A human rights group has accused Macedonian forces of torturing ethnic Albanian civilians during an offensive that left 10 people dead.
They claim that police shot and killed six civilians and burned at least 22 houses during the raid in the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten.
Shelling killed another three civilians and one more was fatally shot by government forces as he tried to flee the village, the report by Human Rights Watch said.
Two days after the offensive, Macedonia's Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski denied there was a massacre of civilians in Ljuboten and said five ethnic Albanian "terrorists" had been killed in fighting. The government said the offensive was in response to a land mine explosion that killed eight soldiers two days before.
The Macedonian police unions today accused Human Rights Watch of "remaining deaf and mute" to claims of attacks against Macedonian authorities and civilians and "threats of liquidation of entire families."
A Government spokesman said Macedonian investigators found "no improper conduct" by security forced.
But Human Rights Watch said its investigators found no evidence of rebels in the village at the time of the offensive, and said Mr Boskovski was in Ljuboten during the government sweep. It called for an inquiry by war crimes investigators.
PA