[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia vows to improve lot of ethnic Albanians

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia vows to improve lot of ethnic Albanians

By Benet Koleka

  
PESHKOPI, Albania, March 10 (Reuters) - Macedonia pledged on Saturday to 
improve conditions for its ethnic Albanian minority after attacks on the 
Balkan state by gunmen believed to be ethnic Albanians. 

Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim and his Albanian counterpart Paskal Milo agreed 
at a meeting in this border town 180 km (110 miles) northeast of Tirana that 
the gunmen were extremists. 

"We will improve the right of the minorities," Kerim told reporters after the 
meeting. "We want to carry out reforms in the social and economic spheres as 
well. This will be our answer to extremism." 

He made the pledge after a request by Milo for the Macedonian government to 
take steps to improve the conditions of ethnic Albanians who make up one 
third of the population. 

Statistics from western sources show overall unemployment in Macedonia at 30 
percent, but twice as high for the ethnic Albanian minority. 

Macedonia appeared calm on Saturday after a week of high tension, during 
which its security forces have come under attack from gunmen, believed to be 
ethnic Albanians from a group calling itself the National Liberation Army. 

The spread of the violence into Macedonia has caused international alarm as 
its population mix of an ethnic Macedonian majority and a substantial 
Albanian minority is considered potentially explosive. 

"We praise the steps the Macedonian government has taken to address the 
problems of the ethnic Albanian population but we encourage the Macedonian 
government to...grant more rights to the ethnic Albanian population," Milo 
said. 

He reiterated a statement by Albanian President Rexhep Meidani earlier this 
week condemning all acts of violence in Macedonia blamed on Albanian 
extremists. 

"We condem every group and any manfestation of extremism that runs counter to 
the security of Macedonia, even if these groups belongs to the Albanian 
nation," Milo said. 

"The border should be a line of cooperation and friendship, not a line of 
division." 

On Friday, Kerim urged NATO to seal off the entire Kosovo border to clamp 
down on guerrillas using the province as a staging post for assaults like 
that on a convoy on Thursday which killed a serviceman. 

He was buried on Saturday in an emotional ceremony at which some colleagues 
swore revenge on his killers. 

Macedonia has refrained from striking back hard at the gunmen for fear of 
ethnic unrest within its borders. 

Both ethnic groups are represented in the current coalition government and 
the main ethnic Albanian parties have condemned recent violence.