Clashes eased following attempts by the European Union and the United States to find a peaceful solution to the crisis. But the EU and NATO, scrambling to head off a new war in the Balkans, focused attention on encouraging dialogue with the ethnic Albanian parties while seeking to isolate the National Liberation Army (NLA); the main military force in the conflict.

The situation worsened in recent weeks when the inexperienced Government army sustained heavy losses at the hands of the Albanian fighters, prompting the country's Slav population to attack the President's office in protest against what they regard as the Government's laxity in dealing with the situation. The Slavs were angry with President Boris Trajkovski for agreeing to the EU-brokered plan. Apart from a shaky ceasefire that saw the NLA fighters withdraw with their weapons from strategic positions surrounding the capital, Skoplje, there was no substantive progress in addressing the root causes of the conflict.

One NLA leader says the fighters and behind them the minority Macedonian population of Albanian origin who constitute one third of the state's two million people want to redefine the constitution to enjoy equal rights. These include greater representation in parliament, giving the Albanian language official recognition, recognizing Albanian higher education institutions and giving the ethnic Albanians and other minorities more Government jobs. Otherwise, he warned, the NLA would continue the fight for Albanian rights.

In an interview with Arab News, Mevlud Aliu a senior member of the NLA political wing and its representative in Turkey and Middle East, said the Albanian Muslim population was forced to take up arms against the Government after all peaceful attempts to secure its legitimate rights ended in failure. Aliu said they would still pursue peaceful means to achieve their demands but would not lay down their arms until the Government proves its seriousness and sincerity in resolving the conflict.

"We have been trying since Macedonia's independence in 1991 to achieve our goals peacefully but the Government continues its policy of stalling and deceiving us. It continues to treat us as second-class citizens after changing the constitution by erasing the clause that explicitly defined Macedonia as a republic of Macedonians and Albanians. Now the constitution describes the Republic as a country of Macedonians only without any reference to the minorities. We want to be treated as an integral part of the state," Aliu said.

Although the Albanian population has its own political parties, two of which are included in the coalition Government of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, it complains it is underrepresented in Parliament. Elected in 1998, Georgievski has stepped up Government efforts to crack down on the ethnic Albanians and has criticized NATO for not doing enough to stop the conflict.

According to Aliu, while every 3,000 Slavs have the right to elect a representative to parliament, the number required for the Albanian population is 15,000 voters. "This is outright discrimination. It is worse than what the Muslims suffered under Communist rule."

The republic bordering on Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria was once described as a peaceful mosaic of Balkan ethnic groups including Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Gypsies and others. The kind of peace it enjoyed before the collapse of the Yugoslav federation was but a chapter in a history of distrust, hatred and carnage. The Slavs and Albanians have at best coexisted, rather than intermingled.

While the Muslims continue to accuse the Government of systematic destruction of all signs of Muslim and Ottoman civilization, they were still ready to live peacefully with the Slavs and other minorities provided their rights are guaranteed, said Aliu.

He said the Government has not offered any concessions to the Muslims as it claimed but was bent on misleading world opinion into believing that it has softened its position on Muslim demands. He said their cause is gaining sympathy and cited the NLA withdrawal from positions overlooking the capital as a major gesture of good will that earned them international support.

"We only hear there has been some progress but not to the extent that satisfies us. They (the Government) are not responding to our demands. We do not want war but if negotiations fail and war breaks out, we shouldn't be blamed."

The persecution and suffering of the Macedonian Muslims are particularly felt among the poor communities in remote mountain areas of the western part of the country where the issues of constitutional definition, language and education are of great importance to the population who feel economically and socially isolated from the rest of the republic. They were the first to suffer atrocities and harassment by the army.

Aliu said they want to see the international community, especially the Muslim world, do more to help the situation and resolve the conflict. "The media in the Muslim world remains silent on our problem and those of Muslims in Europe in general. Many of our Muslim brethren do not even know where Macedonia is located on the map let alone being aware of the causes behind the conflict. We have not heard that our problem has ever been discussed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference or other regional Islamic bodies. Maybe there are shortcomings on our side but we shouldn't be blamed since we don't have much to offer."

Macedonian Muslims say the West views the conflict in their country with less enthusiasm compared to what it did in Kosovo when NATO unleashed its might to drive the Serbian army out of the province. In the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo, most Western powers fiercely supported Albanian Kosovars in their fight against the brutal regime of Slobodan Milosevic. One result of that fighting was more than 300,000 refugees flooding into tiny Macedonia aggravating already existing tensions between the Slavs and Albanians.

Despite the deep-seated dislike and distrust shared by the two peoples following centuries of conflict, Aliu said they have to learn to live alongside each other. "It wasn't the Albanians who sought to destroy the state and create conflicts here after the Serbs withdrew from Macedonia taking with them everything they laid their hands on. They even took the doors and windows of governmental and other buildings. Because the Albanians want to live peacefully with other ethnic groups in the republic they formed political parties and helped in rebuilding the country but the Government did not want to treat them as equal citizens. We waited for ten years for our grievances to be addressed. It was only after all this waiting that we were forced to resort to armed struggle."

Aliu said he didn't think the situation would remain calm if the Government continued to ignore their demands. "I would not rule out the outbreak of renewed fighting. The solution lies with the Government. We know it is not sincere but there is no other alternative but to pursue a peaceful solution. The EU and the United Nations should do more if a wider tragedy like Bosnia Herzegovina is to be avoided. I am afraid if things remain as they are, it would be too late to avoid a wider conflict." Aliu denied the NLA is receiving support from Albania through Kosovo saying the mobile NLA fighters can withstand even the fiercest onslaught of the army thanks to the support they receive from the Albanian civilian population. Some countries, like Turkey, are providing political support and sheltering large numbers of Albanian refugees.

While some reports put the number of NLA fighters 2,000, Aliu claims they number around 18,000, with more joining the army every month.