Shooting Breaks Out Near Flashpoint Macedonian Town
TETOVO, Macedonia, July 22 (News Agencies) - Sporadic but intensive firefights broke out between ethnic Muslim Albanian gunmen and Macedonian security forces Sunday in what was seen as the worst fighting since a fragile July 5 ceasefire, a defense ministry official told news agencies.
The fighting, which ended early afternoon, came as the Balkan country prepared for a crucial week of talks aimed at achieving a political settlement to the dispute between Macedonia's majority Slav and ethnic Muslim Albanian minority which has brought it to the brink of civil war.
The defense ministry official said fighters of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) opened fire on army positions from the rebel-held villages of Sipkovica and Gajre just northwest of Tetovo, targeting their positions with automatic weapons fire.
The armed forces responded and brief shoot-outs ensued at around 8:00 am and again around 10:45 am (0600 and 0845 GMT), the official said. Two Macedonian soldiers were slightly hurt in the fighting.
Western officials said they had witnessed mortar fire and assault rifles.
A Macedonian military source said the shooting was "the biggest" since the entry into force on July 5 of the ceasefire designed to give breathing space to talks on political reforms to increase the rights of the large ethnic Muslim Albanian minority.
Those talks stalled last week as the Macedonians rejected a Western-backed proposal for Albanian to be granted the status of second official language.
The security forces have frequently accused the rebels of using the ceasefire to regroup and reinforce their positions around the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo, where the armed activists have set up their own checkpoints on roads just a few hundred meters (yards) from police positions.
The truce has been battered by repeated but low-intensity shoot-outs in the area.
Bursts of firing could also be heard around 10:15 am from the village of Selce, where several Macedonian police checkpoints are situated, an AFP reporter in the northwestern town said.
After calm was restored, Tetovo's mainly ethnic Albanian population was tense, but remained out in the streets. A western official, who refused to be named, said that earlier inhabitants had stoned a vehicle belonging to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a small village near Tetovo.
It said the two occupants of the car were not injured.
The capital Skopje was also being overflown by aircraft, although it was not possible to determine the direction they were taking.
