Word: albanian
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...SERBIA Border Clashes Fighting flared in the troubled Presevo Valley as Yugoslav security forces clashed with ethnic Albanian rebels near the border with Kosovo. Government soldiers killed 14 insurgents while storming a rebel stronghold in the village of Oraovica, and a Serbian police officer was killed in a separate incident near Presevo. Near Kosovo's eastern border, the Macedonian government extended the deadline for ethnic Albanian separatists to surrender or face a major offensive. Thousands of civilians were reported to be leaving the area to avoid being caught in the crossfire...
...that's only part of the problem faced by the government. There's a scandal brewing in Skopje right now where the army chief-of-staff is facing media accusations of passing secrets to the Albanian rebels. The accusations sound a little far-fetched, and the government is supporting him, but the scandal is a symptom of the long-term problem. Only a month ago, the minister of defense was forced to resign over embezzlement charges. And that's just the most recent in an ongoing series of corruption cases, particularly in the security forces...
...corruption problem may hurt Macedonia even more than the extremists. And of course the economy is in really poor shape, with huge unemployment. Many young people simply don't see any future in studying or working, and that's fertile ground for the growth of extremism in both the Albanian and Macedonian Slav communities. But the government is still standing two weeks after it was created, and it will probably hold on for a while. If they manage to avoid serious civilian casualties in the offensive against the rebels, they'll buy some time...
...Where it backed them in Kosovo, NATO has taken a strong stand against the Albanian separatists in Macedonia and southern Serbia. How might this effect the political future of Kosovo, which remains undecided...
...thing the insurgencies in Macedonia and southern Serbia have done is focused the international community's attention on Albanian nationalism. There are as many Albanians living in the states immediately surrounding Albania - Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, southern Serbia and northern Greece - as there are in Albania itself, and many of them believe it is natural that they should all be part of a single country. Of course to make that happen would require dramatic redrawing of borders, which could only really be achieved through war. The nationalists believe that, with NATO's help, they won the war in Kosovo and were...