The UN’s chief war crimes prosecutor has held a first round of official talks to assess Macedonian government claims that ethnic Albanian rebels committed war crimes in the country this year.
Ms Carla Del Ponte is to decide whether there is enough evidence to warrant opening a formal investigation into war crimes committed during the conflict between the rebels and government troops earlier this year.
Ms Del Ponte is expected to meet later with members of the international community in Skopje as well as with President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski.
Under pressure from the international community, Mr Trajkovski pledged last Friday to honour a promised amnesty for members of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), except for those wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
NLA launched an insurgency earlier this year that threatened to escalate into all out civil war, but surrendered its weapons to NATO troops in September under a peace plan which included a pledge of amnesty for the former rebels.
Mr Trajkovski said officials will show a suspected mass grave near Tetovo to Ms Del Ponte during her visit.
AFP