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Civilians Flee Macedonia As Fighting Spreads
ARACINOVO, Macedonia, May 28 (News Agencies) - Fierce fighting continued to spread in Macedonia on Monday, as the European Union's foreign policy supremo flew in to help find a solution to the crisis in the Balkan country.
Hundreds of villagers fled their homes as Muslim Albanian rebels continued attacking security force positions, firing mortar shells into the main northern town of Kumanovo for the first time, according to Macedonian and NATO officers.
"Terrorists are shooting at our positions from Otlja, Slupcane and Orizare. Macedonian forces are responding with artillery, tanks and helicopters," army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski said.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he would try to seek a solution to the three-month old conflict during his latest visit.
"I came to talk with the leaders of the different political formations to see how we can resume the political dialogue which I think is very important for the country," Solana said on his arrival in the Macedonian capital.
Solana, who has visited the conflict-wracked country several times in recent months, held talks with President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and other key party leaders.
Solana gave his backing to Georgievski's government of national unity, and urged it to press ahead with discussions on increased minority rights in order to defuse Macedonia's ethnic tensions and isolate "extremists".
His stance was backed by NATO leaders meeting in Budapest, where Secretary General George Robertson said: "There should be no place at the negotiating table for those who prefer the bullet to the ballot box."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, flying to Budapest after a tour of Africa, said he expected the NATO ministers to "encourage the government of Macedonia to move more aggressively on reconciliation" with its Muslim Albanian minority.
Solana's latest visit came after fierce fighting erupted in the north of the country, as the army responded to an Albanian rebel counter-attack with renewed shelling of rebel-held villages.
Intensive artillery battles could be heard in the area around Matejce and Slupcane, which have been held by rebels of the National Liberation army (NLA) since May 3rd.
On Monday, for the first time, rebel mortar shells landed in the northern town of Kumanovo, Markovski said.
Two shells fell near an army barracks shared by the Macedonian army and a Belgian supply unit of Kosovo's NATO-led peacekeeping force, but no troops were hurt.
"No-one was injured, but we were shaken up," Belgian army Major Eddy Custine told AFP.
Markovski said that around 600 civilians had managed to escape from the frontline villages, hailing this as a "big success" for the government's evacuation plan, but warned that it was not yet safe for the International Committee of the Red Cross to send teams into the area.
At least 500 people, many perched on tractors or in other vehicles, headed from the hamlets and villages in northern Macedonia south towards Aracinovo, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Civilians, among them a large number of women and children, said they had left their homes in the Muslim Albanian-populated hamlet of Ropalce, near Matejce, where clashes broke out early Monday.
"Everything is calm in Ropalce, but we have left because of the clashes in Matejce," 56-year old villager Sahim Salih said.
Several thousand civilians have fled the area since the army launched an intense offensive last week against about 10 villages occupied by Albanian rebels.
Artillery fire targeted Slupcane, the stronghold of the NLA, as troops tried to enter the village from the east, and nearby Orizare and Otlja were also shelled.
A few kilometers (miles) away, tanks could be seen on the outskirts of Matejce, where fleeing villagers said rebels had gained control of part of the hamlet after troops last week took back two nearby villages.
Markovski said policemen had begun deploying in Matejce, carrying out checks "house by house," after reinforcements were sent to the area on Sunday.
The army offensive has heightened tensions within Macedonia's shaky coalition government, formed May 13th to present a united front against the rebels who are fighting for increased rights for the Muslim Albanian minority.
The Muslim Albanian and Macedonian Slav parties in the coalition vehemently disagree over the use of force to defeat the rebels.
Georgievski has accused his coalition partners of siding with "terrorists" after the two main Albanian parties met the rebels' political chief last week to discuss "common action" to promote their cause.
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