MACEDONIA: MACEDONIAN TROOPS FIRE ON VAKCINCE AS GOVERNMENT PREPARES TO ASK PARLIAMENT TO DECLARE A STATE OF WAR
Record ID:
648402
MACEDONIA: MACEDONIAN TROOPS FIRE ON VAKCINCE AS GOVERNMENT PREPARES TO ASK PARLIAMENT TO DECLARE A STATE OF WAR
- Title: MACEDONIA: MACEDONIAN TROOPS FIRE ON VAKCINCE AS GOVERNMENT PREPARES TO ASK PARLIAMENT TO DECLARE A STATE OF WAR
- Date: 6th June 2001
- Summary: VAKCINCE, MACEDONIA (JUNE 6, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF HOUSES ON FIRE IN VILLAGE FROM SHELLING / HELICOPTER GUNSHIP FLYING PAST (5 SHOTS) 0.26 2. VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING FROM VILLAGE FROM SHELLING (2 SHOTA) 0.36 SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (JUNE 6, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. WS: EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT WHERE PRESIDENT WAS SHOT 0.41 4. WIDE OF GOVERNMENTAL PRESS CONFERENCE 0.46 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (MACEDONIAN) GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ANTONIO MILOSOVSKI SAYING: "The government and prime minister will ask parliament to declare a state of war. The situation is very difficult, and the order for a general mobilisation is because the situation orders that. There is no other answer to the threat of guns but with guns." 1.16 KUMANOVO, MACEDONIA (JUNE 6, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. GV OF TOWN 1.21 7. SLV: FOUNTAIN NEXT TO STREAM IN TOWN, PEOPLE GATHERED 1.26 8. MV: PEOPLE WITH DOZENS OF EMPTY BOTTLES WAITING AT FOUNTAIN WHICH BRINGS WATER FROM NATURAL SPRING FROM MOUNTAIN 1.31 9. SCU/CU: MAN FILLING BOTTLE AT FOUNTAIN, WATER POURING FROM FOUNTAIN (2 SHOTS) 1.42 10. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE FILLING UP BOTTLES OF WATER (4 SHOTS) 2.03 11. SCU: STACKS OF BAGS AND BOXES FULL OF EMPTY BOTTLES 2.04 12. SV: BOY ATTACHING BOTTLE OF WATER TO BICYCLE 2.17 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (MACEDONIAN) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "We don't have any water for drinking or for washing. The only water we have for our homes is what we get from here." 2.22 14. VARIOUS OF MAN AND CHILDREN WASHING IN STREAM (2 SHOTS) 2.33 TETOVO MACEDONIA (JUNE 6, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 15. GENERAL STREET SCENES OF TETOVO, MOSQUE (4 SHOTS) 2.51 16. VIEW OF HILLS WHERE FIGHTING TOOK PLACE WHERE SOLDIERS WERE KILLED (2 SHOTS) 3.01 17. WIDE OF MAIN ROAD WITH TRAFFIC 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st June 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KUMANOVO, VAKCINCE, SKOPJE AND TETOVO
- Country: Macedonia
- Reuters ID: LVAC8HFVA6G8G1QYQ9XSUK08KGAZ
- Story Text: Macedonian troops fired on the town of Vakcince as
fighting continues after Macedonia threatened to declare a
state of war after five soldiers were killed in the deadliest
attack by ethnic Albanians rebels in almost six weeks.
On Wednesday there was a security scare outside of
parliament, when shots were fired at Macedonian president
Boris Trajkovski. No injuries have been reported.
Ethnic Albanian rebels were accused on Wednesday (June
6) of shutting off water supplies to a northern Macedonian
town of 100,000 people, striking out from nearby villages
where they are under an army siege.
The village of Vakcince, previously recaptured by
Macedonian forces was up in smoke again as houses were
shelled from artillery fire.
Vakcince was part of a cluster of villages in the northeast
where Macedonian forces are trying to clean the area
of rebels and take control of the villages.
Two weeks ago they had captured the village from rebels
but on Wednesday it appeared they were once again conducting
offensives in this town.
On the other side of the country in the town of Tetovo,
the death of five soldiers overnight came during fierce
fighting in the hills above Tetovo in northwestern Macedonia,
the country's main ethnic Albanian town. Intense shelling
resumed on Wednesday morning for brief periods.
Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski was calling
for full military mobilisation and emergency powers, his
spokesman said, to allow the country to quell the insurgency.
"The government and prime minister will ask parliament to
declare a state of war. The situation is very difficult, and
the order for a general mobilisation is because the situation
orders that. There is no other answer to the threat of guns
but with guns," said spokesman Antonio Milosovski.
Macedonian politicians suggested a declaration of war in
early May, but were persuaded by the Western powers it would
alienate ethnic Albanians and complicate the search for peace.
It was unclear how determined they were this time to seek
the two-thirds majority vote in parliament needed for the
move.
Ethnic Albanian fighters say they are fighting for greater
rights for their minority but the government says the
rebels are terrorists trying to grab land and destroy the
state.
The West has been pushing the Slav majority to undercut
support for the rebels by improving the rights of Albanians,
who say they suffer state-backed discrimination in education,
employment and language rights.
The cross-party coalitions formed in to work on reforms
have made little progress amid political bickering and
tension.
Macedonians from the town of Kumanovo flocked to a natural
spring to collect water after their water supply was cut off
in this northeastern town, in the region of fighting
between Albanian rebels and Macedonian forces.
Villagers said they had no drinking water or water for
hygiene purposes in their homes, and their only source was the
spring or buying bottled water.
Some washed in a nearby stream, while others said the
situation had continued like this for three days.
The rebels, who occupy several villages about eight km
(five miles) west of Kumanovo in an insurgency that began in
February, are suspected of screwing shut valves regulating
water flow from the Lipkovo reservoir in mountains under rebel
control.
Dozens of people queued at a natural spring on the
outskirts of the town to fill bottles with water in the early
summer heat.
They carried the water off in wheelbarrows, cars or
perched on the handlebars of bicycles and motorbikes. Water
supplies have been running low in recent days.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was
offering to help an engineer check the dams for any faults
that might explain the dwindling supply.
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