Nato shores up peace deal

SKOPJE - Nato experts arrive in Macedonia today to try to reinforce a ceasefire between Government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.

Leaders of the four main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties signed a peace deal yesterday, aiming to end the six-month rebellion by improving the rights of the one-third ethnic Albanian minority.

But clashes between guerrillas and the Army have continued despite a Nato-brokered ceasefire declared on Monday at the end of a week in which about 30 people died.

About the time the peace plan was signed, rebels and security forces clashed at Beloviste near the flashpoint town of Tetovo.

The Army had accused the rebels of assaults near villages to the northeast of the capital.

About 15 military Nato experts intend to fly to Skopje to try to find ways of making the truce stick.

A lasting ceasefire and an agreement by the rebels to disarm are the main conditions for deployment of 3500 Nato troops to collect rebel weapons, along with the signing of yesterday's political peace deal.

Nato Secretary-General George Robertson, in Skopje to attend the low-key signing ceremony, said the experts would join Nato teams in Macedonia seeking to get the rebels and armed forces to withdraw to the lines of a July 5 ceasefire.

Nato spokesman Yves Brodeur declined to say exactly when Nato forces could go to Macedonia.

Nato plans to send its forces on a mission limited to 30 days.

Macedonia has yet to offer an amnesty to the rebels but Robertson has said that an amnesty for all guerrillas in Macedonia - except those who would face charges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague - was vital.

And the rebels, who say they support the peace deal even though they were not at the negotiating table, have made no pledges to disarm.

The deal includes reforms to grant ethnic Albanians greater rights to use their language in Macedonia, more jobs in the Macedonian-dominated police force and better access to education.

Parliament is meant to ratify the plan in 45 days.

"We have agreed that the disarmament process will go on side by side with the process of parliamentary ratification of the agreement," Robertson said.

Diplomats say that Macedonia is still far from pulling back from the brink of war.

Western leaders welcomed the deal but said it would be meaningless unless it were quickly carried out.

At the UN in New York, the 15-member Security Council welcomed the agreement and called on ethnic Albanian leaders to condemn ongoing violence.

In a separate statement, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the use of violence to undermine the agreement or to seek political gains "would be absolutely unacceptable".

- REUTERS

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