- Title: MACEDONIA: GERMAN TROOPS JOIN MULTI-NATIONAL TASK FORCE
- Date: 31st August 2001
- Summary: SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (AUGUST 29, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV/MV/SLV PLANE CARRYING GERMAN TROOPS LANDING ON RUNWAY (8 SHOTS) 0.43 2. SLV GERMAN TROOPS DISEMBARKING PLANE AND ON RUNWAY (8 SHOTS) 1.22 3. SOUNDBITE (German) SOLDIER SAYING THAT THEY WERE PLEASED TO BE THERE AND LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CHALLENGE 1.46 4. WIDE OF SOLDIERS 1.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th September 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SKPOJE, MACEDONIA
- Country: Macedonia
- Reuters ID: LVA5G4R9OTV1H1JHQ281JBJD2JPG
- Story Text: Around 500 German troops joined the multinational force
in Macedonia late on Wednesday after parliament gave the
go-ahead in a vote in Berlin.
Task Force Harvest, due to operate for 30 days only,
has nearly 4,000 NATO soldiers on the ground in Macedonia.
Acutely conscious of its militaristic past, Germany needs
parliament to approve any mission.
Small NATO liaison teams spent last week making discreet
contacts with rebel commanders to coerce them into laying down
arms, paving the way for weapons collection sites to gather
hundreds of assault rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and
other hardware this week.
Wednesday's collection took place near the village of
Tanuse on the Albanian border. Two Chinook helicopters flew
into the rugged, wooded mountain terrain before reappearing
shortly afterwards with a red container dangling below each.
Antonio Milosovski, the Macedonian government spokesman,
said on Tuesday NATO's "Essential Harvest" disarming operation
should be renamed "Museum Harvest" as the weapons collected
would be nothing more than museum pieces.
Tensions have risen to the surface in recent days as the
peace process moves tentatively ahead.
An explosion went off at a school for Albanian children in
the capital early on Wednesday, but nobody was hurt. A British
soldier died after a cement block was thrown at his vehicle by
a group of anti-NATO youths just outside Skopje on Sunday.
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