Macedonia adopts new constitution Posted November 16, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1659000/1659132.stm
Friday, 16 November, 2001, 07:36 GMT

Macedonia adopts new constitution

Boris Trajkovski is congratulated on the vote

Macedonia's parliament has adopted a new constitution, enshrining 15 amendments designed to give greater rights to the country's ethnic Albanians.
The vote to ratify the new constitution came after the amendments were approved one-by-one by a large majority (94 deputies voting in favour, with 14 against).

The session was held late at night at the parliament in Skopje to avoid demonstrations by Macedonian nationalists who had disrupted earlier attempts to change the 1991 constitution.

"We repaired the constitution and now we have to repair the mentality that created ethnic conflicts" - Arben Xhaferi, Democratic Party of Albanians

The move ends weeks of political deadlock, which threatened the Western-backed peace accord aimed at bringing to an end the conflict between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian authorities.

Ethnic Albanians make up about one third of the Macedonian population.

The chief provisions of the new constitution include the recognition of Albanian as an official language and increased access for ethnic Albanians to public-sector jobs, including the police.

In addition, references in the constitution's preamble suggesting that minorities are second-class citizens have been removed.

Uneasy peace

The new constitution is part of the peace accord signed at Ohrid in August which ended seven months of violence between the ethnic Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA) and Macedonian government forces.

Ethnic Albanian MPs have sought equal status

Under the terms of that accord, NLA fighters handed in some 4,000 weapons to Nato and disbanded, and an amnesty was declared in October.

But voting on the new constitution had been stalled for several weeks after prolonged debates and fresh tension between the two communities.

The latest incident occurred on Sunday, when hardline Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski sent special forces into rebel Albanian territory after a series of clashes and kidnappings.

Three Macedonian policemen were killed in an ambush blamed on ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, welcomed the constitutional changes.

"We repaired the constitution and now we have to repair the mentality that created ethnic conflicts," he said.