Macedonia accuses rebels

Operation Essential Harvest troops attached to NATO begin to pull out of Macedonia

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Ethnic Albanian rebels have been accused by Macedonia's government of shooting at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city of Tetovo.

The rebels recently took part in a weapons amnesty conducted by a NATO force and last week announced that they were disbanding following a Western-brokered peace agreement.

Police spokesman Viktor Sutarov told The Associated Press that the Macedonian police officers returned fire from the checkpoint and that the main police station in Tetovo also came under fire.

He said there were no injuries in the incident.

An ethnic Albanian rebel commander, who asked not to be named, told AP the shooting was a "provocation" by Macedonian government forces.

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James Pardew, the U.S. envoy for Macedonia, is expected to arrive in Skopje to urge the majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians to preserve and implement the peace accord signed last month.

On Sunday, NATO continued to pull out the 4,500 troops it had deployed in Macedonia for the weapons-collection mission.

As the troops withdrew, a German-led follow-up mission of around 1,000 troops was being set up to provide security to civilian peace monitors.

More than 150 civilian monitors are being deployed across Macedonia to check on progress in fulfilling the peace plan signed in August.

The NATO mission to gather weapons saw it collect more than 3,000 rebel weapons.

Ethnic Albanians make up about one-third of Macedonia's two million population.

The rebels say they were fighting for greater rights for ethnic Albanians, but the Macedonian government said they were "terrorists" bent on breaking up the country.

The peace agreement signed by political leaders includes better recognition of the ethnic Albanian language and an increased presence in parliament and the police force.