STATE Department orders Americans to leave Macedonia

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The State Department says Americans should leave Macedonia, where government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels have been fighting for six months. <br><br>The department has ordered nonemergency,

Saturday, August 11th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The State Department says Americans should leave Macedonia, where government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels have been fighting for six months.

The department has ordered nonemergency, embassy personnel and the dependents of embassy workers, to leave. U.S. citizens have been warned to defer all travel there.

``Amid a climate of rising anti-foreigner sentiment, there has been an increase in acts of intimidation and violence against American citizens in Macedonia,'' says a travel warning issued late Friday.

American officials who remain in the capital of Skopje have been placed under a curfew. They were urged to ``maintain a low profile, avoid crowds and demonstrations, monitor local news sources, and vary routes and times for all required travel.''