Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- 09 Aug 2001 09:09 Macedonian policeman killed, new blow to peace By Alister Doyle SKOPJE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Macedonian policeman died in a new clash with ethnic Albanian guerrillas overnight as the nation teetered between war and peace on Thursday after politicians agreed a deal meant to end surging violence. Macedonian newspapers were gloomy about chances of averting a new Balkan war and focused on the deaths of 10 soldiers in a rebel ambush on Wednesday in the northwest, the bloodiest clash of the conflict so far, rather than a Western-brokered peace agreement. Adding to a toll of several dozen army and police deaths in the conflict, the MIA state news agency said policeman Dusko Sinadinovski died in an attack by rebels in the northwestern village of Ratae. Another policeman was wounded in the chest. And a local councillor from the central town of Veles said that a 14-year-old ethnic Albanian boy, Tafil Vejseli, was killed by suspected Macedonian paramilitaries overnight. There was no independent confirmation. In the capital, shopkeepers swept up glass from windows smashed during a rampage by about 1,000 people angered by the killings of the soldiers and by fighting in Tetovo, Macedonia's second city in the northwest. Western envoys, who had struggled to mediate a peace deal for 12 days, persuaded Macedonian and ethnic Albanian party leaders to initial the peace accord on Wednesday despite the upsurge in violence. "I remain very cautious," European Union envoy Francois Leotard told France's Europe 1 radio, reiterating hopes that the deal would be signed on Monday. DISAPPOINTMENTS "There have been too many disappointments in the past to declare oneself satisfied -- including what happened yesterday." He also expressed hopes for a planned deployment of NATO troops to help collect guerrilla arms. "There can be a deployment in the areas where guerrilla forces grew, and the collection of weapons. but we're not in a situation of avert force," he said. But the chief of staff of the guerrilla National Liberation Army, General Gezim Ostreni, was quoted as welcoming the deal. "The agreement meets the goals that everyone was committed to, the U.S, EU, all the people as well as the NLA," he told a Kosovo daily. But he denied that the NLA were involved in Wednesday's attack, saying they were not present in the area. The Macedonian daily Dnevnik was pessimistic. "Albanian terrorists have now declared total war and it's an end to all our hopes of a peaceful end to the crisis." The killings of the soldiers, an apparent revenge attack after five guerrillas were shot dead in Skopje on Tuesday, sparked riots in Skopje and the soldiers' hometown, Prilep, where a mosque was gutted by fire. The government warned it would strike back at the rebels, despite the peace plan, and a source in the office of President Boris Trajkovski said the army chief of staff would be fired over the ambush. Residents said Tetovo was quiet early on Thursday. In Skopje, shelves were bare in one clothes shop and ice cream cones were scattered on the pavement outside a smashed-up cafe as people cleared up on Thursday morning. The violence did not target Western embassies. Protesters also burned down a mosque and smashed up shops in Prilep in the south, where a police source said a group of around 70 men had broken into a local army barracks and stolen semi-automatic rifles. MACEDONIAN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETS Macedonia's Security Council authorised "the most energetic offensive measures" to counter the threat to government forces after a late-night meeting in the southern resort of Ohrid, where the peace talks had taken place. Many Macedonians see any peace plan giving concessions to the minority as a reward for aggression. Question marks hang over whether the deal will be accepted by either Macedonian deputies in parliament or the rebels, who did not take part in the talks but are presumed to have been in contact with some of the politicians who did. NATO has committed itself to sending a 3,500-strong force into Macedonia to collect weapons from the rebels -- but only after the political deal has been signed, a ceasefire is in place and the guerrillas have agreed to disarm voluntarily. The rebels say they are fighting for equal rights for the ethnic Albanian minority making up around 30 percent of the population of two million. Leaders of the Macedonian majority have branded them terrorists trying to break up the state. The United States also struck a cautious note about the prospects for avoiding the fifth Balkan war in a decade. "Simply put, we don't count our chickens before they hatch," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing in Washington. (With additional reporting by Philippa Fletcher and Ana Petruseva in Ohrid and Shaban Buza in Pristina) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
