From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Subject: FYROM Threatened - For Opposing Terrorism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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NATO-friendly terrorists, understand. But which
aren't?


Wednesday October 3 1:30 PM ET
New War Risk as Macedonia Sets Return to Rebel Zone
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's peace plan
lurched toward crisis Wednesday when police declared
they would re-enter areas where guerrillas have
disarmed without an amnesty in place, and ex-rebels
threatened to go back to war.
Hard-line Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski's
announcement that police would unilaterally reoccupy
parts of guerrilla territory Thursday stunned Western
patrons of the August peace accord, who urgently
sought clarification.
In a confusing twist, Macedonia's National Security
Council said later that security forces would re-enter
rebel areas in the next two days but ``with
international coordination.??
Boskovski had said he expected his plan to be
rubber-stamped by the Security Council, which is led
by the president.
``The Macedonians are playing a dangerous game of
ambiguity. It may be a general move to force the
agenda. It?s serious, but between deciding and
implementing such moves, there is still room for
maneuver,?? an international official told Reuters.
He said the NATO, European Union and OSCE envoys were
rushing out a joint statement insisting police should
not re-occupy rebel zones unilaterally.
If Boskovski's move is carried out it could wreck a
visit the same day by European Union leaders planning
to warn local nationalists they risk losing foreign
aid unless they stop delaying reforms due to minority
Albanians under a peace accord.
A NATO spokesman said no plan to reintegrate insurgent
regions had been agreed yet with the government
because the amnesty and constitutional changes to
provide better rights to minority Albanians had not
been enacted.
Boskovski said that did not matter because his men
would reappear first in villages where no disturbances
were likely.
MACEDONIA'S D-DAY
``Tomorrow is D-Day for Macedonia, when Interior
Ministry forces will return to occupied territories
with light arms and (ethnically) mixed patrols,?? he
told a news conference.
``We will enter the villages near Skopje and Tetovo,
wherever we don?t expect serious trouble,?? he said.
Skopje is the capital and Tetovo is Macedonia?s
largest ethnic Albanian-populated city, both on the
fringes of cease-fire lines.
``Macedonia cannot wait for some missionaries to say
whether this condition or that condition is
fulfilled,?? he said. ``We are a sovereign country and
we have our red line.??
His top police general said officers would arrest
``known offenders?? including former National
Liberation Army commander Ali Ahmeti, if they came
across them.
A prominent former NLA brigade commander warned of
renewed war if police sallied into the rebel north
without an amnesty.
``If tomorrow police do come into this area, war will
resume,?? said the officer, known only as Leka.
``I wonder how Boskovski can decide something like
that, because in all the meetings we have had with
NATO, European Union and OSCE representatives, it was
agreed no army or police will step into these regions
until the pardon is implemented,?? he told Reuters by
mobile phone from the Tetovo Valley.
The NLA voluntarily relinquished its declared weaponry
to NATO last month and dissolved itself in a
Western-engineered peace bargain obligating Skopje to
grant an amnesty and reforms enhancing Albanian
political, language and educational rights.
REBELS HAVE GUNS TUCKED AWAY
But former insurgents are believed to have hidden
firepower in case the peace process collapsed.
James Pardew, the U.S. co-mediator of the peace pact,
told Reuters earlier that international officials were
worried about ''the threat of a premature return of
security forces to rebel areas, which would be
destabilizing.''
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and
European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Chris Patten
planned a visit Thursday to warn Macedonian leaders
there will be no aid until the peace accord they
signed is enshrined in law.
But a senior government official said Solana and
Patten would be warned in turn that the pact, the
product of scrambled Western diplomatic intervention
to avert a full-blown civil war, could not survive
parliamentary scrutiny as written.
A treaty provision deleting references to ``Macedonian
people?? in favor of unnamed ``citizens?? from the
constitution?s preamble was unacceptable in a tiny
country with historically predatory Balkan neighbors,
the official told Reuters.
Skopje also wanted to resolve the fate of 12
Macedonians reportedly kidnapped by rebels before
issuing an amnesty.
Patten was expected to warn Skopje that a donors'
conference originally set for October 15 will be
canceled unless reforms are ratified. But doubts have
arisen whether that warning will prove to be
meaningful leverage against Macedonian hard-liners.
One NATO diplomat said nationalist party leaders who
signed the peace deal reluctantly seemed to have
become ``cocky?? since the NLA disarmed and might be
sizing up the option of more war.
Macedonia obtained about 30 T-72 battle tanks from
Ukraine last month, stiffening the resolve of those
who resented Western diplomatic intervention, which
stifled a planned counter-offensive by the security
forces.  
 

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