Blast as Macedonia probe begins

Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte arrives to announce twin war crimes investigations

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A blast has shaken the tense northwestern city of Tetovo as an investigation begins into war crimes allegedly committed during Macedonia's six-month insurgency.

The explosion, the second in four days, came hours after U.N. war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte announced twin investigations involving government soldiers and ethnic Albanian rebels.

There were no injuries in Tuesday's blast, near the offices of the European Union's mission in Tetovo, and no claim of responsibility.

An ethnic Albanian militant group, the Albanian National Army, said it had caused an earlier explosion and warned of more actions.

Earlier Del Ponte, speaking in Skopje, gave no details about the planned investigations except to say that one would focus on accusations that Macedonian forces committed crimes against civilians and prisoners of war and the other on crimes allegedly committed by ethnic Albanian rebels.

Special police reinforcements deploy near Trebos, where several police died in an ambush Sunday

Later, after meeting Del Ponte, Macedonia's Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said that one investigation would focus on the activities of government forces in the village of Ljuboten near Skopje, where six ethnic Albanian civilians were killed in August.

The second investigation was related to the killing of Macedonian soldiers in Vejce, a village near Tetovo, the statement said.

Ethnic Albanian militants ambushed and killed eight Macedonian soldiers there in April, The Associated Press reported. Ethnic Albanian insurgents began fighting Macedonian government forces in February, then agreed to a cease-fire in August in exchange for more rights.

In a move that could further threaten stability, a key Macedonian party announced Tuesday it will leave the broad-based coalition government formed during the peace process.

The departure of the Social Democratic Alliance would force a reconstruction of the government as party holds the defense and foreign affairs portfolios, and a deputy prime minister post.

"We joined that coalition since the country was under attack, now we are more useful as the opposition," Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski told AP.

An Interior Ministry investigation of burial sites in the Tetovo region is expected to begin Wednesday. Authorities claim the sites contain bodies of Macedonian civilians killed by ethnic Albanian insurgents earlier this year.