FYR of Macedonia: tension, insecurity still high in areas around Tetovo, UNHCR

Despite calm and normal commercial activity in the town of Tetovo, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, there was still a great deal of tension and insecurity in the surrounding areas, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

A UNHCR mobile team, which travelled on Thursday to Tetovo for the first time in weeks, reported local residents as saying the surrounding villages were clearly divided along ethnic lines, spokesman Kris Janowski said. Aid workers were prevented from travelling to the villages by land mines and other security risks.

Meanwhile, returns of ethnic Albanians to the FYR of Macedonia have come to a standstill as the main road from Kosovo continues to be blocked by a group of ethnic Macedonians trying to prevent ethnic Albanians from going home.

An estimated 30,000 ethnic Albanians had returned to Macedonia before the blockade was erected last Saturday. More than 100,000 people remain uprooted by the conflict.