[AMCC-News] Minority Albanians Say Fight in Macedonia Is for Equity

[Mentor Cana]

1. Minority Albanians Say Fight in Macedonia Is for Equity
2. Discrimination: The Macedonian Citizenship Law

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1. Minority Albanians Say Fight in Macedonia Is for Equity
   Rebels Demand Rights

"A group of ethnic Albanian guerrillas battling for control of a hillside
 overlooking this frightened provincial city said today their sole aim is
 to win more economic and political rights alongside Macedonia's Slavic
 majority."
"In interviews, they said their armed violence was sparked by a decade of
 discrimination at the hands of the Macedonian Slavs who make up nearly
 two-thirds of the country's 2 million inhabitants, alongside tiny
 communities of Gypsies, Turks and Serbs."
"Although the men would not say where they were from, their accents were
 local, giving credence to the theory that the guerrillas had recruited
 members from the predominantly ethnic Albanian towns surrounding Tetovo."
"But little agreement exists in Macedonia about one of the guerrillas' key
 demands, new schools staffed by Albanian-speaking teachers. At present,
 only elementary schools offer instruction in that language. While ethnic
 Albanians see the school issue as a matter of human rights and economic
 opportunity, many Macedonian Slavs consider the creation of more
 Albanian-language schools a recipe for enhanced Albanian nationalist and
 separatist sentiments."

 For full article visit:
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15604-2001Mar16.html
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2. Discrimination: The Macedonian Citizenship Law

"Despite government promises to reform Macedonia's overly exclusive 1992
 citizenship law in line with Council of Europe standards, the law
 remained unchanged. Drafted at the time of its independence from the
 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia's citizenship law
 never adequately resolved the status of the significant number of
 Yugoslav citizens who were long-term residents in Macedonia but who were
 neither born in Macedonia nor ethnic Macedonian. Large numbers of ethnic
 Albanians, Turks, and Roma who knew no other home than Macedonia remained
 effectively stateless as a result of the law."

 http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/macedonia.html