SKOPJE (Islamweb & News Agencies) - International officials brokering peace in Macedonia appealed to the government to drop plans to redeploy police unilaterally into Albanian regions on Thursday, warning that the move could ignite new violence. (Read photo caption below)
The peace process stumbled into crisis on Wednesday when the nationalist interior minister declared he would send police back into Albanian-inhabited regions even though parliament has not yet pardoned the insurgents, as stipulated by a peace agreement.
Analysts said the move by minister Ljube Boskovski, who opposed the August 13 peace settlement, seemed timed to disrupt a planned visit by the European Union's two top diplomats on Thursday to warn Skopje not to derail the deal.
After apparently unfruitful late-night talks with Macedonian leaders, four top international envoys issued a strong statement saying the government had failed to honor a slew of conditions for reintegrating Albanian areas peacefully.
They said the nationalist-dominated government had dodged a ''fully transparent planning process'' involving international and ethnic Albanian community representatives.
It had not demobilized rogue police reservists and paramilitaries outside ``proper command and control.'' Nor had parliament adopted an amnesty and minority rights reforms crucial to sustaining peace with wary former insurgents.
``We support the re-entry of Macedonian security forces to all (Albanian) areas on an appropriate timeline and in an appropriate manner. The full sovereignty and unitary character of the state is a key component of the Ohrid (peace) Agreement,'' the statement said.
PHOTO CAPTION:
International officials brokering peace in Macedonia appealed to the government to drop plans to redeploy police unilaterally into Albanian regions October 4, 2001, warning that the move could ignite new violence. Two people try to put out a fire in a car after an explosion in the vehicle parked in front of the OSCE offices in Skopje, October 3, 2001. One person was killed and three were injured. (Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters)
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