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NATO Resumes Collection of NLA Weapons in Macedonia
RADUSA, Macedonia, Sept 7 (News Agencies) - NATO troops started collecting Albanian weapons again on Friday, a day after Macedonia's parliament approved a peace deal giving more rights to the country's large Muslim Albanian minority.
Up to 200 fighters from the National Liberation Army (NLA) began handing in their weapons in pairs at a low breeze-block building on the edge of a football field near the northwestern mountain village of Radusa.
NLA commander Ratif Msusi said his men had brought 160 weapons, a captured Macedonian army tank and personnel carrier plus a large amount of ammunition.
British NATO military spokesman Major Alex Dick declined to confirm any figures but he said that most of the weapons were AK-47 assault rifles, describing some of them as "Grade A".
Dick also said a number of anti-tank weapons had been handed in and journalists saw tank shells transported to the site on a tractor-drawn trailer.
"It has been a very orderly performance by the NLA. So far it has been a success. We still expect by September 13th to have the next third of weapons," he said.
NATO's Operation Essential Harvest aims to collect 3,300 arms in three phases by September 26th. More than 1,200 weapons were gathered in the first phase of the operation last week.
The figure of 160 weapons, if confirmed, is low compared to collections made in the first three days of last week.
"We always thought this would be lower in productivity than other areas," Dick said.
The collection site was established at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Thursday and would remain open throughout Friday and longer "if necessary", NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson said.
Unstable weapons are to be destroyed at the site, while the rest of the arms will be transported to a Greek-run base in central Macedonia.
Explosives, mines and ammunition will be blown up there, while the arms will be packed for transport to northern Greece, where they will be destroyed at a factory.
A British military spokesman said NATO troops had established two security cordons around the collection site at distances of one and five kilometers.
He said troops had deployed to secure the collection site "within hours" of a vote on Thursday by the Macedonian parliament to approve a peace plan signed by the leaders of Macedonia's main political parties - two Muslim Albanian and two Slav.
Under the August 13th agreement, Macedonia will grant an amnesty to most NLA members who disarm and will change its constitution to give more rights to the Albanian minority in the fragile Balkan state by September 27th.
Essential Harvest is being carried out in parallel with the political process of implementing the peace accord.
Some 600 British, Dutch, Italian and Norwegian troops were stationed around the collection site in Radusa as the NLA began surrendering their arms to soldiers here.
Italian personnel were stationed on high ground above the village of Radusa lying in a small valley between scrub-covered hills.
The weapons site opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) and was scheduled to close at 4:00 pm, but it may be reopened if more time is needed, NATO sources said.
A Russian-made T-55 tank, one of two seized by the NLA, was destroyed with plastic explosive charges set by British and Norwegian experts.
"It is another piece of NLA armory and we have disposed of it in the appropriate manner," Hutchison said.
Hutchison said the T-55, by far the heaviest piece of weaponry handed in by the NLA, had been damaged and was able to fire shells but could not be moved.
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