MEDIA: NEGOTIATIONS IN MACEDONIA REACH IMPASSE

SKOPJE, June 20 (Hina) - Negotiations conducted for six days by Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political parties on a resolution of the crisis in Macedonia have entered a cul-de-sac and threatened to aggravate the inter-ethnic relations and flare the armed conflict in the country, according to a report of a Macedonian newspaper Dnevnik. Wednesday's issue of 'Dnevnik' reads that the head of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), Arben Xhaferi, does not accept a concept of civil arrangement of the country and sticks to the stand that Albanians must be cited by the Constitution as a constitutional people equal to Macedonians. According to Dnevnik, this should be materialised by the introduction of consensus democracy and the set-up of a Council for Inter-Ethnic Relations which must give the green light for any decision of the parliament, including issues such as the security of the country, a budget, culture and public offices. In addition, ethnic Albanians insists that the office of the state's Vice-President be established and that this post must be filled by ethnic Albanian appointed by the parliament. The Vice- President will have the right to veto President's decisions. Xhaferi also asks for veteran pensions for armed extremists, the daily reads. Due to such demands, President Boris Trajkovski has asked ambassadors of European Union and NATO member-states to help, and those diplomats held talks with Xhaferi on Tuesday. Responding to Albanians' demands, a Macedonian paramilitary unit has announced, in a newspaper 'VEST', a merciless war to be waged with Albanians and expulsion of everybody who has moved in Macedonia from Kosovo. A representative of armed Albanians was quoted by an agency, MAK- FAX, as saying that they would not allow NATO to disarm ethnic Albanian guerrillas as the situation in Macedonia could not be compared with the situation in southern Serbia. (hina) sb ms