| Albanian group claims responsibility for Tetovo clashes |
| 8 November 2007 | 12:13 -> 14:00
| Source:
B92, Tanjug |
TETOVO --
Ethnic Albanian para-militaries have claimed responsibility for yesterday’s clashes in Macedonia.
 | Macedonian government forces on high alert (Beta)
|
A group, calling itself the Political-Military Council of the KLA says it was behind yesterday's armed clash with Macedonian police forces which left at least six dead according to information available so far.
In a statement, the organization claims that its members, formerly of the “Albanian Territorial Liberation Army“, had been "forced to assemble a regular military unit in order to protect the endangered Albanian people, and every inch of Albanian territory.“
Organization members viewed yesterday’s skirmish near Tetovo as a “defense of national honor,“ while calling the Macedonian police attack “an attack by Macedonian-Slav authorities on the Albanian people.“
“We consider all Slav-Albanian agreements emanating from the wars in Kosovo and Albanian territory, as well as the participants, null and void,“ it is stated in the first statement of the Tetovo-based organization, that was published on the internet.
In the statement, they stress that “there can be no stable political or military solution, peace or stability in the turbulent Balkans without respect and implementation of a decision taken at a conference in Bujan for self-determination (Kosovo, and unification with Albania), and for institution of a military oath for all three liberation armies – Kosovo, Eastern Kosovo (Preševo, Bujanovac, Medveđa), and Macedonia.“
The Macedonian authorities were yesterday eager to stress the police clashed with a criminal gang operating in the area.
This Thursday, the situation in the Tetovo region village, the scene of Wednesday's battle, is calm.
Police are still present in the area, the Macedonian news agency MIA reported.
According to the findings of the Macedonian Interior Ministry, six members of the armed criminal group were killed on the occasion, 13 were detained and one policeman was injured. No civilians were harmed.
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