[ALBSA-Info] Gunfire in western Macedonia and demonstrations

[Iris Pilika]

Balkans tension spreading

Gunfire in western Macedonia was heard as Yugoslav troops enter the buffer 
zone in the north, along the Kosovo border
March 14, 2001
Web posted at: 1617 GMT


TETOVO, Macedonia -- Gunfire has been heard in an area of the Balkans 
previously unaffected by the recent violence in the region.

Heavy machine-gun fire and occasional mortar blasts were heard on Wednesday 
in western Macedonia, near the town of Tetovo.

The reports came as Yugoslav forces began operations to squeeze Albanian 
rebels out of a border area further along Macedonia's northern border with 
Kosovo.

Reports said gunfire was heard from two different directions in the 
mountains along the Macedonian border with Kosovo.

"Police are being shot at, and they are responding," said Macedonian Defence 
Ministry spokesman Blagoja Markovski.

It was reported that three police officers had been wounded.

The independent Beta news agency in Belgrade said Macedonian police had been 
sent into the area and witnesses said up to 10 ambulances were seen heading 
for the scene.

Macedonian state radio reported "fierce clashes" between Macedonian security 
forces and Albanian guerillas in the mountainous area.

CNN Correspondent Chris Burns was among those who heard shots in the hills 
above Tetovo, the main ethnic Albanian town in Macedonia, on Wednesday.

He said: "Macedonian sources said that Macedonian Army troops had exchanged 
gunfire with about a dozen troops wearing black uniforms with Albanian rebel 
arm bands.

"The shots heard in the hills above Tetovo came as about 1,000 Albanian 
demonstrators demanded that the Macedonian government provide more rights 
for Albanians living in Macedonia.

"Some of the demonstrators cheered the firing. Two members of a Macedonian 
television crew were beaten up by the demonstrators."

Ethnic Albanian rebels last month occupied the village of Tanusevci, north 
of Tetovo, and nearby areas in northern Macedonia and clashed with the 
police and army, leaving five dead.

They were driven out less than a week ago in a joint operation between the 
Macedonian army and NATO-led troops operating in Kosovo.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Albania (DPA), Macedonia's biggest 
ethnic Albanian party, held a large march in the capitol Skopje demanding an 
end of violence along the northern border and to urge political dialogue.

Meanwhile, further along Macedonia's northern border with Kosovo, Yugoslavia 
troops were being deployed into the buffer zone previously overrun by ethnic 
Albanian rebels.

Under a ceasefire negotiated with the rebels by NATO, columns of trucks and 
armoured personnel carriers entered the southern tip of the zone, in the 
Presevo valley, near the villages of Norca, Trnava and Miratovac.

Although NATO hopes the Yugoslav troops will calm the zone and reduce the 
movement of rebels and weapons into Macedonia, the rebels have said they 
cannot guarantee all their fighters will recognise the 20-day ceasefire.

But in Miratovac, a crowd of Serbs attacked a police station. "This is a 
riot situation. They are behaving very aggressively. Two people are injured 
and one police car is burning," Dmitry Kaportsev, spokesman for UN police in 
Kosovo, said.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.


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