New Tensions on Kosovo Boarder

[McG]

NATO Chief Praises Macedonian Restraint
Monday March 26 7:24 PM EST

SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson praised Macedonia for what he said was commendable restraint in the weekend assault to flush out ethnic Albanian rebels in the hills above the town of Tetovo.

But Secretary of State Colin Powell cautioned in Washington that the battle was not "anywhere near over," although Macedonian forces had made some progress against ethnic Albanian extremists.

Robertson and European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana held two hours of talks with the Macedonian leadership, including President Boris Trajkovski, in the capital Skopje late Monday.

Macedonian government officials earlier said rebel-held villages and all key positions had been captured in Sunday‘s ground offensive carried out by tanks, artillery and infantry.

Macedonia‘s flag flew over the ancient Ottoman fortress above Tetovo, the most visible sign of the government‘s grip on the hills 24 hours after a military operation to push out rebels who say they fight to improve the rights of local Albanians.

But tensions throughout northern Macedonia remained high and sporadic shelling could be heard in the mountains beyond Tetovo, Macedonia‘s unofficial ethnic Albanian capital. Two policemen were shot and wounded when their patrol van was machine gunned on a road between Skopje and the border with the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

DIPLOMATS SEE DISMAY AMONG NATO ALLIES

Diplomatic sources earlier said there was "considerable dismay" among NATO allies at Macedonia‘s decision to send the army into the Tetovo hinterland.

NATO allies had feared that Macedonia‘s precarious ethnic balance could be shattered by a Kosovo-style offensive steam-rollering through Albanian communities.

But Robertson said Macedonia had shown commendable restraint and urged the government to intensify inter-ethnic dialogue.

"I want to be blunt: there are two options for the people of this country -- it is a united Macedonia or another Balkan bloodbath," Robertson said, referring to the violent collapse of old socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

"I strongly commend the government of this country for the firm but restrained way they have reacted to the provocations of the last few weeks," he said. "Terrorism is not going to prosper."

The rebels say they are fighting to improve the rights of Macedonia‘s large ethnic Albanian minority, many of whom feel they are treated as second-class citizens.

Skopje denounces them as terrorists who it says come from ethnic Albanian dominated Kosovo and seek to join the U.N.-ruled Yugoslav province to create a Greater Albania.

Trajkovski said the army offensive was launched to protect Macedonia‘s territorial integrity and "to avoid losing control over inter-ethnic relations and to avoid Macedonia and the international community becoming hostages of these groups."

Western powers favor a two-pronged approach to the conflict -- a proportionate military response coupled with measures to address Albanian grievances.

Robertson said Macedonian forces had taken the physical high ground, adding: "The opportunity is now there to take a political high ground."

In Washington, Powell said Macedonian forces "have launched an attack and it seems they have had some success getting part way up that hill."

But, he added, "I don‘t think the battle is anywhere near over or that the crisis is yet resolved."

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said British and Swedish soldiers serving in the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo would form a 400-strong unit for quick deployment along the province‘s border with Macedonia.

KFOR soldiers are patrolling the Kosovo-Macedonian border in a bid to stop rebels and arms crossing over.

 

[Yard Ape]

Macedonian troops launch fresh offensive; Albanian rebels vow to attack again
Wednesday March 28 6:23 PM EST

KUCKOVO, Macedonia (AP) - As Macedonian troops launched a fresh offensive with artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships, ethnic Albanian rebels said Wednesday they were regrouping and vowed to attack again.

The government assault focused on the village of Gracane and was meant to drive ethnic Albanian insurgents from remaining strongholds along the border with Kosovo. Macedonian police said the village had been emptied of civilians before the bombardment began.

Artillery shelling lasted for most of the day. The Macedonian forces rolled in tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and two helicopter gunships hovered overhead. Artillery booms could be heard 10 kilometres away in the capital, Skopje.

Late Wednesday, one Macedonian soldier was killed and two were injured when their vehicle drove over a landmine in contested territory, military officials said.

U.S. peacekeepers in neighbouring Kosovo used Humvees, surveillance equipment and two Apache helicopters to monitor clashes in the mountains above Gracane. Heavy mortar fire was heard, followed by large clouds of smoke rising from the woodlands.

"This is our final operation to ... establish control of this stretch of land," government spokesman Antonio Milososki said. "We want to create conditions for continuation of political dialogue."

Commander Sokoli, one of several regional rebel leaders, told The Associated Press that commanders decided at a meeting Wednesday that they would strike back to reverse the government‘s latest push.

"We are ready to fight a war in the areas we control," he said, and gave the government until midnight to change its strategy of excluding rebels from talks on Macedonia‘s future.

But Macedonia‘s government refused to budge on the issue. Milososki declared that "the terrorists will always get the same response from us."

The government‘s attacks have met with little obvious resistance in recent days. While the army and special police units have peppered the hills outside of the country‘s second-largest city, Tetovo, with mortar and artillery barrages, insurgents first responded only with occasional machine-gun fire and then with nothing at all.

The government is claiming victory, but the rebels suggested they had merely pulled back into the largely inaccessible hills near Tetovo.

"We have more volunteers," Sokoli said, contending that the rebels were gaining in strength. It was not immediately possible to confirm the claims.

The rebels say they are fighting for greater rights and recognition for the former Yugoslav republic‘s minority ethnic Albanians. They say they should be part of any talks to resolve the country‘s troubles.

Their cause won a defection from the country‘s parliament as Hysni Shaqiri, an ethnic Albanian deputy, opted to join the fighters known as the National Liberation Army in protest of the continuing government crackdown.

Meanwhile in Tetovo, dozens of ethnic Albanians gathered for the funeral of Servet Hajredini, 35, who died in an offensive Sunday. A hospital official said he died of a shrapnel wound and was brought to hospital in a uniform, but Hajredini‘s father, Isa, insisted his son was a civilian.

He was the only known casualty from Sunday‘s offensive. Police spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said more than 30 people have so far been detained in connection with the clashes, but no charges had been filed.

 

[Yard Ape]

Kosovo Peacekeepers Fired at Near Macedonia Border
Tuesday April 10 8:04 AM EST
By Beth Potter

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A joint U.S.-Polish peacekeeping patrol has come under fire near the Kosovo-Macedonia border, a U.S. army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Monday‘s shooting, which injured no one, occurred about 15 km (nine miles) south of a helicopter crash the same day that killed two British members of the KFOR peace force. But U.S. Major Jim Marshall said the two incidents were unrelated.

The spokesman for U.S.-led peacekeepers said the patrol had returned fire before leaving the southeastern pocket of Kosovo, where KFOR is trying to neutralise ethnic Albanian guerrillas who attacked Macedonia last month.

"The shots were directed at KFOR," Marshall said. "We‘re trying to determine, if we can, the origins of this fire."

Two British pilots were killed and five British soldiers aboard were injured in the helicopter crash. London‘s Defense Ministry said the crash had occurred in inclement weather and there was no indication that it was caused by hostile fire.

Marshall added: "There‘s no connection between the shooting incident southwest of the town of Krivenik and the helicopter crash (near) Kacanik."

A statement from British KFOR forces said the helicopter had been on a routine patrol aimed at "eradicating the extremist activity that has threatened to destabilize the region."

British Lieutenant Colonel Nick Brohaut said the helicopter had been carrying soldiers who had just been picked up after a foot patrol in the mountainous, wooded area.

‘INTERDICTING‘ GUERRILLAS

Normal KFOR foot patrols continued, Marshall said. Last weekend, Polish troops found four truckloads of weapons, tents and more than 100 sleeping bags believed to belong to rebels.

"This is part of our continuing effort to interdict any flow of personnel, equipment and supplies crossing the border illegally," Marshall said. "We cannot seal the border, but we‘re making life very difficult (for guerrillas)."

Fighting between Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian army has abated in the past 10 days since a shelling incident that left four dead, including a British television news producer.

"Our assessment is that our interdiction efforts have been successful in that area," Marshall said. "They‘re not able to move the men and supplies they want to get through there."

KFOR is still investigating the shelling incident. Some NATO officials in Brussels have said privately they believe the Macedonian army is responsible, something the army has denied.

Ethnic Albanian rebels calling themselves the National Liberation Army materialised inside Macedonia last month, saying they were fighting for equal rights for the small Balkan republic‘s large Albanian minority.

The Macedonian government says the insurgency was exported by Kosovo Albanian militants bent on dismembering the country, and accused KFOR of failing to secure the border.

Kosovo remains legally part of Yugoslavia but has been a de facto international protectorate since June 1999, when NATO-led peacekeepers and a U.N.-led civilian administration replaced repressive Serbian minority rule.

 

[Yard Ape]

NATO to Return More Kosovo Boundary to Serbia
Tuesday April 10 12:23 PM EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will allow Yugoslav forces back into a further section of the five-km-wide (3.1 miles) buffer zone that surrounds Kosovo, an official said on Tuesday.

The area, known as Sector D, runs from a point opposite Ogoste in eastern Kosovo to a point level with Medvedja in southwestern Serbia, he said.

The commander of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers in Kosovo will be allowed to release the territory to Yugoslav forces from April 12, a NATO spokesman said.

The precise timing of the operation will depend on talks between KFOR and the Yugoslavs.

The move, approved by NATO ambassadors on Tuesday, is the latest phase of the plan to allow a gradual return of Yugoslav forces to the buffer zone which the alliance imposed when it entered Kosovo in the summer of 1999.

The official said the area contained some ethnic Albanians. "But there has been very little trouble in the area and we don‘t expect any," he said.

Over the past year, ethnic Albanian guerrillas have been using some sections of the so-called Ground Safety Zone as a safe haven from which to launch operations against Serbian forces.

Yugoslavia has now been allowed back into most of the buffer zone surrounding Kosovo.

But it has yet to be let into the most contentious area in southwestern Serbia, where guerrillas of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac -- the UCPMB -- are observing a cease-fire with Yugoslav forces after a year of clashes.