- The Guardian,
- Monday March 19 2001
"What we have in Tetovo is civil war," he said. "It is eating up the fabric of a fragile state. We are uncomfortably close to the precipice."
During a visit to Skopje, Mr Bildt contradicted the claim of Nato and the Macedonian authorities that the insurgency was under control.
"The guerrillas are a competent military organisation," he said. "They have a core of very experienced fighters. They are well fortified, evidently well prepared, and in all probability they control substantial parts of the hinterland."
Mr Bildt was scathing about the west's failure to avert the crisis. The peacekeeping force in Kosovo, K-For, had abjectly failed to cut supply routes to the rebels.
The UN shared the blame. "It is an acute embarrassment if territory the UN is responsible for is used for terrorist actions against a neighbouring country. If we are serious about this we need considerable more manpower on the border."
The west had failed to honour a "moral debt" to Macedonia for its help during the 1999 Kosovo war, he added.
The guerrillas enjoy widespread support from ethnic Al banians, who constitute up to a third of the 2m population. Many say they have been treated as second-class citizens.
Macedonia, which has one of the best human rights records in the Balkans, says ultra-nationalist Albanians are stirring ethnic hatred.
Rebels interviewed near their temporary base in the village of Selce at the weekend said they intended to take over western Macedonia to form a federation within the country. Sceptics say the real objective is joining an enlarged, independent Kosovo.
Leaflets have been delivered in the southern city of Struga demanding the enlistment of Albanian men. Political analysts say support for the Democratic Party of the Albanians, which has five ministers in the government, seems to be falling.
Time is on the NLA's side: the longer the fighting continues the more polarised ethnic groups become.
Since the police in Tetovo were first fired on last Wednesday, relations between Albanian and Macedonian neighbours have deteriorated sharply. Macedonians, who make up about a fifth of the city's 200,000 inhabitants, feel vulnerable and are furious that many Albanians cheer the attackers.
Several hundred families have fled, as have hundreds of Albanians and Turks, including busloads heading for Istanbul. On Saturday refugees from the city demonstrated in front of the parliament building in the capital, Skopje, demanding weapons.
