[Of course the government of Macedonia, including its
defense ministry, realizes by now that it no longer
has its own air space, as it no longer possesses the
national integrity necessary for it.
The fomer nation is now co-occupied by NATO forces and
the latter's NLA irregulars, just as Kosovo has been
for over two years.
That NATO helicopters could buzz the residences of
Macedonia's president and prime minister as they did
two days ago, in addition to what's presented below -
that NATO helicopters have landed in rebel-controlled
territory in Macedonia - would, in any other nation,
be seen for what they were: Acts of war.
Let the first foreign helicopters menacingly hover
over the U.S. White House or Britain's 10 Downing
Street and see what response they - and the nation
that sent them - receive.]
Macedonia Accuses NATO of Invading Air Space
SKOPJE, Jul 23, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The
Macedonian defense ministry on Sunday accused NATO of
invading its air space, saying two alliance
helicopters had landed in territory held by ethnic
Albanian rebels near the northern border with Kosovo.
A NATO spokesman denied the accusations and said he
was concerned that repeated accusations by the
Macedonians could hinder their cooperation in the
country, which has been rocked by an ethnic Albanian
uprising since February.
The defense ministry said in a statement that it
wanted an explanation from NATO, which runs a huge
peacekeeping operation in Kosovo and has vital support
bases in Macedonia, why it had "twice violated its air
space."
The ministry said two KFOR helicopters had landed on
Macedonian territory "without any warning."
"Yesterday (Saturday), between 4:45 and 5:00 pm (1445
and 1505 GMT) a KFOR Chinook helicopter landed in the
area of Sipkovica, dropping a load of an unknown
nature, before heading back to Kosovo."
Sipkovica is key rebel stronghold and thought to be
the rebel general headquarters.
"Fifteen minutes later the same thing happened near
Brodec, the helicopter dropping off another container
and returning to Kosovo," the ministry said.
A KFOR spokesman in Skopje denied that the helicopters
had landed in Macedonia and said the alliance was
puzzled by the statement.
"It's very strange," said U.S. Major Barry Johnson.
"The only thing we can attribute it to is two German
Chinook helicopters putting up a radio relay on the
Kosovo side of the border."
He said the transmitter was to relay signals between
the German army base in Prizren in southern Kosovo,
and their logistic support base in Tetovo in northwest Macedonia. He
called the statement "disconcerting" as it came just a day after Skopje
accused KFOR of dropping flares from helicopters over the residence of
President Boris Trajkovski. Johnson said that British helicopters had
overflown the building on a Macedonian-approved flight path and had
automatically dropped heat-emitting anti-missile deflectors when they
registered the presence of a radar lock-on from the vicinity. He said
the government statements "do not lend to cooperation between NATO and
the ministry. It's a real problem." Many Macedonians are still
suspicious of NATO for backing ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the 1999
conflict over Kosovo and failing to crack down effectively on Albanian
extremists using the province as a rear base for their six-month
campaign against the government to win more rights. ((c) 2001 Agence
France Presse)
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
