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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
TETOVO, Macedonia Under heavy pressure from Western powers, the Macedonian
government and Albanian rebels signed a formal cease-fire Thursday as a first
hard step toward heading off another ethnic war in the Balkans.
.
The two sides were to lay down their arms at midnight Thursday. But Thursday
evening, intense fighting raged in this city in the northwest, with rebels
and government troops trading mortar rounds and automatic gunfire, at times
from inside the city.
.
A government helicopter gunship slammed rockets into the hillside just west
of Tetovo, where rebels hold positions, and several soldiers and civilians
were reported wounded. It was not clear if the fighting was a last-minute
attempt to gain ground or if the cease-fire was delivered stillborn.
.
"No one who is reasonable and knows the situation closely here can expect
that we will have calm overnight," said Stevo Panderovski, a top adviser to
the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski. He stressed however that the
government stood fully behind the cease-fire.
.
The fighting, also reported near villages around the front lines in the north
of the country, underscored just how close Macedonia has been veering to
full-scale war in the last several weeks.
.
And the cease-fire reflects how seriously the Western powers are now taking
that threat. Over the last week, both the European Union and the United
States have appointed full-time envoys to fashion a political agreement to
expand the rights of Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up roughly one
third of the nation's 2 million people and who complain that they do not
enjoy full rights.
.
The cease-fire also brings NATO one step closer to deploying a force of 3,000
troops to collect weapons from the Albanian guerrillas, known as the National
Liberation Army. A NATO officials said Thursday that the force could be in
place within "days, not weeks," but only on the condition that the two sides
here make substantial progress in resolving their political differences.
.
Until the fighting here began Thursday, diplomats and government officials
were expressing far more optimism about resolving the crisis here they have
in the last few weeks. "It's a very important step on the way to a political
solution, not a military solution," Francois Leotard, the newly appointed
envoy for the EU, told reporters in the capital, Skopje, on Thursday.
.
In fact, the nation's defense minister, Vlado Buckovski, said he believed a
political solution could be in place as early as July 15, and that NATO
troops could begin to arrive a week after that.
.
For a decade, since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Western
troops have been involved in policing wars in the Balkans, and Western
officials have made clear they are not eager for another expensive
peacekeeping operation, like the ones in Bosnia and Kosovo.
.
In the last few days, Western negotiators, by all accounts, have been
aggressively pushing both the Macedonian government and the rebels toward a
cease-fire, on the theory that political progress can only be made in the
absence of fighting. The EU has also offered a large, though unspecified,
package of financial assistance if war is headed off. By Thursday evening,
though, some of the day's optimism appeared to thin as the fighting in
Tetovo, a stronghold for Albanians, intensified.
.
Although several other cease-fires had been mutually declared, the one
Thursday was the first that both sides actually signed.
.
Apart from the cease-fire itself, several outside experts have been working
to draft a framework to meet the demands of the Albanians. The issues include
a recognition of Albanian as an official language, greater representation in
the federal and local government and official recognition in the Macedonian
Constitution. These are contentious issues in Macedonia and officials
cautioned that the progress in the last several days could easily unravel as
details were worked out.
.
With the adoption of the cease-fire, attention also shifted to the ultimate
role of NATO troops here. NATO officials have been careful to present their
involvement as far more limited than in Bosnia or Kosovo, where outsiders
have in many ways taken the role of administering government. Only 3,000
troops, to be headed by the British, will be stationed in Macedonia, as
compared with some 40,000 in Kosovo. American troops are expected to assist
with logistics.
.
The Macedonian government has been sensitive about ceding any sovereignty to
NATO, and have been concerned that an official cease-fire would only serve to
solidify the rebels' gains on the ground. Mark Laity, an adviser to George
Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, said that the alliance's disarmament
role would last only 30 days. Its mission will be to collect and destroy the
Albanian's weapons as part of a peace settlement, not to police areas of the
country split along ethnic lines.
For Related Topics See:
Europe
Front Page
Back to Start of Article TETOVO, Macedonia Under heavy pressure from Western
powers, the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels signed a formal
cease-fire Thursday as a first hard step toward heading off another ethnic
war in the Balkans.
.
The two sides were to lay down their arms at midnight Thursday. But Thursday
evening, intense fighting raged in this city in the northwest, with rebels
and government troops trading mortar rounds and automatic gunfire, at times
from inside the city.
.
A government helicopter gunship slammed rockets into the hillside just west
of Tetovo, where rebels hold positions, and several soldiers and civilians
were reported wounded. It was not clear if the fighting was a last-minute
attempt to gain ground or if the cease-fire was delivered stillborn.
.
"No one who is reasonable and knows the situation closely here can expect
that we will have calm overnight," said Stevo Panderovski, a top adviser to
the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski. He stressed however that the
government stood fully behind the cease-fire.
.
The fighting, also reported near villages around the front lines in the north
of the country, underscored just how close Macedonia has been veering to
full-scale war in the last several weeks.
.
And the cease-fire reflects how seriously the Western powers are now taking
that threat. Over the last week, both the European Union and the United
States have appointed full-time envoys to fashion a political agreement to
expand the rights of Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up roughly one
third of the nation's 2 million people and who complain that they do not
enjoy full rights.
.
The cease-fire also brings NATO one step closer to deploying a force of 3,000
troops to collect weapons from the Albanian guerrillas, known as the National
Liberation Army. A NATO officials said Thursday that the force could be in
place within "days, not weeks," but only on the condition that the two sides
here make substantial progress in resolving their political differences.
.
Until the fighting here began Thursday, diplomats and government officials
were expressing far more optimism about resolving the crisis here they have
in the last few weeks. "It's a very important step on the way to a political
solution, not a military solution," Francois Leotard, the newly appointed
envoy for the EU, told reporters in the capital, Skopje, on Thursday.
.
In fact, the nation's defense minister, Vlado Buckovski, said he believed a
political solution could be in place as early as July 15, and that NATO
troops could begin to arrive a week after that.
.
For a decade, since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Western
troops have been involved in policing wars in the Balkans, and Western
officials have made clear they are not eager for another expensive
peacekeeping operation, like the ones in Bosnia and Kosovo.
.
In the last few days, Western negotiators, by all accounts, have been
aggressively pushing both the Macedonian government and the rebels toward a
cease-fire, on the theory that political progress can only be made in the
absence of fighting. The EU has also offered a large, though unspecified,
package of financial assistance if war is headed off. By Thursday evening,
though, some of the day's optimism appeared to thin as the fighting in
Tetovo, a stronghold for Albanians, intensified.
.
Although several other cease-fires had been mutually declared, the one
Thursday was the first that both sides actually signed.
.
Apart from the cease-fire itself, several outside experts have been working
to draft a framework to meet the demands of the Albanians. The issues include
a recognition of Albanian as an official language, greater representation in
the federal and local government and official recognition in the Macedonian
Constitution. These are contentious issues in Macedonia and officials
cautioned that the progress in the last several days could easily unravel as
details were worked out.
.
With the adoption of the cease-fire, attention also shifted to the ultimate
role of NATO troops here. NATO officials have been careful to present their
involvement as far more limited than in Bosnia or Kosovo, where outsiders
have in many ways taken the role of administering government. Only 3,000
troops, to be headed by the British, will be stationed in Macedonia, as
compared with some 40,000 in Kosovo. American troops are expected to assist
with logistics.
.
The Macedonian government has been sensitive about ceding any sovereignty to
NATO, and have been concerned that an official cease-fire would only serve to
solidify the rebels' gains on the ground. Mark Laity, an adviser to George
Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, said that the alliance's disarmament
role would last only 30 days. Its mission will be to collect and destroy the
Albanian's weapons as part of a peace settlement, not to police areas of the
country split along ethnic lines. TETOVO, Macedonia Under heavy pressure from
Western powers, the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels signed a formal
cease-fire Thursday as a first hard step toward heading off another ethnic
war in the Balkans.
.
The two sides were to lay down their arms at midnight Thursday. But Thursday
evening, intense fighting raged in this city in the northwest, with rebels
and government troops trading mortar rounds and automatic gunfire, at times
from inside the city.
.
A government helicopter gunship slammed rockets into the hillside just west
of Tetovo, where rebels hold positions, and several soldiers and civilians
were reported wounded. It was not clear if the fighting was a last-minute
attempt to gain ground or if the cease-fire was delivered stillborn.
.
"No one who is reasonable and knows the situation closely here can expect
that we will have calm overnight," said Stevo Panderovski, a top adviser to
the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski. He stressed however that the
government stood fully behind the cease-fire.
.
The fighting, also reported near villages around the front lines in the north
of the country, underscored just how close Macedonia has been veering to
full-scale war in the last several weeks.
.
And the cease-fire reflects how seriously the Western powers are now taking
that threat. Over the last week, both the European Union and the United
States have appointed full-time envoys to fashion a political agreement to
expand the rights of Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up roughly one
third of the nation's 2 million people and who complain that they do not
enjoy full rights.
.
The cease-fire also brings NATO one step closer to deploying a force of 3,000
troops to collect weapons from the Albanian guerrillas, known as the National
Liberation Army. A NATO officials said Thursday that the force could be in
place within "days, not weeks," but only on the condition that the two sides
here make substantial progress in resolving their political differences.
.
Until the fighting here began Thursday, diplomats and government officials
were expressing far more optimism about resolving the crisis here they have
in the last few weeks. "It's a very important step on the way to a political
solution, not a military solution," Francois Leotard, the newly appointed
envoy for the EU, told reporters in the capital, Skopje, on Thursday.
.
In fact, the nation's defense minister, Vlado Buckovski, said he believed a
political solution could be in place as early as July 15, and that NATO
troops could begin to arrive a week after that.
.
For a decade, since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Western
troops have been involved in policing wars in the Balkans, and Western
officials have made clear they are not eager for another expensive
peacekeeping operation, like the ones in Bosnia and Kosovo.
.
In the last few days, Western negotiators, by all accounts, have been
aggressively pushing both the Macedonian government and the rebels toward a
cease-fire, on the theory that political progress can only be made in the
absence of fighting. The EU has also offered a large, though unspecified,
package of financial assistance if war is headed off. By Thursday evening,
though, some of the day's optimism appeared to thin as the fighting in
Tetovo, a stronghold for Albanians, intensified.
.
Although several other cease-fires had been mutually declared, the one
Thursday was the first that both sides actually signed.
.
Apart from the cease-fire itself, several outside experts have been working
to draft a framework to meet the demands of the Albanians. The issues include
a recognition of Albanian as an official language, greater representation in
the federal and local government and official recognition in the Macedonian
Constitution. These are contentious issues in Macedonia and officials
cautioned that the progress in the last several days could easily unravel as
details were worked out.
.
With the adoption of the cease-fire, attention also shifted to the ultimate
role of NATO troops here. NATO officials have been careful to present their
involvement as far more limited than in Bosnia or Kosovo, where outsiders
have in many ways taken the role of administering government. Only 3,000
troops, to be headed by the British, will be stationed in Macedonia, as
compared with some 40,000 in Kosovo. American troops are expected to assist
with logistics.
.
The Macedonian government has been sensitive about ceding any sovereignty to
NATO, and have been concerned that an official cease-fire would only serve to
solidify the rebels' gains on the ground. Mark Laity, an adviser to George
Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, said that the alliance's disarmament
role would last only 30 days. Its mission will be to collect and destroy the
Albanian's weapons as part of a peace settlement, not to police areas of the
country split along ethnic lines. TETOVO, Macedonia Under heavy pressure from
Western powers, the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels signed a formal
cease-fire Thursday as a first hard step toward heading off another ethnic
war in the Balkans.
.
The two sides were to lay down their arms at midnight Thursday. But Thursday
evening, intense fighting raged in this city in the northwest, with rebels
and government troops trading mortar rounds and automatic gunfire, at times
from inside the city.
.
A government helicopter gunship slammed rockets into the hillside just west
of Tetovo, where rebels hold positions, and several soldiers and civilians
were reported wounded. It was not clear if the fighting was a last-minute
attempt to gain ground or if the cease-fire was delivered stillborn.
.
"No one who is reasonable and knows the situation closely here can expect
that we will have calm overnight," said Stevo Panderovski, a top adviser to
the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski. He stressed however that the
government stood fully behind the cease-fire.
.
The fighting, also reported near villages around the front lines in the north
of the country, underscored just how close Macedonia has been veering to
full-scale war in the last several weeks.
.
And the cease-fire reflects how seriously the Western powers are now taking
that threat. Over the last week, both the European Union and the United
States have appointed full-time envoys to fashion a political agreement to
expand the rights of Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up roughly one
third of the nation's 2 million people and who complain that they do not
enjoy full rights.
.
The cease-fire also brings NATO one step closer to deploying a force of 3,000
troops to collect weapons from the Albanian guerrillas, known as the National
Liberation Army. A NATO officials said Thursday that the force could be in
place within "days, not weeks," but only on the condition that the two sides
here make substantial progress in resolving their political differences.
.
Until the fighting here began Thursday, diplomats and government officials
were expressing far more optimism about resolving the crisis here they have
in the last few weeks. "It's a very important step on the way to a political
solution, not a military solution," Francois Leotard, the newly appointed
envoy for the EU, told reporters in the capital, Skopje, on Thursday.
.
In fact, the nation's defense minister, Vlado Buckovski, said he believed a
political solution could be in place as early as July 15, and that NATO
troops could begin to arrive a week after that.
.
For a decade, since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Western
troops have been involved in policing wars in the Balkans, and Western
officials have made clear they are not eager for another expensive
peacekeeping operation, like the ones in Bosnia and Kosovo.
.
In the last few days, Western negotiators, by all accounts, have been
aggressively pushing both the Macedonian government and the rebels toward a
cease-fire, on the theory that political progress can only be made in the
absence of fighting. The EU has also offered a large, though unspecified,
package of financial assistance if war is headed off. By Thursday evening,
though, some of the day's optimism appeared to thin as the fighting in
Tetovo, a stronghold for Albanians, intensified.
.
Although several other cease-fires had been mutually declared, the one
Thursday was the first that both sides actually signed.
.
Apart from the cease-fire itself, several outside experts have been working
to draft a framework to meet the demands of the Albanians. The issues include
a recognition of Albanian as an official language, greater representation in
the federal and local government and official recognition in the Macedonian
Constitution. These are contentious issues in Macedonia and officials
cautioned that the progress in the last several days could easily unravel as
details were worked out.
.
With the adoption of the cease-fire, attention also shifted to the ultimate
role of NATO troops here. NATO officials have been careful to present their
involvement as far more limited than in Bosnia or Kosovo, where outsiders
have in many ways taken the role of administering government. Only 3,000
troops, to be headed by the British, will be stationed in Macedonia, as
compared with some 40,000 in Kosovo. American troops are expected to assist
with logistics.
.
The Macedonian government has been sensitive about ceding any sovereignty to
NATO, and have been concerned that an official cease-fire would only serve to
solidify the rebels' gains on the ground. Mark Laity, an adviser to George
Robertson, the NATO secretary-general, said that the alliance's disarmament
role would last only 30 days. Its mission will be to collect and destroy the
Albanian's weapons as part of a peace settlement, not to police areas of the
country split along ethnic lines.
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