Tetovo residents clamour for passports - just in case
Tetovo residents have started lining up outside the main police station, hoping to secure passports - uncertain what might happen if rebels fighting in the hills around the Balkan city manage to touch off a war.
Among them yesterday were sisters Atije Ahmeti and Fititje Mehmeti, who waited elbow to elbow in identical brown wool coats, sitting on a rocky wall for five hours. They didn’t arrive in time. The door was slammed in their faces when work ended for the day.
‘‘Not that we’re planning to leave,’’ Atije said. ‘‘We want them just in case.’’
Uncertainty is sweeping through Tetovo, Macedonia’s second largest city, where ethnic Albanian rebels demanding more rights have burrowed into the hills.
For six days, the insurgents and Macedonian government forces have exchanged gun and mortar-fire, touching off enough hysteria to prompt just about everyone in this city of 80,000 to find refuge behind closed doors.
Yesterday, the Macedonian army moved tanks and armoured personnel carriers into the city. The sight was enough to make everyone jumpy. The city’s main hotel refused to let guests have any friends in their rooms, in case they were shot through an open window.
‘‘If they got shot, we wouldn’t have any information on them,’’ said one desk clerk who declined to give his name. ‘‘We would be responsible!’’
