Posted on 11/11/2001 7:01:40 PM PST by oxi-nato
Three policemen were killed and several wounded late Sunday when fighting broke out around the ethnic Albanian village of Treboc in northwest Macedonia after a large contingent of police was sent into the area, an interior ministry official said requesting anonymity.
The fighting started after the arrival of the police sent in by Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski who said he wanted work to begin Monday on digging up the site of a suspected mass grave of 12 missing Macedonian villagers believed killed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the recent conflict.
The police arrested seven armed men suspected of being local commanders of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army, saying they were preparing an attack. The NLA officially disbanded after handing in almost 4,000 of its weapons to NATO in September.
Witnesses in the region told AFP that exchanges of fire broke out between the police deployed near Treboc and armed men inside the village. Shooting was also reported in other villages around the town of Tetovo, including Zilce, Rataje, Poroj and Dzepciste.
According to Macedonian media dozens of Macedonian civilians have been held by ethnic Albanians in protest at the police operation in the region, where representatives of the international community were trying to obtain their release. Television said 70 people were being held in the village of Semsovo near Treboc.
The police decided to close the road from Tetovo to Gostivar 25 kilometres (15 miles) to the south, saying "armed and uniformed" ethnic Albanian rebels were opening fire on cars.
The fighting was the first to break out in Macedonia since the ending of hostilities in August between government forces and the NLA and the subsequent disarming of the guerrillas by NATO troops.
Under a wide peace plan, part of which was signed by Macedonian political parties in August to end the six-month ethnic Albanian uprising, the disarming of the rebels was to be accompanied by the adoption of a new constitution and legislative reforms giving more rights to ethnic Albanians.
But despite heavy pressure from the international community, the political reforms have been held up time and again for two months, largely by hostility from Macedonian nationalists who have blocked the work of parliament.
Boskovski, one of the fiercest opponents of the Ohrid peace accord, decided Sunday to ignore the opposition of the international community by sending his forces into the flashpoint Tetovo region, with the approval of moderate President Boris Trajkovski.
if bush is at all serious about stopping terrorism, than he better get moving in the balkans and round up all kla albanian terrorists!
i will be watching to see if bush is at all serious about ridding the world from terrorism, afghanistan is the easy choice, KOSOVO AND MACEDONIA WILL PROVE IF BUSH HAS THE WILL TO FIGHT TERRORISM HEAD ON!
U.S. Troops Escort Rebels, Setting Off a Riot in Macedonia (Stop Making US Troops Save KLA Terrorist
Nows the time to see his true colours..... Ture leader, or scum bag politician like Klinton (not as big tho - not thus far anyway).....
A pity nobody is paying attention.
Though, I love the latest Serb ploy to pretend that their enemies have always been led by Bin Laden. What's next Chicoms trying to tell us Bin Laden owns all the Taiwanese chip factories?
And I see how the recent kidnappings of Macedonian civilians on buses and killings of their police is A-OK with you. The Albanians did plenty of this type of stuff to Serbs before the Kosovo airwar, but terrorism is excuses and ignored by such as you.
So when Yugoslavia makes headway against armed militants trained in terrorist bases in Albania, the West says that it's civilians being killed. Because pure Albanian terroritories is what they want and practically have now in Kosovo and Northern parts of Macedonia. That they went there to protect multiculturalism is a big lie.
My concern is that the KLA/UCK becomes entreneched in local politics and use their links to terrorism to continue terror attacks on the US and Europe.
But sayin that the UCK/KLA dont have links to terrorism, when its well documented that they do, doesnt help anyone.
Quite right, I don't see were people can derive pride from that. Pretty bankrupt actually.
Give us a month and a free hand. You'll see how terrorism is dealt with. But then again, you wouldn't wanna see your buddies wasted like a bag of shite...
freerepublic is slowly becoming a cnn, under orders from the pentagon!
i'm sorry but if bush does something wrong from now on, i will make note of it like escorting terrorists to safety yet this website wants to keep the lid on it!
that is not good!
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