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Heavy Fighting Breaks Out in Macedonia Despite Bush Appeal
TETEVO, Macedonia, July 24 (News Agencies) - Heavy fighting broke out between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian troops in the northern town of Tetovo late on Tuesday.
The renewed violence, some of the most intense since NATO brokered a ceasefire between the two parties on July 5, came only hours after calls from U.S. President George W. Bush and NATO Secretary General George Robertson for a truce agreement to be respected.
Strong explosions and bursts of gunfire could be heard just 200 yards from the center of Tetovo. Much of the town was deserted, with many residents having fled the fighting.
An AFP journalist said a Macedonian army barracks, which was hit by mortar shells on Monday, came under fire again as did a nearby police checkpoint.
Military sources in Skopje confirmed the report, saying that "the shooting started from the hamlets of Poroj and Drenovec... from where the Albanian terrorists opened fire with infantry weapons and mortars."
Government sources said at 12:00 p.m. EST that intense fighting had broken out in and around Tetovo, the main Albanian-populated town in Macedonia.
Defense ministry spokesman Marjan Djurovski also confirmed the report but gave no details.
On Monday, two people were killed, one of them a 12-year old girl, and 31 were injured in more than six hours of clashes in Tetovo and its surroundings. The town is close to Macedonia's northern border with Albanian-majority Kosovo, a province of Serbia which is under U.N. administration.
Bush, on his first visit to Kosovo, called on government forces and Albanian rebels in the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) of Macedonia to "maintain the ceasefire".
The ceasefire agreement had bought time for EU envoy Francois Leotard and U.S. ambassador James Pardew to work on a political settlement to the dispute over greater Albanian rights with Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders.
But as their talks lost momentum last week, when the Slavs rejected a list of Albanian demands for changes to the constitution, the uprising that began in February gained pace again and fuelled fears of a new Balkans war.
In Brussels, Robertson issued a statement urging both parties to respect the commitments they made when they signed the ceasefire.
"Provocations and encroachments are unacceptable and must stop. In particular, I call on the so-called NLA to revert to their positions at the time of their ceasefire undertakings," the statement said.
Robertson called on the rebels to show respect for civilians and bring an end to intimidation and kidnapping.
Bush also warned that Kosovo, a U.N. protectorate, "must not be a safe haven for people causing insurgency elsewhere" and urged both sides to work with international envoys to resolve the crisis.
However, Macedonia accused NATO of supporting the rebels, in order to turn the country into an "international protectorate."
"NATO is not an enemy of Macedonia, but, at the same time, it is a big friend of our enemies," government spokesman Antonio Milososki told reporters.
Robertson denied reports that the NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, was supplying armed ethnic Albanian groups. "NATO has not given, and would not give, material or moral support to these groups," he said.
Meanwhile in the Macedonian capital of Skopje around 250 Macedonian Slavs who had fled the fighting near Tetovo demonstrated in front of the parliament.
The four coachloads of demonstrators, carrying bags with personal belongings brought from their homes, were calling for the liberation of their villages held by ethnic Albanian rebels, representatives said.
Two representatives met with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski.
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