MACEDONIA : ETHNIC ALBANIANS ARRESTED BY POLICE FOR OPENING AN ILLEGAL UNIVERSITY IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC¡

Record ID: 566102

  • Title: MACEDONIA : ETHNIC ALBANIANS ARRESTED BY POLICE FOR OPENING AN ILLEGAL UNIVERSITY IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC¡
  • Date: 17th December 1994
  • Summary: TETOVO (NEAR SKOPJE), MACEDONIA (DECEMBER 17, 1994) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV ALBANIAN DEMONSTRATORS MARCH DOWN ROAD 0.21 2. SCU ALBANIAN DEMONSTRATOR SPEAKS AND OTHERS APPLAUD ALBANIAN) 0.34 3. GV MACEDONIAN POLICE DOWN ROAD 0.40 4. GV POLICE PAN TO CROWD OUTSIDE BUILDING 0.44 5 SV/GV POLICE WATCH BY ROADSIDE/TELEPHONING 0.51 6. REAR VIEW POLICE BY POLICE VAN 0.55 7. GV MORE POLICE ARRIVE AS PEOPLE CLAP 1.04 8. GV PEOPLE WATCHING DEMONSTRATION 1.08 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 1st January 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TETOVO (NEAR SKOPJE), MACEDONIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6JQW90Q3LHCNNMCZ76RXE06IU
  • Story Text: Macedonian police arrested 12 ethnic Albanian activists on Saturday (December 17) after they opened a university branded illegal by the government.

    The educational facility was opened shortly after midnight on Friday, rather than at noon on Saturday as scheduled, to avoid a confrontation with police.

    Organisers said 400 students had already expressed an interest in entering the university in January.

    The Albanian-language "university" was operating in part of the town hall in Tetovo, west of Skopje, which has a large Albanian population.

    According to the latest census, Albanians make up some 23 percent of Macedonia's two million people, though Albanian leaders put the figure at 40 percent.

    After arresting 12 members of the university's founding committee, police blocked all approaches to Tetovo and guarded the town hall as several hundred Albanians staged a peaceful demonstration in front of it.

    The Interior Ministery said in a statement on Saturday that all those detained would be released.

    It said the opening of the university was a political, not an educational act, adding that the project was backed by Albanians in the neighbouring Serbian province of Kosovo, which has a 90 percent Albanian majority.

    The Macedonian government fears the opening of the university will undermine already tense relations between communities in the multi-ethnic former Yugoslav republic, and lead eventually to western Macedonia breaking away to join Albania.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register