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Macedonia Postpones Assault To Seek Peaceful Outcome
SKOPJE, May 17 (News Agencies) - Macedonia postponed an assault on Muslim Albanian rebels Thursday after they ignored an ultimatum to lay down their arms.
"We have a will to reach a political solution," a statement from the office of President Boris Trajkovksi said, adding that military operations would "remain suspended to show that we are attached to a peaceful solution."
Clashes between rebels and government troops flared up two weeks ago after the rebels, who are seeking more rights for the republic's large Muslim Albanian minority, seized a string of villages in northern Macedonia.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Thursday stepped up pressure on the rebels to make peace, saying the Alliance will give military assistance to Macedonia in its fight against "extremists".
Speaking in Tirana, Robertson said NATO "will continue to aggressively cleanse the borders between Macedonia and Kosovo" but urged the rebels to "lay down their arms and their uniforms and get into politics."
Last weekend, the two main parties representing Macedonian Slavs and the two main ethnic Albanian groups formed a government of national unity, in a bid to present the rebels a united front and prevent them exploiting ethnic tension.
As a result of this unity, Robertson said Macedonia "now has the internal authority and the external stability to deal [with the rebels]."
Tension between the coalition partners has been growing, with Albanian leaders calling for "a dialogue with the rebels," a move strongly opposed by the Macedonian parties.
Arben Xhaferi, leader of Macedonia's largest Albanian party, described Thursday the extension of the ceasefire as "an encouraging sign".
Macedonia on Sunday implemented a ceasefire but warned Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA) to "leave Macedonian territory or lay down arms" by noon on Thursday - or face a new army assault.
The ultimatum, however, provoked appeals for restraint from Western powers fearing for the safety of more than 1,000 civilians trapped in crowded cellars in frontline villages and for the future of the Macedonian government.
Robertson condemned the rebels for dragging civilians into the conflict, comparing their approach to that of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Thursday's statement from President Boris Trajkovski's office said the ceasefire since Sunday had "shown results", with a large number of civilians leaving the conflict zone.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday that some 9,000 Albanians had fled their homes in Macedonia for the neighboring Yugoslav province of Kosovo since the conflict flared up on May 3rd.
While government tanks and artillery remained in their positions Thursday in fields lying in front a string of rebel-held villages just north of Skopje, there was no new massive build-up of troops.
Government forces exchanged fire with rebels near the northern village of Slupcane on Wednesday night, in what the army called the worst fighting since the conflict broke-out.
In Slupcane AFP reporters found hundreds of civilians still hiding in their cellars, despite the government ultimatum. Their homes had come under fire during the night from government guns, they said.
Fatmir Hasani, a doctor still running a clinic in the bombed out village said that many young children among the civilians were gravely ill, and that two had died from diarrhea. Four adult civilians were killed early in the fighting in shelling, he said.
Government spokesman Antonio Milososki said "no date" had been set for military operations to resume.
Meanwhile, the Yugoslav government told Muslim Albanian rebels operating in a separate area in southern Serbia to lay down their weapons by May 24th after NATO authorized Belgrade's troops to move into the zone.
The rebels, fighting to unite majority Albanian parts of southern Serbia with the U.N.-run and predominantly Muslim Albanian province of Kosovo, have vowed to fight any returning Yugoslav troops.
More than 3,000 Albanians have fled southern Serbia for Kosovo following renewed clashes between Yugoslav security forces and Albanian rebels, the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday.
They began leaving their homes around the town of Presevo Sunday after Albanian rebels temporarily took control of the nearby village of Oraovica and began firing from the village on Yugoslav troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned of the specter of a "Greater Albania," comparing the situation in the Balkans to Chechnya, where Moscow has been battling separatists.
Speaking after a summit with European Union leaders, Putin called on capitals in Western Europe to wake up to the danger posed by the Albanian rebels fighting in Macedonia and in Kosovo.
"I want to warn the citizens of Europe of the danger which they face," the Russian president said at a press conference.
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