Macedonia detains 30 'terrorists' after 22 killed during weekend of violence

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Macedonia detains 30 'terrorists' after 22 killed during weekend of violence

PUBLISHED : Monday, 11 May, 2015, 9:37am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 12 May, 2015, 1:46am

Associated Press in Kumanovo

Relatives of Zarko Kuzmanovski, a Macedonian police special forces member, mourn at his funeral in the village of Brvenica on Sunday, after he was killed in the weekend attack in Kumanova. Photo: Reuters

Macedonian authorities yesterday detained 30 "terrorists" captured in a weekend gun battle in a northern town that left 22 police and suspected ethnic Albanian militants dead, at a time of heightened political tension in the small Balkan country

The suspects face terrorism-related charges. They are accused of participating in the fighting, which killed eight police and also injured 37 people in the northern town of Kumanovo that has a mixed population of Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians.

Most of those arrested came from neighbouring ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo, where officials called for a "credible and transparent investigation into the killings".

A picture taken on Sunday shows a bullet-riddled wall in a house following a gunbattle between Macedonian police and an armed group in Kumanovo. Photo: AFP

A court in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, identified the suspects as 18 Kosovo residents, 11 Macedonians - two of whom were living in Kosovo - and one Albanian. All 30 were detained for 30 days - the maximum period allowed under Macedonian law - which can then be renewed until the suspects go to trial.

The weekend fighting is the worst since 2001, when an ethnic Albanian insurgency nearly developed into all-out civil war in the small country of 2.1 million, a quarter of whom are ethnic Albanians.

No group has claimed any connection with the incident, which Macedonian authorities have blamed on ethnic Albanian paramilitary groups that fought Serbian and Macedonian forces in the area in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa jointly condemned the involvement of their citizens in the incidents.

The two leaders branded the incident an attempt to "destabilise Kosovo and the neighbouring countries by challenging the peace and security and endangering the lives and property of the citizens".

Meanwhile, the Albanian government issued a statement calling for the protection of the ethnic Albanian population in Kumanovo.

International officials expressed concern, with a spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for a full investigation "in an objective and transparent manner".

"At this sensitive time, the secretary general calls on all actors to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from any rhetoric and/or actions that may escalate tensions further," Stephane Dujarric said.

The fighting came as Macedonia faces its deepest political crisis since independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, amid opposition claims that the conservative government tapped the phones of 20,000 people, including police, judges, religious leaders, journalists and foreign diplomats.

The government denies that, blaming the wiretaps on unspecified foreign spies. Some analysts fear leaders on both sides are ready to provoke ethnic clashes.

Kumanovo is 40 kilometres northeast of Skopje, near the borders with Kosovo and Serbia. The region was the centre of hostilities during the ethnic conflict in 2001, which ended with a Western-brokered peace deal that granted more rights to ethnic Albanians.