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NATO Collects Arms as West Ponders Next Move
BRODEC, Macedonia, Sept 9 (News Agencies) - NATO resumed Sunday collecting arms from Albanian soldiers in Macedonia, amid growing debate over whether Allied troops could stay longer than expected in the fragile Balkan state.
The alliance's Supreme Allied Commander General Joseph Ralston said in Skopje that discussions were still ongoing over an international military presence remaining in Macedonia once the alliance leaves.
"A decision still has to be made," he said after talks at the Macedonian defense ministry, but added: "There is no military solution for this country, only a political solution."
The alliance's British-led weapons-reaping operation, dubbed Operation Essential Harvest, involves 4,400 troops from about a dozen countries.
In the latest arms collection session, National Liberation Army (NLA) members handed in 60mm mortars and heavy machine guns to a French-German NATO team in the northwestern Macedonian village of Brodec, French spokesman Herve Fouilland said.
NATO says it is on target for its next haul of arms from the NLA in time for the next phase of a Western-backed peace deal, brokered to end a seven-month Muslim Albanian uprising.
The NLA handed in 1,210 weapons during the first phase last month, more than a third of NATO's target of 3,300 arms, and the alliance plans to collect a further 1,100 during this second phase by September 13th.
Once the Alliance has collected the second third of the NLA's weapons, the Macedonian parliament will begin debating 36 amendments to the constitution so an August 13th peace agreement can be implemented.
Meanwhile Sunday, EU foreign ministers meeting outside Brussels debated the merits of extending NATO's presence in Macedonia past its 30-day mission, which ends in barely two weeks' time.
Germany is taking the lead in proposing a NATO peacekeeping force in Macedonia - similar to ones in Bosnia and Kosovo - that would deploy under a U.N. mandate at Skopje's invitation.
But no invitation from Macedonia seems likely at the moment. On Saturday, President Boris Trajkovski said NATO should leave the country once its present mission comes to an end.
An August 13th Western-brokered peace accord offers an amnesty to most NLA members who disarm, makes Albanian an official language in some areas, provides more jobs for minorities in the police force and administration, and grants wider powers to local government.
The accord stipulates that the political elements of the deal must be implemented by September 27th, the day after NATO ends its arms collection mission and begins pulling out of Macedonia.
Macedonia hosted a U.N. security force through much of the 1990s. But the peacekeepers withdrew in early 1999 after China - angered by Skopje's recognition of Taiwan - vetoed an extension of its mandate.
The EU and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have already said that they intend to send more civilian observers to Macedonia as spelled out in the August 13th peace agreement.
Meanwhile, NLA leader Ali Ahmeti reiterated that the conflict in Macedonia was at an end, and the NLA will respect a peace deal signed by the country's political leaders.
"We do not want the war to continue, we are convinced it is over," he told the Greek daily Kathimerini.
The next collection of NLA arms is expected to be held Wednesday, and will be run by Italian and Turkish NATO troops, Johnson said.
He did not disclose its location, but a local NLA leader named "Commander Shpati" told AFP his men would hand over weapons on Wednesday near the village of Matejce, in the northern Kumanovo region.
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