Word: macedonia
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...still a significant possibility of a broader conflict to come, because the guerrillas' insurgency appears to have triggered the beginnings of that by-now familiar Balkan ritual of "ethnic cleansing." The rebels reportedly expelled some 600 non-Albanians from the villages they captured on Sunday, while elsewhere in Macedonia ethnic-Albanian business owners have shut up shop and fled following threats by a shadowy Macedonian militia group. And if the chain of "ethnic cleansing" is allowed to gather momentum, Macedonia will effectively be in the grip of a civil war whose outcome will likely realize the rebels' original objective...
...Although NATO has vowed to send a force of 3,000 troops to Macedonia to help disarm the rebels, the alliance has said it will only go in once there's a political accord in terms of which the rebels agree to be disarmed. The Western alliance had initially denounced the guerrillas as "terrorists" and "murderers," and its insistence on dialogue was aimed at pressing the authorities in Skopje to address the grievances of Macedonia's ethnic-Albanians - grievances the guerrillas had sought to exploit to build support for their insurgency. But NATO's position appears to be moving inexorably...
...borders. The Macedonian insurgency began with small groups of men infiltrated from NATO-controlled Kosovo, who then launched attacks on security force personnel. And despite some verbal wrist-slapping from NATO, the reward for that strategy may turn out to be a place at the negotiating table to determine Macedonia's future. The failure of the alliance to act on its harsh criticisms of the rebels also signaled an ambivalence to the mainstream ethnic-Albanian parties in Skopje, who have ratcheted up their political demands for a bi-national state to the point that accord seems beyond reach...
...MACEDONIA A Chance at Peace nato promised to send some 3,000 troops to Macedonia to help with disarmament of ethnic Albanian rebels if a political settlement could be reached and rebels persuaded to lay down their arms. But conditions for the deployment seemed remote. Talks in Skopje between parties representing the country's ethnic Albanian and Macedonian Slav ethnic groups foundered on differences over constitutional changes. Government forces then broke an 11-day-old cease-fire by launching an offensive on three villages in the hills just outside Skopje...
...still hoping that there will be an agreement, and that it will simply have to go in and supervise the implementation of that agreement. But if the fighting continues, presumably they'd have to move to a Plan B - a more robust engagement. NATO has a stake in Macedonia's security. The airport in Skopje is still the main supply and transit route for troops bound for the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and Macedonia remains an important logistical center of that mission. So although they haven't made it public, NATO is already planning a response if the security...