Freedom House Report: Macedonia is Partly Free Country
Macedonia is only partly free country, which has some upward trends with the small advancements in the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement, including the legalization of the Tetovo University and the disbanding of an extremist paramilitary group. Such is the conclusion of Freedom House's report.
According to Freedom House, the 2002 Elections did not mean a shift in ideological leanings of the population, but were rather a vote against the corruption, which became the main issue of Macedonian policies after 1991. The disbanding of the "Lions" Special Police Unit, which the report characterizes as an "ethnically pure Macedonian paramilitary group, made up mostly of criminals and ethnic extremists", was seen as a major achievement by the Report. In terms of the political and civil liberties, the Report states that no restrictions of academic freedoms were registered and noted the legalization of the Tetovo University. There was no restrictions of the right to association either, so the country has 64 registered political parties. The Report states that the greatest and most serious problems in the state are how to satisfy the demands presented by the ethnic Albanian minority for a more privileged status and the issue of decentralization. These reforms, according to Freedom House, will be hard to implement, having in mind that the "ethnic Macedonians fear that the changes may lead to secession of the Albanian populated regiona, or their integration into a greater Kosovo". This fear, states the report, was augmented by the current demographic trends in the country. "According to the last Census, the number of ethnic Albanians have risen by 64,000 over the past decade, while the Macedonian population have increased by only two thousand people," states the report. Another problem is the judiciary, which lacks the proper ethnic ballance. |
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