Ulrich Buechsenschuetz

June 14, 2005

Macedonia: A Political Pact To Regulate Demography?

14 June 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The age-old issue of the relationship between politics and birthrates has reemerged in Macedonia. During a conference on recent demographic developments at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) in Skopje on 3 June, Ilija Aceski -- who is a professor for social sciences at Skopje university -- triggered a controversy over whether demographic trends can be regulated through political agreements.

June 07, 2005

Macedonia: Did Nationalist Leaders Plan To Divide Country Along Ethnic Lines?

Ever since fighting broke out between the ethnic Albanian insurgents of the National Liberation Army (UCK) and the Macedonian security forces in early 2001, there have been persistent but unconfirmed reports that some politicians in Macedonia had a hidden agenda to partition the country along ethnic lines in order to consolidate their own power.

May 04, 2005

Macedonia: Verdicts In Migrant Killings Polarize Country

A Macedonian court recently acquitted three former senior police officials over the slaying of six Pakistani migrants. The killings were part of an apparent attempt to convince the public that the police had intercepted dangerous terrorists.

May 02, 2005

Macedonia: The Troubled State Of Macedonia's Albanian-Language Press

The Albanian-language media in Macedonia suffered a serious setback when two newspapers -- the weekly "Lobi" and the daily "Koha ditore" -- recently announced that they must suspend publication, at least temporarily. As a result, only one Albanian-language daily, "Fakti," remains.

April 28, 2005

Macedonia: Albanian Opposition Party Fights For Survival

28 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Menduh Thaci, who is the deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH), announced recently that his party was pulling out of parliament once and for all.

April 27, 2005

Kosovar Government Rules Out Direct Talks With Belgrade

27 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- A spokesman for the Kosovar government said in Prishtina on 26 April that there will be no direct talks with Belgrade on the future status of Kosova because direct talks on technical issues have not yielded results, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported.

April 19, 2005

Macedonia: Opposition Leader Begins Cleaning House

VMRO-DPMNE Chairman Nikola Gruevski Macedonia's main conservative opposition party was bolstered by its strong showing in the recent local elections. It will need to restore some order in its own ranks, however, if it hopes to regain power in a general election.

April 13, 2005

Macedonia: New Developments In Name Row With Greece

Since late March, a growing number of reports in the Macedonian press suggest that movement may be in the offing in the long-standing dispute between Skopje and Athens over the name of Macedonia. Under Greek pressure, the United Nations and other international institutions recognized Macedonia in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) rather than under its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia.

February 13, 2005

Analysis: Major Effort To End Romany Exclusion Launched In Sofia

Romany women learning to read in Romania The leaders of eight East-Central and Southeastern European countries -- Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovakia -- met in Sofia on 2 February to officially launch an ambitious program aimed at overcoming the social exclusion of ethnic Roma.

January 17, 2005

Analysis: Does Macedonia Need A New Amnesty?

A debate is under way in Macedonia about a new amnesty for crimes linked to the 2001 interethnic conflict between the Macedonian authorities and ethnic Albanian insurgents of the National Liberation Army (UCK). Most legal experts and commentators doubt, however, that an additional amnesty would make any sense.

November 16, 2004

Analysis: Premier's Resignation Highlights Problems In Macedonia

After a weekend filled with rumors that he might step down, Macedonian Prime Minister Hari Kostov announced his resignation on 15 November. Kostov, who does not belong to any of the governing parties, led the government for little more than five months. He replaced Branko Crvenkovski, who exchanged the prime minister's job for the presidency following the death in a plane crash in February of President Boris Trajkovski.

November 10, 2004

Analysis: The Fallout Of Macedonia's Failed Referendum

In the late evening hours of 7 November, Macedonian State Election Commission (DIK) spokesman Zoran Tanevski announced the preliminary results of that day's referendum to scrap the government's redistricting plans. Tanevski said that, based on 95 percent of the results, voter turnout was just over 26 percent, thus failing to meet the requirement that more than 50 percent of registered voters participate for the referendum to be valid.

November 04, 2004

Analysis: Balkan Politicians Speak About Potential Impact Of New U.S. Administration

Politicians from throughout the Balkans congratulated George W. Bush on his reelection as U.S. president, while others commented prior to Bush's victory declaration on their expectations from a new U.S. administration.

September 27, 2004

Analysis: Foreign Politicians Look At Macedonia

More than a dozen members of the recently formed International Commission on the Balkans arrived in Skopje on 21 September for high-level talks on the country's ambitions to join NATO and the EU. Some of them gave their impressions to the local media.

September 23, 2004

Analysis: Macedonian Opposition In A Quandary

A group of just over 20 opposition lawmakers of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO-DPMNE), the Liberal Party, and the Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH) moved a vote of no confidence on 15 September. Gjorgji Trendafilov of the VMRO-DPMNE said a no-confidence motion is the only way to raise some questions regarding the governing Social Democratic Union's (SDSM) poor record.

September 07, 2004

Analysis: Macedonia Faces Political Paralysis

World Macedonian Congress (SMK) Chairman Todor Petrov on 1 September presented a petition to the Macedonian parliament calling for a referendum on the government's plans to cut the number of administrative districts. With the support of the major ethnic Macedonian opposition parties, the SMK had managed to gather more than 180,000 signatures for the petition.

September 01, 2004

Analysis: Macedonian Leaders Talk To The Media

In the midst of a tense political situation, three of Macedonia's most influential politicians recently decided to grant interviews to the media. While President Branko Crvenkovski talked to RFE/RL's Macedonian broadcasters on 29 August, Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski answered questions from the daily "Dnevnik" of 28 August. That same day, "Utrinski vesnik" published an interview with Ali Ahmeti, who chairs the governing ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI).

August 25, 2004

Analysis: Macedonian Referendum Drive Succeeds, But What Next?

It became clear on 19 August that more than 150,000 Macedonians had signed a petition calling for a referendum against the government's controversial plan to cut the number of administrative districts. The organizers of that referendum drive -- the nationalist NGO World Macedonian Congress (SMK) and the major ethnic Macedonian opposition parties -- thus succeeded in collecting enough signatures to force the parliament to call a referendum.

August 17, 2004

Analysis: Macedonia Three Years After The Peace Deal

On 13 August 2001, the leaders of what were then Macedonia's four governing parties -- Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO-DPMNE), Branko Crvenkovski of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM), Arben Xhaferi of the Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH), and Imer Imeri of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (PPD) -- signed what was called the Framework Agreement. It is widely known as the Ohrid peace accord, named after the lakeside town in western Macedonia where it was hammered out with the help of the United States and the EU. The pact ended months of fighting between the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (UCK) and the government's security forces (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 17 and 21 August 2001).

August 11, 2004

Analysis: Referendum Threat In Macedonia?

While the Macedonian parliament is still debating the government's controversial plans to decentralize the state administration and to cut the number of administrative districts, public opposition to these plans of the Social-Democrat-led government is rising (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 and 26 July, and 6 August 2004, and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 2, 23, and 30 July 2004).