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European foreign ministers fear Macedonia meltdown
BRUSSELS, June 24 (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers meet on Monday
facing an intractable crisis in Macedonia -- newly wrested from the brink of
disaster by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana but still highly volatile.
Talks were stalled between ethnic Albanian and Macedonian leaders on a peace
plan to end a five-month-old insurrection by Albanian guerrillas. But Solana
on Sunday coaxed the Macedonian Army back to a truce, stopping a three-day
offensive.
"Political dialogue should now continue," he told reporters in Skopje after
fighting stopped in nearby Aracinovo. But this is what the EU and NATO have
been urging since March, without concrete results.
EU ministers still have ample cause for alarm. The peace deal they had
insisted on seeing by Monday looked unlikely to materialise on time, wrecking
their mediation timetable.
The EU has made much of the benefits Macedonia could expect to reap as a
potential candidate for membership of the bloc if it establishes stable,
multi-ethnic democracy.
But it has been reluctant to spell out the consequences of failure, partly
because it has no obvious way of coercing a deal that would not, potentially,
make the problem worse.
The United States, which brokered a peace deal in Bosnia and came close to
one in Kosovo, keeps a lower profile in Macedonia, although Washington has
joined EU appeals to resume talks.
Macedonia's president or prime minister, together with the main ethnic party
leaders, had been due to join the EU ministers in Luxembourg to present their
peace plan, partly crafted with EU and NATO advice.
But Solana has for now agreed that Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva alone
should represent the country -- a change suggesting there could be little
progress to report.
Western powers are pressing Macedonia to cede equal rights to the large
ethnic Albanian minority. But the Albanians are demanding veto rights -- seen
by Skopje as the death knell of effective government and the road to
partition.
Diplomats fear if fighting does not stop long enough to permit progress on
the political front, wider rebel attacks may propel the country into all-out
war.
The EU ministers were expected to appoint, for a limited period, a special,
resident envoy to Macedonia; a name mentioned is former French defence
minister Francois Leotard.
They were also due to discuss Yugoslavia's new decree permitting the
extradition of war crimes suspects such as ex-president Slobodan Milosevic,
and its possible impact on an aid donors' conference for Yugoslavia next
Friday.
The United States has threatened to boycott this meeting, which is critical
to Yugoslavia's economic recovery, unless there is a concrete display of
readiness to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
During the two-day regular meeting, Solana will also brief ministers on his
efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, following weekend talks with
Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
11:08 06-24-01
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