STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have an obligation to the international community to create a Macedonia that will suit the (ethnic Albanians)," said [Prime Minister] Georgievski. [Not to the people of Macedonia, mind you, but to the fictitious international community, which consists of roughly half a dozen key NATO members and is, like its two top executives, Javier Solana and George Robertson, based in Brussels. As Associated Press, and the Fates, have been obliging enough to provide not just this story but what follows it, almost back to back, we're presented with an opportunity to see how a true international community might deal with Great Britain were the relations between states in Europe genuinely fair and equal.] June 1, 2001 Macedonia Told to End Ethnic Strife by JOVANA GEC Associated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) -- Western officials are urging Macedonian leaders to step up efforts to end an ethnic Albanian insurgency peacefully, but the country's politicians are once again split over how to deal with the crisis. The latest crack in Macedonia's three-week-old national unity government developed after Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said the country's constitution would soon be changed to upgrade the status of its ethnic Albanians -- the chief demand of the rebels fighting government troops. ''We have an obligation toward the international community to create a Macedonia that will suit the (ethnic Albanians),'' Georgievski said Wednesday, acknowledging pressure from international officials who fear Macedonia's violence could spill beyond its borders if it is not stopped soon. His remarks were a major shift from the government's tough position on the demands of the ethnic Albanians. They angered a key Slavic leader in the governing coalition and left ethnic Albanian leaders unconvinced about Georgievski's sincerity. Ethnic Albanian politicians said the prime minister's change of heart was the result of Western pressure rather than a realization that it was time to grant Macedonia's minority ethnic group the same rights as enjoyed by majority Slavs. The government crisis is the second this month and illustrates deep divisions among the parties in the emergency government, formed earlier this month -- at the urging of the West -- in an effort to end three months of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels. Earlier this week, a top European Union envoy managed to bring the key politicians back together after a different issue divided them. But Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy and security chief, warned that time is running out on Macedonia to deal with its ethnic problems. ''The sooner they agree ... the better for all of them,'' Solana, said Thursday in the Czech Republic. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson also urged Macedonia's government to ''grasp the opportunity they have and move forward on a platform of firmness but also reforms.'' There was no immediate reaction from the rebels to Georgievski's statement, and clashes in northern Macedonia continued as the government pressed its drive to defeat the rebels. One soldier was killed and two were wounded in a land mine blast. The rebels claim they only want better rights for the ethnic Albanians who make up about one-third of Macedonia's population. Macedonian leaders say the rebels are terrorists who want to create an ethnic Albanian state and refuse to include them in any talks. Georgievski's statement, however, suggested a major shift in the government policies. He said constitutional changes would make ethnic Albanians an equal, constituent nation alongside the country's majority Slavs and would make their language official, as Macedonian is now. Officials close to President Boris Trajkovski said the Macedonian leadership was also working on an amnesty plan under which most insurgents who abandon their weapons would be pardoned unless they are proven to have committed serious crimes or organized the rebellion. A similar plan -- backed by NATO and its troops in Kosovo -- helped defuse an ethnic Albanian rebellion in the southern part of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia this month, raising hopes Macedonia could follow suit. Since the fighting began, up to 35,000 people have been displaced in Macedonia or fled to neighboring countries, an official with the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday. Several thousand more are still trapped by fighting in rebel-held villages in the north. __________________________________ Deputy Mayor's Home Firebombed in UK by LAURA KING AP Special Correspondent LONDON (AP) -- The home of the deputy mayor of Oldham, the northern England town that was torn by rioting this week, was firebombed early Friday in what police are treating as a racially motivated attack. No one was hurt, but the home of Riaz Ahmad, who is also a member of the town council, was extensively damaged, according to police. He and his family were inside the house at the time, reports said. Officials expressed worries that the firebombing would re-ignite tensions between whites and south Asians in Oldham, a gritty former mill town 190 miles northwest of London. At the height of three nights of fighting that erupted late Saturday and trailed off early Tuesday, police in riot gear battled hundreds of youths throwing bricks and firebombs. Police made nearly 50 arrests and deployed a police helicopter, patrol dogs and more than 100 officers in full riot gear to quell the fighting. Local officials condemned Friday's firebombing. Chris Hilyer, deputy leader of the town council, said news of it would ''sicken and sadden every right-minded individual, not only in Oldham, but everywhere in the country.'' Another council member, Mohammed Asam, said Ahmad had been at the forefront of efforts to restore calm in the wake of the riots. ''I hope this will not inflame the situation, but the signs don't look very good,'' he said, calling the attack ''horrendous.'' Ahmad's four children, all under the age of 16, were in the house at the time of the attack, Britain's domestic news agency Press Association reported. ''This has got to stop,'' Ahmad said in a short statement before going into seclusion with his family. ''The majority of people in Oldham are law-abiding citizens. The community does not deserve this.'' The clashes in Oldham, a one-time textile center of about 220,000 people on the outskirts of Manchester, were apparently sparked by an argument between two teen-agers -- one white, one of south Asian descent -- at a local fish-and-chips shop. Following the argument, white youths attacked a home in a neighborhood populated mainly by people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and wider fighting quickly erupted. On Friday, police announced the arrests of a white man and woman in connection with events leading up to the riots. They were being questioned. Racial tensions continued to simmer in Oldham, but feared violence at a cricket test match between England and Pakistan on Thursday in Manchester failed to happen. Community leaders said long-standing racial tensions had been exacerbated by visits to the town, sometimes in connection with sporting events, by members of far-right groups. Far-right parties are fielding candidates for several parliamentary seats in the Oldham area. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
