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Cease-Fire Declared in Macedonia
Ethnic Albanian rebels and the government announced cease-fires Monday, a day after the rebels threatened to train their artillery on airports, police stations and other targets in Macedonia's cities.
The government said it hopes to use the lull in fighting to allow food to reach thousands of civilians in villages battered by fighting and alleviate water shortages in Kumanovo, where rebels took control of the city's reservoir more than a week ago, leaving its 100,000 residents without water.
Government adviser Nikola Dimitrov did not specify the duration of the cease-fire but said it came at the urging of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Hours after the government announced its cease-fire, the rebels released a statement saying they would hold their fire for 24 hours until 2 p.m. local time Tuesday (8 a.m. EDT Tuesday).
Still, isolated exchanges of gunfire occurred just hours after the cease-fires were announced. Four policemen were wounded, one critically, just outside the second-largest city, Tetovo, late Monday, police sources told The Associated Press.
The rebels on Sunday had threatened to attack Skopje airport, police stations and other targets in Macedonia's cities unless government forces stopped their assaults.
More than 37,000 refugees have fled to Kosovo ¡ª a province of neighboring Serbia with a majority ethnic Albanian population ¡ª including more than 12,000 from the Skopje-Aracinovo region in the past three days, said Astrid van Genderen Stort, the spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Pristina, Kosovo.
The European Union cautiously welcomed the cease-fires, but warned the situation remained very worrying.
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