Muslim Albanians in Macedonia Protest Over Arrests of ‘Radical Islamists’

Skopje, Macedonia. Hundreds of Albanians in Macedonia took to the streets after Muslim prayers on Friday, accusing the government of insulting their faith by blaming “radical Islamists” for the murder of five men at a lake near Skopje.

The killings of the Macedonian men in mid-April, and the ensuing police operation, have ratcheted up ethnic tensions in the impoverished Balkan country, where at least a quarter of the 2 million people are ethnic Albanians.

On May 1, 20 people, mainly ethnic Albanians, were arrested in dawn raids by 800 police officers on homes in the capital Skopje and surrounding villages. The government described them as “followers of radical Islam.”  Five of those arrested were accused of the lakeside killings and charged with terrorism.

Albanians poured from Skopje’s Yahya Pasha mosque after prayers on Friday, handing out leaflets denouncing the government and the police investigation as “politically motivated.” They chanted “Muslims are not terrorists!” and “I’m a Muslim, not a terrorist!”

Leaflets handed out condemned the lakeside killings and said Albanians sympathized with the victims’ relatives. But they said the police operation, including the arrest of several women, was “an insult made by the Macedonian government against the Muslim Albanian people, an insult against their religious feelings.”

The protest was organized through social media, and demonstrations were expected in other towns across the country.

Most Albanians in Macedonia are Muslims who practise a moderate form of Islam. The killing of the five men, shot at close range by more than one gunman, followed a bout of communal violence between Macedonian and Albanian mobs, and raised fears of wider unrest.

The former Yugoslav republic narrowly avoided civil war in 2001 when government forces clashed with ethnic Albanian guerrillas demanding greater rights and representation for the Albanian minority.

Using the carrot of closer ties with the European Union and NATO, Western diplomacy halted the fighting and the guerrillas entered government. But integration has been slow and the two communities still live largely separate lives.   

Reuters