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NATO And EU Leaders Push Macedonians For Talks
BEDINE, Macedonia, June 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - NATO and EU leaders stepped up efforts Thursday to break a deadlock between Macedonian Slav and Albanian leaders on political reforms aimed at ending an Albanian uprising that has driven the country to the edge of civil war.
The diplomatic push, which includes a snap visit by EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana, comes a day after Macedonian talks on political reforms suddenly collapsed, news agencies said.
Such a collapse blocked a NATO force deployment in Macedonia to help disarm Albanian activists, which the alliance conditioned on a political deal being reached first.
The head of the pan-European security body said Thursday that he was deeply concerned by the collapse of peace talks between Macedonian Slav and Albanian leaders in Skopje.
"This weekend is decisive. The news that the political process has collapsed is deeply worrying," Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana told the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.
Geoana told the leaders: "You have the support of the international community, politically and in practical ways for a peaceful and political solution. Do not miss this chance."
Five days of slow-moving talks between Macedonian Slav and Muslim Albanian leaders deadlocked Wednesday amid mutual recriminations.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski accused the Albanians of trying to split the country into two federal units based on Albanian affiliation, while Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi countered that the head of state was trying to demonize Albanians and "create a climate of paranoia."
Meanwhile, EU heavyweight Solana was expected to deliver a strong message to the leaders to go back to talks and cut a deal so that NATO could deploy troops in order to defuse tensions.
One Western observer said the ongoing spats in the political arena were "feeding the logic of war which will be difficult to calm down."
He said that many Albanian men were starting to side more and more with the gunmen than their political representatives, while a Macedonian Slav government official said the country was "in complete disarray. Militarily and politically, we have no plan."
In the meantime, NATO Secretary General, George Robertson, warned Wednesday that the country was very close to civil war, triggering a late night meeting in Skopje between Western ambassadors and leaders of the parties arguing over the rewording of the country's constitution.
"The [national unity] government of Macedonia ... knows what the stakes are, they know how close to civil war the country is at the present," Robertson said.
"That's why there are these heated and frustrating talks going on in Skopje, they know they have to bridge the divide between the two communities," he added.
Western diplomats were cautiously optimistic that the talks could resume after the meeting, as NATO countries geared up for another deployment in the troubled Balkans region, where they already have tens of thousands of troops in neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia.
Several thousand fresh NATO troops from outside the region are ready to step in to set up weapons collection points inside Macedonia if the unrest ends and a political deal is struck to redress Albanian complaints of discrimination, which center on the wording of the constitution, reported a Macedonian daily.
The NATO mission would comprise between 3,000 and 5,000 troops and work for 30 days to collect arms from activists.
Several countries, including the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Greece, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway, have offered troops, with Washington still mulling its participation, BBC reported online.
In a surprise move, Russia said it too could participate, as Moscow seeks to re-establish its influence in the region and build on a high-profile visit by President Vladimir Putin to Belgrade and Kosovo last weekend.
However, Albanian activists are likely to view any Russian involvement with suspicion after Moscow's backing for Belgrade when former president Slobodan Milosevic sent his forces into Kosovo to crush a similar Albanian uprising there three years ago.
The Albanian activists, who took up arms four months ago, say they only want to improve the rights of Macedonia's Muslim Albanian minority.
But a diplomat said Albanian politicians, by demanding a veto for the one-third minority on all key government decisions, may be trying to stall talks beyond the end of a ceasefire due to last until next week.
Daily gunfire has been reported around villages held by the National Liberation Army (NLA) to the north of Skopje and a suburb on the edge of the capital, despite the proclaimed restraint from both sides.
Aid agencies say the conflict has displaced around 50,000 people since it began in February.
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