AP, February 13, 2003
Macedonian officials warn of possible violence
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia - A top Macedonian official warned Wednesday that violence could escalate in the volatile Balkan country, but ruled out a large scale conflict similar to the one in 2001.
"I cannot exclude the possibility of armed incidents to which we would have to respond with force," Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski told a parliamentary security committee.
"I do not rule out ... destabilization of the region," he added.
Buckovski's comments followed unrest in neighboring southern Serbia, where police raided two ethnic Albanian strongholds last weekend, arresting people, seizing weapons and triggering demonstrations.
The incidents touched off speculation that ethnic Albanian rebel groups - which staged an insurgency in Serbia in 2000 and one in Macedonia in 2001 - have been rearming and preparing for a new conflict in the region.
Late Tuesday, Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski also warned that "we have to be alert ... and nobody can give guarantees of security."
International officials in Macedonia and the U.N.-run province of Kosovo have downplayed such speculation, insisting that recent violent incidents are the work of criminal gangs.
"Police and the army (in Macedonia) have their hands full with the criminal groups, but we don't see it growing into something larger," said a NATO (news - web sites) spokesman in Macedonia, Craig Ratcliff.
"Several incidents do not add up to a war," added the European Union (news - web sites) spokeswoman Irena Guzelova, referring to sporadic violence in Macedonia.
"The groups are small and they are not united," she said. "They do not enjoy the support of the local population."
But Buckovski, who is expected to travel to Kosovo for meetings with U.N. officials there on Thursday, said that the "existence of armed gangs is a serious job for police and army."
Buckovski also claimed that some of the gangs infiltrate into Macedonia from Kosovo.
Macedonia's ethnic conflict in 2001 claimed dozens of lives and left hundreds homeless. It ended with a Western-brokered peace plan that gave more rights to the country's minority ethnic Albanians.
The peace plan has been gradually implemented since it was signed in August 2001, but ethnic tensions in the country persist.
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