Aid offered to Macedonian villagers

Fighting stopped while aid workers helped villagers

KUMANOVO, Macedonia -- Aid workers have moved in to help villagers in northern Macedonia as government troops and rebels temporarily stopped fighting.

Villagers have been cowering in basements for days as troops and ethnic Albanian rebels have traded gunfire near the border with Macedonia.

Red Cross workers travelled to the villages of Vaksince, Lipkovo and Slupcane after securing an agreement from both sides that the shooting would temporarily stop.

Buses to evacuate civilians who want to leave were taken to the region, said Amanda Williamson, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

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"We will also try to access two civilians and a soldier being held by an armed group," she said.

The government said civilians had until 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) to flee.

In a bid to end the conflict, Macedonia's leaders have agreed to create a broad-based coalition government, uniting all major ethnic Albanian and Macedonian Slavic parties.

The rebels have said they are fighting for greater rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up about one-third of the country's 2 million people.

The coalition includes the ruling centre-right VMRO-DPMNE and two ethnic Albanian parties -- the Democratic Party of Albanians and the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP).

Arben Xhaferi, leader of the biggest ethnic Albanian party, DPA, and SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski both said the formation of the coalition was a vital emergency step.

"It may not succeed but this is the only option we have," said Xhaferi.

"This government was not formed because of overwhelming love. As a country we are in great danger and face serious military threat and this government can address that," said Crvenkovski.

The coalition also includes members of a Slav opposition party, the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia, and two other minor Slav parties.

Approved by 102-to-1 in a national assembly vote late on Sunday night, the coalition has already been dismissed by rebels who say that only armed struggle can win equal rights for ethnic Albanians.

Macedonia has refused to negotiate with the rebels, describing them as terrorists intent on dividing Macedonia and uniting parts of it with neighbouring Albania or the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

The crisis began in February with fighting around the country's second-largest city, Tetovo.

Attacks had subsided after a government offensive, but surged again late last month after an ambush on government forces.

Ratification appeared on a knife edge on Sunday night when Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski angered the PDP by vowing to crush ethnic Albanian rebels.

"We are faced with well-trained forces coming from the other side of the border," Georgievski said.

"Parties should put aside individual interests and join together to defend the country.

"We have no alternative but to respond fiercely to these attacks. We will make the maximum political and military preparations possible to break the enemy."

Some 9,000 ethnic Albanians have fled from the conflict zone to Kosovo, the UNHCR refugee agency said in the U.N.-run Serbian province.

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