Macedonia guerrillas win seats

As the results of the Macedonian parliamentary election trickled in yesterday it became clear that a new coalition government formed by opposition parties will have to include the leaders of last year's armed uprising.

The main coalition party, VMRO-DPMNE, conceded defeat early yesterday morning, making way for a centre-left coalition.

The results suggest that it will be virtually impossible to form a new government without a deal with the Democratic Union for Integration, headed by Ali Ahmeti, who led the now disbanded National Liberation Army.

It is believed to have won about 12% of the vote.

At least half of its members who are expected to take seats in the new parliament are former members of the NLA.

The outgoing government had promised to arrest several of them if it was re-elected, including Mr Ahmeti himself.

Teuta Arifi, who was second on the DUI's candidates list, said the party was waiting to negotiate the formation of a new government with parties representing the Macedonian majority population.

She said there was no question of former guerrillas not taking their seats. "They have been elected by the people and have been amnestied by the government. They are members of parliament."

As opposition supporters in Skopje continued their celebrations into a second night, human rights groups welcomed the change of government.

The police, under the control of the hawkish interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, have been blamed for a long list of abuses, including extra-judicial killing and the routine torture of prisoners. Some officers under his control are already being investigated by the Hague tribunal for killing nine ethnic Albanians near Skopje at the end of last year's conflict.