There have been mixed reactions to an amnesty passed by the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonian parliament on Tuesday, releasing some eight-hundred people from prison, including two ethnic Albanian mayors.

The mayors -- Rufi Osmani and Alajdin Demiri from Gostivar and Tetovo in western Macedonia -- have spent more than a year in jail after they were convicted of inciting riots in which three people were killed.

They had flown the Albanian national flag in front of their offices.

The opposition Social Democrats, who were in power when two were jailed, said the releases were a political misuse of the judicial process.

Ethnic Albanian parties said the amnesty corrected an error made during what they called a political trial.