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Rebels Declare Truce Hours Before Macedonian Gov't Ultimatum Expires
Macedonia's ethnic Albanian rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire and issued a fresh call for peace talks just three and a half hours before the expiration of a government ultimatum, the Albanian news agency ATA reported Wednesday.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski declared Wednesday that his government would "neutralize and eliminate" ethnic Albanian rebels, who called themselves "National Liberation Army." But there has been so far no immediate government reaction to the offer.
The Macedonian government announced the ultimatum Tuesday night. The Macedonian army gave the ethnic Albanian extremists 24 hours and two choices -- surrender completely or leave the country -- or face an all-out counter-offensive.
The news agency also reported that the two-day meeting attended by the parliamentary heads of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, which ended Wednesday in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, passed an accord supporting the Macedonian government to resolve armed clashes by means of dialogue.
At the meeting, Trajkovski said ethnic Albanian guerrillas are threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia. He warned that stability in the Balkan region lies in how to completely defeat the Albanian guerrillas who attempt to occupy the northern Macedonia. "If the rebels win, there will be no peace and stability in the region," he said.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who is paying a visit to Macedonia, said Wednesday that Slovenia supports the Macedonian way to resolve the security crisis in the country's border area with Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo.
During talks with Macedonian President Trajkovski, he said, " Macedonia is an element that maintains stability in the Balkan region and Slovenia supports Macedonia's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
In the Hungarian capital of Budapest Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Horvath Gabor also expressed the government's support for the efforts made by international community to stop the Albanian rebels' military activities.
"Military means can only stop the acceleration of armed clashes, " Gabor said. "The way out," he added, "is to resolve the problem by political, economic and social means."
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