Word: albanian
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...Much then depends on what direction Macedonia's Albanian community chooses...
...only route to avoiding war, presumably, is constitutional talks, but at this point there's no one in the government or the international community who is prepared to recognize the rebels as a legitimate force to talk to. The fact is that there are Albanian parties in the government, and there have been ongoing discussions. But the rebels are doing an end run around those politicians and trying to force the issue. And both Macedonia and the international community remain skeptical as to whether the guerrillas are actually a force for democracy. So there's unlikely to be any progress...
Macedonia's "mini war" isn't going to end anytime soon. Government forces prepared Wednesday to relaunch what their commanders have called a "final offensive" against Albanian separatist guerrillas, after the insurgents appeared to reject a 24-hour ultimatum to lay down their arms or leave Macedonia. After launching a heavy artillery bombardment of guerrilla positions in the hills around Tetovo, Tuesday, government forces declared a unilateral cease-fire to allow the rebels to respond to their ultimatum. But there was no indication that the separatist fighters, many of whom are veterans of Kosovo?s KLA, have any intention...
...required to dislodge the guerrillas from the high ground, and might suffer heavy casualties if they tried to charge up the hillsides into the villages held by the rebels. Having reinforced the town of Tetovo to stop the rebels swarming down and claiming it as the capital of the Albanian political entity they're trying to create in Macedonia, government forces are more likely now to settle in for siege, surrounding, harassing and containing the guerrillas while NATO forces along the Kosovo border stem the flow of men and weapons to the insurgents...
...prove to be a crucial test for the rebels. The Macedonian government, backed by NATO, has denounced the insurgency as an export from Kosovo rather than a primarily indigenous affair. Still, observers have been shocked at the extent of support the insurgents appear to have garnered from ordinary ethnic-Albanians in Macedonia, and both the minority Albanian and majority Slavic Macedonian communities appear to have been radicalized by the events of the past week. But unless the rebels can make good on their promise to open new fronts of battle elsewhere in Macedonia, the combination of attacks by government forces...