Pressure builds to stop war plan

SKOPJE - The Macedonian Government will come under the combined pressure of Nato and the European Union today to forgo the imposition of sweeping war powers.

EU security affairs chief Javier Solana and Nato Secretary-General George Robertson were expected to impress on Macedonian leaders that declaring war would only aggravate the crisis provoked by ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

But if the past four days are any guide, their talks are likely to be held against a background of more tank and artillery fire, as Government forces press their offensive to drive the rebels out of two northeastern villages.

Many foreign diplomats fear the measure would destabilise Macedonia by alienating more of its ethnic Albanians who make up nearly one-third of the population.

The Army yesterday shelled rebel strongholds in two villages near Kumanovo town. The Red Cross says hundreds of mainly ethnic Albanian civilians are hunkered down in Vakcince and Slupcane, weathering the daily firestorm in their basements. If they became casualties of an all-out assault, the former Yugoslav republic's uneasy ethnic cohabitation between Albanians and Slavs could suffer a crippling blow.

"Macedonia is a sovereign state and we will decide ourselves if and when we will declare a state of war," Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said. "But we will bear in mind suggestions made by Western countries."

The suggestions were already clear: "Rather than talk about a state of war, we should discuss a state of peace," Solana said before flying to Macedonia yesterday. Speaking for her EU counterparts after talks in Sweden, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh urged Macedonia "not to fall into the trap of provocations" by armed rebels.

Solana, who has called for a "grand coalition" of all Macedonia's parliamentary parties, went immediately into crisis talks over dinner with Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and President Boris Trajkovski.

Robertson was due to join them today.

Macedonian troops pounded guerrilla positions in the two villages again. Shells were exploding nearly every minute at one stage.

The battleground is 30km northwest of the capital Skopje, and just a few kilometres from the main Greece-to-Hungary highway. It is a 15-minute drive from the Yugoslav border, where the highway runs north along the guerrilla-infested edge of southern Serbia's Presevo Valley.

Major powers hoped the risk of a wider conflict had been stifled last month when a Government offensive drove back guerrilla forces from hills above Tetovo.

"The Macedonians are trying to use the same tactics as in Tetovo," said a senior Western diplomat in Skopje. "They are amassing superiority and then going in fairly heavily. This should not be too difficult, considering that some of the rebels appear to have already left the area."

Reporters in Tetovo heard detonations from the direction of ethnic Albanian villages near the Kosovo border.

An Interior Ministry source said no security forces had opened fire there and accused guerrillas of trying to provoke the Army. The Government has been saying since Sunday that it expected new guerrilla action in this area.

The rebels are said to have attacked police checkpoints in the mountain villages of Vejce, Vesala, Brodec, Sipkovice and Selce, north of Tetovo.

According to the constitution, a state of war gives wide powers to the President and security forces but requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

As Slav parties already have this, approval would seem to be assured.

Parliament could take a decision tomorrow.

A state of war would allow for: Presidential rule by decree; fewer restraints on the Army; the banning of demonstrations; a nationwide curfew and the sealing of the country's borders.

- REUTERS

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