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http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/al/Qmacedonia-amnesty.R8k8_CMC.html Macedonia frees eight ethnic Albanian rebels ahead of donor meeting Monday SKOPJE, March 12 (AFP) - Macedonia's government has freed at least eight former rebels from the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) under the terms of an amnesty deal, officials told AFP late Monday. The adoption and implementation of the amnesty law has been tied to donor aid, and on Tuesday Macedonia is hoping to win more than 225 million dollars in financial support at a conference in Brussels. Among those freed from jail was Sami Habibi, who was suspected of carrying out an attack on a police station in Tearce, near Tetovo, last January. Two policemen died and three were injured in the attack, official sources said. Macedonia's Justice Minister Idzet Memeti said judges were working overtime to handle the cases of other detained rebels, and said he expected the cases to be processed by late Tuesday at the lastest. Macedonia's parliament last week approved a long-awaited amnesty law that is a part of the peace plan that ended fighting between Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels last year. The amnesty law aims to pardon "all those linked with the crisis," when a seven-month conflict between the government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas threatened to escalate into a civil war. Ethnic Albanian rebels launched an insurgency in February 2001 in a bid to improve rights for the country's ethnic Albanians, who make up almost one third of the country's two million people. Skopje, however, accused the rebels of trying to unite northwestern Macedonia with the neighbouring Yugoslav republic of Kosovo -- also majority ethnic Albanian and the scene of a NATO bombing campaign in 1999. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
