[ALBSA-Info] NATO re-assures Macedonia on guerrilla crisis

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

NATO re-assures Macedonia on guerrilla crisis

By Elisaveta Konstantinova

SKOPJE, March 2 (Reuters) - NATO assured Macedonia on Friday it was committed 
to its territorial integrity at the end of two-day crisis talks on how to 
resolve tension along the border with Kosovo. 

The alliance assured Macedonia it was taking seriously the guerrilla 
occupation of a border village after earlier urging the government not to use 
force for fear of damaging fragile relations between the country's ethnic 
Albanians and Slavs. 

An adviser to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski criticised the alliance 
earlier on Friday for holding Macedonian forces back while letting the 
guerrillas through. 

"It is a matter of great difficulty to use political means when you deal with 
terrorists in defending your territory," security adviser Nikola Dimitrov 
told Reuters. 

"This is very irresponsible on behalf of NATO." 

Macedonia threatened to use military force to eject what it says are ethnic 
Albanian guerrillas occupying the border village of Tanusevci, some 40 km (25 
miles) to the north of Skopje, but wants international backing. 

Responding to complaints from Skopje's worried government, alliance 
Secretary-General George Robertson issued a statement saying NATO was paying 
full attention to the situation and would receive detailed reports at the 
weekend. 

A NATO delegation wound up an emergency visit on Friday and returned to 
Brussels to report back. 

Robertson repeated that NATO was taking robust measures to increase security 
on the Kosovo side of the border and again commended the Balkan state for 
"its measured response to the situation so far and its efforts to resolve the 
problems through peaceful means." 

NATO URGES NEGOTIATIONS 

On Thursday, NATO told the Macedonians to use negotiation to solve the 
occupation, which has led to firefights between the guerrillas and the 
Macedonian army that have caused alarm in Western capitals fearful of 
snowballing violence. 

A military solution would damage inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia, 
visiting NATO delegate Daniel Speckhard, deputy assistant to Robertson, told 
Macedonian officials. 

Macedonia, with one-third of its population ethnic Albanians, borders Greece, 
Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia and the mainly Albanian Kosovo province. It is seen 
as vulnerable to any spillover of recent violence in and around Kosovo. 

Dimitrov complained that a lack of vigorous action would allow the armed men, 
thought to number up to a 100, to entrench themselves along the border. 

"Remaining passive will allow them to strengthen their positions and go into 
other villages. It is only one village now but if we do not take measures 
now, the problem might grow out of proportion," Dimitrov said.    

"One or two more serious incidents along the border would destabilise the 
region," he said. 

KFOR has promised to shore up border controls, but worries over the safety of 
its troops have kept them away from the armed men. Diplomats say KFOR cannot 
intervene on the Macedonian side of the border because it lacks the mandate. 

"That would be a whole new deployment, a whole new mission" for which there 
is little appetite, one Western envoy said. 

On Friday, the pilot of a NATO light observation plane reported being shot at 
near the border between Macedonia and Kosovo. Several bursts of fire were 
reported during the day.