Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Macedonia's northeastern mountains today, though no new fighting was reported between Macedonian troops and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The fate of some 8,000 mostly ethnic Albanian villagers caught in the battle zone since May 3rd is the biggest immediate concern in the conflict which threatens to degenerate into civil war and spark a wider Balkan crisis.
The latest fighting continued yesterday and focused on the village of Matejca, infiltrated by the insurgents last week, army spokesman Blagoja Markovski and a rebel commander calling himself Shpati told reporters.
Neither side reported casualties. Reporters in the area said there was no sound of gunfire this morning.
Annick Bouvier, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Skopje, said the ICRC did not have enough security guarantees from both sides to try to get into the Lipkovo area, some 20 km (13 miles) northeast of Skopje, where most of the civilians are hiding in basements and cellars.
Balkan summer heat is rising, adding to the villagers' problems. Food, water and medicines are already reported to be in short supply.
The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army had said they wanted civilians be evacuated to neighbouring ethnic Albanian dominated Kosovo.
Later, the NLA apparently left the issue to the leaders of civilian defence councils of four rebel-held villages who have objected to a government evacuation plan whichenvisaged a collection point at a sports stadium in the town of Kumanovo.
They said in a statement on Wednesday they feared that men would be taken off for paraffin tests to see if they had used firearms and would be declared terrorists whatever the result .
They called for the villages of Lipkovo and Otlja, which are overcrowded and in dire need of medicines, food and water , to be declared safe havens under UN protection.
The government accuses the guerrillas of using civilians as human shields in their five-month-old campaign for greater rights for the Balkan state's ethnic Albanian minority.
But the guerrillas say civilians fear mistreatment by Macedonian security forces if they do flee.