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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [More pro-KLA propaganda from the government-controlled Western press. Despite the nature of which, though, one can tell how well the NATO/EU 'peace process' is proceeding. Karl Kraus: How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe those lies when they see them in print.] Monday July 16, 8:48 PM Shooting in Macedonia as peace talks move into second week SKOPJE, July 16 (AFP) - Shooting broke out over the weekend near the flashpoint town of Tetovo in northwestern Macedonia, the defence ministry said Monday, as drawn-out talks to end an ethnic Albanian uprising moved into their second week. The defence ministry reported two bursts of shots Sunday against an army barracks from the ethnic Albanian neighbourhood of Drenovac on the edge of Tetovo, another rupture of a NATO-brokered ceasefire both sides agreed to observe on July 5. Ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) were seen deploying in the region for the past two weeks, apparently reinforcing positions around the town they were driven from in March after a pitched battle with security forces. Automatic rifle fire also targeted a police checkpoint by the town's stadium, in the same area. Police returned fire, the ministry said. Several incidents had previously been reported around the checkpoint, with guerrillas venturing into the town itself from positions in hills overlooking the mainly-Albanian inhabited town. Shooting was also heard late Sunday from villages around Tetovo, the ministry said. The army blames violations of the truce on the NLA rebels. The ceasefire was designed to provide a measure of stability as Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political leaders held talks in the capital to hammer out political reforms to address Albanian complaints of discrimination. There were no formal meetings scheduled for Monday, a week after the negotiations began. Western diplomats have described the discussions as "difficult," although EU envoy Francois Leotard said late last week he expected a breathrough within days. The leaders met again Sunday but the sensitive issue of the status of the Albanian language -- which the Albanians want to see as an official language together with Macedonian -- were still unresolved. Despite the general lull in fighting, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Kosovo said more than 1,000 Macedonian Albanians had headed over the border at the weekend to the UN-run province to escape the six-month conflict. "Over the weekend, UNHCR reported a large flow of new arrivals in Kosovo. The majority of the new arrivals were from Skopje and left for precautionary reasons in anticipation of the outcome of the official negociations", said spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort. She said there were also refugees from the border village of Jazince, alarmed by an "increased build-up of Macedonian military and army in their region." She reiterated the agency's calls "for all political and military actors to come to an agreement that will ensure peace and justice for all the communities and allow the displaced to return home." The conflict -- which the guerrillas say they are waging to win more rights for Albanians, who they say make up a third of the population of two million -- has sent 74,000 Albanians and Macedonian Muslims fleeing for shelter in Kosovo. Around 12,000 have returned home since the end of June, but around 62,000 are still staying with family and friends in the predominantly Albanian Yugoslav province. Meanwhile in Brussels, around 100 ethnic Albanians staged a boistrous demonstration outside the EU Council of Ministers' headquarters where ministers were discussing an EU-wide travel ban on ethnic Albanians deemed by the European Union to be extremists. Waving red-and-black Albanian flags, the protesters shouted "UCK, UCK" -- the Albanian acronym of the rebel NLA -- as well as "liberty, equality" and "we are not terrorists." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
