Macedonia is once again a focus of international concern. Under the peace deal brokered a little more than a year ago, the ethnic Albanian fighters of the National Liberation Army disarmed. Macedonia adopted a new constitution which guaranteed the rights of the Albanian minority. Parliamentary elections are due to take place in a fortnight’s time.
Then last week, two Macedonian police reservists were shot dead by drive-by killers. The murders led to the arrest of two ethnic Albanians. This caused protests in the Albanian community who claimed that the detained men were innocent. Then with a grim predictability, a group of armed men, believed to be former members of the disbanded National Liberation Army, seized a bus and took five hostages and demanded the release of the two men arrested on suspicion of murdering the police reservists. Macedonian police surrounded the village where the hostage-takers were holed up and shot dead an ethnic Albanian at a roadblock in circumstances that have yet to be properly explained. A tense standoff ensued, during which Macedonian police appeared to be massing for an all out assault on the village. This was, however, short-circuited when two armored cars belonging to the European monitoring mission drove into the village and secured the release of the hostages.
The criminal actions of the hostage takers cannot be condemned too strongly. It is important, however, to realize that extremists in the Albanian community are not alone in ratcheting up the tension in advance of the important parliamentary elections. The Macedonian state prosecutor has issued a warrant for the arrest of a leading Albanian politician, Ali Ahmeti, for war crimes. This action is in direct contravention of assurances given in last August’s peace deal. NATO’s ambassador to Macedonia took the unusual step of warning the authorities not to press ahead and execute the warrant. Nevertheless, the public prosecutor’s office promptly replied that it intended to continue with the process. An alarming scenario appears to be emerging. Hawks within the Macedonian administration do not want to see a clear mandate emerge at the parliamentary elections for moderates on both sides of the ethnic divide. They, therefore, need to provoke Albanian extremists into a renewal of their uprising, which will either sabotage completely or seriously undermine the outcome of the nationwide vote. Unfortunately, there are sufficient hotheads on the Albanian side prepared to rise to the bait.
Nevertheless, the Albanian community should stand fast, despite being provoked. They will, however, be more inclined to do this if NATO and the European Union, who are monitoring the country, make it absolutely clear that neither side can renege on any item whatsoever contained in the August 2001 peace deal. Like any deal, this was a compromise in which no one achieved everything they wanted. But compromise is the way that civilized and peaceful societies work.
The international community, and that effectively means the European Union, must throw its weight quickly and decisively behind the moderates on both sides, and make it absolutely clear that the role of extremists in Macedonia is over.
