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Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 11 April 2001 Summary of report from London
European Union ministers refused Macedonia's request to recognize it immediately as a candidate for the European Community, insisting that it must first offer concessions to its ethnic Albanian minority. This follows two weeks of violent clashes between Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces at the end of last month. An EU official said that Macedonia "was not yet out of the woods. We have much work to do." Europe sees the agreement as a political carrot, and hopes that it will stimulate talks designed to address ethnic Albanian grievances.
Note:
The EU - and particularly France and Germany - have not learnt the lessons of Bosnia and Kosovo. Their policy continues to favor Moslem territorial expansion and influence in the Balkans at the expense of Christian Slavs. Neither the Bosnian Moslems nor the Albanians are friendly to the West. The same applies to their supporters - Iran and the Arab states. In Bosnia, the Catholic Croats are trying to break away from the federation with the Moslems the West imposed upon them and an eventual rapprochement between Belgrade and Zagreb is not unlikely. Macedonia too may move closer to Serbia - especially if Western encouragement of Albanian separatism there continues. The Bush administration has not intervened, but may eventually be called upon to pay the costs of the resulting instability in the Balkans.
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