Macedonian House defers peace debate

SKOPJE, SEP. 1. The Macedonian Parliament today postponed a debate on ratifying a NATO-backed peace plan, saying it could not proceed until ethnic Albanians stopped ``terrorising'' Macedonians behind guerilla lines.

``We cannot continue while members of the NLA (ethnic Albanian guerillas) and their sympathisers continue to harass and block displaced Macedonian citizens trying to return to their homes,'' Parliament speaker, Mr. Stojan Andov, said.

Parliament was due to have resumed the debate at 2.30 pm after an opening session yesterday in which the Macedonian President, Mr. Boris Rajkovski, appealed for ratification of the western- sponsored plan as the only alternative to catastrophic civil war.

The guerilla National Liberation Army handed in more than a third of 3,300 weapons in just the first three days of a 30-day NATO mission overseeing voluntary disarmament of the rebels.

Parliament is supposed to reciprocate with constitutional reforms improving the rights of Macedonia's large Albanian minority under an August 13 peace accord signed by Macedonian political party leaders.

But Mr. Andov, a nationalist hardliner who sets Parliament's agenda, ruled out launching a three-stage process to enshrine the reforms until the NLA stopped what he called obstructions to refugee returns and pulled back to lines of July 5.

He said highway blockades by Macedonians protesting over their inability to regain homes safely had also made it difficult for Parliament to proceed in good conscience.

``We must remove the roots of these problems. We need a constructive atmosphere so we can resume the debate,'' he told a news conference hastily called to explain the postponement.

The extent of the problems he cited was not clear.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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