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Macedonian Army Strikes Out As
Others Talk Peace
Fri Jun 8 10:52:38 2001 GMT
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's army ignored a rebel call for a cease-fire and launched attacks on ethnic Albanian guerrilla positions on Friday, hours before a key speech by the country's president on peace proposals. The army began artillery and helicopter assaults in the early morning against villages to the north-east of the capital Skopje that the rebels have controlled for over a month. "This action is to defeat and disperse the terrorists and to return normal life to the villages," army spokesman Colonel Blagoje Markovski told Reuters. Asked why the army had attacked shortly after the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) called a unilateral cease-fire and urged the Macedonian government to agree a truce, Markovski said: "I don't negotiate with terrorists." There was speculation the attack was a show of strength for domestic consumption by a Slav majority angered by the death of five soldiers this week and ahead of a speech by President Boris Trajkovski that may offer concessions to the rebels. In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov questioned the NLA truce. "The call for a cease-fire may be seen by some as an olive branch but of course it follows a fairly murderous attack a few days ago. So when you do that and call for a cease-fire, then the response to that is: Put down your arms permanently," Robertson said. In the rebel-held areas, thousands of trapped civilians cowered in their basements as shells slammed into houses. An ethnic Albanian doctor in the village of Slupcane said the army was confining itself to long-range bombardment and had not launched the ground assault that would be needed to dislodge the guerrillas from their well dug-in positions. "The NLA are still in their places," Fatmir Hasani told Reuters by mobile phone. PEACE PLAN In a major setpiece announcement Trajkovski was expected to tell his parliament in an afternoon speech of a plan to allow the rebels to disarm and withdraw, diplomats said. That could offer the best chance of avoiding civil war in Macedonia. "It foresees the NLA being prepared to lay down their weapons, leave the area and enter Kosovo," one envoy said. The plan would not mention an amnesty, which is unworkable under Macedonian law, but might offer relief from prosecution. That would be a bitter pill for the Slav majority to swallow, particularly after the death of five soldiers this week in NLA ambushes in mountains in northwestern Macedonia. The deaths sparked violent riots on Wednesday in the southern city of Bitola, home to three of the dead, which saw dozens of ethnic Albanian homes and businesses burned down. A strong police presence on Thursday night kept violence at a minimum, although tear gas had to be used to disperse a crowd outside a Macedonian army barracks that was demanding to be given arms to let it defend the country. SOLANA VISIT Trajkovski's speech will be backed by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who will emphasize to squabbling politicians the need to improve the rights of minority Albanians and undercut support for the rebellion. Solana was to arrive late in the day and stay overnight to push forward inter-ethnic dialogue, which so far has produced no concrete agreement on addressing the grievances of the Albanians, who make up around a third of the population. Diplomats say the NLA is unlikely to accept Trajkovski's withdrawal plan unless it is convinced Macedonia's Slav elite is serious about equalizing the status of the two communities. "Nobody believes they'll pull back without reforms but they might if they can see progress. If reforms go quickly that might be enough to persuade them," a Western diplomat said. The NLA says it is fighting to improve the rights of ethnic Albanians but Macedonia says rebels want to break up the state. Trajkovski's plan is broadly modeled on measures NATO took to persuade ethnic Albanian rebels last month to quit an area of southern Serbia where they mounted a 16-month insurgency. A NATO team was in Skopje this week to outline how the amnesty and arms plan worked in the nearby Presevo valley but the international community is keen for the Macedonian public to perceive the Trajkovski plan as a homegrown initiative. (Skopje newsroom +389 2 127 460) Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content or maintenance releases or similar, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters Sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. |
