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American Morning

State Department Orders U.S. Embassy Personnel to Depart Macedonia

Aired July 27, 2001 - 10:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Americans, especially nonemergency embassy personnel, are being urged to leave Macedonia this morning in the wake of recent unrest in that country. The State Department is ordering all personnel at the embassy who are not engaged in diplomacy in Skopje to leave. This, as U.S. Marines arrive there to provide added security to the embassy.

For more on this travel warning and what it implies, CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us now live from Washington -- Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Stephen.

These actions, described as precautionary measures. One U.S. official here saying the State Department did what it thought was prudent based on the situation on the ground. You'll recall that earlier this week on Tuesday, there were violent street protests in Skopje outside Western embassies, including the U.S. embassy there, protesters basically accusing the NATO and Western peacekeepers of siding with the ethnic Albanian rebels who have been fighting with Macedonian security forces. And so the U.S. has taken, again, what it calls some precautionary measures.

The Pentagon has sent in a U.S. Marine unit from Italy to beef up security around the embassy, while the State Department has ordered those staffers whose jobs, they can leave those jobs and the essential functions of the embassy would continue, to depart as well as family members of staffers and as well as U.S. citizens traveling throughout Macedonia, the State Department saying that the situation is unsettled and potentially dangerous because of the armed clashes between the ethnic Albanian rebels and the Macedonian security forces.

The fighting was so severe earlier this week on Sunday and Monday that it appeared that the NATO brokered cease-fire could collapse. But in the latest developments, the ethnic Albanian rebels have agreed to pull back towards that cease-fire line and both sides have agreed to engage in political discussion between the ethnic Albanian minority and the Macedonian majority.

A key sticking point continues to be over language, just whether the Albanian language should become the second official language of Macedonia. So White House officials watching the situation closely, hoping both sides reach a political settlement. Kelly Wallace, CNN, reporting live from the White House.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Kelly, thank you very much.

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