Key Elements of Peace Accord Posted August 14, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010813/wl/macedonia_peace_plan_1.html
Monday August 13 11:27 AM ET

Key Elements of Peace Accord
By The Associated Press,

Key elements of the Macedonian peace agreement:

- Amends the introduction of Macedonia's constitution to delete reference to Macedonian Slavs as the only ``constitutional'' people, and to make the country a civic society of all its ethnic groups.

- Creates a ``double majority'' system in parliament requiring that half the lawmakers voting on a measure must come from one or more minority groups for it to be enacted.

- Makes Albanian the second official language in communities where ethnic Albanians comprise more than 20 percent of the population.

- Provides state-funded higher education in the Albanian language in communities where ethnic Albanians comprise more than 20 percent of the population. Previously, the state funded only lower education in Albanian in such communities.

- Ensures proportional representation of ethnic Albanians in the Constitutional Court, which has the final say in legislative matters, and proportional representation of ethnic Albanians and other Macedonian minorities in government administration and police.

- Calls for ethnic Albanian police commanders in communities where ethnic Albanians form a local majority.

- Gives broader authority to local governments, essentially awarding a degree of self-rule to predominantly ethnic Albanian areas.

- Provides for a census this year that would establish the exact ethnic composition of the country ahead of early general elections. An international donors' conference would follow to provide funds to revive the moribund economy.

- Gives equal status to the Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic faiths.

- Clears the way for a 30-day NATO (news - web sites) deployment to oversee the disarming of ethnic Albanian rebels, and grants amnesty to militants who did not commit crimes during clashes with government forces.