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Tuesday, 27 March, 2001, 14:53 GMT 15:53 UK
EU call for dialogue in Macedonia
![]() Mr Solana voices EU support during a visit to Tetovo
European Union foreign and security policy chief, Javier Solana, has called on ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to start talking to the government.
"We think that the fighting is over and that it is time for dialogue," said Mr Solana, who is on a visit to the country.
"An important message to the rebels is that the best thing they can do is lay down their weapons and start a political life," he said.
During his visit, Mr Solana held talks with Arben Xhaferi, leader of Macedonia's moderate Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians. He later walked through the town square arm-in-arm with Mayor Ismail Murtezan. Speaking to the BBC after his visit, Mr Solana said it had given him the chance to express the EU's support for all communities in Macedonia. The overwhelming majority of the Albanian population did not want violence, but a united community where everyone could feel comfortable, he said.
The BBC's Peter Biles, who is in Tetovo, says the international community, fearful of a wider Balkan conflict, is doing everything it can to help Macedonia. On Monday, Nato Secretary-General George Robertson commended the Macedonian Government for driving ethnic Albanian guerrillas out of territory around the northern city of Tetovo. Lord Robertson said the government had shown restraint and firmness in forcing the rebels into Kosovo. Nato patrols Nato is strengthening patrols on the Kosovo side of the border to prevent future infiltrations by guerrillas, who earlier abandoned their headquarters in the hills above Tetovo.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed reservations about the situation. Speaking in Washington, he renewed support for the Macedonian Government but said he did not believe the fighting was "anywhere near over". The Macedonian Government says the guerrillas have been driven across the border into Kosovo and they will now become the problem of the K-For Nato-led peacekeeping force there.
It has also intensified regional reaction. In Pristina, capital of neighbouring neighbouring Kosovo, about 10,000 people rallied to support the rebels. Albanian withdrawal Reporters who reached the headquarters of the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels, in the mountain village of Selce, found it deserted.
But there were no signs of Macedonian troops in the village. Meanwhile, hundreds of refugees fled across the border into Kosovo after a 12-hour night trek through snow-covered mountain passes. Some said they had come under fire.
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