Macedonia Grows More Involved in Balkans Clash

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — International concern about fighting along the Macedonia-Kosovo border grew Monday as ethnic Albanian guerrillas clashed with Macedonian security forces.

U.S. peacekeepers on the Kosovo side of the border said they observed ethnic Albanian fighters in apparent retreat after stashing their weapons and changing out of uniform in homes or barns. But the Macedonian Defense Ministry said an estimated 150 to 300 guerrillas continued to hold the border village of Tanusevci.

“We have seen individuals wearing uniforms, carrying weapons, go into buildings and then, later, individuals coming out wearing civilian clothes,” said Maj. Jim Marshall, a spokesman for the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

“It’s very close to the border, and from our position we’re not able to distinguish what side of the border that’s occurring on,” Marshall said.

Many observers believe that the guerrilla takeover of the village is linked to fighting in the nearby Presevo Valley of southern Serbia, where ethnic Albanians are battling Serbian forces. It also may be related to the long-term objective of attaching heavily Albanian parts of Macedonia to a “Greater Kosovo” or a “Greater Albania.”

Macedonian Defense Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said that six sniper and two machine-gun nests were destroyed in Monday’s fighting and that there were no Macedonian casualties.

“We are monitoring the situation, and the use of force by our side will be proportional to the danger on the ground,” he said.

Three Macedonian soldiers died Sunday, two when their vehicle struck a mine and one from sniper fire, sharply escalating the crisis.

Asked whether the gunmen seen removing their uniforms were retreating, Trendafilov said: “They may be just going for a holiday.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “We strongly condemn the acts of violence by extremists who are seeking to undermine the stability in Macedonia, Kosovo and the region. The United States supports the Macedonian government’s measured response to these criminal acts and will continue to watch the situation very carefully.”

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin declared that “the potential for extremism spilling beyond Kosovo is building. The international community must quickly take active measures or the situation could slip out of control.”

KFOR and Macedonian military officials met in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, Sunday night to discuss Macedonia’s military plans, which are aimed at clearing out guerrillas who have held Tanusevci for nearly three weeks. Officials from the U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Sunday voiced approval of tougher Macedonian action against the guerrillas, after previously urging that political rather than military means be used.

Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski blasted KFOR for failing to prevent ethnic Albanian fighters from using Kosovo as a staging area. KFOR commanders “are too scared that some of their soldiers might get killed,” Georgievski told reporters in Skopje on Monday.

Georgievski called for the United Nations to approve a three-mile buffer zone inside Kosovo on the border with Macedonia that would be patrolled by “states that are willing to get in and guard the border from that side.”

Marshall said KFOR will detain people who are a threat to security in Kosovo. KFOR soldiers detained three people inside Kosovo between Sunday evening and Monday evening near the area of the fighting, including one wearing a black uniform favored by the fighters who seized the village.

KFOR also beefed up its presence on the Kosovo side of the border. Five U.S. armored combat vehicles, two armored medical vehicles and nine all-terrain Humvees arrived in the Kosovo village of Debelde, directly across the border from Tanusevci. Two U.S. Apache helicopters were overhead.

President Petar Stoyanov of neighboring Bulgaria told Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski that he will consider sending troops to help defend Macedonia, Stoyanov’s press office said.

“The president said he was ready to raise in parliament the question of using Bulgarian armed forces if Macedonia requests that from its neighbors or international organizations involved in securing stability in the region,” a press release said.