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Police Launch Manhunt for Kidnap Suspect
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES
Associated Press Writer
August 28, 2003, 1:52 PM EDT
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Police surrounded a village in a manhunt Thursday for an ethnic Albanian militant suspected of briefly abducting a Macedonian policeman and a civilian.
The move to seal off Aracinovo -- a mostly ethnic Albanian-populated village about 10 miles northeast of Skopje -- triggered fears of renewed ethnic clashes between majority Macedonian Slavs and minority ethnic Albanians in the tiny Balkan state.
The officer and the civilian, his cousin, were abducted Wednesday by a group led by Avdil Jakupi in an attempt to arrange a swap for a detained bombing suspect. Police freed the hostages late Wednesday.
Jakupi, who fled during the rescue operation, is believed to belong to the self-styled Albanian National Army advocating independence of Albanians living in Macedonia, said police spokeswoman Mirjana Konteska.
"We have located Jakupi, and he will be arrested," Konteska said. She refused to reveal details of the ongoing police operation.
Police were searching all those entering or leaving Aracinovo, where Jakupi is believed to be hiding.
In a joint statement, the U.S. ambassador to Skopje, the European Union mission in Macedonia, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called on the population to cooperate with the police -- praising officials for their "peaceful resolution of the hostage situation."
The off-duty officer and his cousin, both 23, were abducted near Kumanovo, an ethnically tense city 25 miles northeast of Skopje.
Jakupi had threatened to kill the two men unless the authorities released Avni Ajeti, a suspect held in connection with two bomb attacks last year that left one person dead and several injured, Konteska said.
Reached on his mobile phone Thursday, Jakupi said he was tricked by the authorities when he agreed to release the hostages, believing that the bombing suspect would be released in return.
"We received strong guarantees that Avni Ajeti will be released," Jakupi said. "And as we waited for him (Ajeti) to come, we were surrounded by 50 Macedonian tanks and armored vehicles, and we were attacked."
Konteska denied Jakupi's claim that armored vehicles were used.
Macedonia's north and northwest were the scene of a six-month ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001 that ended with a Western-brokered peace deal granting the ethnic Albanian community -- nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people -- broader rights in exchange for peace.
Despite a NATO-supervised disarmament of the rebels and internationally supervised implementation of the peace pact, scattered violence has persisted. The ANA has claimed responsibility for a number of the attacks.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
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