Macedonia calls 24-hour ceasefire

A house is hit by a tank shell in an artillery blitz preceding the ceasefire

SKOPJE, Macedonia (CNN) -- A 24-hour ceasefire is in force in the Macedonian border areas to give rebels time to surrender or withdraw, the government says.

The ultimatum said Macedonian troops would not fire on ethnic Albanian positions around the town of Tetovo from midnight on Tuesday (2300 GMT) unless attacked.

But a rebel commander, quoted by the Reuters news agency, said the ultimatum would be ignored and threatened to launch an offensive against Tetovo - -Macedonia's second largest city.

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A battle has raged in the hills surrounding Tetovo for a week as troops from the Former Republic of Macedonia attempt to drive rebels forces from the hills.

The ceasefire announcement was preceded by an artillery blitz, which Macedonian officials called a "final operation" to crush the insurgency.

The army started using tanks to shell rebel positions for the first time since the fighting broke out around Tetovo last Wednesday.

The offensive began shortly after -- and despite -- a rebel offer to negotiate in exchange for a ceasefire.

The ultimatum was signed by the interior and defence ministries. It said the shelling had sent "a clear message that we will respond without compromises, decisively and with all means at our disposal."

It said: "After this deadline, Macedonian security forces will continue using all its means against positions of terrorists until they are completely destroyed.

"With the aim of avoiding unnecessary casualties and the loss of life of the innocent citizens whom the terrorists hold as hostages, Macedonia's security forces give the terrorists an ultimatum to put down their weapons and surrender or leave the territory of Macedonia."

CNN's Chris Burns said that after days of blasting away at rebel positions, the government had decided it was time to act decisively before the conflict could widen, perhaps to the general population.

But he said the rebels patrolling the villages of Selce and Lasce in the mountains near Tetovo talked as tough as the government.

A rebel leader told him: "Even if it means we fight to the last soldier, we will enter Tetovo. We want to separate the Albanian part of Macedonia and create an independent country."

Burns said that in Macedonia, the rebels have attracted some degree of public support. Albanians, who make up more than 25% of the country's population, are demanding more rights and opportunity, though few are believed to back a breakaway state.

Skopje insists most of the gunmen come from neighbouring Kosovo. Since last Wednesday, Macedonia's special police have been firing heavily at the slopes near Tetovo but have not been able to move closer to the rebel positions.

European Union security chief Javier Solana, visiting Skopje to back the Macedonian Government, told the rebels they would achieve nothing by force and advised his hosts not to begin talks with them.

"Nothing, and I mean nothing, will be obtained by violent means," Solana said. "It is a mistake to negotiate with the terrorists and we do not recommend it."

Nearly 12,000 people have fled their homes in Macedonia to escape the fighting -- about one-third of them crossed into Albania or southern Serbia and the rest were displaced inside Macedonia's borders, relief organisations said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said there was no "mass movement" of refugees.

Condemned by the West as a small group of extremists without broad popular support, the rebels say they are fighting for better rights for Albanians in Slav-dominated Macedonia.

NATO said on Monday it was sending more troops to help prevent rebels infiltrating Macedonia from the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where the Western security alliance has 38,000 peacekeepers.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Macedonian government
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Kosovo Information
NATO
United Nations

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