SKOPJE (Islamweb & News Agencies) - A NATO-brokered truce between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian fighters came into effect at the ``11th hour'' on Sunday so that a deal to try to end a six-month conflict could be signed on Monday.The cease-fire was worked out while the security forces were using jets and attack helicopters in fierce fighting with the Albanians in an area in the northwest, and shelling set a village close to the capital ablaze.(Read photo caption below)
It came into effect at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT) after the bloodiest week of the conflict. Up to 30 people have been killed over the past six days, compared with around 100 victims during more than five months of sporadic fighting prior to that.
At least 20 people were reported injured overnight in clashes around the northwestern village of Radusa near Kosovo and in the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo further south.
Most of those reported dead and injured were from the security forces. The Albanian fighters rarely announce their casualties.
The fighting appeared to die down as the truce took effect. ''Everything is quiet,'' a Defense Ministry source said.
An Albanian source said that the fighters would respect the NATO-brokered truce.
The peace deal leaders of the main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political parties are due to sign on Monday is supposed to pave the way for Albanian disarmament in return for greater rights for the one-third Albanian minority.
The signing of the agreement, brokered by Western envoys at the southern lakeside resort of Ohrid over the past two weeks, had looked in doubt after the ferocious fighting in recent days and it is only the first step on a difficult path toward peace.
A Macedonian official said the Albanians, who have taken swathes of territory in the northwest of the country, were expected to withdraw to the lines of a July cease-fire under the truce brokered by NATO special envoy Pieter Feith. A Western source said the withdrawal would be finalized on Monday.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has spearheaded efforts to end the conflict, will visit Skopje to attend the signing of the political deal, a spokeswoman said.
The Macedonian official said NATO Secretary-General George Robertson was also expected to fly in for Monday's ceremony.
But diplomats say an end to the conflict that has threatened to spark a fifth Balkan war in a decade is still far off.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Smoke rises around the 14th century East-Orthodox church in the ethnically mixed village of Ljuboten, some 6 miles north of Skopje, during the fight between Macedonian government forces and ethnic Albanian fighters on Aug. 12, 2001. Leaders of the main ethnic Albanian and Macedonian political parties are meant to sign a deal Monday in Skopje aimed at defusing the six-month-old conflict. But diplomats say it has little chance if the fierce fighting continues. (Oleg Popov/Reuters)