[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia Announces Cease-Fire

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia Announces Cease-Fire

By COLLEEN BARRY
  
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - The Macedonian government announced a nationwide 
cease-fire Thursday with ethnic Albanian rebels whose four-month insurgency 
has threatened political stability in this Balkan country. 

NATO troops will be deployed to disarm the rebels as a key element of the 
agreement. U.S. troops will handle logistics, NATO spokesman Paul Barnard 
said, without elaborating on whether that would be their only role or 
explaining what logistics entailed. 

The open-ended cease-fire, brokered by NATO and the European Union, came a 
day after President Boris Trajkovski announced progress in political 
dialogue. The cease-fire takes effect just after midnight Thursday, said 
Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski. 

Preceding the cease-fire, the government reported heavy fighting overnight 
around Kumanovo, about 15 miles northeast of the capital, one of the 
conflict's hot spots. The attack from the rebel-held areas around Slupcane 
continued until around 6 a.m. No injuries were reported. 

Some 3,000 NATO troops from 15 nations, including the United States, were 
expected to be deployed as early as mid-month, and the actual disarmament 
would begin two weeks later, Buckovski said. British forces will lead the 
operation, which is expected to be completed in four to six weeks. 

``Once we have seen the cease-fire will last and we see progress in political 
dialogue, we will be ready to commit troops,'' Barnard said in Skopje. 

The final composition of the disarmament force has not been determined, but 
Barnard said British troops working with Greek, Italian and French forces 
would be directly involved in the disarmament. 

``It is a major step forward,'' the Macedonian president's national security 
adviser, Nikola Dimitrov, told Associated Press Television News. ``Of course 
it is not the end of the crisis, but it will create the conditions for 
political dialogue and of course it is one of the conditions for disarmament 
to be realized.'' 

``We think and we hope this will bring peace to the Macedonian citizens,'' he 
said. 

Macedonia's chief of general staff, Pande Petrevski, signed a cease-fire 
agreement Thursday in Skopje, and Ali Ahmeti, political leader of the rebels' 
National Liberation Army, signed separately Wednesday evening in the southern 
Kosovo city of Prizren. 

``The cease-fire is different from the ones before and more important because 
this one was brokered by the EU, U.S. and NATO leaders as a way to create 
conditions to resume political dialogue,'' said Gezim Ostreni, the rebels' 
military chief. 

He said the rebels would abide by any political agreement as long as it 
provides equality for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority. 

The cease-fire deal also provides for early parliamentary elections in 
November and includes amnesty for rebels who have not committed any crime 
during the insurgency, Buckovski said. 

The elections seek to provide better proportional representation for the 
Albanian minority, who make up about a third of the country's 2 million 
people but control only 25 seats in the 120-member national legislature. 

The breakthrough came amid heightened international diplomatic efforts by EU 
and U.S. envoys dispatched after rioting 10 days ago brought the country to 
the brink of civil war. EU envoy Francois Leotard and his U.S. counterpart, 
James Pardew, told reporters that the cease-fire ``sets a positive atmosphere 
for the new political dialogue.'' 

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and EU foreign policy chief Javier 
Solana welcomed the cease-fire, emphasizing that it creates the opportunity 
to make significant progress in the political dialogue. 

``As we have repeatedly stated, there can be no military solution to the 
present conflict - only a political solution can provide lasting peace and 
stability in the country and in the wider region,'' they said in a joint 
statement. ``We call upon all parties to respect fully these cease-fire 
declarations and to act with utmost discipline and restraint in avoiding 
incidents that could lead to a return to violence.'' 

The rebels launched their insurgency in February, saying their fight centered 
on securing greater rights and recognition for ethnic Albanians. The 
government contends the militants are bent on seizing territory, and it has 
refused to negotiate directly with the insurgents. 

On Wednesday, Trajkovski announced that leaders of the country's major 
Macedonian Slavic and Albanian parties had agreed to launch expert-level 
talks on reforms to better protect the rights of ethnic Albanians. 

Experts began meeting Wednesday and were expected to have a draft proposal 
ready over the weekend, a Cabinet source said. The issues under discussion 
include demands by ethnic Albanian political leaders for wider use of their 
language in official business and proportional representation in government 
institutions and strengthening local government. 

Albanian leaders also want the constitution to include provisions that will 
allow the Albanian minority to override future parliamentary decisions that 
have an impact on the minority - one of the most contentious issues. 

A French constitutional expert, Robert Badinter, last week recommended 
against this measure, saying it runs counter to current democratic trends.