Subject: [pttp] Re: NATO Chief Threatens FYROM Forward from mart. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE. Hmm?? Sounds fair to me. NATO has collected almost its entire quota of 3000 (out of the 85,000 they still have) KLA weapons. Why shouldn't NATO insist that the Macedonian's now fulfil entirely its part of the deal - the agreement that they were *forced* to sign with NATO-KLA guns at their heads??? A deal's a deal and makes right. To hell with justice, international law and the U.N charter, right.??? Cynically, mart ----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 6:36 PM Subject: NATO Chief Threatens FYROM > Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > --------------------------------------------- [It should now be apparent why NATO has been so anxious to further extend its presence and military bases in the Balkans.] Saturday September 15, 1:55 AM NATO chief warns Skopje against delaying peace deal SKOPJE, Sept 14 (AFP) - NATO Secretary General George Robertson warned the Macedonian parliament Friday not to delay putting the peace plan into effect, saying talk of a referendum on the accord was a "wrecking amendment." With the accord due to be adopted in less than two weeks, Robertson said the August 13 framework peace agreement should be passed its entirety and that delays would only prevent displaced people from returning home. "This referendum idea seems simply to have been floated as an idea to derail that process and not to reinforce it," he said. "Those, like me, who care about the people who have been displaced from their homes should be warned that if this amendment is passed then it will simply take longer and longer for these people to go home." "This is not a democratic amendment, this is a wrecking amendment," he said. Parliament is due to begin debating within days 36 constitutional amendments that would turn most of the peace agreement into law and it has to finish that job and ratify the new constitution by September 27. But it remains unclear when the assembly, where nationalists oppose giving extra rights to the country's large ethnic Albanian minority, will resume debate on the changes required by the plan. Complicating the process is a proposal that a referendum be held on the accord, in which the nation's population of two million would be asked to vote. Albanians make up between a quarter and a third of the population. Parliamentary sources say debate on the amendments, the second stage of the peace plan, may not resume until the middle of next week, after the referendum proposal is discussed. Robertson said the speaker of the assembly, the nationalist Stojan Andov, had told him that the political requirements of the agreement could be fulfilled with "only a slippage of a few days on the original time-table." "I make it clear now to the Macedonian people, the displaced people will not get home in peace and in safety until that parliamentary process has finished," he said. "If parliamentarians make long speeches, they will be talking people out of their homes." Robertson also urged the assembly to introduce legislation on an amnesty to rebels from the National Liberation Army (NLA) who disarm and are not suspected of war crimes, saying a serious crisis would develop without it. NATO said its Operation Essential Harvest had by Thursday collected more than two-thirds of the weapons held by the NLA under the peace plan aimed at boosting ethnic Albanian rights and ending a seven-month rebel insurgency. Earlier the NATO chief had said that Task Force Harvest, which aims to collect a total of 3,300 NLA arms by September 26, would finish the job once parliament meets its obligations by passing the amendments. Once that task is completed, the assembly is due to adopt the modified constitution as a complete document by September 27, effectively turning many elements of the peace accord into law. The agreement grants an amnesty for most rebels who disarm, makes Albanian an official language in some areas, provides more minority jobs in the police force and administration and gives wider powers to local government. Robertson also said he had held talks with Macedonian officials on what kind of international force should remain when NATO starts pulling out at the end of the month and would take their proposals back to Brussels. The EU's Balkans envoy said on Friday that Brussels remains at odds with Macedonia over the exact mission of any international force. The EU wants any such force to be deployed to protect foreign observers, while Skopje wants it restricted to border areas, Francois Leotard told AFP. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________
