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Civilians Killed As Macedonian Army Attacks
NEAR VAKSINCE, Macedonia, May 24 (News Agencies) - The Macedonian army launched on Thursday a major offensive against villages held by Muslim Albanian rebels in the north of the country, raising fears for thousands of civilians trapped there.
The attack came as Yugoslav troops in neighboring Serbia returned to a buffer zone bordering Kosovo, until recently a safe haven for another group of Muslim Albanian fighters.
The rebels, who seized control of a string of villages around the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo at the start of the month, said at least 11 civilians were killed and some 200 wounded when shells hit homes where they were hiding.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
The rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA) are seeking a change to the constitution which would give Macedonia's large Albanian minority the same legal status as the majority Slav population, and make Albanian an official language.
For the first time since fighting between troops and rebels flared up on May 3rd, government forces moved on Thursday into positions close to the rebel-held villages of Vaksince and Lojane.
They were followed by special police units, sent to evacuate civilians from the conflict zone.
Automatic fire could still be heard coming from the area on Thursday evening, while intensive shelling continued throughout the day in the nearby village of Slupcane - the main NLA stronghold.
Reporters from a local television station who approached Vaksince said troops had exchanged fire with rebels positioned in the village. They said snipers had shot at them.
Thursday's assault was one of the most intense since Albanian rebels began an armed campaign in this fragile multi-ethnic state in March.
The army used T-55 tank cannon, mortars and heavy machineguns against the rebel-held villages.
Thick smoke rose from numerous houses in flames in Vaksince and Slupcane, as two Mi-24 combat helicopters flew over the area.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says some 10,000 civilians remained in the combat zone, making the military action highly delicate.
The government in Skopje has repeatedly appealed to civilians to leave.
On May 17th, the government announced it was suspending its military operations against the rebels to avoid "bloodshed" and civilian deaths. But it also refused to negotiate with the rebels and warned it would respond to "provocation" from them.
The short-lived pause in fighting coincided with the formation of a national unity government comprising parties representing both Slavs and Muslim Albanians.
Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said Thursday's offensive was designed to "surround the region of conflict, to arrest and push back the groups of terrorists and create conditions to allow civilians to leave the region".
He said it was a response to "more and more frequent and arrogant actions in the region of Lipkovo", a village near Kumanovo and one of the main strongholds of the NLA.
Fighting resumed in earnest after Macedonian media reported that representatives of Albanian parties who joined the national unity government last week had signed a declaration with rebel leaders pledging to take "common action" to find a solution to the separatist unrest.
The move sparked uproar in Skopje and abroad.
Macedonian Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski warned the fragile coalition government could fall apart unless its two Albanian members - the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and the Party for Democracy and Prosperity (PDP) - distanced themselves from the rebels.
"We are in a situation of political crisis," he said.
President Boris Trajovksi said the DPA and PDP should "say clearly that terrorists will not be allowed to participate in decisions on the future" of the country and "tear up the declaration" signed with the rebels.
"Otherwise it will be impossible for us to work together," he added.
The European Union, Germany and the United States also rejected the accord.
"We consider that the joint agreement ... is totally unacceptable, in more than one way," said a statement issued on behalf of the 15-nation EU by the British Embassy in Skopje.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the accord went "against the views of the international community".
"The recourse to violence to achieve political ends, as practiced by the NLA, is unacceptable. For that reason, the NLA cannot be admitted into the political process," Fischer said.
Washington said: "We consider totally unacceptable the joint statement and any other effort to bring this insurgent group into the state structures."
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