An ethnic Albanian was killed today when resisting arrest by Macedonian police in the northwestern flashpoint town of Tetovo, police sources said.
The sources gave no further information about the identity of the victim, nor the circumstances which surrounded the killing.
Earlier today, observers said a retreat by ethnic Albanian rebels from the areas they have controlled for the past three weeks in northwestern Macedonia was "under way".
The withdrawal, negotiated after the Balkan country edged towards all-out war yesterday, was confirmed as NATO Secretary General Mr George Robertson and European Union's foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana arrived in Skopje to help breathe life back into a tattered July 5th ceasefire and revive stalled peace talks.
NATO spokesman Mr Barry Johnson said the withdrawal was "under way".
Under the agreement, brokered by NATO special envoy Mr Pieter Feith, the retreat of the rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA) had been scheduled to start around 6 a. m.(4 a.m. Irish time) today and be completed within seven hours.
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe teams in Macedonia were charged with observing the NLA retreat from a number of villages and roads around the northwestern town Tetovo.
Under the deal all rebel checkpoints on the road are to be dismantled, and all paramilitary forces are to pull back 500 metres from the last house in all the villages controlled by the rebels since July 5th.
The withdrawal was a condition of the Macedonian government for it to continue respecting the ceasefire and to refrain from further violence.
Although Mr Johnson said yesterday the accord was signed between the representatives of the government and the NLA rebels, sources close to the Skopje authorities insisted the agreement was sealed solely between NATO and Albanian "terrorists".
AFP