Macedonia Revolts

Even before his new movie, "Dust," has had its premiere, Milcho Manchevski has been asked whether the gunslinging American frontier character Luke--who gets caught up in a 1903 Balkan uprising--symbolizes NATO. The answer is that he doesn't--not quite, anyway.

Macedonia's parliament voted today to improve the civil rights of minority Albanians after a long delay that menaced a peace accord designed to defuse a guerrilla uprising. The vote came days after the agreement almost unraveled when the interior minister sent special forces into the ethnic Albanian heartland, leading to fighting, arrests and retaliatory kidnappings. Parliament adopted each of 15 constitutional amendments by a two-thirds majority.

After its troops blasted guerrillas in the foothills overlooking this city with tank shells Tuesday, the Macedonian government gave ethnic Albanian rebels until midnight tonight to give up or face all-out war. Ignoring the guerrillas' offer to discuss their demand that equal rights be assured for the nation's ethnic Albanian minority, the government said the rebels must "surrender to responsible authorities or leave the territory of Macedonia."

Hundreds of Macedonian police officers converged on two villages in the Balkan country's ethnically tense northwest Monday to prevent the escape of ethnic Albanian gunmen they said had killed three officers and taken dozens of hostages. Riding armored personnel carriers and jeeps, police fanned out around Semsovo and Trebos, where the officers were killed and two others were hurt Sunday during a failed attempt to rescue hostages seized by gunmen in retaliation for their comrades' arrests.

Every insurgency thrives on martyrs. A month into the Balkans' latest armed uprising, Macedonia's restive Albanian minority Friday buried and immortalized its first two. Razim Koraci and his son Ramadan died Thursday at a Macedonian police checkpoint. In a scene captured by television cameras and aired within hours to an alarmed populace, police stopped the victims' gray Suzuki compact in this embattled city and asked for identification.

European Union foreign ministers agreed to back a new multinational force to replace the current NATO disarmament mission in Macedonia, saying it is needed to prevent a resumption of fighting that could lead to another Balkan war. A German plan endorsed by the ministers in Belgium calls for a smaller force led by NATO that includes non-NATO nations. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has so far resisted staying in Macedonia past Sept.

Government troops cautiously moved into a rebel stronghold Friday after pounding it with artillery and rockets, then flushed rebels out of other villages, an army spokesman said. Officials denied reports that dozens of civilians had been killed in the fighting but said ethnic Albanian insurgents suffered heavy casualties.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana rallied Macedonia's fractious political leaders behind a peace plan on Saturday as the army pounded ethnic Albanian rebels at four villages with artillery fire. He spoke as rebels solidified control elsewhere, in a small town within sight of Skopje, the capital. The government vowed to retake Aracinovo, just six miles east of Skopje, the closest the 4-month-old conflict has come to the capital.

At dusk, leaf and branch fade to gray high in the rugged mountains on the border between Macedonia and Kosovo. The only sounds are distant cowbells, evening bird songs and, when night falls, gunfire--the audible sign of the nearby conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and the Macedonian military. One front line is even closer. Invisible in the bushes, three U.S. soldiers in camouflage crouch, their weapons cocked; a hundred feet away, three more soldiers take the same position.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson warned Wednesday of a new Balkan war unless Macedonian lawmakers ratify a political agreement in exchange for ethnic Albanian rebels handing over some of their weapons to the alliance. "This country has the chance to show that it is possible to deal with an internal conflict before the blood starts to pour down the streets," Robertson said after meeting with Macedonian officials.

A long-stalled peace deal for Macedonia could be adopted by the parliament as early as this week, a top European Union official said after meeting with leaders of the country's rival ethnic groups. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced Friday that ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders had resolved their differences over constitutional changes envisaged by the Aug. 13 peace accord.

In a key test of Macedonia's peace process, the first ethnically mixed police units deployed Monday to areas seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during clashes with government troops earlier this year. Sent to villages where tensions still smolder, the small groups of police are part of a Western-engineered peace accord signed by ethnic Macedonian and minority ethnic Albanian leaders in August. No violence was reported in Monday's patrols.

Macedonia's ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement announced its dissolution Thursday, and NATO launched a security mission to buttress a fragile new peace while parliament grappled with reforms. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it hoped there would be no serious problems with the government's intention to move police and refugees back into rebel-dominated areas in coming weeks, because these steps were being coordinated with international peacekeepers.

As NATO troops begin to leave Macedonia today at the end of a one-month mission to disarm rebels, uncertainty prevails over the country's peace process. The mission, which NATO Secretary-General George Robertson this week called "a resounding success," collected 3,875 weapons, along with mines, explosives and ammunition, from ethnic Albanian guerrillas. It also broke the cycle of violence that had gripped the country for seven months.

Parliament on Monday reluctantly approved in principle 15 constitutional amendments underpinning a peace agreement with ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Hours before the vote, state security forces shot and killed an ethnic Albanian at a checkpoint, a sign of the persisting tension along cease-fire lines in the north.

Putting peace efforts to the test, this nation's defense minister said Sunday that his government plans this week to start shepherding ethnic Macedonians who fled real or feared violence back to regions populated by ethnic Albanians. An outbreak of violence, however, reflected continued ethnic tensions. Police reported a 45-minute firefight between the villages of Semsevo and Zilce, northeast of Tetovo.

Ethnic Albanians on Tuesday accused government troops of rampaging through their village near Macedonia's capital, killing civilians and burning houses. The government said five ethnic Albanians were killed but that none was a civilian. International officials who visited the village of Ljuboten confirmed that bodies had been found but would not say how many.

Ethnic Albanian rebels lobbed mortars at Macedonian police positions near Tetovo, the country's second-largest city, straining a shaky truce that has coincided with peace talks, state radio reported Saturday. News of the cease-fire violations came as a key European envoy announced plans to travel to Macedonia to bolster Western peace efforts for the troubled Balkan nation.

Macedonia has asked NATO to keep 350 troops in the Balkan nation after the alliance's mandate to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels expires, government and NATO officials said. Macedonia requested the troops to protect monitors who will assess the situation after NATO forces end their weapons collection mission Sept. 26, government sources said.

Macedonia's peace process inched forward Thursday, with NATO completing the second phase of weapons collection and parliament deflecting a move to hold a referendum on proposed concessions to ethnic Albanians. Under the peace accord, ethnic Albanian rebels surrender their weapons to North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in three separate batches.