Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Didn't the esteemed Lord Robinson just say last week that NATO would be out of Macedonia by the end of September? And didn't pro-NATO corporate media in North America and Europe assure us that "the Alliance" was pretty firm on this? And didn't people on this list expose this lie (like millions of others) and predict the real intentions of the imperialist forces quartering in my home-land (like thousands of other times)...Hmmm, I wonder why I like reading the postings to this list before I pick up the newspapers??? Macedonia may bite bullet on foreign force By Kole Casule SKOPJE, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Macedonia may bow to international pressure and accept a long-term foreign military presence to prevent new ethnic violence once NATO's mission ends in late September, government officials said on Monday. They insisted that a purely NATO force was out of question but said Skopje was ready to accept a mission including NATO troops under a U.N. mandate -- something several European Union ministers rejected over the weekend. "There is a lot of pressure, so we can expect a modification in our current resolute position of having no (extended) foreign military presence," a senior government source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. Antonio Milosovski, spokesman for the government led by nationalist Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, said: "A peace kept by NATO will not be real, but artificial. But he added: "We have nothing against NATO forces being part of an international force with a U.N. mandate with a mission to protect Macedonia's borders with Kosovo and Albania." A small U.N. force helped maintain stability with border patrols in the former Yugoslav republic, the only one to break away from Belgrade without a war, from 1992 to 1999. NATO has said its 4,500 troops would pull out when the month-long "Essential Harvest" operation to collect 3,300 weapons from the rebels ends on September 26. Its disarmament mission is part of a political deal between the government and Albanian political parties to give greater rights to the Albanian minority. The deal ended months of worsening conflict. UN MANDATE, NATO-LED? NATO's commander for Europe, General Joseph Ralston, who paid an unscheduled visit to the capital Skopje on Sunday, had floated an idea of combining the current NATO force with a U.N. contingent, the government source said. But EU ministers agreed on Sunday on the need for a NATO-led security force to stay on longer in the southern Balkan state. They were addressing fears that ethnic score-settling could reignite war after the NATO troops leave. "We all insisted on the need to avoid a security vacuum when NATO withdraws. The option considered most realistic would be to deploy a 'NATO-plus' force based on the troops already on the ground," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said. Meeting near Brussels, the ministers made no formal decision. The Macedonian government would have to request any new military presence and international institutions -- including the U.N. Security Council -- would be asked to endorse it. One EU minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fact that a donors' conference for Macedonia was planned for October 15 should give the West leverage to persuade Skopje to accept a NATO-led force. MORE ARMS SURRENDERED NATO troops resumed collecting weapons from the National Liberation Army rebels on Monday. It was the sixth round of weapons collecting in a 30-day mission to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army voluntarily in exchange for Macedonia's parliament passing constitutional changes benefiting minority Albanians. The changes are meant to decentralise power, allow more official use of the Albanian language and give ethnic Albanians jobs in public services, especially the police force, commensurate with their one-third share of the population. Diplomats said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had proposed a smaller but robust NATO-led force with a U.N. mandate to protect international monitors whose presence would encourage the return of refugees to their homes. The force should be open to non-NATO countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and Finland, he said. Skopje would be more amenable to accepting a force including Russians or Ukrainians given their Slav Orthodox kinship with Macedonians, analysts say. Russian President Vladimir Putin and France's Jacques Chirac discussed the situation in Macedonia by telephone on Monday. The Kremlin said in a statement the two men had agreed to continue close cooperation on Macedonia "with the aim of preserving the Balkan country's stability, territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders." Diplomats said Fischer had warned of the risk of a "silent coalition of extremists" exploiting any protracted dispute over a future role for NATO to resume fighting. Ethnic Albanians have called for weeks for deployment of a robust NATO-led security force after the guerrillas are disarmed, but Macedonians fear such a mandate would mutate into policing of a "Green Line" shielding a separatist rebel mini-state. "The biggest fear of the Macedonian side is that if the international military presence remains in Macedonia, the country, or at least part of it, may become an international protectorate," the Macedonian government source said. 08:02 09-10-01 ------------------------------------------------- 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 ==^================================================================
