[ALBSA-Info] INTERVIEW-Macedonia Albanian warns of war if talks fail

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

INTERVIEW-Macedonia Albanian warns of war if talks fail

By Rosalind Russell

  
SKOPJE, March 30 (Reuters) - Macedonia's leading ethnic Albanian politician 
said on Friday the grievances of his community must be addressed within a 
month or he would quit the government and the country would head towards 
civil war. 

Arben Xhaferi, leader of the main Albanian party and key partner in the 
coalition government, said he sought a political solution to Macedonia's 
current crisis but warned that extremists would pursue their cause with guns 
if he failed. 

"I will give the negotiations one month to succeed. If they fail I will 
withdraw from the government," Xhaferi, a widely respected moderate, told 
Reuters in an interview. 

"My withdrawal would mean the complete polarisation of Macedonian politics 
along ethnic lines and it would be total war between Albanians and 
Macedonians." 

A weeks-long armed insurrection by ethnic Albanian guerrillas using the 
neighbouring U.N.-run province of Kosovo as a rear base met a tough military 
response by Macedonian armed forces and has raised fears of a new Balkan war. 

Western leaders have pressed the Slav-led government to address the problems 
of the ethnic Albanian minority, who make up a third of the population but 
say they are treated as second-class citizens. 

Politicians from both sides of the ethnic divide hope to begin negotiations 
next week on easing tensions and Xhaferi says it is Macedonia's last chance 
to avoid a full-scale conflict. 

"If we do not find a political solution the guerrillas can be more and more 
dangerous," he said. 

"We all know it is very easy to have a civil war in the Balkans because of 
our tradition of animosity and xenophobia. It's easy to promote animosity, 
the hard work is avoiding it." 

WIN-WIN SOLUTION 

Xhaferi has condemned the violence in Macedonia but is sympathetic to the 
demands of the guerrillas who say they are fighting for greater rights for 
the Albanian minority. 

He says he has remained in the fragile coalition to ensure their demands are 
met without further bloodshed. 

The main Albanian demand is reform to the constitution which names Macedonian 
Slavs as the primary nation, Macedonian as the official language and 
Orthodoxy as the primary religion in the tiny Balkan country of two million 
people. 

But animosity between the two communities runs deep and major concessions 
could risk a Slav backlash. 

"I want to find a win-win solution," said Xhaferi. "We need more rights but 
we are not asking the Macedonians to lose any of theirs." 

But he said the behaviour of the Macedonian army -- which says it has almost 
completed its military operations against the rebels -- could also scupper 
hopes of a political solution. 

Xhaferi said he was concerned by the army's heavy-handed approach to routing 
the guerrillas in Macedonia's northern mountains and the "devastation of 
villages and houses." 

Two ethnic Albanian civilians and a British journalist were killed by mortar 
fire on Friday in a Kosovo border village. The government denied firing the 
rounds, although NATO said the fire came from the direction of Macedonia. 

"My concern is with the civilians. If I cannot stop some military excesses 
from the government then I will have to leave the coalition," said Xhaferi, 
whose health is failing and who has no obvious successor. 

"I cannot say I am a complete optimist but I must try to keep the peace. If 
we fail I will go home and sleep."