A perfect storm brews in Macedonia

* Violence adds new element to months of political crisis

* Government on ropes over wire-tapping scandal

By Matt Robinson

KUMANOVO, Macedonia, May 11 (Reuters) - Pero Ilievski Street looked on Monday like it had been struck by a tsunami, cobblestones torn up and walls crushed by armoured vehicles of a special anti-terrorist unit of the Macedonian police.

Stunned ethnic Albanian residents of this north Macedonian town stepped gingerly through shattered glass and roof tiles, crushed cars and dirt smeared with blood - damage wrought by a weekend operation that left 22 people dead and heralds a new phase of uncertainty in a country deep in crisis.

Details about the raid remain hazy, but the conservative government of Nikola Gruevski faced immediate calls from NATO and the European Union for a "transparent investigation" of what happened. His credibility in the West has already been called into question by months of opposition allegations of illegal wire-tapping and widespread abuse of power.

The Albanian residents of Pero Ilievski Street in ethnically-mixed Kumanovo cried foul, saying they were pawns in a bigger political battle and were being used to divert attention from the government's own woes.

Gruevski's main opponents in the Macedonian majority also demanded answers, speculating that the government was trying to raise the spectre of ethnic strife in order to hamper the opposition drive to remove him.

The tiny, impoverished ex-Yugoslav republic, where ethnic Albanians account for 30 percent of the two million-strong population, flirted with all-out civil war in 2001 when ethnic Albanian guerrillas fought with government security forces before NATO brokered a peace deal.

Integration has been piecemeal, but Western diplomats say the greatest threat to stability currently lies less in ethnic conflict than in a political stand-off between Gruevski and his Macedonian opponents. Like the Albanian minority, they too are frustrated by the poverty, high unemployment, pervasive corruption and a stalled process of integration with the West.

Foreign analysts have long warned that one side or the other might try to stir ethnic tensions to gain leverage, despite a lack of enthusiasm in either community for a return to fighting.

"Several distinct problems are joining up into a perfect storm," Balkan analyst Marko Prelec wrote on his Facebook page, adding that an already incendiary political situation had become "supercharged by emotions that rise when blood is shed".

RALLY

Gruevski said police had wiped out "one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the Balkans", led by ethnic Albanians from neighbouring Kosovo and bent on attacking police stations, shopping malls and sports events.

Authorities said 14 "terrorists" were dead, dozens arrested and eight police officers killed. Ethnic Albanian detainees were hauled before judges in handcuffs and white jump-suits.

The destruction on Pero Ilievski Street, in a region that saw heavy fighting during the 2001 conflict, spoke to the ferocity of the violence. Yet not a single civilian was reported hurt in an operation that began without warning before dawn on Saturday and ended some 24 hours later.

"I don't know what the purpose of this was," said Ramadan Baftiu, sitting on the toppled front wall of his two-storey home, gutted by fire and strafed with bullets.

Baftiu said he and seven other members of his family, including children, had spent 12 hours in their basement, riding out the storm above them before escaping during a lull.

"The house has to be demolished," he said.

He and his neighbours said they had seen no gunmen in the area, an assertion that was impossible to verify in a climate of claim and counter-claim, intrigue and manipulation in Macedonia.

Apart from the police dead, the other casualties have not been named.

Opposition anger over Macedonia's wire-tapping scandal is set to climax on May 17 with a planned mass rally to demand Gruevski's resignation.

Zoran Zaev, leader of the main Macedonian opposition party, the Social Democrats, says he has a treasure-trove of wire-taps, leaked to him by a whistleblower and exposing the extent of government control over judges, journalists and the conduct of elections.

He has been drip-feeding audiotapes to the media for months and protesters have already clashed once with police.

The scandal has added to a wider political malaise rooted in Macedonia's failure to join the EU and NATO, its bids blocked by a long-running dispute with neighbouring Greece over the country's name.

Several Albanians in Kumanovo said they would join the Macedonian opposition on May 17.

"Yes, I'll protest," said 44-year-old Vullnet Januzi, a worker at the state water company. "You can't blame the Macedonian people for this." (Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci and Kole Casule; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Gareth Jones)