FYROM divided once again

Balkan country tense as Parliament debates decentralization bill

Violent protests erupted in FYROM’s southwestern town of Struga last week over a law empowering the ethnic Albanian minority.

By Konstantin Testorides - The Associated Press

SKOPJE - The Parliament of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) convened amid heavy security yesterday to debate a contentious draft law that would give ethnic Albanians control of 16 municipalities in the tense Balkan state.

The draft, which needs the assembly’s approval to become law, has sparked riots by Slav-Macedonians claiming it would split the country along ethnic lines.

Police sealed off downtown Skopje, erecting metal fences and closing the streets surrounding the Parliament building. Security on main roads leading into the capital was also heightened, with police manning checkpoints.

The draft decentralization law, approved by FYROM’s multiethnic government this month, paves the way for ethnic Albanian self-rule in the 16 municipalities where they constitute a majority.

Under the redistricting, FYROM is to have 80 municipalities. Ethnic Albanians, who comprise about a quarter of the country’s 2 million people, live mostly in northwestern regions.

The decentralization plan is in line with a key point in the Western-brokered peace deal that ended six months of fighting between ethnic Albanian rebels and government troops in 2001.

FYROM’s nationalist opposition announced it would stage “peaceful and dignified” protests later yesterday in Skopje, under the motto: “All of Macedonia for a whole Macedonia.”

As Parliament convened, Aleksandar Gestakovski, the minister in charge of local government, appealed to lawmakers to respect the sensitivities surrounding the draft law and proposed Parliament speedily adopt the legislation.

“Decentralization is essential for Macedonia’s path toward democracy,” Gestakovski said.

Trying to stall the decision, opposition lawmakers began filibustering yesterday, raising the possibility that debate would drag on for days.

Parliament is expected to call local elections in the 80 municipalities in early August.

According to the plan, although ethnic Albanians would control all levels of local government in areas where they are a majority, Slav-Macedonians there would still enjoy cultural rights, including schooling in their own language.

The law — a condition for FYROM’s eventual membership in NATO and the EU — would also redraw the borders of some municipalities that until now had a majority Slav-Macedonian population. The new boundaries would include nearby ethnic Albanian villages, making the ethnic Albanians dominant there on a municipal level.

The legislation also makes Skopje a bilingual capital by extending its municipal boundaries to include several nearby ethnic Albanian villages.