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Renewed fighting breaks out in northern Macedonia
KUMANOVO, Macedonia, May 19 (Islamonline & News Agencies ) - Renewed fighting broke out on Saturday in northern Macedonia, with continuous exchanges of heavy artillery and machine gun fire near Slupcane, a correspondent of the French news agency, AFP, said.
The correspondent said the fighting occurred in the village of Opaje, a stronghold of ethnic Muslim Albanian activists who say they are fighting for equal rights for minority Albanians with the country's majority Christian Slavs.
The fighting followed incidents overnight in the area near Macdedonia's border with Kosovo between activists from the National Liberation Army and government forces.
Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said the soldiers were responding to "provocation" by the guerrillas.
Political leaders had warned Friday that Macedonia was still on a knife-edge between peace and war, as sporadic clashes between Muslim Albanian independence-fighters and government troops continued despite an army ceasefire.
Rebels and troops clashed briefly near a string of rebel-held villages north of Skopje which apparently caused no government casualties.
However, the army had added that the government's unilateral vow not to assault rebel positions was holding.
As the international community allowed itself a moment of optimism, deep divisions remained between those politicians urging talks with the rebels - or even an amnesty for the fighters - and those backing a military solution.
Saturday's clashes add to the pessimism surrounding the future of the volatile region which saw many indiscriminately practices against the Muslim minority.
Despite calling off an assault that had been threatened if the separatists had not surrendered by noon Thursday, the Macedonian government still had no intention of holding talks with those it has branded "terrorists," a term that the Albanian fighters say equally apply to the government there.
The National Liberation Army (NLA), who say they are fighting for Albanian rights, has seized a 400-square-kilometer (150 square mile) swathe of territory, including a dozen villages, in hills just north of Skopje.
Rather than talk directly with the activists, Macedonia has formed a government of national unity to co-opt elected Albanian leaders into discussions on reforms to reduce ethnic tensions and prevent support swinging to extremists.
"There is no sign at all that political dialogue will start soon," warned Iso Rusi, a leading Albanian commentator and editor of the weekly magazine Lobi, calling the ceasefire "a realistic decision".
"It's obvious [the government] should sit down at the negotiating table. If they refuse to do so, the next step will be real war. At the beginning, the NLA didn't have the support they expected among the population, but now they are getting more and more," he warned.
Macedonian Slav opinion, however, remains opposed to talks with the Muslim fighters.
Georgi Marjanovic, a criminal law professor and a member of the opposition League for Democracy, said: "There's no question of negotiating with them. They were not elected."
"We have reacted with moderation but that cannot go on forever. We have waited and waited. If they want war, they'll get it, and they'll be cruelly defeated," he warned.
Jovan Manasievski, vice-president of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the ruling coalition, said the separatists should be dealt with by force before any political talks could start.
"I am very skeptical about the possibility of beginning serious political dialogue while part of our territory is occupied. We should establish order and security before anything else," he said.
Macedonian reports said that hundreds of civilians fled the area of fighting Friday, but in Slupcane, at the heart of the conflict, reporters found hundreds of women, children and old men still holed up.
Macedonia's national unity government has received the full support of the international community.
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