Macedonia

Macedonia, Albania pledge to provide intelligence data to Greece
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - November 11, 2003

Skopje - Macedonia and Albania have pledged to provide Greece with intelligence relating to the potential threat of an ethnic Albanian insurgency ahead of next year's Olympic Games, security sources in Skopje said Tuesday.

The exchange of information regarding alleged preparations for an ethnic Albanian uprising in northern Greece was agreed at Monday's trilateral meeting of ministers of defence from Macedonia, Albania and Greece, he said.

Albanian extremist groups from Macedonia, Kosovo and western Europe are preparing for an insurgency in northern Greece before the 2004 Olympic Games, as a part of Balkan-wide struggle to achieve a Greater Albania, the German weekly news magazine Spiegel reported.

Greek officials, however, rejected the possibility of the uprising in the northern part of the country, saying that Athens is ready to "neutralize any potential danger".

But, western intelligence sources warned recently of "at least year-long activity of Albanian extremists in northern Greece, Macedonia, eastern Montenegro and southern Serbia", as a part of "certain" radical group's attempt to mobilize local Albanian population for the idea of Greater Albania.

Greece, Macedonia and Albania also pledged to tighten military co- operation against cross-border organised crime and illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, Macedonian Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski said the country's armed forces need to boost the reforms process over the next six months in order to get a clear prospective of NATO membership at the Alliance's Istanbul summit.

Speaking after Monday's trilateral meeting, Buckovski said "there is no more time for decorative statements about NATO membership,".

"We have to show them we are really ready. We have to reduce the number of personnel which spends the most of our defence budget. Instead, the money should be used for modernisation", Buckovski said.

November 11, 2003, Tuesday - 14:47 Central European Time