Albanians Take a Hard Line in Peace Talks and in the Battle Field

25/03/2001| IslamWeb

          [Slav-dominated Macedonian police
           forces tighten security measures on roads
           leading to villages held by Albanian
           freedom fighters. Read photo caption below

SKOPJE (Islamweb, Agencies)-Leaders of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority are taking a hard line in cross-party talks intended to avert another Balkan war, diplomatic sources said on Sunday.

Politicians from both sides of an ethnic divide widened by a four-month Albanian guerrilla rebellion are struggling to agree on major constitutional concessions to Albanians under a Western-backed plan designed to persuade the rebels to disarm.

``The tone is hard going and the Albanians are being tough but I don't think we're on the verge of breakdown,'' a diplomatic source said, adding the talks would probably resume Monday.

Another source said the summit was ``best described as spasmodic.''

The main stumbling block is how to rewrite a constitution drawn up just 10 years ago. Slav majority leaders are resigned to making sweeping changes, but not necessarily to meeting Albanian demands that Macedonia become a consensual democracy in which all sensitive decisions would have to be backed by the one-third Albanian minority.

This and the elevation of the Albanian language to official status throughout public life are tough proposals for the Slav majority to stomach, especially with Albanian gunmen at large on Skopje's outskirts.
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PHOTO CAPTION

Slav Macedonian police officers check documents of a "Mother Teresa" humanitarian organization worker at a checkpoint on the road to villages in northeast Macedonia, near Kumanovo, some 35 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Skopje, Friday, June 15, 2001. Macedonian and Albanian political leaders are locked in urgent negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the insurgency by ethnic Albanians fighters. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
- Jun 15 2:25 PM ET
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