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Macedonian Talks to Cover Islam and Albanian Language
SKOPJE, June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Crisis talks between Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders aimed at ending an Albanian uprising against majority discrimination will mostly like discuss Islam and the Albanian language, news agencies said.
Talks over the uprising, wreaking havoc in the country, will resume Monday, government sources told news agencies.
Leaders from the four parties making up Macedonia's emergency national unity government -- two Slav and two ethnic Albanian -- conducted a second round of talks which went on late into the night Saturday, after an initial meeting Friday.
The discussions were supposed to resume late Sunday, but no explanation was given for the delay of the talks, nor was any information available on whether there had been any progress in previous rounds.
The negotiations, called by President Boris Trajkovski, are aimed at reaching agreement over several political reforms. The talks are planned to bring the two communities closer together and halt a four-month uprising by ethnic Albanian activists.
Activist fighters from the National Liberation Army (NLA) are demanding wide-ranging concessions, that would better the conditions of the Muslim Albanian minority, from the Macedonian government, and agreed to observe a ceasefire while talks continue.
But Skopje considers many of their demands to be unacceptable, signaling possible sticking points in the talks.
Trajkovski has promised to broach all subjects in the marathon cross-party discussions with coalition leaders, "even the most difficult and sensitive issues."
Aides said that was a reference to plans to discuss the question of the constitution, which ethnic Albanian political leaders and activists want changed to name them as an equal community with the Macedonian Slav majority.
The status of the Albanian language and Islam, which ethnic Albanians hope to see officially recognized, are also on the agenda for the talks.
A Macedonian government official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Trajkovski was also willing to remove references to ethnicity or religion from the constitution and add Albanian as an optional state language.
Albanians in Macedonia have suffered for years from low standards of living and civil rights abuses and they are calling for more civil and political rights.
The Albanian minority makes up about a third of the county's two million population.
Meanwhile, EU leaders meeting in Sweden, also suggested they were moving closer among themselves to endorsing Trajkovski's request for NATO troops to help collect weapons if the armed Albanian activists agree to disarm.
Representatives from the 19 NATO nations were expected to meet on Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, to consider that request
Albanian leaders are demanding a full deployment of NATO peacekeepers in Macedonia before accepting any peace proposal.
But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that no consideration was being given to a large-scale NATO operation.
Four months of fighting between armed activists and Macedonian security forces in the north of the country have abated since a ceasefire took hold last Monday, despite daily breaches in the truce.
Albanian leaders have agreed to obey the ceasefire until June 27 to allow talks to run their course, but many of their demands are deemed unacceptable to Skopje, including their demand for a general amnesty for NLA fighters.
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