The Macedonian government has today launched a fierce attack on northern villages held by ethnic Albanian insurgents. This comes despite an ultimatum from the rebels to stop fighting or face a guerrilla war in Macedonia's cities.
Artillery fire shortly after daybreak was followed by the sound of exploding mortar rounds and heavy machine gun fire west of Kumanovo, where the insurgents hold several hillside villages. The army's fire appeared directed at the villages of Slupcane and Matejce.
The fighting seemed to serve as a rejection of rebel demands issued on Sunday, when they threatened to strike Skopje airport, police stations and other targets in or near Macedonia's cities, unless government forces stopped their assaults.
The airport continued operating today, but at least two airlines, British Airways and Yugoslavia's JAT, stopped flights in anticipation of possible trouble. "We will not allow any incidents," said the airport's director, Ernad Fejzulahu, adding that police security had been increased.
On Sunday, a rebel leader known as Commander Hoxha said that they would attack "the airport, oil refineries, police stations in towns and other government installations," if the government targeted rebel forces in the north or in Aracinovo, a town just a few miles southeast of Skopje taken by the insurgents on Saturday.
Asked today about the ultimatum, Commander Hoxha suggested targets could be shelled in retaliation for the new push by government troops, saying: "Our artillery is in position." He said any such action would come later in the day.
He added that a civilian was killed and four injured today in government shelling. A soldier was killed and four other government fighters wounded in fighting west of Kumanovo on Sunday.
In the Kosovon capital of Pristina, Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN high commissioner for refugees, said yesterday that the total number of refugees from Macedonia in Kosovo had reached more then 29,000 since the eruption of the ethnic Albanian insurgency in February.
The ethnic-Albanian majority province of Serbia, a republic of Yugoslavia, has served both as refuge for those fleeing the fighting and as a supply base for the insurgents, despite attempts by Nato troops there to stop fighters and weapons from crossing into Macedonia.
The fighting north of Kumanovo focuses on a strategically important rebel-held region near Lipkovo - insurgents there control a reservoir that normally supplies about 100,000 residents of Kumanovo with water.
Since the rebels cut off water supplies nearly a week ago, Kumanovo's population has been supplied with tanker trucks from Macedonia and Bulgaria. The International Red Cross has tried to help end the shortages by mediating between the authorities and the rebels, with little success.
Spokeswoman Amanda Williamson said that a team of engineers is ready to go up to Lipkovo lake and restart the supply system, but "we are still waiting for the security situation to improve" - shorthand for an end to fighting and a rebel invitation, both unlikely any time soon.
The lack of water - and fears that fighting may come to their city - have led some to leave Kumanovo.
The militants say they are fighting for broader rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up between a quarter and a third of Macedonia's 2 million people. The government contends the rebels are separatists bent on seizing territory and launched an offensive to drive them from northern villages where they are based.
Western governments have condemned the insurgents and have urged both sides to avoid an all-out war in Macedonia - until this year the only former Yugoslav republic to have escaped the bloodshed.
Related articles
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11.06.2001, comment: Right off the map
Useful links
Macedonian defence ministry
Government of the Republic of Macedonia
Albanian.com: Albanians in Macedonia
Albanian foreign ministry
