Albanian homes destroyed as Slav civilians join backlash against rebels Posted May 3, 2001
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=70086
Albanian homes destroyed as Slav civilians join backlash against rebels
By Justin Huggler, Eastern Europe Correspondent
03 May 2001
Albanian homes were set ablaze in a second successive night of riots in Macedonia yesterday, renewing fears that the country could slide into civil war.
Angry crowds smashed shop windows with stones and torched cars in the southern city of Bitola in protest at the weekend slaying of eight Macedonian soldiers and police by Albanian rebels.
In the capital, Skopje, one Albanian man was shot dead by masked gunmen and several others were attacked in a series of incidents around the city. It is by far the most serious backlash against ordinary Albanians in Macedonia yet and a dangerous sign that the trouble is developing from a confrontation between Macedonian security forces and the Albanian guerrillas into civil strife between the Slav majority and the Albanian minority. There were fears that Macedonia was close to civil war earlier this year, when the Albanian rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) occupied the hills overlooking the country's second city, Tetovo.
Albanians make up at least a quarter of Macedonia's population and are demanding more rights, saying they are treated as second-class citizens.
Earlier this week, the Macedonian President, Boris Trajkovski, on a visit to Washington, won support from leading American officials, who pledged economic support to the Macedonian government. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, called the ethnic Albanian insurgents "terrorists" trying to subvert Macedonia's democratic process with "dastardly and cowardly acts".
Until the weekend, a tentative peace had prevailed since the NLA was forced to retreat by an army offensive in March. Rioting first broke out in Bitola on Tuesday, as about 800 people took to the streets. More than 40 homes and shops were wrecked, and one man was injured when he was shot by police. About 120 took to the streets in the early hours of yesterday morning. Macedonian police sources said that the mob was bent on wrecking any building it believed belonged to an Albanian.
The riots started straight after the funerals of the eight soldiers and police killed and mutilated on Saturday when their patrol was ambushed by NLA rebels near the Kosovo border.
ALBANIAN EMBASSY IN SKOPJE UNDER FIRE Posted May 2, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 84, Part II, 2 May 2001
website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
ALBANIAN EMBASSY IN SKOPJE UNDER FIRE
Embassy officials said on 2 May that unknown persons fired at their building the previous night. Two bullets entered embassy offices. No one was injured. The Albanian Foreign Ministry will issue a statement later in the day, dpa reported. The Albanian government has condemned the recent attack on Macedonian forces by the UCK and called for dialogue between all the political parties represented in the parliament (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 April 2001). PM
MACEDONIANS ATTACK ETHNIC ALBANIAN [MOSQUES], SHOPS, HOMES Posted May 2, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 84, Part II, 2 May 2001
website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
MACEDONIANS ATTACK ETHNIC ALBANIAN SHOPS, HOMES
The BBC reported on 1 May that Macedonian crowds attacked a mosque in Bitola the previous night. RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported that crowds of several hundred Macedonians stoned or burned dozens of Albanian homes and businesses. Police arrested several of the rioters. Police officials in Skopje said on 2 May that crowds of Macedonians attacked at least 15 Albanian-owned shops in Bitola for the second night in a row, dpa reported. Police added that an armed group fired on a police position near Lipkovo, northeast of Skopje, on 1 May. The government will meet on 4 May amid a security situation that a government spokesman described as a "delicate peace." PM
Ruling Parties Appeal for Calm in Macedonia Posted May 2, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010502/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_2.html
Wednesday May 2 12:05 PM ET
Ruling Parties Appeal for Calm in Macedonia
By Cole Casual
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - Macedonia's two main ruling parties appealed for calm Wednesday and warned that a wave of violence against ethnic Albanians could further destabilize the troubled Balkan country.
The VMRO-DPMNE party of majority Slavs and DPA, the main party of the ethnic Albanian minority, issued separate statements as President Boris Trajkovski was due to meet President Bush (news - web sites) in Washington.
The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) warned of ``extreme ethnic polarization'' in the country.
The latest violence appeared certain to jeopardize further talks between mainstream parties on how to alleviate concerns raised by the ethnic Albanian minority which wants recognition of its language and better education.
In the last two days, Slavs infuriated by the killing of eight servicemen by ethnic Albanian guerrillas over the weekend, torched and attacked shops, cafes and other property owned by ethnic Albanians and Muslims.
Bitola, Macedonia's second biggest city close to the border with Greece, was the scene of the worst riots.
The Interior Ministry said three masked men carrying machine guns and baseball bats shot dead an ethnic Albanian Tuesday night in the capital Skopje and beat up another Albanian and his son.
Four other masked and armed men beat up three ethnic Albanian employees of a shop in the same area, police said.
In another incident, police said a machinegun was fired at the Albanian embassy. No one was hurt.
Tirana, which has condemned the killings of Macedonian servicemen by National Liberation Army (NLA) guerillas, summoned Macedonia's ambassador to the foreign ministry to protest over the embassy shooting.
Parties Sound Alarm
``The loss of human life...during the last attack by terrorist forces should not and cannot be compensated by attacking property of innocent civilians,'' VMRO-DPMNE said in a statement.
``Such activities directly contribute to further destabilization of the country...taking matters in your own hands can only bring unwanted consequences, which is the goal of the terrorists,'' it said.
The Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), the only Albanian party that openly condemned the killings of the eight servicemen by the guerrillas, also expressed grave concern.
``After the latest horrifying murder of eight Macedonian soldiers, there are signs of extreme ethnic polarization in the country,'' DPA said.
``Destruction of property of the Albanians in Macedonia can only lead to a very dangerous tendency of collectivization of guilt, which can destroy multiethnic tolerance.''
DPA called on the international community to increase its presence in Macedonia to prevent further deterioration of the situation.
Another ethnic Albanian party, the opposition PDP, said the security situation had taken ``a dramatic turn.''
International Concern Mounts
Greece, which borders Macedonia, expressed deep concern over anti-Albanian riots.
``Such actions can undermine the climate of co-existence between ethnic groups and can destabilize internal political normality,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis said in a statement.
Fearful for fragile Balkan stability, the West wants to ensure that fighting between Macedonian security forces and the NLA, which flared in February and March before a government offensive dispersed the rebels, does not resume.
But it has reacted coolly to suggestions of mediation in political talks between Macedonian factions.
In Washington Tuesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) pledged U.S. support for Trajkovski to end inter-ethnic tensions in the former Yugoslav republic.
Powell said he expressed solidarity with Trajkovski's fight against ``dastardly and cowardly acts from terrorists and terrorist organizations who are trying to subvert the democratic process.''
Both Trajkovski and a U.S. spokesman later rejected a proposal from NLA guerrillas to join talks with the Macedonian government under Western mediation.
Anti-Albanian riots in Macedonia like Kristallnacht: Albanian leader Posted May 2, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010502/1/o9j6.html
Wednesday May 2, 9:31 PM
Anti-Albanian riots in Macedonia like Kristallnacht: Albanian leader
SKOPJE, May 2 (AFP) - Macedonia's top ethnic Albanian leader on Wednesday compared the backlash against his community following the killing of eight Macedonian security officers to Nazi Germany's anti-Jewish Kristallnacht attacks in 1938.
"It was a Kristallnacht (Night of Glass), like in 1938 when they attacked Jewish shops. It's the same game," said Arben Xhaferi, head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, a member of Macedonia's government coalition.
He was talking after Macedonian rioters rampaged in the southern town of Bitola following the funerals there of four of the eight officers killed by ethnic Albanian rebels in the northwest of the country on Saturday.
"It's a typical, primitive tendency to collectivize guilt to blame all Albanians," said Xhaferi.
After around 40 shops were trashed by furious mobs, vandalism and looting dragged on into Tuesday night, state television said, adding that Macedonian premises were also attacked. The government condemned the rioting.
The November 1938 anti-Jewish attacks of Kristallnacht, which were orchestrated by the ruling Nazi Party, took the form of nationwide attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses.
Around 100 Jews were killed and an estimated 30,000 arrested or deported after the riots.
Xhaferi added that a cafe attacked by unidentified gunmen in the capital was Albanian-owned and that a man shot dead there was also ethnic Albanian.
"There is no immediate possibility of war, but there is the possibility of creating fronts between two groups and a big confusion," said Xhaferi, calling the ethnic violence "a typical post-Yugoslav syndrome of inter-ethnic polarisation."
The guerrillas' campaign across the northwest in March raised fears of a new Balkans war, although the government claimed to have smashed the rebels by the end of the month.
Xhaferi said dialogue between the ethnic Albanian community and the authorities was "more difficult" after the latest events, a sentiment already voiced by the main Macedonian coalition party, the VMRO-DPMNE.
"After these odious murders, dialogue becomes irrational. We think at the moment it has been seriously thrown into question," said party spokesman Igor Gievski after the eight officers were killed in what police described as a "massacre".
The ethnic Albanian gunmen said it killed the men in self-defence and added that the security forces had been warned not to enter areas near the mountainous Kosovo border held by the guerrillas.
Xhaferi said the danger was rather that "people are starting to believe they can't live together."
He condemned the violence and called for a broader coalition, reiterating Albanian demands for the constitution to be changed, with the Albanian community's legal status upped from minority to constitutive nation.
Macedonians Smash Albanian Shops Posted May 1, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010501/wl/macedonia_riots_2.html
Tuesday May 1 1:11 PM ET
Macedonians Smash Albanian Shops
By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonian Slavs hurled stones and set fire to ethnic Albanian cake shops and restaurants on Tuesday in rioting triggered by the funerals of soldiers killed in a rebel ambush.
The four-hour melee in Bitola, the country's third largest city, came as President Boris Trajkovski flew to Washington for meetings with President Bush (news - web sites) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to seek U.S. support for his fight to contain ethnic Albanian rebels.
The unrest is likely to strengthen his case that the militants pose a threat to stability in the Balkans and must be quashed. Albanians comprise at least one-fourth of Macedonia's 2 million people. They claim they are treated as second-class citizens by the majority Slavs.
The riots in Bitola, about 105 miles southwest of the capital, Skopje, broke out hours after the funerals of soldiers slain Saturday by ethnic Albanian extremists near the border with Kosovo.
The militants killed eight soldiers and wounded another six security force members in the attack, making it the deadliest incident since clashes between government forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents began in February.
Several hundred young men outraged by the deaths turned on some 40 Albanian-owned stores and businesses in Bitola's business district, throwing rocks, smashing goods and setting fire to the rubble. Bitola is about 15 percent ethnic Albanian.
A cafe owner shot one rioter in the abdomen, and three other rioters suffered cuts from flying glass. Police detained the shooter and two other people who were inside the cafe. The wounded rioter was reported recovering after surgery Tuesday.
Police claimed that a ``timely police action prevented the incident from turning more serious.'' They said an investigation was under way and that legal action would be taken against the perpetrators.
Authorities warned of similar outbreaks of violence elsewhere in Macedonia. So far, ethnic violence mostly has been contained in the northern part of the country.
The government claims to have pushed back the militants after a monthlong offensive, but Saturday's attack made clear that resistance remains.
Ethnic Albanians are demanding that the Macedonian constitution be rewritten to upgrade their minority position to equal status with the majority Slavs. The government refuses, arguing that it would lead to a de-facto division of the former Yugoslav republic.
ALBANIA CONDEMNS AMBUSH, CALLS FOR DIALOGUE Posted April 30, 2001
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 83, Part II, 30 April 2001
Website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
ALBANIA CONDEMNS AMBUSH, CALLS FOR DIALOGUE
Prime Minister Ilir Meta said in Tirana on 30 April that "such actions undermine the process of dialogue [needed] to solve the [Macedonian] Albanians' problems," Reuters reported. He added that "the only way to combat extremism and to isolate extremist groups and to strengthen the stability of Macedonia and of our region is the continuance and deepening of the dialogue that has started" between all the political parties represented in the parliament.
In Belgrade the day before, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said that the ambush proves that the Balkans remain threatened by Albanian "terrorism." PM
MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN LEADER SLAMS AMBUSH Posted April 30, 2001
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 83, Part II, 30 April 2001
Website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN LEADER SLAMS AMBUSH
Arben Xhaferi, whose Democratic Party of the Albanians is part of the governing coalition, said that the ambush "will endanger the progress of [multiparty] negotiations and will deepen the polarization between Macedonians and Albanians," London's "The Guardian" reported from Skopje on 30 April. The daily quoted unnamed "Western military experts" in the Macedonian capital as saying that the ambush is part of an attempt to "make no-go areas. [The guerrillas] want territory and not institutional change.... It's what the Macedonians have feared." PM
MACEDONIAN AUTHORITIES TAKE ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE BROADCAST OFF THE AIR Posted April 30, 2001
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 83, Part II, 30 April 2001
Website: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
MACEDONIAN AUTHORITIES TAKE ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE BROADCAST OFF THE AIR
Ljupce Jakimovski, who heads Macedonian state-run television, said on 30 April that he has "suspended" a late-night Albanian-language news program, dpa reported. Jakimovski added that he was "unable to control the program...that has incited ethnic intolerance and encouraged Albanian militant extremists since the crisis began." He stressed that the broadcast "worked against the interests of the Macedonian state." PM
NAAC: Macedonian President Should Deliver Reforms Posted April 30, 2001
__________________________________________________________________
National Albanian American Council
2000 L Street, N.W., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 416-1627 Fax: (202) 416-1628
Email: NAACDC@aol.com
___________________________________________________________________
Press Release
http://www.naac.org
Macedonian President Should Deliver Reforms
On Trip to U.S.
Washington, DC, April 26, 2001: The National Albanian American Council issued the following statement in anticipation of President Boris Trajkovski's visit to the United States.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski will meet with President Bush on May 2nd. We support that meeting. But, we believe that President Trajkovski should be prepared to announce some significant reforms, which will demonstrate progress on diplomatic initiatives aimed at resolving the crisis situation in Macedonia. During the meetings with Trajkovski, the Administration should strongly encourage such concrete steps.
In Macedonia, Albanians are discriminated against educationally, politically, and economically. Despite the fact that Macedonia is a country comprised of minorities, Slavic Macedonians have over 90 percent of the public sector jobs. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, out of a total of 9,819 policemen in the country, only 1.8% are Albanian. Additionally, Albanians represent less than seven percent in all the other ministries as well. Macedonian is the official language even in the Albanian, western part of the country, and only Macedonian-language universities enjoy public funding. Albanians have substandard schools, bad roads, poor health facilities, yet little local administrative control to address these and other problems. Albanians are also disenfranchised. An earlier census was so flawed that nearly 20 percent of Albanian residents of Macedonia were not counted, and over 100,000 ethnic Albanian residents are not counted as citizens. Moreover, parliamentary districts have been drawn to reduce the number of Albanian deputies.
Much needs to be done to make Macedonia a true multi-ethnic society where all people have equal rights and opportunities. We firmly believe that such a society is possible, and reject violence as a means of pursuing this goal or as a way of repressing the will of the people. But, ultimately the government of Macedonia must decide to take the bold steps needed to ensure peace and equality for all people.
We hope President Trajkovski will take such a bold step by announcing a plan that will endeavor to make all citizens equal partners in Macedonia. Such a plan should include:
- Changes to the constitution to make Albanians equal citizens.
- Right to use Albanian as an official language.
- Equal representation in the government.
- Equal employment opportunities within the public sector.
- Public financing for higher education in Albanian.
- Meaningful local authority and public financing to address the problems of everyday life.
- International oversight and greater Albanian involvement in the census to ensure it is free and accurate.
- Parliamentary changes to ensure that the votes of Albanian elected officials are meaningful and there are greater protections for minority rights.
These proposals represent the consensus position of all the Albanian political parties. Announcing such a plan will help alleviate the current tensions and help all of Macedonia's citizens live better lives and focus their attentions on greater prosperity for their country. If implemented, the types of reforms will truly make Macedonia a model of a multi-ethnic state and a major factor for peace, stability and prosperity in the Balkans.
Members of NAAC will be meeting with President Trajkovski next week to talk to him about these issues.
The National Albanian American Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering in the United States a greater understanding of Albanian issues, and to promoting peace, human rights, and economic development in the Balkans. NAAC is also committed to helping train future leaders in the region and provide targeted humanitarian assistance to children and their families who are recovering from the after-effects of war. For more information, please contact Martha Vedder at (202) 416-1627.
###
Dualism and Nervousness in Relations Between Tirana and Skoplje Posted April 30, 2001
http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200104/10429-003-trae-tir.htm
SUN, 29 APR 2001 01:45:21 GMT
Dualism and Nervousness in Relations Between Tirana and Skoplje
AIM Tirana, April 20, 2001
Arjan LEKA
On April 12, the same date when Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgijevski asked the Albanian Government to help by interceding with the Albanian political parties in Macedonia to agree to form a broadly-based coalition Government with two main Macedonian parties, the spokesman for the Macedonian Government, Antonio Milosovski openly criticised the Albanian Government for mistakes committed in the population census conducted in Albania in April. According to him it was intended to prevent the determination of the exact number of members of the Macedonian minority in Albania, which is officially about 5 thousand persons. According to the latest statements of the Skoplje officials, there are 300 thousand Albanians in Macedonia, a figure that Tirana considers absurd. This game with figures actually symbolises the state of complex relations between Albania and Macedonia, which is characterised by dualism, more internal than public one, and certain nervousness that has additionally increased during the latest Macedonian crisis.
The Albanian Government was among the first to side with the Macedonian Government in its problems with the armed Albanian guerrilla fighters who appeared with "UCK" insignia (NLA-National Liberation Army) near Tetovo. The Albanian leaders strongly condemned the violence and extremism of their fellow-countrymen and supported the sovereignty of the Macedonian state. Tirana's support was so unequivocal that it was positively assessed not only by leaders of the European Union and NATO, but also by Macedonia's Prime Minister Georgijevski, President Trajkovski and Foreign Minister Kerim, who publicly thanked the Albanian Government for the support extended.
Nevertheless, Tirana and Skoplje had diametrically opposite stand regarding the roots of the latest crisis in Macedonia. While during the entire crisis the Macedonian leadership insisted that events on hills around Tetovo were nothing else but an armed aggression, which came from Kosovo, Albania's leadership, maintained that the crisis was a result of internal developments and accumulated problems because the Macedonian Government failed to adequately resolve the inter-ethnic relations.
Actually, despite the harsh condemnation of the Albanian guerrilla fighters in Macedonia by the European Union, NATO, OSCE and Western countries, they were practically unanimous in suggesting that an internal dialogue should be opened between the Macedonian Government and the Albanian political parties with a view to discussing problems of inter-ethnic relations and demands of the local Albanian population, which materialised with the initiation of a dialogue under President Trajkovski's presidency.
At the time when the conflict in Tetovo was placed under control and the inter-ethnic dialogue between the Macedonian Government and Albanian political parties was initiated, Skoplje addressed several accusations against Tirana for allowing the entry of armed groups of the National Liberation Army, which is operating in Macedonia. On April 4, one of the front men of the Macedonian Ministry of the Interior, Deputy Minister Ljuben Boskovski said that a group of 50 armed persons wearing NLA uniforms entered Macedonia from Albania near Debar, contacted local people so as to recruit and mobilise them and then returned to Albania. The Macedonian media amplified this accusation even more by stating that 14 military training camps for 4,500 soldiers of the so-called NLA had been built in Albania. In addition, information was published that a new hotbeds of tension were developing in this border zone, but the Albanian Ministry of Order and the Albanian Prime Minister immediately denied and rejected these accusations both regarding the camps, as well as armed groups crossing the border between two countries.
Trying to convince the international community that it had nothing to do with the creation of tensions at its border with Macedonia, the Albanian Government officially asked NATO to send its mission in order to help control and supervise the border between Albania and Macedonia. The North Atlantic Alliance positively answered to this request. Apart from that, on April 12 the Minister of the Interior, the Defence Minister and President of the Albanian National Information Service together organised a meeting with the military attaches accredited in Albania so as to assure the international community of strong control measures undertaken by the Albanian Army on the border, which sent more than 100 military commandos to the Debar prefecture as reinforcement to the border police forces.
Diplomatic and international missions present in Tirana do not rule out a possibility that criminal trade in arms might revive between these two countries and, in order to confirm this, on April 14 in Librazde, the Albanian police forces arrested two young Kosovars transporting 5 guns, one mortar and one pistol towards Macedonian border. However, the international mission in the Albanian capital seem to be inclined to believe that the Albanian Government is not officially involved with the guerrilla groups operating in Macedonia.
The increasing nervousness, which has been characteristic of the Albanian-Macedonian relations during the latest crisis, has been demonstrated in one more way. According to confidential sources here in Tirana, on March 31 the Foreign Ministry of Macedonia sent a note of protest to Albania because of what it qualified as "border incident" which, according to it, concerned the violation of the Macedonian airspace by a KFOR helicopter coming from Albania. The Macedonian side sent its note of protest on the day of the alleged event, although it admitted that the KFOR mission with the Macedonian Defence Ministry claimed that no KFOR helicopter had flown that day on the airline between two countries. The Command of KFOR forces deployed in Albania in the city of Durrese also denied that there had been any such flight. In its reply to the note, Tirana rejected the Macedonian protest as unfounded, as well as all claims that the KFOR helicopter had been a cause of a border incident between the two countries.
Implicating the KFOR in bilateral relations represents a new element, but it seems that precisely that name has forced both sides not to publicise their official protests and counter-protests concerning this event.
AIM Tirana
Arjan LEKA
NATO condemns killing of Macedonian soldiers Posted April 30, 2001
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1303000/1303001.stm
Sunday, 29 April, 2001, 09:16 GMT 10:16 UK
NATO condemns killing of Macedonian soldiers
NATO and the European Union have condemned the killing yesterday of eight members of the Macedonian security forces near the border with Kosovo.
The Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, said he was appalled and outraged by what he described as a cowardly act of extremists.
The Macedonian authorities say the soldiers were ambushed by ethnic Albanian rebels, who are engaged in a violent campaign to gain more rights for ethnic Albanians living in Macedonia. The EU said the attack was an attempt by extremists to undermine democratic dialogue. A BBC correspondent in Macedonia says the incident has threatened to derail talks between the main ruling party and ethnic Albanian politicians aimed at addressing the demands of the ethnic Albanian population. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Kosovo, the NATO-led peacekeeping force says ground and air surveillance on the border with Macedonia have been stepped up.
After Talks, Threat of War in Macedonia Turns to Unity Posted April 30, 2001
April 29, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/world/29MACE.html?searchpv=nytToday
After Talks, Threat of War in Macedonia Turns to Unity
By CARLOTTA GALL
SKOPJE, Macedonia, April 28 — A month ago, headlines across Europe talked of fierce clashes between Albanian rebels and government forces in this small Balkan land as the harbinger of another of the ethnic wars that have devastated the region in the last decade.
On Monday, President Boris Trajkovski arrives in Washington with what appears to be an agreement, brokered by American and European diplomats, to avert more fighting and to unite his country's fractious political parties in a coalition government until elections can be held next February.
Mr. Trajkovski, 44, a Methodist lay preacher who won the presidency in 1999, has sought to win political consensus between the Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian political parties. Bringing the main Albanian and Slav opposition parties into the government, diplomats said, may help speed reforms considered vital to avoiding further conflict.
Robert H. Frowick, an American diplomat and special envoy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, called this an achievement, given the heated talk of war a month ago when the government seemed close to collapse.
"It is remarkable that we have created stability and created a mechanism for dialogue within a month," he said. "We have finally got people sharing responsibility for political decisions."
Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians, supports the idea of a unity government, but remains cautious about its chances for solving the key issues that concern Albanians and that could still tear Macedonia apart.
"We are trying to get through this crisis with dialogue," he said by telephone from his party headquarters in Tetovo. "I cannot say that I am satisfied or dissatisfied, because the real dialogue has not begun. There is still a chance for violence to escalate if this coalition fails."
Under the plan, Mr. Xhaferi's party will give two of the five ministerial posts it controls to the opposition Albanian party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity. The ruling Macedonian Slav party, the V.M.R.O., led by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, will give up four of its nine ministerial posts to the Slav opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Macedonia.
Further, a politically sensitive population census has been postponed from May until October, allowing for a more open organization and some form of international monitoring. The census is expected to show that Albanians form more than 30 percent of the population — more than recorded to date — and so will strengthen their demands for greater political representation.
The outstanding issue is control of the Interior Ministry — an instrument of power in many post-Communist states.
Branko Crvenkovski, leader of the Social Democrats, appears to have won the Defense Ministry for his party, but is also holding out for a say on the interior minister. Talks continued on Friday and local journalists said that a technocrat or career police official, rather than a political appointee, would probably be chosen as a compromise.
A government of unity would have more chance of pushing through reforms like laws on the official use of the Albanian language and on local self-government, both central demands of the Albanians, Mr. Frowick said. "The Albanians will get the mechanisms to effect reforms," he said.
But the main demand of Albanian parties — and of the rebels who remain in the hills — is a change in the Constitution to make Albanians an equal constituent people of Macedonia. The Slavic parties, even inside a unity government, will still oppose that, politicians say.
Mr. Xhaferi still commands enormous moral authority among the restive Albanian population, but how long he can hold the more militant Albanians in check is not clear.
The inclusion of the main Albanian opposition party in the government will remove some pressure. But the rebels have not laid down the weapons and they remain in the hills threatening further action. Today the government charged that ethnic Albanian rebels were behind an ambush along the border with Kosovo that left eight Macedonian soliders dead. It said the attack occurred in the village of Vejce, situated in the Tetevo region.
Diplomats estimate the government has only until the European Union summit meeting at the end of June to show some real progress.
Macedonian Soldiers Die in Attack Posted April 30, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010428/wl/macedonia_attack_1.html
Saturday April 28 8:09 PM ET
Macedonian Soldiers Die in Attack
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Ethnic Albanian militants ambushed Macedonian security forces on patrol near the tense boundary with Kosovo, killing eight and wounding eight others, a military spokesman said.
The attack marked the first time in weeks that fighting rocked the tense boundary area. The relative calm had followed a massive Macedonian government offensive to crush an ethnic Albanian insurgency.
Militants launched a series of attacks in March in an effort to force the government to grant more rights to ethnic Albanians in Macedonia.
Saturday's ambush started around noon when ethnic Albanian militants operating in the village of Vejce near the town of Tetovo, just outside Kosovo, fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades on a patrol, military spokesman Blagoja Markovski said.
Macedonia's Defense Ministry's spokesman, Gjorgji Trendafilov, said eight members of the elite crack unit known as the ``Wolves'' were killed.
He also added that another armored personnel carrier transporting policemen engaged in a de-mining operation was hit. There was no word yet on injuries.
President Boris Trajkovski canceled a scheduled visit Sunday to Romania and government officials said a planned trip to Washington in early May was now deemed uncertain.
Albanian rebels forming three brigades: commander Posted April 30, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010429/1/o00c.html
Sunday April 29, 11:20 AM
Albanian rebels forming three brigades: commander
WASHINGTON, April 28 (AFP) -
Ethnic Albanian rebels are organizing three brigades totaling 18,000 armed troops to resume operations against the Macedonian government, if it refuses to accept rebel demands, according to a top guerrilla commander.
The man, who identified himself and Commander Sokoli, also told Newsweek magazine in an interview due to be published Monday that the National Liberation Army (NLA), the rebel group that purports to defend the rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, will also expand its geographical reach.
"Shortly, we hope to finish the organization of three brigades, consisting of 6,000 soldiers each, to operate in different parts of the country when necessary," Commander Sokoli told the magazine.
"The lists are all there and if we had to call an immediate mobilization, all three brigades could be operational within 24 hours," he warned.
The revelations came as Macedonia was shaken by the killing of eight soldiers attributed to Albanian rebels.
According to the Macedonian defense ministry, the eight members of the security forces were ambushed by "Albanian terrorists" in the village of Vejce, in the Tetovo region near the border with the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo,
The region around Tetovo, Macedonia's second largest city, has been the scene of fierce fighting between Macedonian troops and ethnic Albanian rebels, who are fighting for more ethnic rights for the Albanian community in Macedonia.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski canceled a visit to Romania over the incident while the United States condemned the killings and urged all political parties and groups in Macedonia to continue political dialogue.
Sokoli, who received a Newsweek correspondent in an unidentified Mecedonian village, was described as a 33-year commander surrounded by computer equipment an satellite phones.
He said he was certain of the NLA's victory in case of a full-scale war with the Macedonian army.
"In Kosovo the Serbs used to use 300 tanks in one battle," he said. "The Macedonians have less than that in their whole arsenal."
Sokoli accused the Macedonian parliament of refusing to amend the constitution and treat Albanians as equals.
"If the Macedonians stick to this position, it equals unavoidable war," he warned.
"This is the Balkans," he said, "and in the Balkans to not pick up guns to fight for your rights is illogical.
Kosovo War Hero Joins Albanian Guerrillas in Macedonia Posted April 30, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/macedonia/news.php3?id=393912
Kosovo War Hero Joins Albanian Guerrillas in Macedonia
PRISTINA, Apr 28, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A former Kosovo rebel widely considered a war hero by ethnic Albanians has joined up with guerrillas fighting in Macedonia, a commander of the new force told AFP Friday.
Xhavit Hasani, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which fought Belgrade for independence from 1998-99, has joined the National Liberation Army (NLA) in Macedonia as a "simple private," said the NLA's Commander Hoxha.
Hasani, 37, is from the village of Tanusevci on the Kosovo-Macedonia border, which was the first scene of clashes between the NLA and Skopje's security forces in February.
The officially disbanded KLA and the NLA share the same initials in Albanian -- UCK.
Hasani, who owns a restaurant in the southeastern Kosovo town of Vitina close to the border of Macedonia and southern Serbia, is also suspected by Kosovo's international peacekeepers of helping finance another Albanian guerrilla group in Serbia's Presevo Valley.
A Macedonian court sentenced him in absentia this month to 13 years in prison on charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons and explosives.
Hoxha also said the NLA, which melted away at the end of last month after weeks of intense clashes with Macedonian security forces, was "gaining ground" in Macedonia, although he said it had respected its own ceasefire called in late March.
The NLA's armed campaign, in particular the front it opened on the edge of the northwestern town of Tetovo, brought the country to the brink of civil war and raised fears of another bloody Balkans conflict.
The Macedonian government received unanimous international backing in its fight against the gunmen, but was urged to speed up talks on addressing the grievances of the country's large ethnic Albanian minority. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Dialogue in Macedonia should be advanced or the crisis will return Posted April 30, 2001
http://kosovalive.com/english/english.htm
Dialogue in Macedonia should be advanced or the crisis will return
April 28, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - The signing of an agreement of Association and Stabilization between Macedonia and the European Union brings with it additional obligations for the government of Macedonia. Prime Minister Lubco Giorgievski has promised that Macedonia will introduce concrete steps toward interethnic dialogue by July 15.
"It should be well known that the July 15 date is closing in and no steps have yet been taken for concrete and authentic dialogue between Albanians and Macedonians in Macedonia," said a deputy of the Party for Democratic (PDP) Prosperity, Ismet Ramadani, for KosovaLive.
According to Ramadani, to start with it would be better for the Albanian party already included in the government to withdraw for the moment, while the Albanian-Macedonian conflict is being discussed at the negotiating table. Ramadani suggested that the international community would not be willing to run from one party to another but would take the role of mediator in disputes brought up by Albanians and Macedonians.
The Albanian deputy said that he did not want to predict what would happen before July 15 but that he supposed that nothing would be changed. He is convinced that situation will be more tense.
"Albanian political parties and the military forces are going to express more and more dissatisfaction. There is fault on the Macedonian side as well as on the part of those who could help us at this time. By putting too much pressure on us, the situation could escalate," said Ramadani.
The deputy of Albanian Democratic Party, Zamir Dika, said that everything should be done on time and that the terms of the agreement should not be misunderstood, as some political parties and the media in Macedonia apparently have done.
Dika said that the European Union had imposed the July 15 deadline for progress in interethnic dialogue and that it was normal for there to be a deadline. Considering the demands made by armed groups and the fact that the situation is not totally quiet, the risk that the conflict may flare up again is ever present, he warned.
"If no serious signals are given that this dialogue can be resolved politically by July 15, we are afraid that the credibility of the Albanian political parties will decline and that will be the signal for new crises in the region. I think that those calculations are real and the Macedonian political parties had better agree to begin a concrete dialogue as soon as possible," said Dika.
Macedonian government spokesman Antonio Millososki told KosovaLive that July 15 is the date by which Macedonia must show her capacity for democracy and peace.
Through this process, the Macedonian Republic has the opportunity to play a stronger role in the introduction of stability in the region. "If we don't use this opportunity, we will also lose many other opportunities to step into Europe," said Milososoki. However, Miloloski, like the Albanian political leaders, still considers the situation to be dangerous. (a.ratkoceri)
Macedonian Attorney General Analyses Complaints of Tetova Inhabitants about Human Rights Violations Posted April 27, 2001
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Macedonian Attorney General Analyses Complaints of Tetova Inhabitants about Human Rights Violations
April 25, 2001
TETOVA (KosovaLive) - The Attorney General of Macedonia will examine the complaints of the inhabitants of Tetova regarding the violation of essential human rights during his visit to Tetova Wednesday. This step was taken by the Attorney General to ensure that there are no breaches of human rights and that complaint are not ignored by state authorities.
During the conflict between the National Liberation Army and military and police forces of Macedonia in the Tetova region, human rights violations took place, according to international human rights organizations operating in Skopje.
Meanwhile the voices of the Albanian political parties regarding the return of displaced ethnic Albanians to Macedonia, including those who moved to Kosova to escape the conflict, are being heard. (si)
Albanian parties demand amnesty for NLA, Macedonian government takes no stand Posted April 27, 2001
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Albanian parties demand amnesty for NLA, Macedonian government takes no stand
April 25, 2001
SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - Prime Minister Lubco Georgievski of Macedonia said on Tuesday that the representatives of ethnic Albanian political parties were asking for amnesty for members of the National Liberation Army (NLA).
Georgievski said that the international community had not placed any such demands on the Macedonian government, which has taken no stand on the issue.
Georgievski said that amnesty would be a difficult issue. For example, in the village of Selce in Tetova municipality, a list of the members of the NLA had been found, of which 90 percent were nhabitants of the village. Georgievski said that the individuals had been pressed into membership and needed to be allowed to return to their normal lives.
Macedonian government spokesman Antonio Milososki said Wednesday in Skopje that the government would not give amnesty to individuals in the ranks of the NLA. He further said that Albanian political parties in Macedonia had made no requests to the government for NLA amnesty.
Asked at a press conference if the Macedonian government would admit that the NLA members were not from Kosova but were Macedonian citizens, Milososki said, "We have never said that these people were not Macedonian citizens."
"However, the NLA has had logistical support from Kosovo, with the main goal of destabilizing Macedonia," the Macedonian government spokesman said.
According to Milososki, negotiations regarding the formation of a wider coalition are ongoing. The stand of the Prime Minister to form a new government in which the four main political parties in the Macedonian Parliament would participate remains unchanged. (ar)
Macedonian Authorities Visit Refugees in Ferizaj Posted April 27, 2001
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Macedonian Authorities Visit Refugees in Ferizaj
April 27, 2001
FERIZAJ (KosovaLive) - Macedonian officials including Nafi Doko, undersecretary of Inner Ministry and Murtezan Ismaili, chairman of Tetova municipality, visited refugees in Ferizaj after disorder in Macedonia, to convince them to return in their homes.
"They can freely return to their homes as soon as is it possible, I am sure that nothing bad will happen to them. We are going to help them with humanitarian aid, food, and material for reconstructing of their houses," said a Macedonian government representative.
With refuges placed in Ferizaj talked with Macedonian commission authorities, but generality of refuges suspected on their promises.
"They promised humanitarian aid but gave no guarantees for our protection. We don't feel secure while the villages of highland of Sharri are said to be a military zone and also full of police and army," said a refugee from the village of Sellce. near Tetova. (mb)