Western Macedonia is inhabited mostly by ethnic Albanians who make up one third of the Balkan country's population.
The scale of ballot stuffing and intimidation by Albanian gangsters in western Macedonia was among the worst I have witnessed.
In western Macedonia, where a clash between Albanian demonstrators and police in Gostivar last July killed four people, there are still roadblocks, arms searches and gunfire.
Western powers have urged Macedonia to act with restraint, fearing an all-out assault could cost heavy civilian casualties.
It starts with sure-fire bets such as Croatia, and other small digestible countries in the western Balkans such as Macedonia.
It will join two other western Balkan countries: Macedonia, whose negotiations are blocked by its name dispute with Greece, and Croatia, which is close to membership.
If people in Macedonia and elsewhere in the western Balkans lose hope of ever joining the EU, says Macedonia's deputy prime minister, Ivica Bocevski, everybody should start worrying about regional stability.
Western governments voiced support for Macedonia, but urged political concessions to the ethnic Albanians.
About 1, 155 refugees left Cegrane Friday, but Macedonia has urged Western governments to take Kosovars in more quickly.
Western officials also fear that full-scale warfare in Macedonia could engulf the whole Balkans.
That may just be negotiating tactics, but a failure to win candidate status would be a heavy blow for Macedonia and for the rest of the western Balkans, which will be watching the Brussels summit unusually closely this week.
ECONOMIST: Why nerves are jangling from Croatia to Macedonia
In fact, it is an irony of post-communism that ethnic minorities like the Albanians of Macedonia are expected to act in a totalitarian way by so many western advocates of political pluralism and civil society.
Western countries are desperate to avoid the ethnic strife that could trigger further unrest in neighbouring Macedonia, which has a large, unhappy Albanian minority.
Macedonia, fearful of the impact of refugees, at first refused them entry unless western countries promised to move them on.
Western diplomats fear a break will lead to fissures both in multi- ethnic Bosnia and in Macedonia, where about a third of the population is Albanian.
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