MACEDONIA: Thousands of ethnic Albanians protest in Skopje against police arrests of so-called radical Islamists, wanted in connection to last month's murder of five people

Record ID: 717446

  • Title: MACEDONIA: Thousands of ethnic Albanians protest in Skopje against police arrests of so-called radical Islamists, wanted in connection to last month's murder of five people
  • Date: 11th May 2012
  • Summary: SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (MAY 11, 2012) (REUTERS) ALBANIAN PROTESTERS GATHERING IN STREET AFTER PRAYER BOY HOLDING A BANNER READING "MUSLIMS ARE NOT TERRORISTS" (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) PROTESTER, MUSTAFE BELI SAYING: "We are protesting to stop the made-up political cases against the Albanian people." ALBANIAN FLAG/ PEOPLE SEEN THROUGH FLAG PROTESTERS WALKING LARGE NUMBER OF
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Reuters ID: LVAB1SMCBL0UQQ89V64D57D61655
  • Story Text: Several thousands of Albanians in Macedonia took to the streets after prayers on Friday (May 11) in protest against the police and government in the latest sign of fraying ethnic relations in the impoverished Balkan country.
    The demonstrations in several Macedonian cities followed the arrest last week of 20 ethnic Albanians in connection with the grisly murder in mid-April of five Macedonian men at a lake near the capital Skopje. The government described those arrested as radical Islamists, rounded up in dawn raids by 800 police officers. Five have been charged with the murders.
    "We are protesting to stop the made-up political cases against the Albanian people" said Mustafe Beli, a protester.
    In Macedonian capital Skopje several thousand protesters marched to the country's High Court building and then to the government headquarters, chanting "Nikola Gruevski (macedonian pm) terrorist" and "Stop police violence".
    At least a quarter of Macedonia's two million people are ethnic Albanians, most of them Muslims who practice a moderate form of Islam.
    The lakeside murders followed a bout of communal violence between Macedonian and Albanian mobs, and raised fears of wider unrest.
    The former Yugoslav republic narrowly avoided civil war in 2001 when government security forces clashed with ethnic Albanian guerrillas demanding greater rights and representation for the Albanian minority.
    Using the carrot of closer ties with the European Union and NATO, Western diplomacy halted the fighting and the guerrillas entered government.
    But integration has been slow and the two communities still live largely separate lives. Poverty is widespread and the country's ambitions of joining the EU and NATO are frozen by a dispute with neighbouring Greece over the name 'Macedonia'.
    On Thursday (May 10), Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his coalition allies led by former guerrilla leader Ali Ahmeti called for calm ahead of the protests, word of which spread on social media.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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