Robertson condemns Albanian rebels

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO has given its strongest backing yet to the Macedonian government's crackdown against ethnic Albanian rebels.

In a statement on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said he "strongly condemned" recent actions by extremist groups in Macedonia against "government security forces."

Robertson's comments were in contrast to praise he gave to both Serb and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo after the former took over control of the buffer zone established following the end of the Kosovo conflict.

Commending the restraint and commitment to a peaceful political process shown by both sides, Robertson said: "The successful demilitarisation and peaceful return of government security forces in southern Serbia stands as an important example to other armed groups in the region -- particularly those in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia."

Of the ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia, Robertson said: "Their actions are imposing grave risk and hardship on the very people whose rights they claim to support.

"The regrettable casualties and damage caused by their conflict with government forces is the direct result of their unjustified occupation of towns and villages in the north of the country."

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He added: "We must be very clear that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is an established and well functioning democracy.

"It has recently formed a grand coalition involving the major ethnic Albanian political parties. This coalition is engaged in a broad-based effort to seek democratic solutions to the country's problems.

"I support these efforts and urge the government to continue to find ways of addressing the legitimate concerns of its public Slav, Albanian and others through democratic political means.

"There is no justification for any citizens of this nation to take up arms against the government."

VIDEO CNN's Stephanie Halasz: Macedonian government attacks rebel bases Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

His statement came as more than 100 terrified ethnic Albanian villagers were being escorted from a rebel-occupied village by Macedonian police, Reuters reported.

Women, children and the elderly were allowed out of Vakcince after government forces fought their way into the first houses of the village.

"They were moved out of a ditch by the police. They were making their way across fields and maybe there was some fire. I'm not sure. I could see them ducking down," a Reuters cameraman said.

One elderly man said there were a lot of wounded people in the village. He said "almost the whole village" were still in their homes.

Earlier on Thursday the Macedonian army launched a major offensive against the rebels taking refuge in villages in the area.

Seven ethnic Albanian civilians were reported killed and five others wounded in shelling.

Six members of the same family were killed when a shell pierced the concrete roof of a basement in which they were sheltering in the village of Slupcane, a key army target, Commander Sokoli told the Reuters.

The casualty report came in as President Boris Trajkovski demanded that ethnic Albanian political leaders renounce a peace pact they had made with the guerrillas despite an official policy rejecting such talks.

"If they do not," he said in a statement, "it will not be possible to work together."

Trajkovski was referring to a peace deal made in secret talks with the guerrillas, with the involvement of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Robert Frowick, senior Balkans envoy of the OSCE has been forced to leave the country after his bid to mediate the deal was denounced by the government's Slav majority as well as major powers.

The European Union strongly condemned the deal between the two main Albanian parties and the guerrillas, whom it accused of committing "terrorist acts," and said it should be torn up.