[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia army readies for push as concern deepens

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia army readies for push as concern deepens

By Anatoly Verbin

  
TETOVO, Macedonia, March 20 (Reuters) - Macedonia, trying to end the ethnic 
Albanian rebellion on its doorstep and avoid yet another Balkan 
conflagration, was on Tuesday poised to begin what it called "a final 
operation to destroy the terrorists." 

Six days of pounding of guerrilla positions outside the town of Tetovo, close 
to the border with Albanian-majority Kosovo, have failed to quell the rebels, 
whom many suspect of wanting to establish a "Greater Albania" in the Balkans 
taking in Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Montenegro. 

Macedonia, one-third of whose people are ethnic Albanians, wants to get the 
fighting over as soon as possible, and its army has brought up 10 
Soviet-built tanks and a dozen truckloads of troops for its final assault. 

Meanwhile the European Union, NATO, Russia and the United States all 
expressed concern and support, as did U.N. chief Kofi Annan in New York, but 
despite Russian urging the West was only too eager to let Macedonia do the 
actual fighting. 

NATO, already deeply committed in Kosovo, announced troop reinforcements on 
the border with Macedonia to stop further infiltration of guerrillas. 
Secretary-General George Robertson vowed "decisive action" but declined to 
give numbers, locations or timing. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the situation in the region was 
starting to "spiral out of control" and urged the international community to 
use all means, including force, to prevent a new Balkan conflagration. 

But U.S. President George W. Bush's administration said it was studying 
"non-military" ways to help Macedonia. 

"The president is concerned about the actions taken by Albanian extremists 
and that's another reason why the president and NATO authorized stepped-up 
patrols of...KFOR (the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force)," said spokesman 
Ari Fleischer. 

EU, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS FLY IN 

European Union security chief Javier Solana flew to Skopje on Monday evening 
in company with Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim, who had been in 
Brussels to brief EU and NATO officials on the situation. 

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was also expected to fly to Skopje on 
Tuesday and was expected to try to coordinate Russia's position with Balkan 
leaders and with the West. 

Solana will also have talks in the Macedonian capital, but the EU has reacted 
coolly to suggestions that Western troops should be sent to Macedonia. 

Solana said he would urge ethnic Albanian leaders in Skopje to help isolate 
the guerrillas. 

"There is a very strong convergence between all EU member states, all NATO 
states and all the countries of the region that we should not let a handful 
of extremists provoke a spiral of violence," said French Foreign Minister 
Hubert Vedrine in Brussels. 

NATO's Robertson told reporters that the aim of sending more alliance troops 
to the Kosovo border was to cut the rebels' supply routes, but that the 
international community would not seek an extended mandate to operate within 
Macedonia itself. 

In Skopje, government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said Macedonian security 
forces had destroyed the main guerrilla stronghold on a hill overlooking 
Tetovo, a town of around 70,000 people. 

"The Macedonian security forces will soon start a final operation to destroy 
the terrorists," he said. "That will happen when our commanders in the field 
decide that there will be minimum risk of losing lives of security forces." 

Macedonian forces have mortared and machine-gunned guerrilla positions since 
Wednesday in a bid to dislodge what they say are several hundred guerrillas 
of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA). 

There has been little return fire in the past 48 hours and a Macedonian 
spokesman said guerrilla attacks were subsiding. 

In a statement obtained by Reuters on Monday, the NLA appealed for financial 
contributions from "Albanians wherever they are," adding that they had 
decided to create a fund to support the fighting financially.