Word: albanian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Western diplomats may have brought Macedonia's flat-lining cease-fire back from the dead for the umpteenth time, but few are optimistic about the prospects for saving the patient. Ethnic-Albanian guerrillas began withdrawing Thursday from territory they seized in and around the second city of Tetovo, and plans were underway to bus back some of the Macedonian civilians forced by the rebels to flee their homes. And while that may have averted the immediate threat of an inevitably bloody offensive by the Macedonian security forces to drive out the insurgents, the latest cease-fire may be little more...
...bitterness engendered by the conflict militates against the government backing down from its rejection of Western-authored constitutional changes designed to improve the position of ethnic-Albanians in Macedonia - specifically, the proposal that Albanian be recognized as a second official language in public life. Macedonia's Slavic majority sees that proposal as a reflection of an agenda to ultimately split Macedonia, which they believe is the ultimate objective of the rebel National Liberation Army. And the trashing of Western embassies and a McDonalds outlet in Skopje earlier this week was a stark reminder that ordinary Macedonians no longer trust Western...
...during the Kosovo conflict, and had looked likely to be the first of the former Yugoslavian territories to make it into the European Union. When President Boris Trajkovski visited the White House in March this year, he and President Bush prayed together. And NATO's initial response to the Albanian insurgency was to dismiss the NLA as "murderers in the hills" (to quote the organization's secretary general, Lord Robertson) and vow to support the government while pressing it to make urgent reforms to improve the lot of the country's ethnic-Albanian minority...
...persistence of the insurgency, coupled with the inability of Macedonia's politicians to agree on constitutional reforms and the Western alliance's own reluctance to stand up to armed Albanian extremism saw NATO shift its position. Western mediators have spent the past two months brokering cease-fire agreements that effectively legitimize the guerrillas, which will ultimately give the "murderers in the hills" a role in shaping Macedonia's future. The Macedonian government accuses the West of siding with the guerrillas; Western mediators protest they're maintaining neutrality - but it's precisely that new-found neutrality that has left the Macedonian...
...NATO's cease-fire efforts may prove to be a moot point. Right now, the rebels are advancing on a number of fronts, looking to cement territorial gains. Government forces are launching fierce artillery assaults in their general direction, inevitably inflicting civilian casualties that will radicalize the wider ethnic-Albanian population. And back in Skopje, President Trajkovski faces mounting pressure from Macedonian nationalists baying for a military solution. The odds against the center holding are growing longer...