MACEDONIA ASKS UN TO HELP IT OUT OF CRISIS IN ITS NORTH








BELGRADE, March 13 /from RIA Novosti's Alexander Slabynko/ - With the situation in Macedonia's north deteriorating, President Boris Trajkovski has addressed the UN Security Council with a request for assistance.


	Albanian terrorists, who refer to themselves as the National Liberation Army, are stepping up their efforts to penetrate deeper into Macedonia, to the east and west of Tanusevci, the village which had been under their control until yesterday, said the Macedonian president.


	On Tuesday, the country's intellectual community forwarded a letter to the NATO and UN countries' ambassadors. It reads that Albanian terrorists' activities pose a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia as well as to the entire Balkan region. Extremists are seeking a collapse of Macedonia and the revision of Balkan borders, runs the letter. The country's intelligentsia appeal to the global community, asking it to save their tiny state, which has never in its history stirred up ethnic hatred.


	Meanwhile, the Macedonian army is carrying out a mopping-up operation near the border with Kosovo. According to reports from Skopje, Albanian militant groups have not left the area yet. They are known to be concentrating in the villages of Brest and Malino. The villages are now the venue of an operation by Macedonia's interior ministry forces.


	A defence ministry spokesman said sporadic skirmishes broke out throughout the night. Federal forces have launched a second stage of the operation aimed at restoring order on the border.