Ex-Macedonian minister 'ordered killing of foreigners'

Police issued an arrest warrant for Macedonia’s former interior minister today for allegedly ordering the killings of seven foreigners in an elaborate plot to show solidarity with the US-led war on terror.

The warrant was issued after Ljube Boskovski failed to appear for a scheduled hearing today with an investigative judge in the capital, Skopje.

Police have alleged that Boskovski and his three top police associates ordered the March 2002 executions of the six Pakistanis and one Indian after claiming they were terrorists planning to attack US and other foreign embassies in Macedonia.

Macedonian authorities have acknowledged that the killings were in fact executions of illegal immigrants, who were not terrorists, as part of a plot to promote the Balkan country as a player in the fight against global terrorism and win US political support.