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Agreement Reached on Police Makeup for Macedonia's War-torn Areas
Peace talks between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties Sunday scored another breakthrough by agreeing on the makeup of the police force in the Albanian- dominated areas.
U.S. envoy James Pardew said that under the agreement 1,000 Albanians will be recruited to join the police force by July, 2003 and that they will be deployed "according to the composition and disposition of the population," said reports reaching here from Skopje, capital of Macedonia.
police chiefs will be appointed by the Macedonian interior minister and approved by municipal councils, whose power over police chiefs would be increased, said Pardew.
This was the second breakthrough after Wednesday's provisional agreement on the use of the Albanian language as an official language, one of the most contentious issues between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders.
The two agreements have removed the major obstacles toward an overall peace plan in this Balkan country, which has been under a rebel insurgency for five months. Mediators said a comprehensive peace deal is on the horizon.
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