[ALBSA-Info] UN council condemns extremist attacks in Macedonia

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

UN council condemns extremist attacks in Macedonia

By Irwin Arieff

  
UNITED NATIONS, March 21 (Reuters) - The Security Council on Wednesday 
denounced ethnic Albanian extremist attacks in Macedonia and Yugoslavia and 
urged NATO to step up efforts to prevent guerrillas from smuggling in weapons 
from Kosovo. 

Action by the 15-nation council came hours after ethnic Albanian guerrillas 
in Macedonia declared a unilateral cease-fire and asked for peace talks in 
the week-old conflict which has triggered fears of a new Balkan war. 

The resolution, approved unanimously by the council, "strongly condemns 
extremist violence including terrorist activities" in Macedonia and southern 
Serbia, a part of Yugoslavia. It asks the rebels to "lay down their weapons 
and return to their homes." 

Though the rebels say they are fighting to improve the rights of the large 
ethnic Albanian minority in Slav-dominated Macedonia, Macedonia has blamed 
ethnic Albanian insurgents from the neighboring Serbian province of Kosovo 
for the attacks. 

Macedonia's U.N. ambassador Naste Calovski said on Wednesday the guerrillas' 
goal was to seize part of Macedonia's territory and annex it to Kosovo in the 
event the province ever gained full autonomy from Yugoslavia. 

"Their agenda has nothing to do with the human rights of Albanians," Calovski 
told a news conference. "They are fighting for a lost cause. There is no 
chance of changing the borders." 

The resolution, however, does not directly blame guerrillas from Kosovo, 
stating only that "such violence has support from ethnic Albanian extremists 
outside these areas and constitutes a threat to the security and stability of 
the wider region." 

It also calls on the NATO force in Kosovo "to continue further to strengthen 
its efforts to prevent unauthorized movement and illegal arms shipments 
across borders and boundaries in the region" and to confiscate weapons inside 
Kosovo. 

Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO control since June 1999 after the Western 
alliance conducted an 11-week bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, launched 
to stop a crackdown by now-ousted President Slobodan Milosevic on ethnic 
Albanian separatists in Kosovo. 

The ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army declared its cease-fire just 
hours before the expiration of a Macedonian government ultimatum to the 
rebels to give up their positions or face a full-scale offensive by the army 
any time after midnight. 

The guerrillas had taken up positions in the mountainous terrain near the 
Macedonian city of Tetovo, scene of heavy bombardment by government forces 
for the past week in anticipation of an assault.