SKOPJE, Jan 11: Macedonian police postponed their planned return on Friday into several villages taken over by ethnic Albanian rebels last year, saying it was not yet safe to move back in.

Police cautiously re-entered only three villages out of eight planned in the latest phase of a Western-monitored scheme to gradually restore state sovereignty over areas held by the guerrillas during their insurgency from February to August.

In the village of Celopek near the western city of Tetovo, police were barred by roadblocks set up by local residents, a sign of enduring mistrust and suspicion months after the guns fell silent.

The force did not even try to begin patrols in four other villages in the area, either because the villagers still did not want them there or, in one case, because of snow, fog and icy roads.

“We assessed, and international monitors concurred, that it would be unsafe to enter those villages now. We want to avoid any incidents and that’s why we need a couple more days to build up confidence,” a government official told Reuters.

The police units, ethnically mixed in an attempt to overcome local distrust, stayed for only short periods of time in Vrutok, Zdunje and Recane. Officers chatted with villagers and said they planned to return in coming days for gradually longer periods.

A Western-brokered peace deal last August put an end to the fighting between government troops and rebels, who said they took up arms to improve the rights of the large Albanian minority.

Constitutional amendments to enhance the position of Macedonia’s Albanians and offer an amnesty for ex-guerrillas were passed by parliament late last year, fulfilling crucial conditions for the return of police under the scrutiny of NATO and other international monitors.

The first phase of the re-deployment plan got under way in December and so far police have entered around 20 rebel villages out of a total of 120.

Bearing sidearms only, they are to resume patrols across a 150-km swathe of territory comprising a little over 10 percent of the tiny Balkan state, where last year’s fighting sparked Western fears of a new all-out Balkan war.—Reuters