STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday June 1, 6:41 PM Bitter Macedonians say forced by world into appeasing separatists SKOPJE, June 1 (AFP) - Macedonia's bitter Slav majority believes it is being strong-armed by international pressure, notably from NATO and the European Union, into making sweeping and unwelcome changes to its young constitution. The fragile former Yugoslav republic is facing the worst crisis of its decade-long period of independence, as an armed ethnic Albanian uprising threatens to topple the country into all-out civil war. Fearing another round of Balkan bloodletting, the international community's big guns have shuttled in and out of Skopje to press the case for inter-ethnic dialogue on reforms to temper ethnic Albanian claims of discrimination. The jewel in the crown of this process has been the creation of a government of national unity including all the main Macedonian Slav and ethnic Albanian parties, hailed by foreign diplomats as the best guarantee of peace. But as the guerrillas continue to rampage through northern hills and political divisions push the coalition to breaking point, the unity government in Skopje seems more and more like a facade to reassure international opinion. "This coalition was imposed by the EU, by (EU foreign policy chief) Javier Solana, by (NATO Secretary General) George Robertson and (Swedish Foreign Minister) Anna Lindh. It's a perverse thing," political analyst and law professor Georgi Marjanovic told AFP. "There is no cohesion, these parties have nothing in common," he said. Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski formed the coalition government under international pressure to defuse ethnic tension by taking on board ethnic Albanian demands for equal status under the constitution. Now two ethnic Albanian political parties who have signed a unilateral accord with the rebels and which have been accused by Georgievski of backing "terrorists" sit alongside his Macedonian nationalist VMRO-DPMNE in cabinet. Also on board are the former Communist SDSM of ex-PM Branko Crvenkovski, which will be Georgievski's fiercest rival for the Slav vote in next year's legislative elections and has already fallen out with him over how to deal with the crisis. This week, Georgievski conceded for the first time that the agenda set for him in Brussels by the European Union and NATO would inevitably lead to the demands of the ethnic Albanian parties, and of the guerrillas, being met. "The agenda is under the auspices of the international community and it is not a secret," he said, "This is the agenda that will make the country the place that Albanians wanted to see." A European diplomat told AFP that while Georgievski was clearly angry, the declaration showed that he had accepted the reality that Albanian demands for constitutional reform would eventually have to be met. Georgievski says he is resigned to seeing the preamble to the constitution -- which describes Macedonia as "the nation-state and the Macedonian people" -- ripped up and replaced with a document that makes the Albanian minority a second constitutive nation and makes Albanian an official state language. But Marjanovic ridiculed the idea that the ethnic Albanians would be satisfied when they gain constitutional equality, warning it would only be the first step towards the bloody dismemberment of his country. "Before the war in Bosnia there were three constitutional peoples ... I don't think Europe really understands the problem," he said. He described the decision of the two ethnic Albanian parties in the coalition to sign an accord with the rebels' political chief -- which promised the guerrillas a place at the negotiating table -- as "high treason". The coalition was to strengthen Skopje's hand as the government tried to isolate extremists, but instead it has turned into a straitjacket for Georgievski, forcing him to work alongside his most bitter foes to forward someone else's agenda. As the government's military campaign makes little headway, the only plan in town is the one imposed by the international community, and few in Skopje think it will postpone the political crisis for long. "In two year's time, you'll see. The more we give the Albanians, the more they want," warns Tomislav Mitrovski, a 28-year-old baker. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
