Macedonia Opposition Demands Amnesty for Parliament Violence

While the government and the ruling majority has called for unity and forgiveness in Macedonia's politically-divided society, the opposition has called for an outright amnesty for the people who were involved in last year's storming of the parliament building.

Parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi will lead a new parliamentary commission tasked with finding ways to achieve national reconciliation after a long-running political crisis caused deep divisions.

The establishment of the commission was one of the conditions for some opposition MPs to vote for constitutional changes that enable the implementation of Macedonia's historic 'name' agreement with Greece.

Although the plan is to invite the heads of all parliamentary groups to take part in the commission, the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, whose MPs and sympathisers are now standing trial for the parliament rampage, have rebuffed the invitation.

VMRO DPMNE spokesperson Naum Stoilkovski said on Wednesday that his party won't participate in the commission "which would provide selective justice only for those [VMRO DPMNE MPs] who [last Friday] participated in the voting for the constitutional changes".

The opposition party immediatelly expelled the dissident MPs from its ranks.

VMRO DPMNE said that it will submit its own draft law for an amnesty of all the 33 people who are on trial for "terrorist endangerment of the constitutional order" in relation to the parliament rampage.

The establishment of the parliament reconciliation committee, which will have some 30 days to come up with an initial direction for future action, was demanded by the eight opposition MPs who last Friday rebuffed their party's instructions and provided key support for the start of...