NATO resumes roundup of Albanian arms

Associated Press

SKOPJE, Macedonia – NATO resumed the collection of rebel weapons Friday as the peace process entered a new and potentially difficult phase – following through on promises to grant the ethnic Albanian minority more rights.

Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, warned Macedonian legislators to adhere to reforms agreed to under the peace deal signed last month.

“The agreement should be considered as a whole,” Solana said in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. “The most intelligent thing would be that no changes are made.”

The peace plan is a Western-sponsored, step-by-step process that involves rebels voluntarily surrendering arms to NATO in three phases, which include parliamentary approval of legislation granting more rights to ethnic Albanians.

The alliance already has taken more than a third of the 3,300-piece rebel arsenal to be surrendered by late this month. In the second phase, NATO plans to collect another third of the weapons, or about 1,100 arms.

The second phase began when NATO resumed the weapons collection after a weeklong impasse that ended when the Macedonian parliament voted Thursday night to change the constitution.

Chanting “We are Albanian heroes,” about 200 fighters of the rebel National Liberation Army gathered in the northern village of Radusa, near the border with Kosovo, to hand in their arms Friday.

“We are giving up every last bullet,” said Mevlud Bushi, a 19-year-old fighter. But he added that “if we feel at any point concerned, we will buy new arms.”

A tractor-trailer carried in large anti-tank shells, while mission spokesman Maj. Alexander Dick said the majority of weapons surrendered were automatic assault rifles.