[ALBSA-Info] Macedonian border trouble spreading, officials say

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonian border trouble spreading, officials say

By Kole Casule

  
SKOPJE, March 6 (Reuters) - Albanian guerrilla activity is spreading along 
Macedonia's border with Kosovo despite international efforts to contain the 
unrest, officials said on Tuesday. 

"We have unconfirmed information that there is movement of armed groups in 
the villages in the Kumanovo area," a police spokesman told reporters, adding 
that women and children had fled one village saying they had heard shooting. 

NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping forces reinforced control of the Kosovo side of 
the border, but Macedonian officials said ethnic Albanian guerrillas were 
stepping up activity in the tiny Balkan state where Albanians make up one 
third of the population. 

Kumanovo is a multi-ethnic area close to a motorway linking central Europe 
with the Balkans and about 35 km (20 miles) north of Skopje. The Macedonian 
capital lies about four km (two miles) south of the border with southern 
Serbia, where ethnic Albanian guerrillas have confronted Serb forces for more 
than a year. 

The police spokesman said 177 people, mostly women and children, had fled the 
village of Gosince, east of Tanusevci, where an armed group appeared more 
than a month ago and has clashed seriously with security forces over the past 
week. 

The Gosince villagers had heard gunfire in the area and were afraid of being 
hit, the official said. A Western diplomatic source said there had been some 
reports the villagers were told to leave by gunmen operating in the area. 

Most of the civilian population of the hamlet of Tanusevci fled to Kosovo 
after the skirmishes between Macedonian security forces and what Skopje 
describes as "ethnic Albanian terrorists" started more than a week ago. 

The crisis intensified on Sunday with the killing of three Macedonian 
soldiers and on Monday, Macedonian officials said it was spreading back into 
Macedonia and announced they had began calling up police and army reservists. 

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE GROWS RAPIDLY 

Macedonia has issued desperate appeals for urgent help from the international 
community and pressed KFOR to get tough on the Kosovo side of the border. It 
planned to step up the pressure at NATO headquarters and the United Nations 
this week. 

The U.S. peacekeepers brought new reinforcements to the area around Debelde, 
a Kosovo village just across from Tanusevci, where snow and fog were 
hampering surveillance efforts. 

KFOR commander Carlo Cabigiousu told reporters in Pristina the border area 
was under control and said his forces were in close contact with Macedonian 
authorities. 

But he reiterated that Macedonia's territory was outside KFOR control. "My 
mandate covers the territory of Kosovo and we don't have military activities 
that are stretching over the border," he said. 

Western officials, who had earlier called for restraint, told the Macedonians 
on Sunday they would understand if they took military action against the 
guerrillas. 

But the government is clearly reluctant to use serious force in order not to 
increase tensions among local ethnic Albanians. 

Some gunmen were seen pulling out of Tanusevci after exchanging fire with 
Macedonian troops on Monday and dumping their arms and uniforms but KFOR says 
most of them had not crossed into Kosovo. 

U.S. soldiers, who have pledged to detain anyone who tries to cross, said 
they had arrested only three people so far. 

Macedonia has closed its border with Kosovo for what it says are security 
reasons, depriving the U.N.-run Serbian province of supplies coming from or 
through its territory and cutting off some international personnel who were 
stranded in Skopje. 

Hans Haekkerup, U.N. governor of Kosovo, said in Pristina he wanted the 
border open as soon as possible. 

On Tuesday, Albania joined an international chorus of concern that violence 
could again spread across the Balkans. 

"I hope the Albanians (of southern Serbia and Macedonia) will choose dialogue 
because otherwise they will become isolated and lose everyone's support," 
Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro. 

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov, on a visit to Brussels, said ethnic 
Albanian guerrillas in Macedonia were a politically isolated group that must 
be stopped in its tracks. "The message must be firm and categorical," 
Stoyanov said. 

But he said NATO and other international organisations appeared to have no 
coherent view at the moment on how to tackle guerrilla challenges in 
Macedonia and southern Serbia.