Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa expressed concern over, as he said, attempts to manipulate the public by allegations that he had prior information from the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA) about events in Kumanovo, FYROM.
The paper’s columnist Enver Robelli writes that almost for 25 years as an independent country, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has held more or less a racist attitude towards the Albanians.“Today in Skopje rules a Prime Minister suspected of various crimes against Albanians. For Albanians it is terrible that their political leaders have turned into Gruevski’s servants for years,” Robelli writes.
Tens of thousands of Macedonians have staged a rally in support of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, a day after similar numbers had demonstrated against his government.
Monday's rally was being held outside parliament in the capital, Skopje.
Mr Gruevski, who was at the rally to address the crowd, faces wire-tapping and corruption allegations but denies wrongdoing and has refused to resign.
An anti-Gruevski protest camp has been set up outside government offices.
Power struggle in Macedonia
Tens of thousands of Macedonians have turned out to support Nikola Gruevski's government in a counter-protest after opposition supporters marched through the capital Skopje a day earlier to demand the prime minister's resignation.
The opposition accuses Gruevski of corruption, tapping the phones of thousands of people and of fomenting ethnic tensions to hang on to power.
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli said Kosovo authorities are waiting for an official reply from the government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) regarding the situation of the men arrested during the armed incident in Kumanovo last week. Veseli said the Assembly has authorized the Kosovo-based Council for Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) to monitor the situation of the persons detained by FYROM authorities.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Skender Hyseni, denied having had information on the situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) provided to him by the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA). He said his ministry did not receive any report from KIA about what happened in Kumanovo, FYROM. Hyseni said that what happened in FYROM is an exclusive responsibility of the Skopje authorities and added that they still don’t know exact number of people from Kosovo killed during the operation.
President of the Coordinating Body for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, Zoran Stankovic says it is "not possible" for the conflict in Macedonia "to spill over."
"The services in charge are doing their job, carrying out assessments of the situation on a daily basis, not only in Macedonia, but also in other surrounding countries," Stankovic stressed.
"All activities are being undertaken, such as raising the combat alertness and dispatching a smaller number of people to those territories," he was quoted as saying.
The atmosphere was festive, but the undertones gravely serious as thousands of protesters gathered in Macedonia's capital demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
The protesters -- who paraded through Skopje waving Macedonia's vibrant red and yellow flag -- seek Gruevski's ouster over a wiretapping scandal that the opposition claims takes government abuse to new levels.
The paper’s Brussels-based correspondent, Augustin Palokaj, writes in an opinion piece that the Albanian politicians in Tirana, Pristina, Skopje or somewhere else are behaving more like analysts than like leaders. Palokaj writes that when serious problems and crises occur, when people want to hear their stances as leaders, they either remain silent, or expect international reactions to decide what line to follow. “The situation in the Balkans is still fragile and quite serious.
The paper’s front page editorial writes that when corrupt governments want by any means to stay in power, the only way to make them leave is through massive protests. The citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) have understood that, and gathered on Sunday in Skopje to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his associates.