Rights group accuses Macedonia

A NATO soldier examines weapons handed in by Albanian insurgents

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A leading human rights group has accused the Macedonian government of committing "grave abuses" against ethnic Albanian civilians.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the largest human rights group in the Unitedd States, made the accusation in a report titled "Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001."

Ethnic Albanian rebels began their insurgency against the Macedonian government in February, saying they were fighting for greater rights for the country's Albanian population, a third of Macedonia's two million people.

Under a Western-backed peace plan signed last month, the rebels agreed to surrender their weapons to NATO forces, a process that began last week.

Macedonia's Parliament is debating constitutional changes that would upgrade rights for the Albanian minority.

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According to the HRW report Macedonian police troops were responsible for 10 civilian deaths during an assault on the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten in August 2001.

The troops allegedly conducted a house-to-house attack on August 12, shooting dead six civilians and burning at least 22 homes, sheds and stores.

The report also documented "indiscriminate shelling" that killed a further three civilians. One more was shot dead as he tried to flee the village.

There were also reports of widespread beatings.

"Ethnic Macedonian vigilantes beat three men unconscious in full view of the Macedonian police on August 12," said the report.

"One of the men was shot in the head by the Macedonian police as he attempted to flee the beating.

"Police separated more than 100 men and boys from their wives and children and took them to police stations in Skopje, where they were subjected to severe beatings."

The report said Macedonia's Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski was present in the village when the worst violations took place.

HRW has called for an immediate investigation, both by the Macedonian government and by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten," Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the group's Europe and Central Asia division, told CNN.

"It is deeply disturbing that the minister of interior appears to have been so intimately involved in one of the worst abuses of the war."

A two-week investigation by the group included a visit to Ljuboten, interviews with alleged victims and witnesses, and examination of photographic evidence.

Researchers said they found no evidence that the rebel Albanian National Liberation Army was in the village.