[ALBSA-Info] FYROM faces dangerous dilemma

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

FYROM faces dangerous dilemma
As protesters, opposition demand stronger action, government fears crackdown 
will radicalize Albanians

By Giorgos Kapopoulos
Kathimerini

TETOVO - All indications are that the conflict between government forces and 
armed Albanian separatists in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is 
out of control and continually intensifying. 

The government of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski fears that if it steps up 
repressive measures, this will provoke a rift with the ethnic Albanians who 
are part of the ruling coalition - which would provoke a general conflict 
across the whole country. FYROM's only hope is for the international 
community to help deal with the problem. 

However, there is little hope of assistance from NATO given that the primary 
concern of the international force in Kosovo (KFOR) is to avoid a conflict 
with local armed Albanians and those in Kosovo as well. Consequently, as 
Georgievski told Greek reporters on Saturday, the government's hopes lie with 
neighboring countries, especially Greece and Bulgaria. 

In contrast to the wariness displayed by the government and the problems it 
faces, the separatists enjoy several advantages. The Sar Planina mountain 
range in whose foothills Tetovo nestles, is a continuous 140-kilometer 
barrier separating FYROM from Kosovo. It is an impregnable sanctuary for 
guerrillas which cannot be controlled by any forces -Êneither those of 
Skopje, nor of KFOR in the unlikely event that the NATO forces suddenly lost 
their reservations and began to work actively to seal the border.

Tetovo is the front line of this new battle today, with the government's 
special forces on one side and the guerrillas with their machine guns and 
mortars on the other. Tomorrow, the fighting could spread across the whole 
country. In the capital Skopje itself live 120,000 ethnic Albanians. But in 
western FYROM, which includes Tetovo, Gostivar, Kicevo and Debar and 
stretches down to Lake Ochrid, state power is non-existent. 

The Greek Foreign Ministry is exploring all possibilities to help keep open a 
channel of communication between Skopje and Tirana and has undertaken an 
initiative for a meeting of the three countries' foreign ministers soon. 

But the conflict has begun to take on a dynamic of its own. In demonstrations 
in Skopje on Saturday and yesterday, Slav-Macedonian protesters called for 
harsh repressive measures against the separatists and accused the government 
of inaction. In Tetovo, 40 kilometers west of Skopje, if the gun battles turn 
into mopping-up operations by the security forces, then the Albanians (80 
percent of the population in that area) might be forced into a bloody 
conflict.
 
NATO's fear of being drawn into the dispute, the Georgievski government's 
wariness over ordering widespread operations and the rugged territory that is 
favorable to the guerrillas all across northwestern FYROM have made both 
sides inflexible, leaving little or no room for domestic or international 
initiatives to ease the tension. The situation is aggravated by the 
leadership problem among ethnic Albanians, with their historical leader (and 
government coalition member) Arben Xhaferi very ill and either unable or 
unwilling to influence events. In addition, Georgievski's coalition is 
involved in clashes with the social democratic opposition, which is demanding 
to know whether the government is capable of protecting the country's 
territorial integrity.

Athens backs Skopje fully
.
The crisis in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has prompted strong 
statements of support from Greece, which, along with Bulgaria, has been one 
of the countries to offer Skopje military materiel as well. 

The government has undertaken an initiative - sending emissaries to Skopje 
yesterday - to arrange a meeting of the Greek, FYROM and Albanian foreign 
ministers in the next few days. "There is permanent and constant 
communication between Greece and the government in Skopje," Prime Minister 
Costas Simitis told his PASOK party's central committee on Saturday.

"The situation in the Balkans today is fluid. Stabilizing this situation 
demands insistence on certain principles," he said, listing them as adherence 
to international law and the preservation of current borders. 

The Balkans needed a policy of development and cooperation, he said. 
"Wherever Greek troops are present, they are there to establish peace. That 
is why we condemn violence, we condemn and oppose separatist tendencies. That 
is why we claim that every possible effort at dialogue must be made in order 
to solve differences by democratic means," Simitis said.

"I hope the government in Skopje will get the situation under control and 
stability will return to the region," he said.

Addressing a party gathering in Patras yesterday, opposition New Democracy 
party leader Costas Karamanlis called on the Greek government to take 
initiatives. "What we see taking place is especially dangerous," he said. 
"That country finds itself one step from civil war."

Meanwhile, 14 journalists from Skopje and 11 from Athens and Thessaloniki met 
in Skopje on Friday and Saturday and decided "to establish links... in order 
to exchange experience, ideas and skills and to find common ground on the 
basis of professional journalism, the principles of a pluralist society and 
the two countries' European future."