SKOPJE, (Islamweb & Agencies) -The question of whether Albanian should become an official language in Macedonia is at the centre of ongoing peace talks here and could make or break moves to prevent the Balkan country sliding into civil war.
In another development, the United States on Monday accused ethnic Albanian rebels of breaking a truce in Macedonia.
LANGUAGE ISSUE:
The Macedonian authorities oppose demands to make Albanian an official language, fearing recognition of the language would create a de facto Albanian state in the north of the former Yugoslav republic, where most of the ethnic Albanian minority population lives.
Ethnic Albanians, who represent at least one third of the country's population, say it should be.
On Monday, on the third day of internationally-brokered peace talks in southwestern Macedonia, the language issue was the crunch one.
A Macedonian source said the problem was that, while the ethnic Albanians seemed ready to accept the Western proposal that the use of Albanian would be restricted to areas where their community was at least 20 percent, they insisted it also become the second official language of parliament and government.
Ethnic Albanian fighters in the self-styled National Liberation Army, engaged in a fragile ceasefire with the Macedonian forces since last week, say they are prepared to pick up arms again if key demands on ethnic Albanian rights are not met.
Agencies reports reveal that people in Macedonia are divided on the issue.
A TOUGH STATEMENT FROM WASHINGTON:
In the resort city of Ohrid where the talks are being held, US State Department spokesman Charles Hunter told a daily briefing that Washington strongly condemns a pattern of deliberate cease-fire violations by ethnic Albanian armed groups in Macedonia.
The unusually tough statement from Washington came as Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of the armed Albanian Liberation Army told reporters that a Western- brokered draft agreement to try to end the crisis by granting ethnic Albanians more rights did not go far enough.
A further complication came when prosecutors called on local courts to issue arrest warrants against Ahmeti and a handful of other guerrilla leaders.
BOUTS OF FIGHTING:
The talks, begun in May, have frequently been interrupted by bouts of fighting between security troops and the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), who now hold swathes of northern and western Macedonia along the border with ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo. (Read photo caption below).
There are widespread fears that if negotiations fail, Macedonia -- the only republic to break away from the old Yugoslavia in 1991 without a shot being fired -- will collapse into civil war and end up divided on ethnic lines like Bosnia.
Negotiations were expected to continue on Tuesday but diplomats said it was urgent to get a deal.
A Macedonian policeman (C) walks between two lines of cars containing Albanian refugees returning to their homes (L) and Slavs, (R) leaving their houses in the village of Arachinovo, east of Skopje, on July 30, 2001. Participants in peace talks reported signs of progress as Macedonian and ethnic Albanian politicians went into a third day of Western-mediated talks to end an Albanian guerrilla revolt. (Oleg Popov/Reuters)