Blast Damages Church Complex in Macedonia

A 14th century monastery complex revered by this nation’s Orthodox Christians was damaged by an explosion early Tuesday, the latest act of violence in the troubled country.

Observers and the Macedonian government blamed ethnic Albanian rebels for the destruction and suggested that the attack does not bode well for NATO’s plans to disarm the guerrillas.

No one claimed responsibility for the incident. Guerrilla commanders near the scene denied responsibility.

The explosion came just before U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the supreme commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Europe, gave a positive report to alliance ministers in Brussels about conditions in Macedonia for deploying troops.

The ministers are expected to announce their decision as early as today on whether to deploy a full force of 3,500 troops to the Balkan nation. More than 400 alliance personnel are already on the ground preparing the way.

NATO’s forces would collect arms from ethnic Albanian rebels who are willing to give up their weapons in exchange for amnesty from prosecution. The disarmament would occur at the same time that Macedonia’s parliament considers reforms that would elevate the legal status of the Albanian language and increase the numbers of ethnic Albanians in the country’s police force.

NATO officials condemned the damage to at least one church at the monastery complex Tuesday but said the incident should not be allowed to keep the peace process from moving forward.

“This was a senseless act of extremists meant to strike at the emotions of the Macedonian people and undermine the peace process,” said Maj. Barry Johnson, a spokesman here for NATO. “While we condemn this, we are not going to let it dissuade us from pushing forward with the peace process.”

Commanders of the National Liberation Army, the main rebel group, said they were not responsible for the attack.

“I can completely and categorically say that this was not the NLA,” a local leader identified as Commander Leka told Reuters. “I am convinced it was done by a special team of Macedonians opposed to the peace agreement who want to cause political destabilization.”

A majority of Macedonians are Orthodox Christians; at least 25% of the population is made up of ethnic Albanians, most of whom are Muslim.

The monastery is in Lesok, one of a handful of ethnic Macedonian settlements in the predominantly ethnic Albanian region north and west of Skopje, the country’s capital. NLA guerrillas have been in Lesok for several weeks, and most of the village’s ethnic Macedonian inhabitants have fled. Only about 40 to 50 people remain.

Although the monastery had been rebuilt several times, it stands on the foundation of a medieval church that dates to the 1300s. The damaged facade of a church at the site was still standing Tuesday, but its interior was destroyed. Cultural heritage experts for the government said it appeared that two medieval icons were demolished.

A Western diplomat, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation, said it appeared that the church had been blown up from the inside, perhaps by a bomb. No trace of mortar shells was found.

For ethnic Macedonian government officials, the act reinforced their distrust of the promises of the guerrillas to respect an ongoing cease-fire.

The rebels, said President Boris Trajkovski, “are loudly speaking about the respect of the cease-fire to the international media, but on the ground they are doing something quite different.”

Government spokesman Antonio Milososki warned that the incident “should make NATO think twice about [its limited plans for] voluntary disarmament.”

“This is to make uncomfortable conditions for ethnic Macedonians and non-Muslims so that they will be discouraged from returning home,” he said. “That is the definition of ethnic cleansing.”

In Balkan wars over the past decade, places of worship were often damaged in an effort to wipe out an ethnic group’s sense of identity and even its presence in an area.

On Aug. 8, ethnic Macedonians in the central Macedonian town of Prilep set ablaze the town’s only mosque.

Orthodox Christian leaders condemned the destruction Tuesday but attempted to strike a conciliatory tone.

“I call upon the people not to repeat an incident like the one in Lesok against other religious objects, either ones of the Macedonian Orthodox Church or of the Islamic community or of any other churches,” said Archbishop Stefan, the highest-ranking Orthodox prelate in the country.