Eurasia Press & News
The provisions from the Ohrid Peace Accord are partial and need to be widened to provide greater rights to the ethnic Albanians, says Rufi Osmani, a controversial local ethnic Albanian leader.
In an interview for the local Dnevnik daily this charismatic figure, who was re-elected as mayor of the western town of Gostivar in the March polls as independent candidate, argues that the country’s constitution must be redefined once again to include both Macedonians and Albanians as constitutional entities, stating the example of Switzerland.
“The Ohrid agreement provides partial rights, on partial levels and in limited situations (for the ethnic Albanians). We are talking about a generalization of these rights and obligations. This functions today in Switzerland, Belgium and has functioned in the former Yugoslavia” he said.
In 1997, Osmani and the then mayor of the nearby town of Debar, Alajdin Demiri, ignored an order of Macedonia’s constitutional court issued to remove the Albanian flag that they had placed on local municipality buildings. Police intervened, and the ethnic Albanians that had gathered to protect the flags were beaten. Osmani got a 12-year jail sentence but served only 20 months before being amnestied in 1999.
This unrest was a prelude to the 2001 ethnic Albanians rebellion against Macedonian government forces, a conflict that ended the same year with the signing of the Ohrid Peace Accord giving the 25-percent Albanian minority greater rights, among other things, for using their language and flag in areas where they accounted for the majority.
After leaving prison, Osmani denounced politics and continued his career as university professor, but his standing in the Albanian community remained elevated.
Osmani states that the right time to enforce such constitutional amendments would be when the country joins NATO and the EU. This would ease tensions and would reassure the majority of Macedonians that no one is trying to take away their country, he says.
Osmani announced his soon-to-be-formed new party that he says would be situated in the political centre. He says that the current leading ethnic Albanian parties in the country, the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA and the ruling Democratic Union for Integration in the current election have started to show signs of serious decline in popularity.
