(Reuters) La Macedonia chiude il confine con il Kosovo; riunionedi crisi a Skopje con NATO e ONU

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

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010304/3/j3kv.html

Monday March 5, 4:12 AM

Macedonia shuts Kosovo border after soldiers killed

By Philippa Fletcher

SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia closed its border with Kosovo and held
crisis talks with NATO and U.N. officials after three Macedonian
soldiers were killed in guerrilla attacks close to the frontier on
Sunday.
    In a clear change of line, Western officials said they would
"understand" any armed action by Macedonia against ethnic Albanian
fighters operating in a border village on Macedonian territory.
    "We understand the need and obligation of Macedonia to respond to
this kind of threat," U.S. Ambassador in Macedonia M. Michael Einik told
reporters.
    "This response should be appropriate to the situation on the ground
and should be done in coordination with NATO. American officials are
engaged in subcoordination as we speak."
    NATO, which leads the KFOR peacekeeping force over the border in
Kosovo, had previously urged the government not to use force against
guerrillas, fearing violence could spread through Macedonia whose
population is about one third ethnic Albanian and two-thirds Slav.
    The Macedonian Defence Ministry said it had already responded "with
all its weaponry" on Sunday after a mine attack and shooting against its
troops from three directions, including behind a security cordon set up
around the Tanusevci village where the gunmen are based.
    Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendavilov told reporters he expected
additional measures to be taken overnight, declining to specify if that
meant a military strike.
    The U.S. KFOR contingent, whose troops are stationed on the other
side of the border in Kosovo, said it had brought in reinforcements
after the attacks.
    A statement by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) said a joint patrol by the OSCE, European Union Monitoring
Mission, UN refugee agency and British embassy had encountered a
Macedonian army vehicle on Sunday morning which had just hit a landmine.
    "One soldier was killed; a second succumbed later due to severe
injuries," the statement said. A police source said a third soldier had
died after being shot by a sniper earlier on.
    OSCE Ambassador Carlo Ungaro said Macedonia's security was clearly
being threatened.
    "We appreciate the restraint shown by Macedonia's army and police to
two weeks of provocation," he said.
    "After today's turn of events we will understand and support a
reasonable military response by the army and police to try to control
the situation."

ALBANIAN INJURED

Two KFOR helicopters and a pilotless reconnaissance plane flew over the
area near the village of Debelde on the other side of the border. A
villager in Debelde said an ethnic Albanian in Tanusevci had been
injured in the exchange of fire.
    KFOR commander Carlo Cabigiosu and Hans Haekkerup, head of the U.N.
Mission in Kosovo, travelled to the Macedonian capital on Sunday
afternoon to discuss the next move with officials.
    "KFOR will intensify surveillance of the border in close cooperation
with Macedonian forces," Cabigiosu told reporters.
    Macedonia has rung the alarm bells over the past few days, calling
for international help to deal with violence it says threatens its own
fragile ethnic balance and Europe as a whole.
    Diplomats say KFOR has only a back-up logistical mission in
Macedonia which is not authorised to take any military action.
    Einik said the international community recognised the situation in
Macedonia was not the same as in earlier conflicts in former Yugoslavia.
    "You have a functioning inter-ethnic country here. The government
represents the ethnic breakdown of the country. Any action of Macedonia
has to reflect those realities and I think the government understands
this," he said.
    The main Albanian political party in Macedonia said in a statement
Albanians had become "hostages to the will, ignorance, and immaturity of
a still unidentified group of suspicious legitimacy".

(Additional reporting by Shaban Buza in Debelde and Elizaveta
Konstantinova in Skopje)
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