Macedonian ministers, head of intelligence service resign

Macedonian ministers, head of intelligence service resign

Gruevski also submitted a proposal to parliament to elect two new members of the government - Mitko Cvakov as interior minister, and Vlada Misajlovski as minister of transport, the news agency MIA reported.

These developments came in the wake of the clash in the northern Macedonian town of Kumanovo last weekend between the police and a group of armed terrorists.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki told the Vienna daily Die Presse that the police action in Kumanovo was directed against "a terrorist group with a criminal background."

Their planned political agenda did not met with support, and the situation "cannot be compared with the Albanian insurrection of 2001," he said.

According to him, a large quantity of weapons have been seized in Kumanovo. 14 members of the group have been killed and three arrested.

Poposki pointed out that the police operation was very risky, "as evidenced by the fact that eight policemen were killed and 37 wounded."

Poposki added that so far five leaders of the group that have been identified are "known criminals," and that their previous police records concern "for example, armed robbery." Most came from Kosovo, the minister explained, and added there were also citizens of Macedonia and Albania in the group that clashed with the police.

"We can confirm that parts of the group were in the past were active in the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) in Macedonia but also in Kosovo. Clearly they tried to obtain political support for their activities, but did not get it from the local population," he noted, adding that they also failed to get support from Ali Ahmeti, who was a KLA leader in Macedonia in 2001, and now heads an Albanian party that is a member of the ruling coalition.

From the EU, Poposki expects "a restart of the accession process."

"Macedonia has been hampered for too long on the road to Euro-Atlantic integration. That allowed extremist groups to carry out their agenda and increased the discontent of the population. I expect all (EU) member states to contribute to once again bring the dynamic into the accession process of Macedonia, because the country's membership in the EU and NATO is an important pillar of regional stability," concluded Poposki.

At the same time, the opposition's anti-government protests that started earlier this month continued in Skopje.

EP official thinks PM must resign

European Parliament (EP) Vice-President Alexander Lambsdorff has called on Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to step down "and thus contribute to resolving the crisis. "

Lambsdorff said in an official statement that the breakout of violence in Macedonia was "sending very disconcerting images," Macedonian media reported.

"Gruevski must resign because he is an obstacle to easing inter-ethnic tensions that have been stirred again, and to new elections that will be held in proper democratic conditions," the German MEP said, noting that the region is "on the brink of a civil war."