Why the rebels are fighting

By CNN's Chris Burns

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- It is a land where steeples and minarets share the skyline, where road signs are in Cyrillic and Roman spelling, where Muslim Albanians are in a governing coalition led by Christian Macedonians.

Macedonia was the only republic to break bloodlessly from Yugoslavia. It was the staging point for NATO-led KFOR troops that allowed ethnic Albanians to return to Kosovo after Serb forces were driven out of the province in 1999.

So why the insurgency by ethnic Albanian guerrillas here? And how much popular support do they have?

The outbreak of fighting around Tetovo, a mainly ethnic Albanian town, offers clues.

Gun battles in the hills above Tetovo broke out during a demonstration there on Wednesday by the opposition Prosperity and Democracy Party.

The ethnic Albanian group says the rebels could gain support unless Macedonia provides more rights guarantees and better opportunities for Albanians, who make up more than a quarter of the nation's population.

Albanian youths in the town, plagued by high unemployment, cheered on the guerrillas clashing with police in the mountains above.

So far, at least, the fighting has not spread inside Tetovo, so any popular support appears largely verbal.

Macedonian authorities say while some of the fighters are home-grown, most came over the border from Kosovo. They are former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, rebels who have found a new cause, the authorities say.

The insurgency in Macedonia comes as Albanian rebels are being squeezed in Kosovo and southern Serbia. In Kosovo, former rebels were routed in local elections last autumn, marginalising them politically.

Some officials at the time worried privately that the defeat could lead former rebels to again wield the only sources of power they have got left -- their weapons, and for some, lucrative smuggling routes.

In southern Serbia meanwhile, KFOR has begun handing back to Serb forces a buffer zone at the Kosovo border, established in June 1999 to separate KFOR and the Yugoslav army.

That five-kilometre-wide buffer has turned into a haven for the rebels, who have staged attacks in southern Serbia, demanding autonomy for the Albanian majority in the area. The change of government in Belgrade last October made the hand-back possible.

Rebel attacks stepped up in the past month after post-Milosevic Yugoslavia and Macedonia signed a border treaty, ending a dispute over their fuzzy boundaries and paving the way for closer enforcement of a mountainous area used by rebels and smugglers.

Losing power and influence in Kosovo and southern Serbia, the rebels are seen by some as seizing on political grievances among Albanians in Macedonia to remain vital.

But some Albanian leaders in Macedonia and Kosovo say the political demands, while perhaps capitalised on by the rebels, are legitimate and need to be addressed to avoid arousing more popular support for the guerrillas.

The Macedonian government appeared to heed the warnings.

As fighting raged around Tetovo on Thursday, it announced the formation of two crisis groups -- one for security and the other for political concerns. The latter appears to acknowledge that more reform is needed for Albanians.

At the same time, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski promises to be tough on the rebels, whom the government calls terrorists, and says Albanians must seek reform through "ballots not bullets."

Macedonian officials are demanding KFOR do more to prevent rebels and weapons from being spirited over the rugged border from Kosovo, and have even pressed NATO to take on the rebels inside Macedonia -- an action beyond the current KFOR mandate.

NATO allies as well as countries in the region, including neighbouring Albania, have rallied around the Skopje government, condemning the rebel movement.

But as some Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders agree, an iron-fisted approach to rebels -- especially mountain-based rebels -- can only go so far. It is also important to win over, or keep, hearts and minds that could be persuaded to support a rebel cause.

All that without giving the impression that authorities are trying to appease the rebels themselves -- a delicate balancing act.

Fighting breaks out in Macedonia
March 15, 2001
Balkans tension spreading
March 14, 2001
Yugoslav army enter buffer zone
March 14, 2001
Gun battle on Kosovo border
March 7, 2001
Macedonia: A Balkan time bomb?
March 5, 2001

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Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbian Ministry of Information
Government of Macedonia

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