[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia talks to throw spotlight on ethnic gulf

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia talks to throw spotlight on ethnic gulf

By Kole Casule

  
SKOPJE, March 29 (Reuters) - Macedonia's politicians could sit down to talk 
as soon as next week on easing ethnic Albanian frustrations. But the dialogue 
may only serve to highlight the gaping political divide in the country. 

Already there is disagreement about what should be discussed and where the 
talks should take place. 

Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said on Thursday President Boris 
Trajkovski was preparing a programme for dialogue between all political 
parties to start in Skopje as soon as the rebel ethnic Albanian insurgency is 
quelled. 

"The political dialogue between the parties will continue after the firing in 
Macedonia stops completely, which may be accomplished in a week," Milosovski 
told Reuters. 

Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the main Albanian DPA party and a partner in the 
coalition government, said talks would probably start early next week and 
should take place outside Macedonia. 

"The talks must start very soon," he told Reuters. "I would prefer in Europe, 
probably in Brussels, because Europe wants to take responsibility for the 
negotiations." 

But Western diplomats say the European Union is resolutely opposed to playing 
mediator. They say Macedonia's governing institutions are the best forum for 
discussing legal changes addressing Albanian complaints they are second class 
citizens. 

Most of Macedonia's Slav politicians are also opposed to foreign involvement 
in what they see as internal affairs. 

Western leaders have urged the government to quench the resentment that 
fuelled the month-old rebellion by removing discrimination in education, 
employment and politics. 

"There is no need to talk outside the country, because we have already 
established a political dialogue within the political system of the country," 
Milosovski said. 

FIGHT OVER CONSTITUTION 

Both Slavs and ethnic Albanians are walking a precarious tightrope, needing 
to be seen to be sticking up for their own constituencies without being 
dragged to political extremes. 

Albanian parties will want to get political mileage out of the insurgency 
which raised fears of a new Balkan war. But Slav politicians will be wary of 
a backlash if they concede too much to the one-third Albanian minority. 

The key demand of the ethnic Albanian political parties is a change to the 
constitution, which names Macedonian Slavs as the primary nation in 
Macedonia. 

"We want to become a state-forming nation, and for that reason we want the 
constitution to say clearly this state also belongs to the Albanians," said 
Imer Imery, chairman of the opposition Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP). 

He said his party also wanted all laws that deny ethnic Albanians equal 
rights with the Macedonians to be abrogated. 

But Macedonia's main Slavic parties, including Prime Minister Ljubco 
Georgievski's ruling VMRO-DPMNE, have already ruled out the demand for a 
constitutional change. 

"It doesn't matter who we talk to, because we will not accept any 
negotiations or talks that include the change of the constitution or its 
preamble," Igor Gievski, spokesman of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE told reporters on 
Thursday. 

OPPOSITION CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT TO RESIGN 

Opposition Slav and Albanian parties found some consensus -- both calling for 
the formation of a new coalition government. 

"This government should resign and we should form a new broader coalition 
that will include the actual ruling and opposition parties," Nikola Popovski, 
vice president of the Slav SDSM party told Reuters. The idea was supported by 
PDP's Imery. 

But government spokesman Milosovski said such a move was not a priority. 

"The government has not ruled out the possibility of a broad coalition 
government that will include more parties, but at this moment the priority is 
the security situation in the country," he said.