OHRID, Macedonia (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Ethnic Albanian fighters clashed with government forces, seizing more territory and controlling a key road as negotiators tried Friday to bridge differences between majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians over a peace deal.
The Albanian fighters were said to have launched fourteen armed attacks overnight against government troops near the northwestern city of Tetovo, state-run radio reported.
The Albanian's advance early Friday effectively gave them control of a road linking Tetovo - Macedonia's second largest city - with neighboring Kosovo, the Serbian province with an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority.
Meanwhile, hard bargaining proceeded at Ohrid, a lake resort in southwestern Macedonia, over ethnic Albanian demands for broader rights for their community, which makes up about a third of the country's 2 million people. (Read photo caption below).
On the agenda Friday were demands that ethnic Albanians be better represented in the police forces, that local police departments have greater authority and that Albanians independently elect local police chiefs in areas where they live.
Macedonians regard these and other demands as a strategy to seize control over parts of Macedonia's territory, some of which the fighters have already overrun.
A source close to the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the ethnic Albanians demand to have an up to 80 percent share of the police in areas they dominate, while Macedonians agree to a nationwide ethnic mix of police officers, allowing between a quarter and a third of ethnic Albanians on the force in all areas.
Another ethnic Albanian demand - staunchly resisted by the majority - is that the fighters, once the peace settlement is presumably agreed, become part of the police.
The revolt for equal rights, which has taken dozens of lives on both sides and displaced thousands of civilians, erupted in February. Ethnic Albanians say they were compelled to take up arms to fight for broader ethnic rights.
After four weeks of on-and-off peace talks, the rival sides so far have agreed on some segments of a tentative peace settlement, including wider use of the Albanian language.
If a peace deal is reached, some 3,000 NATO troops would deploy here to help disarm the Albanian fighters.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Macedonians fish in the Vardar river in Skopje late August 3, 2001. The river Vardar divides the Macedonian capital from the Albanian dominated part in the east and a Macedonian Slav dominated part in the west. Macedonia's government and ethnic Albanian fighters accused each other of stepping up violations of a cease-fire on Friday as political parties gathered for more talks on averting a new Balkan war. REUTERS/Oleg Popov
- Aug 03 5:36 PM ET