Moderate Party Quits ‘Unity’ Government

Macedonia’s main moderate party walked out of the shaky “national unity” government, complicating Western-sponsored efforts to implement a peace accord with minority ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

Diplomats who brokered the August peace pact fear the departure of the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia will give too much power to nationalists, who are seen as more eager for revenge than reconciliation with ethnic Albanians.

Nationalists, who stand to consolidate power after the moderates’ exit, began excavating a site said to contain Macedonians executed by ethnic Albanians, stirring a new confrontation with the disbanded rebels.