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Posted on 09/09/2001 8:15:05 PM PDT by oxi-nato

THE heat was intense, the flies infuriating and the mood ugly. A Macedonian commander clenched his red beret and spat in disgust. Isolated and outgunned, he had just learnt by mobile phone that his men would not be getting their milk. Albanian rebels from the National Liberation Army (NLA) had kidnapped the milkman and two other Macedonians at the local petrol station. "Every week they take people," railed the commander, who calls himself "Bumbar" (hornet) and is one of the leaders of a shadowy Macedonian paramilitary force known as the Lions. "The Albanians cut the fingers and ears, they rape, they leave bodies on road," he said.

It was a tragi-comic Balkan scene. Young men with visions of Rambo cradled their weapons as an intense debate ensued about who should break the news to the milkman's wife. The only thing that was clear was that groups such as the Lions and breakaway factions of the opposing NLA have little interest in disarmament. Despite Nato's Operation Essential Harvest, aimed at collecting 3,300 rebel weapons, men on both sides are preparing for Balkan civil war: one that would pit village against village, neighbour against neighbour.

Six feet tall, thickset, and with a shaved head and a heavy beard, Bumbar says he is a target for Albanian terrorists. His men, who carry top-of-the-range assault rifles and the latest flak jackets, were equipped at a time when the Macedonian government was assuring Nato no paramilitary forces existed. A call to arms: they may not officially exist, but the Lions, Macedonia's elite paramilitaries, above, are preparing to take on rebel Albanians Photograph: Robert Atanosovske At 28, Bumbar controls Ratae, the last Macedonian village in an area now dominated by the NLA. "We are disciplined men, and we obey orders, but we cannot take much more like this," he said. "We must fight or we will have to leave and run to Skopje."

Identified by their red berets, the Lions are an elite unit backed by the Macedonian government. Ordinary Slav Macedonians regard them as saviours. Taxi drivers and waiters produce small lion badges to show where their loyalties lie. They support war against the Albanians rather than the fudge of western mediation and the possible division of Macedonia.

Given that the Lions do not officially exist, their funding is necessarily hazy. Rumours abound that their money comes from a charity controlled by the Macedonian diaspora and run by a leading politician's wife. "We will never have peace with the NLA," said Bumbar, sipping from a coffee cup that looked absurdly delicate in his bear-like paw. "They take, they take and they take - from Macedonians, from Serbs and now from Nato." Mutual resentment is growing in Macedonia, and President Boris Trajkovski used the 10th anniversary of independence yesterday to warn that any Albanian rebels who fought on would be destroyed.

For their part, the Albanians fear that once they have relinquished their weapons and Nato leaves at the end of its 30-day mandate on September 26, groups such as the Lions will seize their chance to strike. A follow-on force is deemed essential, and senior British Army sources have lambasted the alliance for being slow to realise that the achievements of Essential Harvest could be reversed if a "security vacuum" were left on its departure. "The Albanians are convinced elements of the government's forces will attack," said one British source. "We need to be here on day 31 to assure them it won't happen." With a second phase of arms-collecting due to begin today, a follow-on force of European Union, American and Russian troops is being frantically put together. Spain's foreign minister, Josep Pique, said yesterday alliance troops could stay for two or three months longer.

Britain has agreed to supply soldiers for a follow-on force, mostly in a command capacity. But it seems virtually certain that it will relinquish its lead role in the operation. "I will need a lot of persuading for any follow-on force to be British," said Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, in Skopje last week. Sources suggested pressure was being put on the French and Germans to provide the bulk of such troops. So far, the Macedonians have gone along with the peace plan. MPs voted last week for constitutional changes giving the Albanians new rights, and linguistic and cultural equality.

But in the frontline villages such as Ratae the niceties of twin-track peace negotiations are lost on a fearful population. The mood improved as news came through that the hostages had been freed. But the scowl remained on Bumbar's face. "You go home, and we get milkman back in parts," he said.

He ventured out of his makeshift bunker, gesturing at the surrounding hillsides with their Albanian villages; nests of terror, he said, from where tunnels would be dug towards Ratae. "They see me or someone, they shoot, then they go back in tunnel," he said. "They make it impossible for people to work in the fields, winter is coming and they have no food and no money. Nato wants us to let this happen. Me, I think some Macedonians say 'no more'."

There is no need to create a 'new ethinc group'. Slogan of Albanians (be it Kosovo, Macedonia, etc) is "One Albania!". And watch who the players are...

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