[ALBSA-Info] [AMCC-News] MACEDONIA: FORMER REBELS BECOME MINISTERS (Balkan Crisis Report No. 377)

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http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr2/bcr2_20021029_1_eng.txt

MACEDONIA: FORMER REBELS BECOME MINISTERS.  Ex-Albanian guerrillas get
cabinet posts to the fury of Macedonian nationalists.  Ana Petruseva
reports from Skopje.

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MACEDONIA: FORMER REBELS BECOME MINISTERS

Ex-Albanian guerrillas get cabinet posts to the fury of Macedonian
nationalists.

By Ana Petruseva in Skopje

Macedonia's new government will take the unprecedented step of including
posts for former rebels involved in the ethnic Albanian uprising, which
brought the country to the brink of civil war last year.

The development follows the September 15 election in which the moderate
Social Democrats, SDSM, became the largest ethnic Macedonian party in
parliament and opted to link up with the biggest Albanian political force,
the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

The DUI sprang from the now disbanded National Liberation Army, NLA, which
launched an armed conflict against government forces in February 2001 to
demand improved civil rights for Albanians.

The conflict ended six months later with the western-sponsored Ohrid
agreement, which promised improved rights in exchange for the NLA handing
over a portion of their weapons. When an amnesty for the rebels was
proclaimed early this year, they formed the DUI and moved into mainstream
politics.  They won 16 of the 120 seats in parliament in the September
poll.

Branko Crvenkovski, prime minister-designate and leader of the SDSM, has
offered the DUI four ministerial posts - education, justice, health and
transportation - and one vice-premiership. The Social Democrats insisted
that no commanders directly involved in last year's fighting could be
included in government.  Parliament will vote on the new administration on
October 31.

The coalition enraged Macedonian nationalists, especially the VMRO which
was swept from power in the election.  "It's disgraceful," said party
spokesman Vlatko Gorcev. "This government list reflects a military, legal
and spiritual capitulation for Macedonia."

Sections of Albanian opinion also expressed some scepticism. Lirim
Dullovi, deputy editor-in- chief of the influential Albanian language
newspaper Fakti, commented,  " We have to see whether the DUI will be a
relevant factor or become marginalised like previous Albanian parties in
government."

But most moderate Macedonians and Albanians believe the arrangement
represents real progress.  "We have to accept reality because otherwise we
get lost in the past," Saso Colakovski, senior editor at the daily
Utrinski vesnik told IWPR.  "This government is a bit
controversial but it presents a compromise between the Macedonian and the
Albanian blocs."

The new alliance has already been nicknamed "The Guns and Roses"
government - a reference to the DUI`s rebel background and SDSM`s logo
featuring a red rose.

Of the Albanian inclusions in the government, sections of the Macedonian
press were particularly scathing of the appointment of Rexhep Suleimani's
as health minister and Musa Xhaferi as vice-premier. The former headed the
rebel's improvised hospital in the Kumanovo area during the conflict and
the latter doesn't speak Macedonian and is a citizen of Albania.

Apart from the Albanians, the rest of the 14 government ministries were
divided among the SDSM and their other partner the Liberal Democratic
Party, LDP.  The former took the interior, foreign and defence portfolios;
the latter finance, labour and agriculture.

The biggest surprise was Crvenkovski's decision to appoint an ethnic
Vlach, Hari Kostov, a banker, as interior minister. Analysts say the
choice was related to plans to investigate corruption in Ljupco
Georgievski's former nationalist government. Kostov was among the few who
stayed loyal to Crvenkovski after the SDSM lost power in 1998. He was
often targeted by tax and financial officials from the outgoing
administration with whom he was involved in several public disputes.

Diplomats say Kostov has a difficult task ahead of him because the
interior ministry is in need of root and branch reform. "The ministry must
be restructured to conform to normal European standards. Kostov will have
to start by reforming the police, disbanding the 'Lions' paramilitary unit
and resolve delicate border issues," said one envoy.

Under the hawkish former interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, the police
were transformed into the paramilitary arm of VMRO and were heavily
criticised by the international community as unprofessional and a threat
to stability.

Crvenkovski said recently that "restoring peace and stability and reviving
the economy will be the main priorities for the new government".  He also
promised to fight against corruption; and promote Euro-Atlantic
integration and the full implementation of the reforms promised in the
Ohrid peace accord.

Katerina Blazevska, senior editor of the daily Dnevnik, told the
independent Forum magazine, "I hope those ministers won't end up sitting
around as bureaucrats. They must work hard to push Macedonia's political
and economic clocks forward into the 21st century."

Ana Petruseva is a journalist with the magazine Forum in Skopje.

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