EU chief seeks to end Macedonian conflict

The EU’s security affairs chief today reaffirmed his push for a peaceful solution to end Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian insurgency, urging the rebels to let the political process run its course.

’’You have to achieve a solution to these problems not by weapons, but by negotiations, by participation in the political process. This is what Europe is all about,’’ Javier Solana said after meeting ethnic Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi.

Solana declined to comment on proposals put forth by Xhaferi, whose Democratic Albanian Party is a partner in the coalition government. Xhaferi said he proposed a dialogue aimed at changing the constitution to ensure a multi-ethnic state, proportional representation in political bodies and a new census.

Ethnic Albanians make up at least one-fourth of Macedonia’s two million people, but they have argued that their numbers are actually much higher and that only an internationally monitored count would give a true picture of the country’s ethnic mix.

It was up to Macedonia’s ruling officials to make the next move and accept that it was time to make changes in the way the country was run to reflect the growing numbers of ethnic Albanians living there, Xhaferi said.

’’We cannot change the reality. We cannot cleanse the territory. The only thing we can change is the concept of the state,’’ he said.

The guerrillas say they are fighting for greater rights and recognition for Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians, accusing the Macedonian government of discrimination. The government, however, says the rebels are separatists seeking to split away northern Macedonia to create an independent state with mostly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo.

The former Yugoslav republic was quiet today Tuesday. On Sunday, government forces punched through rebel lines and took ground held by the rebels in the hills above Tetovo, Macedonia’s second-largest city.