(27 Aug 2001)
undisclosed location near Tetovo
1. Pan from rebel house to armed guards
2. Close up of guard's gun
3. Wide shot of Ahmeti sitting with officials
4. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian with English translation) Ali Ahmeti, National Liberation Army leader:
"At the end of the day there is nothing the Slav Macedonians can lose from this agreement. They will gain true democracy while we will gain equal status."
5. Cutaway of translator
6. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian with English translation) Ali Ahmeti, National Liberation Army leader:
"We would not like to blame or accuse the Macedonian people as a nation, as a whole, it is rather the responsibility of the Macedonian policians. The Macedonian people have not done anything bad, all the evil was coming from the organised state structures."
7. Cutaway
8. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian with English translation) Ali Ahmeti, National Liberation Army leader:
"Certainly these are processes that require a lot of courage but I could tell you that with a framework agreement and all the other documents we have signed it is perceived that OSCE monitoring group and other international monitoring groups to be established in the field aim to observe the situation and make sure that the peace process is going on well."
9. Various of Ahmeti sitting down
STORYLINE:
The leader of the ethinc Albanian rebels fighting the Macedonian government for greater rights said on Monday that the country's Slavs have nothing to lose from NATO's intervention there.
In an interview in a rebel stronghold near the city of Tetovo, National Liberation Army leader Ali Ahmeti also insisted his group will surrender all its weapons and disband, saying the time had come to work for peace.
On Monday NATO said they had collected more than 300 assault rifles, between 60 and 80 light machine guns, 10 heavy machine guns and several anti-tank weapons, as well as mortars, ammunition, grenades and land mines.
It was the first day of what is intended to be a 30 day weapons collection operation.
NATO is keen to deploy the full mission soon, believing that the political agreement and rebel disarmament must go hand-in-hand.
But the Macedonian government does not think enough is being done - it says the rebels are only giving up one twentieth of their arsenal.
On Monday the rebels released seven Macedonian civilians that they had been holding prisoner in the north of the country.
Six of the prisoners, who were all released together, had been captured at the end of July and held in Tetovo, according to the international Red Cross.
The move by the rebels was an apparent act of goodwill as NATO's mission got underway in Macedonia to collect weapons voluntarily handed in by the insurgents.
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