MACEDONIA/GREECE/YUGOSLAVIA: A MACEDONIAN MOTEL HAS BEEN BLOWN UP IN AN AREA DOMINATED BY ALBANIAN REBELS AS NATO PREPARES TO COLLECT GUERRILLA WEAPONS UNDER A PEACE PLAN/SHIP CARRYING FRENCH SOLDIERS ARRIVES IN GREECE
Record ID:
649259
MACEDONIA/GREECE/YUGOSLAVIA: A MACEDONIAN MOTEL HAS BEEN BLOWN UP IN AN AREA DOMINATED BY ALBANIAN REBELS AS NATO PREPARES TO COLLECT GUERRILLA WEAPONS UNDER A PEACE PLAN/SHIP CARRYING FRENCH SOLDIERS ARRIVES IN GREECE
- Title: MACEDONIA/GREECE/YUGOSLAVIA: A MACEDONIAN MOTEL HAS BEEN BLOWN UP IN AN AREA DOMINATED BY ALBANIAN REBELS AS NATO PREPARES TO COLLECT GUERRILLA WEAPONS UNDER A PEACE PLAN/SHIP CARRYING FRENCH SOLDIERS ARRIVES IN GREECE
- Date: 25th August 2001
- Summary: (W5) VILLAGE OF CELOPEK, NEAR TETOVO, MACEDONIA (AUGUST 26, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV OF SCENE OF BLAST AT MOTEL 0.05 2. PAN FROM DAMAGED ROOFTOP TO PEOPLE GATHERED ON THE GROUND 0.11 3. SV OF PEOPLE AND INVESTIGATORS SORTING THROUGH RUBBLE (2 SHOTS) 0.21 4. PAN FROM RUBBLE TO OF DEAD BODIES LYING AMONGST THE RUBBLE/CU OF BODY (2 SHOTS) 0.33 5. SLV BODY, COVERED BY A CLOTH, BEING CARRIED OUT OF THE DAMAGED BUILDING 0.45 6. PAN FROM ROOFTOP TO WIDE VIEW OF THE SCENE 0.51 (W4) THESSALONIKI, GREECE (AUGUST 26, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. LV SHIP CALLED THE "SIROCO" APPROACHING HARBOUR / THREE SAILORS STANDING AT THE PORT 0.58 8. SV MILITARY PERSONNEL AWAITING SHIP'S ARRIVAL 1.05 9. LV OF SHIP ON THE WATER 1.12 10. LV MILITARY VEHICLES ON BOARD SHIP 1.18 11. SV MORE OF SOLDIERS GATHERED PORTSIDE (2 SHOTS) 1.27 12. LAS FRENCH SOLDIERS ON BOARD THE SHIP 1.39 13. SLV MILITARY VEHICLES AND SOLDIERS ON BOARD THE SHIP (2 SHOTS) 1.53 14. SLV OPEN BOW OF SHIP 1.58 15. MCU (French) CAPTAIN ALAIN WALTER, SAYING: "With regard to the mission given to us by our leaders, I'm fully confident that if they say we can do this in 30 days, I see no reason for not completing the mission in 30 days. I'm not asking myself any questions on that score until we arrive on the ground." 2.11 16. SLV VEHICLES BEING OFFLOADED AND DRIVEN OFF SHIP 2.20 17. SV SOLDIERS STANDING ON SHIP, WATCHIN 2.23 18. SLV/SV VEHICLES BEING OFF LOADED AND DRIVEN OFF SHIP (4 SHOTS) 2.55 19. LAS MAN STANDING AT RAILING ABOVE, LOOKING DOWN ONTO THE SCENE 2.58 20. LV AS CONVOY OF MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVE AWAY FROM SHIP 3.03 (W5) PRIZREN, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 25, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 21. LV PRIZREN AND OLD TOWN BRIDGE 3.08 22. SLV GERMAN KFOR ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS ON STREET 3.21 (W5) ROAD IN SUVA REKA NEAR PRIZREN, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 25, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 23. SLV CONVOY OF GERMAN KFOR BUSES AND MILITARY VEHICLES ON ROAD 3.32 (W5) PRIZREN, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 25) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 24. SLV BOARD OUTSIDE BASE READING CAMP CASABLANCA 3.35 25. LV OF KFOR BASED IN PRIZREN WHERE MAJORITY OF 5,000 STRONG FORCE IS GERMAN 3.41 26. SLV GERMAN SOLDIER LOOKING OUT OF OBSERVATION POST INSIDE BASE 3.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th September 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VILLAGE OF CELOPEK NEAR TETOVO, MACEDONIA / THESSALONIKI, GREECE / PRIZREN AND ROAD IN SUVA REKA NEAR PRIZREN, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Greece Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Macedonia
- Reuters ID: LVA5Q77XJAW43OK1PX8HZR58F56O
- Story Text: A Macedonian motel has been blown up in an area largely
dominated by ethnic Albanian rebels, killing two people, as
NATO prepared to start collecting guerrilla weapons under a
peace plan menaced by mistrust.
A ship carrying about 330 French soldiers and over a
hundred military vehicles to join NATO's mission, "Operation
Essential Harvest", has arrived in the Greek port of
Thessaloniki.
And in Prizren, Yugoslavia, German troops await the
decision of their parliament to send 500 soldiers to Macedonia
as part of the some 4, 500 NATO troops assembling in the
ex-Yugoslav republic.
The blast destroyed the Macedonian Brioni Motel on a
front-line riverbank across from the guerrilla-held
northwestern town of Celopek on Sunday (August 26). Two men
identified as employees were found dead in the rubble and
Macedonian state media blamed Albanian terrorists for the
explosion.
Celopek is 10 kms (six miles) south of Tetovo off the main
east-west highway along a column of hills largely controlled
by insurgents of the National Liberation Army (NLA).
Sunday's blast was the second in five days blamed by
Macedonian authorities on Albanian terrorists on the fluid
front lines. A Macedonian agricultural firm owned the motel.
The state news agency MIA said the motel, which was
reduced to rubble except for one wall, had been mined.
Meanwhile, a ship called the "Siroco" carrying soldiers
from the French foreign legion arrived in the Greek port of
Thessaloniki on Sunday morning. The French troops were due to
depart for Macedonia in the evening as NATO forces prepare to
collect weapons from the guerrillas under the shaky ceasefire
in the region.
Military vehicles were offloaded by French soldiers who
had travelled from Macedonia and the new arrivals were
expected to stay on board the vessel until their departure for
the Macedonian capital, Skopje, later in the evening at
2100gmt.
The French soldiers are likely to follow the route of
Greek troops already in Macedonian by driving through the
Greek-Macedonia border checkpoint.
The "Siroco" left the French port of Toulon four days
earlier and a second ship to deliver additional military
equipment is expected to arrive in Greece on Tuesday (August
28).
Captain Alain Walter speaking shortly after the "Siroco"
docked said he was confident that the troops of the Western
alliance could complete their task of weapon collection within
the 30-day time frame that has been set by NATO.
"I see no reason for not completing the mission in 30 days.
I'm not asking myself any questions on that score until we
arrive on the ground," he said.
NATO prepared to start collecting guerrilla guns in
Macedonia on Sunday well before its full 4,500-strong mission
force is on the ground, evoking the urgency of implementing
the peace plan.
Ethnic Albanian rebels have shown NATO officers "credible"
lists of weapons including mortars and anti-tank rockets they
promise to hand over to an alliance task force starting on
Monday (August 27), a senior NATO official said.
But their expectations of what NATO would do to protect
them after it withdrew in the planned 30 days far exceeded
what the alliance, eager to avoid another Balkans quagmire,
was prepared to offer, the official said.
The first weapons collection site is expected to start up
on Monday, patrolled by British and French troops.
There has been heated debate over what weapons the
Albanians will actually hand in and one official said it would
be impossible to collect anywhere near the NLA's entire
arsenal.
Turning over weapons is to go hand-in-hand with
parliamentary steps to ratify constitutional changes promised
the minority Albanian community under the August 13 peace
pact.
German troops, like those based in Prizren, Kosovo, face
being sent to Macedonia to join the NATO mission without the
wholehearted backing from the German parliament.
The parliament votes in a special session on Wednesday
(August 29) on whether to send up to 500 German soldiers as
part of some 4,500 NATO troops helping to implement the peace
plan arranged between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian
government.
In most NATO countries the government alone decides to send
troops. But in Germany, mindful of its militaristic past,
parliament must endorse any deployment.
Parliament is likely to approve the mission, albeit with a
slender majority because the opposition Christian Democrats
have said they will oppose it, partly in protest at army
underfunding but also due to real concern about the merits of
the endeavour.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None