STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [From the school of thought that has produced expressions like liars should have good memories and what a tangled web we weave..., the more circumstantial and detailed NATO's excuses (and counterattacks) become, the more you know someone has got them dead to rights.] Monday July 23, 12:12 AM Macedonia accuses NATO of invading air space SKOPJE, July 22 (AFP) - The Macedonian defence ministry on Sunday accused NATO of invading its air space, saying two alliance helicopters had landed in territory held by ethnic Albanian rebels near the northern border with Kosovo. A NATO spokesman denied the accusations and said he was concerned that repeated accusations by the Macedonians could hinder their cooperation in the country, which has been rocked by an ethnic Albanian uprising since February. The defence ministry said in a statement that it wanted an explanation from NATO, which runs a huge peacekeeping operation in Kosovo and has vital support bases in Macedonia, why it had "twice violated its air space." The ministry said two KFOR helicopters had landed on Macedonian territory "without any warning." "Yesterday (Saturday), between 4:45 and 5:00 pm (1445 and 1505 GMT) a KFOR Chinook helicopter landed in the area of Sipkovica, dropping a load of an unknown nature, before heading back to Kosovo." Sipkovica is key rebel stronghold and thought to be the rebel general headquarters. "Fifteen minutes later the same thing happened near Brodec, the helicopter dropping off another container and returning to Kosovo," the ministry said. A KFOR spokesman in Skopje denied that the helicopters had landed in Macedonia and said the alliance was puzzled by the statement. "It's very strange," said US Major Barry Johnson. "The only thing we can attribute it to is two German Chinook helicopters putting up a radio relay on the Kosovo side of the border." He said the transmitter was to relay signals bewteen the German army base in Prizren in southern Kosovo, and their logistic support base in Tetovo in northwest Macedonia. He called the statement "disconcerting" as it came just a day after Skopje accused KFOR of dropping flares from helicopters over the residence of President Boris Trajkovski. Johnson said that British helicopters had overflown the building on a Macedonian-approved flight path and had automatically dropped heat-emitting anti-missile deflectors when they registered the presence of a radar lock-on from the vicinity. He said the government statements "do not lend to cooperation between NATO and the ministry. It's a real problem." Many Macedonians are still suspicious of NATO for backing ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the 1999 conflict over Kosovo and failing to crack down effectively on Albanian extremists using the province as a rear base for their six-month campaign against the government to win more rights. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
