News update: <<Balkan state Macedonia ready for blowing up once more ... The medicine is ... proactive intervention>>
and all is happening per script
nytimes.com
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June 25, 2001
U.S. Wades Into Macedonian Conflict and Skopje Erupts
By IAN FISHER
KOPJE, Macedonia, June 25 — American troops waded into the worsening crisis in Macedonia today, in an unplanned operation to escort several hundred armed Albanian rebels away from a town that has been the most recent flashpoint. The operation set off a huge riot here in the capital, where citizens are already angry over outside intervention.
The American soldiers were already stationed here, as part of the NATO mission to keep the peace in neighboring Kosovo. And while NATO has expressed willingness to assist in Macedonia, officials said they would do so only if the majority Slavs and ethnic Albanians made progress toward ending a fight that seems to be teetering on the edge of civil war.
But the conditions in which NATO made a first, ad hoc step here seemed to be just the opposite: Tonight, more than 5,000 Macedonian Slavs marched through the streets of the capital, protesting Western involvement in the conflict, firing guns into the air and occupying the Parliament building for several hours. Other Macedonians angrily lined the highways as the American troops returned to their bases this evening, a military official said.
The violence was the worst in Skopje since the conflict began.
A U.S. diplomat was lightly wounded after being shot, apparently accidentally, by Macedonian soldiers, outside the capital earlier in the day.
In an atmosphere of rising chaos, the NATO spokesman here, Maj. Barry Johnson, said the involvement of NATO, through the U.S. soldiers, was a one-time initiative aimed at supporting a partial cease-fire agreed to on Sunday.
``This was definitely to bring about a cease-fire and to end the aggressive fighting,'' he said. ``This was an opportunity to give them a chance so they could continue their dialogue and find that common ground.''
The attempt, however, did not seem to quell heightened passions here, and in fact, may have worsened them.
The conflict between the Slavs and ethnic Albanians, who make up roughly a third of the country's two million people, began in March. The Albanian rebels, taking up the cause of greater political rights for Albanians in Macedonia - began capturing towns south of the border with Kosovo, which is itself made up mostly of ethnic Albanians.
Macedonian politicians, and particularly the nation's president, have shown some willingness to negotiate opening up power here, but have also condemned the rebels, known as the National Liberation Army, as ``terrorists'' whose demands cannot be accommodated. That condemnation has been echoed by most outside governments and NATO.
For two weeks, the rebels had held the town of Aracinovo, but on Sunday after the government slammed the town with heavy artillery for three days, inflicting heavy damage, the rebels agreed to evacuate as part of the cease-fire.
Today, NATO troops offered to step in to defuse what seemed to be the most delicate event in the conflict so far: evacuating the Albanian rebels from Aracinovo, which is six miles from the capital of Skopje, well within shelling range of the city, the airport and the nation's only oil refinery. The fighting took place within view of the main highway, attracting hundreds of spectators, who brought binoculars, cameras and their children.
U.S. soldiers became involved through a chance chain of events: The first bus company contracted to evacuate the rebels refused to do so at the last minute, Major Johnson said.
A second company was hired, he said, but NATO officials deemed its three buses and one transport vehicle insufficient. So NATO officials asked the various outside nations already stationed here whether they would be willing to help, as way of moving the cease-fire forward. Major Johnson said this was not an official part of the NATO operation here, which began in 1999 as part of the alliance's intervention in the conflict in Kosovo.
``It was simply a request for nations to decide what support they were willing to provide,'' he said. Major Johnson said several countries agreed, but only the U.S. military was able to provide the troops and vehicles fast enough - 15 buses, three trucks, three ambulances and 16 Humvees. He did not know how many troops took part.
By 5 P.M., the civilian buses left Aracinovo with 200 to 250 of the fighters, and another 100 to 150 left with the U.S. soldiers, he said.
The decision angered many Macedonians, not least because under the cease-fire the rebels were permitted to keep their weapons, even if the arms were taken away during the drive to the rebel held town of Nikustak, roughly 7 kilometers away. Many Macedonians were already upset because they believed foreign officials - and particularly NATO - prevented them from ending the war against the rebels militarily.
''Our army has to defend its territory,'' Mitko Acef, 54, a laborer, said as the demonstrations began in the capital. ``NATO should be here as a peacekeeping force, and they are now the obstacle, not letting the Macedonian army finish the job of defeating the rebels,'' he said.
Although Aracinovo was quiet this afternoon, fighting flared near the northwestern city of Tetovo, with mortars buzzing over the city and rockets plunging into rebel held towns. The police reported fresh attacks by the rebels, one at ski resort with an army base and another at an army checkpoint.
Early this evening, smoke rose from the rebel-held village of Gajre, on a hillside outside of Tetovo, and a government helicopter hovered over it early this evening. Fadil Dehari, a 30-year-old Albanian from the town, looked up at the smoke from the main square in Tetovo.
''I think it's my house burning,'' he said as Katyusha rockets fired from a nearby hill soared into the town. He and his family left the house, built by his father, in March when fighting the area began. ``Now where am I going to go back to? You work 50 years on a house and its gone in a second.''
In Skopje late tonight, protesters fired automatic weapons repeatedly around the city center. Some smashed shop windows, and several foreigners were beaten up, including two journalists with the BBC. There were reports that the elite special police forces, along with army reservists also disgruntled with NATO involvement, joined the protesters as they took over Parliament.
``The situation is not as healthy as it could be,'' said one western diplomat who asked not to be identified by name. ``There has been a lot of pent- up anger in the past but now it seems to have surfaced.''
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