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Give Peace a Chance, Macedonian Defense Minister Says
SKOPJE, Aug 9 (News Agencies) - Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski called on Macedonians Thursday to "give peace a chance" and urged them to put the murder of 10 Macedonian soldiers in an Albanian activist ambush behind them.
"Let us give peace a chance. May this major tragedy mark the end of the war and not the beginning of a bloody civil war," Buckovski said at a news conference.
But renewed violence in Macedonia and government threats to strike hard at Albanian activists have thrown into doubt a Western-mediated peace accord due to be signed Monday by political leaders from the two communities.
One Macedonian soldier was killed and another injured overnight near this flashpoint northwestern town, hospital sources said Thursday. The fighting broke out overnight around the village of Ratae, some seven miles northeast of Tetovo.
Macedonia's army spokesman Blagoja Markovski confirmed the toll, adding that the military has sent helicopters and additional troops to Tetovo, after the activists attacked army barracks in the town itself.
And early Thursday, Albanian fighters, from their positions in the suburbs, also attacked Macedonian forces deployed near the town's stadium.
The Western-backed agreement to end the six-month conflict was initialed by negotiators Wednesday at the lakeside town of Ohrid in anticipation of a formal signing on Monday.
But European Union envoy Francois Leotard warned Thursday that continuing trouble, like the ambush and the overnight fighting, could jeopardize Monday's signing.
"I remain very cautious. If the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate, what has been agreed and concluded on paper could be thrown into question," Leotard told French Europe 1 radio.
NATO is poised to send in a 3,500-strong force to oversee the disarming of the activists once a deal is signed.
But Macedonia's top defense body, the National Security Council (CNS), led by President Boris Trajkovski, cautioned that the attack "seriously put in doubt NATO's credibility," in a statement on Thursday.
It recalled that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization brokered a July 5th ceasefire that Skopje claims is regularly violated by the Albanian activists.
"The situation in the country is critical and [the CNS] feels that firmer and more offensive measures must be adopted to end the threats to the security forces and citizens," the statement said.
The ambush on Wednesday in a village west of Skopje was the worst single act of bloodshed in the six-month-old conflict that has brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war.
Ten Macedonian soldiers were killed in the ambush, and another Macedonian soldier was killed and one injured overnight in more fighting near Tetovo, hospital sources said.
Following the killings, hundreds of angry Macedonians took to the streets in protest, while in the southern town of Prilep, home to some of the soldiers killed in the ambush, rioters burned down a mosque, set fire and looted shops owned by Muslim Albanians.
"It is very difficult in these moments to find words to demand from people that they show patience and think of peace," Buckovski said.
But he added: "Believe me, the situation will be even more difficult if war comes to our homes."
Army spokesman Markovski warned that the situation was worsening in the northwest region of Tetovo.
"The citizens have to understand that there are only two options: all-out civil war or preserving a unified state, using all possible political and military measures," Markovski said.
In a statement published overnight Wednesday, the CNS said "firm and offensive" measures should be adopted to "end the threats to the security forces and citizens".
The activists launched their insurgency in February in a fight for rights for the large Muslim Albanian minority, who comprise about one-third of the country's population.
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