August 8, 2001

Iranian gunrunners detained in Kosovo
By CNN National Security Producer Chris Plante

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three Iranians have been arrested
in Kosovo for allegedly running arms to rebels
fighting in Macedonia, U.S. military officials told
CNN.

The Iranians, arrested in July, were said to have been
working for a non-governmental organisation in Kosovo
when British troops detained them near the border with
Macedonia.

Ethnic Albanian rebels in the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia have been fighting for improved rights
since February.

Peace talks have been taking place over the last week
between Slav and Albanian political leaders and
although there has been progress no deal has yet been
signed.

It is believed that the Iranian nationals were in
Kosovo "helping ethnic Albanians in the area" based on
their shared Muslim faith, according to officials.

They said that the Iranians were caught in possession
of a small cache of arms.

Another U.S. official told CNN the men were determined
by British troops to be "anti-West", but showed "no
indication they were planning any" action against NATO
forces there.

They were detained on or around July 20, according to
the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
He said that they were "expected to be released
shortly", but could not provide specifics.

The three Iranians are among "several dozen" people
currently incarcerated at the U.S. Army prison
facility at Camp Bondsteel in the troubled Yugoslav
province of Kosovo, officials said.


http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/08/07/kosovo.arrest/index.html

---

Handelsblatt
August 6, 2001

"Our objection to the NATO troops deployment is
fundamental in nature. The Western alliance is not
suited to serving as a mediator for peace in
Macedonia, since it supported...the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) in the Kosovo conflict, and it did not
demand its disarmament."



MPs Revolt over Plans to Send Troops to Macedonia


HB/sms OHRID/BERLIN. A rebellion among
parliamentarians from Germany's governing parties
looks set to place a question mark over the country's
participation in a planned North Atlantic Treaty
Office mission to the former Yugoslav republic of
Macedonia.

On Monday, representatives of the Macedonian
government and the country's ethnic Albanian minority
surprisingly broke off talks that were thought to have
been aimed at putting the finishing touches to a peace
deal. Reports from the Macedonian town of Ohrid, where
the talks were being held, suggest that the Macedonian
government unexpectedly made fresh demands to which
the Albanian representatives could not agree.

But preparations are continuing for a mission of 3,000
NATO troops to help disarm the ethnic Albanian rebels
who have taken control of parts of northern Macedonia.
The mission NATO spokesman Barry Johnson said the
first soldiers could start to be stationed within the
republic within 48 hours of an agreement.

The participation of German troops in the mission will
have to be ratified by the Bundestag (lower house of
parliament) at a special session. Government spokesman
Uwe-Karsten Heye said no date had as yet been set for
the session.

But so far some 28 Bundestag members from Germany's
main governing party, the Social Democrats (SPD), have
voiced their intention to vote against the country's
involvement in the mission. They look set to be joined
by up to seven members from the junior coalition
partner, the environmentalist Greens. And the
center-right Christian Democrat-led opposition parties
have said they will oppose German involvement on
financial grounds.

SPD parliamentarian Harald Friese, who initiated the
rebellion, told Handelsblatt: "Our rejection of the
NATO troops deployment is fundamental in nature. The
Western alliance is not suited to serving as a
mediator for peace in Macedonia, since it supported
the (ethnic Albanian) Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in
the Kosovo conflict, and it did not demand its
disarmament."

Macedonia borders the autonomous Yugoslav province of
Kosovo, from which thousands of ethnic Albanians were
displaced as a result of the conflict with Serbian
forces that culminated in a Nato intervention in 1999.


The parliamentary SPD's expert on foreign policy, Gert
Weisskirchen, stressed that KLA disarmament is a
precondition for a NATO deployment. This was also
stressed by Greens parliamentarian Angelika Beer, who
expressed doubt as to whether the KLA would ever
actually meet this condition.

Weisskirchen, meanwhile, was more upbeat, saying
despite the rebellion from within the government's own
ranks, he's still sure that parliament will approve
German involvement in a NATO mission. He suggested
that some of the rebels were not yet aware that NATO
troops would be entering Macedonia at the request of
both sides in the conflict.


HANDELSBLATT, Montag, 06. August 2001

---


http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=94434

Kathimerini
ATHENS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2001



FYROM says US ties its hands

By Misha Savic
The Associated Press

OHRID - A key legislator in the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) complained bitterly
yesterday about US efforts to halt the flow of weapons
into this troubled Balkan country, arguing that guns
are needed for government forces battling ethnic
Albanian insurgents. Speaking at a rally during
FYROM's main national holiday, Parliament Speaker
Stojan Andov protested that "the international
community had shifted from its earlier condemnation of
the rebels" to "trying now to block our imports of
weapons."

Despite a breakthrough Wednesday on some aspects of a
peace plan, Andov, speaking in the central FYROM town
of Kursevo on the holiday Ilinden, or St. Elias,
insisted there would be no lasting peace until all
insurgents were disarmed.

His comments were echoed by Prime Minister Ljubco
Georgievski, who said signing a peace agreement "under
conditions where the terrorists are still in the
mountains and control territories would be a shameful
pact for Macedonia that would make any Macedonian
citizen feel humiliated."

Andov's frustration with the international community
was triggered by a visit by US President George W.
Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to
Ukraine last month. There, she won some assurances
that Ukraine, FYROM's key arms supplier, would stop
the sales.

Rice cited fears that more arms to the troubled Balkan
country could prolong the months-old conflict and
undermine peace talks in which US and European Union
envoys are actively mediating between the majority
Slav-Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, who say they
are fighting for broader rights. Since Rice's visit,
Ukrainian officials have sent mixed signals, with some
saying they would comply and others insisting that
some forms of "military cooperation" would continue.

Negotiators in FYROM reached an agreement Wednesday to
allow the Albanian language to become an alternative
official language for the minority, which accounts for
nearly a third of FYROM's 2 million people. US envoy
James Pardew stressed that agreement still had to be
reached on other aspects of the peace plan, adding
negotiations are "far from finished."

Ethnic Albanians are demanding that the country's
police forces be restructured, giving them the right
to elect police commanders in regions where they live.


Slav-Macedonians are resisting the idea, fearing they
will lose control over the areas forever. They regard
ethnic Albanian demands as a strategy to carve off a
piece of territory that ethnic Albanian militants
already control.

Georgievski has repeatedly demanded that a hardline
stance be taken against the rebels. "We have to secure
territorial integrity and then move on to signing
agreements that we consider would be in the interests
of Macedonia," he said yesterday.

Western officials have repeatedly condemned the
rebels' insurgency. NATO peacekeepers deployed in
neighboring Kosovo have worked hard to choke off
weapons supplies to rebels coming from the southern
Serbian province.

---

URL for this article is http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/spsm.htm

Statement of the Socialist Party of Serbia
DEFEND MACEDONIA AGAINST TERROR AND SEPARATISM
[1 August 2001]

The Socialist Party of Serbia condemns the escalation of violent
separatism
against our neighbor, Macedonia, caused by the organized spread of the
terrorism of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to Macedonia and
southern Serbian municipalities. This is due to the systematic violation
of
Security Council Resolution 1244, especially the failure [by NATO] to
fulfil
its obligation to disarm terrorists, and due to support for the KLA by
NATO
structures. The aim is to create Greater Albania, to change
internationally
recognized borders to the detriment of Serbia and Yugoslavia, of
Macedonia
and of Greece. This is leading towards deepening instability in the
Balkans
and threatens the stability of the entire Mediterranean area.

The Socialist Party of Serbia resolutely supports the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Macedonia and reiterates its solidarity with
the
fraternal Macedonian people in protection of its legitimate national and
state interests and expresses condolences to the Macedonian people and
especially to those families who have been victims of the terrorist
forces.

The Socialist Party of Serbia stands for peace and stability in the
Balkans,
for equal cooperation and integrational processes, for respect of
internationally recognized borders. The SPS resolutely opposes any
policy of
domination, foreign military presence, imposition of new divisions
(leading
to spheres of interest) in the Balkans and against misuse of separatism
and
terrorism to that end. Preservation of Yugoslavia and the solution of
the
Kosovo and Metohija issue within Serbia and Yugoslavia are crucial in
order
to achieve stabilization and peace in the Balkans.

To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)

---

Subject: Human Rights Watch: Dear Mr. Ahmeti
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 07:56:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@...>
To: r_rozoff@...


Human Rights Watch: Dear Mr. Ahmeti
by Rick Rozoff

August 1, 2001

Human Rights Watch, whose interests and positions so
closely (suspiciously if you like) parallel those of
the United States State Department, politely requests
that the political leader of the self-styled National
Liberation Army in Macedonia, the lifelong separatist
extremist Ali Ahmeti, abide by "international
humanitarian law." (The Human Rights Watch appeal is
appended below.)
Though, contrary to the title of the missive, the
letter in fact requests that both sides in the
conflict - the legitimate, legally-elected government,
and the armed insurgency launched from Kosovo and
Albania - respect Common Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions pertaining to what Human Rights Watch
characterizes as "internal armed conflicts." In
keeping with HRW's stated policy of 'deferring
judgment' on the legitimacy of said internal armed
conflicts, its spokeperson, Holly Cartner, fully
equates the aggressor and the victim; the
legally-constituted authority, which is not accused of
either provoking or even creating any pretext for the
armed uprising, and the crime syndicate-linked and
-funded racial terrorists.
In the interim between the deferential letter from Ms.
Carter to Mr. Ahmeti almost three months ago and now,
Ahmeti and his pan-Albanian mercenaries have unleashed
a full-scale insurrection throughout the nation,
ethnically cleansing dozens of villages and
contributing to the displacement of - by some
estimates - over 120,000 civilians, a sizeable
percentage of Macedonia's two million people. Human
Rights Watch has kept a low profile since on this
issue, except for reports on alleged mistreatment of
ethnic Albanians and Western press personnel. When an
organization like HRW advances its concerns from those
affecting non-combatants in "internal armed conflicts"
to the mistreatment, real or fancied, of insurgents -
which is certainly impending - then it crosses the
threshold of supposed impartiality into treating the
belligerents as equal parties to the conflict, and
thus "internationalizes" what in truth is a matter of
internal criminal law enforcement. That HRW has at
least left the door open for such a prospect is
evident by Cartner's following up her reference to the
Geneva Conventions by her revealing invocation of the
"fundamental principle[s] of the laws of war."
Who is Dear Mr. Ahmeti?
Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights
Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, has kept a
close enough eye on the Balkans over the past years to
know who she was so respectfully writing to. For
anyone not familiar with Mr. Ahmeti, whose history
suggests someone anything but dear, he possesses, to
employ an expression familiar to the American if not
the Albanian underworld, a rap sheet as long as his
arm.
Regarding his recent activties, in addition to waging
war against the sovereign nation of Macedonia and its
civilian population from his base in Prizren in
Kosovo, Ahmeti reportedly found time to appear on an
Australian radio broadcast and announce the launching
of a Liberation Army of Chameria in Northern Greece,
claiming he already had fighters and weapons in place
there.
When questioned about this, the latest plan for his
decades' old project for a Greater Albania, he denied
it - but then Ahmeti has denied a number of things in
his lifetime.
Had he been asked about his clandestine meeting with
American OSCE representative Robert Frowick in mid-May
of this year - a meeting held in Ahmeti's headquarters
in Kosovo with Macedonian ethnic Albanian political
leaders, and cabinet ministers, Arben Xhaferi and Imer
Imeri - he might well have denied that also, except
that Frowick himself didn't deny that it occurred. In
a feature in the London Times on March 19, 2001,
"Albanians Insist Their Victory Is Inevitable," writer
Anthony Loyd, commenting on the NLA in Macedonia, had
this to say about Mr. Ahmeti's antecedents:
"Intelligence reports name four main figures,
including Ali Ahmeti and Emrush Xhemajii, as leaders.
Both men owe their political allegiance to the Popular
Movement for Kosovo, the LPK, which set up the KLA in
1993 and created the Homeland Calling funding scheme
among Albanians abroad. The scheme still exists and
funding for the NLA has been launched, say diplomats."

But his record as an ethnic separatist goes back
farther than 1993. Though born in what is now the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, he attended the
University of Pristina in the Serbian province of
Kosovo in 1981, where he was active in pan-Albanian
agitation and was arrested by federal authorities
there.
He subsequently left for Switzerland, where he joined
up with his uncle, Fazli Veliu, to set up an
international operation to raise funds and recruit
fighters for insurrections in Kosovo and elsewhere; an
operation that several investigations establish was
funded by narcotics trafficking and the European sex
slave trade.
On this score the German newspaper Die Welt reported
in March, in an article about the Albanian mafia, that
the NLA in Macedonia was indeed funded by the drug
trade and by a "war tax" levied on ethnic Albanians
living abroad.
Ali Ahmeti and Fazli Veliu (the second arrested on
terrorism charges in Germany last year, but released
shortly thereafter) are identified as key ringleaders
in the crime syndicate/armed insurgency collaboration.
Ahmeti, after leaving Switzerland for the first time,
returned to Yugoslavia to help found the so-called
Kosovo Liberation Army, as noted above, and appears to
be the key liaison between the fighters on the ground
and the Transatlantic ethnic Albanian gun-running and
recruitment operation feeding the first with
personnel, funds and weapons.
In the past twenty six months since NATO-led KFOR
forces occupied Kosovo, with their KLA adjuncts in
tow, Ahmeti - who during the fighting had been a
commander for the infamous war criminal Ramush
Haradinaj - returned to Kosovo where he set up
operation in Prizren.
It was there, and recall that Ahmeti claims to be a
citizen of Macedonia concerned about alleged "civil
rights" in that nation, that he met with the heads of
Macedonia's two largest ethnic political parties, the
Democratic Party of Albanians and the Party for
Democratic Progress, under the auspices of U.S. OSCE
operative Robert Frowick.
It may also have been in Prizren, if not in Skopje
itself, that, according to the Skopje newspaper
Makedonija Denes, Ahmeti met with former NATO head and
current European Union foreign affairs chief Javier
Solana, with Kosovo Protection Corps commander and war
criminal Agim Ceku, and with KLA commander Haradinaj.
According to a Yugoslav Tanjug account of the
Macedonian paper's story, "It was agreed that Solana,
currently visiting Macedonia, bring pressure to bear
on the Macedonian government to halt the government
forces' operations for liberating Aracinovo village
near the capital Skopje" - the site of the U.S.-led
rescue of a hundred or more NLA fighters shortly
thereafter.
[http://www.tanjug.co.yu/Arhiva/2001/Jun%20-%2000/26-06e10.html%5d
Although Ahmeti recently made it on to the U.S. black
list and is also persona non grata in Switzerland of
late, his movements in and out of Kosovo, surely known
to if not coordinated by NATO's KFOR contingent, seem
blissfully unimpeded.
Lastly, to reflect on both Human Rights Watch and on
its dear Mr. Ahmeti, five days before Holly Cartner's
ever so reverential letter was issued, Ahmeti's
terrorists ambushed and killed eight Macedonian
security personnel.
Ahmeti told a Reuters reporter after the incident
that, "Our soldiers acted in self-defense." And no
doubt, in his mind and in Ms. Cartner's, according to
Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions relating to
"internal armed conflicts" and to "humanitarian law."
For the above crime was not mentioned in the exchange
between Dear Mr. Ahmeti and Holly Cartner,
respectfully.
______________________________________________
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/05/macedonia_ltr3.htm.
Letter to NLA Political Spokesman Ali Ahmeti
May 4, 2001
Mr. Ali Ahmeti
Political Spokesman for the National Liberation Army
(NLA)
Dear Mr. Ahmeti,
Human Rights Watch is a privately funded international
non-governmental organization dedicated to documenting
human rights abuses throughout the world. In the past
ten years, we have committed substantial time and
effort to investigating violations of human rights and
humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia. We have
documented violations of international humanitarian
law by all sides of the armed conflicts in Croatia,
Bosnia, Kosovo, and the NATO war with the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.
Reports of the renewed conflict in the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia between security forces and
armed groups of ethnic Albanians raise concerns
relating to adherence to international humanitarian
law. As in all other conflicts in the territory of the
former Yugoslavia, our principal concern is that all
parties involved respect civilian immunity and ensure
the protection of civilians.
Human Rights Watch wants to express its concern that
the groups organized under the name of National
Liberation Army (NLA) take all measures to comply with
basic principles of international humanitarian law
applicable to situations of internal armed conflict,
and enshrined in Common Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions. This provision protects those who do not
take an active part in hostilities from the most
serious violations, including acts of murder, torture
and cruel treatment, the taking of hostages, outrages
upon personal dignity, and the passing of sentences
and the carrying out of executions without previous
judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court.

With regard to the renewed fighting, the NLA
leadership should refrain from any attacks against
civilians, attacks and reprisals against civilian
objects, as well as threats of violence the primary
purpose of which is to spread terror among the
civilian population.
We also call on the NLA leadership to ensure that the
civilian population of the affected areas enjoys as
much protection as possible against dangers of harm
resulting from the fighting. The most fundamental
principle of the laws of war requires that combatants
be distinguished from noncombatants, and that military
objectives be distinguished from protected property or
protected places. Parties to a conflict must direct
their operations only against military objectives
(including combatants). Also, the use of civilians as
shields for defensive positions, to hide military
objectives or to screen attacks, violates the
principles of the international humanitarian law.
We also note that the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) applies to serious violations of
international humanitarian law committed after 1991 on
the territory of the former Yugoslavia, including the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Human Rights Watch also recognizes the obligations of
the Macedonian security forces to uphold the standards
of international humanitarian law and urges their
adherence to these norms. Letters expressing Human
Rights Watch's concerns to this effect are being sent
to the president and the prime minister of the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
We hope, Mr. Ahmeti, that you will give serious
thought to the points addressed in this letter and,
guided by consideration for human life and well-being,
do everything in your power to ensure that the NLA
respects obligations under international humanitarian
law.
Respectfully,
/s/
Holly Cartner
Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
cc: Mrs. Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor, ICTY

---

Subject: NEBOJSA MALIC: RAMBOUILLET REPEATED?
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 11:21:47 +0200
From: TARGETS <redactie@...>
To: office@...


http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/26/11063.html

NEBOJSA MALIC: RAMBOUILLET REPEATED?

In February of 1999, after the staged "massacre" of 45 KLA bandits at
Racak, Madeleine Albright summoned the Yugoslav leadership to a castle
in
Rambouillet, France, where they were to sign a NATO ultimatum providing
for
their unconditional surrender. KLA's warlord Hashim Thaci, sitting right
across from Slobodan Milosevic, refused to sign the ultimatum himself
until
the very last moment - thus making it appear as if the KLA was not too
thrilled with it either, while giving Albright and her warlord Wesley
Clark
an official excuse to bomb Yugoslavia. Milosevic, aware of the
ultimatum's
provisions, refused to submit. Rambouillet would have become a synonym
for
outrage in international affairs, had it not been overshadowed by NATO's
subsequent terror-bombing.
Yet here it is, nearly three years hence, and a Rambouillet-style
capitulation is being demanded of another country, Yugoslavia's weakened
southern neighbor, which has been, until recently, an obedient vassal of
the NATO Empire.
MACEDONIA AFLAME
Images that were beamed to TV screens across the world on Monday and
Tuesday were eerily reminiscent of Sarajevo in 1992, another city marked
with urban battles and quarter-to-quarter shelling, with devastating
effects. Two days of heavy fighting caused mounting casualties and
streams
of refugees. Contrary to ominous predictions in the world media, this
was
not full-scale civil war, at least not yet. If anything, the fighting in
Tetovo was intended as a warning, a foretaste of what was to come if the
Macedonian government were to continue refusing the so-called "peace"
proposal brokered by EU/NATO/U.S.
Macedonians fled Tetovo in droves, joining their compatriots expelled at
gunpoint from villages above the city, now under UCK control. A large
group
of them rioted in Skopje Tuesday night, attacking the US Embassy,
British
Airways office, OSCE offices and a McDonalds.
UCK bandits had almost reached the town center of Tetovo before a new
cease-fire was called Tuesday. Additionally, member of the bandit
"General
Staff" Nazmi Beqiri told Reuters the UCK had two brigades operating
around
the town of Gostivar in the southwest.
The fighting came in the wake of collapsing "peace talks" - sessions in
which Imperial legates James Pardew and Francois Leotard attempted to
impose the ready-made "agreement" on local participants. Macedonian
representatives refused to sign them last weekend, supposedly over the
issues of Albanian language and local policing.
DESPERATE FUMBLE
That is not what the Macedonian representatives said, denouncing the
plan
as "serious interference in internal Macedonian affairs."
Said Prime Minister Georgievski, "Now the masks are off and it is clear
that the terrorist organisations in Macedonia enjoy serious backing and
logistical support from Western democracies." (AFP)
His government, however, has no clue what to do next. It is far easier
to
oppose the West verbally than in practice, especially since the horrid
lesson of Serbia drove home the possible consequences of such an act.
Furthermore, Macedonia's leaders see their future in becoming part of
the
EU, perhaps hoping that this would guarantee their country's sovereignty
and security. This is a false hope at best, a dangerous delusion at
worst.
A chorus of voices from the West is denouncing the Macedonians for
refusing
to cave in, and at the same time denying doing so. Pardew and Leotard
also
reject accusations that they blamed Macedonians for the recent fighting.
But a Reuters report clearly mentions a Western diplomat saying that
"the
fighting played into the hands of hard-liners on the Macedonian side who
want to scupper talks on a peace deal.... Blame today's events on those
factions on one side who don't want peace." [Emphasis added.]
Not surprisingly, pro-establishment media in the West are leading the
way,
with all news agencies repeating phrases such as "hard-line elite" among
the "Macedonian Slavs" that "stokes nationalist fervor" through the
Prime
Minister's "tirades."
Having agreed to open the supposedly inviolate constitutional principles
to
discussion with his Albanian "partners" in government, Georgievski
severed
the branch he was sitting on and tumbled down the slope of negotiating
away
his country's sovereignty. His latest moves are less a renunciation of
this
immoral policy, however welcome that would have been, than an attempt to
get a better deal by playing the pouting child. He obviously did not
read
the script very well; only the prot?g?s of the Empire can play that role
and get away with it, from Alija Izetbegovic in Dayton to Hashim Thaci
in
Rambouillet.
Furthermore, Empire Casting C.S.A. has already given the role to Arben
Xhaferi and Imer Imeri. Their parties, DPA and PDP, are in effect a
political wing of the UCK - perhaps even officially, since they never
renounced the infamous Prizren protocol, signed with the KLA and UCK
leaders with American mediation. Thus positioned, they can easily
advance
the Albanian cause either through negotiations, or war. Indeed, PDP
leader
Imer Imeri told Reuters Tuesday, having "made a compromise by giving up
70
percent" of their demands, the Albanians were now "waiting for something
to
be decided on the military side."
THE ALBANIAN CAUSE (A REFRESHER)
The issue here is not one of language or civil rights. It never has
been.
The issue is one ethnic minority claiming nationhood status, and using
terrorism and propaganda about "human rights" to achieve its goal. First
of
all, no one fights for civil rights by taking up arms. The act in itself
creates too much bad blood for coexistence to be possible. Secondly,
language in the Balkans has always been a banner of not just
nationality,
but nationhood. That is why only Serbs will still sometimes say they
speak
Serbo-Croatian; others in the former Yugoslavia insist on "Croatian,"
"Bosnian" and even "Montenegrin." In other words: have language, need
nation-state.
In the case of Macedonian Albanians, they insist not on freedom to use
their own language, but a government-enforced privilege to not use
another.
Albanians need "their own social facilities" to feel at home, since one
cannot "create a new Macedonian identity including Albanians," says
professor Ismail Mehmeti, of the illegal Albanian university in Tetovo.
It
is a call for apartheid, a society deliberately separated from the rest
of
the country by language and ethnicity.
That separation is then only a step away from becoming physical. Why
else
would the UCK seize and hold territory, if its claim was not
territorial?
This logic is so overwhelming, and its denials by the UCK political wing
(Xhaferi's DPA and Imeri's PDP) and the Western powers so unfounded,
there
ought to be little doubt about the Albanians' true purpose - and the
support it has within the Empire.
A BETTER ANALOGY
On second thought, the current situation in Macedonia does not quite
resemble the situation in Rambouillet. Albright and her cohorts went to
France fully intent of launching a war against Milosevic and the Serbian
people. Their ultimatum was never meant to be accepted, only to serve as
a
whitewash for aggression. It mimicked Austria-Hungary pathetic excuse
for a
casus belli from 1914. Though the method of imposition is the same as
Dayton and Rambouillet, Empire's current strategy in Macedonia far more
closely matches Munich of 1938.
The focus of US/NATO/EU "peace" efforts has been to achieve the
Albanians'
military and political objectives peacefully, saving themselves the
trouble
of an embarrassing war. Covering up or spinning away all the crimes the
UCK
is likely to commit would represent a tremendous challenge, one they
would
rather not face. They have had plenty of trouble already with burying
the
story of water shortages in Kumanovo and ignoring tens of thousands of
Macedonians ethnically cleansed from UCK-occupied territories. Every so
often, information slips through.
So far, the "mediators" have used up most of their Balkans playbook.
There
were panicking Albanian refugees; "civilian" victims of unidentified
(but
strongly alleged to be Macedonian) shells inside Kosovo; a phony arms
embargo on the Kosovo-Macedonia border; reports of "human rights abuses"
by
the appropriate Western organizations; and now Rambouillet-like "peace
talks," in fact an ultimatum demanding one side's unconditional
surrender.
Three things have been conspicuously absent: a leader to be demonized,
atrocities to be presented as genocide and an actual intervention
against
whichever side needs to be pulverized.
Of course, with Skopje defending itself so ineptly and reluctantly,
there
is little need for these extreme measures. Unless something radically
changes, sooner or later Georgievski and Trajkovski will cave in, the
UCK
atrocities will be covered up, and the intervention will take on the
form
of "peacekeeping" and collecting a few token muskets from the
bandits-turned-policemen of the UCK. Albanians - if not the Albanian
state
per se - will have gotten their Sudetenland coup; within months, as soon
as
camera lights go off, Bulgarians (another loyal US ally) will march into
what is left of the vivisected country.
Macedonia will be no more. But there will be "stability" and
"compliance"
with the Empire's power - which is all its legates ever really wanted,
the
natives be damned. The Balkans would thus have "peace in our time."

TARGETS - Independent monthly paper on international affairs
Sloterkade 20
1058 HE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Ph. ++ 31 20 615 1122
Fax: ++ 31 20 615 1120

---

S T R A T F O R

THE GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANY

http://www.stratfor.com
___________________________________________________________________

26 July 2001

Macedonia Accuses NATO of Siding With Militants

Summary

Macedonian lawmakers are rejecting NATO's terms for peace with
ethnic Albanian insurgents. In an unusual turn of events,
Macedonian officials accuse NATO of trying to divide the country
along ethnic lines by throwing its weight behind ethnic Albanian
militants. Civil war is now imminent.

Analysis

Ethnic Albanian militants, who on July 21 violated a weeks-old
cease-fire with the Macedonian government, have begun withdrawing
from strategic positions in the north. This follows days of
violence and anti-Western riots that threaten to hurl the country
into civil war.

Tensions remained high as officials from NATO and the European
Union attempted to negotiate a lasting cease-fire on July 26.
Days before, Macedonia's lawmakers had accused NATO of aiding
ethnic Albanian insurgents.

Though Western journalists have viewed the accusation as a surge
of nationalism typical for the Balkan region, NATO's recent
dealings with Albanian insurgents do suggest some degree of bias,
if not complicity.

Either through intent or mismanagement, NATO has helped prepare
the ground for civil war.

Macedonia is the one former Yugoslav republic that remained
stable during the past 10 years while bloody ethnic conflicts
consumed both Bosnia and Kosovo.

During the 1990s, nearly 100,000 people were killed and 3 million
displaced in the Balkans. Donor nations such as the United
States, Japan, Canada and members of the European Union shelled
out billions in reconstruction aid. Now, repeated incursions by
ethnic Albanian insurgents into Macedonian territories threaten
an encore of violence in the volatile region.

Far from being seen as a peace guarantor, NATO would bear part of
the blame for a new civil war. NATO-led peacekeeping forces,
known as KFOR, occupy a region of Kosovo bordering northwestern
Macedonia. By order of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244,
KFOR must secure arms and halt trafficking by Albanian militants,
but the force has failed to do so.

Albanian insurgents began filtering into Macedonia from KFOR-
occupied areas of Kosovo in February, and they have repeatedly
fired on national police.

KFOR has failed before to restrict the outflow of guns and
militants from Kosovo.

For most of 2000, Albanian militants pressed into southeastern
Serbia to annex three towns with an Albanian population majority.
Many of the same militants redeployed to towns around Macedonia's
Tetovo and Gostivar districts during the past five months.

As of the afternoon of July 25, militants were fighting for
control of more than 20 villages but began to withdraw hours
later in response to NATO requests.

With their borders still porous to armed insurgents, Macedonians
fear active sabotage by NATO. For example, although the U.S.
State Department hired contractor Military Professional Resources
Inc. to train Macedonia's security forces in 2001, reports from
Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Macedonia indicate U.S.
soldiers also escorted Albanian militants a few miles outside the
Macedonian capital of Skopje only weeks ago. The Skopje bi-
monthly Forum says the dual U.S. support is a means to disable
Macedonia's defenses and to bolster the ethnic Albanians.

In both training and equipment, Macedonia's defense forces are
already at a substantial disadvantage. Albanians are using NATO-
issue 5.56 caliber weapons and third-generation, U.S.-issue
night-vision equipment, according to Russian media and Dnevnik,
the Skopje independent daily newspaper.

Moreover, Vremya Novosti, a Russian daily, reported on July 26
that U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said she
persuaded Ukrainian officials to cease arms shipments to
Macedonia. This could signal a potential arms embargo, further
undermining the Macedonian defenses.

Underscoring their suspicion of NATO, Macedonian government
officials were alarmed on July 21 when a KFOR helicopter violated
Macedonia's airspace and touched down at two northern towns held
by Albanian militants.

The country's Defense Ministry confirmed the landing, cited
eyewitness reports of cargo drops and demanded an explanation
from KFOR. KFOR officially denied aiding the rebels, saying its
flights were meant to help establish NATO communications along
the border.

Macedonia's majority party leaders also question NATO's political
neutrality. The alliance did not immediately condemn the
Albanians' recent violation of the cease-fire. Instead, American,
German and NATO officials have blamed lawmakers in Skopje for
disrupting the peace process by rejecting their proposals.

A peace proposal drafted by the United States and Europe -- and
backed by NATO envoys -- demands compromises on the national
language from Macedonia but no concessions from Albanian
militants. The proposal would require that all state certificates
and laws be printed in the Albanian Roman alphabet and in
Macedonia's official Cyrillic alphabet, while correspondence to
and from the central government could be in either alphabet.

Meanwhile, the proposal would also give smaller ethnic groups
such as Serbs, Turks, Vlachs and Roma equal rights in local
administrations where their populations exceed 20 percent, Radio
Free Europe reported.

Macedonian lawmakers consider the proposal excessive. To
Macedonia's non-Albanian legislators, who see Macedonia as more
accommodative of minority rights than most Balkan states, the
suggestions for compromises amount to arm-twisting. They also
smack of betrayal to Macedonia, which has always supported NATO's
deployment and occasionally unpopular U.S. foreign policy in the
region.

With its credibility in question, NATO may not be able to prevent
war in Macedonia. U.S. Embassy officials plan to evacuate
nonessential staff from Skopje.

On July 20, NATO postponed plans to disarm Albanian militants due
to the resumption of hostilities, and an envoy from the
Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe said the
alliance is helpless against ethnic cleansing by Albanians, the
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported.

Macedonian officials are now willing to guard their borders
against NATO troops as well as Albanian militants. Prime Minister
Ljubco Georgievski plans to call a state of emergency. State
security forces locked down the borders on July 25, refusing
passage to KFOR and humanitarian aid workers.

The Albanian militants' campaign will likely continue,
irrespective of NATO's 11th-hour efforts to restore a cease-fire.

---

July 25, 2001
Thousands Flee in Macedonia
by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
Associated Press Writer

TETOVO, Macedonia (AP) -- The government gave ethnic
Albanian rebels an ultimatum to pull back from around
the country's second-largest city or face a new army
offensive, as thousands of Macedonians streamed out of
the city in packed cars and buses.
NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson called the
situation ''critical'' and said he and the European
Union's foreign policy chief would fly to Macedonia on
Thursday for urgent mediation to prevent a descent
into full-scale civil war.
More than 8,000 people fled the area of the northern
city of Tetovo in the past 24 hours, the government
said, most heading for the capital Skopje after fierce
fighting Sunday and Monday shattered a fragile
cease-fire.
The exodus widened after Macedonia's defense minister
and interior minister on Wednesday warned that
military action was possible if the insurgents didn't
retreat.
''Unless the rebels pull out to their previous
positions ... we will no longer listen to suggestions
from any Western mediator, and an offensive is not
excluded as an option,'' the ministers said in a
statement.
In Brussels, Belgium, Robertson urged restraint. ''Any
efforts to resolve the situation militarily can only
result in the wreckage of the country and the
inflicting of grave civilian casualties,'' he said.
Overnight, mobs of Macedonians rampaged against
foreign embassies in Skopje, accusing NATO of
supporting the guerrillas. Protesters threw stones at
the U.S. Embassy late Tuesday, smashed entrances of
the British and German embassies and burned several
U.N. and other cars.
The clashes around Tetovo were the worst in months and
dimmed hopes that peace talks that collapsed last
month could be revived. Those fleeing the city largely
were ethnic Macedonians -- who form a majority in the
country but a minority in Tetovo.
One lifelong resident, Milina Stavreva, packed to
leave Wednesday, vowing never to return. ''Enough is
enough,'' said Stavreva, 60. ''We can no longer live
here.''
The militants launched their insurgency in February,
saying they were fighting for greater rights for
minority ethnic Albanians, who account for up to a
third of Macedonia's 2 million people. The government
alleges the rebels are linked to militants in
neighboring Kosovo and accuses them of trying to carve
out territory from Macedonia.
''It makes no sense to continue the talks as long as
the rebels are violating the cease-fire,'' government
spokesman Antonio Milososki told The Associated Press.
''If they don't return to their previous positions, we
will force them to do so.''
Britain's Foreign Office advised against all travel to
Macedonia, and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
strongly criticized the Macedonian government for
stirring up anti-Western sentiment.
Fischer said government statements helped create ''a
violent domestic climate'' and led to the embassy
attacks.
On Tuesday, Milososki accused Western mediators of
coordinating their efforts with the rebels and called
NATO ''a big friend of our enemies.''
On Wednesday, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in
Kosovo said it had detained more than 60 suspected
rebels from Macedonia, seizing weapons and ammunition
after intercepting three separate mule trains along
the rugged border.
Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski and Interior Minister
Ljube Boskoski gave the rebels until noon Wednesday to
pull back to their previous positions in Tetovo. That
deadline passed with no sign of an offensive.
Ministry spokesman Marjan Gjurovski said army barracks
and positions near Tetovo's soccer stadium came under
fire until 2 a.m. Wednesday. Tetovo's hospital said
five wounded were brought in overnight, and that they
included civilians and military personnel.
Several police checkpoints around the city were taken
by rebels, media reported.

"All our fears have proven true that the international
representatives are in close coordination with the
KLA. This is open, public coordination between the
mediators and the rebels."



Macedonia Accuses Western Officials
by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
Associated Press Writer

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) -- Ethnic Albanian rebels
attacked an army barracks and surrounded four villages
on Tuesday, while mobs in the capital accused NATO of
siding with the guerrillas and attacked the U.S.,
British and German embassies.

Protesters threw stones at the U.S. Embassy, breaking
windows as riot police looked on but failed to
intervene.

A mob of several hundred people smashed the main doors
of the German and British embassies and the front of a
McDonald's restaurant. Vandals burned several cars
belonging to the United Nations and the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe before the
violent protests subsided early Wednesday.

Government spokesman Antonio Milososki on Tuesday
called NATO ''a big friend of our enemies.''

The protests came as rebels clashed with government
forces in Tetovo on Tuesday. The Defense Ministry said
that the rebels were advancing and had surrounded four
nearby villages.

Lightly armed Macedonian police abandoned several
checkpoints and were replaced by rebels in Tetovo,
Macedonia's second largest city, Macedonian media
reported.

A rebel commander, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said police were handing out arms to people
at one checkpoint. Rebels attacked Tetovo's army
barracks, but further details were not available.

Amid the growing hostilities, Macedonian authorities
closed the border with Kosovo and hundreds of
residents fled Tetovo and surrounding villages,
several of them now in rebel hands.

Army sources said fighting was still going on around 9
p.m. in and around Tetovo. ''Terrorists are using
heavy machine guns and mortars,'' one source said,
adding that rebel activity was particularly intense in
the Drenovec and Proj suburbs.

An hour later, fighting stopped, and a Macedonian TV
station reported that Peter Feith, NATO's special
envoy to Macedonia, had won a fresh cease-fire pledge
from Ali Ahmeti, the rebels' political leader.

The clashes followed some of the worst fighting in
Macedonia in months on Monday. Western diplomats on
Tuesday were trying to salvage peace talks designed to
prevent a full-scale civil war in this troubled Balkan
nation.

The militants launched their insurgency in February,
saying they were fighting for greater rights for
ethnic Albanians, who account for up to a third of
Macedonia's 2 million people. The government contends
they are trying to carve up the country.

But the talks have faltered and Monday's attack was
the largest violation yet of a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Macedonian authorities accused NATO and
Western officials of siding with the rebels, dimming
prospects for the peace talks.

Up to 3,000 angry Macedonians protested in front of
parliament in Skopje, the capital, under a banner that
read, ''Who is protecting the terrorists? -- NATO.''

Milososki, the government spokesman, accused NATO and
Western officials of failing to respond to rebels'
''cleansing'' of Macedonian villages around Tetovo and
being biased in the negotiations.

''All our fears have proven true that the
international representatives are in close
coordination with the KLA,'' a reference to the
officially defunct Kosovo Liberation Army. ''This is
open, public cooperation between international
mediators and the rebels,'' Milososki told The
Associated Press.

Before Milososki spoke, NATO Secretary-General Lord
Robertson rejected similar Macedonian allegations over
the weekend that NATO-led forces in Kosovo had been
resupplying ethnic Albanian armed groups.

U.S. envoy James Pardew and his EU counterpart,
Francois Leotard, worked to revive peace talks that
collapsed late last week after majority Macedonians
refused to accept a provision that would make Albanian
an official language.

In a joint statement, Leotard and Pardew said they
''are shocked by allegations that they support the NLA
(rebel army) or that they lay responsibility for the
fighting in Tetotvo on the Macedonian security
forces.''

During a brief visit to Camp Bondsteel, the U.S.
military base in neighboring Kosovo, President Bush
issued a statement Tuesday backing efforts by Western
diplomats to broker a peace settlement, and called on
rebels and the Macedonian government to respect the
cease-fire.

''Those here in Kosovo who support the insurgency in
Macedonia are hurting the interests of ethnic
Albanians throughout the region,'' Bush said. ''The
people of Kosovo should focus on Kosovo.''

Earlier Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in a statement
admitted that the rebels were advancing in the recent
offensive and said that four Tetovo area villages had
been surrounded by ''terrorist forces.''

It said that late Monday and early Tuesday the rebels
had set up a checkpoint on the Tetovo-Gostivar road,
opening fire on vehicles that refused to stop.

A policeman died Tuesday from injuries he suffered
during clashes in the village of Lesok on Monday,
adding to an unconfirmed list of several fatalities
over the last two days, the ministry said.

---

Subject: British Soldiers Fighting With Macedonian Rebels
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 08:06:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@...>
To: r_rozoff@...


http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/text_only.cfm?id=SS01025960


Scotland On Sunday
July 15, 2001

British fighters seek thrill of battle in Macedonia's
struggle

FORMER British soldiers are fighting the Macedonian
security services as part of the ethnic Albanian
National Liberation Army, Scotland on Sunday has
learned.
Sources within the NLA confirmed that 12 British
nationals were fighting with them in the Kumanovo
region, along with at least two Dutch men and a
German.
The fighters are not of Albanian descent but are
believed to have fought in some of the wars in the
former Yugoslavia, including Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo.
The British contingent wasbased around the village of
Slupchane until the ceasefire which has been in place
for over a week. NLA commanders are taking advantage
of the ceasefire to rest their troops and send them to
Kosovo to recuperate.
Macedonians already feel persecuted by the Europeans
and the United States, whom they accuse of encouraging
the NLA.
Senior Macedonian officials said they were aware that
the NLA also included European former KLA fighters.
"We know they are there but they are not significant -
little more than drug addicts," one said.
Tim Ripley, a defence analyst at Lancaster University
who has been studying the Macedonian conflict, said he
was not surprised to learn that former British
soldiers and adventurers had joined the NLA.
"I heard that some British people were planning to
come out and join the NLA but I did not know if they
succeeded. These people are not classic mercenaries.
"They are likely to have fought in recent Balkan wars
and they are doing it for the adventure rather than
the money. All they will receive is board and pocket
money."
The use of foreign mercenaries is not restricted to
the NLA. The Macedonian government has bought a number
of helicopters and ground attack fighters from the
Ukraine and employed pilots to fly them. There have
also been persistent rumours that the Macedonian
security forces have been recruiting soldiers from
Serbia and Bulgaria.
One former British soldier arrived in Kosovo saying
that he had come to fight but had not yet decided for
which side.
Ripley said the Macedonians were also using military
assistance from abroad.
"The Macedonians have simply bought in an airforce
from the Ukraine and there are reports of Macedonian
soldiers who do not appear to speak or understand
Macedonian. There is a long tradition of this kind of
thing in the Balkans," he said.
The NLA began its insurrection against the Macedonian
government in February. It claims to be fighting for
civil rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority,
which could make up one-third of the population.
Macedonians claim that the NLA has attacked Macedonia
from Kosovo and aims to split the country as part of a
wider campaign to form a greater Albania.
Fighting has officially been suspended although there
are regular gunfights as both sides re-supply their
troops.
Representatives of Albanian political parties are
negotiating with Macedonian parties, along with
Francois Leotard, the EU envoy and James Pardew, the
US envoy.
As the politicians speak the armed groups continue to
prepare for war.
This week, NLA fighters and military police were
walking freely around the suburbs of Tetovo,
Macedonia's second city, stopping cars and checking
papers.
New recruits could be seen heading off to the hills to
receive training.
Meanwhile, the Macedonians are transporting around
30tanks and armoured vehicles to the Ukraine to be
refurbished and equipped with night-vision equipment.
"They are clearly preparing for a long war," said
Ripley.

From Conal Urquhart in Skopje
Sunday, 15th July 2001

---

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Assamjur@... [mailto:Assamjur@...]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. Juli 2001 21:46
An:
Betreff: UCK rescued


Sujet : Col. David Hackworth: Whose side are we really on?
Date : 10/07/01 15:37:28 Paris, Madrid (Heure d'été)
From: zana@... (Snezana Vitorovich)
To: wcg@...

Toogood Reports [Tuesday, July 10, 2001; 12:01 a.m. EST]
URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/

Last month, American troops in Macedonia rescued 400 Albanian
rebels
who were members of the 113th UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) Brigade. This
operation didn't pass the smell test for me. I couldn't stop asking
myself
why NATO brass would risk the lives of 80 American paratroopers to save
a
band of heavily armed cutthroats bent on overthrowing the established
government of a country that our president and State Department have
repeatedly stated they are committed to save.

The act was kind of like an FBI SWAT team rescuing Timothy McVeigh
minutes before the execution. My first thought was, Whose side are we
really
on? My second was, What's the objective here — stabilizing
or destabilizing
Macedonia?

The UCK brigade — dug in around Aracinovo, four
miles north of Skopje,
the capital of Macedonia — had been surrounded for two
weeks, under heavy
attack by Macedonian government forces and on the verge of destruction.
Imagine how we'd feel if one of our units was about to take out a rebel
brigade whose objective was to overthrow our government, when out of
nowhere
a Canadian paratroop company swooped in and saved the enemy force? Of
course, the Macedonians were fit to be tied.

Sources in the U.S. Army in Kosovo familiar with the 3/502nd
Airborne
Battalion's rescue operation confirm that the mission was all about
saving
the "17 'instructors' among the withdrawing rebels —
former U.S. officers,
who were providing the rebels with continued military education. But
that
was not enough: The Macedonian security forces claim that 70 percent of
the
equipment taken away by the guerrillas had been U.S. made
— to include even
the most modern third-generation night vision devices," as reported by
the
German newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt on June 28.

Other sources say the "17 instructors" were members of a
high-ticket
Rent-a-Soldier outfit called MPRI — Military Professional
Resources
Incorporated — that operates in the shadow of the Pentagon
and has been
hired by the CIA and our State Department for ops in ex-Yugoslavia. The
company, headed up by former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Carl E.
Vuono, is
filled with former U.S. Army personnel, from generals to senior
sergeants,
all of whom draw handsome wages on top of their Army retired salaries.

This is the same outfit that in the early 1990s trained Croatian
soldiers for Operation Storm — which resulted in the
brutal ethnic cleansing
of 200,000 unarmed Serb civilians — as well as bringing
Croatian Gen. Agim
Ceku up to speed. Ceku, who played a central role in the slaughter, is
alleged to have killed thousands of other Serb civilians before joining
the
KLA in 1999, where he again received training and assistance from CIA
and
State Department contractors operating overtly and covertly throughout
ex-Yugoslavia and around the globe.

Retired four-stars don't run out of power until they hear taps.
Had
Vuono or another of his compadres such as Gen. Crosbie Saint picked up
the
phone and suggested the 502nd be sent to the rescue, that suggestion
would
have been taken as a virtual command.

MPRI even has a Web site — www.MPRI.com
— that boasts,

"We serve the needs of the U.S. government, of foreign
governments
and of the private sector with the highest standards and cost effective
solutions."

While Ollie North's Contra boys and the mercenaries who botched up
the
Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion might not have been so businesslike
— or so
blatant — they did establish an unfortunate tradition of
hired guns sticking
our nation into one minefield after another.

Dozens of ex-Army pals are presently working for the
ever-expanding
MPRI or other such military contractors in places like Saudi Arabia,
Taiwan,
ex-Yugoslavia and Colombia. We're talking booming business here.

But others have had the moral decency to say, "Take your
high-paying
mercenary job and stick it in your ear."

One still-serving three-war vet told me: "A number of contractors
have
been pitching me to work for them after I retire. I said no. There's no
principles, no love of country, no honor — just MONEY. I
can't ... sell my
soul for a buck."

There are laws on the books that prevent American citizens from
serving foreign governments. It's about time Congress did its duty and
enforced them.

-
Col. David Hackworth's military career spanned nearly a dozen
wars
and conflicts — from the end of World War II
— to the recent meltdown in the
ex-Yugoslavia. He enlisted in the merchant marine at 14, the U.S. Army
at
15. In almost 26 years in the Army he spent over seven years in combat
theaters, winning a battlefield commission in Korea and becoming the
youngest Army captain in that war. And then, it was on to Vietnam for
nearly
five years. In 1971, Hack was the youngest Army Colonel. [See Military
Awards & Decorations.] Col. Hackworth is a regular guest on radio and TV
shows, was Newsweek's contributing editor for defense, has been featured
in
People, Parade, Men's Journal, and has also been published in Playboy,
Soldier of Fortune, Self and Modern Maturity. His column, Defending
America,
appears weekly in newspapers across America. Hack's books include the
Vietnam Primer and the international best seller About Face: The Odyssey
of
an American Warrior and Hazardous Duty : One of America's Most Decorated
Soldiers Reports from the Front With the Truth About the U.S. Military
Today. His newest book is, The Price of Honor : A Novel.

July 10, 2001

---


http://www.newsday.com/ap/international/ap323.htm


U.S. Ambassador Mobbed in Macedonia
by MISHA SAVIC
Associated Press Writer
July 7, 2001

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) -- Villagers angry at being
expelled from their homes by a rebel advance mobbed an
American diplomat -- underlining the tense atmosphere
in which Western envoys are trying to transform a
cease-fire into a lasting peace in Macedonia.

More than 30 Macedonians forced from their homes when
ethnic Albanian rebels captured villages north of
Tetovo earlier this week mobbed Ambassador Michael
Einik after he met Friday with Tetovo mayor Murtezan
Ismali.

''We do not believe in any peace agreement,'' the
Slavic crowd shouted. ''How is it possible to have a
cease-fire when these terrorists are shooting on us?''

Bodyguards whisked the ambassador into his vehicle,
but the crowd swarmed and pounded on the car,
according to Forte Plus radio in Tetovo. Einik was not
injured.

The attack came as guns fell silent on the first day
of the cease-fire between the Macedonian government
and ethnic Albanian rebels, fighting for equal status
with their Slav neighbors in the small strife-torn
former Yugoslav republic.

Of Macedonia's two million people, at least one third
are ethnic Albanians who want their ethnic rights
codified in a new constitution.

Einik returned to Skopje, and later made a scheduled
visit to the city of Kumanovo, 15 miles northwest of
the capital, which has been another flashpoint.

The residents of the six occupied villages north of
Tetovo -- many of them communities of weekend mountain
homes -- have emerged as vociferous critics of the
Macedonian government's handling of the insurgency.

Despite the government's fierce refusal to negotiate
with the rebels, there are still segments of
Macedonian society that feel officials have not taken
a hard enough line, characterizing any cease-fire as
an unnecessary concession.

NATO and Macedonian army officials reported Friday
that the cease-fire was holding throughout the
country, with only sporadic gunfire. Macedonian Army
spokesman Col. Blogoja Markovsi said he did not
consider scattered incidents a provocation, but rather
''individual shots from rebels.''

The cease-fire gave U.S. envoy James Pardew and his
European Union counterpart Francois Leotard a window
of calm to work out details of a political framework
addressing ethnic Albanian demands for more
recognition and inclusion in Macedonian society. The
envoys spent Friday shuttling among political parties,
encouraging them to maintain restraint to allow
political progress.

Late Thursday, a German army convoy was fired, three
hours before the cease-fire, about 6 miles west of
Skopje, enroute from their base near Tetovo to the
port at Salonika, Greece, a transit point for supplies
to NATO troops in neighboring Kosovo.

Two of the vehicles were hit, one in a wheel, another
in a rear window, but no one was hurt, said Lt. Col.
Lt. Col. Peter Altmannsperger, a NATO spokesman. It
was unclear who fired the shots, but the incident
occurred some distance from any front line.

---

http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?aid=88158

KATHIMERINI
ATHENS, FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2001

"The situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia is exceptionally critical."
"Sending out conflicting measures would contribute to
a continuation of the crisis."
"Extremists who turn their guns on democratic
institutions have no place at the negotiating table."
"We are categorically opposed to proposals for
ethnically 'clean' states which are aimed at redrawing
borders and population exchanges."


Athens fears FYROM could shake Balkans
Calls for a united response

Greece yesterday welcomed the cease-fire mediated by
NATO in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(FYROM) but expressed fear that the situation in its
neighboring state "is exceptionally critical" and
could destabilize the entire region.
Athens has been trying to help defuse the situation in
FYROM, concerned about instability on its northern
border and the fate of sizable Greek investments in
the country. It has proposed an international
conference to solve the differences between the Slav
majority and ethnic Albanian minority and has also
offered about 300 troops for a NATO force that would
be deployed to safeguard a cease-fire.

Yesterday the Inner Cabinet discussed the situation in
the Balkans and Greece's investments in FYROM.

"The situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia is exceptionally critical. The future of
FYROM, the protection of its integrity and
independence have a direct bearing on peace and
stability in the broader region," Foreign Minister
George Papandreou said in a statement afterwards. He
said the cease-fire was a "positive fact."

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas also welcomed the
agreement. "I would like to express our satisfaction
at today's very positive development," he said. "This
could be the beginning of the end of the crisis."
Athens is afraid that the crisis in FYROM could
provide an arena for conflicting powers to compete
with each other. "(Greece) considers it essential that
there be close cooperation between Europe and the
United States, as well as with Russia, so that the
international community can act in a unified and
effective way throughout the entire region. Sending
out conflicting measures would contribute to a
continuation of the crisis," Papandreou said.

"The solution will have to be found by the legal
political forces that are represented in Skopje's
Parliament," Papandreou said. "Extremists who turn
their guns on democratic institutions have no place at
the negotiating table," he said.

At the Inner Cabinet meeting, fears were expressed
that the dismemberment of FYROM would lead to the
dissolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina and further changes
of borders in the region. "We are categorically
opposed to proposals for ethnically 'clean' states
which are aimed at redrawing borders and population
exchanges," Papandreou said.

---

The Irish Times
Thursday, July 5, 2001

Rebel chief worked for UN funded force in Kosovo


The leader of the Macedonian rebels was originally
paid by the UN, writes Chris Stephen, in Pristina

MACEDONIA: The co-ordination of the international
community in the Balkans has been thrown into
confusion by revelations that the leader of
Macedonia's rebel army was a leading figure in
Kosovo's UN- funded civil defence force.

Before launching war in Macedonia, Commander Gezim
Ostremi was paid by the UN to help set up the Kosovo
Protection Corps (KPC), being appointed its
chief-of-staff.

Now President Bush has banned Commander Ostremi from
entry to the US, and accused five key members of the
KPC of aiding the rebels.

Yet the United Nations says it will take no action
against these five men, all still serving officers,
because Washington has yet to pass on details of what
the men are supposed to have done.

This row comes just as the US and the EU are groping
for a joint response to the escalating violence in
Macedonia, which yesterday saw rebels fighting
government forces in several places in the northern
mountains.

Yet while one part of NATO tries to stop the
guerrillas crossing the border from neighbouring
Kosovo, in Kosovo itself other parts of NATO and the
UN are busy paying and training them.

The KPC, formed at the end of the Kosovo war as part
of a deal between the former guerrillas of the Kosovo
Liberation Army and the UN. In return for the
guerrillas d<br/><br/>(Message over 64 KB, truncated)