The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Skopje Protest Break-up Condemned
Skopje | 10 April 2009 |
Macedonian Parliament
The protest by architecture students against government plans to build a church in Macedonia Square in central Skopje was violently disrupted by a religious group on March 28.
The violence goes against the “constitutional right of freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of public protest”, head of the commission Vesna Bendevska told the media. She said all parties had reached a consensus on the events.
The demonstration in the Macedonian capital was prevented from taking place by a crowd of church
supporters carrying flags and crosses, who attacked the other group while police watched on.
The violence goes against the “constitutional right of freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of public protest”, head of the commission Vesna Bendevska told the media. She said all parties had reached a consensus on the events.
The legislators also rebuffed the police report which claimed officers reacted appropriately.
The incident took on political dimensions as it came amid presidential and local elections. After PM Nikola Gruevski, of the conservative VMRO DPMNE party, failed to condemn the attackers, the opposition accused his party of orchestrating the counter protests.
Various human rights NGOs, and western ambassadors to the country, also condemned the attack, criticising the police and the state authorities.
The organisers of the peaceful protest said they did not object to a new church, but opposed the design, which is out of character with the surroundings, and the blocking of an important pedestrian passage.
This Saturday, a group of 30 NGOs are setting up a protest dubbed “Freedom Square” at the same spot, in defence of the right to free speech. The organisers stress this meeting is not about the controversial church.
(Reporting by Sinisa-Jakov Marusic)
