Skopje - Macedonia's parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to draft reforms vital to a Western-backed peace plan with ethnic Albanians, after delays that threatened to derail the disarmament of guerrillas.
Legislators cleared the first big hurdle toward lasting peace in the ex-Yugoslav republic as two Western envoys promoted the idea of an international force to fill the security void that looms after the NATO troops who are now collecting arms from rebels go home.
By a 91-19 margin, well over the two-thirds majority required, parliament authorised a procedure to rewrite key parts of the constitution to improve the civil rights of Macedonia's minority Albanians, who form about a third of the population. Parliament will be required to ratify the changes as soon as NATO completes a 30-day mission to disarm the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), which began handing in its weapons last week. NATO's deadline is September 26th.
A NATO spokesman welcomed the vote and said the guerrillas, who turned in a third of their declared 3,300 weapons in three days last week, would resume disarming shortly.