[ALBSA-Info] Moderate leader urges kinsmen to peace bid

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Moderate leader urges kinsmen to peace bid

SKOPJE (AP) - The top ethnic Albanian leader in the Former Yugoslav Republic 
of Macedonia (FYROM) urged his ethnic brethren yesterday to take part in a 
peace march reflecting that most Albanians in the country oppose recent 
outbreaks of violence by shadowy armed gangs in the north. 

In an appeal, Arben Xhaferi and his Democratic Party of Albanians said 
Albanians here, who make up almost a quarter of FYROM's two million people, 
must show the world that, "another war in the Balkans cannot be tolerated." 

Clashes between government troops and Albanian rebels in the north erupted 
with new intensity along the border with Yugoslavia's Kosovo province last 
week, heightening fears of a new major Balkan conflict in the making. Ethnic 
Albanian rebels - without clearly defined goals except demands for self rule 
and union with Kosovo - are also fighting Yugoslav forces across the border 
in southern Serbia, in a buffer zone adjoining Kosovo. 

Those clashes and skirmishes in FYROM threaten a tenuous stability establishe
d in the region after the arrival of Nato and a UN mission in Kosovo in 
mid-1999. 

In Macedonia, three policemen were killed in fighting between Albanian rebels 
and state troops in the northern border village of Tanusevci last week. "The 
violence in Tanusevci jeopardized... the entire image of Albanians and 
threatened their natural alliance with the democratic nations of the West," 
Xhaferi said. 

The Albanian leader also said that the armed conflict in the north was 
carried out by "extremists," and was condemned by Nato, the United Nations, 
the United States and "all relevant Albanian politicians who have stood up in 
the defense of Macedonia's territorial integrity and true Albanian 
interests." Out of the recent violence, Xhaferi said, Albanians have "emerged 
as villains, as the guilty party and a destabilizing element for the region." 
This image must be countered, Xhaferi said, calling on Albanians to take part 
in the peace march today in the capital, Skopje. 

In a veiled warning to the northern insurgents, Xhaferi said, "no Albanian 
must permit such a gross mistake as another Balkan war," adding also that 
Nato would not allow Albanians to "win such a war." A widespread ethnic 
Albanian insurgency could dramatically worsen lingering tensions between 
Skopje's majority Slavs and the ethnic Albanian community. 

FYROM was the only republic to break away from Yugoslavia without war, and 
although ethnic tensions persisted, they had not exploded into major violence 
prior to the recent skirmishes.