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NLA Calls on EU, NATO to Enforce Macedonia Peace Accord
SIPKOVICA, Macedonia, Aug 30 (News Agencies) - Albanian leader Ali Ahmeti called on the European Union and NATO on Thursday to ensure that the Macedonian parliament respects the August 13th peace accord.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) and French radio, Ahmeti said: "An accord was signed and we are confident - the guarantee for this accord is the European Union and NATO."
"We have confidence in the Europeans and the Americans - if there is a problem we will take it up with them," Ahmeti said in his stronghold in Sipkovica in northwest Macedonia.
The Macedonian parliament meets on Friday to begin debate on implementing the peace agreement that grants an amnesty to National Liberation Army (NLA) members and provides official status in some areas for the Albanian language.
While Ahmeti's NLA did not take part in negotiating the accord, they have agreed to surrender 3,300 of their weapons to NATO for it to be ratified.
Ahmeti also ruled out suspending the NLA disarmament program if the assembly refused to move ahead on the peace accord.
"We will respect all our engagements, all that was agreed," he affirmed.
"A rejection of the text by parliament would not be good news, it would not contribute to peace," the NLA political leader said.
Like most Albanian leaders in Macedonia, Ahmeti wants NATO to stay beyond its mandate of 30 days. "The longer it is, the better it will be for us to ensure that the accord is being put into place."
But he said there would be no more arms to hand in if it were extended. "We are going to hand over 3,300 arms, there aren't any more."
The figure of 3,300 weapons was agreed between the NLA and NATO but the Macedonian government has never accepted it, and officials have claimed that the NLA has anywhere from 6,000 to 85,000 arms.
Ahmeti also denounced Macedonian paramilitary groups and demanded that they be disarmed as well - a demand also made by NATO Secretary General George Robertson on Wednesday.
"The arms should be given back to their boss, that is Ljube Boskovski," Ahmeti said, in reference to the interior minister who is considered one of the country's most hardline nationalists.
Almost an unknown before the Muslim Albanian uprising began in February, Ahmeti, 42, became the NLA's political representative a few weeks after the conflict began.
Ahmeti, who studied at the University of Pristina in the neighboring Serb province of Kosovo, says he has fought for Albanian rights since 1981.
Clad in a khaki T-shirt and military pants, of average height and with graying hair, he welcomes people in a beautiful house in this mountain village overlooking the town of Tetovo.
Among the NLA standing guard are some British paratroopers, part of a NATO liaison team working with the NLA.
When asked about the future of the NLA and his political ambitions, Ahmeti was vague. Would he set up a new political party?
"We are thinking about it, we will see later, we're not at that stage yet," he said.
One thing is clear though, he wants to keep living in Macedonia after the conflict is resolved and benefit from the amnesty the government is granting to all fighters who have not committed crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
But Ahmeti is the subject of several arrest warrants issued by the Macedonian government and Skopje says he should face both local and international courts.
"I did not kill either women or children in the villages, I respected the Geneva conventions, I became engaged in the NLA under my own name and with my face uncovered," the NLA leader said.
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