MACEDONIA: MACEDONIAN FORCES LAUNCH NEW ATTACKS ON ETHNIC ALBANIAN REBELS IN MATEJCE.

Record ID: 355598

  • Title: MACEDONIA: MACEDONIAN FORCES LAUNCH NEW ATTACKS ON ETHNIC ALBANIAN REBELS IN MATEJCE.
  • Date: 31st May 2001
  • Summary: MATEJCE, MACEDONIA (MAY 30,2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/GV: VARIOUS OF HOUSES BURNING, SMOKE RISING, AUDIO OF ARTILLERY AND MACHINE GUN FIRE (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. GV: CHARRED BLACK HOMES AFTER BEING SHELLED 0.19 3. LV: LONG VIEW OF SOLDIERS RUNNING BETWEEN HOUSES 0.29 4. LV: EXPLOSION ON HILL 0.44 5. LV: ARMOURED PERSONNEL
  • Embargoed: 15th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MATEJCE, NEAR LIPCOVO, MACEDONIA
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Reuters ID: LVABASIFS3MRWM1GE9KNAJ1HFG4D
  • Story Text: Macedonian forces fired on ethnic Albanian guerrilla
    positions with tanks and artillery, despite an earlier
    commitment to hold fire to allow trapped civilians to escape
    the northern battle zone.


    A Reuters photographer near the northern village of
    Matejce saw heavy fighting around the village mosque on
    Wednesday (May 30).

    Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said the army was
    responding to fire from rebel forces who attacked with mortars
    and machine guns.

    On Wednesday morning the Macedonian army said it would
    hold fire to allow humanitarian agencies to facilitate the
    evacuation of thousands of mostly ethnic Albanian civilians.

    Around 8,000 people have fled to the village of Lipkovo,
    25 km (15 miles) north of Skopje, from the surrounding hills
    where the army has been blasting suspected rebel positions in
    an effort to stamp out a five-month-old insurgency.

    The government has accused the guerrillas of using
    civilians as human shields.

    But local ethnic Albanian community leaders said despite
    dwindling food supplies, the civilians had stayed put, saying
    they feared mistreatment by Macedonian security forces.

    The government's offer to civilians followed an agreement
    brokered on Tuesday (May 29) by European Union foreign policy
    chief Javier Solana between coalition parties from the Balkan
    country's Slav majority and large ethnic Albanian population.

    It offered the civilians safe passage to the neighbouring
    Albanian-dominated Yugoslav republic of Kosovo if they wished
    to go.

    Ethnic Albanian leaders said a temporary halt in
    hostilities was a condition for their entering the agreement
    which swept aside a controversial peace pact they had signed
    with rebel leaders a week ago and threatened to wreck the
    coalition.

    For now at least, Solana's diplomatic efforts have revived
    the national unity government which is a key plank in the
    West's strategy of isolating the guerrillas and forcing them
    to end their insurrection.

    Pooling their diplomatic strengths for the first time,
    NATO and the European Union on Wednesday gave firm backing for
    the coalition but urged Skopje to press ahead quickly with
    reforms aimed at healing deep ethnic rivalries in the country.

    A joint NATO-EU statement issued in Budapest demanded an
    immediate end to violence and said the international community
    would not negotiate with extremists or their agents.

    Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski has vowed that the
    government would make the substantial progress on addressing
    inter-ethnic tensions by June 15.

    The country's one-third ethnic Albanian population says it
    faces state-backed discrimination in all walks of life,
    including education and employment.

    Skopje has been asked to submit a progress report to EU
    leaders at their summit in mid-June, or at the latest by the
    end of the month.




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