MACEDONIA: Thousands turn to a rally in Macedonian capital against the spate of inter-ethnic mob violence in the impoverished Balkan country

Record ID: 349554

  • Title: MACEDONIA: Thousands turn to a rally in Macedonian capital against the spate of inter-ethnic mob violence in the impoverished Balkan country
  • Date: 18th March 2012
  • Summary: SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (MARCH 17, 2012) (REUTERS) PEACE MARCH IN PROGRESS PEOPLE CARRYING BANNER READING IN MACEDONIAN, ALBANAIN AND ENGLISH: "Together for peace" PEOPLE WALKING WITH BANNER PEOPLE CARRYING BANNERS READING IN MACEDONIAN AND ALBANIAN: "Together for peace" (SOUNDBITE) (Macedonian) JOURNALIST FROM MACEDONIAN TV ANA JOVKOVSKA, SAYING: "We want to show that we w
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6AZVE7HX2X57DZXLFVXCGGVJK
  • Story Text: Some 2,000 activists, celebrities and intellectuals marched in Macedonia on Saturday (March 17) calling for an end to the worst spate of inter-ethnic mob violence since the Balkan country narrowly avoided civil war a decade ago.
    Banners in Macedonian and Albanian read "Together for Peace" and "Peace is the Way".
    The past two weeks have seen a string of tit-for-tat attacks by mobs of youths from Macedonia's Slavic-speaking majority and ethnic Albanian minority, armed with baseball bats and knives and often targeting public transport.
    "We want to show that we want to live together, all together one with another, not one next to other, without violence, and live together," said Ana Jovkovska, a journalist from Macedonian TV who took part in the march.
    "We want to show that people who live in Macedonia want peace, they are against violence, against conflicts which were happening last week," said another demonstrator Zoran Stojkovski.
    The impoverished former Yugoslav republic was rocked by fighting between government security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in 2001 but Western diplomacy pulled them back from the brink of civil war.
    At least a quarter of Macedonia's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, living mainly in the north and west. A decade on, tensions persist, fuelled by poverty and the slow pace of integration with the West.
    Overnight, a Molotov cocktail was lobbed from a car at the Macedonian embassy in majority-Albanian Kosovo, north of Macedonia, police said. No one was hurt and there was little sign of damage to the building. The Macedonian foreign ministry issued a statement calling for the perpetrators to be found.
    On Saturday, dozens of non-governmental organisations held a protest march through the Macedonian capital Skopje calling for an end to the violence.
    Right-wing conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who heads a coalition government with ethnic Albanian former guerrilla leader Ali Ahmeti, has warned of a robust response if the violence continues.
    The European Union has expressed concern and called for calm. NATO and the EU were instrumental in stopping the fighting in 2001, but Macedonia is lagging behind much of the western Balkans in its efforts to join both blocs.
    Macedonian accession has been stalled for years by a two-decade-old dispute with neighbouring Greece over what Athens says is Skopje's appropriation of the name 'Macedonia' and its claim to the legacy of Alexander the Great.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register