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Macedonia Seeks Kosovo Buffer Zone After Deadly Border Clashes
SKOPJE, March 4 (News Agencies) - Macedonia called for the U.N. to urgently set up a buffer zone between it and Kosovo after three of its soldiers were killed Sunday in clashes with Albanian gunmen along the tense border.
Macedonia wanted an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday to get international backing for the proposal, said Foreign Minister Srdjan Kerim.
Kerim was speaking after a meeting in Skopje with other Macedonian leaders, the commander of the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, General Carlo Cabigiosu, and Hans Haekkerup, the civilian administrator of the U.N. Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK).
Macedonia's government, KFOR and the U.N. had decided to work together to control the border, he said.
Haekkerup told journalists he was very worried that events in Kosovo might spill over into Macedonia, or vice versa, threatening stability in the region.
Skopje shut the entire Macedonia-Kosovo border following clashes around the northern village of Tanusevci during which three Macedonian soldiers were killed.
A jeep with Macedonian soldiers had triggered a landmine near the northern Macedonian village of Tanusevci, KFOR spokesman Major Phorten Heber told journalists.
One soldier was killed instantly and a second died before a KFOR helicopter could arrive to rescue him. The third fatality was that of a soldier shot by sniper fire in a separate incident outside Tanusevci.
Heber said the Macedonian authorities had appealed for KFOR's help after the latest killings.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had observers posted in the area around the time of the incidents, strongly condemned the latest violence, including the laying of landmines.
The U.S. ambassador to Skopje said Sunday that the United States would back an "appropriate" response by Macedonia to the violence in the border region.
"We understand the need and obligation for Macedonia to respond to this threats on its territory," Michael Einik told journalists.
But he added that it "should be appropriate to the situation on the ground and should be done in a coordination with NATO."
Einik added: "This is a very complex issue. Macedonia has asked NATO to act more aggressively on the other side of Kosovo border."
He stressed that this was not an "inter-ethnic conflict" but an "aggression" that threatened Macedonia's stability.
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica sent a message of sympathy to his Macedonian counterpart Boris Trajkovski over the deaths of the three soldiers.
"I sincerely hope that the international community, which is committed to keeping the peace and ensuring security in the piece part of the Balkans, will at last begin to honor its commitment," he wrote in a telegram quoted by the Beta news agency.
Albania also condemned the violence Sunday by what it described as Albanian "extremists" and appealed to political leaders in Kosovo to distance themselves from acts of violence.
"These acts harm the image of Albanians across the region and deprive them of the support and sympathy given to them during the war in Kosovo," said a statement from Tirana.
Lieutenant Colonel Owens, a KFOR representative in Debelde, confirmed the reported clashes, saying: "We have observed mortar fire along the border and movement of small groups of men dressed in black in Kosovo."
According to villagers, shooting started early on Sunday. They said an ethnic Albanian who was defending the village of Tanusevci was also seriously wounded.
Ethnic Albanian armed groups, who Macedonia says have crossed over the Kosovo border, have been occupying the area of Tanusevci for more than 40 days.
Sporadic fighting has been reported for the past two weeks between Macedonian forces and Albanian gunmen, raising fresh fears that violence could spill over from Kosovo into its multi-ethnic southern neighbor.
A quarter of the two million people living in Macedonia are ethnic Albanians.
Last week, Macedonia's Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski accused NATO-led peacekeepers of failing to monitor its border with Kosovo.
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