Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Handelsblatt August 6, 2001 "Our objection to the NATO troops deployment is fundamental in nature. The Western alliance is not suited to serving as a mediator for peace in Macedonia, since it supported...the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the Kosovo conflict, and it did not demand its disarmament." MPs Revolt over Plans to Send Troops to Macedonia HB/sms OHRID/BERLIN. A rebellion among parliamentarians from Germany's governing parties looks set to place a question mark over the country's participation in a planned North Atlantic Treaty Office mission to the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. On Monday, representatives of the Macedonian government and the country's ethnic Albanian minority surprisingly broke off talks that were thought to have been aimed at putting the finishing touches to a peace deal. Reports from the Macedonian town of Ohrid, where the talks were being held, suggest that the Macedonian government unexpectedly made fresh demands to which the Albanian representatives could not agree. But preparations are continuing for a mission of 3,000 NATO troops to help disarm the ethnic Albanian rebels who have taken control of parts of northern Macedonia. The mission NATO spokesman Barry Johnson said the first soldiers could start to be stationed within the republic within 48 hours of an agreement. The participation of German troops in the mission will have to be ratified by the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) at a special session. Government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said no date had as yet been set for the session. But so far some 28 Bundestag members from Germany's main governing party, the Social Democrats (SPD), have voiced their intention to vote against the country's involvement in the mission. They look set to be joined by up to seven members from the junior coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens. And the center-right Christian Democrat-led opposition parties have said they will oppose German involvement on financial grounds. SPD parliamentarian Harald Friese, who initiated the rebellion, told Handelsblatt: "Our rejection of the NATO troops deployment is fundamental in nature. The Western alliance is not suited to serving as a mediator for peace in Macedonia, since it supported the (ethnic Albanian) Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the Kosovo conflict, and it did not demand its disarmament." Macedonia borders the autonomous Yugoslav province of Kosovo, from which thousands of ethnic Albanians were displaced as a result of the conflict with Serbian forces that culminated in a Nato intervention in 1999. The parliamentary SPD's expert on foreign policy, Gert Weisskirchen, stressed that KLA disarmament is a precondition for a NATO deployment. This was also stressed by Greens parliamentarian Angelika Beer, who expressed doubt as to whether the KLA would ever actually meet this condition. Weisskirchen, meanwhile, was more upbeat, saying despite the rebellion from within the government's own ranks, he's still sure that parliament will approve German involvement in a NATO mission. He suggested that some of the rebels were not yet aware that NATO troops would be entering Macedonia at the request of both sides in the conflict. HANDELSBLATT, Montag, 06. August 2001 __________________________________________________ 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 ==^================================================================
