Tension grows in the Balkans

Macedonian troops are stepping up attacks on Albanian rebels

Saturday 24 March 2001

It seemed yesterday that the Albanian rebels in Macedonia were taking heed of the calls from Albanian political leaders to lay down their arms.

The level of fighting died down, the Macedonian army was claiming success in pushing the rebels out of the hills above Tetovo.

But today the fighting has flared up again, and has also reached a village just eight miles from the capital, Skopje.

Gunships fire on rebels

On Saturday afternoon, the Macedonian army brought its heaviest weaponry yet to bear on a hillside about a mile from Tetovo where rebels are believed to be based.

Houses burn near Tetovo

For ten days the Macedonian defence forces have been confined to Tetovo, unable to venture into the surrounding hills to try to flush out rebels.

But the new weaponry changed that: two Ukrainian helicopter gunships, which only arrived in Macedonia yesterday, were used to fire missiles at alleged rebel bases in the hills.

It seems that the situation in Macedonia is becoming more serious yet.

Impact on Kosovo

This is all very bad news for NATO, on the second anniversary of the start of the operation to push the Serbian Army out of Kosovo and protect the Albanian population there.

When the Serbs departed eighty days later, Albanians thought they were on their way to their dream, an independent Albanian-run Kosovo.

KFOR needs more troops

Western governments had other ideas, and so some Albanians have returned to an armed solution, aimed at the softer target of Macedonia with its small, ill-equipped army.

More troops needed

PM spoke to Lieutenant General Carlo Caravigioso, Commander of KFOR, who told us that some Kosovan Albanians were trying to get across the border into Macedonia to join with Albanian rebels there.

He said he had moved extra troops to police the border, but that some rebels were using the difficult terrain to avoid NATO soldiers and were managing to move across the border.

General Caravigioso told us that so many troops were reinforcing the border with Macedonia that NATO was now vulnerable should there be trouble in Kosovo itself.

To this end, he has asked NATO member nations to contribute two extra battalions of soldiers (about 1500 men) to reinforce NATO's position in Kosovo.