Macedonia: Country Background and Recent Conflict

Publication Date: March 2002

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Abstract:

Sharing borders with Kosovo and Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) managed to avoid becoming directly involved in the drawn-out wars in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Inter-ethnic relations between the Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia, while often tense, never reached the crisis state of Albanian-Serb relations in the province of Kosovo. Since Macedonia's independence in 1991, ethnic Albanian political parties in Macedonia have been represented in government and in parliament.

However, in early 2001, ethnic Albanian rebels calling themselves the National Liberation Army (NLA) stepped up attacks on Macedonian security forces first in several villages near the city of Tetovo and by the western border with Kosovo, and later near the capital, Skopje. The NLA was thought to have ties to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and rebel Albanian forces operating in southern Serbia. In March, the Macedonian government began a counter-insurgency campaign. It opened talks on political reforms with elected ethnic Albanian representatives, but refused to negotiate with the rebels themselves. Clashes between the rebels and government forces continued through the summer of 2001, notwithstanding intermittent cease-fire agreements and ongoing political talks. With U.S. and European diplomatic intervention, the parties signed a framework agreement on August 13, amidst the deadliest violence of the conflict. Implementation of the agreement has progressed slowly and with difficulty. Substantial recent progress enabled the holding of a longdelayed international donors' conference on March 12, 2002. In spite of recent achievements, some observers continue to fear the prospect of a new uprising by ethnic Albanian extremists or armed provocations by forces supporting Macedonian hardliners.

In June 2001, NATO formulated and approved plans to launch a limited operation in Macedonia to oversee the disarmament of the ethnic Albanian rebel forces. On August 22, NATO gave final approval for the deployment of Operation Essential Harvest comprising about 4,500 troops in total. The operation completed collection of a targeted amount of rebel weapons (nearly 4,000) on September 26, 2001. NATO then deployed a smaller follow-on force (Task Force Fox) to provide security for international civilian monitors. NATO's peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) has also been involved in patrolling and reinforcing the Kosovo border in order to try to cut off Albanian rebel supply routes. The United States maintains some KFOR support forces in Macedonia, but did not contribute forces to either the Task Force Harvest or Task Force Fox missions in Macedonia. In early 2002, the European Union agreed to consider taking over the military mission in Macedonia from NATO.