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Kosovar Terrorists Renew
Attacks On Macedonia
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Kosovar Terrorists Renew
Attacks On Macedonia
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SKOPJE – Tensions escalated Wednesday on the lawless Kosovo-Macedonian border, when Kosovar Albanians opened fire on Macedonian Army positions with mortars and automatic weapons. Macedonian Defense Minister Popovski stated to the press that the country will move quickly to "eliminate" any future attacks. The unrest has been going on since February, when Kosovar peasants complained that they were being cut off from their lands by an "unfair" border demarcation. Blockades, street protests and open gunfire have continued since. The skirmishes have long been explained away as sordid (yet politically unmotivated), provocations from Albanian criminals guarding their smuggling routes. Yet recent events in Pristina indicate that the renewed extremism has overt – and potentially explosive – political dimensions. This week’s decree from the "Kosovo Parliament" – that the internationally-respected Yugoslav-Macedonian border was illegal – shocked even the province’s Western minders. Only minutes after the vote, UNMIK chief Michael Steiner cast down his veto – and thus enraged the Albanians. The US Embassy in Skopje also vetoed what amounted to a declaration of war from the Kosovars. This rejection (for now) of a "Greater Kosovo" puts US and other international peacekeepers directly in the militants’ targets. One KFOR soldier was killed recently near the border by an Albanian land mine. This week NATO discovered and destroyed several freshly-laid mines in northwestern Macedonia. Macedonia is unhappy with UNMIK’s weak efforts to restrain the radicals. Extremist Kosovar leader Bajram Rexhepi first announced that the border agreement was "illegal." Calling Rexhepi and his provisional government an "illegitimate entity," Popovski claimed that "the political leaders of Kosovo are responsible for stimulating the extremism." Now, pressure is growing on the Macedonian parliament to denounce the Kosovars’ failed resolution. Relations between Macedonia and Kosovo are at their lowest point in months. It is well-known that the Albanian war for "human rights" in Macedonia was orchestrated by the most radical and experienced veterans of the KLA. Weapons and logistical supplies were easily smuggled over the immense mountains dividing Kosovo from Macedonia. In April of this year, the Macedonian Army contended that fresh recruits from Kosovo were being massed for a fresh offensive. At the same time inside sources claim that large amounts of new weapons – including first-generation American rifles – are also being imported from Kosovo. Surface-to-air rockets – vital for attacking helicopters are allegedly also now a part of the Albanian arsenal. These upgrades could change the dynamic of any future conflict. Yet the Macedonian Army has been building up also. When the war began in March 2001, the country had three helicopters and an untested army. Now, Macedonian has around 20 helicopters and several well-trained special forces units. Army installations remain on high alert, and anti-terrorist units are still dealing with unexploded land mines, bomb threats, and occasional shootouts. While peace has returned to Macedonia, it remains a tenuous one. |
Previous articles by Christopher Deliso on Antiwar.com Macedonia
On War Footing Over Kosovo Border Provocations Macedonian
Tortured In Tetovo Village, As Gang War Rages Macedonia:
A Nation of Ingrates Mujahedin
In Macedonia, or, an Enormous Embarrassment For the West How
Not To Capture Osama bin Laden Whispers
of Folly and Ruin Blurring
the Boundaries in Macedonia When
The Terror Goes Down To Georgia: Some Thoughts On The Caucasus Imbroglio
In
Macedonia, Terrorism Remains the Law But
Would It Be an Evil Axis? Economics
and Politics in Macedonia: an Interview with Dr. Sam Vaknin Macedonians
and the Media Secrets
of the Blue Café On
the Front Lines in Tetovo Interview
with Ljube Boshkovski A
Connection Between NATO and the NLA? The
Legacy of War: Kidnapped Persons in Macedonia The
Day's Disturbances and Developments in Macedonia
Crisis in Macedonian Government –
Albanian Hackers Deface Macedonian Website
Partition: Macedonia's Best Lost Hope? Important
Notice to Readers of the Macedonia Page Selective Democracy Comes
to Macedonia Macedonia Capitulates With a Friend Like
Pakistan Afghan-Americans Oppose
Interventionism, Seek Unity The Afghan
Quagmire Beckons Suddenly,
Terrorists Are Everywhere Turkey's
Eclipse: Chechnya Comes Home
To America A Quiet Battle in the
Caucasus: Georgia Between Russia & NATO Central Asia: The Cauldron
Boils Over Bin Laden, Iran, and the
KLA The Macedonian
Phrase-Book: Writing NATO's Dictionary of
Control Barbarism and the Erasure
of Culture Macedonian Endgame: The
Sinister Transformation of the Status Quo by Christopher Deliso
Christopher Deliso is a journalist and travel writer with special interest in current events in the areas of the former Byzantine Empire – the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and the Caucasus. Mr. Deliso holds a master's degree with honors in Byzantine Studies (from Oxford University), and has traveled widely in the region. His current long-term research projects include the Macedonia issue, the Cyprus problem, and the ethnography of Byzantine Georgia. |