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Fighting Continues After Macedonian Ceasefire Deadline
Fighting continued in Macedonia early Friday after a NATO-mediated ceasefire between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces came into effect at midnight (2200 GMT Thursday).
"The ceasefire is not being respected," Macedonian television said quoting the army spokesman, and "the Macedonian forces are riposting in an appropriate way" as Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski had said they could do in case of attack.
An AFP reporter in the northwestern town of Tetovo said that the deadline passed as the sound of explosions continued in the surrounding hills.
Seven people were injured there, after mortar rounds were earlier fired at the town.
Ongoing artillery fire and exchanges of automatic weapons were reported Thursday evening from the centre of Tetovo, while attack helicopters were reported to have launched rockets at rebel positions in the hills just below the town.
The fighting occurred after ethnic Albanian rebels earlier launched attacks on police checkpoints in the area, Colonel Blagoja Markovski from the Macedonian army said.
The clashes continued seemingly regardless of the ceasefire aimed at ending more than five months of conflict in the country coming into place.
Fighting was also reported around the northern village of Radusa, Markovski said, while further clashes were reported in other northern villages around Kumanovo.
If the ceasefire does hold, it would pave the way for a deployment of NATO troops in Macedonia, which would supervise disarmament of the guerrillas, Buckovski earlier said.
An operation codenamed Essential Harvest would see NATO deploying 3,000 troops from 15 countries on a one-month mission to disarm rebels.
The military alliance hailed the ceasefire agreement reached late on Wednesday between NATO representative Pieter Feith and Ali Ahmeti, political representative of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation army (NLA).
"We very much welcome this positive development," a NATO official told AFP. But the alliance's Secretary General George Robertson said in Kiev that NATO would deploy troops in Macedonia only "when there is a durable ceasefire."
Meanwhile in Skopje, the European Union and US envoys for Macedonia, Francois Leotard and James Pardew, also welcomed the ceasefire accord, describing it as an "important step towards a political solution."
"The dialogue should continue over the next few days and clarify certain parts of the constitutional reform project," a joint statement by the two envoys said.
Defence minister Buckovski added that the accord "is an important step towards pursuing political dialogue over military pressure."
Buckovski said he hoped political negotiations would be completed before July 15, when NATO troops could begin deployment.
The ceasefire announcement Thursday came a day after President Boris Trajkovski announced that leaders of the two sides had reached a breakthrough agreement to discuss constitutional changes in a bid to stem an escalating Albanian uprising.
A previous ceasefire was announced on June 24 by the EU top foreign policy official Javier Solana, but has been broken almost daily, with both sides trading accusations of violations.
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