Macedonia's Constitutional Court President Resigns

30 10 2007 Skopje_ Mahmut Jusufi, the President of Macedonia’s Constitutional Court, tendered his resignation on Tuesday, in a statement carried by the state-owned MIA news agency.

Jusufi is resigning because he is not prepared to sign last week’s controversial court ruling that bans the display of the Albanian flag outside some public buildings.

“I am not willing to put my name and signature as president of the Constitutional Court on a decision like this”, reads the letter of resignation.

“So I am resigning from the post of President of the Constitutional Court”.

According to Jusufi, the court’s decision was politically motivated and during the voting the ethnic Macedonian majority of judges in the court outvoted the Albanian judges.

Bajram Polozani, another judge from the Constitutional Court also offered his resignation on Tuesday, calling it a “moral act”.

The Court’s decision caused outrage in the Albanian community that makes up around 25 per cent of Macedonia’s two million population because media reported it would mean that the Albanian banner could an no longer be displayed on a permanent basis alongside the Macedonian flag in front of municipal buildings in areas where ethnic Albanians form the majority.

In its official explanation, the Court explained on Tuesday that this was not entirely the case.

The Court said that it had abolished only the provisions that gave priority to the Albanian community over other ethnic groups in the country, and called on the government to decide whether the Albanian flag should be displayed or not.

It said that the minorities’ flags were banned from being displayed only when international meetings, including sporting events, were being held by the municipalities.

On Monday, Macedonian President Branko Crvenovski appealed to political parties to reach a consensus on this issue and not to harm the reputation of the Constitutional Court.

“The solution cannot be found in the discrediting of the Constitutional Court, because that would mean a negation of the rule of law and of the constitutional order of the country”, he said.

Both the ruling and the opposition Albanian parties in Macedonia have condemned the Court as anti-Albanian, and announced they will ignore its ruling.

Macedonia’s Constitutional Court consists of nine members, of whom three are chosen from the ethnic Albanian community.

The law on the use of flags - some sections of which the Court ruled unconstitutional last week - was adopted in 2005, as part of the follow-up to the Ohrid peace deal that ended a six-month armed conflict between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian security forces in 2001. (BIRN)