[Kcc-News] Macedonia: Human Rights Violation

[Mentor Cana]

	1. Macedonian Police Brutality and Abuse
	2. Citizenship and Constitution
	3. Education:

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1. Macedonian Police Brutality and Abuse

"Police searches of the houses of ethnic Albanians in Aracinovo were
characterized by the use of excessive force. On 14 January men and boys
were beaten in several houses. One man had his jaw broken, reportedly with
a police rifle butt. Six men and two 15-year-old boys were made to lie
face down outside another house and were kicked and beaten as they lay. A
70-year-old man was allowed to sit up, but the others were reportedly kept
on the ground for up to three hours. The ill-treatment was allegedly
accompanied by references to their Albanian ethnicity. Old men, women and
children were allegedly guarded at gunpoint by police for three hours in
another house."

http://www.balkanreport.com/angliski/policebrutalityreport.htm
http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/EUR650052000
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/macedonia.html
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2. Citizenship and Constitution

"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
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3. Education:

"In July, the government adopted legislation to resolve the long-standing
question of Tetovo University, a private Albanian-language institution that
Macedonian authorities refused to accredit as an educational institution.
The passage of the law on education on July 25 established a new
multi-lingual tertiary institute offering training in business, education,
and public management. The internationally funded institution, intended as
a replacement to Tetovo University, would allow Albanians to study in their
own language, although a proficiency test in Macedonian would be required
before their diplomas were officially recognized. Despite receiving the
backing of the Albanian party in the ruling government coalition, the new
institute did not receive unequivocal support from the country's ethnic
Albanian population, many of whom wanted nothing less than the recognition
of Tetovo University itself."

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