Word: kosovo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...There's no simple answer, especially now that the most recent conflict - between Kosovo-backed Albanian insurgents and Macedonian forces around the northwestern town of Tetovo - is smoldering rather than blazing. What is certain is that nothing highlights Macedonia's problems as starkly as armed conflict, which is why the international community is scrambling to prove that whatever its grade on conflict prevention, it can do better in conflict management...
...There are some encouraging signs, especially the near unanimity in condemning the use of force by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. "This situation in Macedonia could spell strike three for the Albanians altogether," says Baton Haxhiu, editor of Kosovo's leading daily Koha Ditore. "Our reputation is being ruined. Our Western friends are turning into enemies." Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Stockholm to meet with leaders of the 15 E.U. countries, said - with an eye to his own problems in Chechnya - "these aren't rebels, but terrorists...
...Putin is not alone in thinking the Americans have given Albanian terrorists too much succor. But across the international community there was general agreement on the best holding pattern: keep arms and men from Kosovo out of Macedonia, back the Macedonian government in its fight against the insurgents, and hope the government wins...
...years ago NATO intervened in Kosovo to defend the ethnic Albanians. Now they recognise that Albanian extremism is threatening to destroy the fragile stability in the war-torn province and beyond. As one senior NATO soldier in Kosovo puts it: "They're extremely close to pushing the entire region over the precipice and into the abyss. And that will mean a massive disaster...
...people behind the latest unrest in Macedonia are mainly members of the Kosovo People's Movement (L.P.K.), the group that gave rise to the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1997. "This isn't the first time we're being called terrorists," says Emrush Xhemajli, president of the L.P.K. in Kosovo. "This isn't the first time we're being chastised. It's just a matter of time before NATO comes to its senses and embraces (the Albanian fighters in Macedonia), just as it did the old K.L.A." Full Story...