Monday, Jul. 16, 2001. Page 10
NATO Jumpy Over Rumors Of Russian Troop Movements
Combined Reports SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - NATO ran urgent checks a
few days ago on rumors that the Russians planned to pull a fast one like
they did in Kosovo, rushing their troops in first ahead of the West on
the heels of a deal to make peace in Macedonia.
The Macedonian government assured us it had not invited the Russians to
send forces," said a NATO diplomat. "If Russia did so without an invite
it would be a hostile act," he pointed out.
Whether it was all only rumor, or whether Moscow had been caught out and
warned off such preparations, he did not say.
"At one point we had a report of actual sightings . but it would be a
bizarre thing to do. There's no parallel with the case in Kosovo when
the Russians dashed in from Bosnia."
That game of one-upmanship nearly resulted in an armed confrontation
with NATO at Pristina airport two years ago this month, as a major
allied peacekeeping force deployed only to find Russians had cheekily
got there first.
Macedonia's fate is on a knife edge and nerves are frayed as NATO allies
peer into the unknown, trying to anticipate the unexpected and make all
the right contingency plans.
Western envoys shuttled Sunday between fractious Macedonian and ethnic
Albanian leaders in attempts to bridge differences on a peace plan to
bring an end to the five-month insurgency and avert the threat of a
civil war.
Envoys from the United States and the European Union were meeting
separately between the two sides in attempts to nudge them toward
consensus on the plan. But Western officials close to the talks
described them as hard going six days after they had begun.
"Everybody's still on board, the intensive and difficult talks
continue," said one diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
(AP, Reuters)
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
