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Macedonia Urges NATO, EU to Act
Macedonia needs actions rather than words from its western allies when its foreign minister visits NATO and the European Union (EU) on Monday, after days of conflicts between government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels.
Observers here said that what Macedonian Foreign Minister Srjan Kerim would get from his one-day visit would probably maximum political support in the country's struggle against the separation effort by the country's ethnic Albanians.
Kerim is scheduled to brief the western military alliance about the latest development of the conflict around Tetovo, Macedonia's second largest city that is close to the Yugoslav province of Kosovo which is now under the control and administration of the United Nations and NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force.
The Macedonian official would also get a reiterated stress by the west on isolating the rebels and engaging moderate Albanian leaders in dialogue aimed at solving the current conflict.
Earlier, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, frustrated by the insurgency around Tetovo, has described the wavering of the west as permitting the creation of a new Taliban in Europe.
The prime minister said that NATO had refused to recognize the fact that the rebels had come from neighboring Kosovo and that the United States and Germany knew the identities of the leaders of the rebels and could stop them if they chose to.
Government officials in Macedonia believed that the arms and rebels were penetrated into the country from Kosovo, where separatists were encouraged by the support from NATO for their fight against Yugoslav troops that had been described as ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
The conflict around Tetovo had lasted five days with the government troops still firing onto the mountains supposed to have been occupied by the rebels as a front position to launch attacks against government troops and police.
The Macedonian government officials were also squeezed by the growing impatience and anger from the country's Slav Orthodox majority that had suffered from weeks of rebel provocations.
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