15:15 2001-07-23 PAX NATO: REBEL ATTACKS INTENSIFY IN MACEDONIA "It's going on and it's getting worse and worse." Firefight breaks out above Macedonian town Tetovo, Macedonia, Reuters report. Heavy firing broke out on Sunday between Macedonian government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels west of the capital Skopje, in a serious breach of a fragile 17-day cease-fire, witnesses reported. The Macedonian Ministry of Defense confirmed the clashes, saying government forces had come under attack by rebels in villages just above Tetovo, the main Albanian town in the former Yugoslav republic. ``Because the positions of the Macedonian security forces were endangered and their lives threatened and because the rebels have broken the cease-fire we responded appropriately,´´ said the spokesman, Marjan Gjurovski. Tetovo residents said heavy machine gun fire and small arms weapons fire had broken out just before 11 a.m. The fighting intensified as it continued, they said. ``Its going on and its getting worse and worse,´´ a local journalist reported. Western diplomats in Macedonia trying to shore up the cease-fire to give negotiators time to persuade Albanian and Macedonian leaders to agree a deal to restore permanent peace had said the volatile Tetovo area was their main concern. The town, unofficial capital of the country's one-third Albanian minority, was rocked by a month of heavy fighting in March, until security forces pushed rebels deep into the mountains that tower over the 80,000 residents. But the rebels have slowly pushed their way back to the outskirts of Tetovo, taking over the small villages that dot the hillsides as part of a broader campaign that has won them control of a swathe of northern and western Macedonia. The rebels say their five-month campaign of violence, which has raised fears of all-out civil war, seeks simply to end discrimination against Albanians. But the Macedonian majority accuses the rebels of trying to seize ground and split the state. http://english.pravda.ru/yougoslavia/2001/07/23/10754.html Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
