SIPKOVICA, Macedonia (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Macedonia's ethnic Albanian Liberation Movement announced its dissolution Thursday and NATO launched a security mission to buttress a fragile new peace while parliament grapples with reforms.
NATO said it hoped there would be no serious problems with the government's intention to move police and refugees back into Albanian-dominated areas in coming weeks as these steps were being coordinated with international peace overseers.
But with constitutional changes to enhance the rights of minority Albanians and an amnesty for ex-fighters held up by nationalist resistance in parliament, NATO planned to deploy its security force swiftly to pre-empt any security vacuum.
Western envoys mediated a peace pact six weeks ago between the Skopje government and Albanian fighters who had surged to the gates of major cities, raising the specter of civil war menacing years of international effort to banish bloodshed from the Balkans.
Ali Ahmeti, commander of the National Liberation Army (NLA), announced that it no longer existed a day after his men turned in the last pieces of their declared arsenal in a crash disarmament scheme run by NATO. (Read photo caption below)
``As of midnight last night, the NLA is formally disbanded The signal has been given to all former fighters that they should reintegrate as ordinary civilians of this country. I am a former leader now,'' said Ahmeti.
For the first time since the conflict erupted in February, there were no uniformed fighters, guns or checkpoints on the way up to a mountain village that was Ahmeti's ``General Staff'' lair and where he held a news conference Thursday.
Ahmeti and his aides faced reporters, including wary Macedonians for the first time, in crisp new suits instead of the fatigues they wore throughout the insurgency. No Albanian flag hung behind them, as in previous outings before the media.
Ahmeti, whom Skopje indicted for alleged ``war crimes'' during the seven-month conflict, struck a conciliatory note.
He said he favored displaced Macedonians returning to their homes soon and that state security forces could start moving into areas hitherto held by the NLA as long as they had ethnic Albanians in their ranks.
``Great courage is required by this (peace) process and we do not lack that courage,'' he said when asked whether he would allow police accused by his people of brutality and repression to re-enter Albanian areas before parliament enshrined the reforms and amnesty promised in return for the NLA's disbandment.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A shadow of a Greek NATO peacekeeper is cast over weapons collected from ethnic Albanian fighters in Krivolak, Macedonia September 26, 2001, the final day of the alliance's operation 'Essential Harvest' 30-day mandate. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)