Macedonians cautiously optimistic about NATO’s plans to collect weapons
By David Josar, Kosovo
bureau
David Josar / Stars and Stripes
The outskirts of Tetovo, Macedonia, have become a virtual ghost town because of fighting
between the National Liberation Army and Macedonian forces. This building was one that
came under siege in one of the many attacks in Tetovo - a town once occupied by NLA
troops. |
TETOVO, Kosovo — Dragan Petrich sweeps broken glass outside his
convenience store. Seven windows were shattered three weeks ago in an exchange of gunfire
between National Liberation Army members and the Macedonian military.
Petrich has a tube of putty and a new pane of glass.
“Maybe now there will be peace,” said the shopkeeper, as he
looked up and down his street and fixed the window. Nearly every store had smashed windows
and doors, and bricks in the buildings’ facades were dotted with bullet holes.
“Maybe there won’t be peace, but this is the best chance so far,” he said.
On Monday, about 4,500 NATO troops begin collecting weapons from the
rebel army, a group of ethnic Albanians who have engaged in armed, bloody clashes with the
Macedonian police and military since early February.
Maybe there will be peace.
Maybe the guerrillas will turn in their weapons.
Maybe NATO intervention will do the job.
“I’m hoping this will work,” said Ljubco Gargon, a
Macedonian who said he was forced to leave his home in Tetovo briefly because of the
fighting. “NATO will help – but I’m not sure if they will help Macedonia or
the rebels. Maybe things will get better.”
For the past two weeks, a ceasefire between the armed militants and
the government force, a NATO precondition for arms collecting, has held.
“We fully anticipate this process will move forward,” NATO
spokesman U.S. Maj. Barry Johnson said. “We have every confidence that the collection
sites will be able to begin Monday as planned.”
Between 4,500 and 5,000 NATO troops have moved into the country over
the past week to begin the mission, he said.
Five weapons collection sites are set up and on Saturday, NATO
officials said, Macedonian security forces would move more than three miles away from the
collection points.
The U.S. will not provide any additional troops for operation
Essential Harvest, but soldiers and airmen already stationed in the Balkans will provide
logistical support, such as reconnaissance from drone aircraft and medical help.
NATO’s weapons collection will take about 30 days, with a third
of the weapons being turned in every 10 days.
In the town of Nikustak, Macedonia, along the northern boundary that
Macedonia shares with Kosovo, a dozen guerrillas relaxed on Saturday and cautiously said
they are ready to turn in their arms.
“We like what we hear,” said Rahsam Ibrahimi, a teacher who
has taken up arms with the rebels since May. “We’re ready to comply.”
Like so many others in Macedonia, Ibrahimi wants the fighting to end
soon.
“I want to go back to work,” he said. “But we have to
do this to keep our rights. We will see if the promises hold.”
Ibrahimi, who wore a generic camouflage uniform and carried a
mud-encrusted AK-47 assault rifle, said the NLA will watch the Macedonian parliament
closely and see if it follows through on its promise to increase rights for ethnic
Albanians.
So far, the agreements have called for recognizing Albanian as an
official language and increasing the number of Albanians in the police force. About 30
percent of Macedonia’s population is ethnic Albanian and 60 percent is Slav.
“It is a very shaky trust,” he said.
It remained unclear whether the arms to be surrendered include at
least two tanks and two armored personnel carriers captured from Macedonian security
forces that the NLA has shown off for the international media the past week. The rebels
have said that they will not hand in the vehicles but will destroy them instead.
Jane’s Defense Weekly reported Saturday that its intelligence
sources estimate the rebels have 8,000 assault rifles, 250 heavy machine guns, 200 sniper
rifles, up to 200 mortars and 50 shoulder launched missile launchers.
Arms collection is just the first of several steps toward peace. The
Macedonian parliament is supposed to grant ethnic Albanians greater rights.
“The collection of weapons is just one part of the
process,” British Col. Paul Edwards said. “We hope the process is moving toward
peace and stability in this country.”
The presence of the Macedonia military was felt throughout over the
weekend throughout Tetovo and the other cities and roads in northwestern Macedonia.
Armed checkpoints were common, although there were also many deserted
checkpoints, fortified with sandbags that had been abandoned by NLA forces after they left
the area and retreated to the mountains.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled through the streets and
sat on the side of the highway that connects Tetovo to Skopje, Macedonia’s capital.
Alban Hassem, an ethnic Albanian, sits in a Nikustak cafe, looking up
and down the street littered with abandoned cars and debris — reminders of the
bloodshed and violence the village has witnessed over the past months.
“Just end,” said Hassem, a truck driver. “I don’t
care how it stops. Just stop the fighting.”
What his friend Bishilm Gashi wants, though, isn’t as simple.
Gashi said NATO could successfully disarm the rebels but then he
wants to know about the future.
“Maybe the NLA will give up its arms this month. But what
happens next month when they get more and Albanians are still angry? What then?” he
asked.
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