Macedonia's Albanians Get Private University

SKOPJE, Jul 27, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority will be able to study in their own language at a new private university under a long-awaited law approved by parliament.

But their diplomas will not be officially recognized until they have been "validated" by the state-run Macedonian university after they pass additional examination in the Macedonian language.

The law was approved late on Tuesday after several years of negotiations between the government and ethnic Albanians under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its High Commissioner for National Minorities Max van der Stoel.

Ethnic Albanians officially comprise 23 percent of the former Yugoslav republic's 2.1 million inhabitants but neither they nor the majority Macedonians were fully happy with the new law.

Institutions like the Macedonian Academy of Science argued it would lead to the country's disintegration, while ethnic Albanians pointed out that since they paid taxes the new university should be financed by the state.

They warned that ethnic Albanians would start leaving the Balkan country if they did not have their own state university.

The new university, already dubbed "Max van der Stoel's" after the OSCE commissioner, will require 50 million German marks investment over the next four years.

The European Union, the OSCE, the Soros Foundation, the United States, Canada and Scandinavian countries have all promised donations.

It will be a multi-lingual, offering teacher training and business management, public administration and European studies.

WESTERN DONATIONS PROMISED

The university will replace Tetovo university which the government refused to recognize since its establishment in 1994 by ethnic Albanian intellectuals and professors from the university in Pristina.

"This law is an important part of a strategy aimed to reform the education system. It's high time that politicizing of the education of minorities in Macedonia stopped and rigid, outdated attitude towards the problem inherited from the former regime ended," Education Minister Gale Galev told parliament.

The government does not recognize Tetovo university diplomas but ethnic Albanian students at the new university will be able to validate their diplomas at the state-run Macedonian University after exams in the Macedonian language, the law says.

The opposition ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) walked out of parliament in protest before the vote, saying Albanians paid taxes and should have their own state university.

Without their own university, ethnic Albanians would start leaving the small Balkan state, the party said.

"These solutions: one language, one state and one nation, are being passed at the time when there is a very high inter-ethnic temperature. The law treats Albanians as immigrants and they will have to leave this (country) as soon as possible," PDP deputy Sefedin Haruni said.

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