Macedonia kills 30 rebels

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia's army claims some 30 ethnic Albanian insurgents were killed in fresh bombardment of rebel positions.

A spokesman said the deaths followed attacks on Saturday on targets, including two convoys, near the northeastern, rebel-held villages of Vakcince and Slupcane.

"The number of terrorists killed today is about 30," army spokesman Blagoja Markovski told a news conference on Saturday.

"Today we have a massive operation. It began at 10:10 a.m. (0810 GMT) when we hit targets in Slupcane. At 10:20 we hit a column of uniformed terrorists to the north of Slupcane.

"We were most active at about 2:30 p.m. when we hit a column to the northwest of Vakcince. We used artillery and tanks in the morning and helicopters in the afternoon," he said.

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Reporters saw three Soviet-made T-55 tanks arrive to reinforce army positions less than two km (1.2 miles) below Vakcince.

They slammed shells into the already ruined hamlet after a short burst of automatic fire from rebels.

Ethnic Albanian insurgents have been battling government forces for several months.

For the last 10 days, rebels have been in a standoff with government forces, who have been trying to flush them from a dozen villages in the country's north.

On Friday, the Red Cross entered the villages during dawn to dusk ceasefires, and evacuated 69 people -- some pregnant and others ill -- but thousands of others remained.

The resumption of military action came as Macedonia's foreign minister resigned amid a leadership restructuring exercise as part of the new unity government.

Foreign Minister Srdjan Kerim quit on Saturday after a key ethnic Albanian party agreed to participate in what is being called a "grand coalition."

Prime Minister Ljubco Georgieveski accepted the resignation ahead of a parliament session scheduled for Sunday when the new coalition government will be approved.

Kerim, who won wide respect for his efforts to persuade Western leaders to back Macedonia's bid to quash the rebel insurgency, is believed to have accepted a role in the country's mission to the United Nations in New York.

CNN has learned that the democratic party SDSM will fill the ministry posts of defence, foreign affairs, health and environment.

Georgieveski's party, the VMRO, will keep the interior minister position.

It's not known which posts the ethnic Albanian party PDP will take at this point.

The coalition replaces Georgievski's previous, smaller alliance of parties.

"The parties reiterated their common interest that the security situation in the country should be their basic task," said Georgievski, who said the cabinet would be revealed on Saturday.

The broad-based government is expected to have the two-thirds majority necessary to approve constitutional reforms demanded by the ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up about a third of the country's two million people.

Leaders of the rebel National Liberation Army, or NLA, were not invited to the bargaining table.

Macedonia's government refuses to negotiate with the militants, describing them as terrorists bent on carving up the country and creating a larger ethnic Albanian state in the Balkans.

The rebels said conditions "for sincere dialogue" would be tough to create and instead called for a cease-fire with government forces as a prelude to talks mediated by international officials.

Western officials, however, threw their support behind the coalition government and Macedonia's efforts to quash the militants.

The 15-nation European Union said the coalition agreement sends a "strong message of unity" and called for an end to the violence.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the coalition agreement a "major step forward" and said it "demonstrates that there is a broad national consensus in Macedonia to support dialogue and to act firmly against the violence."

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Riot targets ethnic Albanians
May 1, 2001

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