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SKOPJE, Macedonia, September 17, 1999 (ENS) - The UN peacekeeping force KFOR in Macedonia has admitted it dumped unexploded ordnance and other waste into two lakes in early September. This and other friction between the peacekeepers and Macedonian citizens has triggered a call for KFOR to leave the country.
The Ecological Movements in Macedonia (DEM) have joined the growing group of Macedonians that want KFOR to get out. Pandorka Nikuseva, the president of DEM, says that bad behavior on the part of KFOR soldiers has had an influence on degradation of the environment.
Macedonian citizens began calling for KFOR's ouster after a series of car accidents in which 10 people died.
The Macedonian governmental authorities expressed a desire to say goodbye to the soldiers after KFOR helicopters dropped waste into two Macedonian lakes, Lake Prespa and Lake Dolnolipkovsko, the first week in September.
After lengthy negotiations between the office of KFOR in Macedonia and the Macedonian ministries of environment, internal affairs and health, the office of KFOR admitted that its own mistake resulting in the dumping of waste in the lakes.
KFOR's spokesmen have admitted that KFOR helicopters ejected unexploded ordnance into the lakes. These are explosives that were not used during the 77 day NATO bombing of neighboring Yugoslavia which ended June 10.
But KFOR officials have refused to talk to Macedonian journalists and have been reluctant to speak with representatives of the Ministry of Environment.
Macedonian Minister of Environment, Toni Popovski, has asked the executive branch of the Macedonian government to determine what punishment under Macedonian environmental law should be levied against KFOR for dumping waste in the lakes.
Popovski and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Pavle Trajanov, have asked the international environmental organization Greenpeace to undertake research in Lake Dolnolipkovsko to determine the type of waste was dumped there and what damage it has caused.
But the office of KFOR in Macedonia is not in agreement with this suggestion. KFOR says it has asked its own researchers to look into the damage caused to Lake Dolnolipkovsko. They will pay all the costs of researching the lake if their own divers do it, a KFOR spokesman said, but if other scientists do the investigation, KFOR will not pay the bill.
Minister Popovski says the Macedonian government will pay all costs if the waste found did not originate with KFOR. But if it is KFOR's waste, the UN peacekeepers will pay all expenses and they will be punished.
Dolnolipkovsko Lake serves as a reservoir of drinking water for the people of northern Macedonia. Officers from the Ministry of Health have been continuously at the scene, and they have been researching the water. To date, they have found no contamination in the water except for the unexploded ordnance.