Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

In February 2001 a group of ethnic Albanian insurgents operating from Kosovo attacked FYROM police and army units near Tetovo, in the northeast. Many observers feared that the attacks might spark a new interethnic war in the Balkans. The Albanian group, which called itself the National Liberation Army (NLA), was soon bombarding Tetovo with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. In late March, President Trajkovksy, with the political backing of NATO and the European Union (EU), ordered an attack on NLA strongholds along the Kosovo border. As the FYROM forces pushed the NLA back into Kosovo, NATO troops occupying Kosovo attempted to seal the border to prevent infiltration and arms smuggling by the NLA. The NLA resisted efforts to rout them from FYROM territory, and the fighting continued.

In the spring and summer of 2001 representatives of NATO and the EU made several attempts to stem the escalating violence. By late summer the NLA controlled a large swath of territory in the northern and western FYROM. In August the rebels disbanded after political leaders representing Macedonian Slavs and ethnic Albanians signed a Western-backed peace agreement that granted ethnic Albanians greater political and cultural rights. The agreement, signed at the lakeside resort of Ohrid, authorized the deployment of a NATO task force in the FYROM to collect weapons surrendered by the Albanian insurgents. Following a general amnesty granted in early 2002, some of the former NLA rebels moved into mainstream politics by forming a new ethnic Albanian political party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

In the September 2002 parliamentary elections, voters swept aside the ruling IMRO-DPMNU-led coalition in a contest seen as a crucial test of the Western-backed peace agreement. The IMRO-DPMNU took just 30 seats in the 120-seat Sobranje after running a campaign of nationalist rhetoric directed against ethnic Albanians. The election was carried convincingly by the center-left Together for Macedonia coalition, a group of parties led by the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDAM). The coalition, which drew its support largely from members of the Macedonian Slav majority, claimed 59 seats in the Sobranje. Among the ethnic Albanian community, the newly formed DUI claimed 16 seats, at the expense of the other ethnic Albanian parties. The vote, deemed fair and mostly peaceful by international observers, won praise from Western governments as a step toward peace and stability in the region.

Following the elections, the Together for Macedonia coalition invited the DUI to enter negotiations to form a new government, despite vigorous objections from the IMRO-DPMNU and the Democratic Alternative (DA) that the coalition was caving in to ethnic Albanian “terrorists.” However, both sets of victors remained deeply suspicious of each other and the negotiations proceeded slowly. By mid-October 2002 the parties had agreed on the formation of a new government, with SDAM leader Branko Crvenkovski serving as the prime minister. The DUI claimed several ministries in the cabinet of the new government, but Ali Ahmeti, former head of the disbanded NLA and leader of the DUI, remained outside the government in an effort to avoid antagonizing Macedonian Slavs.