STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ethnic Albanian rebels claimed a major success Tuesday, after they were escorted, with their weapons, by US troops to the Black Mountains north of Skopje [the capital], leaving Macedonian authorities shocked and silent. -[NLA] Commander Hoxha, who was dropped by US troops with all his weapons...told the AFP by mobile phone that the whole operation was a success. -The government had wanted to dump the rebels in Kosovo, but they refused to leave the country. -...the only winners to emerge from the debacle were the NLA. [Note: What conceivable right does the Trajkovski government have, clearly working in unison with NATO, to evict hundreds of armed NLA/KLA insurgents into the Serbian province of Kosovo? And what right do NATO and KFOR have to permit as man as 100,000 ethnic Albanian civilians, citizens of another country, to enter the same, still internationally-recognized, Serbian province; one, moreover, in which KLA extremist elements have already murdered and "disappeared" thousands of Serbs and other minorities, and have expelled hundreds of thousands more, all in an effort to establish an apartheid gangster haven? From beginning until the tragic end, NATO and the KLA have worked in tandem to create this catastrophe, one which only threatens to grow worse.] Tuesday June 26, 8:48 PM Macedonian government in disarray as rebels chalk up victory SKOPJE, June 26 (AFP) - Ethnic Albanian rebels claimed a major success Tuesday after they were escorted, with their weapons, by US troops to the Black Mountains north of Skopje, leaving Macedonian authorities shocked and silent. The decision to escort the guerrillas from a Skopje suburb sparked rioting overnight as infuriated Macedonians stormed the parliament, calling for the resignation of President Boris Trajkosvki. The violence also left NATO groping for a role in talks to resolve the escalating crisis. It was not immediately clear under what mandate the US troops serving with the KFOR Kosovo peacekeepers had agreed to escort the rebels. Commander Hoxha, who was dropped by US troops with all his weapons in the village of Nikustak, 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Aracinovo, told AFP by mobile phone that the whole operation was a success. "We showed the international community that the NLA is capable of taking territory and and that we were ready to make peace. Now the Macedonians must come up with a proposal, but if they want a war, that's what they'll get. We will defend our people." Despite a nervous calm in the capital after gunfire and rioting overnight, Macedonian leaders -- apparently paralyzed by the fury of the outburst -- issued no statements on the knife-edge situation. NATO had hoped it could repeat its success in southern Serbia, where it persuaded another ethnic Albanian guerrilla group with links to the Macedonian rebels to down their weapons after a year's fighting and depart to Kosovo. But the Presovo Valley team, headed by NATO's regional troubleshooter Pieter Feith, ran into difficulty when the deal they brokered with rebels sparked civil unrest in the capital, less than 10 kilometres (six miles) from the centre of Skopje. The government had wanted to dump the rebels in Kosovo, but they refused to leave the country. The rebel leader in the suburb of Aracinovo agreed to withdraw into the Black Mountains to the north as "a sign of goodwill and to allow serious duscussions with the Macedonians to start." He said he had been ordered by the general headquarters of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) to withdraw after talks between NATO officials and the guerrillas' political leader Ali Ahmeti. Observers overseeing the pullout said at least 300 rebels had departed. The deal was an apparent move by the rebels to curry favour with NATO after the alliance chief George Robertson repeatedly called the NLA "terrorists" and "murderous thugs" with whom he would have no truck. NATO had until recently pursued a contradictory policy of negotiating with rebels in southern Serbia while refusing talks with their stronger counterparts in Macedonia, whose army is poorly equipped to deal with the challenge. But the confidence-building measure quickly turned sour as fighting flared at the same time in the northwest around the flashpoint town of Tetovo, scene of intense combat in March. An angry mob of around 6,000 Macedonian Slavs massed outside the parliament in Skopje, with dozens breaking in and one man firing bursts of automatic gunfire into the air over the cheering protestors. They demanded the resignation of President Trajkovski and said if he and his dove-turned-hawk Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski did not address the armed mob they would no longer recognise them as legitimate leaders. The two leaders did not appear then, and they remained out of sight early Tuesday, although officials said both would address the nation later in the day. As the Macedonian government scrambled for a response and NATO tried to pick up the pieces amid a tide of anti-Western sentiment which prompted Britain to cancel a trip by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the only winners to emerge from the debacle were the NLA. The NLA launched an armed campaign in February in the name of greater rights for the large Albanian minoirty in Macedonia, a move which pushed the international community to pressure the government into speeding up talks on political reforms between Macedonian Slav and Albanian leader. The government refuses to allow the rebels to join the talks, though their Albanian partners in the emergency coalition formed in May say they should have a place. Hoxha, who said all his fighters had evacuated and had taken over Nikustak, said: "Georgievski has revealed his true colours as a nationalist warrior and that he is incapable of running the country." But Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said Trajkovski was still in control of the police and army. The government ran into tough international criticism last Friday when it tore up a fragile two-week ceasefire and attacked the rebels to eliminate the threat to the capital. Army spokesman Colonel Blagoje Markovski said Tuesday that the rebels had started firing at army positions near Nikustak and that they had responded with tank fire. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! 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