Macedonians resume shelling of guerrillas

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 23, 2001

TETOVO, Macedonia -- Macedonian government forces resumed shelling ethnic Albanian guerrilla positions in the hills above this city Thursday after 24 hours of calm, and government officials said special police units began to push into the high ground to reclaim rebel-held territory.

The government spurned a rebel offer of peace talks and put the army in charge of a struggling anti-insurgency campaign.

Two suspected guerrillas were killed and four government troops were wounded in scattered confrontations as unilateral cease-fires on both sides ended.

For the first time since combat erupted a month ago, the government sent paramilitary police officers into the hills above Tetovo, de facto capital of the country's disaffected ethnic Albanian minority, in an effort to flush guerrillas from at least six village strongholds.

"They have been provoking us for 34 days, and we are responding," government spokesman Antonio Milososki said.

The battle moved briefly into Tetovo's tense, mostly deserted streets when two Albanian men stopped their car at a police checkpoint. Television footage showed one man getting out of the car and cocking his arm as if to throw something at the police, who then opened fire, killing both men. Police said the would-be thrower died clutching a live grenade.

Tensions immediately escalated in this largely Albanian city, which has been hollowed out by an exodus of refugees, both Slav and Albanian. The United Nations refugee agency in Pristina, capital of neighboring Kosovo, said that since the conflict began early last month about 20,000 people had fled the Tetovo region by Thursday, mostly to countries neighboring Macedonia.

Macedonian police and soldiers said they came under attack at three points Wednesday night and Thursday along the border with Kosovo, the separatist Serbian province where ethnic Albanians are in the majority. Three soldiers and a policeman were reported wounded. The heaviest border fighting was reported in Gracane, which appeared to be in rebel hands after a substantial guerrilla force entered from Kosovo before dawn Thursday.

Top European Union officials urged the Macedonian government Thursday to exercise restraint against ethnic Albanian militants and to step up discussions with elected Albanian politicians about political change.

However, they condemned the rebels' use of violence.

"The message from the West is very clear: The extremist groups must lay down their weapons," said Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, speaking for the European Union during a visit Thursday with Macedonian officials in Skopje, the capital.

The U.N. Security Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also condemned Albanian violence as "terrorist" and "extremist."

Sweden pledged 200 more troops to help the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reinforce the Kosovo-Macedonia border and cut off arms flows to the rebels.

The United States and France announced Thursday they will send pilotless aircraft to help monitor the border.

But Western governments, including the United States, are reluctant to put their troops inside Macedonia, whose own forces are considered poorly trained and ill-equipped to fight a war against determined guerrillas.

-- Information from the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

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