[AMCC-News] Macedonia strikes power deal seen crucial for peace

[Mentor Cana]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ROB868778.htm

Macedonia strikes power deal seen crucial for peace
15 Jul 2004 10:13:31 GMT

By Kole Casule

SKOPJE, July 15 (Reuters) - Macedonia's coalition government has struck a 
long-delayed deal handing more powers to the local level, a crucial part of 
the 2001 peace accord granting greater rights to the ethnic Albanian 
minority.

The agreement late on Wednesday, unpopular among many in the Macedonian 
majority, should give the country's 500,000 Albanians more control over 
municipalities where they form a majority.

It represents a final step in implementing the NATO-brokered deal that 
ended seven months of clashes between government security forces and ethnic 
Albanian rebels three years ago.

The issue has sparked fierce debate in Macedonia, a small Balkan state of 
just two million people. Protestors backed by the rightwing opposition 
VMRO-DPMNE party have accused the government of dividing Macedonia along 
ethnic lines.

Diplomats say the deal, which still has to be adopted by parliament, is 
vital for Macedonia's ambition to join the European Union, having formally 
applied for membership in March.

"If we want to build Macedonia as a European country we must go forward," 
said Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski.

"The obstacle we must pass is the peace deal ... This is probably the only 
medicine for the frustrations of Macedonians and Albanians," he told 
reporters.

Talks within the Social Democrat-led coalition, which includes a party that 
emerged from the guerrilla force, had been stalled for six weeks as 
politicians argued over how best to redraw municipal boundaries and shift 
power in local councils.

The three government parties have a majority in parliament.

Under the deal, the Macedonian capital Skopje will become bilingual, 
meaning street signs and official documents will be printed in both 
Albanian and Macedonian.

Albanian will become the second official language in municipalities with an 
Albanian population of at least 20 percent.

Most ethnic Albanians in Macedonia live in the west of the country in towns 
bordering Albania and Kosovo, the majority Albanian province administered 
by the United Nations since NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to halt Serb 
repression.

The decentralisation package also shifts power over sectors including 
schools, health and local economic development from national to local 
government. Municipal elections are now expected to be held on October 17.

Opposition leader Nikola Gruevski said the accord would create "artificial 
societies with classic ethnic enclaves, completely destroying the system of 
multi-ethnic life".

The guerrillas agreed in 2001 to lay down arms in return for greater rights 
for the large minority.