Solana: new Macedonia peace bid

Date: 07/06/01

By David Cronin

FOREIGN policy supremo Javier Solana will fly to Macedonia's capital Skopje tomorrow (8 June) as part of a renewed EU effort to prevent ethnic tensions from leading to further bloodshed in the former Yugoslav republic.

His visit comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgiewski's call for a formal declaration of war against Albanian rebels, after they killed five government soldiers on Tuesday.

Solana warned the government to act with restraint and avoid playing into the hands of extremists. His spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said he may invite President Boris Trajkovski to next week's Göteborg summit.

Meanwhile, the EU will urge Skopje's government to do everything it can to meet its deadline of introducing new measures to improve the situation of the country's Albanian minority, which comprises at least 23% of its two million inhabitants, by the end of this month.

The package on which he is working will include introducing Albanian-language broadcasting, new quotas for employing ethnic communities in public services and a university for Albanians. "His main objective will be ensuring that the inter-ethnic dialogue which Macedonia's grand coalition government is involved in produces tangible results," added Gallach.

Last week Solana reacted angrily to a study prepared by eminent Macedonian academics, recommending that the state be carved up between different population groups. "The history of the Balkan region has made abundantly clear that changing frontiers on ethnic lines is not the way to stability and cannot be accomplished peacefully," he claimed.

Foreign policy supremo Javier Solana will fly to Macedonia on 8.6.01 as part of a renewed EU effort to prevent ethnic tensions from leading to further bloodshed in the former Yugoslav republic.