Word: macedonian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...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...
...NATO's Secretary-General George Robertson last week agreed with E.U. foreign ministers on a clean division of labor: NATO's prime focus is to patrol the border between Kosovo and Macedonia and offer intelligence and other support to Macedonian armed forces. The E.U., meanwhile, is concentrated on lowering the political temperature in Macedonia itself. "We can't fall into the trap of over-reacting and following the rebels' tracks into a broadening of the conflict," said Wolfgang Petritsch, the former E.U. negotiator on Kosovo and now the High Commissioner for Bosnia-Herzegovina. "We'll see soon enough what effect...
...Guerrilla campaigns aren't measured by territory conquered, or by the outcome of a single battle. In fact, we can't apply purely military criteria. The Macedonian government has scored an important victory over the weekend, but it won't mean very much unless the can capitalize on it politically. The guerrilla campaign has caused the government significant political damage in its relations with the ethnic-Albanian minority, and the country's future may be determined by whether the government is able to repair that damage by political means...
...large number of refugees appeared to cross over into Kosovo during the Macedonian military's offensive. Could that change the political picture...