Outgoing Deputy Municipal Minister Zoran Dimitrovski informs that a high profile Government visit to Sofia, to meet a beaten Bulgarian activist, was arranged by US diplomats.

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani made the trip to the Sofia hospital where activist Hristijan Pendikov was treated, after he was beaten in his native city of Ohrid. The Bulgarian Government elevated the incident to a major problem in the relations between the two countries, given that the attackers mentioned Pendikov’s identity during the attack. Bulgaria now insists that Macedonia must make serious improvements in the treatment of the Bulgarian minority before it will be allowed to begin its EU accession talks. In this fraught situation, Osmani visited Pendikov with his Bulgarian counterpart, and stood silently while Bulgarian Minister Milkov accused Macedonia of allowing attacks on the Bulgarian minority.

I spoke with Osmani and he told me that he is going skiing to Bulgaria and will visit Pendikov. When I told him that the case is somewhat controversial, given how he was carried to Bulgaria with their state plane, that he is under police investigation for alleged drug crimes, Osmani told me that he spoke with the Americans and they advised him to make the visit and try to reduce tensions, Dimitrovski said.

Dimitrovski resigned from the Government earlier this week as his DS party announced that it is leaving the coalition over the continued increase of the ethnic Albanian influence in the Government.