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Sunday.

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The Journalist And Publicist Josif Ilkovski Was Killed.

Mk MoD

April 01, 2001
Yesterday afternoon, the dead body of Josif Ilkovski, well known mountaineer and a member of the Macedonian writers association was found in the Mountain house "Matica" on the mountain Kitka.

A team from the Interior Ministry arrived at the location of the event and they are working on the investigation connected with the event. The first findings point out to a murder with a sharp object. Next to his body, there was a letter saying: "We are waiting in the woods", and it was signed by "UCK".

From The Daily Bulletin Of The Combat Activities.

Mk MoD

The situation at the Macedonian - Yugoslav border in the region towards Kosovo, during the night and this morning is calm. There is no exchange of fire.

The Macedonian security forces are completely controlling the situation. They are continuing the activities for clearing up the terrain and disposing the mines at the locations where the Albanian terrorists have acted.

"The situation at the Macedonian -Yugoslav border in the Kosovo section is being calm during the last 24hours. There aren't any reported armed activities. The Army of R.Macedonia is still carrying the mine disposal activities and terrain clearing up", said the Defense spokesperson, Gjorgi Trendafilov.

The life in Tetovo is getting normalized, and the citizens who left Tetovo during the exchange of fire are more massively returning home.

Today, the citizens are repairing the houses damaged by the Albanian terrorists groups in the districts Koltuk, Dva Bresta and Potok

The citizens, consistently respected the Interior Ministry order for limited movements in the period 2200 - 0500hrs.

An Announcement From KFOR And UNMIK.

Mk MoD

KFOR announced today, that yesterday their forces found a greater portion of weapon at different locations in Kosovo, and UNMIK police detained three people under a suspicion that they are members of armed Albanian groups.

The Polish-Ukrainian KFOR battalion discovered weapon storage in the border area towards Macedonia, south of the village Krivenik. They confiscated a machinegun, automatic rifle and a greater quantity of ammunition such as mines, hand grenades, explosives and three antitank missiles .The same battalion while searching at Nika found and dismounted explosive device.

A patrol of the Multinational brigade Center, while searching a house in Bardash found an automatic rifle and a greater quantity of ammunition. The weapon is handed over to the UNMIK police, and the owner of the house was detained.

Scandinavian KFOR forces, during the search operation at the location Dabedick Maala found and repossessed three grenades, one mine, a gun and an automatic rifle.

The multinational brigade -West confiscated greater quantity of ammunition in Petrushan, hile the Special Forces members "Falcon" in Kushar found and confiscated one automatic rifle, a gun and ammunition.

UN will sack Albanians in Kosovo police.

SundayTimes,UK

April 1 2001. UN will sack Albanians in Kosovo police
Misha Glenny, Skopje

THE United Nations is to dismiss 2,000 members of the Kosovo Protection Force (KPF), the province's Albanian-run local police. The move heralds fears that former KPF officers will destabilise the region by joining the National Liberation Army (NLA) of Albanians who have engaged in clashes with government troops in neighbouring Macedonia.

News of the dismissals will be unwelcome to a 450-strong British-led army unit deployed on the Kosovo-Macedonia border to prevent NLA fighters slipping back and forth.

In talks on Friday, Hans Haekkerup, who runs the UN administration in Kosovo, told President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia that the KPF men were being released. "He told me it's true and that they are bad guys," Trajkovski said.

Haekkerup told the president there was no money for the protection force and suggested he raise the matter with donor countries, including Britain.

Trajkovski welcomed the beefing up of Nato operations around the border. A further 120 British soldiers will join the brigade this week.

Their deployment comes at a particularly tense moment after the death on Thursday of three people, including Kerem Lawton, a British journalist, when a mortar hit the village of Krivenik inside Kosovo.

The Macedonian army was quick to deny responsibility. After talking to Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary-general, Macedonia and the alliance have agreed to set up a joint exercise to establish where the mortar came from.

This is unlikely to pacify Albanians in Kosovo who are convinced that the Macedonian army deliberately shelled civilians. "There is a strong ethnic feeling among the Albanians," Major Fergus Smith, a spokesman for the British-led brigade within Nato's Kosovo force (Kfor). "But we are taking steps to ensure this [wider instability] does not happen."

Although the Macedonian government said that Operation Broom, as last week's offensive was dubbed, was over, it has not yet cleared all the Albanian fighters dug in around Gracani, north of Skopje, the capital.

In the battles for the villages above Tetovo, the country's second city, the Macedonians made an obvious effort to avoid civilian casualties and sensitive targets such as mosques. But doubts about its effectiveness and ability to confront a sustained guerrilla war remain.

"Units operating around Tetovo were seen to be short of medical kits and field radios," said Zoran Kusovac, a Balkan expert at Jane's Defence Weekly.

Diplomats emphasise the Macedonian crisis is by no means over. "What happened around Tetovo can be seen as the first battle in a greater Kosovo war," said Carl Bildt, UN special envoy to the Balkans. "We now have a pause which we must do everything we can to transform into peace."

Any settlement depends on negotiations that will be held under the aegis of the European Union. "These cannot be coffee table talks," warned Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic party of Albanians. "They have got to end up with a concrete agreement. If that doesn't happen the situation will deteriorate again."

Dogan: "If Need Be, People Will Grab Cudgels."

Standart News

In Bulgaria over a million of voters are Muslims and they can make us the first or the second parliamentary force, forecasts the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms

"No one should think that Muslims are humble and meek people. We know that the path to freedom is not covered with roses, and if we have to fight for our rights, we will. That is how it's done throughout the world. Sometimes you have to bang your fist, and sometimes, if need be, reach for a cudgel", said yesterday Ahmed Dogan. He headed the delegation of the MRF deputies and attended the rally in the village of Kornitsa devoted the 28th anniversary of the so-called Revival Process. Bread is more dear than peace, said Dogan later, explaining what are the interests of his electorate. This is neither a warning nor a threat, it is just a message to the government which they have to understand. "I think that these regions may well stop generating security and turn into something else", he claims. Dogan warned that if something happens in Bulgaria "everything we face now will look like a kid's toy. When the government replicates the Movement for Right and Freedoms, it is actually playing with fire. We have a lot of radicals in our ranks. What will happen, if I give them free hand, he asked. The MRF leader said that "Kostov always applied double standards. Before media he behaves in one manner, but otherwise, when it comes to giving instructions to various institutions, he always means striking below waist. This is his true and only standard. It is a hypocritical policy, in my eyes, said Dogan flatly. In Bulgaria over a million of voters are Muslims and they can make us the first or the second force in the future parliament, Dogan forecast.

Pavlina Zhivkova

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