Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Friday August 10, 5:31 PM Eight soldiers die as Macedonia conflict threatens peace deal SKOPJE, Aug 10 (AFP) - Eight Macedonian soldiers were killed and six were injured on Friday when an army truck ran over a mine, throwing the Balkan country's peace process further into crisis. Military sources told AFP the soldiers had been killed on the road near Ljubanci village, north of Skopje, when their truck drove over a mine. The new deaths came amid a spiral in violence in the former Yugoslav republic, which has threatened to scupper the signature of an internationally-mediated peace accord in Skopje on Monday. In a sign of continued tensions, helicopters and sukhoi planes could be seen circling the skies over the northern flashpoint town of Tetovo, after renewed clashes between rebels and government forces overnight, witnesses told Meanwhile, Macedonians in the southern town of Prilep prepared to bury 10 soldiers killed in an ambush of an army convoy on Wednesday, in the worst single attack by ethnic Albanian rebels since they launched an insurgency six months ago. In Prilep, home to the slain soldiers, rioters burned down a mosque and set fire to and looted shops owned by ethnic Albanians on Wednesday. President Boris Trajkovski on Thursday dismissed his army chief of staff, General Pande Petrovski, in response to the ambush, sources at the president's office said. Macedonian military officials would not confirm whether sukhoi fighter jets had been put into action in Tetevo, stating only that helicopters had been used. Rebels control some of the suburbs around Tetovo and are trying to push into parts of the city. The government's crisis management centre said rebels kidnapped six Macedonian civilians on Wednesday from the village of Lesok, about 10 kilometres (six miles) northeast of Tetovo. It said the six men included one 74-year-old. A day earlier, sporadic clashes left eight civilians injured, prompting Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski to appeal to the nation to put bitterness aside and back the peace deal with the country's ethnic Albanian minority. The guerrillas say they are fighting for the rights of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, who make up about one-third of the population of Macedonia. Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders on Wednesday initialed an agreement to end the conflict, after nearly two weeks of negotiations in the southern lakeside resort of Ohrid. Western envoys said the deal should be formally signed on Monday. The peace agreement, worked out under intense pressure from US and European mediators, calls for use of Albanian as an official language, police reforms in Albanian areas and the deployment of 3,500 NATO troops to disarm rebels of the rebels' self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA). However, European Union envoy Francois Leotard warned on Thursday that the ongoing fighting could still thwart the peace deal. "I remain very cautious. If the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate, what has been agreed and concluded on paper could be thrown into question," Leotard told France's Europe 1 radio. __________________________________________________ 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 ==^================================================================
