[9] On 12 June 2001, a group of several hundred NLA insurgents took control of the ethnically mixed village of Aračinovo, located just eight kilometers from the edge of the capital Skopje.

[16] The attention that the Aračinovo crisis attracted was so great that NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and the European Union security chief Javier Solana visited Macedonia to bolster efforts for a political solution to the conflict.

However, after several meetings of the "Coordinative Body for the Resolution of the Crisis", as well as with the "Command for the Defence of the City of Skopje", on 18 June it was decided to execute a military operation to crush the NLA forces in Aračinovo.

After initial clashed on the northern side, the security forces slowly approached the village graveyards, and the insurgents reinforced their positions around the new mosque.

At the end of the first day of the operation, the Macedonian police managed to penetrate the village from the north and the west, but advanced very slowly due to strong resistance from the NLA positions.

[30] The police, supported by mortar fire, conducted infantry attacks into the village from the eastern side and made minor advances towards the centre.

The NLA resistance culminated during the third day of the Macedonian security forces' onslaught, when three members of the police were killed in action in Brnjarci's graveyard.

[8] During the meeting held the same day with EU's senior foreign policy official, Javier Solana, the Macedonian government agreed to stop completely their military activities in Aračinovo, and to let the NLA insurgents leave the encircled village.

[34] After talks between President Boris Trajkovski and Javier Solana, the Macedonian government officially announced that it had ended its offensive against the NLA in Aračinovo.

According to western media reports the talks were apparently "extremely acrimonious", with the Macedonian security forces reluctant to abandon a battle they were convinced that they were going to win.

[37] The evacuation started at 17:00 and was conducted by U.S. Army personnel from the American contingent within KFOR in Kosovo which were based at Camp Able Sentry at the Skopje International Airport.

In a strongly-worded statement, Lord Robertson also urged the government to cease hostilities as Macedonia, he warned, was "on the brink of bloody civil war".

The operation was halted and the evacuation was asked by the President Trajkovski, in order to avoid the threat to the capital and to facilitate a speedy resolution of the conflict.

[47] According to former Minister of the Internal Affairs Ljube Boškovski and former Chief of Staff General Pande Petrovski, the halting of the operation of Macedonian security forces happened because of a "NATO ultimatum".

Namely, during the 2002 congressional elections in the US, Nye revealed that while assigned to Macedonia and Kosovo, in 2001 he organised the rescue of twenty-six American citizens who were trapped behind insurgent lines.

[39][40][48][49] Researchers Mark Curtis and Scott Taylor, claim that the foreigners who Nye mentions were advisors from the American military company MPRI.

[42] However, commentators including former Presidential Advisor Stevo Pendarovski, who was spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time of the conflict, have dismissed such claims as mystifications and conspiracy theories, stating that there have been no American instructors at Aračinovo.

[51] Protesters broke into the Parliament building and demanded to talk to the President shouting "treason" and "resignation",[51] and deriding Trajkovski's decision to allow the rebels to take their weapons when they retreated.

The demonstrators broke through a cordon of police, hurled stones through windows,[52] and completely destroyed Minister of Interior Boshovski's Mercedes parked in front of the building.