The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Macedonian Pensions for Former Insurgents
Skopje | 27 October 2009 | Sinisa-Jakov Marusic
PM and VMRO head Nikola Gruevski (left) and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti (Right)
Work groups from the two main government coalition partners, the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE and ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI are already working on this, the minister, Xhelal Bajrami, told A1 TV.
“We [are] working on the subject and I hope we will reach a solution by year's end” Bajrami said.
A1 TV speculates that the government will not look to pass with a new law but will instead incorporate some 200 families of killed or injured insurgents into an existing law on the provision of aid to victims of the 2001 conflict.
That year, Macedonia suffered a short-lived insurgency, instigated by the militants' National Liberation Army, NLA.
Under the peace accord, agreed the same year, the Macedonian state committed to improving the status of the ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up around one quarter of the national population.
In return, the NLA disbanded, with its leaders going on to form the DUI.
The DUI promised in its election platform that it would provide state pensions to the families of former NLA militants killed or wounded in the conflict. They said that this is a must for the rehabilitation of former insurgents.
The issue has proved controversial, with some ethnic Macedonian parties opposed to the extension of stipends to the former militants, who they say acted against the state and are, thus, not eligible for state aid.
