EQUALITY FIRST - EUROPE AFTER THAT

Subject : AIM SKOPJE - Albanians on reception of Macedonia into Europe

AIM, Skopje, June 20, 1995

Summary: In its letter, the Party of Democratic Prosperity expresses satisfaction with the readiness of the European Council to discuss reception of Macedonia into this oldest European institution, but at the same time, stresses that Macedonia, for the time being, does not fulfill the requirements for reception.

Text

Just as dust started to settle down after the conflict between two greatest parties in the coalition Government of Macedonia, the Social Democratic Alliance and the Liberal Party, which had broken out because of the unpaid money for the elections and which will, all things considered, end in a tie, in the past few days attention of the public in Macedonia was drawn by a new scandal with new protagonists: the Party of Democratic Prosperity (the party of the Albanians in Macedonia with the largest membership) and ethnic Macedonians headed by the Liberal Party which is increasingly appearing as the defender of this nation's interests. With the conclusion that "this is not the first time that the Albanians have acted in this way", this step of the PDP was proclaimed treason of state interests for the sake of narrow party interests. Together with this gush of resignation because of this "stab in the back", the question of general confidence in the Albanians was put, as well as of further survival of the "unnatural coalition" in which the PDP participates with four ministers.

The reason for such sharp reactions undoubtedly lies in the fact that in the mentioned letter, the Party of Democratic Prosperity, that is, the parliamentary group of this party (which used to have ten deputies, but has just nine now, due to transfer of one of them to the group of the independent deputies) raises its voice against reception of Macedonia into the European Council. To be more precise, this parliamentary group expresses its satisfaction because of the readiness of the European Council to discuss reception of Macedonia by the oldest European institution, where it has the status of a "special guest" at the moment, but at the time stresses that, for the time being, Macedonia does not fulfill the requirements for full-fledged membership. And Macedonia does not fulfill the requirements, the letter says, primarily because there is no equality among the citizens of different nationlities, and in the first place because of the fact that the Albanians are deprived of their rights. The members of the parliament from the PDP explain this stance on three type-written single-spaced pages of text which provoked a torrent of negative emotions in a large part of the Macedonian public.

What hurt the feelings of 'defenders' of Macedonia the most is with no doubt the first part of the letter which says that the position of the Albanians in Macedonia, in comparison with the period before this former Yugoslav republic gained independence, has greatly deteriorated, although it is stressed that this process has begun back in 1981. This allegation is supported by the fact that the 1974 Constitution made the Albanians in Macedonia a constituent element of former Socialist Republic of Macedonia, and based on that, the Albanian language became the official language, along with the Macedonia, in municipalities with majority Albanian population or with a significant percentage of them. This fact, the explanation continues, enabled education in Albanian on all levels, including the highest - at the College for Teachers in Skopje and the Prishtina University in Kosovo. It is also stressed in the letter that the Albanians during this period enjoyed the right to hoist national symbols, and that the authorities were by far less centralized, and thus enabled development of particularities. However, after Macedonia had got its independence and the new Constitution had been adopted, the 'incriminating' letter states, the Albanians lost all that was accomplished and their position deteriorated.

The letter which, according to what the leadership of the Party of Democratic Prosperity claim, should serve as a reason for postponing reception of Macedonia into the European Council, devotes certain 'attention' to Macedonian police, too, which is said to be 'trigger happy' when dealing with the Albanians. As an illustration for this allegation, cases of killing of a certain number of citizens, mostly of Albanian nationality (Bit pazar, Mala Recica) are listed. It is also stated that courts are by no means independent, especially when speaking of trials of the Albanians, as it could be seen at the trial in the "scandal with arms" and the trial to initiators of opening of the Tetovo University. These trials, according to allegations of the PDP parliamentary group, were political trials, and the sentenced persons were victims of daily politics.

The case of unequalized constituencies is emphasized as a special problem, since it allegedly puts the Albanians in an unequal position in relation to the Macedonians, because constituencies are much larger in regions with majority Albanian population than those with Macedonian majority.

A long paragraph of the letter is devoted to a newly arisen problem which is a hundred per cent the product of independence of Macedonia - the Document on Citizenship. This document is said to deserve to be entered into "Guiness's Book of Records", because in a state which is just two years old, as a requirement for citizenship, a certificate about a 15-year-long permanent residence is required. And what is even worse, even if they fulfill these 'impossible' requirements, 100 thousand Albanians cannot obtain this document due to moroseness of state officials who are mostly of Macedonian nationality, which is just another typical problem. And finally, as one of the most significant shortcomings of Macedonia, its failure to adopt a law on local self-management is listed.

For the reasons they have listed, the parliamentarians of the greatest Albanian party in Macedonia which participates in the coalition Government, demand from the European Council to delay reception of Macedonia into this institution until such unfavourable position of the Albanians is improved.

What effect this letter will have will be clear at the next session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council which will be held in Strasbourg between June 26 and 30, since the application of Macedonia to be received as a permanent member is on its agenda.

In the end, it should be mentioned that, judging by the statements of the Chairman of the EC Assembly who was in a visit to Macedonia at the time the letter appeared, the stance of the Albanians - human rights first, the reception afterwards - has not much chance to be successful, since in Europe, the stance prevails that membership itself obliges the members to respect human rights. Such stance was also expressed by the Danish Foreign Minister who also visited Macedonia several days ago, despite the clear disagreement of the Albanians that after reception, Macedonia will be even more 'easy-going' in this sense. And it seems that such fears, and their justification, are not far from (Balkan) reality.

IBRAHIM MEHMETI