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Debate Resumes on Disputed Macedonian Peace Plan
Macedonia's parliament meets on Saturday to resume bitter debate on a NATO-backed peace plan cast by moderate leaders as the only alternative to civil war.
President Boris Trajkovski opened the crucial session on Friday with a plea for more radical politicians to ratify reforms intended to reciprocate a guerrilla arms handover.
The rebels have promised to disband in return for political and constitutional changes that benefit their minority Albanian ethnic kin. They have already turned in more than 1,400 weapons to a recently deployed NATO force of almost 4,500 soldiers.
But many Macedonians are sceptical about the rebel pledge and NATO's role in the peace process, which they fear will lead to the partition of their 10-year-old country down ethnic lines.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, a nationalist hardliner, signed up to the reform agreement last month under heavy Western pressure, but continues to express deep misgivings about it.
He is expected to address the 116-member assembly this weekend and his party's 46 deputies have the power to derail the whole process, which requires approval by a two-thirds majority.
Trajkovski, whose speech was delayed for six hours due to a blockade of parliament by Macedonians denouncing the deal as a sellout at gunpoint, urged all politicians to back the accord.
"This agreement is not perfect, but no agreement is. It's the best we have at the moment and it has some very positive aspects," the president said. "The alternative is war."
Former prime minister Branko Crvenkovski agreed, declaring that a 'no' vote was the surest way to tear the former Yugoslav republic apart and ensure its eventual transformation into an international protectorate, as happened to Bosnia and Kosovo.
"Never underestimate or mock peace," he urged. "Remember all those references to Macedonia as the oasis of peace in the Balkans. You only really appreciate it when you have lost it."
PITFALLS AHEAD
The planned reforms include wider official use of the Albanian language, a big rise in the number of Albanians in the police and decentralisation of power in many areas. The aim is to end the guerrilla National Liberation Army's (NLA) six-month rebellion in the name of greater rights for Albanians.
Scores of people have been killed and more than 125,000 displaced in a conflict which has several times seemed close to descending into full-scale warfare of the kind that has devastated much of the Balkans over the past decade.
The parliamentary debate is expected to last several days before a vote on whether to begin rewriting the constitution. Most diplomats and analysts expect this to be approved but warn there could be pitfalls further on in the ratification process.
NATO expects to collect about 3,300 weapons surrendered by the rebels during its 30-day mission in Macedonia, codenamed Operation Essential Harvest. But that figure is hotly contested.
Many Macedonians fear the guerrillas will stash the bulk of their arsenal to wage a separatist campaign in the future.
Government hardliners, who blame NATO for failing to stamp out rampant Albanian arms smuggling, are refusing to enact reforms until they believe the NLA is truly a spent force.
NATO says arms collection, which it views as a success so far, will resume next week irrespective of events in parliament.
The alliance has also hailed a steady flow of suspected guerrillas into neighbouring Kosovo, a Yugoslav province under international rule since NATO intervened to stop repression of its Albanian majority in 1999, as proof the NLA is disbanding.
But few Macedonians believe the process can deliver lasting peace unless refugees are quickly resettled. Many demand the immediate return of state security forces to rebel-held areas.
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