Troops launching NATO's third Balkans mission in six years poured into Macedonia yesterday, preparing to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas as part of a precarious peace plan.
Controversy arose over conflicting estimates of the size of the rebel arsenal. Before disarmament begins, NATO must settle on a figure that will placate the Macedonian government's fear of rebels hiding weapons to fight again after NATO leaves.
The first 300 of 1,800 British soldiers, over half the force behind Operation Essential Harvest, flew into Skopje a day after NATO's 19 states approved the mission.
An advance party of 150 Greek troops, part of a 411-member contingent, are due today.
Dozens of military flights will land in the little airport that serves the Macedonian capital, Skopje, over the coming 10 days to fill out the mission of 3,500 troops from 13 countries.
A NATO vanguard of liaison and reconnaissance teams has been in place since Sunday, gauging rebel attitudes towards disarmament and weighing up conditions on the often indistinct frontlines.
Under the peace plan, Macedonia's parliament must enact sweeping reforms to improve the status of the ethnic Albanian minority while the rebels turn over their firepower to NATO troops within a strict 30-day time frame.
NATO commanders hope to start collecting weapons next week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced doubts the Western mission will succeed: "It is unlikely that the guerrillas will really hand over weapons."
With traditional ties to fellow Orthodox Slavs in the old Yugoslavia, Moscow accuses NATO of being too soft on the mainly Muslim Albanian rebels.
The two sides are already disputing the number of National Liberation Army (NLA) weapons.
Government spokesman, Mr Antonio Milosovski, quoting Macedonian intelligence findings, told Reuters 3yesterday that ethnic Albanian "paramilitary groups" had at least 60,000 light and heavy weapons and pieces of ordnance.
Rebel officers told Reuters last weekend that the NLA had about 2,300 weapons but added cryptically the amount would be higher if NATO-led Kosovo peacekeepers were not cracking down.
But many analysts say the 30-day mandate envisaged is too short and too weak to defuse ethnic animosities and deter sabotage or reprisals by radicals. "A NATO presence gives stability for everyone in Macedonia," said Commander Mususi, an NLA commander near the Kosovo border.
"If NATO stays for less than five years its mission will fail and Macedonia will face the same fate as Bosnia"