SKOPJE (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Macedonia, bowing to European Union pressure, Monday approved the deployment of a modest NATO security force to shore up a precarious peace agreement with minority Albanians.(Read photo caption below) With a dispute over EU demands for a transitional NATO presence apparently resolved, Macedonia's reluctant parliament looms as the last major hurdle in a reform process aimed at defusing the Balkans' fifth ethnic conflict since 1991.
EU leaders had feared vengeful extremists in Macedonia's security forces might hound Albanians into another uprising if NATO troops nearing the end of a mission to disarm Albanians withdrew without some form of follow-up ``stabilization force.''
For weeks the government ruled this out, convinced that such a force would be maneuvered by Albanian separatists claiming persecution into policing a Cyprus-style ``Green Line'' cementing a breakaway fiefdom in the north of the ex-Yugoslav republic.
NATO insisted it had no intention of wading into a third Balkans peace enforcement mission. But it said foreign civilian monitors assigned to oversee the reintegration of Albanian lands could not do their job safely without a security back-up.
Weekend violence lent weight to Western concerns.
Undisciplined police units fired on an ethnic Albanian village in a major truce violation, endangering NATO liaison officers in the vicinity, an alliance spokesman said.
Hours later, the government said it would invite about 250 NATO troops to shield European monitors who, under terms of the peace accord, are to guide the return of state institutions and Macedonian refugees to Albanian-held territory.
Diplomats said earlier that top government ministers had proposed a ``discreet force'' to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson during talks Friday and the alliance would probably authorize it if a formal request were made by Skopje.
Western envoys had pressed Skopje for a decision since NATO's existing mission to collect rebel arms runs out later this month. They warned that a donors conference for Macedonia planned for October might collapse if Skopje threw out NATO.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The speaker of the Macedonian Parliament Stojan Andov, right back to camera, talks to lawmakers during a pause of a session at the parliament building in Skopje, Macedonia, Monday, Sept. 17, 2001. The Macedonian Parliament convened to discuss peace initiatives including a proposed change to the constitution and the NATO presence. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)