[ALBSA-Info] INTERVIEW-Macedonian Albanians attack U.S.-EU peace plan

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

INTERVIEW-Macedonian Albanians attack U.S.-EU peace plan

By Daniel Simpson

  
TETOVO, Macedonia, July 8 (Reuters) - Leaders of Macedonia's Albanian 
minority on Sunday dismissed a Western-backed plan to revive deadlocked peace 
talks as inadequate, vowing to fight for a better deal when negotiations 
resume on Monday. 

Their stance clouded optimism expressed by U.S. and European Union envoys 
that a proposal on political reforms they presented on Saturday would form 
the basis of efforts to end a 20-week-old Albanian guerrilla rebellion by 
improving minority rights. 

"I didn't start the war, I want to stop the war," Macedonia's foremost 
Albanian politician Arben Xhaferi told Reuters in an interview. "This 
offering cannot stop the war." 

Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said he was 
holding out for the West to back radical demands for constitutional change, 
blamed by the Macedonian majority for crippling the talks, and send in NATO 
troops to keep the peace. 

"They must impose the same standards as in the rest of former Yugoslavia," he 
said. "They must say the Albanians have the same rights as Croats in Bosnia." 

The leader of Macedonia's other main Albanian party, Imer Imeri, also took a 
tough line, shrugging off the fact that diplomats say the plan on the table 
is the only option on offer. 

"For the most part we will disagree with this when we start talking 
tomorrow," Imeri, president of the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), 
told Reuters in a separate interview. "There is no substantial difference 
from what was on the table before." 

SERIOUSLY MISTAKEN 

Diplomats said the Albanians were seriously mistaken if they believed NATO, 
which plans to collect weapons from the rebels if they agree to disarm, would 
send another peacekeeping mission to former Yugoslavia in addition to those 
in Bosnia and Kosovo. 

"We don't need a third protectorate in the Balkans. The people here need to 
resolve their own differences and not have a military occupation force," one 
said, adding that the message to both sides of the ethnic divide was simple: 

"Talk here, talk now, this is the best option you have." 

Albanian leaders want a peace summit outside the country but the idea is 
rejected by Macedonians, who fear such a conference could serve a separatist 
Albanian agenda. 

The joint U.S.-EU proposals, obtained by Reuters, would decentralise power in 
Macedonia, make Albanian an official language and create mechanisms to ensure 
legislation on sensitive ethnic issues would need minority backing to be 
passed by parliament. 

Almost all of these proposals are acceptable to the majority, Macedonia's 
Social Democratic party (SDSM) said. 

"The only problematic point at this minute for us is the free use of the 
Albanian language in parliament," SDSM vice president Radmila Shekerinska 
told Reuters. "To my knowledge everything is acceptable and we can talk about 
it." 

But Xhaferi said this was not enough, demanding an effective veto on any law 
deemed not to be in the interests of Albanians. 

The EU, which has declared the demand a non-starter and a recipe for 
gridlock, had to recognise that Macedonia's ethnic divisions needed special 
handling like those in Bosnia, he said. 

"It's not enough to say it's better to be normal," he said. 

GUERRILLAS SET AGENDA 

Both leaders acknowledged that the National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas, 
whose rebellion in the name of minority rights has brought Macedonia to the 
brink of civil war, had been more successful than they in getting Albanian 
grievances addressed. 

"If there was no NLA no one would seriously get involved in dialogue with 
Albanians," Imeri said. "The bottom line is that every Albanian in his soul 
is with the NLA." 

But both denied they were fighting for their political lives by pushing a 
hardline agenda to guard against rivals such as NLA political representative 
Ali Ahmeti giving up their guns and later standing for office on the basis of 
gains they helped win. 

"It is not really relevant whether Ali Ahmeti, Imer Imeri or Arben Xhaferi is 
the most successful politician," Imeri said. 

Western diplomats, who brokered a ceasefire last week to ease pressure on the 
talks, are leaning heavily on both sides to compromise, dangling the prospect 
of an international donors' conference as an incentive to agree a peace deal. 

But Albanian leaders, who argue their community has been widely discriminated 
against by Macedonians in the decade since independence, said offers of 
foreign aid were irrelevant. 

"I cannot...trade ideas for money," Xhaferi said. 

Western diplomats said the hardline stance appeared to be self-defeating 
unless it was just a negotiating tactic. 

"They're going to have to ask themselves do they really want to return to a 
state of war with more refugees, more tragedy and they still don't have their 
issues resolved, so it would be tragic if they don't seize this opportunity," 
a diplomat said.