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Dnevnik

German general Claus Reinhardt (KFOR commander Oct 1999-Apr 2000) and Ramush Haradinaj shaking hands in Prishtina. According to Dnevnik they have close cooperation.

ANA Headquarters ordered its commanding officers to "swiftly attack the army and police formations of the villainous Slavic-Macedonian enemy and the Slavic-Macedonian army and police bases."

The new paramilitary organization of the Albanian terrorists, the so-called Albanian National Army (ANA) called all the Albanians to join for a war in order to unify all the Albanians in one state. The Command of the so-called ANA ordered its commanding officers to bring together all the structures of NLA which don not agree with the "Ohrid agreement" and to heavily attack all the positions of the Macedonian security forces.

"Today, the Headquarters of ANA ordered the commanding officers of the elite units to establish close ties with all the structures of NLA whish do not agree with the agreement in Ohrid signed by the traitor trio Ahmeti-Xhaferi-Imeri" -reads the statement of this Albanian paramilitary, published on the Internet.

The so-called headquarters of ANA ordered its commanding officers to "swiftly attack the army and police formations" as the statement reads "the villainous Slavic-Macedonian enemy and the Slavic-Macedonian army and police bases".

The order is signed by the self-declared General Major of the Headquarters of ANA, a.k.a. Shara Eagle and the political commissary Valjon Fljamuri.

The Headquarters of this Albanian paramilitary army stated that on the meeting held a day before yesterday on a secret location in Skopje was agreed that ANA will not recognize the peace agreement from Ohrid.

"On the meeting in Skopje, the Headquarters of ANA unanimously decided to publicly announce that ANA does not recognize the peace accord that was signed by some representatives of the Albanians and Slovenes in Macedonia" - reads the statement of this organization that was submitted to France Presse in Pristina. In the statement it is said that "The Headquarters of ANA is sure that this agreement does not correspond to the main demands of the Albanians and it confirms that the Albanians have nothing in common with Macedonia".

This paramilitary organization calls all the Albanians "to join the fight for unification of the other parts of the fatherland", which as the proclamation reads, "a hundred years ago was divided by the predecessors of the European politicians, which today, by their signatures in Skopje, are guarantying the new deal for slavery".

"If the European politicians think that the feelings of 8 million Albanians should be sacrificed so that 800.000 Macedonian Slavs to have their own state, they should think twice! The Albanians have the right to live jointly with their own historical, geographical and ethnic land, and ANA will be a pioneer in the war for national liberation", reads the proclamation of this phantom paramilitary organization.

The new organization of the Albanian terrorists voiced itself at the beginning of the month, by taking the responsibility for the massacres of the Macedonian soldiers and policemen near Grupchin, and near the Skopje village Ljuboten, with total of 18 Macedonian defenders hideously killed. According to unofficial information, among the commanding officers of ANA are Hisni Sakjiri, ex-representative of the DPA in the parliament, and Xhavid Hasani, who was convicted for murder in Skopje recently.

The high representative of KFOR in Macedonia, General Major Gunnar Lange, in his answer to the journalists on a press conference in Skopje to the question: "Will NATO disarm the representatives of the newly emerged ANA"? said that "the weapons will be collected only from the armed formations, which are controlled by the so-called NLA, and not the other armed groups of the Albanians in Macedonia."

Greater Albania, the final goal of the Albanian terrorists, through occupation of all desired territories. The map in this form was issued by Albanian nationalists.

Historical and demographic falsehoods have been used to justify ethnic cleansing of non-Albanians in the conquered or "donated" lands. On the other hand, the linguistic encyclopedia Ethnologue estimates that the total number of Albanian speakers in the world is about 5 Million. As far as Republic of Macedonia is concerned, the official census data is quite clear, and confirmed by CIA: out of 2 Million citizens, 66.6% (1,378,687) are Macedonians, 22.7% (478,967) are Albanians, 4% Turks, 2.2% Roma, 2.1% Serbs and 2.4% others.

MIA

Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva arrived Wednesday noon from Ankara to Istanbul and sets out to Athens in an official visit to Republic of Greece.

According to MIA's special reporter, Minister Mitreva will meet Thursday morning her Greek counterpart George Papandreou, and in the afternoon she will have meeting with Prime Minister Kosta Simitis. Mitreva will also have meetings with leaders of coalition of left and progress Sinaspismos, Nikos Konstantopoulos and of New Democracy, Konstantin Karamanlis.

The visit to Athens, which is within the tour of the Macedonian Foreign Minister to the countries in the region and is part of her intensified diplomatic activity aims to inform on the situation in Macedonia after the signing of the Framework agreement as well as on the disarmament process. The disputed issue on the name will also be discussed during the visit to Greece.

Minister Mitreva has already visited Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest and Ankara and after the visit to Athens she will also meet her Albanian counterpart Pascal Milo, although the meeting is not scheduled yet.

AP

By Jeffrey Ulbrich
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001; 12:25 p.m. EDT

BRUSSELS, Belgium NATO approved deployment of a small, vanguard unit Wednesday that will move into Macedonia ahead of a 3,500-member military mission the alliance hopes will pave the way for peace in the Balkan nation.

A lightly armed force of mostly headquarters, communications and other support elements 400 personnel in all will be on their way to Macedonia by the end of the week, officials said. They will be drawn from Britain's 16th Air Assault Brigade.

The decision to move forward came after approval from NATO's 19-member governments. The 3,500-strong British-led force would collect and destroy arms and ammunition held by the rebels. The 30-day mission, dubbed Operation Essential Harvest, would include troops from the United States and 11 European nations.

NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur said a decision to deploy the vanguard unit does not imply a similar later decision on deployment of the entire task force. That decision will only be made after NATO determines that there is a durable cease-fire.

"We are in a very active dynamic," Brodeur said. "Things are moving quickly. It's been very positive since the signature of the agreement. Lots of things have happened and we are encouraged by what has happened so far."

Macedonia's government, meanwhile, on Wednesday formally approved the deployment of NATO troops, and President Boris Trajkovski asked parliament to amend the constitution to give the ethnic Albanian minority more rights in line with a peace accord signed Monday.

"The Macedonian government today made the decision to give permission to NATO to deploy," Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva said.

Macedonian lawmakers will ratify the amendments three days after NATO informs the government that the rebels have been disarmed, state television reported.

The exact number of American troops that will be part of the larger contingent has not been determined, officials at the Pentagon said. But they will be mostly support units and will be drawn largely from forces already in the area, in Kosovo and Bosnia.

NATO set four conditions for sending to troops: a political agreement between the parties, a NATO-Macedonia agreement setting out the legal basis for the deployment, an agreement with the rebels for turning in weapons, and a cease-fire.

The first three have been fulfilled. Despite the signing of the peace agreement on Monday, however, sporadic violence has continued.

The Macedonian Defense Ministry said Wednesday there was fighting overnight between the insurgents and government forces in the second-largest city of Tetovo and surrounding villages.

The ministry said ethnic Albanian rebels attacked Macedonian security forces deployed near the city's soccer stadium, and around Sara Mountain and other villages near Tetovo and in the Kumanovo area, north of Skopje. Government forces returned fire. There was no word on casualties.

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson had been pressing the ambassadors to move quickly to keep up the momentum of the political agreement.

The complete deployment of troops from Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey and the United States, would take about two weeks, though the first weapons collection could begin earlier.

NATO officials insist that this is a very narrowly defined mission and will involve collecting weapons being turned in voluntarily.

Monday's peace deal, which came after six months of bloody conflict, gives ethnic Albanians a larger share of power in the police, parliament and education.

On Tuesday, NATO reached deals with the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanians on the deployment of alliance soldiers and the disarming of rebels in this impoverished country.

The rebels officially declared they intend to hand in about 2,000 weapons, a figure NATO is trying to persuade the Macedonian government to accept.

News.bg

For the time being, invitation for sending Bulgarian troops to Macedonia has not been received, Minister of Defense Nikolay Svinarov said for Radio Free Europe. According to him, in case of receiving such request it would be discussed according to the proper procedure. He also reminded that only the Parliament could decide on eventual sending troops in Macedonia.

News.bg

A weak earthquake with magnitude of 2.7 according to the Richter scale shook Yambol again today between 9:17 and 9:19 AM. According to Civil Defense data, the epicenter of the earthquake had been 10 kilometers away from Yambol to the North near the village of Zavoy, like the previous earthquakes. No casualties or damages were reported. Civil Defense representatives appealed to the population to not give way to panic because of rumors that are prophesizing forthcoming earthquakes.