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Macedonia likely to take NATO word on rebel arms
Macedonia`s government is likely to settle for a much lower figure for weapons to be collected from ethnic Albanian guerrilla by NATO than the estimate by security services hard-liners, a senior official said.
Macedonia's government is likely to settle for a much lower figure for weapons to be collected from ethnic Albanian guerrilla by NATO than the estimate by security services hard-liners, a senior official said.
"But this is just the beginning and there might be many obstacles along the way," he told Reuters as the first few hundred of 3,500 NATO troops tasked with disarming rebels under a precarious peace plan poured into the ex-Yugoslav republic. Determined not to get stuck in another indefinite, costly peacekeeping mission as in Bosnia or Kosovo, NATO set a strict 30-day deadline for the rebels to disarm. The voluntary handover scheme is expected to begin next week.
But critics say the mandate is not long or robust enough to overcome ethnic distrust and enmity in Macedonia.
Guerrillas fear persecution by security forces after NATO leaves the country with their guns while Skopje suspects the rebels will conceal firepower to be rolled out again later. Analysts say powerful hard-liners on either side may try to sabotage the Western-mediated compromise pact under which Albanians are to get minority rights previously unpalatable to Macedonians, but not the outright autonomy they initially sought. The nationalist Interior Ministry, the fiercest proponent of all-out war on the rebels before being reined in by Western peace diplomacy, issued an estimate of the guerrilla arsenal on Wednesday vastly greater than others.
The ministry, citing "intelligence sources," said the guerrillas had at least 60,000 heavy and light weapons even though NATO has estimated the rebels number no more than a few thousand at most.
Sector commanders in the National Liberation Army, which occupies northern Macedonia's hill country, told Reuters the NLA had about 2,300 weapons. NATO's initial estimate was 3,000.
"By the end of the weekend NATO experts and representatives from the interior and defense ministries will (agree) on an estimate of the number of weapons that need to be collected," said the government official, who asked not to be named.
"I doubt it will be anything near the figures of the ministry of interior. Most probably it will be a compromise figure closer to the estimates of the NLA," he said.
Bureau Report
"But this is just the beginning and there might be many obstacles along the way," he told Reuters as the first few hundred of 3,500 NATO troops tasked with disarming rebels under a precarious peace plan poured into the ex-Yugoslav republic. Determined not to get stuck in another indefinite, costly peacekeeping mission as in Bosnia or Kosovo, NATO set a strict 30-day deadline for the rebels to disarm. The voluntary handover scheme is expected to begin next week.
But critics say the mandate is not long or robust enough to overcome ethnic distrust and enmity in Macedonia.
Guerrillas fear persecution by security forces after NATO leaves the country with their guns while Skopje suspects the rebels will conceal firepower to be rolled out again later. Analysts say powerful hard-liners on either side may try to sabotage the Western-mediated compromise pact under which Albanians are to get minority rights previously unpalatable to Macedonians, but not the outright autonomy they initially sought. The nationalist Interior Ministry, the fiercest proponent of all-out war on the rebels before being reined in by Western peace diplomacy, issued an estimate of the guerrilla arsenal on Wednesday vastly greater than others.
The ministry, citing "intelligence sources," said the guerrillas had at least 60,000 heavy and light weapons even though NATO has estimated the rebels number no more than a few thousand at most.
Sector commanders in the National Liberation Army, which occupies northern Macedonia's hill country, told Reuters the NLA had about 2,300 weapons. NATO's initial estimate was 3,000.
"By the end of the weekend NATO experts and representatives from the interior and defense ministries will (agree) on an estimate of the number of weapons that need to be collected," said the government official, who asked not to be named.
"I doubt it will be anything near the figures of the ministry of interior. Most probably it will be a compromise figure closer to the estimates of the NLA," he said.
Bureau Report