[ALBSA-Info] Macedonian minister urges NATO to show its teeth

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonian minister urges NATO to show its teeth
  
VIENNA, March 29 (Reuters) - Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim urged 
NATO in an interview on Thursday to "show its teeth" to Albanian guerrillas 
and stop them entering his country from Kosovo. 

"NATO must fulfil its obligations in Kosovo and secure the border with 
Macedonia," he told Austria's Die Presse newspaper. "NATO must show the 
Albanian terrorists its teeth. Armed groups cannot be allowed to wander 
across the country." 

Macedonian forces launched heavy assaults on guerrilla positions on Wednesday 
and said they expected to bring a month-long ethnic Albanian insurrection to 
an end very soon. 

Kerim said the fighting was being led by former Kosovo Liberation Army 
fighters based in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, which is now under 
international administration. 

"Kosovo must not become a base for drug and arms dealers and terrorists," he 
said. "That was not the point of the NATO intervention." 

Kerim said he was in favour of a population census to determine the precise 
ethnic balance in Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians say they are much more numerous 
than the official figure of 23 percent of the population. 

"It is clear that there must be a census," the minister said. But he 
dismissed as frivolous suggestions that the Albanian population could be up 
to 60 percent of the total.