The Ohrid Agreement
Some constitutional reforms, as envisaged in the 2001 Framework Agreement, took place in 2001. However, no constitutional reform or electoral legislation has taken place. The framework agreement called for the voluntary dissolution of the Albanian rebel group The National Liberation Army (NLA) by 5 July 2001. This resolution did not take place on time. After meeting the goal of NATO`s arms collection in September 2001, NLA leader Ali Ahmeti told a press conference on 27 September that Albanian rebels in Macedonia had formally disbanded and had returned to their normal lives. He also invited Macedonian police to enter former NLA-controlled areas. [fn] “Rebels in Macedonia are officially withdrawing,” Agence France Presse, September 27, 2001. [/efn_note] 2.1. The parties stress the importance of the commitments made on July 5, 2001. Hostilities are completely interrupted, ethnic armed groups of Albanian unrest are completely disarmed and their total voluntary dissolution will take place.
They acknowledge that a NATO decision to assist in this regard in the establishment of a general, unconditional and open ceasefire, agreement on a political solution to that country`s problems, a clear commitment by armed groups to voluntarily disarm and the acceptance by all parties of the conditions and restrictions in which NATO forces will operate. The Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) was signed on 13 August 2001. The signing of this agreement was a response to the armed conflict in Macedonia between the Macedonian army and the police and the National Paramilitary National Liberation Army (NLA). With the ATO, some of the demands of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia have been accepted. Although the agreement was officially signed in Skopje, it was called the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the signing having been preceded by a series of negotiations that took place mainly in Ohrid. The signatories of the ATO were the leaders of the four main political parties in Macedonia (the two main Macedonian ethnic parties and the two main ethnic Albanian parties), the President and a Special Representative of the United States and the European Union (EU) 1. Therefore, the agreement is guaranteed by the international community. However, there has been no formal UN resolution, for example for the Kosovo conflict.2 The aim of this chapter is to analyse and comment on the ten points of the agreement, which served as the basis for a new system of power-sharing and internal restructuring of Macedonia, including constitutional amendments and the adoption of new old and revised laws.