Macedonia Deploys Army After Kosovo Border Clashes
SKOPJE, March 5 (News Agencies) - Macedonia on Monday called up its army and police reservists in response to clashes on the Kosovo border with ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
"All of the police reservists have been mobilized because of the situation," interior ministry spokesman Stevo Pendarovski told reporters, as fighting continued in the north of the country.
"The army is moving to a partial mobilization of its reservists," said defense ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov at the same press conference.
Neither official gave figures.
"We are aware that the inhabitants of the village of Tanusevci are among the terrorists," added Pendarovski.
Ethnic Albanian gunmen have occupied the village, near the border with the U.N.-administered Yugoslav province of Kovoso, for several weeks.
Pendarovski said the call-up came after Macedonian forces came under fire from the neighboring villages of Malino and Kodra Fura.
Trendafilov said they expected the gunmen to slip back towards the Kosovan town of Debelde having changed back into civilian clothing. But he would not say if the intruders had already begun to pull out.
"The Macedonian army will not provoke - but it will respond to any provocation from armed Albanians," he added.
"Macedonia insist that NATO's multinational peace force in Kosovo [KFOR] controls the Kosovan side of the border more closely," Trendafilov said.
Skopje has called on KFOR to close the road leading from the Kosovan village of Deblede to Tanusevci in Macedonia.
Ethnic Albanian gunmen have been operating both in the Presevo valley in southern Serbia and in neighboring Kosovo along the border with Macedonia.
The mountainous area has been the scene of armed skirmishes between Macedonian border guards and ethnic Albanian gunmen over the past few weeks.
On Sunday, Macedonia closed its border with Kosovo after three of its soldiers were killed: two from a landmine and the third from a sniper's bullet.
Skopje also urgently called on the United Nations to set up a buffer zone between Macedonia and Kosovo.
