TO the historian, the Balkans may be a fascinating jigsaw puzzle of peoples and cultures. Unfortunately the pieces that constitute this mosaic are each formed from political nitroglycerine, ever volatile and ever in danger of exploding with catastrophic consequences, not only for the Balkans themselves, but for the wider world.
This is why the large protest yesterday in the Macedonian capital Skopje must be viewed with concern. Despite driving rain, 20,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest government proposals to increase the rights of the country’s Albanian ethnic minority. Macedonian nationalists in this former part of Yugoslavia believe the plans will make it easier for Albanians to join up with a future independent Kosovo, if such a state comes into being. Macedonia is a state already under considerable pressure. Three years ago the issue of the country’s Albanian minority threatened to boil over into conflict, but thanks to a timely intervention by the outside world, NATO was able to step in between the two communities and disarm rebels of the Albanian National Liberation Army. An uneasy calm was restored which is again in danger of rupture.
There can be no doubt that there are hard-liners among Macedonia’s Albanians who see unity with an independent Kosovo perhaps leading to a greater unity with Albania itself. However, such a rearrangement of the pieces of the Balkan jigsaw would almost certainly lead to devastating detonations. There are already Macedonian hard-liners who want Albanians expelled from Macedonian territory, which would itself be a no less catastrophic rearrangement of the puzzle.
Now therefore is the time for the moderates in both communities to make their voices heard. What really matters to these people, who constitute the majority, is to live their lives in safety and prosperity. Conflict will achieve only death and ruin. There are rich prizes to be won for this society on the edge of the European Union, which it wishes to join, but they will only be achieved if it can be shown that old wounds are healing and stability is real.
President Branko Crvenkovski, who succeeded the late Boris Trajkovski killed in an aircraft crash this April, has yet to demonstrate all of his predecessor’s vision and political adroitness. His government is however continuing the policy of according the Albanian community proper standing within the country. That this has caused such loud protests is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed it actually gives an opportunity for Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians to make it abundantly clear that they are committed to their Macedonian citizenship.
The largest ethnic Albanian political party, the Democratic Union for Integration under former rebel fighter Ali Ahmeti needs to redouble its efforts to convince other Macedonians that his party really means what its name says. The extremists on both sides must be marginalized and the Albanian community as a whole must make it abundantly clear that it believes that its future lies within Macedonia.
