Macedonian Albanians demand education rights

More than three-thousand ethnic Albanians have held a rally in Tetovo, in the north-west of Macedonia, demanding the legalization of their unauthorised Albanian-language university.

Protestors rejected compromise suggestions put forward by the European security organization, the OSCE, for creating a new, private institute.

The Albanian university outside Tetovo was set up five years ago in defiance of the Macedonian government, which viewed it as a vehicle for Albanian separatism.

Following violent clashes, the university has continued to operate underground.

Ethnic Albanians make up a quarter of the Macedonian population and already receive primary and high-school education in Albanian.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service