Secessionist Threat In Macedonia: New War In Balkans?

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Macedonia-Mysterious-army-threatens-liberation-of-Albanian-lands_313214443368.html

ADN Kronos
April 17, 2012

Macedonia: Mysterious 'army' threatens 'liberation of Albanian lands'

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Ethnic Albanians rebelled in 2001...gaining concessions from the government under international [NATO, U.S., EU] mediation. But tensions have been running high ever since.

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Skopje: Tensions were high in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Tuesday, less than a week after the murder of five Macedonians near the capital of Skopje, as a mysterious "army" threatened a "liberation of occupied Albanian lands"

The until recently unknown "The Army for Liberation of Occupied Albanian Lands", in a statement published by the Macedonian media, gave the government an ultimatum to withdraw in two weeks from what it called "occupied Albanians lands" or face reprisals.

The "army' said it has decided at a meeting of its "general staff" it would attack "Slavo-Macedonian police and military structures" if they don't withdraw from the territory inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

Ethnic Albanians, who make about 25 percent of Macedonia's two million population, are concentrated mostly in the west of the country bordering Albania, but there are numerous cities, like Skopje, with a mixed population.

Five Macedonian youths and a middle aged man were killed last week near a lake north of Skopje while fishing and local media speculated the murders were ethnically motivated.

The police still haven't discovered the perpetrators and about one thousand Macedonians protested in Skopje Monday evening, smashing windows at a government building and clashing with police.

Six people, including three policemen, were injured in the clashes and fourteen protesters were arrested as police blocked demonstrators from marching onto Albanian section of the city.

Ethnic Albanians rebelled in 2001...gaining concessions from the government under international [NATO, U.S., EU] mediation. But tensions have been running high ever since.

Macedonians are Slavs and the mysterious army has accused prime minister Nikola Gruevski of "daily violations of the rights of Albanians", of "spreading anti-Albanian ideology, staging attacks on innocent Albanians and of blocking Albanian villages".

"We have been silent long enough, the silence is now over," the statement said. It vowed to "revenge brothers" and to "respond on fire with fire, an eye for an eye and an arm for an arm".