Macedonia kidnap valley besieged

Thousands of weapons were handed in after last year's Western-brokered deal

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Hundreds of heavily armed Macedonian police have sealed off a valley where five Macedonians kidnapped by ethnic Albanian gunmen are thought to be held.

The Interior Ministry has demanded their release and warned that police would take action. It called on civilians in the area to stay inside their homes until daylight for security reasons.

The incident has raised fears of escalating violence before the first elections on September 15. The country has enjoyed relative peace since a Western-brokered peace deal ended six months of conflict that left it on the edge of civil war.

Some ethnic Albanians, who make up one-third of the country's two million people, are reported to have recently joined rebel groups.

One eyewitness on Friday told Reuters they saw large numbers of police with a dozen armoured personnel carriers outside the village of Zerovjane, halfway between the cities of Tetovo and Gostivar.

Roadblocks with armoured cars were set up around Tetovo and on all exits from the 15-mile stretch of highway linking it to Gostivar. The highway to the capital, Skopje, was blocked.

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"These measures of the Ministry of Interior are totally inappropriate," a Western diplomat told Reuters. "You have to calm down the kidnappers and talk them out of it... you don't move in with a whole army."

"We are closely monitoring the situation but at this point I don't see any reason for the army to get involved," an army source told Reuters.

The diplomat said recent events "fit very well with the impression that there are organised efforts to destabilise the situation and prevent the elections."

The kidnappers seized their victims from a bus and two private cars on the Tetovo-Gostivar road on Thursday night.

They were demanding the release of five ethnic Albanians held for the murder on Monday of two Macedonian policemen in Gostivar. They have threatened to kill their hostages.

Police spokesman Voislav Zafirovski said the kidnappers were "close to Ali Ahmeti," former head of the National Liberation Army which mounted last year's rebellion and a hate figure for hard-line nationalists in Macedonia's government.

They threatened this week to arrest Ahmeti, who was granted an amnesty under the Western-brokered peace pact and is a legally registered candidate leading a recognised political party to the polls.

NATO and EU sources say talk of detaining him is campaign bluff, and a senior government source contradicted Zafirovski, saying the identity of the kidnappers was not known.

An Ahmeti spokesman, Agron Buxhaku, also denied the gunmen were linked to Ahmeti, calling them "a gang of opportunists."

Macedonia narrowly escaped an all-out ethnic civil war last year when Ahmeti's guerrilla army seized territory, drawing a heavy-handed response which shocked the West. A small NATO force of about 700 has been deployed since last August.

The election is a key plank in the Western-brokered peace pact. Ahmeti is running as leader of an ethnic Albanian party formed after the rebels agreed to disarm.

Last week two Macedonian police officers were killed in a drive-by shooting in what were seen as election-related murders.