[ALBSA-Info] Bulgaria promises military supplies for Macedonia

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Bulgaria promises military supplies for Macedonia

  
SOFIA, March 8 (Reuters) - Bulgaria said on Thursday it will send hundreds of 
tonnes of military supplies to neighbouring Macedonia to back its campaign 
against separatists along its border with Kosovo. 

"We will send hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and other supplies. The aid 
was requested on Wednesday ... I cannot give further details," Defence 
Minister Boiko Noev told reporters. 

Bulgaria has condemned the activities of ethnic Albanian guerrillas alleged 
to have occupied areas near Macedonia's border with Kosovo, saying the 
flashpoint threatens to destabilise the volatile Balkans. 

The defence ministry said later the first trucks carrying supplies left on 
Thursday. 

Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov left for a two-day official visit to 
Skopje on Thursday to discuss the crisis. 

Macedonia, the only former Yugoslav republic to have split away from the 
federation without conflict, has called for help in dealing with the armed 
group which it says threatens the relations between its Slav majority and 
large ethnic Albanian minority. 

On Wednesday, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and U.S. peacekeepers took 
control of Mijak, a town in Kosovo adjoining the Macedonian village of 
Tanusevci that had been occupied by gunmen presumed to be ethnic Albanians. 
U.S. peacekeepers have shot and wounded two rebels on the frontier.