Macedonia marks independence day

Trajkovski: 'Pledged to safeguard Macedonia'

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia is marking the 10th anniversary of its peaceful independence from Yugoslavia still hoping to avoid all-out war.

NATO has resumed collections weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels after parliament approved constitutional changes giving the Albanian population greater rights.

Macedonia was the only country to gain independence from federal Yugoslavia without bloodshed but six months ago an ethnic Albanian uprising threatened that achievement.

And there has been little celebrating in Macedonia with no official functions planned.

A banner headline in the daily Vest newspaper read "Merry Holiday -- if you have anything to celebrate" while the daily Dnevnik said "Independent Macedonia has become uncertain Macedonia."

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President Boris Trajkovski said: "Time will show whether this peace plan passes the test of history, but in it, we have pledged to safeguard Macedonia as our sovereign state, its territorial integrity and borders preserved."

In a speech ahead of a national holiday on Saturday, Trajkovski added: "Using some internal weaknesses of Macedonian society, they (the rebels) practically achieved their goal of destabilising our state."

Under the peace agreement thrashed out with Albanian political groups, Macedonia is to give greater prominence to the Albanian language and more public service jobs to Albanians.

The rebels have agreed to surrender their more than 3,000 weapons but there has been concern expressed that the fighters have many more arms.

NATO has been charged with collecting the weapons in a 30-day mission called Operation Essential Harvest.

In phase one of the operation -- carried out before the Macedonian parliament agreed to the peace deal -- NATO collected 1,200 weapons.

On Friday -- after the parliament voted 91-19 in favour of the constitutional changes - NATO began phase two of the mission.

As the weapons are surrendered Macedonia's politicians are drafting the constitutional changes which are due to be submitted to parliament within 10 days. Once the package is agreed the rebels will hand in the final third of their weapons.

There has been talk of a further international force entering Macedonia once Operation Essential Harvest is over with a brief to fill any security vacuum caused by the alliance's departure.

But it remains unclear who would form the force, how big it would be and what orders it would have.