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Macedonia is on knife edge, Nato chief says
It is the Macedonian majority dickhead!
Oh, and now Macedonia is being called upon to tell the Albanians in neighbouring countries to distance themselves from fighting. Die already.
Macedonia is on knife edge, Nato chief says
25 March 2009 | 04:12 | FOCUS News Agency
Stockholm. Macedonia is on a knife edge, with its coalition government facing the dilemma of trying to offer concessions to ethnic Albanians without provoking the Slav majority, Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary general said last night, cited by The Guardian.
However, progress was being made in areas bordering Serbia and Kosovo, he said. This included the promise of peace talks this weekend between Serbia and ethnic Albanian leaders fighting in the Presevo valley - an area bordering Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Macedonia. Lord Robertson also said an agreement had been reached with Nato-led K-For peacekeepers which would allow lightly-armed Serb forces to enter two buffer zones along the northern and western border with Kosovo. It was essential, he said, to "marginalise" ethnic Albanian extremists whose objective - as it had been previously in Kosovo and southern Serbia - was to provoke a disproportionate reaction that would drag in outside forces.
Nato, the UN, and the EU are all pressing the Macedonians to reach a political solution, including a higher status for the Albanian language, more Albanians in public administration and more money for the Albanian university in Tetovo, Macedonia's second city. Lord Robertson said the UN had estimated that 18,000 ethnic Albanians had left their homes in Macedonia, 11,000 of them displaced inside the country. At a London briefing, he conceded that some Nato governments were reluctant to move more of their troops to Kosovo's border with Macedonia. Though he did not name the countries concerned, they are believed to include the US.
Asked if K-For troops could not have done more to police the border, he replied: "It is very, very difficult territory".
However, the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski, made his view quite plain yesterday. "We think they [K-For] have to improve their presence on the border," he said in Stockholm where he is attending the EU summit.
Lord Robertson said he was optimistic that Nato countries would send extra troops to Kosovo, although he has scaled down his request from an extra 1,400 soldiers to what he called yesterday "six companies " - about 600 troops. Germany yesterday announced plans to send around 130 extra soldiers from its artillery battery in Kosovo to Skopje on Sunday to reinforce German K-For patrols on the border. The defence ministry spokesman, Detlef Puhl, said the new troops would take charge of four self-propelled guns which would be brought out of reserve. A company of 100 to 150 men which had been due to be withdrawn from the area would also be kept in place. EU leaders welcomed Mr Trajkovski yesterday to support him in his conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels and push him toward reforms that ease tense ethnic tensions. The leaders heard a report from Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy supremo, its external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, and Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister, who have all visited Skopje in the last few days to discuss ways in which the violence could be contained. Mr Trajkovski was urged to meet demands for a greater role in Macedonian society for the ethnic Albanians and call on Albanians in neighbouring countries - especially in Kosovo - to distance themselves from the fighting. EU leaders have a significant carrot to offer: next month the union is to sign a "stabilisation and association agreement" with Macedonia that requires it to work for peaceful resolution of its internal conflicts. The Macedonian leader was told of Brussels' backing for his country's territorial integrity and Nato's pledge to step up efforts to prevent guerrilla infiltration across the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
25 March 2009 | 04:12 | FOCUS News Agency
Stockholm. Macedonia is on a knife edge, with its coalition government facing the dilemma of trying to offer concessions to ethnic Albanians without provoking the Slav majority, Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary general said last night, cited by The Guardian.
However, progress was being made in areas bordering Serbia and Kosovo, he said. This included the promise of peace talks this weekend between Serbia and ethnic Albanian leaders fighting in the Presevo valley - an area bordering Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Macedonia. Lord Robertson also said an agreement had been reached with Nato-led K-For peacekeepers which would allow lightly-armed Serb forces to enter two buffer zones along the northern and western border with Kosovo. It was essential, he said, to "marginalise" ethnic Albanian extremists whose objective - as it had been previously in Kosovo and southern Serbia - was to provoke a disproportionate reaction that would drag in outside forces.
Nato, the UN, and the EU are all pressing the Macedonians to reach a political solution, including a higher status for the Albanian language, more Albanians in public administration and more money for the Albanian university in Tetovo, Macedonia's second city. Lord Robertson said the UN had estimated that 18,000 ethnic Albanians had left their homes in Macedonia, 11,000 of them displaced inside the country. At a London briefing, he conceded that some Nato governments were reluctant to move more of their troops to Kosovo's border with Macedonia. Though he did not name the countries concerned, they are believed to include the US.
Asked if K-For troops could not have done more to police the border, he replied: "It is very, very difficult territory".
However, the Macedonian president, Boris Trajkovski, made his view quite plain yesterday. "We think they [K-For] have to improve their presence on the border," he said in Stockholm where he is attending the EU summit.
Lord Robertson said he was optimistic that Nato countries would send extra troops to Kosovo, although he has scaled down his request from an extra 1,400 soldiers to what he called yesterday "six companies " - about 600 troops. Germany yesterday announced plans to send around 130 extra soldiers from its artillery battery in Kosovo to Skopje on Sunday to reinforce German K-For patrols on the border. The defence ministry spokesman, Detlef Puhl, said the new troops would take charge of four self-propelled guns which would be brought out of reserve. A company of 100 to 150 men which had been due to be withdrawn from the area would also be kept in place. EU leaders welcomed Mr Trajkovski yesterday to support him in his conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels and push him toward reforms that ease tense ethnic tensions. The leaders heard a report from Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy supremo, its external affairs commissioner Chris Patten, and Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister, who have all visited Skopje in the last few days to discuss ways in which the violence could be contained. Mr Trajkovski was urged to meet demands for a greater role in Macedonian society for the ethnic Albanians and call on Albanians in neighbouring countries - especially in Kosovo - to distance themselves from the fighting. EU leaders have a significant carrot to offer: next month the union is to sign a "stabilisation and association agreement" with Macedonia that requires it to work for peaceful resolution of its internal conflicts. The Macedonian leader was told of Brussels' backing for his country's territorial integrity and Nato's pledge to step up efforts to prevent guerrilla infiltration across the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
Oh, and now Macedonia is being called upon to tell the Albanians in neighbouring countries to distance themselves from fighting. Die already.
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