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Macedonia rebels disown peace deal

Some of the weapons handed in by the NLA during Operation Essential harvest
Some of the weapons handed in by the NLA during Operation Essential harvest  


TETOVO, Macedonia -- The fragile peace in the Balkans is threatened after the ethnic Albanian rebel army announced it was "reorganising and reactivating" its units.

In a communique delivered to The Associated Press on Friday, the rebel National Liberation Army also accused the Macedonian government of ignoring a peace accord.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the alliance was aware of the communique but "we still believe the NLA remains disbanded." He called on all sides to "quickly implement all the agreements."

The NLA, which launched an insurgency last year, warned the troubled Balkan nation's Slavic majority to grant minority ethnic Albanians more rights under the Western-brokered agreement or face the possibility of fresh conflict.

"Just as the Slav Macedonians do not feel any commitment to the agreement, we -- the members of the NLA -- as of today are forced to declare that we have no commitment toward the agreement whatsoever," the statement said.

"We have proved that we are ready to live freely and in peace with an agreement," it said, but added: "We have proved that we can fight for our rights."

There was no immediate reaction from the Macedonian government.

The NLA handed in its weapons to NATO troops in October and said it was disbanding in a show of good faith after the leaders of Macedonia's rival ethnic groups signed the peace accord, which ended months of conflict that began in February 2001.

Other changes envisioned under the peace accord would grant the ethnic Albanian minority a greater role in the police, parliament and educational systems and expand the official use of the Albanian language.

But the accord's implementation has been stuck for weeks in a dispute over a controversial law on local self-government -- a measure that ethnic Albanians hope would give autonomy to regions where they live.

"We have respected our part of the agreement. We have been fair in the implementation of the whole agreement," the NLA statement said.

"The Slav Macedonian bloc has avoided any kind of agreement with us. It has neglected and finally blocked the signed agreement and basically has completely ignored it. They have made it nonexistent."

The statement, which was signed simply by "the spokesman for the NLA," accused Macedonian authorities of using the past several months to purchase weapons and step up patrols in ethnic Albanian settlements.

Under the peace accord, ethnically mixed police patrols consisting of Macedonian and ethnic Albanian officers have entered about 20 ethnic Albanian villages with the approval and support of Western peace monitors.

But on Friday, a crowd of some 2,000 angry ethnic Albanians confronted the lightly armed units and refused to let them enter five villages in the volatile northwest, government spokesman Zoran Tanevski said.

There was no violence, and the officers managed to start patrolling three other villages near the western town of Gostivar, where they did not encounter resistance, Tanevski said.

In its communique, the NLA warned the Macedonian government to cease the patrols "until all rights of our people are put into practice."

"We warned the Slav Macedonians' police and military forces that we will take no responsibility for their security," it said.

In the village of Celopek near the western city of Tetovo, police were barred by roadblocks set up by local residents, a sign of enduring mistrust and suspicion months after the guns fell silent.

The force did not even try to begin patrols in four other villages in the area, either because the villagers still did not want them there or, in one case, because of snow, fog and icy roads.

"We assessed, and international monitors concurred, that it would be unsafe to enter those villages now. We want to avoid any incidents and that's why we need a couple more days to build up confidence," a government official told Reuters.



 
 
 
 


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