Macedonians Smash Albanian Property

Outraged by the rebel slaying of five soldiers, Macedonian Slavs smashed dozens of houses and shops belonging to ethnic Albanians in a southern town in a rampage that lasted into early Thursday.

Police said about 100 houses were damaged and a mosque was set ablaze in riots that began Wednesday in Bitola, about 90 miles south of Skopje. State radio said 13 people were slightly injured, including three grazed by bullets fired by ethnic Albanians defending their property. Five people were arrested.

The violence added to tension fueled by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's decision to push for a declaration of war against ethnic Albanian rebels, despite international appeals to resolve the conflict peacefully.

His decision Wednesday came less than a full day after five soldiers died and seven were wounded in rebel attacks — the most serious escalation of violence in weeks. There was no word early Thursday on when a special parliamentary session would be convened on Georgievski's request.

In Brussels, Belgium, a representative of the rebels shrugged off the declaration of war threat.

"De facto, we have a state of war already," said Musa Xhaferri, described as a political representative for the National Liberation Army, based in Switzerland.

Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski told The Associated Press that sporadic clashes with the rebels continued early Thursday on two fronts — near the second-largest town of Tetovo in the northwest and near Kumanovo in the north of the country.

The new fighting underlined the government's tenuous hold on areas near the border with the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

"The terrorists are still coming from Kosovo and are regrouping," Markovski said. NATO-led peacekeepers in ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo increased their presence Wednesday on the border with Macedonia to intercept any fighters and supplies heading toward the conflict areas.

On Thursday in Bitola, home to three of the slain soldiers, friends and relatives wept as they gathered for a memorial service at the city hall. In indirect criticism of the rioting, Orthodox Bishop Petar warned, "the violence is tearing apart the cosmopolitan spirit of Bitola," — a mixed community of Slavic Christians, Slavic Muslims, and ethnic Albanians, at about three percent Bitola's smallest group.

Alluding to the ethnic Albanians and the growing wedge between them and Macedonian Slavs, mourner Veselin Spasovski declared: "If they wanted division, they got it."

"It was terrible, but that's how people felt," he said of the riots.

Inside the charred wreckage of a wrecked merchant's stall, an elderly ethnic Albanian rummaged through debris. The man, who refused to give his name, said dozens of his relatives had left out of fear for their safety, but "I just can't leave, my whole life is here."

Fighting began in northern Macedonia in February when militants took up arms to demand broder rights for the nation's ethnic Albanian minority — about one-third of Macedonia's 2 million people.

Several government offensives have failed to dislodge the militants. A state of war would give the government sweeping power to fight rebels and give President Boris Trajkovski the ability to rule by decree. Macedonia could impose a draft, seal its borders and ban demonstrations.

But it would also further complicate attempts at a negotiated settlement, amid Western fears that continued fighting will add to Balkan instability.

A similar initiative was defused last month by international officials who persuaded leaders to jump-start negotiations. Macedonia's leaders have since established a broad-based coalition government intended to bring Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders together. But that coalition remains riven by disagreement.

By MISHA SAVIC
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