www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/western-macedonian-town-tense-after-electionsnews27 Mar 13 Several thousand Macedonians took to the streets
and jeered the country’s PM after the ethnically-mixed town of Kicevo
got its first Albanian mayor in Sunday’s municipal vote.
Sinisa Jakov Marusic
BIRN
Skopje |
Macedonians gathered in front of the HQ of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party
|
A group of protesters booed Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski after he
arrived in Kicevo on Tuesday, shouting “traitor” and accusing him of
giving up Kicevo to the ethnic Albanian community.
Another group rallied in defence of the Macedonian premier, and a brief scuffle broke out between the opposing demonstrators.
Gruevski insisted he was there “to ease tensions” and to reassure people that “Kicevo remains a Macedonian town”.
The government press service denied reports in some media that
Gruevski was stuck in the town’s ruling party HQ and unable to leave
because of angry protesters gathered outside.
Some protesters claimed that they had been provoked by an incident
the day before, when media reports suggested that an unidentified group
of people tried to take down the Macedonian flag from a central flagpole
in the municipality.
“We are utterly disappointed. Kicevo is now in the hands of extremists,” an unnamed protester told local media.
Police confirmed that the flag was briefly on the ground but said
that it was because of high winds and not because someone had made a
deliberate attempt to remove it.
The crowd dispersed on Tuesday evening after Gruevski left.
Fatmir Dehari from the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for
Integration, DUI, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, became
mayor in the first round of the local elections on Sunday amid strong
ethnic mobilisation in the town during the pre-poll campaign.
He was able to win thanks to the attachment of surrounding rural
areas to the town which made Kicevo a predominantly Albanian
municipality. The change was agreed in 2004 but took effect at these
elections.
Voters from the Albanian diaspora also poured into the town from abroad to help elect its first Albanian mayor.
Kicevo’s new mayor Dehari was once a member of the now-disbanded
Albanian guerrilla force that fought against Macedonian security troops
in 2001.
The brief but intense armed conflict ended with the signing of a
peace deal that guaranteed greater rights to the Albanians who make up a
quarter of the country’s 2.1 million population.
One of the most surprising twists at the elections was the decision
of Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, normally
at loggerheads, to field joint candidates for mayors in Kicevo and
another western town, Struga.
The move, intended to boost the chances of ethnic Macedonians
becoming mayors, triggered a similar counter-move by the Albanian camp.
While the Albanian camp won in Kicevo in the first round, the joint
Macedonian candidate has a lead in Struga ahead of the second round of
voting which is due to take place on April 7.
and I quote one comment made from that article ......and what I have in bold is what I have been saying for a long time as well