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Activists march in Macedonia against ethnic violence

by Reuters
Saturday, 17 March 2012 16:27 GMT

* Two weeks of tit-for-tat attacks

* Macedonia narrowly avoided civil war in 2001

* At least 25 pct of population ethnic Albanians

By Kole Casule

SKOPJE, March 17 (Reuters) - Some 2,000 activists, celebrities and intellectuals marched in Macedonia on Saturday calling for an end to the worst spate of inter-ethnic mob violence since the Balkan country narrowly avoided civil war a decade ago.

The past two weeks have seen a string of tit-for-tat attacks by mobs of youths from Macedonia's Slavic-speaking majority and ethnic Albanian minority, armed with baseball bats and knives and often targeting public transport.

The impoverished former Yugoslav republic was rocked by fighting between government security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in 2001 but Western diplomacy pulled them back from the brink of civil war.

At least a quarter of Macedonia's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, living mainly in the north and west. A decade on, tensions persist, fuelled by poverty and the slow pace of integration with the West.

Overnight, a Molotov cocktail was lobbed from a car at the Macedonian embassy in majority-Albanian Kosovo, north of Macedonia, police said.

No one was hurt and there was little sign of damage to the building. The Macedonian foreign ministry issued a statement calling for the perpetrators to be found.

On Saturday, dozens of non-governmental organisations held a protest march through the Macedonian capital Skopje calling for an end to the violence.

"No walk can solve a problem. For the main problems we should talk, but whatever the disease is we should first lower the temperature before we speak about the therapy," said protest organiser Saso Macanovski-Trendo.

Banners in Macedonian and Albanian read "Together for Peace."

"Let's not wait for a war to march for peace," said actress Sabina Ajrula.

Right-wing conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who heads a coalition government with ethnic Albanian former guerrilla leader Ali Ahmeti, has warned of a robust response if the violence continues.

The European Union has expressed concern and called for calm.

NATO and the EU were instrumental in stopping the fighting in 2001, but Macedonia is lagging behind much of the western Balkans in its efforts to join both blocs.

Macedonian accession has been stalled for years by a two-decade-old dispute with neighbouring Greece over what Athens says is Skopje's appropriation of the name 'Macedonia' and its claim to the legacy of Alexander the Great. (Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; Writing by Matt Robinson in Belgrade)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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