SKOPJE, (Islamweb & News Agencies) -Peace talks aimed at ending Macedonia's six-month conflict were set to resume Friday amid uncertainty after hardline threats which threatened to undermine the progress made so far.
Leaders of the four main Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties were to resume their negotiations in the southwestern town of Ohrid with Western mediators after taking a break to observe Macedonia's national day public holiday Thursday.
Their task -- to come up with a settlement seen as the country's last chance to avert a civil war -- was made more complicated when Macedonian authorities called Thursday for more pressure to be put on ethnic Albanian fighters before signatures are put to paper.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski used a national day address to urge Slav-dominated government forces to push the Albanians from territory they have taken since their uprising for equal rights started in Feberuary. (Read photo caption below).
The speaker of the Macedonian parliament, Stojan Andov, also came out saying parliamentarians would not examine a peace deal while what he called 'the terrorists' have not disarmed and while what he labelled as 'the terrorist groups' have not disbanded."
And in his own national day address President Boris Trajkovski, who has so far adopted a moderate stance, said that while Macedonia wanted a political settlement, it is "ready for an effective military solution".
The comments came just a day after peace negotiators said they had reached a preliminary agreement on the key issue of the status of the Albanian language, opening the way for a final peace deal.
The ethnic Albanian fighters of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) launched an armed uprising in February in a fight for minority rights. A July 5 ceasefire has proved shaky.
In new incidents in the volatile north of the country, a Macedonian policeman was seriously wounded on Thursday during an exchange of gun fire between ethnic Albanian fighters and Slav-dominated Macedonian government forces in the northwestern town of Tetovo.
A policeman killed by Albanians while manning a checkpoint near the town Wednesday was also buried in Tetovo before several hundred people.
There have been regular clashes between Albanian fighters and the Slav-dominated government forces in the north despite the ceasefire, raising fears that the whole country might slip into all-out civil war should the peace talks fail.
The negotiations Friday are to concentrate on the remaining outstanding issues of the control and composition of local police forces in ethnic Albanian areas.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Slav Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski stands in front of Saint Prohor Pcinski monastery south of Belgrade August 2, 2001. Georgievski urged tougher action to recapture territory held by ethnic Albanian fighters, saying it would be shameful to sign any peace deal under fighters' threats. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)