Thursday, August 30, 2001, updated at 22:57(GMT+8)
World
NATO Collects 1,400 Weapons in Macedonia
NATO said on Thursday that ethnic Albanian rebels have surrendered some 1,400 weapons till Wednesday, under the requirement of the Macedonian parliament before approving the peace agreement, reports reaching here said.
In a letter to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, Major General Gunnar Lange, commander of NATO's "Essential Harvest" operation, said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has completed the first stage of its weapon-collecting plan.
On Wednesday, NATO troops set up the third one-day weapon- collecting center in the Tanush village and collected more than 600 pieces of arms, all of which would be transported finally to Greece to be destroyed, said NATO officials.
The Macedonian parliament said earlier that it would hold a plenary meeting on Friday to discuss the peace agreement only after NATO collected one third of the 3,300 weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels.
NATO said on Thursday that ethnic Albanian rebels have surrendered some 1,400 weapons till Wednesday, under the requirement of the Macedonian parliament before approving the peace agreement, reports reaching here said.