Subject: EP/Macedonia: Proposal of resolution
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PROPOSAL OF RESOLUTION filed accordingly to art.47 of the regulations by
the Hon. Marco PANNELLA and the Hon. Gianfranco DELL'ALBA, over the penal
conviction of some ethnic Albanians teachers, related to the events of the
University of Tetovo.
A. whereas the national structure of the Republic of Macedonia, according
to the State's official statistics, is made up by 65% of Macedonian
population and 22% of Albanian population, while the percentage of ethnic
Albanians graduated or university students is meaningfully lower;
B. whereas after the splitting of Socialist Federative Republic of
Yugoslavia, Albanians from Macedonia objectivly cannot pursue the
university studies in their mother-tongue attending at the University of
Kosovo - the bordering region subject to a state of police by the current
Serb-Montenegrin federation -, and to that reason must be ascribed the
above mentioned fall in the number of students;
C. whereas the Albanian population of the Republic of Macedonia, in the
lack of perspectives into the sphere of education, started on June 1994 an
initiative for the institution of an Albanian-language University in
Tetovo, the largest among the Albanian-inhabited main cities of Macedonia,
rendering a formal request to the government of the Republic of Macedonia
on October 1994;
D. whereas the government of the Republic of Macedonia, on December 12,
1994, through a special resolution declared illegitimate and
anticonstitutional that request, and then pursued penal and police actions
against both peaceful demonstrations of citizens and the promoters of the
demonstrations themselves;
E. whereas five ethnic-Albanian Macedonian citizens, among them the rector
of the University Fadil Sulejmani, teachers Milaim Fejzi and Muslli Halimi,
political representatives Arben Rusi and Nevzat Halili, have been arrested
and convicted for the crimes of "incitement to disobedience",
"participation to a mass demonstration preventing a public official in
exercising his duties" and "obstruction to a public official", with
condemns up to two years and half of jail;
F. whereas the penal trial in the Republic of Macedonia is still run as it
was in former Yugoslavia, in a harsh contrast with the priciples and the
spirit of its new republican Constitution - which ratifies the rights and
freedoms of the person and the citizen, as well as the freedom of
expression and public demonstration;
G. whereas already eight Albanian deputies of the Assembly of the Republic
of Macedonia suspended their participation to the works of the Parliament
as a sign of protest, and among the Albanian population of the Republic of
Macedonia is growing the tension and the refusal of a social and public
system felt as discriminative;
H. whereas the Albanian question in Macedonia is framed in the wider
context of the ex-Yugoslavia's crisis, being a direct consequence of it,
and the keeping of social peace in Macedonia is an essential condition in
order to avoid a further increase of tensions and conflicts in an area
already harshly troubled,
The European Parliament:
1. calls upon the EU's authorities to undertake any step in its powers at
the authorities of the Republic of Macedonia in order to urge:
- the holding as soon as possible of the appeal trial to the defendants;
- the release of the defendants until that appeal trial;
- a careful consideration of the constitutional rights of the defendants;
- a revision of the policy the Macedonian government has pursued till now
towards the question of university education in Albanian langauge, in
compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia itself as
well as the international conventions upon minorities' rights;
2. calls upon the Council and the Commission to urge the authorities of the
Republic of Macedonia to undetake concrete measures in order to foster the
ethnic appeasement in the Republic of Macedonia.
3. calls upon its President to convey this resolution to the Commission,
the Council and the governments of the member states.
