Observers Warn of Renewed Ethnic Crisis in Macedonia

Eight people were injured on Sunday in Skopje when rival Macedonian and Albanian protesters fought over the controversial project, which involves the construction of a museum in the style of a medieval church at the fortress in Macedonia’s capital.

Nearly all ethnic Albanian political parties and organisations have labelled the project as a provocation from the ruling party.

“All the elements for a crisis are there,” Imer Ismaili, a political science professor at the Tetovo-based University of south-east Europe argues.

“This is a reflection of government policy gone wrong,” he insisted, explaining that the marriage of interest between the conservative ethnic Macedonian VMRO DPMNE and its junior partner the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union of Albanians, DUI, failed to produce ethnic harmony.

The DUI openly opposed the construction of the building. Several ministers and mayors from the party were caught on camera during Sunday’s incident.

“The way the things are going, this reminds of a replay of 2001,” says Jove Kekenovski, a law professor at Bitola State University. He argues that the clashes seen on TV have pushed the ethnic tension betwee Macedonians and ethnic Albanians to near boiling point.

In 2001, Macedonia suffered a short lived armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the government security forces. The conflict ended the same year with the signing of a peace deal that granted greater rights to the country's ethnic Albanians, who make up one quarter of the population.

But critics say that the spirit of the agreement has been eroded in recent years, especially after the centre-right VMRO DPMNE of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski came to power in 2006 and pursued several projects which have angered some ethnic Albanians.

The government plan to build a church for the mainly orthodox Macedonians in the downtown area met with much controversy and was later sidelined, while the major revamp project for the capital, dubbed “Skopje 2014”, has also drawn the ire of some ethnic Albanian leaders and their constituents.

The DUI joined the government in 2008, arguing that it belongs in the seat of the government because it is the largest ethnic Albanian poltical party in the country.

The Cultural Heritage Protection Office, responsible for the construction of the controversial church-shaped museum at the centre of the current dispute, did not say whether it will stop the works following Sunday's incident.

The police said on Monday that officers had detained two persons in relation to Sunday’s incident and continued to look for others. During the arrest of a 16 and 18-year-old, police found a pistol and another weapon.