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| Europe |
| Riots hit Macedonian town |
| 2004-07-23 |
| Dozens of people have been injured in clashes between Macedonian police and protesters after violence flared over plans to give greater local powers to the country's 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority. The rioting in the early hour of Friday morning in the southern town of Struga on Lake Ohrid, where Albanians out number ethnic Macedonians, was the most serious sign of tension since the so-called Ohrid accord ended seven months of guerrilla conflict in 2001. Mobs stoned Albanian-owned shops and torched vehicles belonging to the coalition government which approved the "decentralisation". Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski had to be evacuated from his Struga party headquarters after two hours under siege by a crowd that threw molotov cocktails. He was unharmed. Demonstrators, some reportedly with guns, also set fire to cars from the European Union, the key broker of the peace accord which has 160 police stationed in Macedonia. "Obviously there are more protests planned so we're monitoring the situation closely," said EU mission spokeswoman Sheena Thompson, referring to a rally planned for Monday in the capital Skopje when parliament debates the measure. Struga police said at least 30 people were hurt, including 15 local officers and one person from the EU police mission, which took over from NATO peacekeepers last December. NATO sent troops to Macedonia three years ago to oversee the disarmament of Albanian guerrillas who had seized control of the northwestern region bordering Kosovo, triggering months of clashes with government forces. The deal that stopped the fighting is only now coming to fruition, in a final phase that will make Albanian the main language in Albanian-dominated areas. The plan proposes redrawing municipal boundaries so that Struga, for instance, would become predominantly Albanian. Control over schools, health and local economic development in such areas would pass to Albanian political leaders. It has sparked fierce debate among Macedonia's two million people. Opponents say it will ultimately divide the country. If the plan is adopted Skopje will become a bilingual city with street signs and official documents in both Albanian and Macedonian. Albanian will become an 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 in Serbia administered by the United Nations since NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to halt Serb repression. Western powers are anxious to ensure Kosovo's demand for independence, which is expected to come to a head sometime next year, does not encourage another bid by armed extremists to forge a "Greater Albania" in the southwestern Balkans. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #5 Western powers are anxious to ensure Kosovo’s demand for independence, which is expected to come to a head sometime next year, does not encourage another bid by armed extremists to forge a "Greater Albania" in the southwestern Balkans. Then the Western powers should have kinda not encouraged Albanian imperialist ambitions in the first place. Kosovo's "demands for independence" must be squished most thoroughly. It should be made clear that they are not getting it. Ever. "Where we melt together and absorb other cultures, making them part of our own, they seem to hate anyone slightly different." Not a very academic answer on the question of why either nationalism or imperialism has been left to endure in the Balkans. But the situation's better than it used to be. The only imperialisms/questioned borders that remain now are the ones revolving around Albania/ Albania-FYRO Macedonia and Albania-Serbia and Monternegro, and both cases it's Albanian separationists who attempt to enlarge Albania. I blame the Kosovo bombings. Even the whole Kosovar population getting expelled to Albania would have been better than the continuing crisis that led to civil war in FYRO Macedonia as well and who knows what more it will lead to in the future. Each imperialism needs a hard knock to be defeated, and Albanians practically the only ones who haven't gotten one. The EU gets its vehicles destroyed,one of its "police" injured,and the firm response:"...so we're monitoring the situation closely."That'll teach 'em to mess w/the EU. You'd have preferred Europe to go in guns blazing, with perhaps 10.000 civilians as "collateral damage" in order to take revenge on the injury of a single member of our police force? Yeah, I'm glad we don't do that kind of stuff. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-07-24 10:38:16 AM |
| #4 Where to begin.First w/cheap shot.After 3 years,NATO/EU "the deal...is only now coming to fruition."In a little over year,US and Iraq have worked out a constitution and an Iraqi government of Iraqis. The EU gets its vehicles destroyed,one of its "police" injured,and the firm response:"...so we're monitoring the situation closely."That'll teach 'em to mess w/the EU. The sooner US troops are out of the area the better. |
| Posted by: Stephen 2004-07-23 10:51:27 PM |
| #3 I agree, Mr. Davis. Arm everybody, station troops (of the neighboring countries, not ours) at the borders to keep the combatants in, and let them have at it. Of course, the "media" will be in there whining and showing pictures of "innocents" victims of the fighting. That's why it's important to arm everybody. If anybody doesn't want to get in on the fighting (meaning, if they have the sense God gave a rock), they can cross to a refugee camp funded by all of Europe (again, not us; they're not coming here). And no UN (meaning our) money cleanup afterwards. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Harsh? You bet. But no harsher than what has gone on there for a thousand years. We're just holding off the carnage by stationing troops there. We need to arm everybody, get out, and let them choose how - or if - they want to live. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-07-23 10:45:07 PM |
| #2 They should be allowed to kill eachother until they're all dead or they tire of it. It's like the U. S. was not one country but 50 and Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio fought over who got to live where in West Virginia. Who cares? Frankly, the Balkans are not worth the bones of a Palmdale GI. |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-07-23 10:32:56 PM |
| #1 Unfortunately, it's become more and more obvious over the years that the people in the Balkans just can't live with each other. Where we melt together and absorb other cultures, making them part of our own, they seem to hate anyone slightly different. I think they really do need to live in separate countries, with no legal border crossings and no trade, for the next thousand years or so. Maybe they'll become civilized by then. But I ain't holding my breath. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-07-23 10:20:01 PM |