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INTERVIEW-University is core of Macedonia crisis says OSCE

By Sean Maguire

  
WARSAW, March 21 (Reuters) - A festering dispute over university instruction 
in Albanian lies at the heart of the rebellion by guerrillas in Macedonia, 
the OSCE's Minority Rights commissioner said on Wednesday. 

Radical Albanians running an unrecognised university in Tetovo, the centre of 
Macedonia's Albanian community, are backing rebels in the hills and some 
pupils have joined the fighters, said Max van der Stoel. 

A long-running struggle to persuade Macedonia to allow Albanians to learn in 
their own language has spiralled into a broader fight for greater rights, 
just as the university issue was on the verge of being solved, said Van der 
Stoel. 

But the radicals, led by the rector Fadil Sulejmani, were unwilling to 
compromise, ignoring international efforts to address their complaint by 
paying for a private Albanian university that will be recognised by the 
Macedonian state. 

"Mr Sulejmani is well known for his extremist views and his dislike for 
Macedonia," said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's 
Van der Stoel in a telephone interview from the Balkans. 

"There are close links between him and the new party that backs the rebels, 
the National Democratic Party (PDK)," said Van der Stoel, the driving force 
behind the new "South East Europe" university due to launch in October with 
$21 million in backing. 

Van der Stoel said Sulejmani was at a PDK-backed rally in Tetovo last 
Wednesday that coincided with the launch of the armed rebellion by ethnic 
Albanian guerrillas that has lasted more than a week. The rally crowd cheered 
each burst of gunfire. 

The unofficial university has been the focus of Albanian resentment at 
perceived mistreatment by Macedonia's majority since violent riots against 
police efforts to prevent it opening in 1995 left one protester and several 
policemen injured. 

There were further riots in July 1997 when Macedonians refused to allow 
ethnic Albanians to fly their flag from official buildings. 

The PDK was formed on March 11 and is calling for Macedonia to become a 
federation, effectively splitting it into Slav and Albanian sectors, a call 
abhorrent to the West, worried such an ethnic division would spark bloodshed 
and regional instability. 

MORE RIGHTS 

Van der Stoel said that while Macedonia's Albanians had their own primary and 
secondary schools, media, seats in parliament and were part of the government 
the small Balkan state could go further in extending them rights. 

He proposed decentralising authority to allow Albanians to run their own 
municipalities and giving the community, making up between 25 and 35 percent 
of the population, further linguistic rights. 

"If peace can be restored then further steps could be taken to satisfy 
Albanian demands, but only once the rebellion comes to an end," said the 
Commissioner, a frequent visitor to Macedonia. 

Making concessions was impossible while violence continued, he added, saying 
it was essential that the current ruling coalition of Slav Prime Minister 
Ljbuco Georgievski's VMRO and Arben Xhaferi's Democratic Party of Albanians 
stick together. 

"The nightmare scenario is that the rebels could stir up trouble in towns 
other than Tetovo but so far they haven't managed to do so. That's why it's 
crucial the current coalition sticks together." 

Analysts say both parties risk being outflanked by hardliners from their 
communities, putting their alliance at risk, if violence continues and a 
planned Macedonian army assault to flush out the guerrillas causes major 
casualties.