From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FYROM: NATO-Backed Terrorists Kill 3, Kidnap 100 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- 1)Ananova November 12, 2001 Hundred people abducted in Macedonia Three Macedonian policemen have been killed and about 100 people abducted in a sudden escalation of violence in the volatile Balkan country. Interior minister Ljube Boskovski says the three men were members of a special unit called The Lions. Another two policemen were seriously wounded when a special police patrol was ambushed by ethnic Albanian rebels near the village of Trebos in the Tetovo area, the sources said. The abductions come in the wake of the deployment of a strong police force to secure an area near Tetovo where one or more mass graves are believed to be located. 2) WIRE: 11/11/2001 6:44 pm ET Gunmen seize hostages along main route in northern Macedonia The Associated Press SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) Gunmen were holding dozens of people hostage in a small village in northwestern Macedonia on Sunday, further escalating tensions in the volatile Balkan country. Meanwhile, three officers were wounded in an ambush outside the village, police said, but it was unclear whether the incident was related to the hostage situation. As many as 70 people were taken captive after the armed group entered the ethnically mixed village of Semsovo, 5 miles northeast of Tetovo, Goran Mitevski, a senior police official, told Skopje's Telma TV. Earlier in the day, 15 others were abducted along the main road in the region, including the director of a local Macedonian-language station in Tetovo and the town's police chief, police said. Little more was known about the incidents northeast of Tetovo, a predominantly Albanian city, but a NATO official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed both incidents. NATO has not taken a role yet in securing the release of the hostages, NATO spokesman Craig Ratcliff told The Associated Press. He would only confirm the 15 abductions. "We're monitoring the situation," Ratcliff said. "The international community is very concerned about this, but for now it's an internal issue." Among those kidnapped were Zlate Todorovski, director of a Macedonian-language TV station in Tetovo, and Police Chief Zemri Qamili, police told The AP on condition of anonymity. A former ethnic Albanian rebel commander told the AP that the disbanded group, the National Liberation Army, was not involved in kidnappings. "It has to be clear that the former NLA has nothing to do with this," he said on condition of anonymity. "This is an act of irresponsible people who want to destabilize the situation." Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city, has been at the center of this country's crisis since fighting broke out in February. Ethnic Albanian rebels had said they were fighting for more rights, but disbanded in August under a peace plan aimed at calming tensions here. The incident is likely to fuel outrage in Macedonia, beset with uncertainty in the months since the Aug. 13 accord was signed. Bickering in the country's Parliament stalled the plan and prevented it from going fully into effect, prompting both the Macedonians and the ethnic Albanians to each claim the other was acting in bad faith. Sunday's incident came after dozens of Macedonian policemen, equipped with armored personnel carriers, secured an area surrounding a site believed to contain the bodies of six Macedonians allegedly abducted by ethnic Albanian militants earlier this year. Macedonia's hard-line interior minister, Ljube Boskoski, announced that exhumation at the burial site would start early next week. He did not disclose the exact location. Meanwhile, seven ethnic Albanians were arrested after police found two assault rifles and five handguns in a vehicle at a checkpoint near Tetovo, police said. Earlier, a former rebel commander said the weapons found on a tractor had "nothing to do with us," suggesting there might be some "splinter groups in the area ready to cause trouble." Macedonian army and police reported several shootings in the wider Tetovo area and in the Kumanovo region late Saturday and early Sunday. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
