Macedonia forms unity Government to end ethnic bloodshed

Macedonia has formed a broad Government coalition that includes representatives of the major ethnic Albanian parties, in the hope it will help the country avoid all-out war.

But as the shelling of Albanian strongholds continued, everyone in the small Balkan country was waiting to see whether the Government would succeed in bringing an end to ethnic conflict.

The rest of the world was watching too yesterday, as Macedonia’s parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a national unity Government meant to defuse a bruising conflict with ethnic Albanian insurgents.

Six Albanian and Macedonian Slavic parties agreed to join, bringing pledges of support from some Western Governments. A total of 104 deputies voted for the new government, one MP voted against it and four abstained from voting.

A key ethnic Albanian opposition party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity, asked for a pause in the session after prime minister Ljubco Georgievski called rebels fighting Government troops ‘‘terrorists’’, but ultimately joined the unity Government.

‘‘We are dealing with forces which have the clear intention to destroy the state and to introduce fear and terror,’’ Georgievski said in his opening speech.

Nato and the European Union fear the conflict in Macedonia, surrounded by countries with historical claims on its territory, could spread into a regional war that could even include Nato member Greece, with its large ethnic Albanian minority.

Nato in particular, is worried that its peacekeepers on duty in neighbouring Kosovo could be drawn into a larger conflict.

Macedonia’s leaders want more help from Western countries, which have been pushing politicians to talk about the nation’s divisive problems. But some leaders are already saying talk won’t be enough.

‘‘Such a ‘grand coalition’ will postpone difficulties and won’t bring any solutions,’’ said Jordan Boskov, a member of parliament from the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party.

The new Government is faced with resolving the disputes that have divided the country, such as demands for constitutional changes giving more rights to the Albanian minority that makes up at least a quarter of the population. But as long as soldiers are fighting rebels, it will be risky for any party to make concessions that would make it look weak.

Trying to stop the war may be the only thing the government agrees upon. In addition to ethnic differences, the coalition cobbles together leftists and centre-right conservatives with disparate economic, political and social outlooks that will make it difficult to resolve the problems underscoring the crisis.

Among those problems is a decade of corruption and mismanagement that has undermined faith in the government itself.

Meanwhile, the economy is a mess. The collapse of communism and the breakup of Yugoslavia has eliminated markets that farmers and manufacturers depended on when Macedonia was still part of Yugoslavia.

The Balkan wars on the country’s borders choked off investment, while the sale of state-owned companies made a few wealthy at the expense of thousands who were fired in the drive to move to a market economy. The official unemployment rate is 40%, though many believe it is higher.

The question now is whether the politicians are talking to the right people.

Rebels belonging to the so-called National Liberation Army reject any association with Macedonia’s existing political parties, arguing that corrupt political leaders caused their troubles in the first place.

The Government refuses to negotiate with the rebels, calling them terrorists bent on carving off a piece of the country and joining to a Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo.

Government forces, meanwhile, are attacking rebel positions along the Kosovo border with mortars, tanks and helicopter gunships. The goal is to create a buffer zone between the rebels and their ethnic kin in Kosovo.

With civilians cowering in basements, the army has so far refrained from moving into mountain villages, reluctant to cause mass civilian casualties that would tar them with the stigma Serb forces in Kosovo faced under the regime of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

If they go in too hard, the army risks further alienating Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians. If they don’t succeed in quashing the rebellion, the army could lose the confidence of the people.

‘‘This is a decision between the devil and the deep blue sea,’’ Klekovski said.

‘‘Whatever you decide, it looks like the end result will be the same and that will be that we are going to war.’’