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Macedonian Peace Talks Underway as Fragile Ceasefire Holds
OHRID, Macedonia, July 28 (News Agencies) - Macedonia's government, political parties and Western envoys opened "tough" negotiations Saturday to stave off a civil war as a shaky ceasefire between ethnic Muslim Albanian combatants and government forces held into its third day.
A party source close to the Macedonian government said the negotiations were "tough going" and that "it is very likely the talks will continue Sunday as well".
But he said the representatives were determined to come up with an agreement that could be signed at the end of the talks.
President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the leaders of the two main ethnic Albanian parties, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri, participated in the meeting, held in Trajkovski's summer residence in this lake resort town, far from the scene of the recent conflict in the north.
EU and U.S. envoys Francois Leotard and James Pardew were also at the table, a sign of the arm-twisting the West has done to get the talks, which were aborted two weeks ago, back on track.
Deputy Foreign Minister Muhamed Halili, a member of the PDP ethnic Albanian party who was not in the talks but was being informed of their progress, confirmed the talks would likely extend into Sunday, saying: "No matter what, we have to have something to sign."
The parties are trying to stitch together an agreement that will meet some ethnic Albanian demands for a greater say in regions where they have a significant population without weakening the sovereignty of the multi-ethnic republic.
In the meantime, a July 5 ceasefire salvaged by NATO was holding.
The region around Tetovo, Macedonia's third-biggest city and the focus of many of the recent clashes, was sufficiently calm Saturday to allow the return of 350 Macedonian Slavs who had left their homes when fighting flared this week.
Their hamlets and villages are located on the road linking the main Albanian-populated towns of Tetovo and Jazince, en-route to the neighboring U.N.-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
Since signing an agreement Wednesday that reinstated the ceasefire, the combatants have dismantled their checkpoints and pulled out of positions in villages in the Tetovo region.
A European source said, however, that the Muslim Albanian combatants were seen holding their pre-ceasefire position just 500 meters (yards) from Tearce, a mixed Macedonian-Albanian village near Tetovo.
Fears security could not be assured in Tetovo, where the peace talks were meant to have taken place Friday, caused officials to delay the start of the negotiations and relocate them to Ohrid, well away from the risk of violence.
The main points under discussion Saturday were ethnic Albanian demands that a police force independent of state authority be set up to patrol ethnic Albanian areas and that Albanian become an official language alongside Macedonian, according to sources close to the talks.
NATO, the European Union and the United States want to stop the unrest becoming yet another Balkan war, especially as many of their troops are in neighboring Kosovo as peacekeepers and Macedonia is used as a logistical rear base.
The July 5 ceasefire was almost extinguished by this week's fighting, which left two dead, 30 wounded and caused thousands to flee.
The situation gained further urgency Tuesday when mobs frustrated with the continued violence rioted in Skopje on an anti-Western, anti-Albanian rampage that targeted the British, German and U.S. embassies.
But NATO managed Wednesday to broker the agreement from the combatants to reverse advances made during the truce in return for restraint by Macedonian security forces.
And yet another crisis-management trip to Macedonia Thursday by NATO Secretary General George Robertson and EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana to see authorities ended with an optimistic Solana declaring that the ceasefire and peace negotiations were "back on track".
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