Rebels face renewed attacks after Macedonia ceasefire lasts one day

THE Macedonian Army resumed artillery attacks on ethnic Albanian guerrillas yesterday, ending a one-day ceasefire called to help draw rival parties into a government of national unity.

Eyewitnesses near rebel-held Vakcince said the army was firing at unseen targets in or near Slupcane and guerrilla trenches above Vakcince, two villages close to the border with Yugoslavia. Many civilians have been cowering in basements in the villages for the past 11 days. A group of about 70 were evacuated on Friday but at least several hundred remain in the target zone, refusing to leave.

The government says they are being intimidated by the guerrillas and used as shields to deter an all-out military assault. But the guerrillas, although unanimously condemned abroad, do have the sympathy of some ethnic Albanians.

The International Red Cross reported that a Macedonian soldier held prisoner was being treated properly. But guerrillas did not allow Red Cross staff to see two other prisoners they described as "bloodthirsty paramilitaries".

In Macedonia's 10 years of independence it has been ruled by two coalitions of Slav and Albanian parties. An accord reached on Friday will establish an all-party coalition government, seen as the best prospect for balancing ethnic rights and restoring harmony.

The deal was struck under intense Western pressure. It aims to isolate ethnic Albanian gunmen by forcing parties to unite and pass laws which answer the longstanding grievances of Macedonia's one- third Albanian minority.

"No one wants a war," said Niazi, a 53-year-old playing chess with a friend in a Skopje park on Friday. "But we cannot endure being oppressed and we have to fight back."

Ordinary Albanians, who want a new constitution to declare them equal citizens and an end to discrimination in education, jobs and language rights, oppose violence but not its influence.

"The National Liberation Army is indispensable," said Rami, 60, as he planned his next chess move. "If this new government does not deliver more than empty promises then we will see the NLA back again."

The NLA guerrillas say the coalition is irrelevant because it fails to include them. They have taken intermittent control of areas along the mountainous Kosovo border repeatedly since February, and few expect it to disappear now.

"They are not going to get a place at the negotiating table," a senior Western diplomat in Skopje said on Friday. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "the broadened coalition offers an appropriate vehicle for advancing inter-ethnic reforms".

The United States and the European Union fear civil war in Macedonia could ignite a wider Balkan conflict, dragging in neighbour states.

Copyright 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.