[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia awaits U.S. envoy verdict on peace talks

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia awaits U.S. envoy verdict on peace talks

By Daniel Simpson

  
SKOPJE, July 3 (Reuters) - Macedonia waited on Tuesday for U.S. envoy James 
Pardew's first verdict on the prospects for kick-starting stalled peace talks 
after another night of army helicopter strikes on ethnic Albanian guerrillas. 

Diplomats warned against expecting miracles from the man Washington appointed 
at the weekend to intensify Western efforts to end an ethnic Albanian 
rebellion before it slides into civil war that could touch off a wider Balkan 
conflict. 

Leaders from across Macedonia's ethnic divide talked for two hours in secret 
on Monday evening after crisis meetings with Pardew and his European Union 
counterpart Francois Leotard. 

But the tiny republic's politicians remain bogged down in discussions about 
how to restart formal talks on a peace plan they agree on in principle but 
dispute bitterly in practice. 

"This is a grind," a diplomatic source said of the task ahead. "It's not like 
someone wades in and waves a magic wand." 

For a second night running, the army sent Mi-24 gunships swooping in on 
Radusa, a village held by the gunmen whose four-month rebellion in the name 
of greater rights for minority Albanians has brought Macedonia to the brink. 

Last week's controversial NATO-backed evacuation of rebels from a village on 
Skopje's outskirts sought to ease the pressure on peace talks. But the 
guerrillas have since seized new ground and vowed to advance further while 
the politicians stand still. 

Monday night's meeting was only the second since police reservists stormed 
parliament a week ago, firing into the air in protest at NATO's intervention 
and sending politicians fleeing out of a back door. But diplomats say this in 
itself is progress. 

"You could say talking is going on again," a diplomatic source said, 
cautioning against expecting too much. "Whether that's a formal political 
dialogue is for others to decide." 

The detention of an Albanian academic over alleged links to the guerrillas 
will not help the search for compromise. 

Police picked up Fadil Sulejmani, the rector of an Albanian university which 
inflames passions because it is denied any official status. 

Renewed fighting only increases the pressure further. 

Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said Macedonian forces had exchanged fire 
with the rebels in the area around Radusa on the mountainous border with 
Kosovo. 

"The terrorist groups opened mortar, machinegun and sniper fire towards our 
border watchtower and a police position. We returned fire fiercely," he said. 

A spokesman for the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA), which is demanding 
international mediation and is sure to welcome U.S. involvement, said on 
Sunday they had advanced after repeated government shelling. 

Ethnic Albanian politicians are equally keen on a greater foreign role in the 
crisis. But their Macedonian counterparts have so far resisted formalised 
international participation in a process designed to extend more rights to 
the Albanian minority. 

About 100,000 mostly ethnic Albanian villagers have fled their homes since 
the conflict began. More than 70,000 of them have gone to live with Albanian 
families in neighbouring Kosovo.