. There's no doubt that NATO's word on the estimate will be final,'' he said.
Yet most Macedonians think NATO will gather no more than a fraction of the guns flooding the region, leaving their 10-year- old Balkan state at the mercy of ethnic Albanian expansionism.
The NATO-led peace force in Kosovo has almost doubled the number of troops patrolling the border with Macedonia since March to clamp down on rampant Albanian arms smuggling but Lange said it was impossible to seal the mountainous frontier.
``There have been interdictions of weapons and equipment going in both directions across the border in the past two weeks to four weeks,'' NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson told the same news conference. ``We are doing everything we can.''
NATO is determined not to get mired in another indefinite, costly peacekeeping mission as in Kosovo or Bosnia.
Critics say NATO's mandate is not long or robust enough to overcome ethnic distrust and enmity. A short shootout overnight evoked the pitfalls ahead, including reports of fresh mine-laying by combatants.
NATO LIAISON WORK SHORES UP CEASEFIRE
The Danish general, half of whose force was to be in place by Friday, said NATO liaison teams in the conflict zone since Sunday had found both sides were heeding a confidence-building program designed to stabilize the brittle cease-fire.
Macedonia would start withdrawing tanks and artillery and other heavy weaponry from some tinderbox fronts later on Friday and return them to barracks in tandem with guerrilla pullbacks to get combatants ``out of direct fire range,'' he said.
Major Alexander Dick, spokesman for the liaison teams, said they had been ``warmly welcomed'' by both sides and cease-fire violations had diminished in the past few days as a result.
Fifteen weapons collection points are being set up in the areas of Kumanovo, Tetovo and Debar, in the north and northwestern hills where the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels have fanned out since surfacing in February.
The first guerrilla arms, ranging from pistols and sniper rifles to heavy mortars, armor-piercing rocket launchers and anti-tank mines, are due to be handed over next week. A NATO official said the force, not due be in place for up to 10 days, would be over 4,500-strong, up from an originally planned 3,500.
Hoping to win over Macedonia's public, which views NATO as supporting ``Albanian terrorists,'' the alliance ran adverts in major newspapers on Friday to explain its mission.
The speaker of parliament, hard-liner Stojan Andov, has threatened to block ratification of constitutional amendments needed for minority reforms because of suspicion that the NLA will conceal most of its firepower from NATO.
NLA commanders counter there will be no disarmament without simultaneous reforms, which revolve around a decentralization of power entailing more jobs for Albanians in public services, particularly the police. They want NATO soldiers to stay put.
NATO, Albanian rebels agree on number of weapons to collect Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24, 11:34 PM
NATO, Albanian rebels agree on number of weapons to collect
SKOPJE, Aug 24 (AFP) -
NATO on Friday set at just over 3,000 the number of weapons its troops will collect from ethnic Albanian rebels over the next month under a peace accord in Macedonia, Western military sources said.
NATO officials were due to meet Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and other government representatives at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) Friday to inform them of the figure, which is well below earlier Macedonian estimates of the rebels' arsenal.
With NATO troops due to begin collecting the weapons at points around northwest Macedonia as of Monday and with a 30-day deadline for completing the operation, officials at alliance headquarters in Brussels said the number of NATO soldiers involved would climb from the initially planned 3,500 to
NATO General Gunnar Lange, who is commanding Operation Essential Harvest, announced Friday that NATO officials and the rebels had reached agreement on the number of arms to be collected.
"The numbers are credible now and close to our own assessment," he said, withholding the figures until they were presented to the government.
A Western military source however said the agreed on estimate was "just above 3,000" weapons.
On Thursday, the Macedonian government had said it believed the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) was holding at least 60,000 various weapons, but NATO officials insisted this was exaggerated.
Lange said on Friday that NATO was accepting the NLA arms figures.
The number of weapons "they have declared they will hand over is the number I am going to collect," he said, indicating the Macedonian government was prepared to go along with the figure.
The arms gathering mission is due to begin on Monday and will last for 30 days.
NATO has promised the government it will collect one third of the weapons by August 31, when Macedonia's parliament meets to debate constitutional changes agreed in the Western-mediated peace deal between Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders on August 13.
Meanwhile on Macedonia's border with the UN-adminsitrated Yugoslav province of Kosovo, the rebel NLA has continued to hamper the operation by moving weapons in and out of Macedonia, NATO officials said.
NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson said arms were still being seized by the alliance-led force in Kosovo, KFOR, and that NATO had reinforced troop numbers to try to secure the border.
One of the keys to the success of the mission, which is a vital part of a peace process aimed at ending more than six months of conflict, is that the shaky ceasefire holds.
Lange said NATO teams had identified potential hotspots in north and northwest Macedonia, were monitoring the truce there and that the NLA was beginning to comply with it.
He said the Macedonian army were to have begun withdrawing heavy weapons from the area on Friday and start returning to barracks, decreasing the likelihood of ceasefire violations.
However the dangers posed by mines laid in the area remains a possible trap for the mission.
British NATO commanders said reports had come in of mine-laying activities in the region by both rebels and government troops, but that his team had not been able to verify those reports.
On Friday, more than 700 soldiers from five nations were due to join the mission, which so far tallies some 1,280 military personnel. More than 350 troops were flying in from Britain, which will lead the operation with around half of the number of troops taking part.
Three convoys carrying 174 Greek troops had crossed their country's border with Macedonian and were travelling to the central town of Krivolak, where NATO plans to destroy explosives and ammunition collected from the rebels.
The arms themselves will be transported back to Greece for destruction at a weapons factory.
Other soldiers from the 12 countries taking part in the operation will be deployed in the volatile regions around Tetovo, Kumanovo and Debar where 10 to 15 collection points will be set up in five zones in an arc across the top of Macedonian.
NATO, Western monitors and government representatives continued to examine potential sites on Friday.
Rebels handing in their weapons who are not wanted for war crimes will be given an amnesty by the government. NATO confirmed on Friday that those surrendering their arms would not be named or registered.
Macedonian Rebels, NATO Form Deal Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24 5:30 PM ET
Macedonian Rebels, NATO Form Deal
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
lKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's rebels have agreed to hand in about 3,000 weapons to NATO (news - web sites) troops, Western diplomats said Friday, clearing the way for the start of a mission aimed at rescuing the country from all-out civil war.
As alliance troops flooded into Macedonia to begin collecting arms next week, NATO and ethnic Albanian rebels revealed they had worked out an arrangement on the number of weapons to be turned over. The number was disclosed by diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States is providing logistical and medical support for the operation from its base in Kosovo but is not sending any forces to Macedonia.
The Macedonian government had claimed the insurgents have 85,000 weapons. Although that figure was considered inflated, the wide gap left open the possibility that hard-liners within the government would try to oppose the deal.
But as preparations on Friday continued, it became clear that the Macedonians had little choice, since NATO's mission is simply to collect the weapons that insurgents want to hand over voluntarily.
``We have a number, and it is a realistic number,'' said U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson, a NATO spokesman. ``It is not a number that is up for debate.''
Macedonian leaders, seeking to save face after presenting the vastly higher figure, attributed much of the difference to methodology.
Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski said that what was important was for the collections to start and inspire a sense of good will.
``The weapons issue is not the one that matters, but the creation of conditions for the refugees to return home,'' he said.
NATO hopes to start the mission Monday and collect about a third of the arms by the end of next week.
The rebel National Liberation Army initially claimed it had just 2,000 weapons, a figure dismissed as too low and ``not really credible'' by Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange of Denmark, the NATO commander in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Likewise, alliance officials had insisted that the 85,000 figure was the result of political posturing by Macedonian leaders.
The peace accord envisions a staggered process in which a cache of weapons is handed over in exchange for political steps by the government. Because the weapons are to be handed over in thirds, the number had to be determined in advance.
Ethnic Albanians, who believe the Macedonian-dominated government has consistently betrayed them, want the country's lawmakers to grant promised changes in the constitution and local government.
Fighting broke out along the Kosovo border in February, when ethnic Albanian insurgents fighting for greater rights for their minority seized a handful of villages.
After an Aug. 13 peace deal, NATO's ruling council authorized some 4,700 troops to help with disarmament of the rebels during a 30-day period. That includes about 3,500 actively involved in the collection of arms and others in administrative and logistic roles, the alliance said Friday.
In addition to NATO's help, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe is talking with the Macedonian government about some sort of monitoring role, but the exact nature of the mission has yet to be determined.
In Germany, where lawmakers are to vote Wednesday on whether to send 500 troops to the NATO mission, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called the operation a test of a new security relationship involving more European independence within NATO to handle conflicts in its back yard. That is a goal long encouraged by Washington.
Fischer said Germany cannot pick and choose which NATO operations it will participate in.
``Since the United States is crucially involved in Europe's security, there could be negative consequences if Germany pursues a policy of selective allegiance to the (NATO) alliance,'' he said.
NATO Assures Macedonia on Prisoners, Refugees Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24 3:28 PM ET
NATO Assures Macedonia on Prisoners, Refugees
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) told Macedonia's president on Friday that prospects had improved for the release of Macedonians captured by ethnic Albanian rebels and a return of refugees. A senior NATO official gave the assurance to President Boris Trajkovski at a meeting that also addressed the number of rebel weapons that alliance troops now deploying in Macedonia intend to gather up and destroy starting next week.
Macedonian government assessments of the guerrillas' arsenal far exceeded initial estimates given either by the rebel command or NATO. But senior Skopje officials indicated before the talks that they would accept a NATO estimate revised slightly upward.
``We had a very fruitful, detailed discussion with the president about the figures on weapons. They will be further clarified tonight and tomorrow. We will come out with an agreed assessment,'' said NATO's special Balkans envoy, Pieter Feith.
``It was important that the president gave us once again his unqualified support for the mission that NATO is going to undertake,'' he said in a brief statement to reporters.
``But we also say we have informed the president that the Tetovo-Jazince road (previously held by guerrillas) is now free, that there will be good opportunities in coming days for displaced (Macedonians) to return to villages in that area.
Encouraged by NATO liaison teams, the ethnic Albanians' National Liberation Army (NLA) and government security forces have begun to pull back from volatile frontline positions to solidify a cease-fire indispensable to the weapons-collection scheme.
``We also informed the president about our latest information from the Red Cross about the missing 13 Macedonians. There are good hopes we can get firm commitments from the Albanian side about an early release,'' Feith said.
Nikola Dimitrov, Trajkovski's national security adviser, told Reuters an agreed target figure for the number of guerrilla weapons to be surrendered would be announced on Sunday after further consultations with NATO.
``All the same, the success of (NATO's) Operation Essential Harvest will above all depend on whether there will be violence after the operation is finished,'' Dimitrov said, alluding to Macedonian fears that the NLA will conceal firepower from NATO.
``It will also depend on conditions (being created) for displaced persons to return home (to areas now occupied by guerrillas), or else we will still be witnesses to terror and kidnapping and other forms of ethnic cleansing.''
The NLA, which seized much of Macedonia northern hills in a six-months conflict, agreed to disarm and disband in exchange for constitutional changes improving the rights of Macedonia's large Albanian minority.
NATO, Macedonia Rebels Make Deal Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24 9:29 AM ET
NATO, Macedonia Rebels Make Deal
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - NATO (news - web sites) and Macedonia's ethnic Albanian rebels reached agreement Friday on how many weapons the militants will hand over, and the alliance said it hoped to collect about a third of the arms by the end of next week.
Gen. Gunnar Lange of Denmark, the NATO commander in Skopje, did not release the weapons figure but told reporters that NATO and the rebels had agreed on a number and it was being submitted to the Macedonian government for review.
The government has hotly disputed the rebel National Liberation Army's claim that it has just 2,000 weapons, insisting the number is closer to 85,000.
``The first figures from the NLA were starting figures and not really credible, so they required some reassessments and further discussions,'' Lange said. ``I believe the numbers are now credible and close to our intelligence assessments.''
Lange said NATO's mission to collect and destroy the weapons would begin next week at about 15 collection points in the cities of Kumanovo, Tetovo and Debar. He predicted that a third of all the arms would be in NATO's hands by the end of the week.
Both the rebels and government forces were to begin withdrawing Friday from areas near the collection sites in order to provide NATO forces with some ``breathing space,'' Lange said.
NATO officials have been reluctant to speculate on weapons figures, arguing that the point of the mission is to build trust - to persuade the ethnic Albanian and Macedonian sides to use the weapons handover as their first mutual confidence-building measure.
Underscoring the risks of the mission, scattered small-arms fire broke out overnight in Macedonia, police said Friday.
Police sources speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that gunfire was reported in northwestern Macedonia near Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city. No injuries were reported, and it was not immediately clear who did the shooting.
A Macedonian man was arrested Friday after he shot off a burst of gunfire into the air about one mile from an old metal factory used as a base by NATO-led troops providing logistics support for peacekeepers in Kosovo. Officials suggested the man was drunk.
Hundreds of NATO soldiers arrived Thursday for the British-led mission, but their preparations got under way amid some doubts that the operation will bring peace to the troubled Balkan nation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said Thursday that he had ``great doubts'' the British-led mission would be able to reconcile Macedonia's warring sides.
``Strictly speaking, to seize the arms is not the main task,'' Putin said on a visit to Ukraine, which has been criticized for selling helicopter gunships to the Macedonian government. ``The main task is to create conditions in which peace comes to this land.''
In Germany, the Cabinet approved a proposal to send soldiers to Macedonia to join the 3,500-member -led mission, but the action still faced a tough fight in parliament. Dissenting lawmakers worry that German troops could get caught in a quagmire if the NATO mission is extended beyond its 30-day deadline.
Adding to the overall uncertainty in Macedonia, a political crisis erupted Thursday when a key ethnic Albanian political party threatened to pull out of the broad-based government created in May to help the country avoid all-out war.
The Party for Democratic Prosperity objected to Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's efforts to fire the justice minister, an ethnic Albanian, for failing to arrange the extradition of an alleged ethnic Albanian rebel leader detained in Germany.
NATO's ruling council authorized the mission despite scattered cease-fire violations recorded since Macedonia's political parties signed a peace accord Aug. 13. Although the ethnic Albanian rebels didn't sign the agreement, they have agreed separately with NATO to disarm.
NATO's Macedonia mission beset by disagreement Posted August 24, 2001
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Friday August 24, 9:55 AM
NATO's Macedonia mission beset by disagreement
SKOPJE, Aug 24 (AFP) -
NATO's mission to collect arms from ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia has been beset by disagreement and scepticism even before its multinational task force has been assembled.
NATO and the Macedonian government differed Thursday over the quantity of weapons NATO troops must collect from ethnic Albanian rebels to satisfy a fragile peace accord as hundreds more alliance soldiers flew in to serve in the operation.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Ukraine, expressed "serious doubts" about the effectiveness of NATO's Essential Harvest operation.
A 440-strong contingent of British troops joined swelling NATO ranks in Skopje, and London announced it would provide 1,900 soldiers for Operation Essential Harvest, more than half the the total of 3,500.
The alliance has given itself 30 days to collect the weapons as part of an overall peace deal that grants greater rights to the ethnic Albanian minority and an amnesty for rebel fighters who demobilize.
The official countdown for the mission is expected to begin Monday, with collection centres being set up in five zones.
But the number of arms to be collected is still being debated by NATO, the government and the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA).
Skopje fired a new salvo in the battle over figures, saying that at least 60,000 weapons were in the hands of the NLA, far more than Western estimates of a few thousand.
Government spokesman Antonio Milososki said the number of arms "is not less than 60,000, and that within the number among pistols and rifles there are also rockets, grenades and landmines."
But a NATO spokesman played down the government figure.
"When you look at the size of the rebels, the number doesn't seem very reliable," NATO Major Barry Johnson said.
Other military sources say the difference in estimates could be down to whether mines, explosives and ammunition are being included in the tally.
"All of that will be covered under a technical agreement which is in the process of being put to paper," one of them said.
Western officials have estimated that less than 3,000 weapons would have to be surrendered and Skopje had said in the past that the NLA has 6,000 to 8,000 light arms.
In Athens, Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva dismissed NATO's plan as insufficient and said it would not stop rebel attacks on government forces.
Asked if she believed 2,500 weapons would be sufficient to disarm the rebels and whether the rebels were going to stop their acts of violence, Mitreva replied: "no to both questions."
But she said she hoped the plan would allow Macedonian forces to "retake their positions and for refugees to return to their homes".
Whatever the tally, NATO has promised the Macedonian government it would gather one-third of all rebel arms. But even if the rebels do hand over enough, Skopje fears the guerrillas could easily rearm and NATO has admitted that new weapons are easy to find.
Putin, who arrived in Ukraine for talks with the Balkan republic's President Boris Trajkovski, said that while he hoped for positive results from the NATO action, "there are serious doubts".
Moscow, one of Macedonia's main backers, has been consistently sceptical of the chances for success of the NATO operation.
"The essential task is not to collect arms," Putin said. "The essential task is to create the conditions in which peace can be established and a halt made to the destruction of cultural monuments, massacres and terrorist actions, so that ... political issues are resolved by political means and not by force of arms."
Moreover it was "difficult to count on the (Albanian) fighters voluntarily giving up their weapons," he said.
Asked whether Russia might send peacekeepers to Macedonia, he said such a decision would require "separate discussions."
Adopting a much more optimistic stance, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that NATO's weapons-collecting mission could be completed in the allotted 30 days, or even 10.
"The NATO agreement ... is that in a benign environment, with a political agreement by both sides committed, and with a security agreement ... the weapons will be picked up," Rumsfeld said. "That is the assignment. Is it possible to do that in 30 days? Heck, it's possible to do it in 10 days."
Rumsfeld refused to speculate on whether a second or an extended mission to continue to collect arms would be necessary.
Six Greek soldiers flew into Skopje on Thursday to take part in the operation and the full contingent of some 450 Greek troops could be in place by Saturday.
Meanwhile the German government decided to send up to 500 troops to participate in the NATO mission, but the decision still requires parliamentary approval.
Nato fears violence as troops arrive in Macedonia Posted August 24, 2001
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Nato fears violence as troops arrive in Macedonia
By Kim Sengupta and Justin Huggler in Skopje
24 August 2001
Nato began its Macedonian mission yesterday amid warnings from its own officials about violence ahead and the bitter dispute between the Skopje government and the Albanian rebels over the disarmament process.
There was also renewed controversy over the core purpose of the Nato mission – collecting armaments from the rebels. The Macedonian authorities insisted yesterday that the Albanian National Liberation Army has a stockpile of at least 85,000 light and heavy weapons, including a small number of tanks. The NLA admits to only 2,300 weapons.
A procession of military heavy transport planes filled the sky over Skopje as hundreds of British troops arrived. Officially, the paratroopers who filed out of the military airport cradling their assault rifles will be leaving again in a little over a month. The Nato task force is not bringing any tanks or heavy artillery with it to Macedonia, because commanders insist its troops are not here to engage in any combat.
Nato officials confirmed that the Albanians are continuing to smuggle arms across the Kosovo border while the rebel leadership negotiates over disarmament. Daniel Speckhard, a senior Nato political official in Skopje, said: "We expect many, many problems on the path of this difficult plan. You can expect to see further incidents of violence."
Further uncertainty arose after a key Albanian party in the ruling coalition government, the PDP, threatened to withdraw over the extradition of a rebel leader detained in Germany. The Macedonian premier, Ljubco Georgievski, has urged Parliament to censure Ixhet Memeti of the PDP for failing to seek the extradition of Sami Habibi, wanted in connection with an attack on a police station.
It was revealed yesterday that Britain has been forced to double its contribution of troops, following the failure of other Alliance nations to provide suitable forces. Although the Government denied accusations of "mission creep" and "overstretch", defence sources admitted that as well as the doubling of the troops, there will also be a stablisation force staying in the country after the 30-day deadline for the mission.
Britain will now provide 2,000 troops out of the 3,500-strong force as well as command and control for the operation. The extra British deployment became necessary because a number of countries revealed, on the day Nato announced the Macedonia mission, that they could not provide forces with the necessary expertise or equipment. An appeal was put out at Nato headquarters at Brussels to other member countries for replacement but, according to defence sources, the only response came from Britain. Apart from the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, the British contingent will now include a reconnaissance troop of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards with eight Scimitar armoured vehicles stationed across the border in Kosovo, and specialist medical and bomb disposal units.
There was criticism and scepticism over the deployment both nationally and internationally. Shadow defence secretary and Tory leadership candidate Iain Duncan Smith said "We have grave concerns over what is being undertaken. What worries us is that they are sending British troops into what is still effectively a war zone. The ceasefire is likely to be broken and British troops, in small numbers, could end up caught in the middle between the two sides."
Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed the mission would fail, saying: "I have grave doubts... because it is unlikely that the guerillas will really hand over weapons."
The fact Nato has sent highly-trained paratroopers and that advance reconaissance was undertaken by the SAS, makes it clear the alliance is fully aware of the risks facing its troops. "Just because the Paras don't have any heavy arms, doesn't mean they can't pack a powerful punch," said British Major Alex Dick yesterday. The troops are in Macedonia despite the fact that a ceasefire Nato insisted was a necessary condition for deploying troops is not holding. The ceasefire is broken daily, and villages have come under four hours' shelling.
U.S. Pledges Macedonia Aid Package Posted August 23, 2001
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Thursday August 23 12:47 PM ET
U.S. Pledges Macedonia Aid Package
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - The United States has pledged $5 million in aid to assist people who have fled their homes during six months of fighting in Macedonia, the U.S. embassy said Thursday.
The aid package will give direct assistance to at least 20,000 people, mainly those who are part of an ethnic minority where they live, the embassy said in a statement. It will include livestock, tools and seeds for agricultural development.
``The assistance is designed to ... allow people to put their lives in order with homes and a means to support themselves as quickly as possible,'' the embassy said.
According to the United Nations (news - web sites) refugee agency, more than 125,000 people are still displaced in Macedonia. About 27,000 refugees have returned from Kosovo over the last two months.
Some of the U.S. aid also will be allocated ``to facilitate reconciliation and community activities,'' the embassy said. It said the United States planned to begin releasing the aid next week.
Macedonian leader to meet key allies in Kiev Posted August 23, 2001
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Thursday August 23, 8:18 PM
Macedonian leader to meet key allies in Kiev
KIEV, Aug 23 (AFP) -
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski arrived Thursday in Kiev for talks with two of his main backers in the ethnic crisis in his country as NATO troops poured into Macedonia on a crucial arms collection mission.
Trajkovski has scheduled meetings with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma, who have both supported Skopje in its conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels, the latter with substantial supplies of weapons.
Russian officials on Wednesday said Putin had agreed to meet Trajkovski, at the Macedonian leader's request, on the sidelines of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary Friday of Ukrainian independence, also attended by Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski.
Putin landed at Kiev's Borispil airport, expressing doubts that the arms collection operation would be enough to end the crisis in Macedonia.
Trajkovski, who arrived an hour before the Russian president, expressed Macedonia's appreciation for Ukraine's support.
"They have been standing behind us during the last six months. I believe my visit (to Kiev) will give additional input to the strengthening of relations and cooperation between our two countries," he told reporters at the airport.
Trajkovski, who has called on Russia to play a more active role in the Balkans, said that Moscow and Skopje "have a lot of things to do together on stability in the Balkans."
In particular, he said, "we would like to create an integrated Europe where Russia and Macedonia have the same goals, to fight against undemocratic tendencies and organised crime and terrorism."
In his talks with Putin, expected to take place later in the day, he would discuss "the whole complex of questions relating to a settlement of the situation in the Balkans," he said.
He indicated, in response to a reporter's question, that Ukraine had ceased delivering weapons to Skopje since the signing of a peace accord with Albanian rebels earlier this month, but added that "cooperation will continue."
Since the fighting erupted in Macedonia earlier this year Kiev has supplied several combat and transport helicopters and at least two Sukhoi attack aircraft.
Russia has expressed vocal support, but serious doubts about the efficacy of the NATO operation Essential Harvest in which some 3,500 troops are due to collect and destroy weapons held by the Albanian rebels in a maximum of 30 days.
Last week Moscow described the operation as a "palliative that will not lead to any radical change in the situation in Macedonia, since it won't put an end to the spillover of terrorism from Kosovo."
Putin said on arriving here that while Russia hoped for "some positive results" from Essential Harvest, "the essential task is to create the conditions in which peace can be established and a halt made to the destruction of cultural monuments, massacres and terrorist actions, so that ... political issues are resolved solely by political means."
He believed it was "difficult to count on the (Albanian) fighters voluntarily giving up their weapons."
Asked whether Russia might send peacekeepers to Macedonia, he said that would require "separate discussions."
Moscow is also hostile to the NATO-led operation in Kosovo, the southern province of its traditional ally Serbia located north of Macedonia, where it accuses Albanian militants of carrying out terrorist actions.
Ninety British troops arrived in Skopje airport early Thursday and were due to be followed by a further 460 later in the day.
THE MACEDONIA PLAN: MAKE COMMERCIALS, NOT WAR Posted August 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ucrr/20010822/cm/the_macedonia_plan_make_commercials_not_war_1.html
Wednesday August 22 08:18 PM EDT
THE MACEDONIA PLAN: MAKE COMMERCIALS, NOT WAR
By Richard Reeves
WASHINGTON -- It's morning in Macedonia. The U.S. government, under pressure to send its own ground troops into the latest neighbor-killing-neighbor warfare in the Balkans, has come up with a plan to spend $250,000 on television, radio and direct-mail advertising urging Slavs and Albanians to be nice.
It's not the worst idea I've ever heard. At least we would know what we're doing: polling, conducting focus groups, making commercials.
The world's only superpower -- we know who we are -- is determined to run the world our way. But we don't want any of our people to get hurt. So we try to persuade other nations to send their sons and daughters into harm's way while we bomb through the clouds and pass along satellite photos, radio intercepts and other high-tech intelligence to friendly foreigners doing our business as peacekeepers, observers and mediators.
It could be argued that the United States has had no foreign policy for this sort of thing -- or has been unwilling to use actual troops on the ground -- since Oct. 18, 1993. That was the day 18 Americans were killed and 78 wounded in Somalia. One day Americans getting their news from television had the impression that United States soldiers were in that African country to run soup kitchens for starving children, and the next day the networks were showing film of the body of a dead airman being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
Since then the United States has been trying to control events (and various murderous thugs from Belfast to Tetovo) by remote control. When we have put in troops, their mission has quickly become self-protection, as in Bosnia, where American soldiers were confined to prison-like bases, wearing flak jackets all day and night as they watched movies and ate a lot of ice cream.
The ends have been generally noble, at least as articulated by information officers, but the means have not been particularly effective. We can't seem to get out of the places we go.
Now it's Macedonia, with its 2 million people on the edge of chaos. Between a third and a quarter of them are ethnic Albanians, mostly Muslims, who generally get the short end of the stick from Christian Slavs. It is tyranny of the majority, and one of the stated goals of Albanian activists and guerrilla fighters is making their language an official second language. One of the things being considered here in Washington is flying groups of Macedonian legislators on both sides to California and Texas to show how well bilingualism works in the good ol' U.S.A.
If that sounds a bit comical, it is no more ridiculous than the entry of 3,500 NATO (news - web sites) troops into Kosovo in the next few days to collect any weapons that Albanian fighters care to give them if there is some kind of national peace agreement signed by both sides. Three hundred Americans will be involved, along with soldiers from Great Britain, the Czech Republic and six other countries, but our role will be restricted to such things as providing satellite intelligence, communications systems and medicine.
The Macedonian commercials, if the White House approves them, will be called, of course, "public service announcements." In Skopje, the capital of the country, an American diplomat has been quoted in The Washington Post as saying: "We are trying to ensure that the peace plan is widely discussed and that the public is well-informed. ... We're also thinking about having radio call-in shows."
We do mean well, I think. Can't they just get along?
Probably not. But let's try. Here is my script for the first commercial:
(A young couple in soft focus walking through a meadow toward the mountains.) Voice-over: "It's morning in Macedonia." (Soundtrack: birds singing.) "Ljube and Fatima and their families have lived near each other these many generations now. They're even thinking of getting married if there's peace and a new American factory paying good wages here in the valley. Maybe send their kids to college, first in their families. Or, maybe they'll kill each other the way their grandfathers always have ..."
Putin Doubtful of Balkans Mission Posted August 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010823/ts/macedonia_putin_1.html
Thursday August 23 11:09 AM ET
Putin Doubtful of Balkans Mission
By MARINA SYSOEVA, Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said Thursday he had ``great doubts'' over whether NATO (news - web sites)'s mission to disarm ethnic Albanian militants in Macedonia would bring stability to the Balkans.
On arrival in Ukraine's capital, Putin said he hoped NATO's decision to deploy 3,500 troops to Macedonia despite simmering violence would bring positive results.
``Although there are great doubts that it will, because it's difficult to count on the rebels handing over their arms,'' Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency.
NATO approved the deployment - its third Balkans venture in the past six years - Wednesday in an effort to bring an end to six months of fighting between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians.
Mission commanders could begin picking up rebel weapons at collection sites scattered across rugged mountain territory as early as next week.
``Strictly speaking, to seize the arms is not the main task,'' said Putin, who was scheduled to meet with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski later Thursday.
Both Trajkovski - whose country has received weapons from Ukraine - and Putin were in Kiev to mark Ukraine's 10th independence anniversary on Friday.
``The main task is to create conditions in which peace comes to this land,'' Putin said, calling for an end to the destruction of cultural monuments, killings and terrorist acts.
Moscow in 1999 strongly opposed NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia over its war with ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo, and has stood on the side of the Macedonian government since the conflict began there.
Officials in Moscow have suggested that NATO did not do enough to disarm the Kosovo rebels and that is why violence spilled over into Macedonia.
NATO Soldiers Stream Into Macedonia Posted August 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010823/ts/macedonia.html
Thursday August 23 10:10 AM ET
NATO Soldiers Stream Into Macedonia
By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - NATO (news - web sites) soldiers streamed into Macedonia on Thursday as part of a mission to help end six months of ethnic hostilities, even though the rival sides still have not agreed on how many weapons the troops should collect.
The British Royal Engineers who arrived in the capital, Skopje, were part of an airlift of 3,500 troops taking part in Operation Essential Harvest. The new troops joined an advance force of about 400 soldiers that began arriving Friday.
The main NATO task is to collect weapons surrendered by the rebels.
``The sooner we get on with it the better,'' said Capt. Keith Beddoe, who arrived with 91 other Royal Engineers. The engineers unloaded their personal gear and stood to the side of the tarmac, intently watching the unusually hectic air traffic.
NATO's ruling council decided Wednesday to approve the full deployment, including several hundred Americans in a behind-the-scenes role, despite scattered cease-fire violations since Macedonia's political parties signed a peace accord Aug. 13. The ethnic Albanian rebels did not sign the agreement but have agreed separately with NATO to disarm.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker welcomed the NATO action and said the United States looks to the insurgents to cooperate with NATO and to fully comply with all their commitments, including to voluntarily disarm.
Macedonia now has a real opportunity to avoid ``a catastrophic civil war,'' he said. ``The leaders and people of Macedonia must now fulfill the promise of peace by rapid implementation of the framework agreement.''
Still, problems surfaced even before the deployment began.
Sporadic shooting incidents marred a fragile cease-fire, including an attack late Wednesday on a police checkpoint in the village of Mlin in northern Macedonia. Police forces responded. There were no injuries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said he had ``great doubts'' that NATO's mission in Macedonia would be successful, the Interfax news agency reported.
On arrival in Ukraine's capital, where he is meeting with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, Putin said, ``it's difficult to count on the rebels handing over their arms.''
The government claimed Wednesday that the rebels have 85,000 weapons, while the rebels have said they're willing to hand over 2,000. Military and diplomatic officials want a deal before the weekend - providing they can apply enough pressure to persuade both sides to accept a figure.
The mission's top military commander, Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange, declined to speculate on the dispute, arguing that the collection process was more important than the actual number of weapons handed in.
``The rebels can re-arm. They can start fighting again,'' Lange said. ``It's a lot more important that the trust and confidence that comes with the political process ... give them no wish to re-arm and start fighting again.''
Mission commanders could begin picking up weapons from the rebel commanders sometime next week, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said. The full deployment is expected to take up to 10 days.
The NATO mission is part of a comprehensive peace plan meant to end six months of fighting between the rebels and government troops. The plan also grants the ethnic Albanian minority greater rights.
The rebels took up arms in February, saying they were fighting for greater rights for Macedonia's minority ethnic Albanians, who account for about a third of the country's population of 2 million. Although the rebels have said they are ready to give up their struggle, the government fears they will fight on for a state of their own.
German government approves Macedonia mission Posted August 23, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010823/1/1cz9y.html
Thursday August 23, 9:19 PM
German government approves Macedonia mission
BERLIN, Aug 23 (AFP) -
The German government decided Thursday to send up to 500 troops to participate in the NATO mission to collect ethnic Albanian rebel arms in Macedonia but the decision still requires parliamentary approval.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced the decision, saying that the contingent to be placed under French command would have a 30-day mandate.
The final decision rests with the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, which is expected to vote on the question Wednesday.
Schroeder said he was assuming that all parties in the assembly would "meet their responsibility" and vote in favour of the mission by a "broad majority".
The leader of the opposition Christian Union parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz, said their present attitude was that they could not recommend approval.
"Perhaps some more will happen in the next few days. There is plenty of time until Wednesday for details," he added however, saying that he detected efforts on the part of the government to take account of opposition misgivings.
The Christian Union parties have said they want more money for the German defence budget and a guarantee that the mandate for the mission will be limited to 30 days.
The chancellor met with parliamentary party managers shortly before a special cabinet meeting during which the decision was reached.
First NATO Troops in Macedonia to Collect Weapons Posted August 23, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010823/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_368.html
Thursday August 23 1:23 PM ET
First NATO Troops in Macedonia to Collect Weapons
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Troops launching NATO (news - web sites)'s third Balkans mission in six years poured into Macedonia on Thursday, preparing to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas as part of a precarious peace plan.
Controversy bubbled over wildly conflicting estimates of the size of the rebel arsenal. Before disarmament begins, NATO must settle on a figure that can placate a Macedonian government that fears rebels will hide weapons to fight again after NATO leaves.
The first 300 of 1,800 British soldiers, who will make up more than half the force for ``Operation Essential Harvest,'' flew into Skopje a day after NATO's 19 states approved the mission, having been persuaded that a brittle cease-fire was stabilizing.
Another six British military flights were due to fly in during the evening carrying equipment and a few troops. An advance party of 150 Greek troops, part of a 411-member contingent, was due on Friday.
Dozens of military flights will roar into the little airport that serves the Macedonian capital, Skopje, over the coming 10 days to fill out the mission of 3,500 troops from 13 countries.
A NATO vanguard of liaison and reconnaissance teams has been in place since Sunday, gauging rebel attitudes on disarmament and weighing up conditions on the often indistinct frontlines that meander through wooded highlands and cornfields.
Under the peace plan, Macedonia's parliament must enact sweeping reforms to improve the status of the big ethnic Albanian minority while the rebels turn over their firepower to NATO troops within a strict 30-day time frame.
NATO commanders hope to start collecting weapons next week.
ARMED EXTREMISTS A MENACE
Analysts say NATO is vulnerable to extremists opposed to the peace and differences between the two sides over the timetable for legislation to improve Albanian minority rights that is meant to be enacted within an ambitious 45-day deadline.
``We expect many, many...problems on the path of this difficult plan. You can expect to see in the future further incidents of violence,'' a senior NATO political official, Daniel Speckhard, said in Skopje on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) was quoted voicing doubts the Western mission would succeed: ``It is unlikely that the guerrillas will really hand over weapons.'' With traditional ties to fellow Orthodox Slavs in the old Yugoslavia, Moscow accuses NATO of being too soft on the mainly Muslim Albanian rebels.
NATO liaison officers have won assurances from local rebel commanders that weapons will be handed in as agreed.
But NATO officers have conceded that guerrilla arms smuggling over the slack border from Kosovo is continuing doggedly despite increased interceptions by peacekeepers there, complicating the task of pinning down a figure for collection.
The two sides are already playing political football over the number of National Liberation Army (NLA) weapons.
Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski, quoting Macedonian intelligence findings, told Reuters on Thursday that ethnic Albanian ``paramilitary groups'' had at least 60,000 light and heavy weapons and pieces of ordnance.
Rebel officers told Reuters at the weekend that the NLA had about 2,300 weapons but added cryptically the amount would be higher if NATO-led Kosovo peacekeepers were not cracking down.
NATO's initial estimate 3,000 weapons. The NLA is thought by Western officials to number only a few thousand active fighters.
MILITARY DISENGAGEMENT
Weapons are to be dumped at 15 collection points, mainly in the regions of Kumanovo six to nine miles north of Skopje and Tetovo 25 miles northwest of the capital.
The plan envisages partial, reciprocal withdrawals by NLA units and government tanks and artillery to help defuse tension and reduce the risk to lightly armed NATO soldiers in between.
Representatives from NATO, the government and the NLA will observe each site to verify the process. Guerrillas turning over weapons voluntarily will be registered for an amnesty to be passed by parliament as part of the multi-tiered peace plan.
The weapons, from assault rifles to heavy mortars, grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets, will be taken by NATO to a third country, probably neighboring Greece, for destruction.
Explosives and ammunition are to be destroyed in Macedonia.
NATO is adamant that the mission will last no more than the 30 days, with another 15 to withdraw from Macedonia, and that its troops will not forcibly disarm anyone or separate, subdue or mediate as they have in Bosnia and Kosovo.
But many analysts say the 30-day mandate envisaged is too short and too weak to defuse ethnic animosities and deter sabotage or reprisals by radicals which could embroil alliance troops and lead to ``mission creep'' as peacekeepers.
``A NATO presence gives stability for everyone in Macedonia,'' said Commander Mususi, an NLA commander near the Kosovo border. ``If NATO stays for less than five years its mission will fail and Macedonia will face the same fate as Bosnia.''
Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on parliament on Thursday not to leave Germany on the international sidelines and to approve deployment of 500 troops to Macedonia as part of NATO's third Balkan peace mission.
For Xhevat Ademi the war in Macedonia is over Posted August 23, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010823/1/1cx0w.html
Thursday August 23, 10:59 AM
For Xhevat Ademi the war in Macedonia is over
TETOVO, Macedonia, Aug 23 (AFP) -
With his tie correctly adjusted, an immaculate shirt and wire-rimmed glasses, Xhevat Ademi does not appear to be a man who has been in combat for the last three months.
However he has just shed his National Liberation Army (NLA) rebel uniform because for him "the war is over".
All around him, in the streets of Recica on the outskirts of the volatile town of Tetovo in northwest Macedonia, Ademi's former brothers in arms continue to patrol.
They stroll the streets in combat fatigues or the black uniform of the "military police", automatic weapons slung across their chests, a knife or a handgun in their belts.
NATO began Operation Essential Harvest in earnest on Wednesday and if it keeps its promises the NLA will give up its arms in the month to come and eventually be disbanded.
"With my personal example, I wanted to send a message: the war has fulfilled its mission, it must come to an end, each soldier should obey that reality," Ademi says.
True, he is not a fighter exactly like the others. Aged around 40, this intellectual has long been an activist for the Albanian cause. Once in charge of an organisation defending the rights of political prisoners, he formed a small political party when the uprising began in February called the National Democratic Party.
On August 15, two days after leaders of Macedonia's political parties finalised a framework agreement re-evaluating the rights of ethnic Albanians, Ademi asked NLA leaders to demobilise him.
"Three months ago, when I first signed on, I thought that the NLA should be reinforced," he says.
Today, he is one of a number of ethnic Albanians who think the uprising has achieved its goals by forcing the government to recognise their language and offer them more jobs in the police force and the administration.
However one big question still has to be answered when NATO is finally ready to start collecting the NLA's weapons, probably next week. Despite all the assurances of their leaders, will the rebels really hand over their arms, given their successes in places like Tetovo, the town that has become symbolic of their struggle?
In Recica, the NLA men are short on words and reluctant to share their feelings. "We are obeying orders, our leaders have spoken, we'll do what they say," is the consensus.
On Sunday, the NLA's political leader, Ali Ahmeti, said that the guerrillas would play NATO's game and hand over their weapons.
However Rufat, a young member of a "logistical battalion" from the mountain town of Sipkovica, was more circumspect.
"The fighters will all tell you that they are ready to obey orders. But it is never easy to give up a weapon after six months of war," he says.
Western leaders fear the rebels may only give up a small part of their arsenal and that many arms could be hidden in the houses of villages or may have already been transferred to neighbouring Kosovo.
"If the Macedonians don't keep their promises, we will take up arms again," warns another young ethnic Albanian from Tetovo.
For Xhevat Ademi, the coming days can be summed up in a local saying.
"There is an Albanian proverb which says that when it is going to be a fine day, you can know as soon as morning. Here, it will be the same thing. If things are going to be held up by the Macedonian side, we will know very quickly, right from the beginning."
Macedonia: Rebels Have More Arms Posted August 22, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010822/wl/macedonia_arms_1.html
Wednesday August 22 3:50 PM ET
Macedonia: Rebels Have More Arms
By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's government on Wednesday claimed that the country's rebels have 85,000 weapons - far more than the 2,000 the militants say they'll hand over to NATO (news - web sites)'s new disarmament mission.
The announcement was a sign of the possible difficulties ahead for the 3,500-member NATO force, which began deploying Wednesday with the arrival of dozens of French soldiers.
Getting the two sides to agree on how many guns to turn in will be the alliance's first major challenge in an operation fraught with risks. Military and diplomatic officials want a deal before the weekend - providing they can apply enough pressure to persuade both sides to accept a figure.
NATO officials rejected the latest government tally as political posturing by hard-liners. The mission's top military commander, Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange, declined to speculate on the dispute, arguing that collection process itself was more important than the actual number of weapons handed in.
``The rebels can re-arm. They can start fighting again,'' Lange said. ``It's a lot more important that the trust and confidence that comes with the political process ... give them no wish to re-arm and start fighting again.''
NATO's ruling council last week authorized about 400 advance troops to lay the groundwork for the British-led Operation Essential Harvest, and on Wednesday it approved the full deployment despite continued sporadic violence.
Hundreds of NATO soldiers will be pouring into the troubled Balkan country in the coming days, moving quickly to take positions for the start of collections next week.
Both ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders welcomed the troops, who are coming as part of a peace deal to end an insurgency that began six months ago. Once their mission gets under way, it is envisioned to last 30 days.
The peace accord envisions a staggered process in which a cache of weapons is handed over in exchange for political steps by the government. Since the weapons are to be handed over in three installments, a figure must be agreed on in advance.
The rebels took up arms in February, saying they were fighting for greater rights for Macedonia's minority ethnic Albanians, who account for about a third of the country's population of 2 million. Although the rebels have said they are ready to give up their struggle, the government fears they will fight on for a state of their own.
The Interior Ministry, which controls the police forces, said the rebels have 10 times more firepower than they previously believed - some 85,000 different weapons in all, not counting individual rounds of ammunition. The rebels say they have only 2,000 weapons.
The new figures, which police said came from fresh intelligence reports, suggested that the rebel arsenal includes 9,000 assault rifles, 8,000 handguns of various calibers, 10 howitzers of various calibers and 20,000 hand grenades.
Macedonian Defense Ministry spokesman Marjan Gjurovski dismissed the suggestion that the government was exaggerating the numbers.
``To say there's a million of pieces is wildest exaggeration,'' he said. But, alluding to the militants' vastly lower estimate, he added: ``To say there's only 2,000 pieces is ridiculous.''
NATO officials said they were confident that a mutually acceptable number would be reached.
``We know this process will not be easy,'' Lange said of the overall mission. ``But we also know this is the best chance the citizens of Macedonia have of avoiding a civil war.''
Violence in the country has subsided, but on Tuesday an explosion shook Sveti Atanasi Orthodox church in the town of Lesok.
On Wednesday, Macedonian security forces said they had destroyed a mosque in the town of Neprosteno over the weekend. Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said snipers were using the building for cover.
Skopje bullying led to rebels' PR coup Posted August 22, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,539966,00.html
Skopje bullying led to rebels' PR coup
Special report: Macedonia
Rory Carroll and Nicholas Wood in Skopje
Tuesday August 21, 2001
The Guardian
The Macedonian authorities have squandered western support and handed a propaganda victory to Albanian rebels by attempting to bully western diplomats and journalists, analysts said yesterday.
Police harassment, threats by government ministers and heavy-handed news management have drained sympathy for the counter-insurgency, which was initially viewed as a justified crackdown on terrorists, they said.
Some Macedonian journalists and officials blame the botched public relations on an alleged western backlash, a perception which has created a vicious circle by fuelling Macedonian hostility toward foreigners. Western journalists are more likely to report from Albanian areas, where they are welcomed.
The Slav majority's frustration at the failure to present its case effectively risked eroding its support for the agreement with the rebels, which many Slavs believe yielded too many concessions. "They feel their voice hasn't been heard properly, which basically is true, and that's a dangerous feeling," said a diplomat.
A government figure caused consternation by trying to sabotage the first press conference by the leader of the National Liberation Army, Ali Ahmeti, on Sunday in rebel-held Sipkovica. In an orchestrated display of cooperation, Mr Ahmeti told journalsts that the insurgency was over.
But the government was furious at the rebels being given a platform and phoned a western official to demand the event's cancellation. The official replied: "I hope you are not about to send a helicopter gunship up to Sipkovica. This [press conference] was bound to happen and as long as he is supportive of the agreement this is actually helpful."
Earlier, the interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, appeared to court those opposed to the agreement by raging against Mr Ahmeti in a television interview: "He is nothing but a criminal responsible for crimes against humanity, committed against his people."
A Guardian reporter was detained at a police checkpoint outside Tetovo, on suspicion of having attended the press conference. A notebook was confiscated to extract the names of interviewees.
Blast Rocks Monastery in Macedonia Posted August 22, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010821/wl/macedonia_491.html
Tuesday August 21 12:50 PM ET
Blast Rocks Monastery in Macedonia
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Ethnic Albanian rebels attacked a 13th century Orthodox Christian monastery Tuesday, damaging the building and placing a severe strain on a fragile cease-fire that is a key requirement for NATO (news - web sites) deployment in Macedonia.
The insurgents set off a 3 a.m. blast that caused ``major damage'' to the Sveti Atanasi monastery in the town of Lesok, the government said. Ethnic Albanian rebels began launching assaults last month on the village, which is just outside Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city.
``This is barbarism,'' said Antonio Milososki, the Macedonian government spokesman. The ethnic Albanians are Muslim while the country's majority are Orthodox Christian Slavs.
The blast and other sporadic cease-fire violations come at a time when NATO troops are trying to determine if it is peaceful enough here to fan out and collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels.
Despite the violations, the alliance's ruling council was expected on Wednesday to order a launch of the mission, sending thousands of troops into Macedonia, said a NATO official. The official spoke in Brussels, Belgium, on condition of anonymity after Gen. Joseph Ralston, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, briefed the council on his fact finding mission to the strife-torn country.
The rebels launched their insurgency six months ago, claiming they were fighting for more rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up as much as one-third of the country's population of 2 million.
The Macedonian government says the insurgents want to capture territory and create their own state.
Dozens of people were killed and thousands displaced before ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders accepted a peace deal. Under the agreement, which grants ethnic Albanians more rights, NATO troops will move in to disarm the rebels.
NATO has said it will deploy a 3,500-member, British-led force to Macedonia when it is confident that the cease-fire is viable. No one is offering a definition of just how much fighting NATO is willing to endure and still claim a cease-fire is holding.
The NATO meetings come as an advance team moved into the countryside to make contact with ethnic Albanian rebels.
The British liaison team from the 16 Air Assault Brigade traveled to Nikustak, a rebel-held village along the front line about 10 miles northeast of the capital, Skopje. The team was meeting with local rebel commanders to discuss details of how the British-led weapons collection mission, dubbed Operation Essential Harvest, would work.
Even if NATO decides to move in, they'll find it hard to persuade those under attack that lasting peace is achievable.
Macedonia Government Lauds NATO Mission but People Wary Posted August 22, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010822/wl/balkans_macedonia_reaction_dc_2.html
Wednesday August 22 11:10 AM ET
Macedonia Government Lauds NATO Mission but People Wary
By Ana Petruseva
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - The Macedonian government on Wednesday praised NATO (news - web sites)'s decision to install a 3,500-strong force to collect ethnic Albanian guerrilla weapons but most ordinary people seemed resigned or cynical about the mission.
``We welcome the decision of (NATO's) North Atlantic Council for the activation of Operation Essential Harvest. This is another decisive step forward toward a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Macedonia,'' Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski said.
``Together with our partners and friends from NATO as well as with the international community's support, we will continue along this difficult track toward peace,'' he told Reuters.
NATO's 19 member governments earlier in the day approved the third alliance venture into the Balkans since 1995. But unlike NATO missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, alliance diplomats insisted the new force would not act as peacekeepers or mediators.
Macedonians, still bitter over being pushed by the West into sheltering 230,000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo's 1999 war only to be hit by an uprising by guerrillas who earlier fought in Kosovo, were generally dismissive of NATO's decision.
``Nothing will change,'' said Goran Antevski, aged 28. ``They will collect only those weapons that are not buried. Provocations and incidents will happen again and the army won't respond any more. So I don't see how anything can change.''
FEARS OF REBEL GAINS
``I don't see how NATO can help or worsen matters,''
Valentina Janevska, 31, said. ``I think they need to be present on the ground but it won't make much difference.''
Vese Petkovski, 42, resorted to Balkan fatalism: ``(NATO) will do whatever they want and we will just continue with our lives because there just isn't anything else we can do.''
The guerrilla National Liberation Army signed an accord with NATO a week ago to surrender arms and ammunition to NATO troops in exchange for new laws improving Albanian minority rights. Disarmament and legislation are to proceed side by side.
Many Macedonians, however, believe the NLA will hide weapons or stage violence to bog down NATO in another policing role that would cement the territorial gains of the rebels.
``I think this is just a discreet way to split Macedonia and NATO is going to represent some kind of buffer zone between Macedonian and Albanian parts of the country,'' said Dragan, a 48-year-old man who did not want his last name used.
But Vlado Jovanovski, 35, disagreed. ``I think it's very good that NATO is coming into the country because it will bring an end to this six-month crisis,'' he said of the revolt by minority ethnic Albanians who have occupied wide areas of Macedonia's hilly north.
GUERRILLAS SAY ``NO LOSERS''
A government-guerrilla cease-fire has generally held for the past week despite a fierce gun and mortar battle outside the mainly ethnic Albanian city of Tetovo Sunday night and the demolition of an Orthodox church in rebel territory Tuesday.
Just 6 km up the mountain overlooking Tetovo is the village headquarters of the NLA ``general staff'' where guerrillas with mobile phones milling about the main square received news of the imminent NATO deployment.
There was the occasional rattle of unexplained machine gun fire outside Sipkovica and two NATO peacekeepers' helicopters from nearby Kosovo whirred occasionally overhead.
NLA commander Ali Ahmeti's spokesman Dren Korabi, who also fought with Kosovo Albanian guerrillas against Serbian rule in 1998-99, said NATO's arrival would boost peace prospects.
``There are no losers in this agreement. If the Macedonians want peace, they can have it. If not, then we have a problem. And they will see they have a problem,'' he told Reuters.
He rejected Macedonian suspicions that the NLA would give up only worthless old weapons and go back to war when it suited.
Speaking to Reuters in the home of a friend, he picked up a rudimentary shotgun fashioned from piping and said: ``We will hand over this one but we'll also hand over our other weapons.''
``It's going to be hard to take off my uniform and put on normal clothes,'' Korabi said. ``I'm used to this way of life now. But we have promised to change and stop being soldiers and we will.''