[AMCC-News] Macedonia ex-rebels deny ties to slain ''gunmen''

[Mentor Cana]

1. Macedonia ex-rebels deny ties to slain ''gunmen''
2. Macedonia: Police in shootout with 'suspected terrorists'

 "It's not true. The UCK is not waging a religious war. We have been
  against the war in Macedonia. Our efforts have been aimed at respecting
  dignity, respecting the human rights of Albanians this was the essence
  of our struggle."
  ...
  The former UCK has rejected any connection with the men. The group's
  former political commander, Ali Ahmeti, in an interview yesterday with
  the Kosovo daily "Koha Ditore," said "the shootout had nothing at all to
  do with the UCK." The Albanian-language daily describes the shootout as
 "a set-up by Boskovski."
  ...
 ''There are some questions that should be answered. Firstly we don't
  know why those people were there and what they were doing, but we hope
  that a full investigation will clear things up,'' a senior NATO official
  in Macedonia said.


### 1 ###

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters03-05-094213.asp?reg=EUROPE

Macedonia ex-rebels deny ties to slain ''gunmen''

SKOPJE, March 5 - Former ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia denied on
Tuesday allegations that they had links with seven suspected gunmen
killed in a police shootout on Saturday.

''This is simply false,'' said Gezim Ostreni, a former general of
the guerrilla National Liberation Army (NLA) that led last year's
six-month insurgency. ''The NLA is in no way connected to this
incident.''

Police said the dead men, killed in a suburb of the capital Skopje,
were suspected to be ''mujahideen,'' foreign fighters from Muslim
countries planning attacks on government officials and foreign
embassies.

They also said they found uniforms bearing ethnic Albanian rebel
insignia on the scene which they said showed they had been working with
the former rebels.

''This is absolutely not true,'' Ostreni said.

''The NLA did not conduct a religious war in Macedonia. On the
contrary, the fight and the demands of the Albanians were about freedoms
and human rights.''

The origin of the dead men remains a mystery as police have not yet
identified the bodies or their nationalities. But police say they are
certain they were foreigners and believe perhaps two came from Pakistan.

Macedonia's government has said ''mujahideen'' fighters were
involved in last year's insurgency, which Ostreni also denied.

He added that the NLA ceased to exist on September 27 last year,
when its fighters handed in arms to a NATO-led peacekeeping force in
return for greater civil rights promised in a Western-brokered peace
deal that ended fighting in August.

Western officials in Macedonia say they are sceptical of nationalist
propaganda and cautious about accepting the police version of Saturday's
events.

''There are some questions that should be answered. Firstly we don't
know why those people were there and what they were doing, but we hope
that a full investigation will clear things up,'' a senior NATO official
in Macedonia said.

He added that international monitors in the country had not been
allowed to see the bodies and that the only information they had
regarding the shootout was from the interior ministry.

Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited.

### 2 ###

http://ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=2955

Macedonia: Police in shootout with 'suspected terrorists'

2002-03-05 20:11:00

Jolyon Naegele for Radio Free Europe - Radio Liberty

5 March 2002

Macedonian police over the weekend shot dead seven men whom they suspect
were "terrorists" from Pakistan collaborating with ethnic Albanian
rebels in Macedonia.

The official version of events is that a four-man Macedonian police
patrol observed the seven getting out of a minivan on a dirt road at
Rastanski Lozja in the Black Mountains between Skopje and the Kosovo
border. The incident happened at about four o'clock Saturday (2 March)
morning.

Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski later told reporters the seven men
were armed and opened fire after the police warned them to surrender.
"This group was eliminated. That means the seven were killed. In all
likelihood they were foreigners. The autopsies will show this."

The police patrol, which was armed with automatic weapons and
Kalashnikov rifles, suffered no injuries in the shooting.

Boskovski says the police were aware of the existence of the seven
after detaining four other suspected terrorists two Jordanians and two
Bosnian Muslims two weeks ago near the U.S. ambassador's residence in
Skopje. Boskovski called them "mujahedin."

Police say computer diskettes seized with the four were found to
have 10,000 pages of documents, some of which police say contained
evidence of planning for terrorist attacks in the region.

The interior minister says the four had plans for terrorist attacks
on foreign embassies in Skopje as well as on senior Macedonian
government officials, including Albanians.

Boskovski says security has been tightened at the U.S., British, and
German embassies. However, judging from comments by U.S. and German
diplomats, the Macedonian authorities appear not to be sharing their
intelligence with these embassies.

Boskovski says on 2 March police found four assault rifles in the
minivan, eight hand grenades, a variety of rocket launchers, two
rockets, two pistols, a field radio, and several uniforms of the ethnic
Albanian insurgent National Liberation Army (UCK). They also say they
found documents written in Arabic and a small amount of Turkish
currency.

Boskovski said based on identification documents found with the
group, two of the men were Pakistanis with previous fighting experience
in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

This is not the first time Boskovski has sought to make a link
between Islamic terrorists and the UCK. He did so repeatedly without
offering any proof during last year's seven-month armed conflict.

Macedonia's chief coroner, Aleksej Duma, says autopsies conducted on
the seven failed to identify them conclusively. He said, "They were all
young, nobody older than 30, all dark-skinned and circumcised." Some of
the dead men are reported to have had traces of gunpowder on their
hands.

Some local news reports have suggested that at least two of the
seven men were Albanians. However, this has been rejected by Macedonia's
deputy interior minister, Refet Elmazi, in an interview with RFE/RL's
South Slavic and Albanian Languages (SSAL) Service: "According to the
pathologists, they are foreigners, not Albanians."

The former UCK has rejected any connection with the men. The group's
former political commander, Ali Ahmeti, in an interview yesterday with
the Kosovo daily "Koha Ditore," said "the shootout had nothing at all to
do with the UCK." The Albanian-language daily describes the shootout as
"a set-up by Boskovski."

Another UCK commander, who goes by the name of "Sokoli" told Kosovo
public television (RTK) that he believes the incident was a "set-up"
because "you can see the uniforms were brand-new and somewhat different
from the ones former UCK soldiers used to wear."

The former UCK's military chief of staff, commander Gezim Ostreni,
said in an interview with RFE/RL's SSAL Service today that there are
reasons to suspect that this latest incident may even be an attempt by
Macedonian nationalists to increase tensions so as to prevent parliament
from declaring and implementing an amnesty for former UCK insurgents. He
too rejects any sort of Albanian connection to the seven.

"I think that claims that some of them are Albanians are false. The
National Liberation Army (UCK) has not existed since 26 September (when
it formally disbanded itself) after reaching agreements with the
Macedonian government, NATO, and others. There is no link between these
events [on 2 March] and the UCK."

Ostreni says former UCK commanders have no idea who the seven men
were and that it is up to the Interior Ministry to say what actually
happened. He too rejects suggestions the Albanians are waging a
religious war.

"It's not true. The UCK is not waging a religious war. We have been
against the war in Macedonia. Our efforts have been aimed at respecting
dignity, respecting the human rights of Albanians this was the essence
of our struggle."

It's not clear yet when the authorities will offer a fuller
explanation of who the seven were and exactly what happened.

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