VARIOUS: ITALIAN GENERAL IN CHARGE OF NATO PEACEKEEPERS IN KOSOVO WARNS THAT FIGHTING IN MACEDONIA COULD DESTABILISE PROVINCE
Record ID:
350387
VARIOUS: ITALIAN GENERAL IN CHARGE OF NATO PEACEKEEPERS IN KOSOVO WARNS THAT FIGHTING IN MACEDONIA COULD DESTABILISE PROVINCE
- Title: VARIOUS: ITALIAN GENERAL IN CHARGE OF NATO PEACEKEEPERS IN KOSOVO WARNS THAT FIGHTING IN MACEDONIA COULD DESTABILISE PROVINCE
- Date: 17th March 2001
- Summary: PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 15, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SCU ITALIAN GENERAL CARLO CABIGIOSU POINTING TO MAP (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CABIGIOSU SAYING "Fighting is detrimental for the stability of the whole area here not only for Macedonia itself but also for the stability of what is going on in Kosovo. We need quiet, we need the time that
- Embargoed: 1st April 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA AND ALONG THE MACEDONIAN BORDER
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVA3UFEZFB9L0SDRUIC4UB3ILIEE
- Story Text: The Italian general in charge of NATO peacekeepers in
Kosovo has warned that fighting in neighbouring Macedonia
could destabilise the province. On the border with Macedonia,
U.S. peacekeepers were on the alert for ethnic Albanian
guerrillas, and Macedonian troop reinforcements could be seen.
Italian Lieutenant-General Carlo Cabigiosu on Thursday
(March 15) said fighting could destabilise the whole area, not
just Macedonia.
He said: "Fighting is detrimental for the stability of
the whole area here not only for Macedonia itself but also for
the stablity of what is going on in Kosovo.
"We need quiet, we need the time that develop here in
Kosovo the process of normalisation and democratisation of the
country", he added.
Cabigiosu also said the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) had
done everything it could to block the border between Kosovo
and Macedonia to guerrillas.
"Any kind of tension is worrying and not only for the
stability of Macedonia but also for the stability of what is
going on in Kosovo," Cabigiosu said.
As he was speaking, fighting between Macedonian troops and
guerrillas erupted again in the mountains of northwest
Macedonia, the second day of clashes in the area, the
heartland of Macedonia's large Albanian minority, a third of
the population.
Cabigiosu said the ethnic Albanian guerrillas were not
being resupplied from Kosovo, where large amounts of weapons
remain from the war between the forces of the Kosovo
Liberation Army and Serbia two years ago.
He said: "And I am ready to deny that there is any
possible reinforcement from Kosovo to FYROM (Former Yugoslav
Republicof Macedonia)."
Fighters on the border say they have been able to move
with relative impunity through the mountainous terrain that
separates Macedonia from Kosovo.
One journalist who made the trip into Macedonia from
Kosovo this week described it as "a real motorway up there".
But Cabigiosu forcefully denied that this was the case,
saying that extra reinforcements of Polish, Ukrainian, British
and Norwegian troops throughout southern and southeastern
Kosovo had almost completely shut the route.
"I am confident that we have done everything we had to in
order to prevent any kind of this support from Kosovo to FYROM
(Former Yugoslav Republicof Macedonia)," he said.
"Of course, this is a mountainous area and we cannot talk
about individuals (getting through). But certainly not any
substantial reinforcement."
On Thursday, reporters saw well-armed Macedonian police
opening fire with mortars and heavy machine-guns mounted on
armoured personnel carriers in the suburbs of Tetovo in the
direction of a nearby mountain. Gunmen returned fire.
The Macedonian government blamed the initial fighting on
some 200 "terrorists" who it said had come from Kosovo into
Macedonia and occupied several border villages.
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