[ALBSA-Info] NATO backs Macedonia force, urges political deal

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO backs Macedonia force, urges political deal

By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor

  
LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - NATO members gave final approval on Friday to a 
plan to send up to 3,000 troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the 
weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels if a political settlement can be reached. 

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said it was now up to the government 
in Skopje to conclude political negotiations to resolve ethnic Albanian 
grievances and observe a truce so the alliance could provide assistance. 

"The ball is now firmly in the court of the Macedonian government to deliver 
on the political dialogue and the ceasefire in order to allow NATO's help to 
come into effect," he said in an interview with Reuters on a visit to London. 

The force would only go to Macedonia once a lasting ceasefire had been 
declared and a political agreement reached between Macedonian political 
parties. 

"There will be no NATO deployment unless there is a permissive environment 
and a ceasefire," Robertson said. 

In Brussels, NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur said the alliance had approved the 
"Essential Harvest" operational plan for troops to deploy in Macedonia for 
about 30 days to collect weapons from disarming Albanian guerrillas once the 
conditions were met. 

Fifteen of the 19 NATO member countries, including the United States, have 
committed troops, Brodeur said. 

He declined to identify the other countries involved, but NATO sources have 
said Britain, France, Spain, Greece, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and 
Norway are among possible contributors. 

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY 

Western nations have been engaged in intensive diplomacy to try to prevent 
the four-month-old rebellion in Macedonia, fuelled from neighbouring 
NATO-patrolled Kosovo, from turning into a new Balkan war. 

Robertson said he hoped new European Union special envoy Francois Leotard 
would be able to persuade the Macedonian authorities to use a window of 
opportunity to end the conflict. 

"I hope he is going to be successful in persuading the various elements of 
the national unity government now to recognise that avoiding civil war is 
possible, but only if there is an urgent addressing of the political 
dialogue," he said. 

The rebels say they are fighting to improve the rights of the large ethnic 
Albanian minority in Macedonia. 

Earlier this month NATO ordered military planners to ready a force for 
Macedonia to collect arms from Albanian guerrillas as soon as a political 
agreement could end fighting in the former Yugoslav republic. 

When plans for the force were first announced, diplomats said NATO hoped it 
would hasten the conclusion of a political deal with ethnic Albanian party 
leaders. 

The two sides have been discussing ways to improve minority rights, but talks 
have stalled and some Western analysts question whether there will be any 
agreement to enforce. 

NATO sources have said the alliance has no intention of mounting a third 
major Balkan peacekeeping mission alongside those in Bosnia and Kosovo, 
despite calls from the guerrilla National Liberation Army for international 
troops to police a ceasefire. 

Asked why the Albanian guerrillas should surrender their arms to NATO if they 
knew the allied force would be gone within 30 days, Robertson said: "Because 
the Albanian guerrillas know there is in a democracy a political dialogue 
with two Albanian parties who will be delivering on the grievances that 
remain outstanding by the Albanian community. 

"There is no need for the armed insurgency if the political dialogue produces 
the reforms," he added.