-Caveat Lector-
"Macedonia says it cannot take in more than 20,000 refugees, fearing
they will destabilize its ethnic balance and lead to calls for autonomy for
the Albanian minority...
"Too much pressure on Macedonia could endanger Georgievski's fragile
coalition of Macedonian and Albanian parties.
"Anti-NATO resentment has been growing among Macedonian nationalists,
angry at both the airstrikes against fellow Orthodox Serbs and the influx of
minority refugees."
"Greater Albania," anyone?
I wonder how 'humanitarian' the US gov't would feel if suddenly a civil
war in Mexico sent 2 million new illegal immigrants across the border into
California?
Macedonia Criticizes NATO
By PATRICK QUINN
.c The Associated Press
BLACE, Macedonia (AP) -- Macedonian officials early today emptied a border
enclave where thousands of refugees had been trapped for days in squalid
conditions.
Working through the night, officials bused refugees out of the encampment at
Blace, on the border with Kosovo.
A bus convoy out of the camp had been running for days, but the pace was
sharply stepped up to move out the last of the refugees, who had numbered in
the tens of thousands only the day before.
However, the fate of a long line of refugees who had been waiting on the
other side of the border was not known. There was speculation they had been
turned back to Kosovo.
Paula Ghedini, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said about 15,000
of the remaining refugees from Blace had been taken to a transit camp near
Macedonia's capital, Skopje, but officials were not sure what happened to the
others.
``We don't have manifests from all the buses,'' she said.
Paramilitary police kept journalists at a distance from what had been a
sprawling encampment. Viewed from a distance, the site was a giant,
smoldering pit, with garbage fires burning and tons of muddy clothing and
plastic sheeting strewn about.
The move came against a backdrop of growing tensions between Western aid and
alliance officials and Macedonian authorities.
On Tuesday, Macedonia's prime minister criticized NATO for ignoring warnings
that airstrikes on neighboring Yugoslavia could cause a humanitarian
disaster.
Llubco Georgievski, premier of the former Yugoslav republic, also blamed the
alliance for allowing 130,000 Kosovo Albanians to gather on its border
without proper measures to care for them.
``In the 15 days since the airstrikes started, Macedonia cried out that
something dramatic was going to happen. The United States and European Union
have done nothing to help,'' Georgievski said, calling the NATO allies
``completely irresponsible.''
U.N. aid agencies have accused Macedonia of using bureaucratic delays to slow
the influx of both refugees and aid. They are also looking into reports that
Macedonia may be forcing Kosovo Albanians to leave the country in a
Western-organized airlift that started late Monday with flights to Turkey and
Norway.
Macedonia, flooded with more than 130,000 refugees from Kosovo, says it
cannot take in more than 20,000, fearing they will destabilize its ethnic
balance and lead to calls for Albanian autonomy in this country of 2.2
million.
Too much pressure on Macedonia could endanger Georgievski's fragile coalition
of Macedonian and Albanian parties. On Tuesday, the government reportedly
asked the United States to postpone the deployment of some of its forces, who
were to assist in building refugee camps.
Anti-NATO resentment has been growing among Macedonian nationalists, angry at
both the airstrikes against fellow Orthodox Serbs and the refugee inflow.
In a news release late Tuesday, the government hinted it would stem a future
tide after 65,000 refugees are moved out from Blace.
``The Macedonian government has decided that refugees will only be accepted
through the crossing borders and be transported at ... transfer camps where
they will be transferred to other countries,'' it said.
NATO troops in Macedonia have been working day and night to set up nine tent
cities to temporarily house refugees. NATO said it had ferried into Macedonia
more than 1,373 tons of aid, including 350 tons of food and water and 250
tons of tents and other supplies.
An additional 30,000 refugees were caught in a bottleneck at a border
crossing in southwestern Jazince, caused by the Yugoslav government's
decision to close the border Tuesday, Macedonian officials said.
April 6 (Reuters) Western governments have warned that Milosevic might take
advantage of the NATO strikes to stage a military coup in Montenegro and
overthrow the 37-year-old Djukanovic.
The coalition government here says it is ready to defend itself and has
placed well-armed police outside key public buildings around Podgorica.
However, with many people in this mountainous republic fiercely opposed to
the NATO attacks, Djukanovic and his ministers have been careful not to make
any public declarations which might be seen as a push for independence.
Several thousand anti-NATO demonstrators staged a peaceful rock concert in
the heart of Podgorica for the third day running on Tuesday, waving Yugoslav
flags and holding up their hands in the three-fingered Serb salute.
NATO hit Yugoslav military targets in Montenegro at the start of the bombing
campaign, but mindful of Djukanovic's fragile position, it has not bombed the
republic for more than a week in a bid to calm nerves.
However, the army still sets off air raid sirens at least once a day around
the capital and on Tuesday it triggered a volley of colourful anti-aircraft
fire through the night sky.
...
Blasts shake Montenegro capital
PODGORICA, April 6 (Reuters) - Four explosions reverberated around the
Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Tuesday night with blasts close to a road
bridge and at a military airport, local media said.
There was no clear evidence of the cause of the explosions and surprise among
some residents of the city, after indications from Western leaders that the
reform-minded Yugoslav republic would be spared NATO air raids.
The explosions were clearly audible from the city centre and a fire could be
seen in mountains to the north of the capital, at the location of a military
firing range.
NATO targeted tiny Montenegro at the start of its bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia two weeks ago but has not struck for nine days, aiming its fire
instead on the republic of Serbia, Montenegro's dominant partner in the
Yugoslav federation.
Western leaders have said they want to avoid destabilising Montenegro, which
is locked in dispute with Belgrade.
A private local television station Elmag said NATO bombers had targeted a
road bridge leading from Podgorica to Belgrade on Tuesday night. It showed
pictures of a scrubfire around the road but said the bridge was still
standing.
Thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Serb forces in neighbouring
Kosovo have used the bridge to travel from the border to temporary
accommodation on the Adriatic coast.
Another explosion was heard on a small, grassy hill in a suburb not far from
the centre of Podgorica. A Reuters reporter saw twisted grey metal scattered
at the scene. Police cordoned off a wooded area on the hill, but there was no
sign of damage or smoke.
Local people said there was a telecommunications relay station in the area.
Earlier on Tuesday evening a ribbon of anti-aircraft fire streaked through
the night sky above Podgorica, after air raid sirens sounded. But no sirens
sounded before the four explosions, which came some three hours later.
Yugoslavia's second army is based is based in Montenegro. Montenegrin
President Milo Djukanovic denounced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on
Tuesday as a catastrophic autocrat who was blocking the road to peace in the
Balkans.
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