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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [The subject heading, above, and the headline below tell the real - and the whole - story. The rest is the standard cat-and-mouse game the UCK/NLA and NATO have been subjecting Macedonia to for months. For example, an armed insurrection from outside the nation's borders comes first, the alleged reason for it comes after; the terrorists, many of whose chief commanders aren't Macedonian nationals and who were trained in Kosovo and Albania, grab as much territory as they can during negotiations, then call on NATO to protect their gains for them; U.S. NATO troops, assigned to KFOR in Kosovo, where many no doubt worked with the very same UCK/KLA fighters in the latter's capacity of Kosovo Protection Corps members paid out of the UN budget, rescue their besieged guerrilla allies from the FYROM military that had encircled them in Aracinovo, but justify this by saying they separated fighters and weapons - only to reunite the two later. And of course the international border that separates Macedonia from Kosovo, a province of Serbia, doesn't exist for either the KLA/NLA or NATO: U.S. KFOR troops, KLA terrorists and ethnic Albanian civilians all cross and recross it at will.] UCK Threatens Attacks on Skopje, Albanian Politicians Want NATO Intervention SKOPJE/PRISTINA, Jun 26, 2001 -- (dpa) Ethnic Albanian guerrillas on Tuesday threatened attacks in Skopje and other cities, following violent riots in the capital Monday, while Albanian politicians said they wanted a NATO intervention for the security of their compatriots. "Monday's events showed that Macedonians and the Macedonian government want a civil war with the Albanians," the guerrilla National Liberation Army (UCK) commander Drin Korabi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Pristina over a phone. He was referring to riots led by Macedonian police reservists Monday night, in which demonstrators stormed the parliament building where the leading Macedonian and Albanian parties were due to resume talks on the country's future. The crowd also threatened the Albanian population with "gas chambers". "We warn them that our fighters will enter not only Skopje, but Kumanovo and other towns as well, if they continue avoiding the dialogue with Albanians," Korabi said. Another UCK commander earlier told dpa that two battalions of guerrilla fighters were "dormant" in Skopje, "waiting for an order to act" and added that his fighters were ready to take control over new territories in case the talks fail. "We gave them time to reach a political settlement ... if that should fail, we have the ability to take more territories under control," he said. The UCK are currently known to control dozens of villages stretching across northern Macedonia, from Kumanovo, 40 kilometers north of Skopje to Tetovo, 35 kilometers to the west of the capital. Top ethnic Albanian politicians said Tuesday that the riots moved the country toward a civil war and demanded an immediate intervention by NATO amid concerns for the safety of their people, who make up between a quarter and a third of the Macedonian population. "Macedonia is a step closer to civil war. What happened was almost a coup. An immediate NATO intervention is needed for the bloodshed to be avoided," said Iljaz Halimi, deputy chief of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA). Albanian politicians said Tuesday talks were hopeless without foreign mediation. "If the negotiations are to restart at all, we want internationals to be present and broker an agreement that will bring NATO here as soon as possible," Halimi told dpa. "The attack on the Parliament was an attack on the state. Macedonian's state institutions are paralyzed. We now ask for an immediate international intervention," said Zahir Bekteshi of the Party for Democratic Progress (PDP). The two ethnic Albanian parties DPA and PDP are taking part both in the government of political unity and in the stalled talks. Bekteshi said the future of Macedonia depends on how the government and President Boris Trajkovski handle the crisis on Tuesday. "It could easily become a civil war," he warned. Macedonian riots were triggered by a NATO operation to bring UCK fighters out of Aracinovo, a large village on the outskirts of Skopje that was under a fierce attack by security forces for three days up to Sunday. The evacuation was a part of a ceasefire deal brokered by NATO and the European Union, which aimed to create conditions for the political dialogue to continue. Some 80 U.S. troops from the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping mission (KFOR) on duty in Macedonia took between 350 and 450 rebels out of Aracinovo in nine KFOR and four civilian busses to Nikustak, another UCK stronghold, Major Barry Johnson of KFOR in Skopje told dpa. He stressed that the guerillas and their weapons traveled separately, not together, as the Macedonian media said, but he refused to speculate whether the NATO operation in Aracinovo sparked the riots in the capital. "The intent of our operation was to stop the fighting and pursue the political dialogue and that (the evacuation) was the first step," Johnson said. Meanwhile, the flood of refugees to neighboring Kosovo continued, International Red Cross officials said in Pristina. With the latest figures still unavailable, they said more people from Skopje and the Tetovo area poured in Tuesday, adding to the total of 70,000 since February, 48,000 of whom arrived only in June. (C)2001. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
