The disclosure of secret talks to end Macedonia's five-month-old rebel crisis threatened to split the coalition government Wednesday and undermine a deal some believe could bring peace.
Macedonia's Slav government leaders were surprised by reports that moderate ethnic Albanian party chiefs had met in Kosovo Tuesday with the political leader of the guerrilla National Liberation Army to persuade it to stop fighting.
Any whiff of a back-door deal with the rebels risked provoking a backlash from the country's Slav majority, which rejects any deal with "terrorists" and fears the guns may come out again to back future Albanian demands.
"A New Anti-Macedonian Conspiracy?" was the headline of a dispatch by the state news agency MIA. It said Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian party leaders held secret talks in Pristina with guerrilla political leader Ali Ahmeti.
They had "signed a document committing themselves to cooperation and joint action." But Macedonia's Slav president and prime minister had not been informed of these contacts.
The Macedonian government of national unity had agreed, with international backing, that the guerrillas must be kept in total political quarantine and not invited to talks.
INSIDER CONFIRMS DEAL
A senior official of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, or PDP, confirmed to Reuters that the two leaders met Ahmeti Tuesday.
"They agreed on a cease-fire and on a common political platform ... for future negotiations," said the official, who requested anonymity.
He said Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of the Albanians and the PDP's Imer Imeri had discussed an amnesty for members of the self-styled National Liberation Army, called the UCK.
As news of a possible political settlement spread, Macedonian troops and guerrillas again exchanged fire.
An UCK commander named Sokoli said his forces had not received any orders to stop firing and they were in a heightened state of alert, ready to continue the fight.
The sound of gunfire could be distinctly heard as Sokoli talked on the telephone. He said the Macedonian forces had resumed "sporadic" shelling at 13:45 (7:45 a.m. EDT).
"The Macedonian government has rejected our requests which we sent through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe," Sokoli said -- SKOPJE (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
