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NATO to Collect Arms As Disputes Continue
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Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 27, 2001; Page A12
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Aug. 26 -- NATO plans to collect the first of 3,300
weapons, including two tanks, from ethnic Albanian rebels Monday, in an
operation that Macedonian authorities dismissed as an exercise in empty
symbolism even before it has begun. Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski today labeled "humiliating" the number of
weapons the rebels have agreed to turn over to NATO, which insisted the
surrender is in line with its estimates of the insurgents' firepower. Government
officials have put the number of rebel weapons at between 8,000 and 85,000. And following an explosion that destroyed a motel and killed two Macedonian
Slavs who worked there early today, Georgievski threatened military retaliation
against the rebels he held responsible, raising the specter of further violence
as NATO troops assemble between the insurgents and government forces. The explosion ripped through a motel owned by Macedonian Slavs in Celopek,
six miles south of the country's second-largest city, Tetovo, and just across a
river from rebel-held territory. A bartender and a waiter were killed in the
explosion, which occurred in the home town of Macedonia's hard-line interior
minister, Ljuben Boskoski. Macedonian police said the two workers appeared to have been tied down inside
the motel before the blast. Both the explosion and the dispute over the number of weapons held by the
rebels threatened to derail a fragile and twinned process in which the rebels
are supposed to turn over all their weapons in three stages while parliament
introduces and then ratifies constitutional changes that expand the rights of
the ethnic Albanian minority. NATO expects to withdraw from Macedonia 30 days after it picks up the first
weapon, but the symbiotic process -- disarmament tied directly to parliamentary
action -- could easily falter, forcing the alliance to rethink its role. There
are already reports in the media in Britain, which provided most of the 3,500
troops here, that the alliance is making contingency plans for a much longer
operation and could get sucked into the kind of peacekeeping operation it has
strenuously said it would avoid. On a more hopeful note, ethnic Albanian rebels released seven Macedonians and
a U.S citizen of Macedonian descent whom they had held for weeks. Four of the
hostages, two of whom were members of the Macedonian security forces, waved as
they left a building in Lipkovo, a village deep behind rebel lines in northern
Macedonian, and climbed into a Red Cross vehicle, a Reuters cameraman at the
scene said. U.S. officials had attempted and failed to secure the release of the
American, sources said. Tonight an embassy spokesman here said officials were
happy that he was out. Vojislav Mihailovic, a retiree, was seized by rebels in June. He was being
examined tonight in a hospital in Skopje, the capital, and Red Cross officials
said he was in "reasonably good health." Red Cross officials who met with the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army
gave the rebels a list of 26 Macedonian Slavs reported missing. But the rebel
group has acknowledged holding only half that number, according to NATO
officials. Red Cross spokeswoman Amanda Williamson said officials had met NLA leader Ali
Ahmeti and that more releases could follow. "Two days ago Ahmeti said he would give us unconditional access to all people
being held by the NLA," she said. "We will only have an idea of who remains
unaccounted for when we have gone through that whole process." Some rebel commanders have said Macedonian Slav hostages would be released
only if authorities release imprisoned ethnic Albanians and a political
settlement takes hold. A Western-mediated settlement, which cleared the way for the deployment of
NATO troops, calls for an amnesty for rebels in the hills, but the fate of those
in prison remains unclear. In the last six months, more than 125,000 people from Macedonia's two
principal ethnic groups have been forced from their homes after the NLA began an
insurgency, purportedly for greater rights, seizing large swaths of territory in
northern and western Macedonia. In a stern, almost sermon-like tone, Danish Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange, the
military commander of NATO's Operation Essential Harvest, told reporters today
that if the linked process of disarmament and political change breaks down, "the
alternative is war." Lange said NATO expected to collect 2,950 assault weapons, 210 machine guns,
130 mortars and antitank weapons, six air defense systems, two tanks and two
armored personnel carriers. The rebels also planned to hand over 110,000 rounds
of ammunition, he said. Lange repeatedly refused to be drawn out on what might happen if the
Macedonian government rejects as inadequate the numbers of weapons handed over
to NATO and parliament votes down the political settlement on which the
disarming of the NLA hinges. NATO officials said the Macedonian estimates of arms are wildly inflated,
although they privately indicate the rebels will keep some weapons and can
easily acquire more from Albania or the neighboring Serbian province of Kosovo.
Alliance officials argued that the process, however symbolic, can weaken the
rebels and reestablish the primacy of the political process.
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