MACEDONIA: CITY OF TETOVO QUIET FOLLOWING ATTACKS ON REBEL POSITIONS BY ARMED FORCES

Record ID: 355706

  • Title: MACEDONIA: CITY OF TETOVO QUIET FOLLOWING ATTACKS ON REBEL POSITIONS BY ARMED FORCES
  • Date: 27th March 2001
  • Summary: (U3)ABOVE TETOVO, MACEDONIA (MARCH 26, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. GV SMOKE RISING FROM THE HILLS; SLV HOUSE AND SMOKE (2 SHOTS) 0.14 2. LV VILLAGE 0.18 3. SLV MACEDONIAN TANK AT CHECKPOINT ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF GAJRE / MACEDONIAN ARMY (3 SHOTS) 0.54 GAJRE, MACEDONIA (MARCH 26, 2001) (REUTERS) 4. SLV WRECKED CAR IN VILLAGE; SCU BULLE
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAJRE, AND TETOVO MACEDONIA
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Reuters ID: LVA12AYMD2ICC1UWY5N3ND8J1VC0
  • Story Text: The Macedonian city of Tetovo was quiet following
    Sunday's attack on rebel positions by the country's armed
    forces, but one of the villages above the town town bore all
    the hallmarks of an intense battle, scarred buildings, dead
    animals and discarded ammunition.

    The Macedonian government claims Sunday's army assault
    had driven ethnic Albanian guerrillas back to Kosovo.

    Macedonian police were allowing reporters to travel a
    short way up the mountainside to inspect the village of Gajre,
    on one of the main routes used by tanks and infantry in
    Sunday's offensive.

    Gajre, a small village perched on the slopes with some
    handsome summer villas, was almost deserted. One house was
    completely burned out, another smothered by the charred
    timbers of its roof.

    Bullet-riddled cars sat in the streets, abandoned cattle
    wandered among the houses.

    "The Macedonian army is shooting at us and shelling us. We
    have no weapons and we are civilians and we don't know what to
    do. Some went up the hill, some went down to the town
    (Tetovo)," one ethnic Albanian farmer said .

    There have been no reports of civilian casualties in
    the village so far. Major western powers were expected to
    press the government in Skopje later in the day to pocket its
    military gains and open talks with ethnic Albanian leaders on
    their people's grievances.

    NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and European Union
    security chief Javier Solana were both due to arrive in the
    capital for talks late on Monday afternoon.

    Western diplomatic sources expressed dismay as Macedonia,
    ignoring calls for restraint, launched its all-out assault on
    ethnic Albanian rebel positions on Sunday after a 12-day
    standoff.

    Tanks, artillery, infantry and helicopter-borne commandos
    stormed the heights. Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said
    they had taken rebel-held villages and all key positions.

    But some government troops were still under guerrilla fire
    close to the eastern end of the city late in the day. One
    source close to the rebels said the government had trampled
    over their unilateral ceasefire and they were going to start
    fighting back.

    While backing ethnically mixed Macedonia to the hilt
    politically, NATO allies were extremely anxious that its
    forces avoid a bloody onslaught costing serious civilian
    casualties.

    They fear that the country's precarious ethnic balance,
    already teetering from days of tension and conflict, could be
    shattered by a Kosovo-style offensive pushing through Albanian
    communities.

    The guerrillas, said to number no more than a few hundred,
    were flushed out of the border village of Tanusevci a few
    weeks ago by the combined approach of Macedonian forces and
    U.S. troops of the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

    But days later they stunned the country by appearing in
    the hills overlooking Tetovo, firing on police to announce a
    new front in their battle for "equal rights" for Macedonia's
    Albanians.

    The spectacular confrontation, which kept Macedonian
    forces pinned down in and around the city from March 13,
    thrust the Albanian case for a fairer share in the running of
    the 10-year-old republic right to the top of the agenda.

    Long-smouldering resentment, obscured by Western
    assurances that Macedonia was a "model" of multi-ethnic
    government in the Balkans, surfaced with a vengeance,
    threatening to push the moderate Albanians who share in
    government to the sidelines.

    While backing Macedonia's categorical refusal to negotiate
    with "terrorists" at the point of a gun, NATO allies admitted
    that their over-stretched Kosovo peace force could never hope
    entirely to seal the border to extremist infiltrators.

    The West's urgent aim now is to help Macedonia implement
    rapid improvements for the one-third Albanian minority to
    defuse the crisis and prevent any significant return of the
    insurgents for a renewed military challenge to the government.

    Tetovo hospital sources on Sunday night reported five
    civilians people wounded but there was no ready information on
    how many may have been hurt in hinterland villages.


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