Situation in Macedonia calmer but inter-ethnic tensions with Albanians linger

Wed, Mar 14 2012 12:48 CET

byThe Sofia Echo staff

Photo: Reuters

Albanian youths shout slogans during a protest in front of Macedonia's Embassy in Tirana, March 13 2012. The protest started after two ethnic Albanians were killed in Gostivar, Macedonia last month by an off-duty police officer.

Photo: Reuters

The situation in Macedonia appeared calmer on March 14, the day that the European Parliament was due to debate and vote on a report on the country’s progress towards EU membership, after a flare-up of tensions in recent weeks between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians.

There was widespread concern about the ethnic violence that hit Skopje and other places in Macedonia, a few weeks after an incident in the north-western town of Gostivar in which a Macedonian police officer shot dead two young ethnic Albanian men.

Local media offered conflicting reports of the February 29 shooting incident. Some said that the police officer and his ethnic Albanian neighbours had been involved in a dispute over a parking space, while separate reports alleged that he had responded to an attempted assault by a group of men seeking to silence his supposed knowledge of the local illegal drug trade.

In early March, Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski offered his condolences on the deaths.

But around the same time, protests in Gostivar, where – according to Macedonia’s 2002 census – the population is close to half ethnic Albanian, ended in violence and serious damage to property..................................continues.......

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2012/03/14/1787294_situation-in-macedonia-calmer-but-inter-ethnic-tensions-with-albanians-linger