This political leader from Macedonia, a signatory of the Ohrid agreement, who is now beginning to get involved in internal organization of the province of Kosovo, is drawing wrong analogies. Essentially, Kosovo is not Macedonia! While Kosovo is a protectorate under international administration in which the quality of inter-ethnic relations is miles away from that in Macedonia, even though they were disturbed after the last year's conflict. More than 200,000 refugees still cannot return to their homes in Kosovo, despite the presence of the NATO armada that is supposed to take care of security.
On the other hand, Xhaferi seems to forget that when warning about dangers for Macedonia stemming from "regionalization of Kosovo", he is at the same time saying that relations in Macedonia haven't been resolved. In other words, he says that Albanians in Macedonia may demand the same model as that given to Serbs in Kosovo. All that in the situation where the Ohrid Agreement has been signed, when we are supposed to be intensively working on its implementation and as good as possible integration of the Albanian and other ethnic communities in Macedonia. True, similar messages were already coming from DPSh during the election campaign, when representatives of this political party stated repeatedly during election rallies that "the Ohrid Agreement is not the end of Albanian demands".
The new government coalition will have to answer whether the Ohrid Agreement is really too tight for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, or whether this is another case of insatiable political appetite.
"After the electoral defeat in the Republic of Macedonia, the leader of the DPSh, Arben Xhaferi, is trying to boost his political credibility abroad. It is impermissible to draw analogies between Macedonia and Kosovo, as Macedonia is a state, while Kosovo isn't. Politicians from Macedonia should concern themselves with the development of Macedonia and make their decisions independently, instead of waiting for instructions from abroad," Makraduli stated.
The DPSh warned day before yesterday that proposed changes of local government in Kosovo may destabilize Macedonia. This party believes that the principle of territorial resolution of issues may cause problems. Civilian administrator of Kosovo Michael Steiner proposed a plan for the decentralization of Kosovo with increased rights for minorities. According to the plan, minorities would have a separate budget and administration in municipalities in which they are a majority.
"If the Serb question is opened in Kosovo before resolving the final status of Kosovo, would that not give grounds to contest the status of the Republic of Macedonia from the point of view of territorialization [sic] of the Albanian question. The plan for decentralization [of Kosovo] will have regional repercussions and will destabilize Macedonia," DPSh recently stated.
Deputy president of the Democratic Union for Integration Agron Buxhaku yesterday could not comment on the DPSh statement.
"In principle, we do not comment on statements of other political parties, and we don't know details of the plan proposed by administrator Steiner. We'll comment once we learn more about the plan," he stated.(...)