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VELESTA,
Macedonia (AP) -- Sobbing and shouting the Albanian word for ''glory,'' hundreds
gathered Wednesday to bury an ethnic Albanian activist whose assassination
threatened to undermine peace talks between militants and the government. Gunmen
shot Naser Hani four times Tuesday night as he resisted efforts to kidnap him in
the southwestern town of Struga. The town is a few miles from a lake resort
where key players in Macedonia's ongoing crisis are set to meet Thursday to
discuss a peace plan. His
death threatened a fragile truce that has eased clashes between government
forces and ethnic Albanians. Western leaders, meanwhile, hinted at the prospect
of military intervention. Hani,
42, a father of three, had acted as an intermediary linking ethnic Albanian
militants to political parties in Macedonia's government. Some ethnic Albanians
angered by his death insisted such slayings would only feed sympathy for the
rebels, known as the National Liberation Army.
''If
such attacks continue, the day when this country will explode will come very
soon,'' said Avni Kica, an economist who came to the funeral with others from
villages around Velesta, 110 miles southwest of Skopje. Also at the funeral was
a key ethnic Albanian political leader, Arben Xhaferi, who said the attack
jeopardized the talks at the Lake Ohrid resort in southwestern Macedonia. ''I
don't believe tomorrow's talks will be a success,'' Xhaferi said. Hani's
cortege wound its way through this village's dusty streets led by several dozen
high school students who wore black shirts and slacks in a sign of unity and
mourning. Before
the procession snaked into the cemetery, the crowd shouted ''Lavdi'' -- the
Albanian word for glory and the traditional word of praise once uttered in
Kosovo at the burials of guerrillas who died fighting for the Kosovo Liberation
Army.
Men
sobbed as Hani's body, draped in Albanian flags and a green banner with Islamic
symbols, was lowered into the grave. The stretcher was still stained by fresh
blood. The peace talks remained on schedule even after mortars hit a Macedonian
army barracks on the outskirts of the country's second largest city, Tetovo. No
injuries were reported at the barracks, sources told The Associated Press while
speaking on condition of anonymity. The army returned fire, and residents
reported hearing several detonations late Wednesday. Shooting had been reported
in the area earlier in the day. Rebels
and police also traded gunfire near Aracinovo, barely four miles from capital
Skopje, spokesman Stevo Pendarovski said. Violence
erupted in Macedonia in February when ethnic Albanian militants took up arms in
a fight they say is for more rights. Macedonian authorities have led several
offensives to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds, and say they are
separatists who want to carve up the country.
After
both the government and the rebels declared cease-fires Monday, President Boris
Trajkovski reiterated his peace plan to end the insurgency by upgrading the
status of ethnic Albanians, who account for nearly a third of Macedonia's 2
million people. Trajkovski has threatened to defeat the rebels militarily if
they refuse to disarm. But he has also offered a partial amnesty for those who
lay down their weapons. Western leaders dropped hints Wednesday that military
involvement may become a possibility in Macedonia to prevent new violence. ''We
must not preclude any form of action needed to thwart such developments,''
French President Jacques Chirac said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Belgium. In
Athens, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said sending international
peacekeepers to Macedonia may be unavoidable.
Chirac
later backpedaled, saying he did not intend to advocate NATO military
intervention. ''There is no military solution to the problem,'' he said. Details
of Trajkovski's peace offer, which is supported by NATO and the United States,
are to be worked out by representatives of the Slavic majority and the ethnic
Albanians. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is expected to arrive Thursday
before the talks. Ethnic
Albanian political leaders have approached the peace offer with reservations.
Xhaferi said the plan must be restructured and suggested the government agree to
let militants participate in the negotiations.
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