STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [This is the most confusing passage ever, but I think the translation boils down to "US mercenary shot by Macedonians" consider: "An American, meanwhile, was wounded by gunfire. The man's status was unclear - NATO officials suggested he might have been part of a monitoring mission or a diplomat. The man, overheard identifying himself as John Green, was emerging from the woods with two other Americans near the rebel-controlled village of Grusinovo when Macedonian troops fired warning shots. Two of the shots wounded Green, one in the arm and the other in the leg, but apparently not seriously. In Washington, meanwhile, the Pentagon said a U.S. army sergeant was wounded in the hand by gunfire on a road northeast of Skopje. Aracinovo is southwest of Skopje, but NATO officials could not rule out that the Pentagon report also referred to the man identifying himself as Green. NATO-led peacekeepers are in Macedonia to provide logistical support to forces in Kosovo. It was not immediately clear which NATO countries were taking part in the operation.] Slavs Protest NATO Deal in Macedonia By COLLEEN BARRY .c The Associated Press SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - A NATO-brokered peace deal sparked riots in Skopje Monday by thousands of Slavs, some breaking into parliament and others chanting ``gas chambers for the Albanians'' as they demanded that ethnic Albanian rebels be destroyed. The rebels pulled out of a strategically important suburb near the capital earlier Monday under the NATO deal designed to revive peace talks here. That prompted rioting in Skopje by some 5,000 Macedonian Slavs who demanded harsher action against the rebels. Dozens broke into the parliament building, destroying furniture. Some made their way to the balcony with the old Macedonian flag, replaced more than half a century ago by the communists when the country was still part of Yugoslavia. Outside, protesters pounded two police cars, including one belonging to Interior Minister Ljuben Boskoski. Reservists who were among the protesters squeezed off bursts of submachine-gun fire, but there were no reports of injuries. The rebel withdrawal came just days after government forces began an offensive against ethnic Albanian militants holed up in the suburb not far from the country's airport. Buses headed out of Aracinovo carrying ethnic Albanian rebels, said U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeepers. The alliance then sent at least four trucks to the village to take out the weapons belonging to the rebels. But de-escalation of Macedonia's crisis was short lived. New fighting, near Tetovo, cast a pall at the success of the negotiated end to the Aracinovo standoff, and tensions rose as thousands of angry Slavic Macedonians demanded a more hard-line approach against the rebels. Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rebels attacked police positions on the outskirts of the city and government forces returned fire, with fighting then moving away from Tetovo and near the village of Gajre in the hills overlooking the city. In a smaller protest, a crowd near Kumanovo blocked a road, preventing empty buses from moving shortly after they were used to take some of the rebels from Aracinovo to Umin Dol, just outside Kumanovo. U.S. soldiers were with that convoy, along with Macedonian police who tried to negotiate their way through the crowd. Johnson said more than 300 people, most of them rebels, were taken out of Aracinovo. Talks had broken down last week after President Boris Trajkovski declared that ethnic Albanian negotiators were unwilling to budge on key sticking points in the negotiations. The lack of progress has dismayed European Union leaders, who have been trying for months to persuade the Macedonian Slav leadership and ethnic Albanian political leaders to compromise and avert civil war. To back up that point, the EU told the country's foreign minister on Monday not to count on new financial aid unless the government and ethnic Albanian opponents settle their differences. The EU foreign ministers held 45 minutes of talks with their Macedonian counterpart, Ilinka Mitreva, who pleaded for help. EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten reiterated that was only possible if progress is made in national reconciliation talks. ``We would like to support confidence-building measures, but it is difficult to build people's confidence when money, which is very clearly in short supply, is being spent on bombs and rockets,'' Patten said. An American, meanwhile, was wounded by gunfire. The man's status was unclear - NATO officials suggested he might have been part of a monitoring mission or a diplomat. The man, overheard identifying himself as John Green, was emerging from the woods with two other Americans near the rebel-controlled village of Grusinovo when Macedonian troops fired warning shots. Two of the shots wounded Green, one in the arm and the other in the leg, but apparently not seriously. In Washington, meanwhile, the Pentagon said a U.S. army sergeant was wounded in the hand by gunfire on a road northeast of Skopje. Aracinovo is southwest of Skopje, but NATO officials could not rule out that the Pentagon report also referred to the man identifying himself as Green. NATO-led peacekeepers are in Macedonia to provide logistical support to forces in Kosovo. It was not immediately clear which NATO countries were taking part in the operation. AP-NY-06-26-01 0101EDT ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
