POWELL TO MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT: GREATER ALBANIA IS YOURS TO PREVENT Posted April 27, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 82, Part II, 27 April 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
POWELL TO MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT: GREATER ALBANIA IS YOURS TO PREVENT
In Washington on 26 April, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told visiting Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski that integrating Macedonia's ethnic Albanians into that country's social and political life is vital if Albanian nationalism in the Balkans as a whole is to be defused. Powell told reporters: "There are people in the region who have never given up the idea of a Greater Albania, and that is a very destabilizing concept. So my message to President Trajkovski was that he has to work very hard with the political elements within his governing coalition and with political forces within Macedonia to reach out to their ethnic-Albanian population and make sure those Albanians understand they are part of Macedonia," RFE/RL reported. PM
Did We Invest Too Fast? (Dr. Nehat Sadiku) Posted April 26, 2001
In Focus
(via email)
Did We Invest Too Fast?
Nehat Sadiku*
Macedonia might be approaching a similar level of economic development as Kosovo due to the paralysis of its economy. Cooperation of the two economically related countries has withdrawn due to the conflicts, in which Macedonia became a victim of its own policy towards the Albanian minority. Apparently, Slovenian companies that emerged on the market recently did not expect those conflicts, for they could have waited and could have bought the goods at rather lower prices than they actually did.
*Dr. Nehat Sadiku is an Albanian political analyst in Slovenia, a publicist and an Associate Lecturer at the University of Tetovo.
Macedonia and Kosovo are not only the epicentre of the military crisis in Europe, but have at the same time found themselves in the middle of great financial and economic crisis. Ever since gaining its independence 9 years ago, Macedonia has been facing problems in its internal affairs, despite the financial help that has been sent to the country from all over the world (though not as much as expected initially), and several laws for faster and effective development of the market economy have been passed (one of them being the influx of foreign capital). It is interesting that when taking both of the countries into consideration, cooperation of the two economic systems can be observed. The economy of Kosovo, or the market of Kosovo respectively, is strongly dependent on business with Macedonian companies, and vice versa: Kosovo is important for the efficiency of Macedonian economy. Due to the disorders, the cooperation has been held up, which makes it more difficult to solve the conflict. Economic conditions in any country strongly depend on good ethnic relations. As a matter of fact, the security of a country is based on six elements: economic effectiveness, social stability, the existence of democratic structures, respect of basic human rights, good ethnic relations and the situation of minority populations, as well as on good relations with all the neighbouring countries and their having a suitable scheme of armed forces (especially their civilian control). That Macedonia and Kosovo are not fulfilling the above mentioned conditions at the moment is more than obvious. There hasnt been any political consensus regarding the development of the country in Macedonia for long time. The situation in Kosovo is even more complicated due to an international protectorate in a political and economic sense. The anticipated formation of a free trading region between the Balkan countries has up to now been giving hope for revival of business among the (recently still friendly) countries. The Stability Pact for SE Europe offered considerable material and financial help. Unfortunately the offer was tinged with the International Communitys wanting to force the European vision of the development, without considering this difficult period before Europization of the Balkan Penninsula. Can Macedonia still avoid the worst possible scenario, although it is getting itself involved in a civil war? In other words, Macedonia is not far from approaching Kosovos level of development, since the formers economy has been completely paralysed. Can Kosovo, after the modernization of its economy, become stronger than Macedonia, for the latter is becoming the victim of its internal affairs regarding the Albanian minority? Economic cooperation has been put to a stop owing to disorders . Consequently, Slovenia has started to cooperate with the Balkan countries. Dr. Joze Mencinger, however, expressed his doubts about the help the Slovenian economy could provide for the Balkan markets. Slovenia comes up against two major obstacles regarding the relations with the countries of the Balkan. The first obstacle being the question of successiveness, the second being the anticipated membership of Slovenia in the European Union. The latter, and maybe even more problematic one, is preventing Slovenia to form faster and closer linkage with the Balkan countries. Furthermore, European and American competition which includes programmes for intertwining the political and business interests of the West Forces on the Balkan, represent another indirect obstacle for Slovenian enterprises. The vast majority of the Macedonian and Kosovo economic subjects are aware of the fact that all the models offering Slovenian economic companies, are preferential and more acceptable than any other models. Due to the above mentioned, quite a few Slovenian directors have recently succeeded in entering the Balkan market. At the moment, these moves do not appear to be well considered. Dr. Bogomir Kovac warned Slovenian managers to try to do their business through joint investments in smaller companies at first, and then later on with privatization and buying. He also stressed they would need an elaborate risk analysis, a good approach to the project and competent leading people. The question is, whether the Slovenian managers, who have entered the Balkan economy market, have anticipated the progress of events. Why didnt they wait a few months when they could have bought the goods at rather lower prices? Are they prepared for economic operations under present conditions in the Balkan market? Not only that the span of disorders might spread into the interior of Macedonia, but also the risk of economic operations in the area would become greater. This is due to the perception of potential extension of the conflict as seen by the International Community.
Albanian Rebels Spell out Demands to Macedonia Posted April 24, 2001
http://www.europeaninternet.com/yugoslavia/news.php3?id=386115§ion=Kosovo
Albanian Rebels Spell out Demands to Macedonia
PRISTINA, Apr 24, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia have listed out their demands in a letter sent to the UN Security Council and other international organizations, including changes to the constitution to give greater rights to ethnic Albanians.
Details of the letter by the political representative of the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA), Ali Ahmeti, were made known to AFP Monday.
Ahmeti said negotiations must be held between the two sides in the conflict, mediated by the international community, and all Albanians in Macedonia should be allowed Macedonian citizenship.
He said the constitution should state that Albanians and Macedonians are separate peoples, that Albanian is an official language and outlaw all forms of discrimination.
Finally, the NLA called for a national census, carried out by a neutral international organization, the return of political refugees and the release of all political prisoners.
Intense clashes erupted last month between Macedonian troops and Albanian rebels in the northwest of the country. The guerrillas were eventually forced to withdraw from their positions.
The European Union condemned the rebel attacks, but called on the Macedonian government to engage in a dialogue with the ethnic Albanian minority. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT: CENSUS TO BE POSTPONED? Posted April 24, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 79, Part II, 24 April 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/
MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT: CENSUS TO BE POSTPONED?
President Boris Trajkovski said on 23 April after the fifth round of all-party talks that the party leaders had agreed on some issues for the first time, MAKFAX reported. In connection with the population census slated for 15 to 30 May, Trajkovski said that his office will propose holding it at some point before the end of October instead (see also "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 April 2001 and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 April 2001). In the meantime, the government will encourage displaced persons to return to homes they left during recent clashes between Albanian fighters and Macedonian armed forces. The government will also help with the reconstruction of houses destroyed during the fighting, Trajkovski said. UB
Call to arms by Macedonian Albanian rebel deputy [Hysni Shaqiri] Posted April 20, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010420/1/nclp.html
Friday April 20, 10:27 PM
Call to arms by Macedonian Albanian rebel deputy
SKOPJE, April 20 (AFP) -
An ethnic Albanian deputy who quit parliament to join guerrillas fighting the Macedonian government called on his brethren to also take up arms, in an interview published here Friday.
"It is the duty of every ethnic Albanian to take up a rifle" and to "settle the problem with a rifle," said Hysni Shaqiri, a deputy of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), which is a member of the government coalition.
Shaqiri left his constituency of Lipkovo, a mountain village just north of Skopje, last month and ran off to join the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA), which claims to be fighting for more rights for Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority.
He told the weekly Lobi that for 10 years, the Macedonian Slav majority had "turned a deaf ear to Albanian rights and demands."
"Our army is deployed in all the Albanian-populated areas and is ready at any moment to respond to the Macedonian military and police forces," said Shaqiri, 52.
He said the NLA had ordered a month-long ceasefire to give the government time to make good on promises to start a political dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders. He did not say when it would expire.
It was the first time a rebel figure has mentioned a temporary end to hostilities or a deadline.
The guerrillas suddenly disappeared at the end of March, after weeks of intense clashes with the army and special police, prompting the government to say the rebels were broken as an organised force.
A government spokesman said some of them had changed into civilian clothes and stayed in Macedonia, while others were believed to have fled to mainly-Albanian Kosovo, which Skopje blames for generating the crisis.
Shaqiri said the talks between the government and members of the ethnic Albanian community would not succeed "because the government is not willing to change the constitution."
One of the main demands of the Albanians, both rebels and political leaders, is that they be named as one of the nations making up Macedonia, as are the Macedonian Slav majority, in the constitution's preamble.
At present, they are named as a minority, which they say makes them second-class citizens.
The government has so far refused to discuss the constitution, seeing an amendment as a way to federalise the multi-ethnic state and open the door to secession by Albanian-populated areas.
But a senior Western diplomat said in Skopje last week that the constitution would be on the agenda for talks, though not immediately.
Shaqiri is liable to be charged for incitement to armed rebellion for previous calls to his constituents to take up arms against the government, authorities have said.
MACEDONIAN POLICE CHIEF DENIES GUERRILLA LINKS Posted April 20, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 77, Part II, 20 April 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline
MACEDONIAN POLICE CHIEF DENIES GUERRILLA LINKS
Former Tetovo police chief Rauf Ramadani said on 19 April that media reports that he was sacked because of sympathies with the ethnic Albanian guerrillas are false (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 April, 2001). Ramadani added that he chose to leave office and asked the authorities to pick a replacement from his own political party, AP reported from Skopje. The new police chief is Shaib Bilali. Ramadani stressed that he was exhausted: "Everything that happened was just too much. Psychologically and physically I could no longer handle my
post." PM
SOLANA SEEKS PROGRESS IN MACEDONIA Posted April 20, 2001
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 77, Part II, 20 April 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline
SOLANA SEEKS PROGRESS IN MACEDONIA
Javier Solana, the EU's chief security policy official, said in Skopje on 19 April that he hopes for progress by June in the dialogue between the country's main political parties (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 6 April 2001). He added: "I'm pleased that all the main political parties are determined...to have a country that is politically stable, democratically organized, and that has the ambition to become a member of the European Union," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 April 2001). Ethnic Albanian political leader Arben Xhaferi said that 15 June is Solana's target date for reaching an agreement among Macedonia's political parties, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM
Tetovo Albanians See Bleak; Ordinary Albanians are running out of patience with the Macedonian authorities Posted April 19, 2001
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr/bcr_20010419_4_eng.txt
Tetovo Albanians See Bleak Future
Ordinary Albanians are running out of patience with the Macedonian authorities
By Veton Latifi in Tetovo (BCR 238, 19-Apr-01)
Albanians living in and around Tetovo, the scene of last month's fighting, are sceptical about the government's pledges to improve their lot.
When the Macedonian authorities signed the stability and association agreement with the European Union last week, they promised to better relations with the country's ethnic Albanian population
But in Sllatina, just ten kilometres from Tetovo, locals believe such political dialogue will do nothing to solve fundamental social problems like unemployment.
"Macedonian politician will not agree to Albanians' demands for equality," said Agim, an out of work youth. "The dialogue initiated by the president just seems like a way of gaining time, to stall the issue and never resolve it ".
One of the initiatives greeted with suspicion is President Boris Trajkovski's proposal for a joint secretariat aimed at bringing together a team of experts in all fields to analyse ethnic Albanian grievances.
One of the problems is that Trajkovski wants to hand pick all the members of the commission himself.
"This looks more like building a labyrinth in order to gain in time," said Salajdin Salihu, a writer from Sllatina. "If you don't want a solution to a problem then you create commissions. This is the current logic and it has to be changed at all costs."
Sllatina's grievances are evident in the coffee bars filled with unemployed men. Unofficial figures put the figure for jobless males at around 80 per cent.
"Tetova is mainly Albanian, but most of those employed in state-owned factories are Macedonians, " said Xhevit, a local taxi driver." Even though thousands of local people are unemployed the authorities are bussing in Macedonian workers from Skopje.
"Every day, there's a long queue of buses taking workers back to Skopje, while Albanians queue at the employment office and scour the newspapers for jobs."
No one wants war, he says, but Albanians are increasingly losing hope and are bracing themselves for the worst.
The atmosphere in villages targeted during the security forces' search-and-find missions in early April is tenser, more despondent. In Poroj, people are accusing the security forces of unnecessary violence.
After Macedonian forces entered the village on April 6, the inhabitants presented a written protest to various international and domestic organisations.
According to the interior ministry, the army was looking for illegal weapons and NLA fighters, but Poroj residents claimed they damaged property and beat men, women and children. The family of Latif Tefik Ahmet, who was arrested on April 6, say that police planted an automatic rifle and hand grenade in their house and used this as a pretext for beating him up and sentencing him to 30 days in prison.
According to the Ahmets, the same thing happened to Abdilselam Jusuf Arsllani, who had been appointed representative of the government civil defense staff at Poroj during the fighting.
Poroj inhabitants say the worst victims of the searches were three members of the Asani family who were treated in hospital for several days for broken bones. All were later released without charge.
Out of a total of 35 people arrested in Poroj on April 6, all but four were released the following day. According to interior ministry spokeman Stevo Pendarovski, they were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
But some legal experts believe the security forces used an excessive force. "In the course of searches carried out in villages around Tetova, the Macedonian police exceeded their authority by ill-treating citizens and violating their basic human rights and liberties," said lawyer Suzana Salihu in Skopje.
Given their recent experience, Poroj residents are not expecting much from the government. The more optimistic hope that high-level talks will eventually deliver the Albanian community some gains, but Xhevit believes the country's political leaders are running out of time.
"If the process of dialogue drags on," he said, " there is a risk of new confrontation but this time with unforeseen proportions for the local population."
Veton Latifi is a regular IWPR contributor
Solana joins Macedonia peace calls Posted April 19, 2001
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1285000/1285033.stm
Thursday, 19 April, 2001, 09:48 GMT 10:48 UK
Solana joins Macedonia peace calls
The Macedonian army clashed with Albanians in Tetovo
The European Union's head of foreign policy, Javier Solana, is due in Macedonia on Thursday in an attempt to boost efforts to build stability there. Mr Solana is the latest in a number of high-profile visitors to the small Balkan country in the wake of clashes between the Macedonian army and ethnic Albanian rebels.
His visit comes a day after the Macedonian Government fired the ethnic Albanian police chief of Tetovo - the centre of last month's clashes - in what is being seen as a sign of new-found confidence on its part.
The government did not give any official reason for the sacking of the police chief, Rauf Ramadani, but state radio speculated it was due to "suspected involvement in extremist activities".
International efforts
Talks between the majority Slavs and ethnic Albanians have so far failed to produce any concrete results.
Mr Solana will meet the Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and Prime Minister Lubjco Georgievski and will "call on all actors to speed up the political process and give extra impetus to setting out a consensus".
The last weeks have seen a flurry of activity from the international community aimed at firming up the fragile peace established after last month's hostilities.
A stability pact which Macedonia signed last week with the European Union has committed it to improving relations between the two communities.
And US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Macedonia to state his support for a multi-ethnic society.
Albanian demands
Ethnic Albanian leaders have warned that a failure to meet their demands for greater rights and representation could spark a new wave of violence.
The Albanians' main demand is more recognition in the constitution.
At the moment, this describes the former Yugoslav republic as a country of the Macedonians, and lists Albanians as a minority along with Turks, Roma and other groups including ethnic Serbs and Bulgarians.
They are also calling for improved representation in administration and greater use of the Albanian language.
But the Macedonian Government fears any change to the constitution could lead to the break-up of the country.
CHANGES FOR MACEDONIA'S CONSTITUTION? (RFE/RL) Posted April 19, 2001
http://rferl.org/balkan-report/
17 April 2001, Volume 5, Number 28
CHANGES FOR MACEDONIA'S CONSTITUTION?
Until the violent clashes between the armed forces and ethnic Albanian fighters in northern Macedonia first spread from the border village of Tanusevci to the vicinity of Tetovo in March, it was still unclear what exactly the guerrillas were fighting for. Only then did they issue a list of demands that very much resembled what the ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia have been seeking for the past ten years.
Among these claims was the demand for equal job opportunities in state institutions for Albanians, equal constitutional status for both Macedonians and Albanians, and, consequently, that the Albanian language should be made an official language. The reactions from the public to these demands range from outright rejection to cautious approval.
It is especially the question as to whether and how the constitution should be changed that is now being discussed at length in the Macedonian media. The commentators include journalists as well as university professors and politicians. The comments cover a wide range of topics. There are remarks about the possible practical consequences of a change to the constitution, but there are also abstract discussions of legal and philosophical issues connected with constitutional law in general.
Two points are under particular scrutiny. Most comments involve the preamble of the constitution. The preamble is a general description of the history of the Macedonian state and contains a number of arguments for the existence of a Macedonian state.
Ethnic Albanians criticize especially the statement that "Macedonia is established as the nation-state of the Macedonian people, in which full equality as citizens and permanent co-existence with the Macedonian people is provided for Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma, and other nationalities living in the Republic of Macedonia," because they interpret this as dividing the population into between first- and second-class citizens.
The second point of discussion is the practical application of the legal provisions in the constitution regarding the languages to be used in official communications between citizens and state institutions.
But in an interview with the Hungarian newspaper "Magyar Nemzet" of 9 April, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said he does not think that the constitution should be changed now. There are more urgent problems to be solved than the question of whether the Albanian minority will be recognized as a second "people of the state" in Macedonia. The truly urgent tasks for Macedonian politics include improving in the standard of living as well as the solution of various cultural and educational problems, Trajkovski said.
Trajkovski's predecessor in office, Kiro Gligorov, responded in a similar way to the questions of the Skopje daily "Utrinski vesnik" of 3 April 2001 (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 27 March 2001). Gligorov stated that nobody talks about the material situation of individual people and their individual rights. Gligorov, however, went further.
For him, what the Albanians demand is really the introduction of collective rights for the nationalities. This will lead to a dead end and the undermining of democracy, he argues.
More liberal authors like the editor in chief of the Skopje daily "Dnevnik," Branko Geroski, or Zvonimir Jankulovski, who is a professor at Skopje University, also support Gligorov's rejection of the concept of "collective rights." Geroski is of the opinion that the preamble to the constitution has to be revised because it is an unfortunate compromise between the concept of the nation state and that of a civil state in which all citizens enjoy equal rights. As it will be almost impossible to revise the constitution, he proposes the drafting of an "official interpretation" of the document, which will have legal status and define the problematic issues in a way that is acceptable to all Macedonian citizens.
Jankulovski says the struggle for minority rights is justified because it is part of the universal struggle for human and civil rights, but he strictly rules out the use of force in the process. He says that he can understand why some people still cling to the "outdated concept" of collective rights. But as a long-term solution to the current crisis in Macedonia, Jankulovski demands the introduction of a modern legal concept -- that of individual rights.
While both those authors agree that the constitution should be changed in order to improve the status of the minorities and of individual persons as a way of reducing ethnic tensions, others dismiss the idea of tampering with the constitution altogether.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church issued a statement on 5 April, saying that The Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church "absolutely opposes any change or amendment of the constitution and its preamble." Instead, the bishops asked all concerned at home and abroad to show understanding for the "historical and national identity" of the Macedonian people.
But there are also more radical arguments against any change in the constitution. Most authors in this camp are of the opinion that to touch the constitution would mean to give in to the extremists' demands. The fact that the guerrillas' goals are not new at all but resemble the demands that the mainstream ethnic Albanian parties have made for years is seen by these authors as "proof" that one cannot find any real difference between the parties and the "terrorists."
To these authors, a change in the constitution would also mean that Macedonia itself would be lost. They argue that although Macedonia is constantly threatened by its neighbors Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece -- who allegedly plan to divide the country among themselves -- it will be hard to find any legal reason to provide for the country's defense if the preamble is changed. "By what right will the Macedonians defend their state, their language, their history?" asks Dimitar Culev in "Makedonija europe" on 6 April. And Gordana Duvnjak argues in her article "The Constitution Trap" in "Utrinski vesnik" on 3 April that if one gives "them" an inch they will take a mile, meaning both the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia and Macedonia's neighbors. (Ulrich Buechsenschuetz, ub@itinerarium.de)
ECRI: Discriminatory Effect of the 1992 Law on Citizenship of Macedonia Posted April 18, 2001
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
Full report at:
http://www.ecri.coe.int/en/08/01/37/CBC2%20Macedonia.pdf
Citizenship law
6. In its first report, ECRI noted the indirect discriminatory effect of the 1992 Law on Citizenship of "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" on some segments of the population, particularly some ethnic Albanians and Roma/Gypsies. Some ethnic Albanians and Roma/Gypsies who have been long-term residents of what is today "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" have not obtained citizenship of this country due to the conditions for citizenship imposed by this law.1 Following a one-year period of facilitated access to citizenship prior to the entry into force of the 1992 Law, long-term residents were given the possibility of acquiring citizenship of "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", within one year of entry into force of the Law, if they met the requirements of 15 years of cumulative residency and a permanent source of income. Those individuals who did not acquire citizenship within the one year period of facilitated access prior to the entry into force of the law or the one-year deadline after its entry into force, either because they did not apply in time or because they were not found eligible, have to apply for citizenship through the ordinary naturalization procedure. In addition to the above requirements, applicants for naturalization must pay an administrative fee of US $250, possess living facilities and be physically and mentally healthy.
7. ECRI reiterates the concern expressed in its first report that these requirements could render acquisition of citizenship more difficult for ethnic Albanians and Roma/Gypsies, who suffer from especially high levels of unemployment ( see Employment) and poverty. ECRI notes with interest the fact that the Government of "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" has been preparing revisions to the Citizenship Law. This work is closely linked with preparations for the future ratification of the European Convention on Nationality. The latest draft reportedly includes a reduction in the period of permanent residency necessary to gain citizenship, a change ECRI would welcome and one in line with the European Convention on Nationality, which "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" has signed. Another proposal, which ECRI strongly supports, would involve a reduction in the administrative fee. ECRI understands a restrictive definition or elimination of the requirement of physical or mental health is also under discussion, and would favor such a proposal since, as noted in ECRI' s first report, such criterion might potentially lend themselves to arbitrary and discriminatory application. ECRI is pleased to learn that the authorities are almost ready to place their work in the public arena for debate, and hopes that this process of consultation will include members of the Albanian and Roma/Gypsy communities.
Macedonia's Albanians and Their History (Ekkehard Kraft ) Posted April 16, 2001
http://www.balkanreport.com/angliski/neuezurich.htm
Neue Zurcher Zeitung
Macedonia's Albanians and Their History
Although the situation of Albanians in Macedonia cannot in any way be compared to that of their ethnic fellows under Milosevic, and compares very favorably with the situation of other minorities in the Balkans, the insurgents who have infiltrated Macedonia from Kosovo enjoy the sympathy of at least part of the Albanian populace in that country.
By Ekkehard Kraft
April 16, 2001
Although the Albanian insurgency in Macedonia was brought in from the outside, the rebels enjoy the sympathies of some of the ethnic Albanian Macedonians. Despite a slow but steady improvement of their situation, the latter are still strongly affected by memories of the negative experiences which the country's Albanian populace suffered in the course of the 20th century in a state dominated by South Slavs.
Peace in Macedonia hangs by a silken thread. The actions of Albanian rebels could easily trigger the kind of ethnic solidarity all too familiar from other former constituent republics of Yugoslavia, and thus pull Macedonia into a maelstrom of violence. Although the situation of Albanians in Macedonia cannot in any way be compared to that of their ethnic fellows under Milosevic, and compares very favorably with the situation of other minorities in the Balkans, the insurgents who have infiltrated Macedonia from Kosovo enjoy the sympathy of at least part of the Albanian populace in that country.
Disputed Figures
This is partly due to the internal dynamic which the Kosovo conflict has developed since its escalation in 1998 and which is now impacting Macedonian from the outside. At the same time, many ethnic Albanian Macedonians still feel themselves to be second-class citizens and have not forgotten the many negative experiences they had to undergo in the course of the 20th century in a state dominated by South Slavs. Moreover, the sometimes humiliating treatment of Albanian refugees from Kosovo by the Macedonian police two years ago doubtless was perceived as an insult by many Albanian Macedonians, as were the polemics of the Macedonian opposition parties during the presidential election campaign, which ascribed the overwhelming victory of government candidate Trajkovski in predominantly Albanian-inhabited areas to election fraud.
The size of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian populace is a matter of dispute. An internationally monitored census in 1994 came up with the figure of 23 percent, just under a quarter, which is quite credible with regard to those Albanians holding Macedonian citizenship. That was also confirmed by the fact that Albanian parties garnered an aggregate of 19.3 percent of the vote in Macedonia's 1998 parliamentary elections, which seems a reasonable reflection of the Albanian portion of the country's adult population. The figure of 40 percent claimed for itself by the Albanian side applies only to the percentage of recruits of Albanian lineage in the Macedonian army. However, it is true that many Albanians have migrated to Macedonia, especially from Kosovo, without becoming citizens.
The demographic focal points of Albanian settlement are located in the two northwestern districts around Tetovo and Gostivar, which are home to 74.4 percent and 63.7 percent respectively of the nation's ethnic Albanians. South of there, in the districts of Struga, Debar and Kicevo, Albanians constituted just about half the population as of 1994, and in the areas of Skopje and Kumanovo they are also a sizable group, with 20.8 and 36.9 percent of the populace.
Resistance Against the Serbs
Emigration of Albanians to Macedonia began as early as the 13th century and continued on into the 19th century. In the western part of the country they already were a majority of the population back then, though not as decisively so as they are today. In 1878, for example, they comprised about two thirds of the population in the area around Tetovo, whereas early in the 20th century they made up only 35 percent of the populace in the Gostivar district. Although an Albanian state was established following the Balkan wars of 1912-13, the areas in Macedonia and Kosovo which were home to Albanian majorities were assigned to Serbia.
The stubborn resistance put up by Albanian guerrillas against Serbian and Yugoslav authorities until the end of the 1920s was further agitated by Belgrade's policies, which did not recognize this ethnic group as a national minority. The declared objectives of those policies was "assimilation or expulsion" - and, indeed, during the intra-war years and even until into the 1950s, many Albanians emigrated from Kosovo or Macedonia to Albania or Turkey. Education in the Albanian language was forbidden, resulting in a high rate of illiteracy. Considering all this, it is hardly surprising that there was strong anti-Yugoslav and irredentist sentiment among the ethnic Albanians. In 1941, after Yugoslavia had been defeated by the Axis powers, when Italy annexed Kosovo and western Macedonia to its Albanian colony and thus created "Greater Albania," the move was widely approved by the Albanian populace. Unlike in Albania proper, in those other territories there was no resistance against the occupiers, because they were not perceived as such, and there was very little support for the Communists.
Keeping a Distance from Yugoslavia
After the victory of Tito's partisans, there was more or less a repeat of the events that had transpired after the end of the First World War. Albanian guerrillas gave the new rulers in Kosovo and Macedonia a good deal of trouble for quite a long time. In Tito's Yugoslavia, the Albanians were officially recognized as a minority and, for the first time since the late phase of the Ottoman Empire, were allowed to use their mother-tongue as the language of instruction in schools and universities of their own. Yet the suspicion toward the Albanians dating from the prewar era had not dissipated, nor had their remoteness from the Yugoslav state. Following the outbreak of the conflict between Stalin and Tito in 1948, in which Albania held firm to Moscow, Albanians were also suspected of serving as Tirana's "fifth column" in Yugoslavia. The number of Albanian members of the Yugoslav Communist Party remained small, and their representation in leading Party organs was even smaller, both on the national Yugoslav level and within the constituent republic of Macedonia. The same was true at the executive levels of government and in the administrative bureaucracy.
Even where they were in the majority, Albanians were also under-represented in organs of communal self-government. Politically and culturally, Macedonia's Albanians remained most closely tied to their ethnic brothers in Kosovo. Both in 1968 and 1981, the demonstrations in Kosovo were echoed to the south, and for the first time demands were voiced for Albanian-settled areas in Macedonia to be annexed to Kosovo, which had the status of an autonomous province within Yugoslavia from 1969 to 1989. The overwhelming majority of Macedonian Albanians attended university in Pristina, Kosovo, rather than in their home republic, where there was no Albanian-language university.
A Charge of Irredentism
During the 1980s, the rapid growth of the Albanian population startled Macedonia's CP leadership and government officials. In post-1945 censuses, the proportion of Albanians in the Macedonian population fluctuated for a long time (17.1 percent in 1948; 12.5 percent in 1953; 13 percent in 1961); this was partly because many Albanians declared themselves as Turks, due to the low political esteem in which their ethnic group was held. In 1971 Albanians were 17 percent of Macedonia's population, and 19.8 percent ten years later.
Fearing that they could become a minority in their own republic sooner or later, and made nervous by events in Kosovo and by the growing tendency of the ethnic Albanians to cut themselves off from the rest of the nation, Macedonian Slavs began speaking about Albanian irredentism manifesting itself in a number of phenomena. There was talk, for example, of illegal home construction, planned Albanian purchases of real estate at allegedly inflated prices, deliberate immigration from Kosovo. Villages once inhabited by Macedonian Slavs, the residents of which had migrated to the cities, were reportedly repopulated by Albanians, who were also said to be turning formerly mixed urban neighborhoods into "ethnically pure" ones. Albanians were accused of indoctrinating their younger generation with nationalist sentiments under the guise of religious instruction and of putting pressure on Muslim Macedonians to declare themselves Albanians because of their religion. Though not absolutely unfounded, these accusations were sharply exaggerated and generalized. Even the Albanians' tradition of surrounding their homes with high walls was seen as a manifestation of irredentism, and there were efforts to limit the height of the walls by administrative decree. In 1987 in Tetovo and Gostivar, local Slav officials went so far as to have some walls torn down by militiamen.
In 1989, Macedonia passed a constitutional amendment by which the republic was no longer defined as "the state of the Macedonian people and the Albanian and Turkish minorities" but instead as "the national state of the Macedonian nation." At the same time the unrest in Kosovo, where the Milosevic regime had just rescinded that province's autonomy, spread to Macedonia. In 1991, the overwhelming majority of ethnic Albanians there refrained from voting in the referendum on Macedonia's independence, and instead participated, in January 1992, in a plebiscite articulating the call for autonomy for the Albanian parts of the republic. In April 1992, during a demonstration in Struga, there was even a proclamation of the "Albanian Autonomous Republic of Illirida," though no actions followed the proclamation.
Threatened National Existence
Unlike the situation in Serbia, since 1992 Albanian politicians have regularly served as cabinet ministers in Macedonia's government. Despite various conflicts (which never escalated), at the level of practical politics there has been slow but steady progress and improvement along the lines called for by the Albanians. An acceptable solution now appears within reach even on the question of an Albanian university in Tetovo, which was initially the subject of heated controversy.
But the members of the Slav majority are not yet prepared to relinquish the concept of Macedonia as "their" national state and to redefine the republic, in keeping with Albanian demands, as the state of all its citizens - which would mean acknowledging the Albanians as another equal, constituent national group. One of the reasons this step appears so difficult is that, both in the past and to some extent even today, the existence of a Macedonian nation has been seriously questioned by neighboring countries.
We Are Not Interested In Great Albania Or Great Kosova (Ali Ahmeti: Political Director of the National Liberation Army) Posted April 16, 2001
http://www.balkanreport.com/angliski/aliahmetiinterview.htm
We Are Not Interested In Great Albania Or Great Kosova
"We are no terrorists. Our demands are reasonable and legitimate and we enjoy support of all of our people as well as the support of all the Albanian political factors in Macedonia," says Ali Ahmeti in an interview to 'Voice Of America'
April 16, 2001
Q: The clashes stopped after the last offensive of Macedonia's security forces. Was this a result of some NLA decision, had you been defeated or you simply decided to withdraw and regroup?
A: Ahmeti: Our forces are still in position. Some of these troops are repositioned and read to take further actions. As far as the misinformation and the psychological terror exercised over the Albanian population in Macedonia, according to which NLA has withdrawn from own positions, we consider that as an attempt to disillusion the Albanians in own forces. The reality is absolutely different. We are in positions and ready for further actions.
Q: Kosovar and Albania media claim you met with DPA leader Xhaferi. Is that true?
A: There is no truth in such claims/ writings. I had been attempting with many of the DPA, PDP and NDP members to approach each other and compile a joint platform that Albanians would present unanimously I Macedonia. This, however, does not mean that I would not meet in the future with Xhaferi and other leaders in Macedonia. But we don't hold secret meetings. They would be public and open.
Q: Would you agree that the Albanian pol-parties represented in the Assembly of RM would talk on your behalf?
A: That is where the issue lies. We are no terrorists. Our demands are reasonable and legitimate and we enjoy support of all of our people as well as the support of all the Albanian political factors in Macedonia.
Q: Could you explain once more the aims of NLA. Critics accuse you for attempting to destroy the state of Macedonia or build Great Albania or Great Kosova.
A: The truth is that we demand the constitutive status for the Albanians in RM. We demand equality of Albanians with Macedonians, the right to enjoy all their legitimate rights. My demand is to change the constitution in a way that would include all the cultural, educational, economic and all other rights that a constitutive nation is entitled to. We are not interested in neither Great Albania nor Great Kosova.
Q: You are the political representative of armed groups. How united are they and could one say that you as a political leader have a true control over the armed groups?
A: We are not talking about armed groups or groupings. It is an army, which has a command and a political representation.
Q: What could you tell us about the short-term strategy of your organization?
A: We stand for a dialogue, to ease the tensions and open discussion on all the disputes. It is the Macedonian that refuses the path of a dialogue and pursues the path of force.
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Interview with Ali Ahmeti, Political Director of the National Liberation Army
Albania to Respect Own Constitution, Kosova To Place Own Hand On Heart and Judge Righteously …
By Ernest Luma
The political leader of the Albanian fighters in Macedonia considers that the standing of the international community has positively evaluated regarding the struggle and demands of Albanian fighters in FYRO Macedonia.
Ahmeti considers that the "NLA demands are not ate all in contradiction with international conventions."
From the very begging, he international community, especially NATO and USA, took an open and firm stand against the war in FYR Macedonia and addressed strong criticism against 'Albanian extremists' and NLA. Comment on this conclusion, Ali Ahmeti says "it is true that they cam openly against the use of force, but one must not forget that such use of force was imposed upon us. You can see for yourself that there are no ethnic Albanian soldiers in the Macedonian army, despite the fact that more than 40% of soldiers in the Army of Macedonia are ethnic Albanians. However, these soldiers are now kept isolated in army barracks after they had been deprived of the right to hold own guns.
On the other hand, NATO is openly directing the Slavic-Macedonian state towards resolving the status of the Albanians in Macedonia, and to begin by changing the Constitution
Our demands are not in contradiction with international Conventions.
The political leader of Albanian freedom fighters in Western Macedonia says he is not skeptical about the ongoing struggle. While the heads of Skopje government were waiting to sign the SA Agreement in Luxembourg, Ali Ahmeti persists on the precondition that FYROM must meet in order to preserve own peace and stability and admission within EU. "The Government has attempted to forge an impression that it has managed to destroy the Albanian rebel units in Macedonia. However, NLA is strong as ever and shall not back down as long as their demands are not implemented. NLA is functioning as it should even after one month of offensive activities by the Macedonian Army."
"Although it used all available army and police forces during the march offensive, including tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters, they failed to destroy the NLA forces who got repositioned and ready for action. ", says Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of NLA guerilla, fortified in northwestern Macedonia.
But what were the tendencies of the Macedonian government to create such an impression in the public. It appears that official Skopje aimed to destroy NLA in order to re-factorize the Albanian political subject in Macedonia as the only side for establishing a dialogue.
Ali Ahmeti says he strongly believes that "the Macedonian state is trying to present a situation according to which NLA has been destroyed and that the negotiations must begin with the Albanian political parties that function within state institutions and resolve the disputes within the existing state and political institutions."
Ahmeti denies the Macedonian claims that "NLA has been destroyed", stressing that his forces has only changed own war tactic from waging a frontal war into a guerilla war, as it had been announced earlier. But, does that mean that a front war that had been launched in the beginning had been a mistake? "We would readjust our war depending on the existing needs and conditions. We will always act depending on the way the opposite side would act against us, as well as depending on our possibilities."
Optimistic about support from Albanian politicians in Tirana, Skopje and Prishtina
NLA leader is optimistic about the support that NLA enjoys in Tirana, Skopje and Prishtina.
"Whenever they say that our demands are acceptable, we consider that they somehow support us," says Ahmeti. "I am willing to meet with all ethnic Albanians that could make own contribution to resolving our cause. And if I had met someone, I see no reason why should I keep that secret," says Ahmeti, commenting on information on his meeting with DPA leader Arb?r Xhaferi.
Speaking of relations between the NLA Political Directorate and the three ethnic Albanian political parties in FYRO Macedonia - DPA, PDP, NDP - Ahmeti stresses that he is trying to improve these relations in the existing political atmosphere in Macedonia. "We are trying to consolidate the relations in the present situation with all factors that stand ready and willing to contribute to the resolving of the Albanian cause in Macedonia."
NLA leader had personal contacts with the Prime Minister of Albania, Ilir Meta. However, these contacts had taken place much earlier. "I know Ilir Meta personally. I was meeting him while I was engaged in politics. Not now, though."
And what is Ahmeti's message to the Albanian politicians in Tirana, Skopje and Prishtina, regarding the struggle of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia? With respect to the Constitution of Albania which obliges the Albanian state to care for all Albanian living abroad (Article 8), Ahmeti says: "Political parties in Albania must respect the Constitution of the State of Albania, while the Kosova politicians must judge properly by placing first own hand on their hearts."
"The Freedom and Equality Of Albanians In Macedonia Is The Final Aim "
This Albanian from K?r?ova, says he had been mistakenly quoted by one foreign news agency as allegedly telling his brother in a phone conversation that "Macedonia is gone'. "I never said that. I have only said that the bad situation of Albanians in Macedonia will soon be over," says Ahmeti.
Ahmeti refuses the accusations that NLA has launched a war in Macedonia aiming to change the ethnic maps and Balkan borders, or that the aim is to annex of western Macedonia to Kosova. "It is nothing else but a tendency to discredit our righteous struggle."
Ahmeti was first engaged in Kosova People's Movement, until the war escalated in Macedonia. He does not deny that he was a member of this movement. "It is true, I was a member of KPM. However, as you can see, now I am on a different assignment."
Some of the UCK commanders or soldiers disputed the political representation of Ali Ahmeti. At least this could be understood from some of the communiqu?s and statements that had been published earlier in Kosova media. While slowly shaking own head, Ahmeti answers shortly: "It is a special war waged by secret intelligence services."
NLA is well prepared and strong to lead a war until the final accomplishment of its final tasks, which are most clear to this force. "And this can be confirmed by our activities so far," confirms Ahmeti.
"The final task is the freedom and equality of Albanians in Macedonia," says Ahmeti, adding that the NLA struggle would "ensure the full democratization of Macedonia, where there shall be no more first and second class citizens. We are interested in preserving the integrity and sovereignty of Macedonia," stated Ahmeti.
EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL GENOCIDE AGAINST ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA (1991-2001) Posted April 16, 2001
http://www.balkanreport.com/angliski/azamdauti.htm
EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL GENOCIDE AGAINST ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA (1991-2001)
ALBANIAN PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Shoqata e Botuesve Shqiptar?
Tel: ++ 389 02 600 036/ 622 346; 044 21 975/ 044 330 317 E-Mail:
adauti@yahoo.com
shkupi@informa.com.mk
From:
Azam Dauti
President, Albanian Publishers Association in Macedonia
To:
UN (Education and Culture Department);
UNESCO (Education and Culture Department);
European Commission (Education and Culture Department);
OSCE (Education and Culture Department);
International Hague Tribunal (Education and Culture Department)
Foreign Embassies in R.Macedonia
Skopje, 4.04.2001
EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL GENOCID
AGAINST ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA (1991-2001)
An Introduction with the school books on Albanian language and
Albanian cultural activities in Macedonia (FYROM)
Subject: INDICTMENT against all previous and present Macedonian Governments of FYROM Macedonia, Signatory country of all International Conventions and Documents for Protection of the Freedom and Civil Rights in different fields, particularly signatory of the Conventions and Documents regarding the Protection of the Cultural and National Identity in EDUCATION and CULTURE
Submitted by: Albanian Publishers Association, with its office in Skopje, Macedonia
Victims:
Albanian students in the time period 1990-2001
Concerning country: FYROM (Macedonia)
Perpetrator of the crime:
Boris Trajkovski ( president of Macedonia)
Lubco Georgievski (Prime Minister)
Nikolla Klusev (first prime minister in the year 91-92);
Dimitar Dimitrov (minister of education in the year 91-92);
Branko Crvenkovski (prime minister in the year 93-98);
Sofija Todorova (minister of education in the year 93-98);
Gale Galev (minister of education in the year 99-00);
Pavle Petrov, director of the private Macedonian publishing
House "Prosvetno Delo" (in the past this house was in a State ownership with a permanent monopoly).
Physical perpetrator of the crime:
Lubomir Frckovski (ex-minister of internal affair and latter on minister of foreign affairs in the year 1993-1994)
On the opening ceremony of the Tetova University in the year 1994, by his order was killed one man Abdylselam Emini (33years old) from Tetovo and tens were wounded (You can obtain original information from the UNPREDEP mission than in Macedonia). And until today the killers were not finding. Our Accusation against Lubomir Fr?kovski is: Murder and violation over the innocent civilians.
Perpetrator of the crime in the field of culture:
Gjuner Ismail (minister of culture in the year 1993-1994)
Slobodan Unkovski (minister of culture in the year 1996-1998);
Luben Paunovski (minister of culture in the year 1999);
Ganka Samoilova-Cvetanova (minister of culture in the year 2000-2001);
Victims: Albanian Culture in FYROM (Macedonia)
These mentioned above are accused in one GENERAL ACCUSATION:
EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL GENOCID AGAINST ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA (1991-2001)
Date of accusation forwarding: March 31, 2001
Place: Skopje, FYROM (Macedonia)
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ARGUMENTATION:
First: All these current and previous Governments are signatory of many Conventions, Declarations and Resolutions with You, for protection of Freedom and Human and Political Rights, the Convention for protection of the rights of the "native nation", "majority", "minority", "persons belonging to the minority" etc. and in all these Documents, Conventions and Resolutions the national, cultural and educational identity is protected in all these mentioned categories.
Albanians in Macedonia belong to the category: NATIVE NATION.
By Constitution of Macedonia, Albanians are limited with the term NATIONALITY, what terminologically means national belonging, but in fact they are framed in a group with other minorities like Turks, romes, vlachs and they all together are named like NATIONALITIES.
Second: In the previous political system which have a big language of historical mistakes, but in the same time the ex-Yugoslavia also was a signatory of these same Resolutions and Conventions, Macedonia has made and is still making a permanent national strangle by not respecting the national characteristics of the Albanians, no matter that by the Constitution of the year 1974 dejure Albanians were an equal nation with Macedonians and Turks, and in the same stile this strangle is continuing in a permanent way in these years, but now with some new forms.
For what kind of educational and cultural genocide we accuse previous and current Governments of Macedonia that are mentioned in this ACCUSATION?!
Object of accusation: School books in albanian language (In primary and secondary schools).
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GENERAL ACCUSATION:
Since the year 1982 the practise which is in a persistent way still used is that in the school books for Albanian students the USE OF TOPONYMS ON MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE IN STEAD OF USING THE TOPONYMS ON ALBANIAN language.
For example:
TOPONYMS on:
Albanian Macedonian English
Shkup Skopje Skopje
Selanik Sollun Salonika
Kėrēovė Kiēevo Kichevo
Manastir Bitolla Bitola
Dibėr Debar Debar
Zarė Zadar Zara
Etc.
So, despite the fact that every where in the world are been used the adequate toponyms properly to the nation, in Macedonia the private Macedonian publishing house PROSVETNO DELLO, in Albanian school books are still in use Macedonian toponyms for example, for "Shkup" is written "Skopje", for "Selanik" - "Solun", for "Dib?r" - Debar etc.
Authors of the schoolbooks on Albanian language:
98% of the authors of the schoolbooks are Macedonians.
Only in the reading and spelling schoolbook there are Albanian authors, but very often they are presented with cooperation of many Macedonians, a very well known practise that still exist.
Translated texts with a low quality and very unprofessional done from different subjects.
Linguistically mistakes:
· Morphological
· Syntax mistakes
· Meaning of a word
· Terminology mistakes, etc
In school subject where are presented the identity and national culture like history, Geography, music, natural and social science, art etc.., 95% of the subject are presenting the identity and culture of Macedonians.
National insult: In the left 5% of the subject for other nations, where you can find history for many other nations like Serbs, Croatians, Albanians, turks etc.. the Albanian history is very unclear presented and many times in a negative contest.
Printing, design paper and book completing process:
From a technical point of view the Macedonian books are with much bigger quality than Albanian schoolbooks. Only if You compare spelling schoolbook on Albanian and Macedonian language for the first grade of primary school, differences will speak for themselves.
For all these anomalies much more are presented by the Association of the Albanians Teachers in Macedonia where was completed one package materials from a Seminar organised by them in the year 1994 in Tetovo.
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CULTURAL GENOCIDE
For adequate presentation of this genocide we are sending to You the final version of the Government proposal: NATIONAL CULTURAL PROGRAME of the ministry of culture for the year 2001-2005.
Short introduction for the last 10 years:
Government of Macedonia every year for cultural activities gives from the state budget near 50.000.000 DEM. For Albanian cultural activities gives no more than 500.000 DEM per year (which is only 1% per year).
Albanian culture is been financed in these activities and institutions:
- Albanian cultural institutions:
· Albanian theatre in Skopje with 4-5 premieres per year.
· Number of the Theatre's staff is 19 actors and 30 employees.
· The total amount dedicated to this theatre per year is: 300.000 DEM.
Publishing activity: see page 26 paragraph 8 point 5 - Editions in minority languages of the NATIONAL CULTURAL PROGRAME for the time period 2001-2005, editions which are foreseen for roms vlachs, turks, serbs and other minorities.
The ministry of culture supports approximately 20-30 titles per year. This year were supported 38 titles by Albanian authors despite of 236 macedonian titles. Just to make more clearly: the dedicated budget of 5 collections of Macedonian titles from the Struga poetry evenings is much more bigger than the dedicated budget of these 38 albanian supported titles, which is approximately near 100.000 DEM. (In Macedonia exist 17 publishing houses on Albanian language).
-Folkloric ensemble for Albanian dances "Emin Duraku" from Skopje has only one employee who is paid by the Ministry of culture.
· The total amount that is dedicated by the Ministry of culture to this folk ensemble for covering the expenses of its employee and some other projects is 10.000 DEM.
Currently in Macedonia there are 165 cultural institutions with total number of employees of 2900 persons. From these, only 2 institutions supported by the Ministry of culture are on Albanian language (Albanian theatre in Skopje and Albanian folk ensemble "Emin Duraku from Skopje - see page 27 paragraph 9 point 4: folk ensemble Emin Duraku - Skopje, and page 29 paragraph 20 point 5: Albanian theatre Skopje, from the NATIONAL CULTURAL PROGRAMME for the time period 2001-2005. Together these two institutions employ 50 persons. There are some other Albanians employed in some other cultural institutions and been paid by the Ministry of culture and they are: 2 persons employed in Skopje libraries ("Cvetan Dimov" and "Kiril i Metodij"), 3 other persons employed in Tetovo (1 in the The Palace of Culture and 2 in the Tetovi library "Kosta Racin") and one (1) more employed in Struga library. So, from the total number of employees in all cultural institutions and paid by the Ministry of culture that is 2900, only 55 are Albanians.
In the State Budget of R.Macedonia, Albanians contribute with their taxes at least 23% (according to the official statistical number of the Albanian population).
The Ministry of culture, as You can see from all these facts, dedicate to Albanian cultural activities less than 1% from the total budget per year.
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OUR REQUEST:
1. The right for publishing of all school books on Albanian language, because of the mentioned defects, URGENTLY to be given to the Albanian Publishers Association (where are 17 publishing houses which produce books and children's magazines) who will in co-operation with the Pedagogical Institution and Ministry of education all school books will be adequately corrected.
So, the publishing editions SCHOOL BOOK formed by the APA for now to be an URGENT PUBLISHER of the SCHOOL BOOKS on Albanian language for the coming school year, in order to eliminate all defects in school texts published by the private Macedonian publishing house "Prosvetno Delo".
2. Ministry of culture to form a Department for Albanian culture (or named other) and to this department to dedicate amount accordingly to the official number of Albanian population (23%).
Dear friends,
We are aware that our request and accusation will not immediately meet Your support. Also, we know that it does not seems right that all these mentioned persons with high government functions who have signed many CONVENTIONS, RESOLUTIONS and DOCUMENTS with You for protection and cultivation of the national characteristics of every nation have done nothing to do so.We think and we hope that Your suggestions and remarks will influence to the current authorities to improve their mistakes in order Albanians to get more quality education and equally with the others.
AT THE END: If You need any additional information, we are ready any time to give You an additional materials, or to send to You a representative of the Albanian Publishers Association who will inform You about all circumstances regarding to educational and cultural activities of the Albanians in Macedonia.
We wish You many success in this and other subjects, which are regarded to protection of the human identity, national characteristics, human rights and freedom of the people.
With hope of soon hearing from You I remain,
Sincerely Yours
Azam Dauti
President of the APA
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Package materials presented by the Association of the Albanians Teachers in Macedonia where was completed from the Seminar organized by them in the year 1994 in Tetovo. This material will be sent to you together with the other published materials from all Albanian intellectuals.
(click here)
- * -
Democratization of education process
- democratization of teaching curriculums
By Remzi Nesimi, PhD
- * -
THE TRANSLATED BOOKS - A PROBLEM
FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
- * -
THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY TEXTBOOKS FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION AND THE USE OF ALBANIAN LANGUAGE IN THEM
- * -
OVERVIEW OF THE 8TH GRADE HISTORY TEXTBOOK - TEXTBOOK WITH SCIENTIFIC-HISTORICAL ERRORS
By Enis Bexheti
- * -
PROBLEMS WITH THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS AND THE APPLICATION OF THE STANDARD ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
By Zekir Kadriu
- * -
THE LANGUAGE IN THE MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
By Abdylbaki Bajrami
- * -
APPLICATION OF THE LITERTURE NORMS IN THE TEXTBOOKS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS
By Asllan Hamiti
- * -
THE POSITION OF HIGH SCHOOL TEXTS FOR ALBANIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SUBJECT
The Association League of Albanian language and literature teachers Tribune
- * -
Scholar text in function of informative and communicative mass media
By Tahir Zajazi PhD
Powell Visits Macedonia in Major Shift of U.S. Policy Posted April 13, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20010413/t000031439.html
Powell Visits Macedonia in Major Shift of U.S. Policy
By ROBIN WRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
SKOPJE, Macedonia--Secretary of State Colin L. Powell dove into the Balkan quagmire Thursday, helping to launch a new initiative to ease ethnic tensions in Macedonia--and perhaps prevent a new war in the region.
The mere involvement of the United States in this troubled former Yugoslav republic is a major shift, especially by an administration that has repeatedly resisted a high-profile role in the region and even eliminated the position of special envoy to the Balkans.
Officials here said U.S. support is crucial to the success of the initiative, which centers on bringing together five ethnic Albanian and Macedonian political parties to reform the country's constitution.
Macedonia has witnessed the Balkans' newest round of violence over the past two months, sparked by guerrillas demanding greater rights for the ethnic Albanian minority. Albanians make up at least a quarter of Macedonia's 2 million people, but basic laws make Slavs the main nationality and Macedonian the official language.
The level of tension is reflected in signs at key government buildings, including the president's office, that advise visitors to "declare weapons."
Powell's visit is considered a kind of stamp of approval that will prod the parties to act with speed. It also signals tangible support for the government of President Boris Trajkovski.
Ethnic Albanian rebels have claimed U.S. support for their separatist movement against the government, playing off the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's campaign against Yugoslavia for that country's mistreatment of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.
But Powell's high-profile talks with Trajkovski--and later with the foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and Yugoslavia, who assembled here--were a sign of the depth of the U.S. commitment to a single, united Macedonia.
"You can be sure of the American support of your efforts--political support, economic support and military support," Powell told the Macedonian leader during his first stab at Balkan diplomacy. Powell also extended an invitation to Trajkovski, a former Methodist minister and one of a new, younger generation of Balkan leaders, to visit President Bush in Washington on May 2.
In an interview, Trajkovski said a U.S. role would be critical to jump-starting the stalled process of reform and addressing ethnic Albanian demands. "We want more American involvement here. America has not a moral right but a moral obligation to be more involved" in Macedonia, he said.
Trajkovski also pledged to invigorate talks on constitutional changes. "We have to create effective democratic institutions. We have to strengthen affirmative action. We have to speed up this process . . . so citizens find equal opportunities to reach their God-given potential," he added.
The ultimate goal is to "harmonize" laws and procedures to make them conform to standards of the European Union, a group Macedonia hopes to eventually join.
The ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army has been in retreat since a late March offensive. But its forces reportedly are regrouping, and the challenge is achieving enough political reform to prevent an outbreak of violence that would have wider popular support.
At a news conference here, Powell warned Thursday that dangers lie ahead despite the lull in fighting. "There are still extremist elements that wish to make trouble in this country. And I am very pleased that the president and this government have moved forward with dialogue," he said.
In response to the fighting, the U.S. this month pledged $5.5 million, in addition to almost $50 million this year, for civilian programs to facilitate reforms. The funds are to be used for police training and for easing the transfer of power from the central government to local governments.
HRW: Police Violence in Macedonia Posted April 13, 2001
HRW: Police Violence in Macedonia
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/macedonia/
"The most serious case of police violence took place on July 9, 1997, when special forces of the Macedonian police, some of them trained in the United States, confronted violent ethnic Albanian demonstrators in the western town of Gostivar. Direct clashes left three protesters dead and at least two hundred people injured, including nine policemen. Once the police had established control, they beat demonstrators who were offering no resistance, including some people whom the police had tied to traffic signs. The police entered private homes without a warrant and detained and beat individuals who had not taken part in the demonstration. At the local police station, detainees were forced to pass through a gauntlet of baton-wielding policemen."
"The pro-government media in Macedonia portrayed the incident in a biased way that further exacerbated the tense situation in the area. Coverage praised the professionalism of the police in their struggle against "Albanian extremism," without mentioning the police's use of excessive force, arbitrary detentions, or abuse in custody."
"Public statements after the incident from the U.S., E.U., and OSCE failed to criticize the police. Instead, they reiterated their support for Macedonia's "territorial integrity" and called on ethnic Albanians to respect their legal obligations to the state. UNPREDEP made no public statement on the incident. Internal OSCE reports obtained by Human Rights Watch were overtly biased in favor of the government (see Appendices)."
"The police's behavior in Gostivar on July 9 and 10, as well as the subsequent lack of accountability, are clear violations of Macedonia's obligations under international law, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, and the European Convention for the Protections of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."
"Mr. Gafur Demiri and his nineteen-year-old son were forcibly taken from their apartment in the center of town and beaten. Human Rights Watch saw photographs of Mr. Demiri taken eleven days after the attack that showed deep cuts, lacerations and bruises on his arms and backs. He told Human Rights Watch what happened at around 4:30 p.m.:
They broke my front door and seven or eight policemen entered the apartment. They ordered us to put our hands up and, cursing our nationality, led us downstairs. On the street, ten or fifteen of them grabbed my son and beat him in front of me. I tried to intervene to help my son and to turn their attention to me. One of them asked if I wanted to be an Albanian hero and hit me twice in the face, breaking two teeth. They beat us there for half an hour.(15)
After being beaten in the park, most of the detainees were taken to the police station in Gostivar, where they were forced to proceed through a gauntlet of policemen with truncheons before entering the police garage. Gafur Demiri told Human Rights Watch:
We were taken to the police station and put in the garage. Two columns of police were waiting for us to go through... 300 to 400 people were there. We asked for water and they said we couldn't have any because only dead Albanians are good.(16)"
Full report at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/macedonia/
Powell Seeks Political Compromise in Macedonia Posted April 12, 2001
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010412/pl/balkans_powell_dc_6.html
Thursday April 12 12:47 PM ET
Powell Seeks Political Compromise in Macedonia
By Elaine Monaghan
SKOPJE (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), on his first foray into Balkan diplomacy, on Thursday firmly backed a united Macedonia, pushing the country's Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minority toward political compromise.
The West says such a compromise is the only way to prevent a resumption of clashes between the army and ethnic Albanian rebels which triggered fears of a new Balkan war last month.
Powell held talks with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, who told reporters afterwards his government was committed to a serious political dialogue with the Albanians. He urged the U.S. to stay in the region and help turn Kosovo into ``a source of stability.''
Powell said he was pleased that the dialogue had resumed and said he had brought an invitation to the Macedonian president to come to Washington in early May.
``You can be sure of the American support of your efforts, political support, economic support and military support,'' Powell told him.
The Secretary of State arrived in Skopje from Paris, where Western powers and Russia -- six nations in the so-called Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia -- vowed on Wednesday to do all they could to stop any conflict erupting in Macedonia.
A senior State Department official had said en route to Paris that Powell would urge Skopje to use proportionate force in repelling attacks by ethnic Albanians should they resume.
In meetings with Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubo Georgievski and Foreign Minister Srgan Kerim, Powell was expected to reiterate U.S. support for their country's integrity.
Macedonia's political leaders opened a new round of talks on Tuesday on how to defuse ethnic tensions, after promising the European Union (news - web sites) on Monday to draft reforms by June.
Wide Gap In Talks
So far, Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian parties remain far apart in their approach to the talks, at which the main Albanian parties are demanding international mediation and changes to the constitution.
The basic law makes Macedonian Slavs the main nationality and Macedonian the only official language. Albanians comprise about one third of the population.
Powell was also due to meet Arben Xhaferi, leader of the ethnic Albanian DPA party which is part of the fragile ruling coalition, and was likely to encourage him to stay at the talks despite his threats to pull out if progress were not made.
Branko Crvenkovski, leader of the opposition Socialist Party dominated by Slavs, who vehemently opposes changes to the constitution, was also due to meet Powell briefly.
The United States is offering Macedonia more than just moral and diplomatic support, though it does not want to commit troops on the ground to help stop the rebels.
It has agreed to send two or three pilotless spy planes to help the Macedonian government keep track of movements of the guerrillas, who demand more rights for Albanians in Macedonia.
Calling themselves the National Liberation Army, the rebels have spread rumors with some success among the local population that the Americans support their quest, despite harsh statements by Powell and President Bush (news - web sites) rejecting their use of violence.
The West sees no comparison between what it calls the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo by forces of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) in 1998-1999, and discrimination against ethnic Albanians in Macedonia who are represented in the ruling coalition.
Powell was also due to attend a gathering of Balkan foreign ministers in a show of support for the government.
Although no separate meeting with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic was scheduled, Powell was likely to take the opportunity to remind Belgrade's new leaders that Washington supports it but wants it to step up cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites).
Ethnic Albanian head to ask Powell for greater US role in Macedonia crisis Posted April 11, 2001
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010411/1/moea.html
Thursday April 12, 5:34 AM
Ethnic Albanian head to ask Powell for greater US role in Macedonia crisis
SKOPJE, April 11 (AFP) -
The leader of the main ethnic Albanian party in trouble-hit Macedonia will ask Washington to play a greater role in the country when he meets US Secretary of State Colin Powell here Thursday.
Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), told AFP by phone it was in the United States' interests to help defuse the ethnic crisis that flared into open warfare last month when ethnic Albanian gunmen clashed with Macedonian forces.
"I will ask the US to be more involved in the case of Macedonia, which is a kind of geo-strategic pillar in the heart of the Balkans, connected to Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Serbia. Any conflict here can provoke a much larger conflict," he said.
"The war in Bosnia was a local war, the war in Kosovo was between two communities, but a war in Macedonia could have very bad consequences," warned the leader of the DPA, which is a member of the government coalition.
Xhaferi denounced efforts by the Macedonian Slav majority to make good on promises to discuss Albanian grievances, saying government negotiators were only ready to discuss "marginal issues."
"I want to talk to Powell about the roots of the crisis," he said.
Xhaferi identifed the constitution as the "main generator of the crisis" which threatened last month to rip the country apart in civil war.
The preamble of the document -- which he called a mono-ethnic relic of communist times -- calls Macedonia a "country of the Macedonians" and lists Albanians as a minority alongside Turks, Roma gypsies and various Slavic groups such as Serbs and Bulgarians.
Skopje says that ethnic Albanians make up around a quarter of the population, while the Albanians say they constitute at least a third of the country's two million people.
Xhaferi said Macedonian arguments that a call for Albanians to have their status upped from minority to constitutive nation were a bid to "satanise" his community, already suffering an image problem after drawn-out ethnic violence in Kosovo and southern Serbia.
"We are not calling for federalisation but equalisation. We want human and democratic rights for Albanians," he said, adding that his pleas for talks had found sympathetic ears among high-level EU diplomats during a trip to Luxembourg on Monday.
On that occasion, Skopje signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union, a first step toward membership, which will depend on Macedonia's meeting EU standards on rights and democracy.
Xhaferi said the accord was a "big carrot for the Macedonians" to resolve their crisis through dialogue.
"But the stick will be if the Macedonians cannot show enough maturity to solve the problems, then the process (of integration) will be blocked," he added.
He said he would also ask Powell, starting his first official Balkans tour in Skopje on Thursday, to push for proportional representation of ethnic Albanians, "who are deeply marginalised in society."
What Is to Be Done? (Iso RUSI) Posted April 11, 2001
http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200104/10411-001-trae-sko.htm
WED, 11 APR 2001 00:33:29 GMT
What Is to Be Done?
Almost everyone in Macedonia is asking oneself this after the end of the "mini war" operations in this country. There is plenty of uncertainty about the announced Macedonian-Albanian dialogue: when it will start, what will be the content of the talks and to what extent the two parties are ready to make a compromise. For the time being, representatives of the international community have the worst time because allegedly they are imposing a solution conditioning with it a quick signing of the agreement on cooperation and association with the European Union.
AIM Skopje, April 3, 2001
The message on the front page of Makedonija danas daily was today: "Solana we don't need you!" The superscript headline of this message was: "World Mediators in Macedonia Again", and the content of the message was very clear: "Wherever it got involved (meaning "good old Europe"), there was nothing but war. Such destructive diplomacy is what Macedonia needs the least at this moment, so we join the citizens of Tetovo who have proclaimed Solana a persona non grata by accusing him of acting in favour of the Greater Albanian cause, and also wish to tell him to go home. Basura, vasa ce a casa!"
The fourth visit in a row of the European chief of foreign affairs and security this time together with the European Commissar Chris Patten was met with hostility, because before the visit the impression was created that Solana himself was exerting pressure on Macedonian state leadership to begin negotiations with the local Albanians before signing of the agreement on cooperation and association which Macedonian and the EU according to announcements should sign on April 9 in Luxembourg. Moreover, that in the name of Europe Solana is conditioning signing of the agreement with the acceptance of the demands of the Albanians which do not essentially differ much from the political demands of the National Liberation Army which is militarily, Macedonians are convinced, definitely defeated after the recent offensive of the security forces around Tetovo and along the northern border with Kosovo, between Blace and Tanusevac.
Indeed Javier Solana was proclaimed responsible for the fact that after military victory Macedonian authorities have to sit down at the negotiating table and make concessions which is not fitting for a victor, while the Albanians, defeated in war, are getting quite a lot!
Skopje Dnevnik daily published last Thursday reports of its correspondent from Brussels who wrote about the meeting of Solana with the members of the foreign policy committee of European parliament. According to this source, among other, Solana said the following to European parliamentarians: "The Government of Macedonia, although it has not been publicly declared, agrees with me that the Preamble of the Constitution of Macedonia is not adequate and that it should be amended". The Preamble is a political declaration on the centuries' old wish of the Macedonians to have their own state and it is the only part of the Constitution dominated by the ethnic concept, unlike the civil one which dominates in the normative part). A part of the Macedonian public has understood this as an already reached agreement between Solana and Macedonian government to initiate amendments of the Constitution in the announced negotiations with the Albanian party and after that accept all the demands of the Albanians which have been repeated for ten years already (state university education in Albanian, use of Albanian language as official, use of flag and ethnic insignia...).
All kinds of similar rumours circled around Solana's visits to Macedonia. During the first one, at the very beginning of the crisis, instead of military action against the rebels Solana had allegedly tried to persuade President of Macedonia Boris Trajkovski that it was necessary to start a dialogue with the Albanians. Trajkovski allegedly refused to listen to the end to this proposal of Solana's. During the second Solana's stay, on the eve of the European summit in Stockholm, this time together with Swedish Foreign Minister Ane Lind as the chairman of the EU and Euro-Commissar Chris Patten, Solana allegedly convinced Macedonian state leadership to postpone the action of Macedonian security forces after the ultimatum given to the rebels.
Just a day before Solana's arrival in Skopje for the third time, this time together with NATO Secretary General George Robertson, Macedonian combined military and police forces launched an offensive in the surroundings of Tetovo, despite alleged promise of President Trajkovski given in Stockholm that no action of this type would be taken. Before the offensive Trajkovski was exposed to severe pressure among other by parliamentarians from VMRO-DPMNE whose presidential candidate he had been. Western news agencies had announced the visit of Solana and Robertson with slogans such as: "The war is over, it is time for negotiations".
Reactions to such developments are statements almost in unison of all the media in Macedonian with the common denominator such as "Victory as Defeat". Before Solana's latest visit, leader of Social Democratic League of Macedonia (SDSM) and the opposition Branko Crvenkovski appeared in public and warned Prime Minister Georgievski: "SDSM has no intention to stand idly and watch abnormal authorities which work against the interest of Macedonia destroy the country". Crvenkovski demanded formation of a broad coalition government or resignation of Georgievski, by hook or by crook - announcing that he would call the people to gather in the street. Prime Minister Georgievski immediately answered that he would invite Crvenkovski to talks on a broad coalition government and declared by the way that he was not for deletion of the Preamble from the Constitution, that he had no secret agreement with the leader of Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) Arben Xhaferi and that he would not accept any of his demands which might be against Macedonian national interest. Spokesman of VMRO-DPMNE also appeared in public with the statement that this party would not negotiate on constitutional amendments.
At the same time, statements of Arben Xhaferi, leader of DPA, given to "New York Times" (that if negotiations did not begin in a month and if they did not yield tangible results nobody would be able to stop armed conflicts between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian authorities) and certain other Western media were in this sense estimated as blackmail of the ethnic Macedonian part of the administration and were broadly condemned even by government controlled media. And Xhaferi himself and his DPA, indeed like other existing ethnic Albanian parties, are receiving messages from ordinary ethic Albanians almost every day that they have lost faith because of the inefficiency that has lasted for years - by failing to keep the promises they won elections with.
The whole atmosphere significantly differs from the atmosphere of just ten odd days ago when the ethnic Macedonian part of the authorities, for instance through its informal advisor Ljubomir Frckovski, former minister of internal and foreign affairs in the cabinets of Branko Crvenkovski, tested the public about the question whether the Preamble of the Constitution should be subject of talks and whether in negotiations with the ethnic Albanian party it would be necessary to demand international presence. Even Prime Minister Georgievski who visited Tetovo at the height of the offensive declared that the preamble could be a subject to discussion.
At the meetings Solana and Patten had on Monday with the state leadership, President of Macedonia Trajkovski informed them on the meeting he had with leaders of parliamentarian parties where support was given to the forthcoming signing of the agreement with the EU. The official statement on the meeting contains the following formulation: "the commitment was stressed of the Republic of Macedonia for intensifying political dialogue on further steps towards full stabilisation of the situation in the state and clear definition of the orientation towards civil society".
Newspaper reports on the meeting of Trajkovski with the leaders of political parties represented in the Assembly (which leader of Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity - PDP - Imer Imeri did not attend on pretext that he did not wish to serve as a setting for Trajkovski) speak of the offered document by President Trajkovski as the initial paper for further discussion, about which the leaders should give their opinion within a week. The following statement of Trajkovski was quoted: "It is necessary to have a clear option for building a democratic, civil and open society in which accent will be put on the citizen as an individual".
There is an obvious difference between the disposition in Macedonian public and what President Trajkovski is hinting at because consistent application of the civil concept of Macedonian society demands elimination of the Preamble of the Constitution.
This leaves the impression of uncertainty concerning the rate of the establishment, the nature and the subject of future dialogue in Macedonian society which used to be imposed by the international community from the very beginning of the "mini-war" in Macedonia, and the internal protagonists, at least the ones in power, accepted.
Now it seems as if everything is in a phase of expectations or delay. And Misa Gleni, one of the known analysts of the developments in the Balkans says the following in an interview for Lobi weekly in Albanian language: if major demands of ethnic Albanians are not resolved in six months, there will be war again!
AIM Skopje
ISO RUSI
Letter to Mr. Solana (by Eqerem Mete and Petrit Kasemi) Posted April 11, 2001
April 2, 2001
His Excellency, Mr. Javier Solana
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy BRUSSELS
Excellency,
Events in the Balkans, actually in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which are being watched with concern not only by the Albanian public, prompt us, two former Albanian diplomats, who have dealt with Balkan affairs, to write to your Excellency in order to air our view of the crisis and the situation of the Albanians in the Balkans.
It is our belief that the current events in the Balkans are an outcome of the policies Europe pursued in the past towards the Albanian issue, which lies at the core of the Balkan problem. It is also our impression that in the plans on the future of the Balkans, too, Albanians have been prejudged again and are still conceived as an integral or complementary part of other Balkan countries. This is why, the European decision makers today have been highly critical of and look askance at any attempt by the Albanians to achieve equality and freedom. As a result, most varied labels that do not serve the real solution of the issue are attached to the Albanians, compelling the latter to respond radically and then, calling them the troublemakers of the Balkans.
For about 80 years, Kosova was under the domination of Serbia, which proved to be against the advancement and prosperity of the Albanians. Its shortsighted policy from the position of aggressive nationalism was conducive to the 1999 events, in which your Excellency played a constructive and commendable role.
Albanians are also experiencing almost the same situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, though they accepted the Macedonian state as their own in the hope that their lot would improve. During the existence of the Macedonian state, the Albanians have given proof that they are a key factor for its stability. Their stand as well as the stand of the Albanian state, have been at variance with the attitude of the other neighbors towards that country. At present, too, according to their unequivocal statements, the so-called radicals and terrorists, as well as moderates, want the Albanians to be equal to the rest of the population; they do not seek to break up the Macedonian state. The present conflict is not a civil war among Albanians, or between Albanians or Macedonians. It is an armed and, at the same time, political struggle between the Albanian insurgents and political subjects on the one hand and the Macedonian government on the other.
Today the Albanians are asked to try to win their rights on a peaceful road, through political means, though it is common knowledge that they have unsuccessfully been doing so for more than ten years. The Albanians are undercounted in order to keep them under, while European official circles accept what the Macedonian government proclaims far and wide as true. Albanians seek to preserve their culture, in fact a Slavonic language is imposed on them. They have asked for a state-funded university at a time when the government and, unfortunately, Europe, too impose a private university on them. The anti-Albanian attitudes displayed by the Macedonian governments has also filtered down to ordinary people. The indoctrinated Macedonian population, while enjoying indirect official encouragement, turns out on the streets to protest against the schooling of the Albanians in the Albanian language, something, which constitutes an unprecedented act of bigotry in modern history. The Albanians demand to enjoy the same rights as the Macedonians. They want the country to be declared a state of two constituent peoples since they make up about 40 percent of the total population of the country. The Macedonian Parliamentary Commission on International Relations too admits the deplorable situation of the Albanians in FYROM. According to its report released in May 2000, the country's workforce is 84.5% ethnic Macedonian and 9.4% ethnic Albanian; in the police force and the military, Albanians contribute 3.1% of the employees while the ethnic Macedonians make up 93.9%. A similar situation exists in other sectors of public life, including the judiciary and the health system. In the universities of Shkup (Skopje) and Manastir (Bitola), the Albanians constitute 1.5 - 2 percent of the total number of students.
It is not fair to overlook the constitutional deficiencies of the Macedonian state or advertise them as democratic achievements. When endorsed, the new Macedonian Constitution fell short of what the Albanians expected. The Constitution of the previous communist regime had been one step ahead of it as to the definition of FYROM. It defined the republic as the state of Macedonians, Albanians and other national minorities. Whereas the Preamble to the present-day Constitution defines FYROM as a state of Macedonians, misrepresenting the term "Macedonian" as though it referred both to Macedonians and Albanians and the national minorities. There can be no equal citizens in a country where part of the population is discriminated against in political institutions and state bodies as well as in local government, science, culture and media. Denial of basic rights is intended to make the Albanians leave the country. It is kind of ethnic cleansing, though nobody has so far called it as such, conducted in a very subtle manner. This practice is reminiscent of the Greek and Serbian campaigns of ethnic cleansing against Albaniansis. The coalition with Albanian parties, a ploy to cover up this reality, cannot make up for the constitutional deficiencies as regards the Albanian population' rights. The Albanian cabinet members have no role to play either and their opinion is neglected. The recent events provided ample proof of it.
FYROM created merely as an artificial political entity is afflicted with inherent weaknesses. As a result, it is not the Albanians' fault that this creature is not stable. It owes its existence so far to the international factor, the attitude of the Albanians and the regional circumstances. This country has no merits of its own.
Why do the authorities of the countries where the Albanians live and the European powers turn a deaf ear to the Albanians' demands? Aren't the Albanians of Chamria, a province in the north-west of the present Greek state, demanding their lawful rights and nobody has taken heed of them over more than 80 years, especially over the last 50 years? You may not have heard about such an Albanian problem in Greece. This is more than natural because only the voice of Greece reaches Europe. Greece perpetrated genocide, a bloody ethnic cleansing of Albanians, on the eve of the termination of World War II. About 150 thousand people demand to return to their hearths in Greece. They are demanding their own rights under the international law.
Which would be the solution that Europe offers these suffering people who the Greek state has insulted by calling them "collaborationists and criminals"? They cannot see their own homes even as tourists because the "democratic" Greek state, a member of the European Union, does not allow them in. Will the silence about their just demands impose radicalization on them as a way out? If one day these wretched, humiliated and insulted people, these human beings who are ignored and abandoned by the international community to their tragic fate, rise to win their rights and fight as members of the U [the Albanian-language acronym for Chamria Liberation Army] against a EU and NATO member, what labels would the international community attach to them? Surely, the terms to describe them would be as denigrating as those used about the Albanians in Eastern Kosova and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The consequences of the approach to and neglect of the issue is what worries us, though we cannot bring ourselves to believe that today's Europe, which is not the Europe of the past that scattered the Albanians in Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, will sit idly by waiting for the glass to overflow.
Why is there such a silence about the Greek nationalistic whims or its denial of the existence of national minorities, the tolerance of the Greek authorities towards terrorism or other internal issues in Greece? Why is democratic Europe putting up with Greek lectures on democracy and peaceful settlement of crises? Its treatment of the Turkish national minority, the denial of the presence of an ancient Albanian population and the Macedonian population there is clear evidence of how Greece has resolved its domestic problems. Europe surprisingly disregards such simple and clear facts about one of its members.
The road the Albanians are told to follow indicates that the fulfillment of their rights has been put off to the Greek kalends. The Albanians in the Balkans today find themselves in the midst of strong long-standing Euro-Balkan currents that are working full blast against them. Almost nothing has changed in others' attitude towards them.
It is regrettable that Russian diplomacy is still allowed to meddle with the Balkans at a time when the Euro-Atlantic political and military institutions can cope with and resolve crises not only in that region. How can Europe and the rest of the civilized world tolerate the racist and discriminatory statements of the Russian foreign minister about an entire people? According to him, "wherever the Albanians are the majority, extremism and organized crime flourish." In his view, the Albanians should stay put as heretofore, divided, scattered, helpless and without rights in the Slav sates because only in this way can Russian influence in the Balkans grow. A strong Albanian element in the region would say Stop to Orthodox religious fundamentalism and suffocating Slav racism and influence, which have caused so many problems and inflicted so many tragedies on the peoples of our region and civilization in general.
Excellency,
While watching TV anybody can observe that just across the borders of the Republic of Albania there are only Albanian-inhabited territories. Do other peoples find themselves in the same situation as the Albanians do in the Balkans? The neighbors of Albanians are Albanians, people who speak the same language and have the same culture and blood? Separated, the territories where they live constitute authentic Albania. United, these territories would not constitute Greater Albania, because within its borders there would be no territory that would belong to other peoples. However, the pro-European orientation of all Albanians is more than clear. Their goal to join Europe rejects the Slav thesis that they are extremist nationalists. The armed and political struggle of the Albanians is spearheaded only against Slav aggressive nationalism, which shed the blood of so many people in the Balkans over the last ten years. The utterances about moderate and extremist Albanians are intended to obscure this orientation of the Albanians; they do not speak of a serious attitude. They do make the situation worse and hide the truth, namely, what the Albanians have always sought: a democratic space where they can enjoy their legitimate rights as a nation in the European family. They refuse to be marginalized as they have been so far.
Excellency,
Allow us to make a few suggestions with regard to the crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
1. It is necessary to take urgent preventive measures against Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Greek influence and interference that may cause a broader conflict. They cannot be justified because the Macedonian state is not threatened from the outside. The conflict is internal.
2. There is growing need for greater involvement by the European Union. Events proved that the situation would not have reached such a point if preventive measures had been adopted and pressure brought to bear at the right moment on the Macedonian government to make the latter seriously to address the Albanians' grievances, the cause of the situation we are presently witnessing. The NATO forces in the border area and the Macedonian army, which is trying to snuff out a homegrown movement, are grappling with the consequences only. About ten years have been wasted on whitewashing the Macedonian hybrid regime.
3. The crisis should be settled through bilateral, Macedonian-Albanian, dialogue under your auspices without dividing the Albanians into moderate and extremist sections. Albanians are against bogus negotiations. To be successful, they have to be organized seriously. They should not be used as a smokescreen to hoodwink the Albanians and the international community. The so-called backlash from the Macedonian constituency is a threadbare excuse.
4. On the model of the United Nations report on the Kosova issue, compiled by well-known legal experts, who conclude that Kosova is entitled to independence and statehood under the international law, the European Union and other institutions should diagnose the Albanian issue overall, in Kosova, Eastern Kosova, FYROM, Montenegro and Greece and provide relevant solutions, which the respective countries are in duty-bound to implement. If history is a guide, hiding problems and favoring one party to the detriment of another party lead to radicalization and violence, which nobody wants.
Availing ourselves of this opportunity, permit us, Excellency, to express our highest respect for You and the Institution you represent.
Sincerely,
Eqerem Mete - former Director of the Balkans and Middle East Department of the Albanian Foreign Ministry (1992-1996)
Petrit Kasemi - former diplomat in the Balkans and Middle East Department of the Albanian Foreign Ministry (1992-1996)
Boston, MA, USA
Graz, Austria