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Macedonian Forces Clash With Ethnic Albanian Extremists
Macedonian security forces exchanged heavy gunfire with ethnic Albanian extremists in mountains outside the northwestern Macedonian city of Tetove Wednesday, the ATA news agency reported.
The Macedonian government sent about 10 armored vehicles there and used machineguns and mortars to fight the extremists after Macedonian policemen patrolling outside Tetove were attacked by the extremists on Wednesday morning.
As the fight went on, several thousand radical ethnic Albanians rallied in Tetove in support of the extremists. Eleven policemen were wounded in subsequent clashes. A TV reporter and local resident were injured in the demonstration in town.
The latest fighting overshadowed the NATO-brokered cease-fire between the Yugoslav government and ethnic Albanians that took effect on Monday.
NATO imposed a five-kilometer buffer zone after its arrival in Kosovo in June 1999. But the buffer zone was used by ethnic Albanians for terrorist attacks. NATO had to invite Yugoslav forces back to the zone after Albanian extremists launched a string of attacks on local police and recently on the Kosovo-
Macedonian border.
In response to the clash in Tetove, Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta said Wednesday evening that Tirana deemed it unacceptable for ethnic Albanians to achieve political aims through violence instead of political means.
Meta said that using violence would make ethnic Albanians being regarded as "aggressors" and lose support of democracies.
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