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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Note: U.S. KFOR troops, whose UN-mandated task it is to protect the few surviving Serbs and other ethnic minority members left alive in ethnically cleansed Kosovo, instead are pulled out of Kosovo to "protect" the KLA's Macedonian wing outside the capital of FYROM. Where in the KFOR mission is this sort of operation specified? Permitted?] Protesters Attack Two OSCE Vehicles in Skopje SKOPJE, Jun 26, 2001 -- (dpa) Macedonian protesters, angered by an EU and NATO-brokered ceasefire agreement the government struck with Albanian rebels on Monday, attacked and damaged two cars of international mediators in the capital city center, police sources said early Tuesday. The violence, part of a day of rage in front of parliament that saw windows smashed and the president's office broken into, marked the first outburst of unrest in the capital city during months of ethnic conflict. The crowd of 15,000 overturned two government cars and attacked two vehicles belonging to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been working with other international organizations and NATO to restore calm to the country. Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, about 30 percent of the population, are pushing for greater constitutional guarantees of their ethnic identity and say they are discriminated against by the majority Slavs. Many ethnic Albanians support officially elected parties, which have been engaged in troubled peace negotiations with the majority parties. But armed ethnic Albanian rebel commandos have seeded conflict in the outlying regions, where a standoff over their disarmament continued Tuesday morning near the village of Umin Dol, near Kumanovo, 40 kilometers north of Skopje. By 1 a.m. local time, the crowd in Skopje had dwindled to about 500 demonstrators. The protest was led by Macedonian police reservists angry that guerrillas were being allowed to leave Macedonia under the accord. Rapid gunfire rang out continuously for around 10 minutes shortly before midnight, but no injuries were reported. Demonstrators replaced the Macedonian flag in front of the parliament with an old one and chanted for the authorities to resign and the former president Kiro Gligorov to return. Gligorov led Macedonia to independence as the only former Yugoslav republic that achieved it without having to fight. Earlier in the day, Western officials convinced rebels holding Aracinovo, a small town 15 kilometers northeast of Skopje, to withdraw and return to Kosovo, in neighboring Yugoslavia, by bus. But thousands of civilians blocked their withdrawal. The heavy security around the convoy, consisting of soldiers from KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission, was negotiating safe passage for the National Liberation army (UCK) fighters, who were reportedly allowed to leave Aracinovo with their weapons. The standoff continued early Tuesday. Clashes between the security forces and UCK continued overnight, despite a ceasefire agreed on Sunday, with fighting reported in the villages around Kumanovo, 40 kilometers north of Skopje. The rebels were attacking from their strongholds of Vistica, Brest, Otlja and Matejce and the military responded with artillery, defense sources said. Protests in Skopje interrupted the freshly resumed talks of Macedonian and Albanian parties, which aim to find a compromise on the status of the large ethnic Albanian minority dominating the entire western quarter of Macedonia. (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]
