Macedonia Resumes Talks on Albanian Rights

SKOPJE, Macedonia — Legislators resumed debate on reforms crucial to peace with ethnic Albanians on Monday as Western officials hinted that NATO, now collecting guerrilla weapons, may need to consider a future security role.

A NATO spokesman agreed that a serious security vacuum looms in Macedonia after the alliance winds up its 30-day collection of rebel arms later this month.

Another NATO official said alliance governments were looking into ways of protecting a future mission of several hundred Western civilians who would monitor compliance with a peace deal vulnerable to violent radicals on both sides.

Parliament had been silenced for two days by its hard-line nationalist speaker, Stojan Andov, who alleged that ethnic Albanian guerrillas were intimidating civilians. He demanded guarantees that all displaced Macedonians be allowed to return home soon.

Envoys from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and the U.S. co-sponsoring the peace process said Andov’s demands must wait until rebels have been disarmed and parliament reciprocates by ratifying better civil rights laws for Macedonia’s large ethnic Albanian minority.