Filed at 7:02 a.m. ET
BOGOVINJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Tensions rose in Macedonia
on Thursday after a policeman was shot dead by suspected ethnic
Albanian gunmen ahead of weekend elections.
The killing fueled fears that extremists opposed to a
Western-backed peace plan which eased the country back from the
brink of civil war last year were bent on wrecking Sunday's
ballot and fomenting new unrest.
A police spokesman said the reservist, an ethnic Albanian
himself, was killed by 10 gunmen who drove up and opened fire
with machineguns on five officers at a remote police post in
the village Bogovinje in the Tetovo valley. No one else was
hurt.
Trees around the scene bore evidence of a gunbattle and
there were bloodstains on the ground where the man died. Two
armored personnel carriers and a handful of flak-jacketed
special police were guarding the scene.
``He had several bullet holes in his body,'' said Ib Harbro,
a police adviser with the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Harbro said all five policemen targeted in the attack were
ethnic Albanians. Locals said warning posters had appeared
recently saying Albanians should stop collaborating with the
Macedonian police and leave the force.
Witnesses told police they had recognized the gunmen as
they drove off in two cars, and a police spokesman later said
two Albanians had been detained in the village.
The attack came just three weeks after two police officers
were gunned down by ethnic Albanian gunmen in the same area, in
what the government said was an attempt to wreck the Balkan
country's September 15 election.
``This kind of act is outrageous. The people who do it have
one motive, and one motive only, and that is to create further
tension and violence by raising fears and concerns,'' NATO
spokesman Mark Laity said in Brussels.
``The only possible response is for people to answer through
the ballot box and refuse to allow this unrepresentative
minority to drag Macedonia down into a spiral of violence.''
The elections are a key plank of the Western-brokered peace
agreement that ended a six-month ethnic Albanian insurgency
last year. Albanian guerrillas turned in their weapons to a
peace force from NATO, which has 700 troops in the country.
The guerrillas agreed to lay down their arms in return for
better rights for the minority community, including increased
representation in state institutions like the police.
After last month's shooting, the arrest of five suspects
immediately triggered the kidnapping of five Macedonian
civilians. The kidnapping brought out a massive number of
police and security forces near to the village of Bogovinje,
where the latest killing took place.
Ending a day of high tension, international pressure
secured the release of the hostages without a shot being fired.
