Macedonian Minister Quits Over Banned Tito Play

Macedonias minister resigned on Monday after coming under fire for trying to ban a play portraying former Yugoslav leader.

Macedonia's culture minister resigned on Monday after coming under fire for trying to ban a play portraying former Yugoslav leader Tito as a womaniser and a hedonist.

Ilirijan Bekiri, an ethnic Albanian, wrote to theatres across the country last week asking them not to stage the play "Tito: Certain Diagrams of Desire" by Croatian playwright Slobodan Snajder.

The play portrays Marshall Josip Broz Tito, who ruled socialist Yugoslavia from its creation following World War Two until his death in 1980, as a man of low moral values and questions his commitment to the ideology he preached.

Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Local media had seized on the letter as a return to Tito-era censorship.

Bekiri said initially he had been misunderstood.

"As a proven defender of democratic values and ruthless opponent of communist values, I have been forced to resign as minister of culture," he wrote.

Bekiri is a member of the Democratic Party of Albanians, the junior partner in the Macedonian governing coalition led by conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski.

The play premiered on Saturday to a full house in the southern Macedonian town of Bitola.