Macedonia President Proposes Albanian Fighters Be Pardoned

President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia submitted proposal to the cabinet Monday to pardon members of the so called national liberation army. The Albanian extremists who committed war crimes or were involved in destroying cultural and historical monuments are not to be granted an amnesty, according to the president-sponsored proposal. Moreover, an amnesty is proposed to be offered to those who gave in arms before September 26 during NATO's Essential Harvest operation. Though the Macedonian cabinet is not particularly enthusiastic about an amnesty for Albanian terrorists, it is, nevertheless, going to back the president's move on Tuesday, say Skopje observers. An amnesty for the fighters is part of a peace agreement between the Macedonian and Albanian political leaders. An understanding about the amnesty was reached last week while European Union officials Javier Solana and Chris Patten were visiting the Macedonian capital.