Word: kosovo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...other words, on accepting at face value the National Liberation Army's claim to have taken up weapons simply to pursue expanded cultural and civil rights within Macedonia's democracy, rather than to create a separate Albanian entity within the country as part of a "Greater Albania" project incorporating Kosovo...
...NATO decide to turn Ahmeti from a "terrorist" into a respectable citizen? Essentially, because the alliance was never prepared to risk exposing its troops to danger in any confrontation with Albanian nationalists. Although it made limited attempts to seal the Kosovo border, across which all of the NLA's weapons, supplies and personnel initially passed, once the guerrillas had proved their ability to survive the clumsy counterinsurgency efforts of the Macedonian security forces, NATO changed its tack, turning the "terrorists" of three months ago into the key partner of today's peace deal...
...NATO may protest that its peace plan requires the disarmament of the ethnic-Albanian guerrillas. Indeed. So did the agreement that ended the Kosovo war two years ago, and NATO failed conspicuously to enforce it there. Perhaps that's why this time the definition of its mission very definitely excludes the term "disarm...
...imagine the rebels handing over all their weapons. Regardless of the political pronouncement of their NATO-sensitive non-combatant leaders, many rank-and-file fighters in the National Liberation Army make no bones about the fact that their objective has been to create an Albanian enclave joined to Kosovo as part of a "Greater Albania." NLA commanders may persuade their men of the wisdom of standing down right now, but the idea of handing over their entire arsenal is unlikely to have much appeal to the fighters - particularly since NATO will presumably act more forcefully to cut rebel supply lines...
...situation that even looks like turning nasty. But, like NATO's promise to simply withdraw if fighting resumes, it's hard to take that at face value. For one thing, NATO troops have actually been in Macedonia all along - Skopje houses the major logistics base for the entire Kosovo peacekeeping operation, and they're not about to withdraw. The reason for the early deployment of the British troops may be to reassure the Macedonian authorities of Western support for the peace effort. Macedonia's parliament still has 45 days to adopt the agreement, and Western leaders will want to ensure...