STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=&t=01&m=A09&aa=1 The FYROM envoy says that there are four categories of rebels, with most coming from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo "with the same name, uniforms and modern weapons....When there are 40,000 KFOR troops in Kosovo, can they ignore the existence of such a mercenary camp?" Athens News June 29, 2001 'Dirty game' in FYROM Skopje's envoy in Athens blames ethnic Albanian parties for promoting division of the country along ethnic lines, says the EU is not dealing fairly with his government BY GEORGE GILSON FYROM special police look at a US flag hanging from an ethnic Albanian-owned house prior to searching for insurgents in the recently captured ethnic Albanian rebel stronghold of Aracinovo on June 27 THE TRAGEDY of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is a typically Western one. Under siege for four months by ethnic Albanian rebels - most believed by the government to have entered FYROM from Kosovo and elsewhere - the tiny Balkan republic on June 25 faced a European Union ultimatum: either compromise on rebel demands for a sweeping revision of the country's Constitution to increase the Albanian minority's rights or face a cut-off of desperately needed EU funding. Austria even spoke of not ratifying an April EU-FYROM stabilisation and association agreement. The same day Nato - which had denounced the rebels as "thugs" - acted as a security force for the guerrillas, escorting them out of the town of Aracinovo 10km from the capital, with their weapons no less. For Ljupco Arsovski, Skopje's envoy to Athens (where FYROM has a diplomatic liaison office rather than an embassy), the EU stance is "unjust". But in an exclusive interview with the Athens News, Arsovski focuses his disappointment on his country's ethnic Albanian parties, which he boldly accuses of engaging in a "dirty game" by espousing the rebels' unreasonable demands. He explains the desperation of the country's Slav majority after four months of civil unrest, with no end in sight. The envoy defends the FYROM army's three-day pounding of Aracinovo and shows understanding for the 5,000 demonstrators who stormed parliament on June 25 to protest the evacuation of the town by Nato forces, a sign that Western pressure could prompt a backlash among Slavs. "This was a popular protest by the people, who have seen things gradually deteriorate over the last four months. Many want to help us, but the results are extremely late in coming," Arsovski says, noting that many protesters were refugees from Aracinovo and police reservists angered at not being able to clear out the rebels themselves. He feels the EU is not responding fairly in blaming FYROM for the impasse in talks and pressuring the government to compromise with guerrilla demands. "I believe this is unjust. From the first day we said we wanted peace and a political-diplomatic plan to solve problems. That is why we didn't strike at all for three weeks," Arsovski says. "We avoided a repeat of the Milosevic scenario, by which we would be the bad guys and the Albanians the victims." But Skopje also rejects EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten's criticism that it unwisely spent money on arms to protect the state. "When they occupied two or three villages, you can wait a couple of weeks, but then you must get arms," Arsovksi says. "It is logical to fight and go to battle for your territory. The cost of this is unimportant. Independence has no price. Wherever something like this arises, everyone will fight to evict the terrorists and nationalists from the state." Reluctant to blame the EU for pressing for constitutional reforms under an armed rebel insurgency, Skopje's envoy accuses the two ethnic Albanian political parties in the coalition government of upping the ante with outlandish demands in an effort to divide up the country along ethnic lines. "We see that they want things that are out of touch with reality and are accepted by no state in the world," he says of demands for a constitutional overhaul with recognition of the Albanians as a constitutive ethnicity, establishment of Albanian as a second official language of the state and an Albanian deputy president with veto power. "I don't want to say it, but we could turn into another Cyprus problem," Arsovski states, alluding to the excessive powers given to the Turkish minority in the island's 1960 Constitution. "When you put such demands on the table, it means that you want two states," he later adds. Arsovski admits that talking with the Albanian parties "seems like" talking with the rebels because both have nearly identical demands. "A very dirty game is being played," says the diplomat. "Up to now, the two Albanian parties have not openly stated that any rebels from outside our state should leave. They just said they want the clashes to stop." The FYROM envoy says there are four categories of rebels, with most coming from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo "with the same name, uniforms and modern weapons" (he largely blames the FYROM crisis on chaos in Kosovo). He says the others are either disgruntled Albanian nationalists who didn't fit into FYROM parties, youths recruited in the villages and finally mercenaries from Western European and Balkan countries. Arsovski notes that no one denied Skopje press reports (Vecer newspaper) of a mercenary camp in Kosovo. "When there are 40,000 KFOR troops in Kosovo, can they ignore the existence of such a mercenary camp?" he asks, stressing that Albanians abroad fund the rebels. He cites Balkan Stability Pact chief Bodo Hobach's statement that one billion deutschmarks are sent to Kosovo from Germany annually with no evidence of investment on the ground. "There are also funds in the US and Switzerland," Arsovski adds, noting his government lacks the evidence to open the accounts. Arsovksi is reluctant to accept a Greek plan for an international conference to resolve the crisis under EU and US supervision, an idea embraced by the Albanian parties. "The government wants the parties to continue talks based on the Trajkovski plan. They already started without foreigners. We believed we could sort it out on our own. But when they demand to change the whole state, that is contrary to all treaties and EU criteria," Arsovski says. "If justice and truth are on our side, we can succeed in showing that you cannot make a deal with terrorist nationalists." He suggests that the proportional representation of Albanians in the civil service is the main concession Slav parties are willing to make now, not sweeping constitutional reforms. "When you start changing a state's Constitution under pressure by the rebels and the international community, we can't get very far. Have you seen a Constitution being written under pressure anywhere - for someone to go to another country and tell them what to change? In the first phase, we must see what Albanian demands we can accept - like more of them in the civil service and more rights for Albanians in local government. The issue is how, where and in what respect the Constitution will be revised and who will shoulder the responsibility afterwards. Any inter-party settlement must be passed by parliament," he says. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
