Macedonia Albanians Stage Anti-Gruevski Protest

The focus of the protest will be the controversial case, called Monster by the authorities, in which six ethnic Albanians were jailed for life for killing five fishermen. Besa [Oath] insists that the trial was a politically motivated set-up by Gruevski.

Besa accuses Gruevski of authoritarian rule and imposing a policy of discrimination against the country's ethnic Albanians who make up one quarter of the Macedonian population of 2.1 million.

"We demand the resignation of the government of Nikola Gruevski and [junior ruling DUI head] Ali Ahmeti, due to politicization of the country, misuse of institutions, failure of the integration process and anti-Albanian policies," Besa's chairman, Bilal Kasami, said.

He, however, also urged the opposition Social Democrat leader, Zoran Zaev, to publish all the material he has about the ethnically-charged murder case.

Zaev previously claimed that wiretapped conversations between officials cast doubt on the convictions of the six for killing five ethnic Macedonians, but added that he is still withholding publication of those tapes for fear of causing a violent reaction.

The bodies of Filip Slavkovski, Aleksandar Nakjevski, Cvetanco Acevski and Kire Trickovski, all aged between 18 and 20, were discovered on April 12, 2012 near Smilkovci Lake in the vicinity of Skopje. Their bodies had been lined up and they appear to have been executed. The body of 45-year-old Borce Stevkovski was found a short distance away.

News of the murder raised ethnic tensions and groups of ethnic Macedonians staged protests, some of which turned violent, blaming the killings on members of the large Albanian minority community.

The convictions sparked even more tensions as running battles erupted in Skopje between...