Macedonia's peace process was at a standstill today after the speaker of parliament refused to restart a debate on planned political reforms seen by the West as vital to averting all-out war.
Underscoring tensions, explosions hit three districts of the capital Skopje overnight, two of them in mainly ethnic Albanian areas, police told reporters. There were no injuries. A teahouse was firebombed in one incident. No details were given on the other two.
Nationalist parliamentary president Mr Stojan Andov said today the debate would resume only once he had cast-iron assurances that people who fled territory taken over by ethnic Albanian guerrillas would be able to return to their homes.
"I will not reconvene parliament until I get guarantees from the president that all measures have been undertaken to secure the return of all (69,000) displaced Macedonians to their homes in 15 to 20 days," he told reporters.
The rebels launched an insurgency in February this year, saying they were fighting to end state discrimination against ethnic Albanians. They have pledged to disarm and disband if the reforms which give more rights to Albanians are approved.
The guerrillas have already handed in more than 1,200 of their declared arsenal of 3,300 weapons to the special NATO force deployed in the Balkan state to collect them.
Parliament began to debate the Western-backed reforms on Friday with a warning from President Boris Trajkovski that failure to ratify them would lead to full-scale warfare.
But Mr Andov, explaining his decision to shut down the debate after Friday's session, said Macedonians trying to return to homes north of the northwestern city of Tetovo were being blocked and harassed by the rebels.
Problems would cease if the rebels withdrew from the area as required by a demilitarisation pact, he said.
Yesterday parliament showed it is ready to debate and reach a decision. But that cannot happen while there is terror against civilians because this will cause a public outcry and humiliate parliament, Mr Andov said.