Macedonia's precarious peace process edged into round two yesterday as hundreds more guerrillas disarmed after parliament grudgingly embarked on constitutional reforms sought by ethnic Albanians.
Albanian insurgents assembled in a highland meadow near the Kosovo border and handed NATO troops hardware ranging from AK-47 assault rifles to anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars, tank shells and a stolen Macedonian army armoured personnel carrier.
The guerrillas marched through the village of Radusa, a bastion of their National Liberation Army (NLA), before lining up to turn in their weapons to British paratroopers.
NATO's "Operation Essential Harvest" gathered in the first third of the declared NLA arsenal last week but stopped when parliament's preliminary debate on reforms was dragged out, then frozen by ultra-nationalists.
Western diplomatic intervention pushed the hard-liners to drop their demands, such as an immediate return of 70,000 Macedonian refugees to their homes, and legislators finally voted 91-19 on Thursday to authorise the drafting of reforms.
But the big majority was deceptive. Many deputies said the peace accord was tantamount to "capitulation to Albanian terrorism" and said they voted yes only under duress from Western envoys and party leaders who reluctantly signed it.
Western mediators engineered the treaty only by persuading Skopje that greater civil rights for minority Albanians was the only way to avoid the dismemberment of Macedonia.
Meanwhile, the EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, and the External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, held talks with Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political leaders yesterday focusing on assistance if parliament delivers reforms.
Mr Patten toured communities on both sides of the ceasefire line near Tetovo before signing a €42 million grant for projects to upgrade Macedonia's infrastructure.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Belgium today to discuss how to stabilise Macedonia over the longer term.