NATO has collected most Macedonia rebel arms despite threat Posted September 13, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010913/3/1g4ey.html
Friday September 14, 12:00 AM
NATO has collected most Macedonia rebel arms despite threat
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO said on Thursday it had collected over two-thirds of the declared arsenal of ethnic Albanian rebels under Macedonia's peace plan despite a threat to disarmament posed by Macedonian paramilitaries.
Separately, the Macedonian parliament indefinitely put off debate on whether to seek a referendum on civil rights reforms benefiting the large Albanian minority, a manoeuvre that diplomats had said could torpedo the peace process.
The Western-mediated pact signed by Skopje and ethnic Albanians requires insurgents to disarm while parliament changes the constitution to end ethnic discrimination, a delicate series of joint steps to be completed by September 28.
A referendum sought by nationalist foes of the reforms which will decentralise power and put Albanians in the police force would wreck the peace plan's 45-day timetable and spur mistrustful rebels to reach for weapons again, analysts say.
Major General Gunnar Lange, Danish commander of NATO's "Operation Essential Harvest", met President Boris Trajkovski on Thursday to tell him that Phase Two of the mission's goal to take in 3,300 National Liberation Army (NLA) weapons was complete.
Under the plan meant to defuse the fifth Balkan conflict since 1991, "Harvest" will go into its final round after parliament adopts in principle 30 constitutional amendments to set the stage for ratification of the entire package.
NATO's latest official tally was 2,135 weapons and 162,990 rounds of ammunition but this did not include "a large number" of arms handed in at a collection depot in the northern, guerrilla-dominated hills on Wednesday.
"We were very encouraged by the quantity and quality of the equipment yesterday," said Harvest spokesman Major Alex Dick.
That haul included the first sniper rifles, as well as portable SA-7 Strela missiles designed to down aircraft, SAGGER anti-tank rockets with a four-km range, and 64mm recoilless anti-tank rifles, Dick told a news briefing.
MACEDONIAN PARAMILITARY THREAT
But NATO spokesman Mark Laity said some disarmament had been disrupted by Macedonian paramilitaries reported to have been harassing demobilised NLA men near ceasefire lines north of the mainly ethnic Albanian town of Tetovo.
"(We) have assessed that there has been an inhibiting effect on weapons collection by paramilitary activity in the Tetovo area. There are units operating there who we understand to be official but there is a lack of clarity as to what they are doing...and who they are answerable to," he said.
"They do not appear to be answerable to local (police or army) commanders," Laity said. NATO had written to the interior minister seeking an explanation but had received no response.
"We are in a period where sensitivity in policing is required by all sides," he said. "We are looking for a process of reconciliation. So sensitivity is fundamental."
Trajkovski told Reuters on Wednesday he had no knowledge of what Western observers say are extremist paramilitary units with shadowy police connections spoiling for reprisals against Albanians after NATO disarms them.
He said he would suppress paramilitary abuses if proven.
Western monitors say a big cause of Albanian discontent was police brutality, repression and unaccountability. The powerful Interior Ministry, run by hardline nationalists, is to be democratised under the reform plan.
With "Harvest" having reaped the bulk of the NLA's reported arsenal, Laity said it was now up to parliament to preserve the momentum toward peace.
"The way is now clear for the next stage of the political process. We know the timetable is tight but Task Force Harvest is keeping to its timetable and we look forward to the government keeping to the timetable it set itself."
The disarmament mandate ends on September 26, but nationalists in parliament who have denounced the peace settlement as a sell-out to "Albanian terrorism" may try to stall a ratification vote, analysts say.
Many Macedonians feel the reform package was foisted on them to appease ethnic Albanian "expansionism" and did not tackle its alleged roots in Kosovo or Albania. They also suspect the NLA is hiding its best weapons for another war.
Minority Albanians, recalling years of futile political negotiations, counter that the government would never have agreed to improve their civil rights if rebels had not risen up in February and surged to the gates of major cities.
The constitutional changes in the ex-Yugoslav republic are meant to devolve power, sanction more official use of the Albanian language and give Albanians jobs in public services.
Albanians account for about one third of Macedonia's roughly 2 million people.
Macedonia Official Nixes Force Posted September 12, 2001
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Wednesday September 12 10:34 AM ET
Macedonia Official Nixes Force
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Rebuffing international pressure, an influential government minister said Wednesday there was no need for a multinational force in Macedonia after NATO (news - web sites) completes its weapons collection mission.
Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski's comments reflected continued resistance among hard-liners in the government to international efforts to bring long-term stability to the violence-torn Balkan nation.
NATO's operation to collect weapons surrendered by ethnic Albanian rebels is to end Sept. 26, and it has said it would not extend that deadline. But European Union (news - web sites) nations agreed over the weekend that a multinational force is needed in Macedonia after NATO completes its mission.
``After September 26, NATO should leave Macedonia and return only after Macedonia feels the need that they should be present here again,'' Boskovski said.
Any international force under a U.N. mandate would have to be restricted to the borders with Kosovo and Albania, the main supply countries to the rebels, he said.
Under the EU proposal, a multinational force would be used to protect civilian monitors and act as a buffer between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in tense regions.
The contingent would be smaller than the 4,500 NATO troops now in Macedonia. Although it would again be led by the 19-nation Western alliance, it would be open to Russian, Ukrainian and other non-NATO troops, as is the case in neighboring Kosovo and in Bosnia.
Boskovski, along with the country's president, prime minister and other top civilian and military officials met Wednesday to discuss the redeployment of government forces into areas now held by the rebels.
Such a move could spark renewed violence - and figured in the EU decision to call for the deployment of an international stabilization force.
Under a Western-brokered peace pact, NATO plans to take a 3,300-piece arsenal from the rebels. In exchange, Macedonian lawmakers are asked to grant greater political and language rights to ethnic Albanians, who comprise about a third of the nation's 2 million people.
NATO spokesman Mark Laity said Wednesday that about two-thirds - or about 2,200 - of the weapons total should be reached by the end of the week. NATO, however, has not given a precise number of arms so far surrendered.
The alliance expects to pause in the weapons collection while parliament begins to debate the constitutional reforms for greater minority rights - a key pillar of the effort to end the six-month-old conflict.
NATO officials in Macedonia said security was increased following the staggering terrorist strikes Tuesday in New York and Washington. The officials declined to give specific details of the measures taken.
Macedonia weapons collection on course Posted September 12, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1539000/1539560.stm
Wednesday, 12 September, 2001, 15:05 GMT 16:05 UK
Macedonia weapons collection on course
Nato says its operation to collect weapons from ethnic-Albanian rebels in Macedonia is continuing according to plans, despite Tuesday's attacks in the United States.
Security at collection points and American bases has, however, been stepped up.
An alliance spokesman said the troops were nearing the end of the second stage of their operation, and expected to have two-thirds of the agreed total of weapons collected by the end of the week.
But a BBC correspondent in the country says suggestions are emerging that many of the weapons don't work - which will reinforce a wide impression among Macedonians that the collection is not seriously denting the rebels' arsenal.
After two-thirds of the weapons have been handed in, parliamentary deputies are due to resume debating the constitutional and legislative changes contained in last month's political deal between the rebels and the Macedonian government.
Only after the changes are passed will the third and final phase of the weapons collection take place.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
EU: Macedonia Needs New NATO Force Posted September 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2293-2001Sep10.html
EU: Macedonia Needs New NATO Force
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 10, 2001; Page A18
PARIS, Sept. 9 -- European Union foreign ministers agreed today on the need for a new international military force to provide security in Macedonia after a NATO weapons-collection mission ends later this month.
But the ministers remained undecided on the exact makeup of the force, other than to say it should be led by NATO because the European Union itself is not ready to lead it.
The current NATO mission in Macedonia, called Operation Essential Harvest, entered its third week today, with ethnic Albanian insurgents arriving in trucks and cars to turn in their weapons at a depot in the mountain village of Brodec, near the border with Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian majority province of Serbia in Yugoslavia.
The rebels have agreed to turn in 3,300 weapons and end a six-month insurgency in exchange for amendments to the Macedonian constitution guaranteeing more rights for the country's ethnic Albanian minority. NATO officials said that when they finish collecting weapons at Brodec, the mission should have reached the halfway point.
But there have been fears, voiced more loudly in recent days, that Macedonia's fragile peace accord could unravel and the Balkan country could be plunged into civil war if NATO ends its operation as scheduled on Sept. 26.
Today, the European ministers meeting near Brussels acknowledged the pending "security vacuum," but there was no consensus on the nature of the new force, which must be approved by the Macedonian government. While the ministers broadly agreed to a German proposal for a new NATO force that would include non-NATO countries such as Russia, Finland, Sweden and Ukraine, there was division over whether the force should have a mandate from the U.N. Security Council.
"We all insisted on the need to avoid a security vacuum when NATO withdraws," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told reporters. "The option considered most realistic would be to deploy a NATO-plus force based on the troops already on the ground."
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had been pushing for a new NATO mission that would operate under a U.N. mandate after Operation Essential Harvest was completed. Finland, for one, said such a U.N. mandate was essential before it would participate. But others, such as Britain, said there was no time to obtain a U.N. vote; some EU members recalled how China used its Security Council seat to veto a U.N. peacekeeping force for Macedonia in 1999.
Having a U.N. mandate is seen as critical to ensuring the agreement of Macedonia's government, which includes a number of hard-liners opposed to concessions to the ethnic Albanians. Macedonia's president, Boris Trajkovski, told the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, that he would prefer to see any post-NATO force operating under a U.N. flag and mandate, diplomats said.
With European countries taking the lead in the current Macedonia operation -- Britain is providing about half the 4,500 troops and a Danish general is the commander -- some diplomats and military analysts were looking at Macedonia as the first test of the EU's efforts to form an independent defense force outside NATO.
The ministers rejected a proposal by Francois Leotard, the EU envoy to Macedonia, for a 1,500-member EU force, saying Europe was not ready to launch its own military operation.
EU agrees to extend stay of troops in Macedonia Posted September 10, 2001
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/0910/wor2.htm
Monday, September 10, 2001
EU agrees to extend stay of troops in Macedonia
From Denis Staunton, in Genval
BELGIUM/EU: EU foreign ministers have agreed that western forces should remain in Macedonia after their current mandate expires on September 26th, despite the Macedonian government's wish that the troops should leave.
At a meeting in the lakeside town of Genval, near Brussels, there was broad agreement among ministers that NATO troops should be supplemented by other European soldiers.
There is no question, however, of a force being deployed under the EU's new security arrangements and any operation is likely to be led by NATO.
Most EU member states insist that a new operation in Macedonia must be approved by the United Nations, although Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, argued that such a mandate was unnecessary.
No force will be sent without the approval of the Macedonian government and EU officials will seek to persuade Skopje to abandon its opposition to retaining foreign troops on its soil.
The EU is likely to use the prospect of a donors' conference for Macedonia next month as a lever in negotiations and the External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, yesterday stressed the high level of EU financial aid to the country.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said he backed a German proposal to initiate a regional process in South East Europe based on the Helsinki Process established in 1973 to negotiate relations between states during the Cold War.
During the weekend meeting, the ministers agreed the outline of arrangements for a structured debate on Europe's future that will culminate in a new treaty-making summit in 2004.
A convention composed of representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission, national governments and national parliaments would present options on such issues as simplifying the EU treaties and delineating the powers of national governments and European institutions.
The ministers did not say who should be president of the convention but among the names that have been mooted are those of the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, and Finland's Mr Martti Ahtisaari.
A separate forum would involve representatives of civil society and the candidate countries, mostly in central and eastern Europe, would be represented in both bodies.
Mr Cowen said that the debate should be accompanied in Ireland by an effort to "enthuse" the Irish people about Europe. "Europe is not some esoteric subject. It greatly affects how we live our daily lives in Ireland.
That is the lesson that has to be learned from the Nice Treaty," he said. As Mr Cowen left for the Middle East last night, the EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, asked the minister to remain in close contact with him throughout the visit.
Mr Cowen said that, in advance of his meeting with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, he would receive a briefing on the fate of 53 men who have been imprisoned and allegedly tortured following a raid on a gay club in Cairo in May.
The EU, along with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has made formal complaints to Egypt about the case.
EU Wants NATO to Stay, Macedonia Does Not Posted September 9, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010909/ts/balkans_macedonia_dc_5.html
Sunday September 9 12:25 PM ET
EU Wants NATO to Stay, Macedonia Does Not
By Anatoly Verbin
SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - NATO troops collected more weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Macedonia Sunday while the Skopje government and the European Union appeared at odds over the future role of the alliance in the Balkan state.
A senior government source said Macedonia's Security Council of top officials had decided last week that the NATO mission should not be extended.
``Thanks to NATO but we can handle things. After the end of this mission they should leave,'' the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
``At the moment there is no mood for accepting an extended military mission. Only civilian monitors are acceptable.''
A defense ministry source also said a new NATO mission was not acceptable.
But ethnic Albanian guerrillas handing in arms at a NATO depot said war could resume in the Balkan country unless Western troops stayed on after weapons collection ends.
NATO has said its 4,500 troops will pull out when the ''Essential Harvest'' operation to collect 3,300 weapons from the rebels ends on September 26.
But European Union foreign ministers, saying their aim was to avert a security vacuum that could lead to a relapse into civil war once NATO's mission expires, agreed Sunday on the need for a NATO-led security force to stay on.
Diplomats said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer proposed a smaller but robust NATO-led force with a U.N. mandate to protect international monitors overseeing the return of refugees to their homes.
The force should be open to non-NATO countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and Finland, he said.
Diplomats said Fischer warned of the risk of a ``silent coalition of extremists'' exploiting the dispute over a future role for NATO to resume fighting and partition the country.
One EU minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fact that a donors' conference for Macedonia was planned for October 15 should give the West leverage to persuade Skopje to accept a NATO-led force.
ALBANIANS WANT SECURITY FORCE
Imer Imeri, head of the second biggest ethnic Albanian party which is part of the government coalition, said rejection of a new security arrangement was ``a serious obstruction of a peace process.''
``We need a serious monitoring of the whole situation and a sufficient number of NATO armed troops,'' he said.
``There is agreement that the Union must remain involved. Everyone agreed to increase the number of OSCE and EU monitors and on the need for a military force...probably under a NATO flag,'' French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told reporters.
Rebels handing in arms in the mountain village of Brodec said that without guns or NATO they would be sitting ducks for police run by a rightist who has called arms collections a farce that would be rectified only when his men sweep in afterwards to root out ``terrorist bandit groups.''
``Just 30 days is out of the question. The Macedonians only want us to give up the guns and NATO to go away so that they will be free to interrogate, arrest, beat, rob or kill all of us,'' said Afrim Ziberi, 40, an NLA fighter.
GUERRILLAS TRUST NATO
``There must be a security force here. Our people have enough faith in NATO to give up our weapons. NATO must stay on for peace to survive. They have to stay at least six months.
``Once we have Albanian police in this region (under reforms to be enacted by parliament), then things will improve. But just having Macedonian police here won't work any more,'' he said.
Reporters saw dozens of automatic rifles, some machineguns, anti-tank mines and ammunition being counted by French troops.
Unlike other NATO depots opened since August 27 at which hundreds of rebels queued up to turn in their weapons, few guerrillas were to be seen in Brodec. Weapons collected by mid-afternoon had arrived by truck or in the trunks of cars.
It was the fifth round of weapons collecting in the 30-day mission to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army voluntarily in exchange for constitutional changes benefiting minority Albanians to be passed by the Macedonian parliament.
The changes are meant to decentralize power, allow more official use of the Albanian language and give Albanians jobs in public services, especially the police force, commensurate with their one-third share of the population.
The alliance says the second phase of weapons collections is to be completed by September 13, in time for second round of parliamentary action under the 45-day timetable for implementation of the peace plan.
NATO's commander for Europe, General Joseph Ralston, paid an unscheduled visit to Skopje Sunday. ``As far as operation Essential Harvest is going, I am extremely pleased with the way it has gone to this point,'' he said.
Maki Shinohara, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR refugee agency, said some 7,000 ethnic Albanian refugees had returned to Macedonia from neighboring Kosovo in the last three days.
Last week UNHCR said some 44,000 refugees from Macedonia were still in Kosovo while some 38,000 had already returned.
The Macedonian Red Cross says some 70,000 people remain displaced inside the country.
U.S. in Supporting Role for NATO Force in Macedonia Posted September 8, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/08/international/europe/08MACE.html
September 8, 2001
U.S. in Supporting Role for NATO Force in Macedonia
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
RADUSA, Macedonia, Sept. 7 This is the new world of NATO peacekeeping. Dutch troops stand guard on the commanding hills. The Italians protect the road. British soldiers form a defense cordon in the valley, as they wait for Albanian fighters to march in and turn in their weapons.
The lone American presence is a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. NATO used Chinooks to whisk its troops here and deliver the news media, and it will use them to take away the rebels' weapons.
In this latest NATO mission, the United States has cast itself in a purely supporting role, and the allied mission has itself been framed in the narrowest terms.
"Candidate Bush said we should transfer more peacekeeping responsibilities to the Europeans," a senior Bush administration official said. "Here is a situation where the Europeans have the will and the capability. This is a different type of operation."
The limited mission has reduced the risk of allied, and especially American, casualties to an absolute minimum. The open question is whether by limiting their commitment, the NATO allies have also made prospects of a durable peace less certain.
Certainly, Macedonia represents a sharp break with previous NATO missions in the Balkans.
When NATO dispatched troops to Bosnia in 1995, they were commanded by an American. The United States contributed one-third of the 60,000 troops, and they came equipped with tanks, helicopter gunships and all the weapons of modern war. In Kosovo, the Europeans command the security forces, with 15 percent of the force well-armed Americans.
But European nations not only command the operation here, they are also supplying all the combat troops.
Each time allied soldiers go out on a mission to collect weapons, allied officials have an operational reserve on call in case NATO needs to send reinforcements.
It is an all-European force, according to European commanders and United States officials. Nor do NATO commanders anticipate that American helicopters will be needed if fighting breaks out and NATO units have to pull back.
"I cannot imagine that," said Gunnar Lange, a Danish major general who commands the NATO task force here. "We have sufficient assets."
To be sure, the mission that the Europeans have taken on is a limited one. NATO is not here to stop the fighting, protect civilians or lay down the law. Its modest task is the collection of 3,300 rebel arms, voluntarily turned in, over a 30-day period.
NATO's assumption is that the troops will be operating in a "permissive environment," one in which nobody is shooting at them or trying to prevent them from doing their job.
NATO troops can defend themselves if fired on. But the basic plan is for allied troops to withdraw to their bases if there is an outbreak of fighting or a major challenge to NATO forces.
"The military is a catalyst in a political process here," said Brig. Barney White-Spunner, a Briton who commands the polyglot NATO brigade here. "It is not a military mission in its own right."
But critics say the NATO strategy is to do its bit to encourage a settlement, leave and hope for the best.
"In the other Balkan missions, we had sufficient forces and were committed to getting the job done," said Ivo Daalder, who was on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. "Now there is a limited mandate and no commitment to getting the job done."
There is a grudging recognition among Western diplomats that some sort of security force is needed to maintain stability and protect international monitors after the weapons collection ends on Sept. 26. But there seems to be little enthusiasm for taking on that task.
Some diplomats have suggested that the European Union might take on the role. That would be a real test of Europe's interest in playing a more assertive role on security. The United States involvement in NATO peacekeeping may be shrinking, but Washington is still the leader of the alliance.
On the weapons collection, NATO officials stress that the Americans are providing some important resources. Washington has assigned two CH-47 Chinook copters to take troops to and from the collection sites and to transport the arms.
The United States provides UH- 60's for medical evacuations in cases like that of the British soldier who was fatally injured on the first day of the operation when a gang of young Macedonians threw a concrete slab at his utility vehicle.
The American military provides intelligence to NATO commanders from Army Hunter drones that scan Macedonia at night with their infrared cameras.
United States troops in Kosovo also help. They patrol the Kosovo- Macedonian border and recently traded fire with Albanian rebels who were trying to sneak into Kosovo.
The Europeans, however, are providing almost all the 4,800 troops. To carry out the mission, Britain dispatched almost 2,000 troops. The Italians have sent 800, and the French more than 500.
In contrast, an American officer estimated that 150 troops at Camp Able Sentry, the American base in Macedonia that provides logistical help for the NATO mission in neighboring Kosovo, were also supporting the new weapons gathering.
The United States military is sensitive about such comparisons, and it has instructed its soldiers that the American contribution to the operation should be based "on our capabilities, not on our numbers."
Many of the Europeans are also living in more austere conditions. British paratroopers, hardened by service in Northern Ireland, operate out of former peanut and fruit plants. The French Foreign Legion, with years of experience in Africa and the Balkans, is moving into a dank concrete bunker that recently housed 4,000 chickens.
Just a small number of British troops, primarily from a medical unit, are housed in more hospitable quarters at Camp Able Sentry. The British pay the Americans rent.
Camp Able Sentry is something of a magnet for European troops who are not fortunate enough to stay there. They wait for special two-hour passes to the Burger King, Coffee Bar and PX.
The weapons collection today, deep in rebel-controlled territory, was the first since the Macedonian Parliament took it first step toward amending the Constitution to enhance ethnic Albanians' rights.
As usual, British liaison teams made the arrangements with the rebels. Then 500 troops were sent in to take control over the area.
They cordoned off a collection site in a muddy football field and waited. A rebel fighter, dressed in a natty black uniform with red patches, served as a coordinator. Around midday, the rebels proudly arrived in formation.
"We are Albanian heroes," they chanted as they turned in 160 AK-47's, mortars and machine guns. The insurgents even handed over a damaged tank, one of two that they captured from the Macedonian Army.
A Norwegian-led demolition team blew up the tank, sending a resounding echo through the foothills. American helicopters are to ferry the small arms to a Macedonian base, where a Greek weapons disposal team awaits them.
The rebel commander in the region, a 45-year-old former teacher who gave his name as Msusi, said the insurgents would turn over all of their arms by the NATO deadline. He said if NATO wanted to insure that the settlement would hold, it would have to stay for five years.
Although United States involvement in the mission is limited, an American official said Washington would not be able to distance itself from NATO's problems if the operation faltered. Nor will it be so easy for Washington to disclaim any responsibility for the instability that may follow NATO's withdrawal.
"We own this one," he said.
Armed Gangs Suspected in Macedonia Posted September 8, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010908/wl/macedonia_602.html
Saturday September 8 3:15 PM ET
Armed Gangs Suspected in Macedonia
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer
TETOVO, Macedonia (AP) - The police chief in Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian city predicted new clashes Saturday unless authorities can rein in Macedonian paramilitary gangs that may have been joined by militias from neighboring Serbia.
Saip Bilali's report of a Serb presence has not been independently confirmed. But if true, it would add another worrisome element threatening the fragile calm as Macedonia marked the 10th anniversary of its independence from Yugoslavia.
``The danger is permanent,'' said Bilali, who is ethnic Albanian.
He said there was ``verified information'' that paramilitary militiamen from Serbia have been seen near the western Macedonian town of Gostivar, but he did not elaborate.
In the capital, Skopje, President Boris Trajkovski urged political leaders to unite behind a peace plan designed to end six months of ethnic conflict.
``Macedonia's political leadership must show courage and explain to the people that there is no reason to fear the agreement,'' Trajkovski said on state radio Saturday.
The peace process in Macedonia is edging through a potentially hazardous phase with NATO (news - web sites) collecting more weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels, known as the National Liberation Army, in return for lawmakers' promises to grant more minority rights.
But Western officials fear security problems could destabilize the fragile process.
A Macedonian paramilitary group known as the Lions appears to be operating in the Tetovo area, said Bilali. It has been blamed for harassing ethnic Albanian villagers and even ethnic Albanian police officers, he added.
There has been no clear information on the size and structure of the paramilitary group, although its presence has been confirmed by NATO and other Western officials.
Bilali suggested such gangs may have links to Macedonian police units and supporters of the leading VMRO party of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski. Top government officials have denied any connection.
Earlier this week, the deputy head of the Tetovo traffic police, an ethnic Albanian, was attacked by the Lions in the ethnic Albanian village of Palatica east of Tetovo.
A NATO liaison team - in the area by chance - intervened to defuse a potential clash after armed ethnic Albanians responded to the shooting, the alliance said.
``We were hoping the problem would start to be resolved through political methods,'' Bilali said. ``But it's a pity that in Tetovo ... there will be further developments regarding the mistreatment of citizens.''
The peace accord calls for the National Liberation Army to hand over its weapons to NATO. But the NATO mission is to last only 30 days, ending Sept. 26. The European Union (news - web sites) has begun deliberations on sending its own force to protect civilian observers who would stay to monitor the situation.
Trajkovski insisted Macedonia needs no international force once NATO leaves.
``If NATO troops stayed on, this would only give us a sense of false security ... and create another Bosnia or Kosovo in the Balkans,'' he said on state radio.
Albanian rebels stage show of surrender but keep options open Posted September 7, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010907/1/1erm8.html
Saturday September 8, 12:46 AM
Albanian rebels stage show of surrender but keep options open
RADUSA, Macedonia, Sept 7 (AFP) -
Chanting "We are Albanian heros," teenage NLA fighters paraded Friday round a football pitch in a valley near Macedonia's border with Kosovo before handing in their arms to NATO.
But, after a well-staged show of surrender, they vowed to battle on if necessary.
"If we feel concerned at any point we will buy new arms," said 19-year-old National Liberation Army (NLA) "commander" Mevlud Bushi, in black uniform and sunglasses, surrounded by a throng of khaki-clad fighters.
"If they sign it will be peace. If they don't sign it will be war again," he said bluntly, when asked what will happen if a Western-backed peace plan is not approved by the country's parliament.
Under a blazing Balkan sun, the handover of some 160 weapons in the village of Radusa was an apparently well-rehearsed display of cooperation with NATO's Operation Essential Harvest -- while at the same time keeping the rebels' options wide open.
The handover, coincidentally shortly after the arrival of a group of reporters flown in by helicopter to see them, at certain points seemed to have the timing of a military parade.
As hundreds of gun-toting British NATO troops and gawping local children looked on, the show started with the distant sound of chanting from the village, overlooked by steep scrub-covered hillsides.
"They're coming," said a NATO captain. And suddenly there they were, marching two-abreast along a track towards the waiting media and international security forces.
Fluttering in the breeze, the red double-headed eagle flag of the Albanian separatist movement was held aloft at the head of the 200-strong column of chanting fighters.
At the back of the column was an armoured personnel carrier (APC), one of two seized from the Macedonian army, with the NLA flag emblazoned all over it, and fighters perched on top. As they came alongside the football pitch, the parade stopped and fell silent.
And at exactly that moment a huge boom resounded through the valley -- the detonation of a T-55 tank, seized by the NLA from their Macedonian foes, and handed in to NATO for destruction.
Suddenly a spontaneous chant of "UCK, UCK, UCK" -- the Albanian acronym for NLA -- erupted from the assembled ranks, on hearing the former Macedonian hardware blown to smithereens.
Cynics might suggest that the whole thing was carefully planned by NATO and the NLA together. And the fighters' leaders made no secret of their good links with the Alliance force.
"It's a good relationship, we are happy to talk to them," Bushi told reporters, adding that they had been discussing the logistics of the arms handover "for about a month."
NATO spokesman Major Alex Dick, watching as the rebels paraded around the football pitch, confirmed: "We have had close cooperation with the NLA. It is a transparent operation."
The ethnic Albanian fighters are openly keen for NATO, which is in Macedonia for a strictly-limited, 30-day mission to collect arms, to stay longer.
"If NATO doesn't stay for at least five years the mission will be a failure," said Ratif Msusi, a 45-year-old former teacher in command of 400 fighters in the region.
The young ethnic Albanians -- including one boy of about six proudly displayed in full khaki uniform to journalists by his father -- say their first priority is peace.
But equally they will not lie down if attacked.
"If anything was to happen, we could get more arms," said a 19-year-old who gave only his nickname, "Chechen", and said he had been in the NLA for three months.
He said he had two sisters and three brothers, one of whom was also in the NLA. "My mother is very worried but she is also very proud of me," he added.
By the end of the day the rebels said they had handed in some 160 weapons, the first consignment of about 1,100 arms which NATO expects to collect by September 13, as part of the Western-backed peace deal.
Macedonia to implement peace accord Posted September 7, 2001
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/06/umacedo.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/09/06/ixhome.html
Macedonia to implement peace accord
(Filed: 06/09/2001)
MACEDONIA today took the first steps toward implementing a peace agreement with the ethnic Albanian minority and re-launching the Nato operation to collect rebel weapons.
In a secret ballot, deputies voted 91 to 19 with two abstentions in favor of enacting constitutional changes that would allow provisions of the August 13 peace deal to be put in place before the end of the month.
The peace accord is aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian insurgency. It is intended to pave the way for a rebel amnesty, to make Albanian an official language in some areas, to create more jobs in the police and administration and to give wider powers to local government.
Immediately after the vote, a western military source said that Nato forces would begin a second round of arms collections within 48 hours. Nato wants to collect 3,300 weapons from the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) by September 26. A first phase last week netted more than a third of that tally.
Under the resolution adopted in parliament, a commission has been tasked with drafting more than 30 amendments to Macedonia's fundamental law which are to be brought to the full assembly in ten days. Under the peace accord, the constitution has to be changed by September 27.
The vote had been scheduled to take place on Tuesday and the delay in parliament frustrated western diplomats who backed the peace accord and Nato, which has been on stand-by to begin collecting weapons again.
A second vote was held in public in line with Macedonian parliamentary procedure. In that vote, 91 MPs supported the resolution and 19 opposed it with two abstentions. A two-thirds majority in the 120-seat parliament was needed to approve the first step.
Rights Desired by Albanians Appear Closer in Macedonia Posted September 7, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/07/international/europe/07MACE.html
September 7, 2001
Rights Desired by Albanians Appear Closer in Macedonia
By CARLOTTA GALL
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Sept. 6 After nearly a week of debate, Macedonia's Parliament voted today in favor of constitutional changes to grant the ethnic Albanian minority more rights, allowing NATO to resume its collection of weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels and setting the peace process back on track.
The drawn-out debate had threatened to delay NATO's operation beyond its planned 30 days. The rebels are to hand in 3,300 weapons in three stages about one-third have been collected so far and the Macedonian Parliament will take three votes today's was the first to ratify constitutional and political reforms.
NATO immediately announced that the next weapons collection would take place on Friday morning.
But the delays and obstructions of the last six days have underlined the political opposition to the peace plan in the majority Slav assembly.
In another move that may threaten the peace, members of Macedonia's Security Council today rejected a proposal to allow any international military force to take over after NATO's 30-day operation, the independent television station A1 reported, citing sources at the meeting.
European leaders are pondering how to provide security for unarmed international monitors needed to guarantee the rights of the ethnic Albanian minority foreseen under the peace plan.
President Boris Trajkovski raised the idea of an international military force, A1 reported, but all the other ministers present said that NATO should leave after 30 days and that no other force would be needed.
In Parliament, legislators were critical of the government and of the Western-mediated plan, which they said had forced them to give in to rebel violence and accept the loss of control of one-fifth of the country.
They accused the president of treachery and urged NATO to leave so they could deal with the insurgency with force.
The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Petar Gosev, speaking for the Slavic Macedonian majority, noted that the plan might not stave off the worse alternative, war. "Ninety percent of the Macedonian population does not support the agreement, but a lot of people understand that the other solution is maybe worse," he said. "People ask themselves where this will end."
Much of the obstruction has been orchestrated by the party of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, raising questions about his commitment to the peace process.
The peace plan offers constitutional changes and reforms to respond to the grievances of the ethnic Albanians, who account for about one-third of Macedonia's 1.9 million people. Some political power would devolve to regional governments, Albanian would become an official language in areas where Albanians account for more than 20 percent of the population and more Albanians would receive positions in state bodies, in particular the police force.
In exchange, the rebels, who have won control of swaths of northern and western Macedonia, would disarm and disband.
Last weapon in Macedonia: TV Posted September 7, 2001
from the September 07, 2001 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0907/p6s1-woeu.html
Last weapon in Macedonia: TV
Yesterday, the parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of backing the 'general concept' of peace.
By Arie Farnam | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
SKOPJE, MACEDONIA - At 7 p.m., Macedonia's most popular television news program from A1 Television runs a string of pessimistic reports with one common theme - the victimization of ethnic Macedonians by ethnic Albanians and Western aggressors.
The anchor reports that an ethnic Macedonian athlete was killed on the road to Tetovo by Albanian terrorists, and ethnic Macedonians across the country are protesting an unpopular peace deal imposed by NATO.
High school teacher Sofia Stevanovska is watching the news closely, like most Macedonians. She and her family haven't been physically affected by the six-month conflict between Macedonian security forces and ethnic-Albanian rebels, but she says just watching the news has been enough to change her view of her country.
"I am frightened when I see how Macedonian people have been chased from their homes by Albanians," she says. "I thought I knew my Albanian neighbors, but now I don't trust them any more. I can't see how we can live together anymore."
The media, both news and entertainment, have played a major role in polarizing linguistic and national communities in conflicts across the Balkans. Now, even though Macedonia's peace process cleared a crucial test yesterday as parliament backed its overall framework and opened the way for NATO to resume collecting weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels, Macedonia appears to be headed down the same perilous road. Over the past few months, while the rebel National Liberation Army captured a swath of territory along the western border, the Macedonian- and Albanian-language media have diverged to the point where it might appear they are reporting on two different wars.
"The media, like everything else in Macedonia, is divided into two camps, broken along ethnic lines," says Dejar Georgievski, a media analyst in Skopje. "There used to be some media which were able to bridge the gap and claimed a large Albanian audience, primarily A1 Television. But after several recent nationalist outbursts from the editors, I doubt that is true anymore."
Technical standards are generally high in Macedonian journalism, but a proliferation of small weekly publications and local radio and TV stations has spread advertising and subscription revenues thin. The remaining advertising also divides on ethnic lines with Albanian companies rarely advertising in the Macedonia media and vice versa. "Journalists and entertainers have to rely on political parties and businesses with political agendas for their paychecks," Georgievski adds.
As a result, both Macedonian- and Albanian-language media reflect growing nationalist trends in their respective communities. "For the first time, the Macedonian media accurately reflects the local mood [among ethnic Macedonians]," says Sam Vaknin, Balkans analyst for Central European Review and United Press International. "And that mood is antigovernment, antiWestern, antiNATO, xenophobic, and antiAlbanian, not necessarily in that order."
Up until this summer, Macedonian-language A1, which holds about 70 percent of the national television market, was applauded internationally for its well-balanced newscasts. But after pressure from nationalist politicians and popular petitions that labeled the station and its journalists "traitors to the Macedonian state," the broadcaster now focuses on the Macedonian perspective and refuses to work with Albanian journalists.
"Once, we interviewed Ali Ahmeti, the general commander of the NLA, over the phone, and the next day there were signs all over town equating A1 with terrorists," says Aco Kabzanov, chief editor at A1. "We can't afford that kind of image."
Dnevnik, the largest Macedonian-language daily newspaper, was also considered extraordinarily moderate throughout much of the conflict, and its circulation suffered as a result. Then, on Aug. 9, after the NLA killed 10 Macedonian soldiers in an ambush, editor-in-chief Branko Gerovski published an irate editorial that irrevocably changed the image of his paper.
"There is nothing more to be negotiated," he wrote. "Signatories of [the Ohrid peace agreement] will be declared traitors. Period."
"The rest of the media is worse," Vaknin says. On several occasions, Macedonian journalists have called on their compatriots to take up arms to fight the "Albanian menace."
In return, the Albanian-language section of Macedonian state television turned radical, broadcasting statements in support of the NLA and refusing to air a Ministry of Interior promotional spot for the anti-terrorist special police force. As a result, the daily six hours of Albanian-language news were suspended for three weeks in August.
The private Albanian-language television and radio stations in Kumanovo and Tetovo, the main conflict areas, are beyond the reach of the state broadcasting board and often run pro-NLA "war songs," including the NLA anthem.
"Hate speech is proliferating at a rapid rate on both sides, which adds to the explosiveness of the crisis," says Slobodan Casula, a relatively moderate columnist for Dnevnik. "The interethnic time bomb we are setting right now is going to explode, and the West must pay attention because when it goes off it will hurt NATO too."
Some Westerners have taken notice, mainly of the extraordinarily vehement anti-NATO rhetoric in the ethnic-Macedonian press. Last week saw the onset of a media campaign to promote support for the peace plan and the NATO mission in Macedonia, funded by $250,000 from USAID. Local analysts warn, however, that program is already generating a backlash.
Ms. Stefanovska, for one, is not impressed by the American-sponsored commercials. She switches to Sitel, considered the most reactionary private Macedonian station, and watches a report alleging that instead of disarming the rebels, NATO helicopters were glimpsed dropping off weapons to restock the NLA south of Tetovo.
"You can't trust NATO," she says, hugging her shoulders with clammy hands. "They have always supported the Albanians, ever since the Kosovo crisis. They say they are here to make peace in Macedonian, but our journalists know that isn't true."
Canadian troops encounter muted hostility, waving crowds in Macedonia Posted September 6, 2001
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/010907/6/a0mh.html
Thursday September 6 9:04 PM EST
Canadian troops encounter muted hostility, waving crowds in Macedonia
By AMY CARMICHAEL
(CP) - Some Macedonians threw glass and rocks, others waved as Canadian troops drove by during their first week as part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Balkan country. The Canadian contingent of 200 soldiers are camped in an abandoned industrial area just west of the capital, Skopje, an area inhabited mainly by people who support the Macedonian government in the conflict with ethnic-Albanian rebels.
"Unfortunately, a lot of them seem to think that we're here to assist the Albanians," Sgt. Dan Haverson said Thursday in a telephone interview.
"That obviously isn't the case. We're here to make sure that everything goes in a nice smooth manner and that this doesn't turn into some of the other areas of the Balkans where there's been civil war and a lot of people getting killed."
The rebels took up arms in February saying they were fighting for the rights of Macedonia's ethnic-Albanian minority who account for about a third of the population of two million. As part of a peace plan, the rebels have agreed to hand over 3,300 weapons to NATO in exchange for greater political rights in Macedonia.
Since their arrival in Macedonia, the Canadians have been performing night missions, escorting convoys of British and German troops from Skopje through the tense Tetovo valley to the border with Kosovo.
"We are ensuring the security of the convoys and today we've had no problems whatsoever moving them up and down there," said Maj. Roger Cotton, commander of 140 of the Canadian soldiers.
"In general the people wave and are happy to see you and the children are waving at you as you drive down the street," Cotton said.
But there are some hardliners on both sides who don't want NATO to interfere.
Haverson mentioned instances when people have hurled objects at Canadian vehicles.
"Things have been thrown at vehicles, my vehicle actually," Haverson said. "Somebody threw glass at me the other night, and there have been beer cans and rocks."
Last week, at the start of the NATO mission, marauding youths threw a block of concrete that killed Ian Collins, 20, a British soldier. He was driving an armoured vehicle under an overpass on a main road outside Skopje, British military officials said.
Cotton said Collins' death "affected everyone here very deeply."
Since the attack, local police have stepped up patrols.
"I travel the route where Collins was killed," Cotton said. "I move under those underpasses once or twice daily and I can tell you I have not seen any kids throwing rocks since I arrived here Aug. 27."
"And I think it's definitely in response to the local police authorities understanding that was unacceptable and making sure it doesn't happen again."
The Canadian troops were going on their first surveillance mission Thursday. They have not yet been involved in collecting weapons.
"Our brigade plans on tying us in to that weapons collection soon," Cotton said.
French, British and Italian troops have collected a third of the 3,300 weapons the rebels agreed to hand over.
While ethnic-Albanians have asked NATO to stay after the weapons are collected to keep the peace and provide protection, Cotton said the Canadian plan is to move the troops in Macedonia back to Canada in early October.
Cotton said morale among the Canadian group is high, but prior to arriving in Macedonia they had been in Bosnia for five months. They are due to rotate home in 30 days and are eager to return to Canada by early next month.
Europe Ponders New Force for Macedonia Posted September 6, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54538-2001Sep6.html
Europe Ponders New Force for Macedonia
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 7, 2001; Page A20
PARIS, Sept. 6 -- European diplomats and military planners have concluded that some kind of foreign troop presence in Macedonia will probably be needed after the NATO disarmament mission there ends late this month. Otherwise, they fear, the Balkan country's shaky peace deal could unravel and civil strife may resume.
Officially, NATO is still committed to ending its operation based on a strict 30-day deadline, once weapons have been collected from ethnic Albanian insurgents and Macedonia's parliament approves a new power-sharing accord.
But in European capitals, the question has largely moved on from whether there will be a post-NATO presence to what kind, under what flag, for what duration, and with what mandate. Among the options is a force assembled by the European Union or United Nations.
The U.S. position on what could become a third long-term peacekeeping force in the Balkans remains unclear. But a Bush administration official said today that Washington might be willing to continue the logistical support it is giving to the disarmament mission.
"What is clear is that the European Union and the international community will remain engaged in Macedonia," said a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief. "The discussion of flags depends on what needs to be done." She said that there was no European agreement yet on what to do.
The 4,000 NATO troops now in Macedonia are led by a British contingent. The force has already taken custody of about 1,100 of the 3,300 weapons the rebels have declared they have. Today the Macedonian parliament, after days of divisive debate, voted to begin constitutional changes aimed at increasing ethnic Albanian rights; under the peace plan, the rebels are meant to respond to that vote by handing over to NATO the second of three installments of 1,100 weapons.
The end of the collection is supposed to set off a lengthy reconciliation process to be monitored by observers from the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Those observers will be unarmed in a potentially still dangerous country, raising the question of who will provide for their security.
This week the U.S. envoy for Macedonia, James Pardew, told BBC Radio that under the peace agreement, the monitors "would not be armed, and that does raise the question . . . whether there should be an extension of the military mandate."
The Bush administration official said the focus now is on ensuring that the current operation is completed successfully. But there is no reason why the intelligence, airlift and logistical support the United States is now providing could not be continued if necessary, the official said.
"I haven't heard anyone say -- absolutely no way, no how," the official said, adding that consultations must take place with NATO to "see what's required."
A senior Defense Department official said that so far no one at the Pentagon had been asked to consider a contribution to a peacekeeping force in Macedonia.
NATO remains publicly opposed to extending its operation, called Essential Harvest. It is reluctant to be dragged into another open-ended stay in the Balkans. NATO now leads 20,000 peacekeeping troops in Bosnia and another 40,000 in Kosovo with no prospects for an early exit.
The guerrillas in Macedonia have let it be known they want NATO troops to stay to help protect the minority ethnic Albanian communities from a feared government assault, and one rebel leader threatened to remobilize if the Western troops pull out. Macedonia's hard-line interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, has hinted of a new crackdown after the NATO arms-collection mission.
According to reports from Macedonia today, British troops intervened to prevent a paramilitary unit of Macedonian Slavs from clashing with armed ethnic Albanian civilians, following an incident in which an ethnic Albanian police officer was fired on.
One frequently mentioned idea is for forces from interested countries -- a "coalition of the willing" -- to be deployed using NATO assets, so the mission would not technically be a NATO operation.
The most concrete proposal so far has come from the EU representative for Macedonia, Francois Leotard, who was quoted during a visit to Moscow as calling for a pan-European force of 1,500 troops and saying he had already suggested the idea to several European countries. But a top EU diplomat cautioned that there is no decision.
Another option might be for the United Nations to replace NATO in a security role. Francois Heisbourg, a French defense expert, recalled how the world body's 1,100-member Preventive Deployment Force helped keep Balkans violence out of Macedonia in the 1990s.
Foreign ministers will meet informally this weekend in Brussels to begin talks on several possibilities.
In the meantime, political leaders from NATO countries are hedging about what will come next. Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, visited Macedonia last week and said the plan was still for the troops to leave once the rebel arms were collected. But he added: "Nothing, particularly in the Balkans, is inevitable. If you are asking me whether that NATO decision may change, well, it could change."
"There's almost a consensus that there will be a need for a continuing international presence -- the question is which one," said a Danish Foreign Ministry official. Among the unknown factors weighing on any decision, he said, was how the situation develops on the ground in Macedonia. A Danish general commands the current mission.
Col. Konrad Freytag, a spokesman for the Allied headquarters in Brussels, said in a telephone interview that NATO was ready to do what its governments decided. "We tell our political masters, 'If you want us to do something after 30 days, tell us soon.' "
Staff writer Vernon Loeb contributed to this report from Washington.
Macedonia Assembly Votes to Draft Reforms for Peace Posted September 6, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010906/wl/balkans_macedonia_dc_444.html
Thursday September 6 5:48 PM ET
Macedonia Assembly Votes to Draft Reforms for Peace
By Mark Heinrich
SKOPJE (Reuters) - The Macedonian parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to draft reforms vital to a Western- backed peace plan with ethnic Albanians after a delay that threatened to derail NATO (news - web sites)'s disarmament of guerrillas.
Legislators cleared the first big hurdle toward lasting peace in the Balkan republic by voting 91 to 19 to authorize a procedure to rewrite parts of the constitution to improve the civil rights of minority Albanians, who form about a third of the population.
Parliament will be required to ratify the changes as soon as NATO completes a 30-day mission to disarm the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army, or NLA, which began handing in its weapons last week. NATO's deadline is September 26.
Lawmakers began debating the peace plan on Friday but were silenced for two days by the hard-line nationalist speaker of parliament who demanded concessions, such as immediate returns of refugees, in return for constitutional changes.
He backed off after Western envoys warned the demands were untenable before the rebels demobilized and reforms were passed.
A NATO spokesman welcomed Thursday's vote and told Reuters the guerrillas, who turned in one-third of their declared 3,300 weapons in three days last week, would resume disarming shortly.
In Washington, the State Department also welcomed the decision. ``We were pleased by this step. We commend, first of all, Macedonia's legislators for the positive vote for peace, and we look to continuing constructive debate as implementation moves forward,'' said spokesman Richard Boucher.
``We encourage all of Macedonia's political leaders and its people to help build on this momentum for peace and to move forward with the next step,'' he added.
GUERRILLAS SATISFIED
A rebel brigade commander known as Commander Qeka told Reuters: ``We were waiting for the vote and finally it has been achieved. This makes us 80 percent sure that the war is about to end and we're willing to continue our cooperation.''
The reforms would decentralize power, allow greater official use of the Albanian language, recognize higher education in Albanian and give Albanians jobs in public service, especially the police, commensurate with their share of the population.
Despite the resounding vote, peace is not sewn up yet.
Enshrining reforms will entail a two-thirds majority and the assembly's predominant nationalists who railed over Macedonia's ``capitulation to terrorism'' during four days of bitter debate have hinted they will try to block or dilute key reform clauses.
Aside from Albanian deputies, few were enthusiastic about the course parliament had taken even if they had endorsed it.
``I feel humiliated. The adoption of the initiative today is I guess a good thing because we will be able to discuss (specific) amendments. But it will be a minefield,'' said Filip Petrovski of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, parliament's largest party.
Many Macedonians suspect that the guerrillas have hidden weapons and resent the Western pressure exerted to push wary government leaders into signing the Aug. 13 peace accord.
``This is a triumph of terror and violence over democracy in one country, and we are witnesses to it. A lot of us were forced to vote this way because our leaders put their signatures to the peace document,'' said Zlatko Stojmenov, another VMRO deputy.
``We're satisfied with the outcome today because we think it will positively influence the way the peace process turns out,'' said Nikola Popovski of the moderate SDSM party.
Ethnic Albanian legislators and guerrillas warn that if reforms fail in parliament, Macedonia will slide back into war.
With Macedonian-Albanian animosity still smoldering on the ground, Western authorities worry that the country could relapse into bloodshed after NATO's small task force finishes collecting weapons from the insurgents.
'INTERNATIONAL STABILIZATION FORCE'
Two senior Western envoys have been floating the idea of an international stabilization force in Macedonia, challenging the reluctance of NATO countries to engage in another Balkans peacekeeping mission after Bosnia and Kosovo.
American envoy James Pardew said on Thursday that Russia, which has smarted over its secondary role in Balkan peacekeeping missions since 1995, had approved the proposal of a new force and Moscow's participation would be welcomed.
For his part, the European Union (news - web sites)'s Macedonia envoy, Francois Leotard, has called for a 1,500-strong EU contingent.
Macedonia, insecure about its sovereignty and convinced the West is pro-Albanian, is likely to reject any international security presence unless it includes non-NATO states like Russia, with whom it shares Slav Orthodox kinship.
Only 49 European monitors are now in Macedonia but officials are studying ways of increasing the mission to several hundred who would try to deter noncompliance with the peace accord.
As a first step, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe plans to almost double the size of its mission to 51.
The NLA rose up in February and overran much of the northern highlands, saying they were fighting to end state discrimination against Albanians after years of futile political negotiations by Albanian civilian leaders.
Scores of people have been killed in the fifth nationalist conflict involving regions of former Yugoslavia since 1991.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten arrived in Skopje later on Thursday to present strong practical arguments for Macedonian leaders to get cracking on the road to peace.
The EU co-sponsored the peace accord and its financial aid will be important for Macedonia, the poorest former republic of the old federal Yugoslavia.
Patten said he and Solana would discuss financial aid Macedonia could count on if reforms are enacted, mentioning a planned conference of would-be donors. Solana was also likely to sound out Skopje's views on an international security component.
NATO Says Onus on NLA to Promote Macedonian Peace Posted September 6, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010906/wl/balkans_macedonia_nato_dc_1.html
Thursday September 6 5:35 PM ET
NATO Says Onus on NLA to Promote Macedonian Peace
By Stephanie Holmes
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - NATO (news - web sites) Secretary-General George Robertson welcomed a vote for reforms Thursday by Macedonia's parliament and said the onus of furthering peace there now lay with ethnic Albanian rebels.
``Today the parliament of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has taken the historic decision to proceed with constitutional reforms that will restore peace and stability,'' Robertson said in a statement.
``The voting today enjoyed a broad majority.''
Parliament voted by 91 to 19 to authorize a special committee to rewrite parts of the constitution to improve the civil rights of Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority, as agreed last month under a Western-mediated peace deal.
The package is to be submitted for ratification later this month, within three days of NATO completing a 30-day mission to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army, known as the NLA, which began handing in weapons last week as its contribution to the deal.
``The vote speaks very loudly for the people of Macedonia,'' Robertson told Reuters after giving a speech in the northern English city of Liverpool.
``The parliamentarians have shown the way but the NLA must now hand over more of their weapons quickly and in accordance with their promises. The rest of the agreement must now be carried through.''
Despite speculation that NATO may have to stay beyond the late September deadline set for its mission, Robertson said the 4,500-strong force would only remain in Macedonia according to the terms originally agreed.
``Both the mission, which is what we were requested to do and the time limit, which is what the military commanders believe were right, will stand,'' Robertson said.
``Any decision to go beyond the 30 days requires another decision by the North Atlantic Council, by 19 governments unanimously.''
NATO had had no word from the Macedonian government that it would like the force to remain beyond the deadline, he said.
Militant 'watched village killings' Posted September 6, 2001
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/06/wmac06.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/09/06/ixhome.html
Militant 'watched village killings'
By Christian Jennings in Skopje and Michael Smith Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 06/09/2001)
HUMAN rights investigators yesterday demanded an inquiry into the role of Macedonia's hardline interior minister in the killings of ethnic Albanian civilians.
Macedonian state television broadcast footage on Aug 12 showing Ljube Boskovski, the interior minister, on the balcony of a home overlooking the village of Ljuboten.
According to the 27-page report from the New York-based Human Rights Watch, the Macedonian police were conducting revenge killings in the village. At least 10 people died and 22 dwellings were razed during the attack.
Mr Boskovski, an ultra-nationalist former ice cream seller, is regarded as one of the fiercest critics of Nato's role in the Balkan state. He has denied any wrongdoing, saying the violence was all battle-related.
But Human Rights Watch reported: "The evidence available to [us] indicates that the attack on Ljuboten had no military justification and was carried out for purposes of revenge and reprisal."
The attack began days after two attacks by rebel Albanians left 18 Macedonian soldiers dead.
They were painful blows to the small, hard-pressed army. Soon after, security forces sealed off Ljuboten, a mainly ethnic Albanian village on the fluid front line just north of Skopje, and a brutal attack began.
Masked policemen entered the village, going from house to house, opening fire with rocket launchers and automatic weapons, and throwing hand grenades through windows and into basements.
As Albanian civilians tried to flee they were attacked by Macedonian vigilantes, who, in full view of policemen, beat at least three of them unconscious, while a Macedonian policeman shot an Albanian man in the head as he tried to leave.
Diplomats from Nato states have long been concerned by the behaviour of Mr Boskovski and his allies.
He has what one Western diplomat described as "a very distasteful past". A 40-year-old lawyer, he is violently anti-Albanian and anti-Serb.
Paradoxically, he first saw action fighting against Serbs and alongside Albanians in Croatia. He later developed links to Arkan, the ultra-nationalist Serb paramilitary leader.
An intimate of Ljubco Georgievski, the Macedonian Prime Minister, his role as interior minister has allowed him to groom his own elite special police unit known, like Arkan's paramilitaries, as the Tigers.
HRW: Crimes Against Civilians - Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001 Posted September 5, 2001
Full report at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/macedonia/
Macedonia
Crimes Against Civilians:
Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001
Photo Gallery
SUMMARY.. 2
RECOMMENDATIONS. 3
To the Macedonian government 3
To the International Community. 4
To the OSCE. 4
To the Council of Europe. 5
INTRODUCTION.. 5
GOVERNMENT ABUSES DURING THE OFFENSIVE IN LJUBOTEN.. 6
The Shelling on August 10-11. 6
The Government Offensive on August 12. 7
Attacks and Abuses Against Fleeing Civilians. 13
The Responsibility of the Security Forces and the Role of Minister of the Interior Boskovski 17
Unsupported Government Claims of an NLA Presence in Ljuboten. 17
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.. 19
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 19
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 22
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
This report details a three-day operation by Macedonian police against the predominantly ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten from August 10-12, 2001. The operation left ten civilians dead and resulted in the arrest of more than 100 men, many of whom were severely beaten while in police custody. Contrary to assertions by the Macedonian government, a Human Rights Watch investigation on the ground in Ljuboten found no evidence of a presence by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army. Human Rights Watch calls on the Macedonian government to conduct an independent and impartial inquiry into the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that occurred in Ljuboten.
Following a landmine explosion that killed eight government soldiers on the Skopska Crna Gorna mountain on Friday, August 10, 2001, Macedonian police forces sealed off a nearby ethnic Albanian village, Ljuboten, and began a fierce attack on the village. Following two days of shelling of Ljuboten on Friday and Saturday, several hundred Macedonian police forces entered the village on Sunday, August 12 and began a house-to-house attack along the northern-most street in Ljuboten.
Macedonian police forces committed serious abuses during their three-day operation in Ljuboten. They indiscriminately shelled the village, causing the deaths of a six-year-old boy and a sixty-six-year-old man, and contributing to the death of another elderly man who died from shock after a shell hit his home. During their Sunday house-to-house attack, police forces shot dead six civilians. One man was killed by police as he tried to close the door to his home when the police entered the yard. Two men were summarily executed by police after they were taken out of the basement in which they were hiding. Another three civilians were shot dead by police after they attempted to flee their home, which had been set afire by police shelling.
During their Sunday attack, police fired indiscriminately into the homes of civilians, at times throwing hand grenades and even firing rocket-propelled grenades into homes. One such rocket-propelled grenade was fired directly into a room filled with four men, their wives, and eight children. The Macedonian police also burned at least twenty-two houses, sheds, and stores along their route, using gasoline to set many of them aflame. In some cases, police officers robbed civilians of their valuables.
The abuse continued for the hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians who tried to flee Ljuboten. At least three men were beaten unconscious by ethnic Macedonian vigilantes in full view of the Macedonian police, and one was shot and wounded as he attempted to flee the beating. Over one hundred men were arrested and taken to police stations in Skopje, where they were subjected to severe beatings. Atulah Qaini, aged thirty-five, was taken away alive from the village by police officers, and his badly beaten and mutilated corpse was later recovered by family members from the city morgue. Another man was beaten so severely that he had to be hospitalized. At least twenty-four men, including a thirteen-year-old boy, remain in police custody at the time of publication of this report.
The Ljuboten operation was carried out by the Macedonian Ministry of Interiors regular and reservist police troops. The Ministry of Interior claims that the operation was directed against a stronghold of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), and that the persons killed were terrorists. However, the detailed Human Rights Watch investigation summarized in this report refutes that claim. There is no credible evidence that there was an NLA presence in Ljuboten during the attack, nor that any of the villagers put up an armed resistance against the Macedonian police forces. The evidence available to Human Rights Watch indicates that the attack on Ljuboten had no military justification and was carried out for purposes of revenge.
The abuses committed by the Macedonian police are among the most serious committed so far in Macedonias six-month old conflict. A government newscast on Sunday evening, August 12, showed Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube Boskovski, personally present in Ljuboten that day. According to the newscaster, the Minister was present during the entire operation on Sunday. It is imperative that an independent and credible investigation is conducted into the role of Minister Ljube Boskovski, as well as the troops under his command, in the events in Ljuboten. Should the Macedonian authorities fail to carry out such an investigation, an inquiry should be commenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the course of the Macedonia conflict.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were able to visit Ljuboten two days after the Sunday attack, and gathered significant information from the scene and from villagers. However, the OSCE chose to remain silent about the abuses in Ljuboten. By remaining silent, the OSCE has helped the Macedonian government maintain its version of events in Ljuboten and avoid any further investigation.
The OSCE mission dates from 1992, when it was initially conceived as an effort to avoid the spillover of conflict from other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Human rights monitoring is implicit in the missions mandate and human rights monitoring has traditionally been part of its activities. Indeed, the mission has appropriately spoken out against abuses by the National Liberation Army (NLA). The OSCE is being prevented from effectively and publicly confronting the Macedonian government about its persistent human rights problems by deep hostility from the Macedonian government, a clear lack of capacity, and insufficient support from OSCE member states. The OSCE mission in Macedonia needs dramatically increased capacity and the political support of OSCE member states to effectively address the persistent human rights problems that risk undermining the fragile peace in Macedonia.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the Macedonian government:
Investigate and prosecute the persons responsible for the abuses in Ljuboten. Conduct a credible, impartial, and transparent investigation into the allegations of government abuses in Ljuboten, including the role of Minister of the Interior Ljube Boskovski and the forces under his command. The authorities who carry out the investigation should be independent from the government agencies involved in the Ljuboten operation, particularly the Ministry of Interior.
Take immediate steps to bring an end to the endemic and widespread police abuse at police stations in Kumanovo, Skopje and Tetovo. Provide focused training to all police personnel on human rights standards, make it clear to all police personnel that human rights abuses will not be tolerated, investigate alleged abuses and discipline or prosecute police officials found to be responsible.
Conduct credible, impartial, and transparent investigations into all cases of deaths in custody.
Allow international monitors regular access to all police facilities.
Provide prompt and fair compensation to the victims and the families of victims, and the residents of Ljuboten who lost homes or property during the government actions in Ljuboten.
Cooperate with international organizations, including the OSCE and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in their efforts to monitor and investigate alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both sides to the conflict in Macedonia.
Take immediate steps to end the practice of detaining children in adult jails, and ensure that children do not face abuse in detention. Ensure that children are only detained as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Ensure that conditions of confinement meet international standards of juvenile justice, and that children are never
detained with adults.
To the International Community:
Insist on a credible, impartial, and transparent investigation into the allegations of government abuses in Ljuboten, and accountability for those abuses.
Increase the monitoring capacity of the OSCE in Macedonia, and ensure diplomatic, political and financial support for the work of the OSCE, ICTY, and other international organizations monitoring and investigating human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations in Macedonia.
Demand an immediate end to the endemic abuse at police stations in Macedonia. Insist on regular access for international monitors to police stations, and provide support for training programs designed to promote respect for human rights among police personnel.
Closely monitor abuses committed on all sides to the conflict in Macedonia. Publicly raise concerns about serious human rights abuses with the Macedonian government or the NLA, as appropriate, and demand an end to abuses.
To the OSCE:
Make public the OSCEs conclusions of its investigation of the events in Ljuboten, and publicly demand a credible, impartial, and transparent government investigation into the allegations of government abuses in Ljuboten.
Expand the mandate of the OSCE mission in Macedonia to explicitly provide for monitoring and public reporting of human rights abuses committed by all sides to the conflict in Macedonia.
Increase the monitoring capacity of the OSCE mission in Macedonia to ensure sufficient capacity to credibly and adequately monitor abuses committed by all sides to the conflict.
The OSCE mission in Macedonia should closely monitor police abuse and detention conditions and carry out regular visits to police stations.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media should condemn statements to the media and reporting that incites ethnically motivated violence, and he should seek ways to promote objective and accurate reporting of the conflict in Macedonia.
To the Council of Europe:
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe should restart the prematurely closed monitoring procedure regarding Macedonia.
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture should visit Macedonia, paying particularly close attention to conditions in police stations in Skopje, Tetovo, and Kumanovo.
INTRODUCTION
On the morning of Friday, August 10, 2001, a Macedonian military vehicle ran over two anti-tank mines on the Skopska Crna Gorna mountain just north of the capital Skopje. The explosion killed a total of eight Macedonian soldiers and wounded about eight others.[1] The deadly mine explosion was preceded by an equally devastating NLA attack just days before, when an NLA ambush of a military convoy on the main Skopje-Tetovo road killed ten government soldiers.[2] Overall, the four days leading up to August 10 had been the bloodiest in Macedonias six-month conflict, claiming the lives of at least twenty-five persons. Tensions in the country were brought to a boiling point, despite the reaching of a political accord between Macedonias main political parties due to be signed the following Monday, August 13.
The mine incident took place on a remote country road in the mountain above the small ethnic-Albanian village of Ljuboten. The site of the explosion was within the traditional grazing areas of that village. Ljuboten, home to about 3,000 ethnic Albanians and a small number of ethnic Macedonians, is surrounded by the larger ethnic Macedonian villages of Ljubance, Rastak, and Radisane. Two of the Macedonian soldiers killed in the mine incident were from Ljubance, and most of the others were from the Skopje area.[3] The two Macedonian soldiers killed from the village of Ljubance were identified as thirty-three-year-old Tome Batalevski, a father of two, and his cousin, thirty-nine-year-old Goce Cankulovski.[4]
Almost immediately after the mine explosion, the Macedonian security forces sealed off Ljuboten and began shelling the village. The shelling continued for most of Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, Macedonian police forces entered the village and conducted an all-day offensive. Grave abuses were committed during that offensive, including the summary killings of civilians, widespread arson and looting, and indiscriminate attacks against civilians. Over a hundred civilians were arrested and taken from the village and subjected to serious abuse at police stations, while other fleeing civilians were severely beaten by ethnic Macedonian vigilantes. Although the government characterized the offensive as fightings [sic] of the joint security forces of the Republic of Macedonia with para-military groups of the so-called NLA,[5] there is no credible evidence that there was an NLA presence in the village during the government attack.
This report reconstructs the events in Ljuboten, based on interviews with victims and eyewitnesses from Ljuboten, community leaders, international observers and journalists, as well as information provided by government officials and agencies. Human Rights Watch researchers also visited the village of Ljuboten and had access to extensive photographic evidence.
GOVERNMENT ABUSES DURING THE OFFENSIVE IN LJUBOTEN
The Shelling on August 10-11
The Macedonian government offensive in Ljuboten started almost immediately following the mine explosion. The police checkpoints around Ljuboten sealed off the village, and shooting and shelling began before the villagers were even aware of the deadly mine incident. Saifi Fetahu, a fifty-six-year-old mother of five, told Human Rights Watch the shooting took the village by surprise:
Friday morning at eight in the morning we were having breakfast. I heard automatic rifle fire, the shooting started and we knew nothing about it. When they started shelling, the house was shaking and the kids started yelling. We went to the basement and were afraid to get out, even to get water. They [Macedonian forces] were shooting all day and all night at the houses. The kids of my son, aged eight, six, and two, were very afraid. The youngest one just grabbed hold of me and refused to let go.[6]
The shelling and shooting continued until the early afternoon on Friday, resuming at about 3 or 4 p.m. and lasting until Saturday morning. There was only intermittent shelling and shooting on Saturday, but many civilians were unable to move out of their homes because of sniper fire from Macedonian positions. Twenty-year-old Dilaver Fetahu related how his family was unable to move because of sniper fire:
On Friday morning, there was heavy shelling, but in the afternoon it was a bit calmer. Then people started walking around a bit, because there was no major shooting. I went to the store to buy some cigarettes at about 3 or 4 p.m., and when they started shooting again I didnt know which way to run. I was running and the bullets were hitting around me, but I reached my home safely.
When I came to my house, we couldnt move because [the Macedonian security forces] had control over every house in our area. They were observing us with binoculars, and they would shoot at every movement. So we were stuck there until Sunday morning, we couldnt move from our area.[7]
When the shelling resumed on Friday afternoon, six-year-old Erxhan Aliu was playing in the street. Basqim, (not his real name), a twenty-five-year-old farmer from the village, watched as Erxhan was hit by a shell: On Friday, at about 5 or 6 p.m. when the shelling started again, there were people standing in the road and I was watching them. There were some kids also. I saw the kids running towards [the adults] and at the same moment a grenade hit the kid. The boy flew into the air and there was lots of smoke. Everyone fled, and one man picked up the boy.[8] Erxhans uncle brought the mortally wounded boy into the basement, where he soon died from his wounds. According to his mother, it was difficult to bury the boys body the next day (as required by Muslim tradition) because of the persistent sniper fire. She told Human Rights Watch: We couldnt bury him the regular way [at the cemetery], we had to bury him the next day at 3 p.m. in the yard. It was very difficult to bury him, the men had to crawl.[9] When Exhans parents fled the village on Sunday afternoon, his thirty-five-year-old father Hisni Aliu was arrested, and he remained in detention at the time of the publication of this report.
A second person, Haxhi Meta Xhavit, aged around seventy, also died on Friday morning, apparently from shock or heart failure after a shell hit his home.[10]
The Government Offensive on August 12
On Sunday morning at about 8 a.m., after a brief lull in the shooting and shelling that had started on Saturday afternoon, Macedonian police forces entered Ljuboten, coming from the direction of the ethnic Macedonian village of Ljubance. The reason for the renewed offensive remains unclear, although it is possible that it was sparked by an NLA shelling attack on a police position near Ljubance on Sunday morning.[11] The Macedonian force that attacked Ljuboten Sunday morning was made up of Ministry of Interior troops, estimated by village leaders to number over 200, backed up by at least two armored personnel carriers (APCs).[12] The day-long attack focused mainly along the northern edge of the village, as the troops moved down Fifth Street (Ulitca Pet) before turning left on the Rastak road, continuously attacking and often burning homes as they went along.
Haxhi Dalip Murati, aged sixty-six, was at his home at about 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, talking on the phone when a shell hit his house and gravely injured him in the stomach area. He was brought to the house of his brother. When the family was forced to flee the village sometime later because of the heavy fighting, Haxhi Dalip Murati asked his family to leave him behind. His sons refused to leave their father behind, and carried him down to the river in a blanket, while the shooting continued. Haxhi Dalip Murati died from his wounds at the river, and was buried in a shallow grave there.[13]
Elmas Jusufis home was among the first to be attacked. Elmas Jusufi, a fifty-eight-year-old bed-ridden paraplegic, told Human Rights Watch how the Macedonian police forces blew away the gate of his home, shot dead his thirty-three-year-old son Rami Jusufi through the front door of the home, and then torched his car:
The moment the attack [on the village] started, they came to my house. My front yard was full with them, there were about twenty. They were all in uniform, but not masked. They bombed the gate to the yard. Then my son went to close the [front] door. At the moment he closed the door and went back into the room, there was a huge explosion, they blew away the door with machinegun fire. That was the moment my son was hit in the side and stomach from their shots. He fell down there, it happened right in front of my eyes.
The police did not come into the house. I got into my wheelchair and went close to the door [and my son]. My son was suffering for about two hours, he was in a lot of pain. . . .
My car was parked in the front yard, right next to the gate. They poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. I heard the police say, Pour the gasoline.[14]
Muzafer Jusufi, a fifty-one-year-old relative, was also at the home of Elmas Jusufi at the time of the shooting. During a separate interview with Human Rights Watch, he gave a similar account of the incident:
The firing started and I went to see Elmas. A very short time later, heavy firing started all around the village. After two seconds, the gate to the front yard was blown up, either from a grenade or an RPG [a rocket-propelled grenade], I dont know. Immediately, they came inside the front yard.
Then they shot a burst at the car. One of them shouted, Give me the gasoline. They set the car on fire with the gasoline.
Then they came towards the entrance to the house. They started shooting automatic bursts in our direction. [Rami Jusufi] was locking the door, and after he locked the door he was shot. There were a lot of police officers, maybe fifteen or twenty. After one and a half to two hours, the boy died. [The police] did not come in, they just stood at the door. They were swearing at us all the time, Motherfuckers, we will kill you all.[15]
After shooting Rami Jusufi and burning the car, three police officers remained at the home, using an exterior staircase to reach the terrace of the home and firing into the village from there.
A Human Rights Watch visit to the home of Elmas Jusufi found a physical scene consistent with his account. The gate to the yard had been blown away by an explosion. The burned-out hulk of a car remained in the garden. Bullet casings were found lying in the yard about 6 meters from the front door, apparently the shots fired at Rami Jusufi, and bullet holes were found in the front door.
According to the villagers in Ljuboten, the police then moved down the street, burning the home of Muzafer Jusufi, the store and home of Isif Jusufi, the home of Sabit Jusufi, the home of Nazimi Jusufi, the home of Xhavit Jusufi, another store, and the home of Agim Jusufi. In another home nearby, the police threw two hand grenades into a room.[16]
The police then arrived at the large home of thirty-three-year-old Naziv Hiseini, who was in his home when the attack began. Also with him were his brother, a cousin, his grandfather, their wives, and eight children. Naziv Hiseini described to Human Rights Watch how the police troops started firing at the home, using RPGs, rifle-fired grenades, and automatic gunfire, as soon as they spotted people inside:
It was 8 a.m. on Sunday, my brother went to his house and then the shooting started. He came back to my house about ten minutes later; he had to run through the bullets. . . .We were stuck there, staying at my house, hiding under the stairs.
Then an APC came. My brother and I went up to the first floor to see who they were. A guy was on top of the APC, he yelled Tuka Se!, [They are here!], and he threw a grenade at us. They started shooting towards the house with the mounted machinegun. The grenade fell just in front of the house.
First they were on the side of the house, and they couldnt shoot through the walls. So they went a bit further and were directly in front of the house, and started shooting again. They were firing on the second and third floor from the APC; they broke all the windows.
Then they came to the gate of the yard, the gate was closed. They shot out the lock to break it, but they couldnt do it. Afterwards, I dont know how, but they blew away the whole door. Then, when they had opened the gate, they shot with a Zola [RPG] from the road. They took the first shot, the RPG went right through the door and a wall and exploded inside the room. Then they came closer to the door. They shot the small grenade, from the automatic rifle, and at the same time they threw a hand grenade.
When they fired the small grenade [from the automatic rifle], it hit me on the back and it started smoking [but didnt explode]. The kids and everyone were yelling, there was a lot of smoke in the room.[17]
The family then fled into another room. When they attempted to leave the house through a window, the police fired on the window. They hid behind the couches until the police moved on, and watched the police move on to the houses of their neighbors and set them on fire. Three neighboring houses were burned by the police: the homes of Husni Sadiku, Ixhmet Rexhepi, and Abdullah Lutfiu. A fourth neighboring home, belonging to Nexhazim Osmani, burned down after being hit by a grenade. A sixty-year-old resident of one of the burned homes explained what happened:
The police came to my house at 11 a.m. We were in the basement hiding, fourteen of us, including three children. We heard the shooting at the houses. I heard shooting and they were talking about burning the houses. They were swearing about us. When I heard them say this, we ran away. The police were still inside the house, but they didnt see us because we ran away in small groups. . . . When I ran away, all three of our family homes were on fire. They burned the houses with gasoline, I smelled it when I was still in the basement.[18]
During an August 23 visit to Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch researchers inspected, photographed, and documented all of the burned homes in the village, and our findings were consistent with the accounts of the villagers. Human Rights Watch counted a total of twenty-two homes, stores, and sheds that had been set on fire or caught fire from shelling on August 12. In addition, the house of a Macedonian resident had been burned on August 16, 2001, possibly in revenge by ethnic Albanians, and at least one other Albanian home was then burned by Macedonian police on August 17, 2001.
After attacking the Hiseini home and burning the homes of his neighbors, the police reportedly turned onto the road towards Rastak, continuing to burn homes as they went. At the home of Shabi Lutfiu, the police burned a shed with four tractors and shot up a car. Across the street, they burned the home of Harun Lutfiu. The barn of Sami Jashari was burned, with some sixty lambs inside.[19]
One of the most serious abuses during the police raid took place at the house of Mexhit Ademi, where a group of eleven men were hiding. Two men were shot dead at the house, and another one of the men was later beaten to death, but some of the circumstances of the deaths remain unclear because all of the other men in the cellar continue to be detained by the police. At the moment, there is only one witness who was present at the home during the killings and who is not in police custody.
Sixty-six-year-old Aziz Bairami, the father of two of the men killed and three of the men arrested in Ljuboten that day,[20] was hiding in the basement of his neighbor Zias home with his sons Bekir, Sylejman, and Mevladin and eight female relatives during the attacks on Sunday. This home was adjacent to the house of Mexhit Ademi, where between seven and nine men had also been sheltering in the basement.
Suddenly, the police burst into Zias home and started firing into the basement without warning: They started shooting through the door; it wasnt even closed. Lots of shots were fired through the door from machine guns.[21] No one in the basement was injured, and the police then ordered everyone to come out. When we got out, they separated us men and lined us up, the four of us, kneeling down. They asked for IDs, and told us not to look up, not to look to the side, just to keep our heads down.[22] The police officer who asked for the IDs noticed that Aziz Bairami had a significant amount of money in his pocket, and stole it: [The police officer] saw that I had 3,000 [German] Marks and 7,000 [Macedonian] Dinars and took all of the money, telling me, Dont tell anybody.[23] The police also stole gold jewelry, a traditional means of safeguarding savings, from the women of the family.
Aziz Bairami and his three sons were then told to walk over to the neighboring house of Mexhit Ademi:
They said to stand up and keep our hands behind our heads. Again, they told us not to look up and keep our heads down. They took us to a small gate between the yards. There were these young men there from the neighboring house, about eight or nine of them. I was trying to look and I saw that they all had their T-shirts over their heads.[24]
Aziz Bairami and his sons were then ordered to lay down next to the men. Soon thereafter, one of the police officers kicked twenty-one-year-old Sylejman in the head, and the boy stood up stunned, tried to run away, and was shot down. The police officers then ordered Aziz Bairami and another elderly man, sixty-eight-year-old Muharrem Bairami, to leave the scene. Aziz Bairami quickly ran away, but heard gunshots behind him, as Muharrem was shot dead:
Then we were also told to lay down with them. One of the police officers came to Sylejman and kicked him in the head. His head hit the asphalt and he was in pain, and he stood up stunned. As Sylejman stood up [and tried to run], the policeman [who kicked him] shot once and then everyone was shooting. I was hit in the hand [by a bullet]. I was lying down at the time, with my hands out. Blood was flowing under me.
I was lying down and I was saying to the police, Dont do this, he is a soldier and he was shot when he was a Macedonian border guard.. . . I couldnt see anything. Then I head one of them saying, This pig is still moving. Then again there was a gunshot, just a single gunshot. When Sylejman was shot, he was maybe two meters away from where he had been laying down.
We were all surrounded and they had their guns ready. I heard one of them saying, You motherfuckers, you are all terrorists, you are wearing black shirts. One of them started shouting, Long live Arkan.[25] Then they said, Come on now, one by one, stand up and dont look to the side. Then he said, You old men, go inside the house.
I thought that something would happen, so I quickly went back to the garden door and went out. Then I heard shooting, that is when they killed Muharrem, with two or three shots.[26]
International monitors of the OSCE and international journalists gained access to the village on Tuesday, August 14, and found five bodies that had not yet been buried. All five men were wearing civilian clothes. Human Rights Watch interviewed several of the journalists who had viewed the bodies, and also obtained copies of photographs taken by a foreign photographer of the bodies.
Two of the bodies were found in the village itself, on a main road at the top end of the village, not far from the Ademi house.[27] The two bodies were identified by villagers as Sylejman Bairami, aged twenty-one, and Muharrem Ramadani, aged sixty-eight. Sylejman Bairami was found lying face down in the road, shot in the head and chest and with a large head wound.[28] Empty nine millimeter cartridges were lying close to Bairamis body, and bloody tire tracks from an armored personnel carrier (APC) suggested that his body had been run over by a Macedonian APC. He was wearing blue jeans and a brown T-shirt. Muharrem Ramadani was found with two bullet wounds in his back, and another, possibly post-mortem, bullet wound to the back of the head. He was wearing brown pants and a brown shirt, a white vest, and a black leather jacket. By the time journalists arrived, villagers had moved his body slightly to get it out of the sun.
The surviving men at the home of Mexhit Ademi were arrested following the killing of Sylejman and Muharrem and remain in custody at the time of the publication of the report. The body of one of the men, thirty-five-year-old Atulah Qaini, was recovered by his family from the Skopje city morgue on Saturday, August 18, 2001. Human Rights Watch inspected and photographed the body prior to burial. Atulahs body showed severe signs of beatings and torture, and was covered with bruises and cigarette burns. He had a crushed skull, but no gunshot wounds. He was last seen alive and in police custody at the home of Mexhit Ademi by Aziz Bairami, who recognized him among the young men lying down outside the basement. Although there are to date no witnesses to the killing of Atulah Qaini, there is no doubt that he was tortured and beaten to death in the custody of the Macedonian police. The family has not been given an official explanation for Atulahs death, even though he clearly died in police custody.
The other men arrested at the Ademi home were also subjected to severe beatings and abuse. One of the men, forty-five-year-old Adem Ametovski, was beaten so severely that he had to be hospitalized while remaining in custody. When his wife went to visit him on Friday, August 17, his face was so swollen and disfigured that she did not recognize him at first: His eyes were covered with blood and black. His skin on the forehead and sides was damaged, and his front teeth were broken. He didnt even know where he was. I asked him how he was, and he just didnt respond.[29] Fifty-three-year-old Qamili Bairami, the wife of Aziz Bairami, also went to visit her three sons in Shutka prison. She told Human Rights Watch that all three, including her thirteen-year-old, had bruises on their faces from the beatings they had received.[30] Human Rights Watch is gravely concerned about the safety and well-being of these detainees, who were direct witnesses to some of the most severe abuses committed by government troops in Ljuboten.
The police reportedly continued down the Rastak road, burning the garage of Ali Aliu with a tractor inside, and then shooting up the house of Aziz Bairami.[31] They then reached the house of sixty-five-year-old Qaini Jashari, who was hiding inside with two of his sons, thirty-three-year-old Bairam and thirty-one-year-old Kadri, as well as a cousin, twenty-five-year-old Xhelal Bairami (a son of Aziz Bairami). The police officers began firing with RPGs and automatic weapons at the house, causing it to catch on fire. Qaini Jashari escaped to a nearby ditch, but the three young men were gunned down while trying to escape from the burning home:
The police first surrounded us. I went to hide in a pipe nearby. The boys remained in the house, trying to hide. They started shelling the house with grenades and from their [APCs]. Then, the house caught on fire from the grenades; it was made out of wood.
When the fire started, the boys climbed out through a window. They ran away, but [the police] started shooting at them. The police were in the yard, maybe thirty or forty of them, with their [APCs].
[After the boys were shot,] four or five police walked up to them. They went to the farthest one, he was about twenty meters further away than the two others. He had run fastest, it was Kadri. They turned him aroundhe was lying on his stomach and they turned him on his back. He was still moving. They shot him [again] in the neck. Then they took his documents, I later found them by the road.[32]
The bodies of Bairam Jashari, Kadri Jashari, and Xhelal Bairami remained in the places where they were shot when international journalists and OSCE monitors gained access to Ljuboten on August 14, 2001. All three were wearing civilian clothes, and none were wearing the combat boots that are customary for NLA soldiers, even when in civilian dress. The body of thirty-three-year-old Bairam Jashari was found just next to the tobacco drying shed above the burned-out home of Qaini Jashari. Bairam was still wearing a pair of rubber slippers, and had been shot several times in the legs and the pelvis, and had an exit wound through the neck.[33] Twenty-five-year-old Xhelal Bairamis body had multiple gunshot wounds in the back, the buttocks, and the back of his legs, suggesting he was shot in the back while running away.[34] The body of thirty-one-year-old Kadri Jashari was found a few meters farther away from the house of Qaini Jashari. His body showed several large exit wounds on the upper front of the chest and in his neck, suggesting again that he had been shot in the back while running away.[35] According to his family, Kadri had just returned ten days before from working in Austria to earn money to support his family, a common practice in ethnic Albanian society.[36]
Attacks and Abuses Against Fleeing Civilians
While the police were carrying out their offensive on the main streets running along the top northern edge of the village, hundreds of civilians were hiding in basements throughout the village. The villagers were in regular contact with each other and with Albanian leaders outside the village through their telephones. The Albanian political leadership in Skopje was negotiating with the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Macedonian authorities to organize a general evacuation of the civilian population of the village, but these plans were frustrated by the presence of hostile Macedonian crowds who refused to let the evacuation convoy pass through.[37]
As the shooting and shelling intensified, and word of killings and arson by the Macedonian forces spread among the villagers, many decided to flee towards safety in the capital Skopje. The journey was a difficult one, involving passing through active fire zones, police checkpoints, and hostile Macedonian mobs. Many of the men were beaten by police or civilians during their flight, and over one hundred men were separated from their female relatives and children and taken to police stations where they faced more beatings. At least twenty-four of those men still remain in detention at the time of the publication of this report. The names of the remaining detainees are known to Human Rights Watch, and have been provided to other international monitoring organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The most severe violence was faced by the civilians who fled in the direction of Radushane, a neighboring ethnic Macedonian village. A number of fleeing villagers from Ljuboten were brutally beaten by masked ethnic Macedonian civilians close to the Radushane police checkpoint, in the presence of Macedonian police officers. Nineteen-year-old Ejup Hamiti recalled to Human Rights Watch how he was beaten by masked ethnic Macedonians near the checkpoint after fleeing the fighting, and then was shot and wounded by the police when he tried to escape his attackers:
Because of the big offensive, we left the village and headed for Skopje. We headed down to the river, as bullets were flying over our heads. Then we had to stop by the river, we couldnt go farther down because we would have reached Radushane. [We heard that] the OSCE buses were not allowed to come into the village by the police.
Then after some of my cousins spoke on the phone, we headed towards the asphalt road. We went one by one, because there were many old people and children, and we had to help them to the main road from the river. . . .
When we reached the checkpoint, there were civilians from Radushane nearby. . . . The civilians were wearing T-shirts over their heads, with holes for their eyes. They were holding bars and [began] beating us with them. [My friend] Dilaver told me, Lets get out of here because they are going to kill us. . . . We tried to run, and then I was shot, I heard the bang and then I remember nothing. . . . When I woke, I was lying in the bed in the hospital.[38]
Saifie Fetahu, a fifty-six-year-old mother of five, was with the same group of civilians as Ejup Hamiti. She and her husband fled their home at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, together with nine other relatives, including three young children. The group first fled down to the village cemetery, but was spotted there by Macedonian forces and shot at: When we reached the cemetery, they saw us there and started shooting at us from Ljubance and Rastak. The bullets were flying over our heads, only God saved us. Then we headed through the fields to the asphalt road [to Radushane].[39] Saifie Fetahu related what happened next:
When [the police] saw us coming, one police officer came to us and was pointing the gun at us. He told us to move quickly. . . . The police officer was saying to [my husband] Shaqir, Where were you, you terrorist? Shaqir told him, Dont do it like this, friend, we didnt do anything. Then the policeman said, Oh, no more friends, only death is waiting for you. He was dressed in a police uniform, he was a short one and dark skinned, if I saw him again I would recognize him. He said to my [twenty-year-old] son Dilaver also, You were in the NLA and now you want to go to Skopje, now you will see what awaits you.
We walked down until we reached a place where eight [ethnic Macedonian] civilians were wearing T-shirts over their head. They blocked the road and were holding big wooden sticks, cut from trees. When the kids saw them, they started yelling and crying.
They started beating [my son] Dilaver first and then Ejup. While they were beating them, Dilaver fell down and I told him, Get up, run away, because they will kill you. Then they started beating [my husband] Shaqir. Shaqir was hit on the shoulder with the wood, but he didnt fall down. Then they hit him on the head, he still didnt fall down. Then he was hit again on the head and it cracked his skull, he fell down and lost consciousness. . . . He fell down and was bleeding from behind his ear, his mouth and his nose. I went near him and turned him around, but he was not moving.
When Dilaver and Ejup started running, the firing didnt stop, from where we were and from the checkpoint where the others were. Dilaver ran away and then I took the kids and went towards the checkpoint. I left Shaqir behind.[40]
Ejup was shot in the head by the police during the incident and taken to the hospital. The unconscious Shaqir was also taken to a hospital in Skopje. Dilaver ran into Radushane, where he was stopped at gunpoint by Macedonian police reservists and ordered to lay down on the ground before being kicked unconscious: One of them kicked me in the face, like you kick a football. My head snapped around and I was bleeding from my mouth. As my head turned, the police officer guarding me kicked me on the other side behind the ear. I raised myself up a bit, keeping my head down, and was kicked in the head again. Then I lost consciousness.[41]
Dilaver woke up at the hospital in the same room as his father, his friend Ejup, and an ethnic Albanian taxi driver who had also been beaten unconscious in Radushane after driving a crew of Danish journalists into the village. When Dilaver regained consciousness, his mouth was filled with coagulated blood and he was very thirsty. His father tried to get him some water, but when a police officer noticed the father walking around, he entered the room and started beating the father and son:
A police officer came in to check, and when they saw my father on his feet they went towards him and punched him. He fell over the bed, and they jumped on him with their boots. . . . Then they kicked me in the stomach and hit me on the arm with their rubber truncheons.[42]
Dilaver, his father Shaqir and the Albanian taxi driver were then taken to a police station in Skopje, where they spent some time in a cell with between twenty and thirty severely beaten men from Ljuboten before being dropped by the side of the road and being forced to find their own way home in hospital pajamas, shoeless, and without documents. When Human Rights Watch visited the Fetahu home on August 23, eleven days after the beatings, to take testimonies from the family, the father Shaqir was still unable to talk and remained in severe shock, psychologically devastated from the brutal attack.
Most of the civilians who fled the village went along the river to a police checkpoint on the road to Skopje, where the men were separated from the women and children. The men were beaten, and then taken to the police station in Butel where they were severely beaten. The men were then taken to a second police station in Prolece, where they were again beaten. According to testimony gathered by Human Rights Watch more than one hundred men from the village were arrested, and all were beaten at the Butel, Prolece, and Karposh police stations in Skopje. At least twenty-four men remain in detention.
Twenty-seven-year-old Raif, one of the men arrested and beaten at the police stations, told Human Rights Watch about the beatings during the arrest at the checkpoint:
We were stuck by the riverwomen, children, and men. We were told that the Macedonian [crowds] were down [below] there, and the police were above us, so we didnt know what to do. Then some people started saying we should go down [to the checkpoint]. A lot of us were very afraid. We decided to cross the river and go down to the checkpoint.
When we reached there, we saw men with their shirts off, lying down. [The police] told us to come straight and keep our heads down. Then a policeman kicked me in the stomach, I was in pain. They told me also to take off my shirt. We laid down on our stomachs; we were shaking from fear.
The police kicked us in the back, stepped on us, and one hit me in the head with his rifle butt. They were swearing at us, and the women were crying and yelling for help for us. Afterwards, they told seven of us to stand up and we were put in a van.[43]
Ilir Gashi (not his real name), a twenty-five-year-old farmer, told Human Rights Watch how he and many other men from Ljuboten were beaten at the Butel and Prolece police stations:
They started beating us when they took us into the basement of the Butel police station. There were lots of police officers, some were kicking us, some were slapping us, some were punching us. . . .
In the police station, they took our names and information and held us for about one hour. . . .When they [moved] us, we had to walk on our knees with our hands behind our backs. Twenty or thirty police officers were outside waiting for us. One of the police kicked me right on the chest, I still have pain from this. They beat us some more, loaded us in the vans and took us to the police station in Prolece.
The Prolece police station was full, full with police officers, and also some civilians. Most of the police were masked. They took us out of the vans, and beat us on the way into the police station. Then they separated us into three rooms. In my room, there were eleven of us.
They started beating us there again, very brutally. Police officers would just come in and beat us, for four or five hours they beat us. I couldnt look because I had to have my head down the whole time. If you moved your head, they would beat you very badly.
The carpet was filled with blood, the others were bleeding a lot. They were calling us terrorists, swearing at us, and people outside [the police station] were shouting, Let Us Kill Them!, Kill the Shiptars! [a derogatory term for Albanians], Gas Chambers for the Shiptars! It was after 1 p.m., after the paraffin tests [to check for gunpowder residue on their hands], that the beatings stopped. . . . But from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. [on Monday], they beat us again, the same way. They would just come inside and beat us.
I was released at 5 p.m. with about fourteen of us. [They put us in police cars and] they told us that if they heard about any Macedonian casualties in the Skopje region, or any maltreatment of Macedonians, they would come and demolish all of Ljuboten. . . .
They unloaded us very brutally. . . . I was kicked in the ribs and hit five times on the head with a baseball bat. I fainted for a while, and when I revived the police had gone.[44]
Most of the over one hundred men originally arrested by the police were released on August 13 and 14 after suffering similar beatings, but at least twenty-four remain in custody at the time of the release of this report. They include the surviving men taken into custody at the home of Mexhit Ademi (see above), and other men who apparently tested positive in paraffin tests, an often unreliable method to determine whether a person has recently fired a weapon. According to relatives who have visited the remaining detainees, the men were severely abused during the first days of their detention.
The brutal abuses suffered by the men arrested from Ljuboten are not atypical for Macedonia. Since the beginning of the six-month old conflict in Macedonia, police abuse against ethnic Albanians has become increasingly widespread and routine. Ethnic Albanian men are regularly beaten and tortured at police stations throughout the crisis region. Human Rights Watch has documented severe beatings and torture at police stations in Skopje, Tetovo, and Kumanovo, including several lethal beatings.[45]
The Responsibility of the Security Forces and the Role of Minister of the Interior Boskovski
The Macedonian security forces that carried out the abuses documented in this report belong to the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for all police forces in Macedonia. Most likely, the security forces involved in the events in Ljuboten consisted of a mix of regular police forces as well as police reservists, the latter mobilized and armed by the Ministry of Interior in the past few months. Many of the villagers of Ljuboten interviewed by Human Rights Watch believed that some of the police reservists who participated in the abuses came from the ethnic Macedonian villages immediately surrounding Ljuboten, namely Ljubance, Rastak, and Radisane.
The Minister of Interior, Ljube Boskovski, was himself present in Ljuboten on Sunday, August 12, 2001, the day the worst abuses documented in this report took place. The Macedonian national television (MTV) broadcast that day, a copy of which was obtained by Human Rights Watch, shows Minister Boskovski on the balcony of an ethnic Macedonians home on the northern outskirts of Ljuboten, surrounded by several armed policemen. According to the state television newscast, Minister Boskovski was present during the entire operation in the village.[46] During an August 24, 2001, visit to Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch was shown the home in Ljuboten from which Minister Boskovski was filmed watching the offensive, located approximately fifty meters away from the street on which the worst violations took place. Minister Boskovski has acknowledged that he was present in Ljuboten on Sunday, but maintains that he arrived at around 4 p.m., after the operation was over.
The presence of Minister Boskovski in Ljuboten on the day that some of the worst abuses in Macedonias six-month-old conflict were committedabuses including the execution-style killing of civilians, house-by-house arson, looting, beatings, and torturedemands an investigation. It is imperative that an independent, impartial and credible investigation is conducted into the role of Minister Boskovski, as well as the role of those under his authority, in the events in Ljuboten. Serious abuses were committed in Ljuboten, and those responsible for ordering, committing, or condoning those abuses must be brought to account.
Unsupported Government Claims of an NLA Presence in Ljuboten
The Macedonian government claims that its operation in Ljuboten was justified as an anti-terrorist operation against fighters of the ethnic-Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) and that the persons killed were terrorists, the common term used by the Macedonian government for NLA fighters.[47]
It is a fundamental rule of international humanitarian law that military operations must be conducted against military targets and not civilian populations. Belligerents have to take all possible measures to limit the impact of their military operations on civilians, and cannot directly or indiscriminately attack civilians. Collective punishment and acts of retribution against the civilian population are strictly prohibited. Many of the abuses documented in this report, including summary executions, arson, looting, and torture, can never be justified under international humanitarian law, even if there was an NLA presence in Ljuboten.
No evidence came to light in the course of the Human Rights Watch investigation to support government claims that there was an NLA presence in Ljuboten during the government offensive. The NLA held control of the villages of Slupcane, Lipkovo, Matejce, and Nikustak on the opposite side of the Skopska Crna Gora mountain, but these positions are at least twelve kilometers away from Ljuboten along remote mountain paths. International observers told Human Rights Watch that the NLA had a small position on the Skopska Crna Gora mountain several kilometers outside Ljuboten, but that the NLA fighters from this position were not present in Ljuboten during the government offensive.[48]
It is significant that the government has not presented any credible evidence that there was an NLA presence in Ljuboten, such as confiscated NLA weapons or uniforms, despite the growing international concern about the events in the village. Ordinarily, the government displays captured weapons and uniforms in the aftermath of successful operations against the NLA. For example, after killing five alleged NLA rebels in the capital Skopje during an August 7 predawn raid, the government displayed a cache of arms it claimed to have found at the home.[49]
During a Human Rights Watch visit to Ljuboten, researchers carefully inspected the village and found no evidence of an NLA presence, such as the sandbag positions, pro-NLA graffiti, or the spent cartridges commonly seen in NLA-held villages. A military expert noted to Human Rights Watch that all of the spent cartridges and empty bullet boxes he found in the village on August 14 came from a single arms manufacturer, the Suvenir factory located in Samokov, near the capital Skopje.[50]
None of the international journalists or observers who visited Ljuboten in the aftermath of the fighting reported finding signs of an NLA presence in the village. Although the fact that the persons killed in the village were all wearing civilian clothes is not definitive evidence of their civilian status, NLA combatants do not ordinarily operate in civilian clothes during combat operations.
However, there was at least some connection between Ljuboten and the NLA. On several occasions, mostly during the month of June, armed and uniformed NLA representatives met international journalists in the village of Ljuboten to escort them across the frontlines and into the NLA-held villages on the other side of the Skopska Crna Gora mountain.
According to community leaders of Ljuboten, NLA penetration of Ljuboten was virtually impossible because the village was surrounded by larger ethnic Macedonian villages. All of the main roads out of the village had permanently manned Macedonian police checkpoints through which all civilians had to pass. Seeking to avoid conflict with their ethnic Macedonian neighbors, the community leaders had negotiated an agreement with the neighboring ethnic Macedonian villages and the security forces to keep the NLA out of their village. According to Xhenan Aliu, who negotiated the agreement:
We had talks with the army, the police, and the villages of Rastak and Ljubance. . . . We agreed that there would be no NLA in the village, and no army or police. We kept our promise, the NLA had nothing to do with our village. There was not a bullet fired back from Ljuboten [during the government offensive].[51]
The NLA had a base several kilometers above Ljuboten, in an area that the Macedonian security forces had declared off-limits for the villagers of Ljuboten. It is likely that this NLA position, which had no known links to the village of Ljuboten, was responsible for laying the mines that killed the eight government soldiers on August 10. The Macedonian government said a police post near the Macedonian village of Ljubance was attacked on the morning of Sunday, August 12, an attack probably also carried out by the NLA based in the mountain above the village of Ljuboten.[52]
The evidence available to Human Rights Watch indicates that the attack on Ljuboten had no military justification and was carried out against ethnic Albanian civilians for purposes of revenge and reprisal. On a number of occasions, the Macedonian security forces have participated in severe retaliation against ethnic Albanian civilian populations in revenge for losses suffered by the Macedonian security forces in fighting with the NLA. In the southern city of Bitola, ethnic Macedonian crowds that included uniformed and out-of-uniform police have twice attacked ethnic Albanian homes and shopping districts, burning ethnic Albanian homes and shops in retribution for the deaths of policemen from Bitola in fighting around Tetovo.[53] Angry Macedonian crowds, including police and army officers, have also repeatedly rioted in the capital Skopje and attacked Albanian districts of the capital in response to government setbacks.[54] Just days before the attack in Ljuboten, ethnic Macedonians in Prilep burned a mosque and Albanian homes in a night of rioting following the NLA ambush killing of ten soldiers, most of them from Prilep.[55]
Even if NLA rebels responsible for the antitank mine incident were present in Ljuboten, the attack on Ljuboten by the Macedonian police as documented by Human Rights Watch involved both indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians, in violation of the norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)s Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje (known as the Spillover mission) is the OSCEs longest serving mission, established in 1992 to prevent the spillover of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia by monitoring the border between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Macedonia.[56] The objectives of the Spillover Mission are preserving the territorial integrity of Macedonia; promoting the maintenance of peace, stability and security; and preventing possible conflict in the region.[57] Although the mandate does not explicitly reference human rights, activities in the OSCEs human dimension are certainly implicit in the mandate and have formed part of the missions work for years. The Spillover Mission currently has sixteen international staff members, a doubling of its previous size in response to the upsurge of violent conflict in Macedonia.[58]
At least two OSCE international observers were present in Ljuboten on Tuesday, August 14, 2001, when international observers and journalists first gained access to the village after the government offensive. According to the international journalists who were on the scene, the OSCE monitors carefully documented the physical evidence at the scene with a video camera, and they spoke to villagers about the events in Ljuboten. The OSCE mission has issued no public report of this investigation. One of the OSCE monitors, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Associated Press that the OSCE had found the remains of five persons in the village, including an elderly man, and suggested that they might have been killed while running away.[59]
Although the OSCE remained mostly quiet on the events in Ljuboten, the Minister of the Interior Ljube Boskovskiwho himself may be implicated in the abuses in Ljuboten (see above)immediately and fiercely criticized the OSCE for even attempting to investigate the events in Ljuboten. On August 14, he told the media:
OSCE representatives entered into Ljuboten village during the day, and through their information, they are trying to misinform the public that the Macedonian security forces did not kill five terrorists, but five citizens of Albanian nationality from Ljuboten. . . . This behavior of certain OSCE representatives shows that they put themselves in function of carrying out a special propaganda war against the Macedonian security forces. Certain OSCE representatives overstep their authorizations, usurping the legal and legitimate right[s] of the Macedonian police, and not the OSCE, to confirm legally relevant facts and circumstances for causes of death of persons on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia.[60]
During a meeting following Minister Boskovskis criticism, then-OSCE Head of Mission Ambassador Carlo Ungaro reportedly distanced himself from the reported comments of his OSCE monitors, later stating on Macedonian national television MTV that the misunderstandings occurred as a result of the intentional or unintentional misinterpretations of OSCE information [by] the foreign media.[61] The OSCE later issued a comment saying that at no time has the OSCE mission to Skopje made any comments about the nature of what happened in the village of Ljuboten.[62] Not surprisingly, Minister Boskovski expressed satisfaction with the attitude of OSCE so far.[63] No other statement has been issued by the OSCE in connection with the events in Ljuboten.
The OSCEs continuing silence about the serious abuses committed by police in Ljuboten is disturbing, because the organization undoubtedly has sufficient information to speak out publicly about the events in Ljuboten and demand a credible and impartial investigation. The OSCE silence has helped the Macedonian government maintain its version of the events in Ljuboten and avoid any further investigation: Antonio Milososki, the government spokesperson, told an international journalist in a videotaped interview just a few days after the event that the OSCE had confirmed to the Macedonian government that the persons killed in Ljuboten were terrorists.[64]
Although the promotion of respect for human rights is a core purpose of the OSCE generally, the OSCE mission in Skopje has remained largely silent on the grave human rights abuses that have been committed by the Macedonian forces throughout the conflict. For example, the OSCE has not issued a single statement about widespread beatings and torture at police stations in Macedonia, even though its monitors have certainly documented an adequate number of such cases to speak with authority. Human Rights Watch researchers were often told by victims that the OSCE monitors had also interviewed them. The OSCE has been much more willing to criticize similarly serious abuses by the NLA.[65] This imbalance in its public reporting clearly has an impact on the OSCEs credibility and effectiveness in addressing abuses by both sides.
The obstacles preventing the OSCE from effectively and publicly carrying out its mandate include the deep hostility of the Macedonian government to most international organizations, as well as the insufficient capacity of the OSCE monitoring mission in Skopje and a lack of support of the OSCE member states for its human dimension activities in Macedonia.
Many Macedonian leaders, in particular ultranationalist members of the government such as Prime Minister Georgievski and Minister of the Interior Boskovski, have been openly hostile to international actors in Macedonia, such as the western media, NATO, the OSCE, and international NGOs. They have accused all of these actors of having a pro-Albanian bias and often whipped up public hostility against them, resulting in several anti-Western riots in the capital Skopje. Virtually all of the Western international actors in Macedonia, including the OSCE, NATO, and the U.S. and E.U. mediators, have been accused of a pro-Albanian bias. In a typical example, Antonio Milosovski, the governments chief spokesperson, stated on July 24, 2001 that NATO is not our enemy, but it is a great friend of our enemies who are attacking the future of this country.[66]
The ethnic Macedonian media, mostly controlled by interests close to hardline members of the government, have also increased public hostility towards the OSCE and other international organizations by printing false reports about alleged OSCE and NATO support for the ethnic Albanian rebels.[67] In such a hostile climate, nationalist government officials such as Minister Boskovski can use the threat of public incitement against the OSCE and the internationally sponsored peace process to effectively silence OSCE criticism.
The lack of monitoring capacity of the OSCE mission in Skopje also limits the effectiveness of the mission. Until recently, the OSCE has had only a single, relatively inexperienced, human dimension monitor who was supposed to monitor and document the human rights and humanitarian aspects of the conflict. Such a presence is insufficient to adequately and credibly monitor and report on the very serious human rights problems that exist in Macedonia, and which are one of the driving forces behind the conflict. Serious human rights problems continue to plague Macedonia, and it is imperative that the international organizations, including the OSCE, play a greater role in documenting and addressing those problems.
The OSCE mission has made some progress since its disappointing performance in Ljuboten, which may indicate that it will become more effective in human rights monitoring. Unrelated to the events in Ljuboten, the OSCE has appointed a new head of mission in Skopje, Ambassador Craig Jenness. Ambassador Jenness has extensive human rights experience, and it is hoped he will be an effective advocate on human rights concerns. Secondly, discussions are currently underway to significantly expand the monitoring capacity of the Skopje mission by adding another twenty international members to the Skopje team. These are positive steps, but the success of the human rights dimensions of the Skopje mission will depend primarily on the international support it receives to address the continuing hostility of the Macedonian government.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), set up by the U.N. Security Council in 1993, has jurisdiction to prosecute violations of international humanitarian law committed throughout the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which includes the now-independent Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The tribunals subject matter jurisdiction extends to Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Article 2 of the ICTY Statute), Violations of the Laws or Customs of War (Article 3), Genocide (Article 4), and Crimes Against Humanity (Article 5).
ICTY officials have repeatedly asserted that the tribunal has jurisdiction over the conflict in Macedonia. On March 21, 2001, the ICTY Prosecutor asserted that the jurisdiction of the ICTY covers on-going events in Kosovo, south Serbia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because the continuing violence in each area does indeed satisfy the legal criteria for the definition of armed conflict for the purposes of crimes set out in the statute of the Tribunal.[68] On June 13, 2001, the Office of the Prosecutor stated that it had already warned all sides in Macedonia that all individuals responsible for crimes under the Tribunals competency could be punished for their acts, and added that it was closely monitoring the situation in Macedonia and had people in the field collecting information.[69]
Because of its established track record in bringing war criminals to justice for the massive violations of international humanitarian law in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovoboosted by the recent arrest and transfer of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic to ICTY custodythe ICTYs role in the Macedonian conflict has the potential to have an important deterrent effect. Almost immediately after the allegations about serious abuses in Ljuboten became public, a discussion erupted in Macedonia about the possibility that the perpetrators of the abuses in Ljuboten could end up indicted by the ICTY. Although Minister Boskovski shrugged off a possible ICTY indictmentstating I fear only my peoples tribunal, not the political one that was set up by America in The Hague[70]the very fact that he was responding to speculation about an ICTY investigation demonstrates the impact this important international institution can have.
The ICTY does not comment on ongoing investigations, so it is not possible to say whether it is actively investigating the events in Ljuboten. However, it has opened an office in Skopje, and investigators from the tribunal are regularly visiting Macedonia to carry out investigations into abuses. Considering that the abuses in Ljuboten are among the most serious committed in the conflict so far, an ICTY investigation is likely.
International support for an ICTY role in the Macedonia conflict is crucial. Unfortunately, many international diplomats seem concerned about an active ICTY role in Macedonia, suggesting in meetings with Human Rights Watch that the ICTY should remain out of Macedonia for the moment, as an active ICTY role could complicate the sensitive political negotiations taking place in Macedoniaan attitude reminiscent of the lack of adequate international support for ICTYs initial efforts in Bosnia. To the contrary, Human Rights Watch believes that the role of the ICTY to put the warring parties on notice that violations of the laws of war will not be tolerated, complements the efforts of international diplomats in an important and valuable way, and deserves their full support.
Acknowledgements
This report is based on research conducted in August 2001 in Macedonia by Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher for emergencies at Human Rights Watch. The report was written by Peter Bouckaert, and edited by Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia division, James Ross, Senior Legal Advisor, and Michael McClintock, Deputy Program Director. Invaluable production assistance was provided by Rachel Bien and Ani Mason, Associates, and John Emerson, Web Advocate.
Human Rights Watch
Europe and Central Asia Division
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to bring offenders to justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime.
We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those holding power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Michele Alexander, development director; Reed Brody, advocacy director; Carroll Bogert, communications director; Barbara Guglielmo, finance director; Jeri Laber special advisor; Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director; Michael McClintock, deputy program director; Patrick Minges, publications director; Maria Pignataro Nielsen, human resources director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Malcolm Smart, program director; Wilder Tayler, general counsel; and Joanna Weschler, United Nations representative. Jonathan Fanton is the chair of the board. Robert L. Bernstein is the founding chair.
Its Europe and Central Asia division was established in 1978 to monitor and promote domestic and international compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. It is affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which is based in Vienna, Austria. Elizabeth Andersen is the executive director; Rachel Denber is the deputy director; Julia Hall is a senior researcher; Alexander Anderson, Matilda Bogner, Bogdan Ivanisevic, Darian Pavli, Acacia Shields, and Jonathan Sugden are research associates; Diederik Lohman is the Moscow office director; Alexander Petrov is the assistant Moscow office director; Liudmila Belova, Rachel Bien, Elizabeth Eagen, Giorgi Gogia, and Maria Pulzetti are associates. Peter Osnos is the chair of the advisory committee and Alice Henkin is vice chair.
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[1] Seven Macedonian Soldiers are Killed and Eight are Injured, Macedonia Information Agency, August 10, 2001; Ian Fisher, Days Before Signing of Macedonia Pact, Mines Kill Government Soldiers, New York Times, August 11, 2001. Six of the soldiers were killed instantly, while two others died later of their wounds.
[2] Daniel Williams, Macedonian Peace Deal OKd Despite Killing, Washington Post, August 8, 2001; Christian Jennings, Skopje Riot After Bloody Ambush, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), August 9, 2001.
[3] Defense Ministry Announces the Names of Killed Soldiers, Macedonia Information Agency, August 10, 2001.
[4] Eight Soldiers From FYROM Army Reserve Units Buried in Skopje 11 Aug., World News Connection, August 13, 2001.
[5] Internal Ministry Condemns Slanders of Security Forces by OSCE Representatives, Macedonia Information Agency, August 14, 2001.
[6] Human Rights Watch interview with Saifie Fetahu, Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[7] Human Rights Watch interview with Dilaver Fetahu, Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[8] Human Rights Watch interview with Basqim (not his real name), Skopje, August 20, 2001.
[9] Human Rights Watch interview with Havushe Aliu, Skopje, August 25, 2001.
[10] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Xhenan Aliu, August 29, 2001.
[11] Minister Buckovski: Escalation of Clashes in Last Three Days in Macedonia, Macedonia Information Agency, August 13, 2001.
[12] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Xhenan Aliu, August 29, 2001.
[13] Human Rights Watch interview with Remsi Murati, Skopje, August 25, 2001.
[14] Human Rights Watch interview with Elmas Jusufi, Skopje, August 20, 2001.
[15] Human Rights Watch interview with Muzafer Jusufi, Skopje, August 20, 2001.
[16] This chronology of events was provided to Human Rights Watch researchers by villagers during a Human Rights Watch visit to Ljuboten on August 23, 2001.
[17] Human Rights Watch interview with Naziv Hiseini, Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[18] Human Rights Watch interview, Skopje, August 18, 2001.
[19] This chronology of events was provided to Human Rights Watch researchers by villagers during a Human Rights Watch visit to Ljuboten on August 23, 2001.
[20] In addition to his son Sylejman who was killed in front of him, a second son, Xhelal, was killed at the home of Qani Jashari (see below). Three sons, including a thirteen-year-old, were arrested.
[21] Human Rights Watch interview with Aziz Bairami, Skopje, August 18, 2001.
[22] Human Rights Watch interview with Aziz Bairami (II), Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Arkan is the nom de guerre of a well-known Serbian warlord responsible for numerous atrocities against Muslims in Bosnia. He was assassinated in Belgrade in January 2000.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Three more bodies were found on a hillside near a tobacco field, spaced about fifty meters apart in a straight line (see below for the circumstances of those killings).
[28] Albanians Slaughtered in Macedonia, Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2001; Field notes of Nicholas Wood, Guardian correspondent.
[29] Human Rights Watch interview with Fitnete Ametovski, Skopje, August 25, 2001.
[30] Human Rights Watch interview with Qamili Bairami, Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[31] This chronology of events was provided to Human Rights Watch researchers by villagers during a Human Rights Watch visit to Ljuboten on August 23, 2001.
[32] Human Rights Watch interview with Qani Jashari, Skopje, August 20, 2001.
[33] Photographs of New York Times photographer Andrew Testa; Field notes of Nicholas Wood, Guardian Correspondent.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid.
[37] Human Rights Watch interview with MP Fatmir Etemi, Skopje, August 22, 2001.
[38] Human Rights Watch interview with Ejup Hamiti, Skopje, August 22, 2001.
[39] Human Rights Watch interview with Saifie Fetahu, Skopje, August 23, 2001.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Human Rights Watch interview with Dilaver Fetahu, Skopje, August 23, 2001.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Human Rights Watch interview with Raif, Skopje, August 21, 2001.
[44] Human Rights Watch interview, Skopje, August 20, 2001.
[45] See Human Rights Watch, Macedonian Police Abuse Documented: Ethnic Albanian Men Separated, Tortured at Police Station, May 31, 2001; Human Rights Watch, Police Abuse Against Albanians Continues in Macedonia: Peace Agreement Doesnt End Violence, August 22, 2001, available at http://www.hrw.org. Human Rights Watch has gathered many additional accounts of severe and sometimes lethal beatings in police stations in Kumanovo, Skopje, and Tetovo.
[46] MTV newscast, August 12, 2001, 5 p.m.
[47] Internal Ministry Condemns Slanders of Security Forces by OSCE Representatives, Macedonia Information Agency, August 14, 2001.
[48] Human Rights Watch interview with international military observer, Skopje, August 19, 2001.
[49] Christian Jennings, Police Kill Five Rebels in Skopje Dawn Raid, Daily Telegraph, August 8, 2001. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the scene of this killing and found that the evidence at the scene did not support the governments version that the five NLA fighters had been killed during a fierce gunbattle. The men had been killed while lying down, and there was no evidence of any outgoing fire from the room where the men had been killed.
[50] Email to Human Rights Watch, August 19, 2001.
[51] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Xhenan Aliu, head of civil defense for Ljuboten, August 25, 2001.
[52] Terrorist Operate in Kumanovo-Lipkovo Area, Macedonia Information Agency, August 13, 2001.
[53] Human Rights Watch, Macedonia Rioters Burn Albanian Homes in Bitola: Police Fail to Stop Violence, Some Actively Participate, June 8, 2001.
[54] For example, during a riot in Skopje on June 25, police and army personnel in uniform actively participated in the storming of Parliament and the destruction of Albanian shops in Skopje.
[55] Looting, Arson Attacks in Macedonian Town After Rebel Ambush, Agence France Presse, August 8, 2001. Because there were no international observers present during this incident, Human Rights Watch has no information about active police participation in the riots in Prilep.
[56] OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, Overview, available on the world wide web at http://www.osce.org/skopje/overview/
[57] OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, Mandate, available on the world wide web at http://www.osce.org/skopje/mandate/
[58] OSCE Permanent Council, Decision No. 405: Temporary Strengthening of the OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje, March 22, 2001.
[59] Dusan Stojanovic, Ethnic Albanians Claim Village Massacre as NATO Assesses Plans to Disarm Rebels, Associated Press, August 13, 2001.
[60] FYROM Interior Ministry Accuses OSCE Personnel of Usurping Rights of Police, World News Connection, August 14, 2001.
[61] Macedonian interior minister says Albanians shot in Ljuboten were terrorists, BBC Monitoring, August 15, 2001.
[62] OSCE Skopje Mission rejects allegations, August 15, 2001.
[63] Macedonian interior minister says Albanians shot in Ljuboten were terrorists, BBC Monitoring, August 15, 2001.
[64] Human Rights Watch interview, Skopje, August 24, 2001.
[65] In August 2001 alone, the OSCE mission issued three press releases addressing NLA abuses, and none about government abuses, even though both NLA and government forces were responsible for serious abuses during this period. See Skopje Mission Strongly Condemns Destruction of Lesok Monastery, August 21, 2001; OSCE Strongly Condemns Recent Violent Acts in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, August 8, 2001; OSCE Skopje Mission Concerned About Misuse of Religious and Cultural Sites, August 7, 2001.
[66] John Ward Anderson, Macedonians Attack U.S. Embassy: Stone Throwing Crowd Dispersed; Fighting in Major City Threatens Cease-Fire, Washington Post, July 25, 2001.
[67] OSCE, Skopje Mission Speaks Out Against Patently False and Potentially Dangerous Media Reporting, May 25, 2001.
[68] ICTY Press release, March 21, 2001.
[69] ICTY Press briefing, June 13, 2001.
[70] Rod Nordland, Dealing with Bad Guys, Newsweek (International Edition), September 3, 2001, p. 28.
HRW: Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses (Sep 5th, 2001) Posted September 5, 2001
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/09/macedonia-0905.htm
Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses
Role of Interior Minister in Ljuboten Abuses Must be Investigated
(New York, September 5, 2001) Macedonian government troops committed grave abuses during an August offensive that claimed ten civilian lives in the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.
"The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten. It is deeply disturbing that the Minister of Interior appears to have been so intimately involved in one of the worst abuses of the war. We demand an immediate and impartial investigation." - Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director, Europe and Central Asia division
The complete report is available on the Human Rights Watch website at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/macedonia/.
To access the photo gallery accompanying the report, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/macedonia/photos/.
The report, titled Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001, charges that Macedonian police troops shot dead six civilians and burned at least twenty-two homes, sheds, and stores in the course of their August 12 house-to-house attack on the village.
The rights group pressed for an immediate investigation, including an inquiry into the role of Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube Boskovski, who was present in the village on August 12, the day the worst violations occurred.
"The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten," said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "It is deeply disturbing that the Minister of Interior appears to have been so intimately involved in one of the worst abuses of the war. We demand an immediate and impartial investigation."
Human Rights Watch called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to make public the results of its investigation into the events in Ljuboten. Human Rights Watch pressed for a separate investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Macedonia conflict.
Based on a two-week in-depth investigation, including a visit to Ljuboten, interviews with victims and witnesses, and examination of photographic evidence, the report also documented indiscriminate shelling that claimed another three lives in Ljuboten. Contrary to the government's account of the offensive, researchers found no evidence that the ethnic Albanian rebel National Liberation Army was present in the village.
Hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians who tried to flee Ljuboten faced further abuse. Ethnic Macedonian vigilantes beat three men unconscious in full view of the Macedonian police on August 12. One of the men was shot in the head by the Macedonian police as he attempted to flee the beating. Police separated over one hundred men and boys from their wives and children and took them to police stations in Skopje, where they were subjected to severe beatings. Atulah Qaini, aged thirty-five, was taken away alive from the village by police officers, and his badly beaten and mutilated corpse was later recovered by family members from the city morgue. According to their relatives, at least twenty-four men from Ljuboten, including a thirteen-year-old boy, remain in police custody after suffering serious beatings from the police.
The police abuse suffered by ethnic Albanians fleeing Ljuboten is consistent with patterns of systematic abuse Human Rights Watch has documented in Macedonia over the past six months. Human Rights Watch urged international monitors to make a priority of monitoring and reporting on the conduct of Macedonian police.
"Endemic police abuse is a potential spark that could re-ignite the conflict in Macedonia," Andersen said. "We can't wait for a gradual restructuring of the police over the next three years. Immediate steps-including monitoring and accountability-are needed to curb abuse."
Report Says Macedonians Killed Civilians in Revenge Posted September 5, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/05/international/europe/05MACE.html
September 5, 2001
Report Says Macedonians Killed Civilians in Revenge
By IAN FISHER
That night's newscast showed Ljube Boskovski, the hard-line Macedonian minister of the interior, planted behind a stone wall in the village of Ljuboten, surrounded by soldiers and the sound of gunfire. He was there, the newscast said, as part of a military operation to sweep the village of the ethnic Albanian "terrorists" who had planted the antitank mines that had killed eight Macedonian soldiers two days before.
On the day of the newscast, Aug. 12, seven ethnic Albanians were killed in Ljuboten. But nearly a month later, no evidence has emerged that those people, or three others also killed from the village, were anything but civilians.
In a detailed report to be issued today, Human Rights Watch accuses the overwhelmingly Slavic forces of Macedonia's government of summary execution of civilians, arson and torture. The operation over that weekend, the report says, "had no military justification and was carried out for purposes of revenge."
By the standards of a decade of war in the Balkans, the number of dead around Ljuboten was not high. But the killings were the worst single loss of life in six months of low-level warfare in Macedonia. They were also the clearest and bloodiest example yet of the cycle of revenge that prolonged other Balkan wars. NATO recently embarked on what is intended to be a one-month mission to calm the Macedonian conflict.
In an interview, Mr. Boskovski, perhaps the most outspoken proponent of a military solution to the insurgency, sought to distance himself from what happened in Ljuboten. He said that he arrived only at 4 p.m. that Sunday, after the military operation had ended, and that he did not direct the operation.
But he also maintained that it was "stupidity" to think that the ethnic Albanian rebel force which calls itself the National Liberation Army was not in Ljuboten that weekend, even though he said he had no idea if those who died were fighters or civilians. He also attacked Human Rights Watch, which investigated the incident, calling it an "international mercenary organization."
"They accuse me of being present there and watching when civilians were murdered," Mr. Boskovski said. "That is a monstrous accusation."
"Who would bring a camera with him if he wanted to do something like that?" he asked.
The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, charged with investigating allegations of war crimes in all of former Yugoslavia, has sent investigators to Macedonia to decide whether to begin a full investigation into what happened in Ljuboten and who might be responsible.
"It's important to understand that he doesn't have to witness the people being killed to have some responsibility for what happened," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch who wrote the group's report on Ljuboten. "It was done by troops under his authority in an action in which he was intimately involved."
Mr. Bouckaert said the killing of civilians in Ljuboten could be a dangerous precedent for Macedonia's future. The peace deal signed on Aug. 13 by the Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia's government grants ethnic Albanians many of the greater civic rights the rebels say they have sought. NATO has 4,500 troops in Macedonia collecting arms from the ethnic Albanian rebels so that the political part of the peace deal can proceed. But no one is sure that the deal will hold, particularly, in Mr. Bouckaert's view, if a government minister like Mr. Boskovski is seen as condoning attacks on civilians.
"As in all guerrilla conflicts, the question of who is a civilian and who is a fighter is a thorny one. Many rebels live in Albanian villages, and government officials often argue that their status as combatants is a matter of putting on a uniform.
Ljuboten, home to about 3,000 ethnic Albanians and a handful of Slavic Macedonians, lies about five miles north of the capital, Skopje, and is surrounded on three sides by Macedonian villages and to the northeast by the Skopska Crna Gora mountain, where the rebel army is active.
It was on the mountain that on Friday morning, Aug. 10, the two antitank mines exploded a few miles from Ljuboten, killing eight Macedonian soldiers. Two days earlier, 10 Macedonian soldiers had been killed in another ambush. Emotions were running high among the nation's police officers, soldiers and reservists.
Almost immediately that morning, police checkpoints sealed off Ljuboten, and shelling began. The Human Rights Watch report says that Haxhi Meta Xhavit, about 70, died "apparently from shock or heart failure" when his home was hit by a shell.
Early that evening, after a lull, the shelling resumed. A villager, Fazil Duraku, 25, said he saw a panic- stricken boy, Erxhan Aliu, 6, die in the shelling. "There were two or three people in one spot, and this boy was trying to go toward them," he said. "The shell landed maybe the distance of one palm-width away from him, and it threw him into the air." On Friday evening, he said, "We went to our basement because the shooting didn't stop all night."
On Saturday, villagers said, the government continued its shelling, and many villagers were blocked by the police from fleeing Ljuboten. But it was not until Sunday that Macedonian soldiers swept into the village in search of what the government said were terrorists in the area.
In a house across from a Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Jusufi family heard an explosion and crash at the front metal gate about 8:20 a.m. Rami Jusufi, 33, went to lock the door. A burst of machine gun fire bored through as he clicked the lock. The rest of the family including his 58-year-old father, Elmaz, confined to a wheelchair could do nothing but pour iodine on the three bullet wounds of Mr. Jusufi, who spent the next several hours bleeding to death. "In the last half-hour, he started breathing slower and slower," his father said. "And then he just faded away."
One man, Aziz Bajrami, 66, was himself shot and lost two sons on that Sunday. Sitting with his left hand bandaged in a house in the Albanian quarter of Skopje two weeks later, Mr. Bajrami described an atmosphere of chaos and fear as the soldiers entered the village, firing into houses and setting cars, houses and barns ablaze. He said he hid in the basement of a neighbor, along with three of his sons and eight female relatives. The police found them, he said, shot into the basement, stole jewelry from the women and marched the men to a spot where perhaps 10 other Albanian men, most of them young, lay on their stomachs.
"I heard one soldier go up to my son and kick him in his head," Mr. Bajrami said. "When they kicked him in the head, they shot me in the hand. Then my son stood up because of the pain. He tried to run, and they all opened fire on him."
He said the police shot his son, Sulejman, 22, at least twice more before ordering Mr. Bajrami and his cousin, Muharrem, 68, to leave.
"They said, `You old men go home,' " Mr. Bajrami said. "We got up, quickly, and I ran into a little door. Then I heard two shots. I was behind the wall and went into the garage. They killed my cousin. It was only me left."
Two days after the attack, foreign journalists went to Ljuboten, where the bodies of Sulejman and Muharrem Bajrami still lay, each shot repeatedly, in the back and in the head. On a nearby ridge lay three more bodies, including another of Mr. Bajrami's sons, Xhelal, 24, along with the Jashari brothers, Bairam, 33, and Kadri, 31, who had arrived on vacation from Austria 10 days before.
The three had been shot, witnesses said, fleeing a house that Macedonian forces had fired at with rocket- launched grenades.
Later that week, a plumber named Bejtullah Qaili, 43, ended a search for his missing brother at the Skopje morgue. His brother, Atulla, 32, one of more than 100 men arrested in Ljuboten on that Sunday, had apparently been beaten to death, his skull crushed, eyes black and swollen shut, cigarette burns on his arm, his testicles blackened from blows. Most of the arrested were released and all are now accounted for, though roughly a dozen remain in prison, including a 13-year-old boy.
"I wouldn't feel as bad if he was one of the guys who fought," said Mr. Qaili, who added that he had to pay $670 in bribes to have the body released. "If he was a soldier, he would have died for a cause."
Family members of the dead contend that none of them belonged to the rebel army. None were armed, and none wore a uniform or combat boots.
"It is significant that the government has not presented any credible evidence that there was an N.L.A. presence in Ljuboten, such as confiscated N.L.A. weapons or uniforms," the Human Rights Watch report says.
Guerrillas held positions in the mountains outside Ljuboten in August, and had been in the village as recently as June, meeting with foreign reporters. One explanation put forward by outside monitors of what happened in Ljuboten is that government forces saw firing from the mountain and believed that it came from inside the village.
Mr. Boskovski, the interior minister, said he had no doubt that the rebels were in Ljuboten, and that they had attacked Macedonian civilians, a contention that has been widely reported in the Macedonian press.
"It is the easiest thing to make accusations today and to put an equal sign between the aggressor and the victim," he said.