[A Macedonian MI 24 attack helicopter shoots flares and rockets at the village of Aracinovo near the capital Skopje June 24, 2001.Read photo caption below].


SKOPJE, (Islamweb & Agencies) - A shady Macedonian paramilitary group has sparked panic among ethnic Albanians in one of Skopje's main markets, threatening to kill storekeepers and burn their shops if they do not pack up and leave the area by midnight Monday.
When Mushi, 28, went to open his store in the Madzari market in the west of the capital on Saturday morning he found a poster stuck to his wall, signed by the "Macedonian Paramilitary 2000."
"All shiptars (a derogatory name for ethnic Albanians) who have shops around the market are to leave with their property within three days," said the poster, stamped with the insignia of a lion rampant.
"If they do not then all their shops will be burned. If anyone stays behind they will be killed without a second thought," it warned.
"Of course I am scared," said Mushi, who together with around 50 Albanian neighbours running a string of spartan shops was packing his belongings into a van and shipping out.
The district is close to Aracinovo, a small town on the outskirts of Skopje taken over by ethnic Albanian fighters of the self-proclaimed National Liberation army (NLA) two weeks ago.
The army last week launched a major offensive against the fighters, who are fighting to end widespread discrimination against Macedonia's large Albanian minority.
The fighting ended in yet another shaky ceasefire Sunday, but the tensions sparked by the five-month Albanian uprising are already spiralling out of control, driving a wedge between the Albanian community and the Macedonian Slav majority.
The paramilitaries, a murky group thought to be connected to groups of football hooligans and police reservists with criminal links mistakenly given arms in a recent mobilisation, have given the shopkeepers until midnight Monday to leave.
In a chilling echo of the ethnic cleansing which swept through neighbouring Yugoslavia during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the ominous message read: "After that we'll have a cleansing -- the longest night."
It also warned other ethnic minorities -- Turks, Bosnians, Roma gypsies and Vlachs -- not to trade with Albanians, "as this directly funds the Albanian terrorist narco-gangsters. If they do their shops will be burned."
The Albanian shops must keep the poster on the wall even then or be torched, the statement said.
The group -- also known as the Lions after the Macedonian national symbol -- said they would start punishment killing against Albanians if lethal attacks on police and troops, which have claimed more than 30 lives, do not stop.
In a grim itemised list of the price to be paid for each attack, it said that for every policeman or soldier killed, the paramilitaries would kill 100 ethnic Albanians.
For every security officer crippled, 50 Albanian will die, while an injured policeman will be paid back with 10 killings, it added.
While taking the latter threat with a pinch of salt, the traders did not at all underestimate the arson threat.
After eight police and soldiers were killed in an Albanian ambush in April, Macedonian rioters in the southern town of Bitola rampaged the streets for two nights, torching around 50 shops.
A report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused police of failing to curb the violence or even joining in.
Mushi said he had gone to the police -- predominatly Macedonian Slav -- but had been told there was nothing they could do. The police were not available for comment Sunday.
"Things are definitely getting worse," said Mushi, as his neighbours formed a human chain to pass boxes and sacks from their storehouse next door.
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PHOTO CAPTION

A Macedonian MI 24 attack helicopter shoots flares and rockets at the village of Aracinovo near the capital Skopje June 24, 2001. Later in the day European Union envoy Javier Solana said a cease-fire was in force in a strategic village held by Albanian fighters. Solana spent the weekend in talks with politicians on both sides of Macedonia's ethnic divide. (Peter Andrews/Reuters)
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