Man talks about tension in rebel-held area, plus police reax

Описание: (5 May 2001)
1. Main street in Kumanovo
2. SOUNDBITE: (Macedonian) Fatoun (not real name), Escaped villager "They took my golden coins and duckets and golden necklaces and 12 thousand Deutche Marks to let me out. They let me out first because I they gave them all the money and gold and after me they let out women and children. They come from Kosovo, they come from other foreign countries and some mujahideens."
3. Man who identified himself as Fatoun being led away after news conference
4. Various wide shots of Vaksince village taken from Kumanovo
5. Smoke billowing from the roof top
6. Roof top on fire
7. Macedonian soldier looking through the binoculars
8. Kumanovo Macedonian flag on the building
9. SOUNDBITE: (Macedonian) Ljuban Boskovski, State Secretary for Interior Affairs "This morning hundred people from the direction of Orizari and Lupcane came to Kumanovo and they all told us the dramatic experiences over the last couple of days. They are hostages of the terrorist extremist group and their only goal is to take rip off local people and their relatives working abroad.This levy they are taking from their own people and they are maltreating their own people."
10. Cutaway building

STORYLINE:

Macedonian troops continue to hammer ethnic Albanian rebel positions with artillery fire in an offensive that's deepening fears that the country is on the brink of civil war.

Authorities demanded the evacuation of five villages amid claims that the insurgents were using 3-thousand-500 people as "human shields."

One villager who called himself Fatoun but didn't want to be identified, described how he managed to buy his way out of his village.

Speaking with his jacket obscuring his face at a news conference in the northern city of Kumanovo on Saturday, he said the insurgents were made up of Kosovan Albanians and Muslim extremists.

In all, around 150 women and children managed to flee the villages of Orizare, Slupcane and Vaksince after bribing the rebels with cash and jewellery.

Civilians in five other villages near Kumanovo were also ordered by the military to evacuate and take their documents with them, describing it as a precaution.

But the rebels accused the government of firing indiscriminately at civilians and denied that villagers were being used as shields.

So far, world leaders, including President Bush, have backed Macedonia in its steadfast refusal to negotiate with the rebels, whom the government view as terrorists trying to seize territory and carve out an ethnic Albanian state.

The rebels argue that ethnic Albanians are treated as second-class citizens and are demanding that the Macedonian constitution be rewritten to give them more rights.

NATO and the European Union (EU), fearing fresh bloodshed, are sending their top envoys to Macedonia.

The E-U's security affairs chief, Javier Solana, planned to arrive on Sunday for meetings with Macedonian leaders, while NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson will join him Monday.

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