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Voice of America, 01-08-18Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>SLUG: 2-279456 Macedonia (L only) DATE: NOTE NUMBER:CONTENTS
[01] MACEDONIA / NATO (L ONLY) BY JEFF BRIELEY (PRISTINA, KOSOVO)DATE=08/18/01TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-279456 CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: NATO says it will not go ahead with a mission in Macedonia to disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas if a ceasefire is not respected. As Jeff Bieley reports, an advance team of several hundred troops has already arrived in the Balkan country despite recent skirmishes between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and government forces. TEXT: A NATO official in Skopje says the planned 30-day disarmament
mission depends on a ceasefire being observed in good faith by both
sides in the conflict. He said the killing of an elderly ethnic
Albanian man and a Macedonian policeman Friday are unacceptable
violations of the truce.
Guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station near
the front line city of Tetovo overnight, but no casualties were
reported.
The stability of the ceasefire is key to a final NATO decision to
deploy a planned force of 35-hundred troops to collect weapons from
the rebels known as the National Liberation Army. NATO has said its
mission is not to keep peace between the two sides, but only to
quickly disarm the rebels once a truce takes hold. The troops -- made
up of British, French, and Czech units -- will then leave Macedonia
after one month.
NATO's supreme commander, American General Joseph Ralston, is due in
Macedonia Monday as part of the alliance's assessment of security
conditions in the country. NATO says it will make a final decision on
the weapons collection mission next week
British transport planes brought in the first groups of an advance
team Friday to lay the groundwork for the full disarmament force if
the weapons mission goes ahead.
Macedonian nationalists blocked the principal border crossing to
Kosovo Saturday, cutting off a main supply route of NATO peacekeepers
in the province. The protesters say that a peace deal signed Monday by
political leaders threatens to split the country along ethnic lines
and rewards six months of violence by ethnic Albanian rebels. (Signed)
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