Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- August 4, 2001 Macedonia Rebels Attack Police by MISHA SAVIC Associated Press Writer OHRID, Macedonia (AP) -- Ethnic Albanian rebels lobbed mortars at police positions near Macedonia's second-largest city Saturday, straining a shaky truce, state-run radio reported. There was no immediate word of casualties, despite the ''frequent sniper shots'' fired on police on the slopes of Mount Sara, just north of the predominantly ethnic Albanian city of Tetovo, the report said. News of the cease-fire violations came as European Union security chief Javier Solana announced plans to travel to Macedonia to bolster efforts to create a peace plan for the troubled Balkan nation. Solana was to fly from Ukraine to Macedonia on Sunday to attend the talks at the lake resort of Ohrid, said his spokesman, Christina Gallach. ''He wants to support the negotiations at this particular moment,'' she said. ''We hope for final progress as soon as possible.'' A truce was signed to facilitate negotiations between the majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians on a complex, Western-designed peace plan, but scattered clashes have continued throughout nearly a month of talks. Negotiators are now focusing on increasing the number of ethnic Albanians in the country's police force in talks that Western officials described as ''very difficult.'' The talks included discussion of deploying dozens of foreign police experts and officers to help carry out reforms if the rival sides agree on a peace plan, officials said Saturday on condition of anonymity. The officers and experts would come on top of the estimated 3,000 NATO troops that the proposed peace plan envisages to help disarm the ethnic Albanian rebels. Ethnic Albanians are demanding that their sizable community -- which makes up nearly a third of Macedonia's population of 2 million -- be proportionately represented on the force, especially in areas where they are the majority. They also want to independently elect police chiefs who would answer to local leaders rather than the central government in the capital, Skopje. The ethnic Albanians also demand that the rebels become members of the police force once a peace deal is reached. Macedonians see these demands as part of an ethnic Albanian strategy to ultimately carve off and break away northwestern regions where the restive minority lives and where the rebels already control chunks of territory. Several Macedonian-populated villages in the area have been cut off for days by the rebels. Authorities dispatched a humanitarian convoy Saturday with 40 tons of food and medicine to help the civilians. But a few hundred ethnic Albanian civilians stopped the convoy around noon by blocking a road and refusing to let the aid reach the Macedonians, said a relief worker with the convoy, Saso Klekovski. The insurgency, which began in February over ethnic Albanian demands for more rights, has left dozens dead and thousands displaced. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
