Macedonia disputes NATO presence
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Mark Heinrich
Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 09:30 JST
A NATO peacekeeper watches over weapons collected from ethnic Albanian rebels in the National Liberian Army in Krivolak on Wednesday. REUTERS NEWS PHOTO |
NATO's policy-making 19 state ambassadors agreed to send a new security force to Macedonia to protect international peace monitors, but the government raised 11th-hour objections over the size and duration of the mission.
Plans to install the force before a security vacuum yawns as other NATO troops who completed their arms-collection assignment on Wednesday start withdrawing ran into trouble over Macedonia's fears for its wounded sovereignty.
The peace accord signed in August under heavy Western diplomatic pressure is wobbling because of parliament's failure so far to approve minority rights reforms in return for what NATO said was its "resounding success" in disarming the rebels.
West European leaders say parliament must honour its end of the bargain or jeopardise strenuous international efforts to defuse the Balkans' fifth ethnic conflict since 1991 and buttress weak democracies across the region.
But a senior government official said the nationalist-dominated legislature was unlikely to ratify reforms unless Skopje recovered some rebel-occupied territory first.
Western officials believe that would invite trouble until parliament enacts an amnesty for the guerrillas, a crucial confidence-building step it shows no sign of taking.
The peace accord's deadline for amending the ethnocentric Macedonian constitution was September 28. But parliament's debate of the draft reforms en route to the ratification stage is now sure to drag on well into October.
Deputies are also considering whether to toss the reform bundle to a referendum, a gambit Albanians call a deal breaker.
International peace monitors will oversee the restoration of state institutions, particularly the police, and return of Macedonian refugees to insurgent areas once Skopje and NATO agree the terms of a follow-on security force.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson, apparently losing patience over the last-minute Macedonian complaints, went ahead and announced alliance ambassadors had authorised the mission.
He said a smaller force codenamed Amber Fox would succeed the 4,500-strong "Task Force Harvest" disarmament contingent.
"It's my hope that we can today finalise the details so that this mission can be deployed quickly under Germany's leadership," he told a news conference in Brussels.
Macedonian security sources said the government was in intensive talks with two NATO envoys to overcome differences.
"We want no more than 700 soldiers — that's extraction troops and liaison officers together. NATO wants 1,000-1,200, a battalion size that could be misused by Albanian separatists to divide the country," one security official said.
"We also want no longer than a three-month mandate with the option to reconsider our position at the end of that period," he told Reuters. "NATO wants at least six months' deployment, if not nine.
"We are close to a breakthrough to define these vital elements of the new force but we may have to talk into the night to get it. We want to solve things today."
Task Force Harvest commanders told a news conference on Wednesday its final tally of 3,875 guerrilla firearms slated for destruction in Greece was more than 500 over the original target agreed with the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA).
The haul included 3,210 assault rifles, 483 heavy-caliber machine guns, 161 mortar and anti-tank rocket launchers, 17 ground-to-air missile systems and three tanks the guerrillas had captured from the inept Macedonian army.
There were also 395,620 rounds of ammunition, 1,045 landmines and grenades and 354 other explosive devices.
"All these weapons were handed in voluntarily by the so- called NLA as they disbanded and we believe they represent its true military capability," said British Brigadier Barney White- Spunner, commander of Task Force Harvest.
"No organization would hand over so many and such good quality weapons unless it was completely committed to the path of peace," White-Spunner said.
He was discounting suspicions by Skopje that the guerrillas concealed firepower from NATO with the aim of staging violence to raise tensions that would trap NATO in a peacekeeping role, splitting the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic along ethnic lines.
Demobilized insurgents count on NATO for protection as long as civil rights reforms and an amnesty remain in doubt. They cite threats by Macedonian paramilitaries with shadowy police links to avenge "Albanian terrorism." (Reuters News)
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