	Introduction

For nearly a decade, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia managed to escape the kindof brutal ethnic conflict in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo that accompanied the breakup of the formerYugoslavia in the 1990s. By March 2001, violent conflict between the rebels and Macedonian security forces had spread to several areas around the city of Tetovo, prompting the Macedonian government to embark on amajor military campaign to quell the insurgency in western Macedonia. The political parties signed a framework agreement on August 13,paving the way for the deployment of a small NATO force to begin disarming the rebel forces. Operation Essential Harvest, comprising 4,500 European forces, began collecting rebel weapons onAugust 27 and completed its mission within a month. A much smaller task force has remained inMacedonia to provide security for international civilian monitors overseeing the process ofimplementing inter-ethnic reforms. (6)

		Macedonian-Albanian Ethnic Tensions

Prior to the conflict in 2001, relations between the Slav Macedonian majority and ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia were considered tense, if not explosive. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)maintained a presence in Macedonia during the conflict. 2001 Conflict

		Conflict Overview

Attacks by ethnic Albanian guerrilla forces on Macedonian police and security forces in late 2000 and early 2001 appeared to catch the Macedonian government and international communityby surprise. In January, a group calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA, or UCK in Albanian) claimed responsibility for the attacks on police forces. On March 19, western news agencies reported alist of political demands by the NLA rebels that included: international mediation to resolve theirdifferences with the Slavic majority and determine the exact size of the ethnic Albanian community;changes in the Macedonian constitution recognizing Albanians as a constituent people; and, therelease of all political prisoners. In a retaliatory anti-terrorist raid on the village ofLjuboten (near Skopje) on August 12, government forces killed at least five ethnic Albanians. The parties agreed to hold early elections in 2002. 11 NATO member states contributed forces to the operation, which totaledapproximately 4,500 troops. Task Force Harvest commanders reportedthat, in total, the mission collected 3,875 weapons in the 30-day period, exceeded targeted amounts. Some NATO officials have expressedconcerns about the prospect of transferring command of the Macedonia operation over to theEuropean Union (see section on the European Union, below), unless NATO and the fledgling EUrapid reaction force first reach agreement on institutional and operational links. In response to the conflict in Macedonia in early 2001, NATO initially took limited steps to try to quell the violence. In response to recent progress, the EUagreed to convene the donors conference on March 12, 2002. EU leaders have supported extensions of NATO's mandate in Macedonia, but have recently considered the possibility of eventually taking over the Macedonia military mission from thealliance, in the context of the EU's nascent European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). During the 2001 conflict, the United States augmentedsecurity at the U.S. embassy in Skopje.
Sharing borders with Kosovo and Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) managed to avoid becoming directly involved in the drawn-out wars in Bosnia andKosovo in the 1990s. Inter-ethnic relations between the Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minorityin Macedonia, while often tense, never reached the crisis state of Albanian-Serb relations in theprovince of Kosovo. Since Macedonia's independence in 1991, ethnic Albanian political parties inMacedonia have been represented in government and in parliament.
However, in early 2001, ethnic Albanian rebels calling themselves the National Liberation Army (NLA) stepped up attacks on Macedonian security forces first in several villages near the cityof Tetovo and by the western border with Kosovo, and later near the capital, Skopje. The NLA wasthought to have ties to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and rebel Albanian forces operating insouthern Serbia. In March, the Macedonian government began a counter-insurgency campaign. Itopened talks on political reforms with elected ethnic Albanian representatives, but refused tonegotiate with the rebels themselves. Clashes between the rebels and government forces continuedthrough the summer of 2001, notwithstanding intermittent cease-fire agreements and ongoingpolitical talks. With U.S. and European diplomatic intervention, the parties signed a frameworkagreement on August 13, amidst the deadliest violence of the conflict. Implementation of theagreement has progressed slowly and with difficulty. Substantial recent progress enabled the holdingof a long-delayed international donors' conference on March 12, 2002. In spite of recentachievements, some observers continue to fear the prospect of a new uprising by ethnic Albanianextremists or armed provocations by forces supporting Macedonian hardliners.
In June 2001, NATO formulated and approved plans to launch a limited operation in Macedonia to oversee the disarmament of the ethnic Albanian rebel forces. On August 22, NATO gave finalapproval for the deployment of Operation Essential Harvest comprising about 4,500 troops in total. The operation completed collection of a targeted amount of rebel weapons (nearly 4,000) onSeptember 26, 2001. NATO then deployed a smaller follow-on force (Task Force Fox) to providesecurity for international civilian monitors. NATO's peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) has alsobeen involved in patrolling and reinforcing the Kosovo border in order to try to cut off Albanianrebel supply routes. The United States maintains some KFOR support forces in Macedonia, but didnot contribute forces to either the Task Force Harvest or Task Force Fox missions in Macedonia. In early 2002, the European Union agreed to consider taking over the military mission in Macedoniafrom NATO.