SKOPJE, Macedonia (Islamweb & News Agencies) - NATO troops, were deploying into Macedonia on Saturday to assess a mission to collect Albanian fighters arms amid fears that so-called shadowy Albanian fighters splinter groups could cause trouble for them. According to Western observers, the groups are a mystery factor for NATO as it tries to determine when it will be safe enough to deploy up to 3,500 troops into the troubled Balkan country to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian fighters.
Officially, NATO denies that the groups even exist, and it has denied they will cause problems for the British-led mission dubbed Operation Essential Harvest. (Read photo caption below)
But some alliance officials told The Associated Press privately that dissatisfaction with a new peace agreement may be fracturing the Albanian fighters movement into a handful of offshoots comprised of die-hard militants, some of whom may want to fight on to create an ethnic Albanian state of their own.
``They are not the problem at the moment, but they may become one,'' said one NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ``To be honest, what we are afraid of is the warlord syndrome and their little fiefdoms all over Albanian-controlled territory.''
NATO sent an advance team of about 350 troops into Macedonia this weekend to assess the security situation in the country, where insurgents have been fighting government forces for six months. The fighters say they want more rights; the government says they want territory.
If the advance team determines that things are relatively peaceful, and NATO's ruling council agrees to deploy the full mission - a move that could come next week - troops will fan out into the country to set up places where Albanians will voluntarily turn in their weapons. The surrender of arms is a key aspect of the peace accord signed last week by both ethnic Albanian and Macedonian political leaders.
But a condition of the deployment is a lasting cease-fire, and sporadic fighting has been reported daily for weeks. The latest violence was a grenade attack overnight Friday on a police position in the country's second-largest city, Tetovo. No injuries were reported.
There have been other troubles: On Saturday, Macedonian authorities shut the main border crossing between Kosovo and Macedonia, said Simon Haselock, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Kosovo. No official reason was given for the closure, but Macedonian police sources said it was prompted by insurgents being spotted near the crossing.
Civilians later blockaded the main road to the border in the town of Stenkovac, preventing NATO-led peacekeepers from traveling back and forth to Kosovo. The support base for peacekeepers in Kosovo is located in Macedonia.
Such problems seem small compared to the troubles rogue military units could cause.
Very little is known about any offshoots from the main fighters group, the National Liberation Army - or even if they exist at all.
But concerns arose earlier this month when a group calling itself the Albanian National Army claimed responsibility for an ambush that killed 10 Macedonian army soldiers near Tetovo. In a statement faxed to ethnic Albanian media, the group rejected the peace deal and called for war.
The group previously had claimed responsibility for the killing of two Serbian police officers in the south of neighboring Yugoslavia. A top-ranking police official who spoke on condition of anonymity told AP that a renegade fighter group had launched that attack, though he didn't specify which one.
Even so, no ANA members have made public appearances and no units have ever been sighted in the field. There is speculation that the group only exists on paper.
The National Liberation Army, which denied responsibility for the ambush, has denied there is such an organization as the ANA.
Macedonian officials, however, fear the NLA does not have full control of all ethnic Albanian fighters in the country.
At a news conference Saturday, Maj. Gen. Gunnar Lange, the NATO mission's top military commander, said the alliance was focused on collecting weapons from the NLA only.
``The disarmament of those splinter groups are not part of this mission,'' he said.
PHOTO CAPTION:
British soldiers disembark from a military aircraft after landing at Skopje airport August 18, 2001. NATO will not send troops to Macedonia to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas unless a shaky truce with government forces stabilizes, the commander of the small British advance task force warned. (Petr Josek/Reuters)