NATO Betrays Macedonia to Guerrillas
August 25, 2001

• Yesterday (August 24), the NLA announced it had only 2,000 weapons to hand in. The Macedonian government estimated the guerrillas have 85,000 weapons.

• Today, NATO reached an agreement after negotiating with the NLA that the operating number would be 3,300.

• Shortly thereafter, NATO announced that the weapons estimates are non-negotiable (i.e., only non-negotiable with the Macedonian government, since they already had already negotiated with the NLA).

Could this slap in the face be any louder? NATO has chosen to take the word of the NLA and disregard the government estimates. At the same time, they agreed to talk with the NLA (reaching an agreement on the NLA's terms) while refusing to talk to the Macedonian government.

One additional piece of the puzzle:

Today's Independent (UK) reports: "New shipments of weapons are already on their way to the rebels from Kosovo, according to Nato intelligence. And they are probably busy burying caches in Macedonia."

Perhaps they needed the extra 1,300 weapons required by NATO, since they only admitted having 2,000.