MACEDONIA: GOVERNMENT WORKS ON PLAN TO ISOLATE ALBANIAN REBELS ENGAGED IN GUN BATTLES WITH SECURITY FORCES

Record ID: 566173

  • Title: MACEDONIA: GOVERNMENT WORKS ON PLAN TO ISOLATE ALBANIAN REBELS ENGAGED IN GUN BATTLES WITH SECURITY FORCES
  • Date: 17th March 2001
  • Summary: TETOVA, MACEDONIA (MARCH 15, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ZOOM IN MACEDONIAN TROOPS FIRED UPON IN STREET, TANK FIRES BACK 0.25 2. MV TANK FIRING, MACEDONIAN SOLDIER SHELTERING BEHIND VEHICLE (2 SHOTS) 0.34 3. MV TROOP MOVEMENTS ON STREETS (5 SHOTS) 1.05 4. MV MACEDONIAN SOLDIER RUNNING ALONG STREETS 1.12 5. MV LOCAL RESIDENTS TALKING, LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS 1.21 6. SLV ZOOM IN MACEDONIAN TROOPS ON STREETS (AUDIO GUNFIRE) 1.37 7. MV MACEDONIAN TROOPS STANDING IN COVER BY WALL, SOLDIER TAKING AIM WITH RIFLE (2 SHOTS) 1.49 8. SLV MACEDONIAN TROOPS ON STREET (AUDIO GUNFIRE) 1.58 9. MV ARMY VEHICLE DRIVING DOWN STREET 2.02 10. MV MACEDONIAN SOLDIER TAKING AIM 2.09 11. GV FIRES BURNING ON HILLSIDE (2 SHOTS) 2.21 12. MV MACEDONIAN TROOPS TAKING AIM FROM COVER OF STREET CORNER (2 SHOTS) 2.36 13. MV PEOPLE WALKING ON STREETS 2.51 14. MV OLD PEOPLE WALKING ACROSS STREET DURING QUIET 2.56 15. SLV MACEDONIAN POLICE AND TROOPS, ONE WEARING BALACLAVA SMOKING A CIGARETTE (3 SHOTS) 3.12 16. SCU MACHINE-GUN BULLETS ON GROUND 3.20 17. GV HILLSIDES WITH SMOKE (2 SHOTS) 3.31 SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (MARCH 15, 2001) (REUTERS) 18. MV MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT BORIS TRAJKOVSKI WALKING IN/ TALKING TO REPORTERS (2 SHOTS) 3.42 19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TRAJKOVSKI TALKING ABOUT MACEDONIAN POLICY TO DEAL WITH ETHNIC ALBANIAN REBELS AND POSSIBILITY OF EUROPEAN SUPPORT "Our demand was to give us additional support at the border line between Yugoslav territory with Kosovo. We have been going (asking) in constant way not only to give political support but to take certain measures - military (so that) these guys are isolated" 4.06 20. TRACKING SHOTTROOPS IN COVERED LORRIES BEING TRANSPORTED 4.17 21. MV U.S. AMBASSADOR TO MACEDONIA MICHAEL EINIK AT NEWS CONFERENCE 4.21 22. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EINIK SAYING "Armed extremism in the context of today's Macedonia is anti-democratic and destructive, there is no otherway to describe it and claims that violence is needed to advance political action are a complete distortion of reality and we reject them outright" 4.37 19. SCU REPORTERS 4.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TETOVA AND SKOPJE, MACEDONIA
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Reuters ID: LVADMM78721XOR1B6N74Z4GCN6FJ
  • Story Text: Macedonia's president has said his governement is
    working on a military and political stategy to isolate ethnic
    Albanian rebels engaged in ongoing gun battles with Macedonian
    security forces.

    Macedonian troops battled ethnic Albanian guerrillas
    with mortars and machineguns in the northwestern city of
    Tetovo on Thursday (March 15) in a second straight day of
    fighting which has triggered fears of a new Balkan war.

    Russia joined the European Union in saying it was alarmed
    by the violence. The United States and the Organisation for
    Sercurity and Cooperation in Europe bluntly condemned the
    guerrillas and offered strong backing to Macedonia's
    government.

    NATO said it was taking the situation seriously but that
    the fighting in the former Yugoslav republic was quite
    limited.

    In the suburbs of Tetovo, well-armed police opened fire
    with mortars and heavy machineguns mounted on armoured
    personnel carriers towards a nearby mountain. Gunmen returned
    fire.

    Macedonian special police units were using sniper rifles
    against targets in a forested area outside the city.

    Some people from the closest buildings in the Macedonian
    quarter of Tetovo quit their homes.

    Although Macedonian police have so far done most of the
    fighting against the guerrillas, the Skopje government said
    the army would now deploy more broadly. Reporters saw a long
    convoy of soldiers in trucks towing light guns heading from
    the capital towards the border with Kosovo.

    Until Thursday, the army had stayed strictly on the
    border, but will now operate up to 1.5 km (one mile) inside
    Macedonia.

    Fighting near Tetovo, the main city of the ethnic Albanian
    community who make up a third of Macedonia's population, began
    on Wednesday, marking a spread of violence in northern areas
    since last month.

    Macedonian authorities blamed the fighting on 200
    "terrorist" ethnic Albanians, most of whom they said had
    crossed from Kosovo.

    One civilian died on Wednesday and two were wounded, while
    15 Macedonian policemen, three of them ethnic Albanians, were
    hurt, officials said. There was no word on rebel losses or on
    casualties from Thursday's clashes.

    The violence has increased fears that Macedonia, the only
    state to win its independence from Yugoslavia without war,
    could succumb to the chaos that has afflicted the rest of the
    Balkans for the last decade.

    Around two thirds of the country's two million people are
    ethnic Macedonians, and the rest ethnic Albanians.

    The guerrillas in Macedonia say they are fighting for
    "equal rights" for ethnic Albanian citizens.

    Western governments have acknowledged there are some
    problems with minority rights in Macedonia but have praised
    the current government, which includes the main ethnic
    Albanian political party, for taking steps to tackle them.

    Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, also speaking
    shortly before the new fighting erupted, told reporters his
    government was determined to crush the guerrillas, and asked
    for European help.

    "Our demand was to give us additional support at the
    border line between Yugoslav territory with Kosovo. We have
    been going (asking) in constant way not only to give political
    support but to take certain measures - military (so that)
    these guys are isolated"
    Michael Einik, U.S. ambassador to Macedonia said "Armed
    extremism in the context of today's Macedonia is
    anti-democratic and destructive and there is no other way to
    describe it."
    It was difficult for reporters to verify NATO's assessment
    that the fighting was localised as heavily-armed Macedonian
    police blocked all roads leading up the mountains.


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