Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [In search of another Racak. HRW doing what it does best.] Wednesday September 5 6:04 AM ET Macedonians Killed Civilians in Revenge-NY Times NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accuses the overwhelmingly Slavic forces of Macedonia's government of summary execution of ethnic Albanian civilians, arson and torture, the New York Times online edition reported on Wednesday. The operation over the weekend of Aug. 12 in the village of Ljuboten, the report says, ``had no military justification and was carried out for purposes of revenge,'' the newspaper said. By the standards of a decade of war in the Balkans, the number of dead around the town of Ljuboten was not high. But the killings were the worst single loss of life in six months of low-level warfare in Macedonia, Human Rights Watch said. They were also the clearest and bloodiest example yet of the cycle of revenge that prolonged other Balkan wars. NATO recently embarked on what is intended to be a one-month mission to calm the Macedonian conflict, the report was quoted as saying. In an interview, Ljube Boskovski, the hard-line Macedonian minister of the interior and perhaps the most outspoken proponent of a military solution to the insurgency, sought to distance himself from what happened in Ljuboten, the newspaper reported. He said that he arrived only at 4 p.m. that Sunday, after the military operation had ended, and that he did not direct the operation. But he also maintained that it was ``stupidity'' to think that the ethnic Albanian rebel force -- which calls itself the National Liberation Army -- was not in Ljuboten that weekend, even though he said he had no idea if those who died were fighters or civilians, the report said. Boskovski also attacked Human Rights Watch, which investigated the incident, calling it an ``international mercenary organization.'' ``They accuse me of being present there and watching when civilians were murdered,'' Mr. Boskovski said in the Times article. ``That is a monstrous accusation.'' __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.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 ==^================================================================
