Macedonian coalition on track despite ceasefire breach

SKOPJE - Macedonia is to form an emergency national unity Government, a day after the Army said it had killed 30 ethnic Albanian guerrillas in a heavy bombardment of rebel-held villages and convoys.

The shelling shattered a day-long ceasefire that enabled the political deal, but there was no indication that the Army action had put the coalition arrangements in jeopardy.

Parliament is still expected to easily approve new ministers coming from four main parties - two Slav-dominated and two ethnic Albanian - and some affiliated smaller parties.

The United States and the European Union see the broad coalition as the best defence against an escalation of the crisis into civil war or a wider Balkan conflict.

The deal to form the new Government was first reached on Tuesday, but was then stalled by the resistance of the second-biggest ethnic Albanian party, which demanded a lasting ceasefire.

In what appeared to be a quiet deal, the Army lowered the intensity of the bombardment of rebel-held villages on Thursday and Friday, and halted it on Saturday, when the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) agreed to join.

The broad coalition aims to isolate the ethnic Albanian gunmen by forcing parties to unite and pass laws which answer the longstanding grievances of the country's one-third Albanian minority.

The PDP said after a meeting in the northwestern city of Tetovo yesterday that it was pushing for an end to the shelling.

"We are in constant contact with Western diplomats and the Government to urge them to stop the offensive," spokesman Zahir Bekteshi said. "That was the point of us joining the coalition."

The state MIA news agency quoted Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski as saying the Government, in which one-third of the ministers would be new, would be approved in a package.

"Macedonia faces a brutal aggression," Georgievski said in televised remarks, reiterating the Government's view that the rebellion was exported from neighbouring Kosovo.

"It has no alternative but to get rid of the terrorists. The platform is clear - it is stabilisation of Macedonia, intensifying dialogue, preparation of an early election and continuation of reforms."

Yesterday's Army bombardment mainly targeted the villages of Vaksince and Slupcane, seen as the main rebel strongholds, using tanks, artillery and helicopters.

Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said up to 30 "terrorists" were killed in the shelling of the villages and two separate guerrilla convoys in the area.

The casualty figure - the highest claimed by the Government side for any one day - could not be confirmed independently.

The National Liberation Army rebels have given clearly inflated figures of Army losses.

Reporters, kept away from the front, saw three Soviet-made T-55 tanks arrive to reinforce Army positions less than 2km below Vaksince. They slammed shells into the already ruined hamlet after a short burst of automatic fire from rebels.

The local media also reported brief clashes in the northwestern Tetovo area, where fighting flared in March.

There was no sign of the infantry reinforcement needed for an advance into the rebel-held hamlets, where hundreds of civilians have been cowering in basements for 11 days.

Defence Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said the Army was acting on "selected and legitimate targets" to avoid casualties among the many civilians trapped in the fighting.

At least 8000 civilians have fled to Kosovo and about 1000 were displaced inside Macedonia, but the rest refuse to leave.

"The situation in the villages is still very worrying, said Amanda Williamson, spokeswoman for the International Red Cross Committee in Skopje.

"The medical situation is very difficult and access to water supply is becoming a problem. There is no electricity. Food is a problem, it seems they are surviving on very little food."

NLA guerrillas say the coalition Government is irrelevant because it fails to include them.

The NLA has repeatedly taken control of areas along the Kosovo border since February, and few expect it to disappear.

- REUTERS

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