SKOPJE – Violent ethnic riots have rattled Macedonia’s capital, culminating on Saturday with hundreds raging through the city center, clashing with police, overturning cars and attacking a bus station. At least 22 people were injured, 13 of them police officers.
Ethnic Macedonians kicked off the protests in Skopje on Friday, angry at the appointment two weeks ago of an ethnic Albanian defense minister, Talat Xhaferi, who was a rebel commander during the 2001 conflict that pitted the country’s two main ethnic groups against each other. Ethnic Albanians staged a counterprotest on Saturday, claiming that two Albanians were beaten and an Albanian flag burned Friday by ethnic Macedonians. Both protests turned violent, with ethnic Macedonians and Albanians taking turns to scuffle with police. Most of the protesters were people in their teens and early 20s, and police said they were promoted by organized groups of soccer fans.
Xhaferi was a prominent rebel commander in the 2001 conflict, which simmered for nine months without breaking into full-scale war. It claimed the lives of some 200 people. Since then, tensions between the majority ethnic Macedonians and Albanians, who make up a quarter of Macedonia’s population, have mostly abated.