Initial NLA Attack
In the prelude to the conflict in late 2000, groups of armed Albanians started opening fire on Macedonian police and security forces located on the border with Kosovo. These events appeared to catch the Macedonian government and International Community by surprise. The first attacks occurred in the small village of Tanuševci located in northern Macedonia, near the border with Kosovo.
The conflict began on 22 January 2001, when a group of armed Albanians attacked the police station of the village Tearce near Tetovo, killing a police officer and injuring three others.
Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians which was a part of the Macedonian government, criticized the attack against the police station and said the following words:
“The Tetovo incident is part of an orchestrated action against the government and a very crude attempt to overthrow it. Regardless of who is behind it, as a political party we deeply condemn this act. This is a deeply anti-Macedonian act, but also an act against the interests of the Albanians in Macedonia”.
In the same month, a group calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA) claimed responsibility for the attacks against the police. Initial reports gave conflicting information about the NLA. Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski claimed that the rebels were primarily Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) members who had infiltrated the country from Kosovo. Macedonian officials accused NATO of not doing enough to disarm the Albanian insurgents, discouraging their encampment in the buffer zone (Ground Safety Zone) area between Kosovo and Serbia, or preventing their entry into Macedonia.
The NLA claimed that the rebel force comprised several thousand men, coming mainly from Macedonia.
After one month long clashes, by late February, the Macedonian special police units neutralized the positions of the NLA in Tearce and Tanuševci, temporarily driving them across the border into Kosovo.
Read more about this topic: Insurgency In The Republic Of Macedonia
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