Tetovo in grip of war fear as fighting becomes fiercer

As the Macedonian cabinet went into emergency session in Skopje, 30 kilometres to the east, journalists reported the constant rumble of lorries as heavy weapons were moved up towards positions held by the ethnic Albanian rebels.

Reports of more attacks on Macedonian police were coming in and the Interior Ministry confirmed that a police station in Zajas, 100 kilometres south-west of Skopje, was twice raked with automatic gunfire during the night.

Many shops in Tetovo were closed and, as pillars of smoke rose from the slopes above Macedonia's second largest city, people were buying up extra stocks of food and other supplies from those shops which were still open. Huge explosions could be heard every few seconds outside the city.

Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski was quoted by Radio Macedonia as telling parliament that security forces were "confronting terrorism".

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas have been fighting Macedonian security forces for almost a month in this region along the border with Kosovo.

NATO General-Secretary George Robertson, in Athens for a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, criticised the ethnic Albanian extremists in northern Macedonia and warned that NATO would not tolerate extremism in the region.

Robertson said time was running out for the extremists but ruled out a military mission in Macedonia for the time being, saying NATO had no mandate for such an operation and that Macedonia had not requested one.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer arrived in Skopje where he immediately held talks with Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim. Fischer was intending to meet other Macedonian officials and to hold a press conference. Before leaving Zagreb for Skopje he said that "violence and aggressive attempts to change borders are absolutely unacceptable."

Ethnic Albanian rebels, esconced in an old castle only a kilometre away in the hills above Tetovo, warned of more attacks and of "war". A spokesman for the Albanian "national liberation army" (UCK), a commander identified only as "Sokoli", told the Skopje-based daily newspaper Fakti that the Macedonian government must declare its willingness to act "before it is too late."

Referring to the possibility of broadening the fighting to urban areas, he said that rebel forces were "just waiting for our word. We are not just having fun".

The German government ordered the withdrawal some tank personnel after a German force at a base near Tetovo was fired on by suspected Albanian rebels. German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said: "We will not allow anyone to lead us around by the nose, and certainly not Albanian terrorists."

Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova accused the Macedonian government of having ignored problems for too long. Rugova, speaking from Berlin, said "the government must listen to the demands of the Albanians otherwise the radicals will get a boost and that could result in a fierce conflict."

Rugova is the chairman of the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

The number of European Union (E.U.) unarmed observers in the security zone along Kosovo's border is being increased from nine to 30, E.U. diplomats said.

Macedonian authorities ordered media in Skopje not to re-transmit foreign television programmes and lodged a protest with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over its reporting of the conflict.

(kil/dpa)