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Four Killed in Macedonia Clash

07 11 2007  Tetovo, Skopje_ Four gunmen were killed and six were arrested following a clash with Macedonian police in an area north of the town of Tetovo, the Macedonian authorities said on Wednesday.

“We have finished successfully operation ‘Mountain Storm’ aimed against a criminal extremist group in the area of Brodec village near Tetovo”, Macedonia’s Minister of the Interior, Gordana Jankulovska said.

“We have confirmation that four members of the group were killed. There are no reports of injured civilians or policemen so far”, she added.

Jankulovska said various weapons, including bombs, ammunition, automatic weapons and rocket launchers were recovered by police.

She said four others had been arrested in Skopje before the clash.
 
Jankulovska did not reveal the identities of those killed or arrested, saying further confirmation was needed.
 
However, they were believed to be ethnic Albanians.

Jankulovska said the criminal - extremist group was made up of mainly Kosovo citizens but also several Macedonian citizens with a criminal record.

Locals from the village of Brodec, a Sara mountain village north of Tetovo, near the border with Kosovo, have confirmed a shout-out between police and armed groups in the village.

The road to from Tetovo to the mountain villages remains sealed off by police.

Earlier reports said eight gunmen had been killed and a police helicopter crashed – but these reports have since been denied by the authorities.
 
Local media reported that police were searching for Lirim Jakupi (also known as "Nazi"), a convicted criminal who escaped with seven other men in a violent break-out from Kosovo`s Dubrava Prison in August and is believed to be hiding in the area.
 
Last week Xhavid Morina, another escaped convict from Dubrava Prison, was found dead near Odri, a village close to Tetovo. See more at http://www.birn.eu.com/en/110/15/5462/

Local people in Brodec say the shootout which they witnessed involved uniformed men who were seen patrolling the village yesterday.

A villager from Brodec told Balkan Insight that the shootout started in the early hours on Wednesday. He said police helicopters were involved.

“Someone else is fighting with the police, not the villagers,” he said.

He said that men in uniforms bearing the insignia of the UCK, a disbanded Albanian guerrilla force, were seen on Tuesday patrolling the village. Locals took cover in basements when the shooting started, he said.
 
According to this witness, one house in the village was burning and the local mosque had been damaged by gunfire. Police was conducting searches in the houses in the village, he said.

Cristina Gallach, spokesperson of the EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said Brussels was waiting for further details about the incident.

“We believe that the government must monitor and seek to control the security situation in the country, including in areas of particular vulnerability, provided the necessary precautionary measures are taken to safeguard the civilian population”, Gallach said.

NATO`s spokesperson James Appathurai said in Brussels that "NATO is watching closely events in Macedonia. We have received many press report but no confirmation on those reports. However, anything related to violence is seen as a matter of concern." 

Groups of men in black, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, have been patrolling the road to Brodec and Sipkovica - a stronghold of ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the 2001 insurgency. Read more at http://www.birn.eu.com/en/110/15/5455/
 
Despite rising concern that the presence of armed groups could be linked to the deadlock over Kosovo's status and have the potential to stir up ethnic trouble in Macedonia, the government has repeatedly dismissed reports of armed groups, saying the security situation in the country is stable. 

In October one police officer was killed and two other were injured when they came under fire in the vicinity of the village of Tanusevci, where the six month ethnic conflict started in 2001. The interior minister said smugglers were believed to be responsible for the attack and that the incident was not related to ethnic tensions.



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Komentari:

ethnic Albanians are fed up with terror

Poslao: 2007-11-07 14:51:12,

We are fed up with rebels threatening to destabilise our homes and lives. We want peace, just like everybody else living in our country. Its time all political parties join forces to remove these threats on our society once and for all. We call for tougher protection of our border's from neighbouring criminal gangs from Kosova and Serbia. Where is the KFOR and NATO border patrol to keep these people out? Furthermore, any political party who is known to be collaborating with these terror suspects should be exposed and removed from party membership and criminal proceedings began. We Albanian Macedonians are tired of this civil unrest. Things are looking brighter for us socially, economically and we are prospering in this largely peaceful nation. For the sake of this nations children, please stop these gangs, drug/crime lords or the likes.

Yes indeed

Poslao: 2007-11-07 16:52:37,

I fully agree with the above post especially with the following sentence: "Things are looking brighter for us socially, economically and we are prospering in this largely peaceful nation". We are really fed up of Kosovo criminal gangs interfering and acting on the behalf of Albanians from Macedonia. If the conflict in 2001 was justified as a war for greater rights of Albanians I do not think that any other conflict and confrontation of the country could improve the image of the Albanians in Macedonia and at the same time it will only worsten the slim chances of Kosovo to become independent. Criminality and criminals do not have nationality. All of them should be eliminated and destroyed by the state.

Still Albanians don't have rights on the counties they live.

Poslao: 2007-11-07 19:54:43,

Just if Albanians have the same rights, they would do something against criminals but they are allways left out of their rights

Rights of Albanians not breached

Poslao: 2007-11-09 06:45:15,

doni, your above comments show the true ignorence of the Albanians. Albanians in Macedonia have more rights than any other ethnic group in Europe. They are represented in the both the coalition and opposition government, in the public sector workforce in the health and educational and finance sector. Every division of the government has approx 25% Albanian workforce. What more do you want? Our land? Well I'm sorry its not up for negotiation buddy. Either learn to live peacefully and support your adoptive country or simply move back to Kosovo or Albania! The sole reason for these rebels is "Ilirija". Why would you rebel and terrorise your own ethnic villages, when it is the Mcedonians that supports Kosovo's independance? It takes a lot of time to re-educate the Albanians, that its ok to live with other nationalities peacefully.

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