Macedonia shuts Kosovo border after soldiers killed

SKOPJE - Macedonia closed its border with Kosovo and held crisis talks with NATO and UN officials after three Macedonian soldiers were killed in guerrilla attacks close to the frontier early today.

In a clear change of line, Western officials said they would "understand" any armed action by Macedonia against ethnic Albanian fighters operating in a border village on Macedonian territory.

"We understand the need and obligation of Macedonia to respond to this kind of threat," US Ambassador in Macedonia M. Michael Einik told reporters.

"This response should be appropriate to the situation on the ground and should be done in coordination with NATO. American officials are engaged in sub-coordination as we speak."

NATO, which leads the KFOR peacekeeping force over the border in Kosovo, had previously urged the government not to use force against guerrillas, fearing violence could spread through Macedonia whose population is about one third ethnic Albanian and two-thirds Slav.

The Macedonian Defense Ministry said it had already responded "with all its weaponry" Sunday after a mine attack and shooting against its troops from three directions, including behind a security cordon set up around the Tanusevci village where the gunmen are based.

Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendavilov told reporters he expected additional measures to be taken overnight, declining to specify if that meant a military strike.

The US KFOR contingent, whose troops are stationed on the other side of the border in Kosovo, said it had brought in reinforcements after the attacks.

A statement by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said a joint patrol by the OSCE, European Union Monitoring Mission, UN refugee agency and British embassy had encountered a Macedonian army vehicle Sunday morning which had just hit a land mine.

"One soldier was killed; a second succumbed later due to severe injuries," the statement said. A police source said a third soldier had died after being shot by a sniper earlier on.

OSCE Ambassador Carlo Ungaro said Macedonia's security was clearly being threatened.

"We appreciate the restraint shown by Macedonia's army and police to two weeks of provocation," he said.

"After today's turn of events we will understand and support a reasonable military response by the army and police to try to control the situation."

Two KFOR helicopters and a pilotless reconnaissance plane flew over the area near the village of Debelde on the other side of the border. A villager in Debelde said an ethnic Albanian in Tanusevci had been injured in the exchange of fire.

KFOR commander Carlo Cabigiosu and Hans Haekkerup, head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, traveled to the Macedonian capital Sunday afternoon to discuss the next move with officials.

"KFOR will intensify surveillance of the border in close cooperation with Macedonian forces," Cabigiosu told reporters.

Macedonia has rung the alarm bells over the past few days, calling for international help to deal with violence it says threatens its own fragile ethnic balance and Europe as a whole.

Diplomats say KFOR has only a back-up logistical mission in Macedonia which is not authorized to take any military action.

Einik said the international community recognized the situation in Macedonia was not the same as in earlier conflicts in former Yugoslavia.

"You have a functioning inter-ethnic country here. The government represents the ethnic breakdown of the country. Any action of Macedonia has to reflect those realities and I think the government understands this," he said.

The main Albanian political party in Macedonia said in a statement Albanians had become "hostages to the will, ignorance, and immaturity of a still unidentified group of suspicious legitimacy."

- REUTERS

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