STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Sopranos fanatics, this one is for you. Tony Soprano's autographed Suburban is available for purchase on eBayTM. James Gandolfini has personally signed the vehicle. Find this and over 800 other Sopranos items for sale on eBay. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, Jul. 16, 2001. Page 10 NATO Jumpy Over Rumors Of Russian Troop Movements Combined Reports SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - NATO ran urgent checks a few days ago on rumors that the Russians planned to pull a fast one like they did in Kosovo, rushing their troops in first ahead of the West on the heels of a deal to make peace in Macedonia. The Macedonian government assured us it had not invited the Russians to send forces," said a NATO diplomat. "If Russia did so without an invite it would be a hostile act," he pointed out. Whether it was all only rumor, or whether Moscow had been caught out and warned off such preparations, he did not say. "At one point we had a report of actual sightings . but it would be a bizarre thing to do. There's no parallel with the case in Kosovo when the Russians dashed in from Bosnia." That game of one-upmanship nearly resulted in an armed confrontation with NATO at Pristina airport two years ago this month, as a major allied peacekeeping force deployed only to find Russians had cheekily got there first. Macedonia's fate is on a knife edge and nerves are frayed as NATO allies peer into the unknown, trying to anticipate the unexpected and make all the right contingency plans. Western envoys shuttled Sunday between fractious Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders in attempts to bridge differences on a peace plan to bring an end to the five-month insurgency and avert the threat of a civil war. Envoys from the United States and the European Union were meeting separately between the two sides in attempts to nudge them toward consensus on the plan. But Western officials close to the talks described them as hard going six days after they had begun. "Everybody's still on board, the intensive and difficult talks continue," said one diplomat, who asked not to be identified. (AP, Reuters) ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
