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Macedonia On War Footing
TETOVO, Macedonia, March 18 (News Agencies) - Macedonia went on a war footing Sunday, mobilizing reserve troops and using tanks and heavy artillery against a growing ethnic Albanian insurrection near the border with Kosovo.
Amid sharply rising tensions, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski accused the United States and Germany, whose troops guard the Kosovo-Macedonia border, of refusing to arrest Albanian separatist leaders in Kosovo.
Macedonian special police continued to pound separatist-held hilltops on the edge of the northwestern town of Tetovo with mortar fire for a fifth day as army tanks and heavy artillery were spotted by NATO troops in Kosovo blasting separatists on the mountain on the border.
Macedonian defense ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said reserves would be told to report for duty.
Officials say the Macedonian army has an estimated 15,000-20,000 ground troops, although according to defense experts it can only actually muster around 10,000 troops. But a general mobilization could swell its ranks to 120,000.
Macedonia has so far preferred not to use the army, many of whose troops are themselves ethnic Albanians, defense sources say, while the special police has a higher percentage of Slav Macedonians.
The army decision came just after 10,000 people gathered in central Skopje demanding that tougher measures be taken to combat the spreading insurrection.
Massing in front of the parliament, the demonstrators, including many from Tetovo, shouted that the government should take "urgent action against the terrorists so we can go home."
At least 2,000 people have fled Tetovo since the fighting began.
Last Wednesday, separatists of the National Liberation Army broke out of mountain bases near the Kosovo border and attacked Tetovo, a major town in the northwest with a mainly Albanian population.
The protest followed a gathering outside the parliament late Saturday, when 3,000 mostly Slav residents of Tetovo whistled at President Boris Trajkovski who urged them to stay calm. In response, many chanted: "Give us weapons".
The parliament pledged "urgent and effective measures" to counter the separatists.
And Georgievski, whose government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Tetovo, accused the United States and Germany of accelerating the crisis by failing to act against separatist leaders directing operations from U.N.-run Kosovo, whose borders are guarded by NATO-led peacekeepers.
"You can't persuade anyone in Macedonia today that the government of the United States and Germany do not know who the terrorist leaders are and what they want, they could stop them acting," he said.
"We are faced with an attempt by Western democracies to promote the emergence of new Talibans," he said, referring to the Islamic movement that controls 90% of Afghanistan.
KFOR commander General Carlo Cabigiosu warned the separatists his troops would retaliate if they came under fire.
He said the Macedonian government had already given permission for KFOR troops to retaliate inside Macedonia, where its logistical back-up troops have already been caught in crossfire.
"I warn the Albanian extremist groups that KFOR will not tolerate any attacks against KFOR soldiers in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," he said.
KFOR has around 37,000 troops under NATO command in Kosovo, and a further 3,000 in Macedonia. Around 500 German troops were evacuated from Tetovo Friday after the Macedonian barracks they were housed in came under fire.
Cabigiosu said KFOR had "sent additional forces, including Armour and artillery troops, to provide a robust level of force protection for the KFOR logistic troops in Macedonia."
But U.N. Balkans envoy Carl Bildt said NATO had intentionally underestimated the separatists' strength.
The "small groups of politically isolated extremists" described by NATO chief George Robertson have proved difficult to dislodge.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov likewise warned that "if the violence is not stopped now in Macedonia it will spread to other Balkans countries."
The separatists themselves said that capturing Tetovo was not their goal.
A spokesman said: "The first thing we want is a dialogue."
"We are not thinking of moving into the town to hold it. We are afraid that could spark a civil war between the Albanians and Macedonians of Tetovo."
He said the separatists were preparing to name a political representative to negotiate with Macedonian authorities, who have, however, ruled out talks, branding the separatists a "terrorist" group.
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