(New York Times) On the Front in Macedonia: A Show of Rebels'Tenacity

[Paola Lucchesi <paola.lucchesi@mail.inet.it>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/20/world/20REBE.html?pagewanted=all

March 20, 2001

On the Front in Macedonia: A Show of Rebels' Tenacity
By CARLOTTA GALL

AVCE, Macedonia, March 19 — Half a dozen young men, most in camouflage
uniforms and carrying Kalashnikov rifles, ducked behind the wall of a house
in this deserted village today as sniper fire whizzed overhead. A rattle of
automatic gunfire sounded from below.

"It's O.K., they are ours," said one of the fighters, all ethnic Albanians
and part of a rapidly growing force.

The scene was only a few hundred yards from the front line, at a ruined
fortress that sits on the edge of a hill overlooking Tetovo, Macedonia's
second largest town. The area is the focus of heavy fighting that threatens
to create a new front in the years of ethnic fighting in the Balkans, in a
nation that until now has been at peace.

The few rebels in this battered town are clearly exhilarated. Two drove up
in a Macedonian police car, wide-eyed at having captured it, and started
dismantling the police radio. The Albanians appear to have the arms,
ammunition and men they need in the drive taking shape here to take over
areas of large Albanian populations. And more supplies, medicines and
ammunition are arriving by horse from Macedonia.

But today the Macedonian Army deployed tanks and truckloads of troops in
and around Tetovo, for what a government spokesman promised would be a
"final operation" to rout the rebels. After intervening in Kosovo to
protect the Albanians, NATO is now siding with the government, though
offering scant military involvement.

In the past week, as the government failed to dislodge them, the rebels
have grown from a handful of fighters to a force of more than 300 men, one
fighter said.

Another rebel said he had worked as a truck driver in Switzerland and had
returned to his home village just a week ago to take up arms.

The rebel offensive has disturbed NATO. On the other side of the
mountainous border, inside Kosovo, NATO-led peacekeeping troops have been
ordered to tighten security and step up patrols to prevent Albanian
guerrillas and weapons from infiltrating Macedonia and aiding the rebels.

The NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, said he had asked member
countries to send more troops to Kosovo to help in the extra patrolling,
although he said NATO would not seek to extend its mandate to operate
inside Macedonia.

The Macedonian government has said the appearance of the rebels stems from
NATO's failure to contain lawlessness and control its borders to prevent
movement of weapons and men.

Military reconnaissance planes flew over the area frequently today, flying
slowly and low. "We are afraid they might be NATO drones. If we can be sure
they are Macedonian then we will shoot at them," said Sadri Ahmeti, 28, a
spokesman for the rebels.

But inside Macedonia, a German NATO officer, part of the Macedonia- based
backup to the Kosovo peacekeeping mission, watched the preparations and
said he doubted the government would succeed in taking back the hill.

The rebels now have free run of six villages along the valley that rises to
the snow-covered mountains, known as Sar Planina, and the border with
neighboring Kosovo.

So far, there has been only one fatality in the fighting, a civilian man.
Three civilians have been wounded, including a girl hit by a sniper, and
seven rebels. But the fighting has increased rapidly.

More men were arriving all the time. Some were climbing over the steep
mountain slopes and arriving in Selce, the rebel headquarters, to offer
assistance or join the ranks of fighters. Many had left Tetovo, where the
heavy military and police presence had frightened the ethnic Albanian
population, and the proximity of the rebels frightened the Macedonian Slav
population. A lot of volunteers were also arriving from Kosovo and Albania.

On the walk into Lavce from the rebel headquarters in a neighboring
village, one fighter whistled to rebels in their positions in foxholes and
lookouts on the top of crags. Silently they appeared and waved. He pointed
to two villages across the narrow mountain valley that the rebels'
guerrilla force, which they call the National Liberation Army, now controls
after it pushed police forces out.

Fifteen men from Lavce fought in Kosovo during the Albanians' guerrilla war
against Serbian forces.

"Almost all of those who fought in Kosovo are here," Mr. Ahmeti said.

Mr. Ahmeti, himself a veteran of the war in Kosovo, was uncompromising in
an interview. He said the continued fighting depended on the Macedonian
security forces, and if they did not want to accept the rebel demands, the
rebels were ready to fight for ten years.

The National Liberation Army and some of its commanders have demanded that
equality for ethnic Albanians be included in the constitution, that
Albanian be made an official language in Macedonia, and that Albanians have
representation in government and police structures. The Albanians make up
between 25 and 30 percent of the population, and Macedonian Slavs,
approximately 70 percent. Yet the police and army are dominated by Slavs,
even in the Albanian-populated western part of the country.

The rebels argue that the politicians have tried for 10 years to achieve
these demands through the political process, but have failed.

"We want the status that belongs to us. This is all we want. How democratic
are the Macedonian Slavs?" Mr. Ahmeti said. "I am sure if they were more
democratic we would not have so many problems.

"We want Macedonian forces to withdraw from our territories. I do not hate
anyone, honestly. I am fighting for the liberation of my territory."

Statements from the rebels and their supporters have emphasized that they
do not want to change borders, and that they respect Macedonia's
territorial integrity. But Mr. Ahmeti admitted that he would like to see
ethnic Albanians — who are scattered throughout the region in Macedonia,
Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Montenegro, as well as Albania — live
together. "Personally, I am for all Albanians living together, but we are
not against international institutions, such as NATO; we do not want to
fight them and lose our allies," he said.

Mr. Ahmeti is typical of the type of men taking up arms. He is from Tetovo
and at the age of 16 was imprisoned for two years for painting the words
"Kosovo Republic" on walls around the city and in the Macedonian capital of
Skopje. A trained teacher, he had no job and went to fight in Kosovo.

"I always had a feeling that we would have to fight the Slavs, because we
really have a bitter history with them," he said. "I would like it to be
solved very soon, though you know when a war starts, but you never know
when it will end."