Insurgents Take Over Four Villages
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Seeking to expand their hold in northern Macedonia, ethnic Albanian insurgents moved into four villages close to the city of Tetovo, state radio reported Sunday.
Rebels took control of Otunje, Varvara, Setloe and Brezno, ordering villagers to leave, reports said.
Despite the rebel advance, the Tetovo region was ``relatively calm'' overnight, said Col. Blagoja Markovski, the army spokesman, except for occasional sniper fire from outlying villages.
Markovski also spoke of sporadic exchanges of small arms fire that lasted into early Sunday near the city of Kumanovo after the ``terrorists opened fire from several cars and our forces returned fire.''
It was the second day of low-level fighting after a lull that spread over several days. On Saturday, clashes were reported in the highlands near the northern border with Kosovo.
The continued skirmishing reflected the difficult mission ahead for a new U.S. envoy to Macedonia, sent by President Bush to help jump-start peace negotiations between the rebels and the Slav-dominated government.
The State Department's European Bureau special adviser, James Pardew, was to arrive Sunday in Skopje, Macedonia's capital. Well-known in the Balkans, Pardew will be working closely with his European Union counterpart, Francois Leotard.
EU officials have warned Macedonia that further aid could be suspended if the country's Slavs and ethnic Albanians fail to bridge their differences.
Fighters continue using Kosovo as safe haven, despite stepped-up efforts by NATO-led peacekeepers in the ethnic Albanian-majority Serbian province to interdict them.
On Saturday, peacekeepers reported detaining 90 suspected rebels from Macedonia over the past two days. Among them was a group of 48 ethnic Albanians detained in one house in eastern Kosovo, close to the border, on suspicion of being insurgents fighting Macedonian government forces.
The militants launched their rebellion in February, demanding that the constitution be changed to guarantee ethnic Albanians equal status with the Slavic majority in Macedonia.
The government rejects that demand, saying it eventually would lead to the division of the country. Macedonia's leadership says the rebels' real goal is to carve off parts of the country as part of ultimate plans to create a ``Greater Albania.''
Ethnic Albanians make up close to a third of Macedonia's 2 million people.
Originally published July 01, 2001.
