Masked police arrest rector

The rector of the unofficial Albanian University of Tetovo was arrested by the Macedonian government last week and held for two days without food or water.

Fadil Sulejmani was returning from Pristina in Kosovo, where he had attended a conference of Albanian University rectors, when he was seized by masked Macedonian police.

Dr Sulejmani was handcuffed and taken under armed guard to police headquarters in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, where he was questioned about the current conflict in Macedonia and details of the running of Tetovo University.

After his release, Dr Sulejmani claimed that he had been tied to the legs of an iron table. He stressed that at the time of his arrest, he was not committing nor had he committed any illegal act and that he had valid documents for his journey.

The University of Tetovo was established in 1994 as a private initiative to provide Albanian-taught higher education for Macedonia's Albanian minority.

The Macedonian authorities consider the university to be illegal. From the beginning, they have subjected it to various forms of harassment.