Syndicate: Developments in Macedonia - part 2

[Melentie Pandilovski <mpandil@soros.org.mk>]

After entering in the yard of the American embassy
in Skopje some of the present youth started smashing its windows.
Several embassy or NATO jeeps were damaged.
The demonstrators were shouting in favor of Yugoslavia,
Russia and Macedonia and waiving with SFRJ (ex-Yugoslavia) flags,
and singing the Yugoslav anthem "Hej Sloveni".
This has not been seen in Skopje for a long time. 
It reminded a lot of the All - Yugoslav spirit of the 70ies and 80ies.
The demonstrators then proceeded affront of the 
German and British Embassy where they continued to protest 
in a similar manner. Witnesses say that the police shot 2 smoke grenades
in the air, and prevented the demonstrators to enter into the building. 
The prime minister Georgievski addressed the Macedonian public
on TV accusing the Macedonian media of an anti-NATO campaign and 
confirmed the firm pro-NATO direction of the Macedonian government and
stressing the guarantees of NATO for Macedonia. However he said that the 
Western allies were so far only verbally preventing the possible humanitarian
catastrophe in Kosovo and Souther Serbia, and that if it happens the West is to be blamed. 
The demonstrators were not very impressed loudly saying that the threat for Macedonia
is on the contrary NATO and demanded the Prime Minister to speak to them directly 
which hasn't happened yet. 
Demonstrations stopped after some time.
Larger demonstrations with participants from all of Macedonia
expected to continue tomorrow noon.
The minister of interior Trajanov accused the demonstrators of 
being very aggressive and said that Macedonia remains neutral 
in the conflict.
Otherwise people are cautious and storing food supplies.  
Streets are now calm except for white helicopters 
(I think it is UNPREDEP which is still around)
circling extremely frequently around the center of Skopje 
and creating awful noise during the night .

Melentie