Dear Internet user,
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passing through Skopje. |
The recent developments in Macedonia have been the topic of many news coverages. However, no conflict can be understood by following the news coverage only, for it presents only the current situation at best. Therefore, in order to provide you with better background info on the current situation in Macedonia, as well as to dissolve the misrepresentation of the recent developments in Macedonia, we have prepared this overview of the human rights enjoyed by the ethnically Albanian population in Macedonia.
Ethnic Albanians comprise about 22.9% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia, accordning to the last EU-monitored census in 1994 (Macedonia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996 by the US Department of State). Their human rights, as well as those of the other ethnic minorities in the Republic of Macedonia, are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, which states the following:
Members of the ethnic groups have a right freely to express, foster and develop their identity and ethnic attributes. The Republic guarantees the protection of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of the ethnic groups. Members of the ethnic groups have the right to establish institutions for culture and art, as well as scholarly and other associations for the expression, fostering and development of their identity. Members of different ethnic groups have the right to instruction in their language in primary and secondary education, as determined by law. In schools where education is carried out in the language of an ethnic minority, the Macedonian language is also to be studied. (Article 48)
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Minority rights are extended to the maximum where education is concerned. The Albanian minority in the country has education in its mother tongue, up to and including University level. The US Department of State 2000 Report on Human Rights Practices for Macedonia states that "there are eased admission requirements for minorities at the universities in Skopje and Bitola for up to 23 percent of entering places, although the quota has not always been filled. In 1991 302 ethnic minority students attended university; in 1998 1,073 attended, representing about 16 percent of all university students." There is Albanian-language university education for students at Skopje University's teacher training college, for students studying to be teachers at Albanian-language primary and secondary schools. The US Department of State sees the major obstacle to increasing university attendance of ethnic Albanians, especially for girls, being their low but slowly increasing enrollment in secondary education. In July of 2000 the Government adopted legislation to address longstanding demands by ethnic Albanians for university-level courses taught in the Albanian language with the passage of a new Law on Higher Education, which authorizes private institutions of higher learning and, under an OSCE sponsored plan, a new internationally- and state-funded institution is being created which would be designed to conduct classes in Albanian, English, and Macedonian. Construction of the SEE University at Tetovo began early in 2001. Moreover, there is an Islamic Theological Seminary, as well as an Islamic High School in Macedonia, similar to the Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Theological High School. At the Skopje Summit of Leaders of Southeast European countries, the Macedonian and Albanian Foreign Ministers, Srdjan Kerim and Paskal Milo, signed agreements on education and health care cooperation. Minister Milo stated that the Agreement on educational cooperation is very significant and presents a legislative frame for exchange of staff and literature (for more information go to the Summit's official site at www.seecp.gov.mk). Furthermore, the Republic of Macedonia accepts university diplomas from the University in Prishtina (Kosovo). After all, all but one of the ethnic Albanian Ministers in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia (Bedredin Ibrahimi, Xhevdet Nasufi, Besnik Fetai, and Ernad Fejzulahu) have received their degrees from the University of Prishtina.
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Regarding the freedom of expression, many TV and radio stations in Macedonia broadcast full programming in Albanian, including the state-funded Macedonian Radio and Television Network; the second channel of the state television predominantly broadcasts in the language of the ethnic minorities. Interestingly, Macedonia had Albanian language TV programs much before even Albania had a TV station. There are numerous Albanian daily newspapers, magazines, and literature, privately and state-funded in Macedonia. Finally, there's even a state-funded theater that performs plays in Albanian.
In the ten years since Macedonia attained its independence, the parties of the Albanian minority have participated in every coalition government. In the governments up until 1998, the Party for Democratic Prosperity was the voice of the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. In the current coalition government, the political party of the Macedonian Albanians (PDPA-NDP) holds 5 out of 16 ministerial posts and several deputy minister positions. Currently, there are 25 Albanian MPs in the 120-seat Macedonian Parliament, and in the 1990-1994 and the 1994-1998 there were about 20 MPs from Albanian political parties. The ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia have four parties primarily focusing on the rights of the ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia, that are either in the opposition, or in the ruling coalition.
Ethnic Albanians in Macedonia also hold high-ranking executive positions in public enterprises, the army, the police, as well as local government etc. The Macedonian Army (the Deputy Minister of Defense and 2 of a total of 10 general officers are ethnic Albanians) and Police (the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Rifat Elmazi, is after all, an ethnic Albanian) have ethnic Albanian generals and other high-ranking officers. The 2000 US Department of State Human Rights Report on Macedonia states that in order "to raise the percentage of ethnic minority police officers, the Government for several years has set a recruiting quota of 22 percent for enrolling minority students at the police secondary school. Attrition has kept the graduating classes from retaining that percentage of ethnic minorities." The speaker of the Parliament at the time when Macedonia was becoming an independent state was Vulnet Starova, an ethnic Albanian from Macedonia. Currently, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament is Iliyaz Halimi from the Democratic Party of the Albanians. The Vice Prime Minister is Bedredin Ibraimi, again, an ethnic Albanian. In those municipalities where Albanians are more than 20% of the population, the Albanian language is an official language of communication. Macedonia's ambassadors to Switzerland (Alaydin Demiri), Denmark (Sami Ibraimi) and Croatia (Servet Avziu) are also ethnic Albanians.
This represents only a small part of the wide range of human and minority rights enjoyed by the Albanians in Macedonia. Rights enjoyed by Albanians in Macedonia surpass those prescribed in major European and UN human rights conventions. When war was raging in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo due to human rights violations, respect for minority rights in Macedonia set an example for the whole Balkan region. In what appears to be an effort to draw parallels with the situation of Albanians in Kosovo before NATO's intervention, the journalists have not bothered mentioning even once the rights enjoyed by the Albanians in Macedonia. Finally, the Republic of Macedonia welcomed over half a million ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo into Macedonia during the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia (for more info go to www.refugees.org.mk)? Macedonia's stability in 1999 was sacrificed in the name of humanity and the readiness to accept over half a million Albanian Kosovar refugees, a quarter of the country's population.
This is not to say that Macedonia's record on human rights is perfect. Unfortunately, few, if any, countries can claim this. Human rights have been threatened even in the most democratic countries. But we find those incidents to be the exception, not the rule on how countries like the Republic of Macedonia treat their ethnic minorities. Consequently, based on its overall human rights record, not just the few regretable exceptions, the Republic of Macedonia is at the forefront of countries with high respect for human rights.
