Nowhere near the brink (Guardian, March 19, 2001) Posted March 19, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,458971,00.html
Nowhere near the brink
Ignore the hysteria. Macedonia is not about to spark a Balkan
conflagration
Jonathan Steele
Monday March 19, 2001
The Guardian
If war is, as Clausewitz said, the continuation of politics by other
means, then a war correspondent is a political reporter in another
context. The old adage needs to be remembered with special urgency when
fighting breaks out in the Balkans. Precisely because they are part of
Europe, the temptation for non-Balkan Europeans in the more prosperous
part of the continent to demonise their southern neighbours seems to be
huge.
The crisis in Macedonia is the latest case. Too many politicians,
analysts and journalists are already using the apocalyptic language of
"conflagration", "rivers of blood", and "regional war" or commenting, as
the Sunday Telegraph did yesterday, "After Bosnia, after Kosovo, one
would have thought the people of the Balkans had had enough of killing
each other."
The Balkans have certainly had a miserable decade with an appalling
record of massacre and ethnic cleansing. But the latest events in
Macedonia provide no reason to abandon normal political analysis in
favour of a gloomy determinism which assumes that every Balkan conflict
is about ethnicity, and that once tapped lightly on the shoulder, the
ethnic genie will always race off to mass murder. The Sunday Telegraph
should note there have only been two deaths in the "conflagration"
around Tetovo. An army pilot died when a helicopter hit a power line. An
Albanian civilian was killed by a stray bullet.
More significantly, the clashes are not just a dispute between
Albanians and Macedonians. They are also a dispute among Albanians. The
established Albanian politicians of Macedonia, as well as those of
Kosovo and Albania itself, have all condemned the gunmen. The Macedonian
government, a coalition of Macedonian and Albanian parties, has not
fallen. Indeed, apart from four Albanian and two Macedonian MPs, the
entire parliament condemned the "armed groups of extremists" yesterday
and called for foreign military help. The motion was supported not only
by the Albanian party in government but also by the Albanian opposition
Party of Democratic Prosperity.
So the gunmen operating in the hills above Tetovo represent a
minority. That said, it does not follow that a large number of
Macedonia's Albanians do not support their goals, as opposed to their
violent methods. Before and since independence in 1991 Albanians have
regularly criticised the lack of language rights for their community and
discrimination in public service jobs. There have been frequent
outbursts of nationalism with demands for the right to fly the Albanian
flag. Arben Xhaferi, now the leading Albanian moderate in Macedonia, is
a jail veteran from flag protests going back as far as 1968.
Calls for federalisation within Macedonia, which the gunmen seem to
be making, have long been canvassed by some Albanians though always
rejected by Macedonian politicians on the grounds they would be the
first step to secession.
If the gunmen are to remain isolated, a heavy responsibility now
rests on the local politicians of both sides as well as, to a lesser
extent, on western governments. The Albanian leaders in Macedonia and in
Kosovo must go beyond their public condemnations of the gunmen and start
serious discussions with them and their leaders for a ceasefire. The
gunmen have made a point but they must now leave room for political
talks by elected leaders to go forward.
By the same token, the Macedonian military and police must avoid any
escalation. It is clear that Nato is not going to get involved with
troops, beyond a belated tightening up of security on the border between
Kosovo and Macedonia. It is also apparent that the Macedonian security
forces do not have the men, the equipment, or the sophisticated training
to take the gunmen on by themselves. Blasting mortar rounds into
forested hillsides serves little purpose other than as a temporary,
though spurious, morale-booster for Macedonia's Slav majority. But it
carries the risk of civilian casualties which would only serve to
radicalise a wider segment of the Albanian population. The Macedonian
military must avoid the use of excessive force which the Serbs wielded
in Kosovo in 1998, turning the whole Albanian community against them.
If a ceasefire can be achieved quickly, then all sides must be ready
for wide-ranging talks and reasonable concessions. A decade after its
hasty and unprepared independence, Macedonia needs to take a deep breath
and work out a new dispensation. Albanian leaders must make an
unequivocal declaration that they do not want to split the state. They
must also renounce federalisation, at least for a 10-year period, in
return for progress in opening public service jobs to Albanians. The
constitution needs to enshrine multiracialism instead of its current
assumption of Slav supremacy. Albanian must be recognised as an official
language for parliament, the courts and public service. A minority as
large as a third of the population, as the Albanians are thought to be,
deserve no less. With common sense in Macedonia, and less hysteria
outside it, solutions can be found.
UN envoy says country is close to the precipice Posted March 19, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,459048,00.html
UN envoy says country is close to the precipice
Special report: Crisis in the Balkans
Rory Carroll on Mount Baltepe
Monday March 19, 2001
The Guardian
The UN special envoy to the Balkans, Carl Bildt, said yesterday that Macedonia's security forces were proving no match for the self-styled National Liberation Army, which Nato dismissed only last week as a small group of extremists.
"What we have in Tetovo is civil war," he said. "It is eating up the fabric of a fragile state. We are uncomfortably close to the precipice."
During a visit to Skopje, Mr Bildt contradicted the claim of Nato and the Macedonian authorities that the insurgency was under control.
"The guerrillas are a competent military organisation," he said. "They have a core of very experienced fighters. They are well fortified, evidently well prepared, and in all probability they control substantial parts of the hinterland."
Mr Bildt was scathing about the west's failure to avert the crisis. The peacekeeping force in Kosovo, K-For, had abjectly failed to cut supply routes to the rebels.
The UN shared the blame. "It is an acute embarrassment if territory the UN is responsible for is used for terrorist actions against a neighbouring country. If we are serious about this we need considerable more manpower on the border."
The west had failed to honour a "moral debt" to Macedonia for its help during the 1999 Kosovo war, he added.
The guerrillas enjoy widespread support from ethnic Al banians, who constitute up to a third of the 2m population. Many say they have been treated as second-class citizens.
Macedonia, which has one of the best human rights records in the Balkans, says ultra-nationalist Albanians are stirring ethnic hatred.
Rebels interviewed near their temporary base in the village of Selce at the weekend said they intended to take over western Macedonia to form a federation within the country. Sceptics say the real objective is joining an enlarged, independent Kosovo.
Leaflets have been delivered in the southern city of Struga demanding the enlistment of Albanian men. Political analysts say support for the Democratic Party of the Albanians, which has five ministers in the government, seems to be falling.
Time is on the NLA's side: the longer the fighting continues the more polarised ethnic groups become.
Since the police in Tetovo were first fired on last Wednesday, relations between Albanian and Macedonian neighbours have deteriorated sharply. Macedonians, who make up about a fifth of the city's 200,000 inhabitants, feel vulnerable and are furious that many Albanians cheer the attackers.
Several hundred families have fled, as have hundreds of Albanians and Turks, including busloads heading for Istanbul. On Saturday refugees from the city demonstrated in front of the parliament building in the capital, Skopje, demanding weapons.
RUGOVA: INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION IN MACEDONIA Posted March 19, 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/4-see.html
Kosovar moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova said in Stuttgart on 17 March that the Macedonian authorities should pay more attention to the legitimate grievances of their fellow citizens of Albanian origin. He said that the way out of "the war" in Macedonia is through an "international organization," namely one with "more weight" than a "purely political one, like the OSCE," the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported. Rugova also called for sending international peacekeepers to Macedonia. He warned that the conflict in Macedonia and crisis in Presevo could have a destabilizing effect on Kosova. An independent Kosova would have a calming effect on the political atmosphere in the Balkans, he added. PM
MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN LEADER CALLS FOR URGENT DIALOGUE Posted March 19, 2001
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/4-see.html
Arben Xhaferi, whose Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH) is represented in the government, told "Fakti" of 17 March that the rebels are resorting to violence as a short-cut to taking power, Reuters reported. "I do not think that you start a war in order to create a political party," he added. The veteran Albanian leader, who is clearly in declining health, stressed that "the situation calls for the opening of a dialogue between the two peoples on the mode of co-existence. I hope that both the Macedonian government and the foreign powers will try to launch this dialogue that will benefit all. Nobody will lose." PM
LOCAL CRISES IN MACEDONIA NOT "IMPORTED" FROM KOSOVA, KOSOVAR PARTIES SAID Posted March 19, 2001
http://www.kosovalive.com/english/english.htm
Prishtina, March 19 (KosovaLive)
The accusations of Macedonian authorities concerning the incrimination of the Kosovar Albanians in the conflict within Macedonia are unacceptable, say the political parties of Kosova.
Representatives of Kosova's main political parties consider that high Macedonian officials are attempting to "import" the problems in order to ignore the serious local character of the problem.
"The situation is a result of unsolved Albanian problems in Macedonia over a period of 10 years. Accusations which have the same aim as before - that political elements in Kosova are involved in incriminating incidents in Macedonia - are unacceptable," Naim Jerliu, vice-president of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), told KosovaLive Monday.
Jerliu stated that there was absolutely no involvement of Kosovars in the troubles in Macedonian. Instead of accusations, the Macedonian government should be prepared to open up ways for Albanian demands in Macedonia to be met, in order to prevent the situation from escalating and to prevent the risks that are a cause of concern, he argued.
Ramadan Avdiu, a member of the Democratic Party of Kosova (PDK), said, "the accusations of Macedonia's Prime Minister are unfounded and absolutely baseless."
According to Avdiu, Macedonian authorities want to remove the blame from themselves while accusing the political parties in Kosova. "The Kosovar political parties have clearly requested that the problem in Macedonia be solved in a political manner, including respecting all rights of the Albanians that live here," Avdiu said.
A member of the Alliance for the Future of Kosova (AAK), Bujar Dugolli, said that the government of Macedonia, because it is incapable of solving its own problems, falsely accuses the political leadership in Kosova. "We support the right of Albanians in Macedonia to be a state-forming people and to have the same rights as the Macedonians," he said.
According to Dugolli, if the Macedonian government refuses to negotiate with Albanian political and military factions in Macedonia, the solution will be even more difficult. "Our efforts are aimed at getting both sides in the conflict to begin negotiations which will end the armed conflict," Dugolli said. (b.bala)
Albanian Education Posted March 19, 2001
"In July, the government adopted legislation to resolve the long-standing question of Tetovo University, a private Albanian-language institution that Macedonian authorities refused to accredit as an educational institution. The passage of the law on education on July 25 established a new multi-lingual tertiary institute offering training in business, education, and public management. The internationally funded institution, intended as a replacement to Tetovo University, would allow Albanians to study in their own language, although a proficiency test in Macedonian would be required before their diplomas were officially recognized. Despite receiving the backing of the Albanian party in the ruling government coalition, the new institute did not receive unequivocal support from the country's ethnic Albanian population, many of whom wanted nothing less than the recognition of Tetovo University itself."
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/macedonia.html
Discrimination: The Macedonian Citizenship Law Posted March 19, 2001
"Despite government promises to reform Macedonia's overly exclusive 1992 citizenship law in line with Council of Europe standards, the law remained unchanged. Drafted at the time of its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia's citizenship law never adequately resolved the status of the significant number of Yugoslav citizens who were long-term residents in Macedonia but who were neither born in Macedonia nor ethnic Macedonian. Large numbers of ethnic Albanians, Turks, and Roma who knew no other home than Macedonia remained effectively stateless as a result of the law."
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/macedonia.html
Political Discrimination Posted March 19, 2001
"Trajkovski eliminated the Albanian factor from further measures that need to be taken to stabilize the country, by founding an Emergency Team that should monitor the situation and propose measures and activities that need to be taken by competent authorities in Macedonia. The team, consisted of ARM representatives, Agency of Counter-Intelligence, Ministry of Interior, had been established after the killing of Muzafer Xhaferi (23), who got killed in front of his own house in Tanushec.
The Team is based in the ARM House in Skopje. The ethnic structure of the Team is ethnically clean all Macedonians. As Fakti learned, this was done on the specific request of Trajkovski himself, as he assessed irrelevant the contribution of the Albanians in this matter."
http://balkanreport.com/angliski/tanushec.htm
Macedonian Town Quiet After Overnight Shooting Posted March 19, 2001
TETOVO, Macedonia (Reuters) - Bursts of machine-gun fire sounded Monday in Tetovo, the main ethnic Albanian town in Macedonia, where days of ethnic violence have fuelled fears of a new Balkan war.
A Reuters reporter said he heard two bursts of machinegun fire around 9:30 a.m. (0830 GMT), apparently police firing at suspected guerrilla targets in the hills overlooking the northwestern town of some 70,000 people.
Local residents said they had heard shooting during the night, including what appeared to be some response fire from the hills. Smoke billowed from a house on the hillside hit earlier.
Interior Ministry troops have been pouring machinegun and artillery fire onto the mountain slopes close to Tetovo since Wednesday in a bid to dislodge what Macedonia says is a force of several hundred guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA).
It was not immediately clear whether Macedonian troops had carried out a promised assault on Beltepe Hill, scene of heavy government shelling and automatic weapons duels with the ethnic Albanian rebels in recent days.
Sunday evening, the guerrillas appeared to be either hunkered down or long gone from hilltop positions as Macedonian forces blasted the slopes without drawing answering fire.
Macedonia's Interior Ministry said Sunday its troops would start an offensive against the guerrillas on the hillside.
One Macedonian woman told Reuters Monday that police had moved a little bit up the hill, while two other residents said they were still in the same positions.
Ethnic Albanians make up one-third of Macedonia's 2 million population. Both Skopje and the West are worried about the risk of a slide toward ethnic conflict that could not only tear the republic apart but ultimately drag in neighboring Bulgaria, Greece, Albanian or Yugoslavia.
The NLA says it is fighting for more rights for Macedonia's Albanians.
Macedonia, Not Kosovo, is the Source Posted March 18, 2001
http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200103/10318-002-trae-sko.htm
SUN, 18 MAR 2001 00:07:11 GMT
Macedonia, Not Kosovo, is the Source
by Iso Rusi
This is how Democratic Party of Albanians leader Arben Xhaferi described the crisis in Macedonia, provoking much discontent among Macedonians. Other ethnic Albanians also disagreed; Xhaferi was criticized by the third most important Kosovo political leader, Ramush Haradinaj. The dissatisfaction with the DPA resulted in the forming of a new ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia, more radical than the others. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on events in Macedonia.
AIM Skopje, March 12, 2001
The border between Macedonia and Kosovo, in the region of the village of Tanusevci, was peaceful during the weekend that began on March 10. There were no clashes between the Macedonian army and police and the "ethnic Albanian terrorists," the term used to denote fighters of the so far unidentified group besieging Tanusevci. This was confirmed by spokesmen for the Ministries of Defense and the Interior at a joint press conference.
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said in an interview in The New York Times that the group was routed and that it split into several smaller groups of guerrillas.
On the other hand, commanders of the new Kosovo Liberation Army appeared for the first time in public, introducing themselves as "Commander Sokoli" and "Commander Hoxha." The Associated Press carried a report quoting their statements and a snapshot of Hoxha, together with a series of photographs of fighters of the National Liberation Army, which are otherwise easily accessible on the Internet. The Skopje Albanian-language daily papers published an interview with with Commander Sokoli in which he claimed that his group controls the villages of Malino, Breza, Gosince and Lukare, and that the KLA in Macedonia numbers 4,000 fighters.
It appears, however, that Tanusevci was cleared in a coordinated operation by KFOR on the Kosovo side of the border and the Macedonian army on the Macedonian side. The group was defeated and a part of it crossed into Kosovo, where several militants were apprehended by KFOR. Another group, according to a Macedonian Interior Ministry spokesman, barricaded itself in Malino, Macedonia, where they still control the center of the village. Macedonian police are deployed at the entrance to Malino and around it.
All this shows how quickly the situation on the Macedonian-Kosovo border in the region of Tanusevci is changing and how volatile it is.
On March 10, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine arrived for an official visit to Macedonia and said: "We will not allow several small terrorist groups to jeopardize the country's stability. In the evening on the same day, Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo and his Macedonian counterpart Srdjan Kerim met in Peshkopi, Albania. After the meeting Kerim said: "Albania has given its full support to the Macedonian government in taking measures in Tanusevci and other places where extremists in Macedonia provoked incidents. The message is that nothing will undermine relations between Albania and Macedonia, not even extremists." During the weekend, Kerim met with Macedonian journalists to explain, among other things, why a Macedonian proposal that a buffer zone be created on the Kosovo side of the Macedonian-Albanian border was not accepted. According to him, the proposal was rejected "because it will be more effective to have KFOR troops directly on the border." Responding to ! a question about the dissonant position of Democratic Party of Albanians leader Arben Xhaferi (in regard to official stances), Kerim said that the three parties comprising the ruling coalition are unified in their stands. Xhaferi told the Albanian ATA news agency that the idea that Kosovo was the source of the crisis in Macedonia was incorrect, because "Macedonia is dealing with problems inherited from the past."
This statement was criticized by the Macedonian-language news media. The Skopje newspaper Dnevnik said in an editorial entitled Xhaferi vs. Xhaferi: "Now that terrorism from Kosovo has spilled over into Tanusevci, Xhaferi changed his tune and said Tanusevci was the problem of Albanians in the Balkans, only to later change it once more, trying to convince us that the extremism in northern Macedonia has nothing to do with Kosovo, that it was not imported, but was a product of unresolved political questions in Macedonia." The paper went on to ask the following questions: "Why has Xhaferi now made such a shift and why is he protecting Kosovo's militant groups? Why is he jeopardizing the fragile peace based on the philosophy of multi-ethnicity and multi-culturality? Why is he ascribing other goals to classical terrorism?"
Xhaferi was not criticized solely by the Macedonian media. The same newspaper carried in the same issue on March 12 a report from its Brussels correspondent quoting a statement made by Ramush Haradinaj, the leader of the Kosovo Alliance for the Future. Haradinaj was reported to have said that Xhaferi was losing the support of ethnic Albanian voters in Macedonia. "Arben Xhaferi supported the government and promised much to his community. Now he is losing power, because the government failed to support him. There are other parties being created now and their views differ from those of Xhaferi," Haradinaj was quoted as saying.
Haradinaj probably had in mind the new ethnic Albanian party whose constituent assembly was held on March 11. The National Democratic Party, whose leader is an MP, Kastriot Hadjiredja, and whose core is composed of people from an association of former political prisoners, advocates in its platform a federalization of the country: "The creation of two territorial units will make Macedonia a more stable country, and no one will then be able to say that ethnic Albanians don't have any rights," Hadjiredja said.
Although the questions were directed at Xhaferi, they basically stem from the manner in which the "occupation" of Tanusevci was portrayed. Initially, Macedonian official sources left no doubt that Tanusevci was controlled by Kossovars who infiltrated the region, and who had their logistic bases in nearby Kosovo villages, primarily in Debalde. The Macedonian side accused KFOR of "an indolent attitude," of "protecting themselves by not controlling the ground," as Macedonian Prime Minister put it. This was followed by an open dispute between Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for Kosovo, Hans Hakkaerup, and KFOR commander Carlo Cabigiosu. After their meeting akkaerup told the press: "We have no decisive proof that what is happening on the border was caused by or is coming from the Kosovo side." Not even after a coordinated assault by KFOR and the Macedonian army was any logistic base discovered in the Kosovo village of Deb! alde. KFOR arrested several suspects, and the Macedonian side is now mentioning a group of about a dozen terrorists who have fortified themselves in the village of Morane, in Macedonia. No one is mentioning hundreds or thousands of terrorists any more as was the case at the beginning of the crisis. And only after the Tanusevci case ended, Macedonian official sources said it was possible that among the extremists there was an undetermined number of local ethnic Albanians. Is this to say that "ethnic Albanian terrorists" have become a native Macedonian problem?
Meanwhile, the National Liberation Army, which took responsibility for the attack on Tanusevci sent its sixth press release to the Albanian section of Radio Deutsche Welle. This formation, whose existence and activities the Macedonian Security Service had described as unsubstantiated, demanded that Macedonia be declared a "country of two constituent peoples, ethnic Albanians and Macedonians, thereby preventing discrimination against ethnic Albanians in political life." The Italian La Reppublica newspaper carried a report by its Skopje correspondent quoting Fazliu Veliu, the alleged leader of the National Liberation Army. Veliu is otherwise the main protagonist of a story that has been going on for over a year. He was declared the ideological leader of the "Kicevo bombers," a group of young men who were tried for bombing attacks on several police stations in 1999, of whom some are being retried. An international warrant for his arrest has been issued. Last spring he was appre! hended in Germany, kept in pre-trial detention for three months, and after Macedon ia failed to sent documents to back its request for his extradition, he was released. After this was learned, a big scandal erupted in which current Macedonian Justice Minister Nasufi was involved, because he withdrew all documentation on Veliu. When asked about Veliu, Commander Sokoli, in an interview to the Albanian-language Fakti newspaper, declined to say anything specific about his status because of security reasons. This is why it is unclear whether the fighter on the ground and the commander from the newspaper are together in one and the same armed formation.
In the aforementioned interview with The New York Times, President Trajkovski also said: "We had problems in the past," but thanks to Arben Xhaferi, the leader of the largest ethnic Albanian party, "I believe we will manage to come out of this and will confront together these criminals who are trying to hurt us." If the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia abandon him, this will mean that Xhaferi is paying the price of participating in government. If the void left after his leaving is filled with radical militants, Macedonia's troubles are likely to increase. On the other hand, the very fact that the new, more radical ethnic Albanian party wishes to be active inside the institutions of the system, and not cooperate with the fighters from Tanusevci of the new KLA, shows that all is not lost for Macedonia.
Iso Rusi
Albanian Guerrillas Outline Demands to Macedonia Posted March 17, 2001
1. Albanian Guerrillas Outline Demands to Macedonia
- "equla rights"
- "respects the territorial integrity of the Macedonian state"
- "international mediation"
- 'end the "discrimination against the Albanian population'
2. Analysis: Macedonia rebels' agenda
- "It calls for international mediation of the conflict and a new
constitution which would stress that Macedonians and Albanians are
equal national groups in the same state."
- "a battle for human rights"
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010310/15/international-macedonia-guerrillas-dc
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1213000/1213887.stm
Macedonian Police Brutality and Abuse Posted March 17, 2001
"Police searches of the houses of ethnic Albanians in Aracinovo were characterized by the use of excessive force. On 14 January men and boys were beaten in several houses. One man had his jaw broken, reportedly with a police rifle butt. Six men and two 15-year-old boys were made to lie face down outside another house and were kicked and beaten as they lay. A 70-year-old man was allowed to sit up, but the others were reportedly kept on the ground for up to three hours. The ill-treatment was allegedly accompanied by references to their Albanian ethnicity. Old men, women and children were allegedly guarded at gunpoint by police for three hours in another house."
http://www.balkanreport.com/angliski/policebrutalityreport.htm
http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/EUR650052000
http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/europe/macedonia.html
Minority Albanians Say Fight in Macedonia Is for Equity Posted March 16, 2001
Minority Albanians Say Fight in Macedonia Is for Equity Rebels Demand Rights
"A group of ethnic Albanian guerrillas battling for control of a hillside overlooking this frightened provincial city said today their sole aim is to win more economic and political rights alongside Macedonia's Slavic majority."
"In interviews, they said their armed violence was sparked by a decade of discrimination at the hands of the Macedonian Slavs who make up nearly two-thirds of the country's 2 million inhabitants, alongside tiny communities of Gypsies, Turks and Serbs."
"Although the men would not say where they were from, their accents were local, giving credence to the theory that the guerrillas had recruited members from the predominantly ethnic Albanian towns surrounding Tetovo."
"But little agreement exists in Macedonia about one of the guerrillas' key demands, new schools staffed by Albanian-speaking teachers. At present, only elementary schools offer instruction in that language. While ethnic Albanians see the school issue as a matter of human rights and economic opportunity, many Macedonian Slavs consider the creation of more Albanian-language schools a recipe for enhanced Albanian nationalist and separatist sentiments."
For full article visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15604-2001Mar16.html
RELIGION AND THE MACEDONIAN CONFLICT Posted March 8, 2001
http://www.rferl.org
part of RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT Vol. 5, No. 54, 3 August 2001
RELIGION AND THE MACEDONIAN CONFLICT
Veteran Balkan correspondent Erich Rathfelder wrote in Vienna's "Die Presse" on 26 July that Macedonia's two most important religious organizations -- the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Islamic Community -- are unlikely to provide much help in bridging the ethnic divide.
The Orthodox Church received separate autocephalous status in 1957 as part of Josip Broz Tito's policy of promoting a distinct Macedonian nation (as opposed to treating the Macedonian Slavs as Serbs or Bulgarians). This move has not been recognized by Orthodox churches in neighboring countries, and the Serbian Orthodox Church still believes that it is the "rightful" church in Macedonia.
Although the Macedonian Orthodox Church claims to be the oldest church in the region by tracing its roots to Saints Cyril and Methodius, Rathfelder argues that, in reality, the church feels isolated and insecure. Its proudest achievement was acquiring the status of "state church" under Article 19 of the 1994 changes to the constitution. The church is therefore very much conscious of its role as a defender of national pride.
The Muslims argue that the title of "state church" is not justified by the number of Orthodox believers. The Muslim leaders say that only 40 percent of the population is Orthodox, while some 50 percent are Muslim. These include not only Albanians, but also Turks, most Roma, and even some Slavic groups. (Muslim officials apparently did not tell Rathfelder how they arrived at their figures.)
The Muslims recently sought to draft a joint declaration on the current conflict with the Roman Catholics and other religious groups in Macedonia, but the Orthodox Church declined to take part. In the draft text, the signatories condemned the UCK's use of violence but also demanded more legal equality for the ethnic Albanian population.
One Muslim official told Rathfelder that he opposes the violence, adding, however, that he can understand how some people became frustrated after 10 years of peaceful political activity failed to produce sufficient redress for the Albanians' grievances. The official added that the Macedonian forces, moreover, are making war not only against the UCK "but also against God": he claimed that the security forces "have destroyed 47 mosques since the beginning of the conflict" in the spring. Again, Rathfelder's interlocutor did not provide evidence for his figures.
The Islamic theologian noted that "the Orthodox" under Milosevic used religion to mobilize their followers and "destroy Yugoslavia." He charged that the Macedonian church is now mobilizing its followers, and that the result will be to "destroy Macedonia."
Rathfelder concludes that the Orthodox Church is too insecure to take the lead in seeking reconciliation across the ethnic and religious divide. He also believes that the Islamic Community has not sufficiently distanced itself from the UCK to win credibility among the Orthodox as a force for peace. (Patrick Moore)