[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia

[Sejfi Protopapa]

Please, Consider posting this article.
Thank you, Sejfi Protopapa
===========
Tragic Travesty in Macedonia.

What is going on in Macedonia these days is a comedy of errors with very
unfortunate consequences for the Albanian and the Macedonian citizens of the
country. The Albanians suffer destruction, abuse and death whereas the
Macedonian citizens are becoming plunderers and murderers of their Albanian
neighbors with the connivance of their government and political leaders.
The players in this drama are of two kind: The kibitzers and the real
players.  Among the kibitzers are Albania, Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria and
Greece. The players in this group are not that significant. However, with
regard to Bulgaria and Greece, they are likely to cause trouble with their
nefarious aspirations on Macedonia. Especially the Greeks who never cease to
meddle in that part of the world brandishing their Bizantium Nostrum claim
mixed with the role of a super democracy.

The front line players of this absurd theater of confusion and deliberate
obfuscation are listed below in order of their responsibility and dangerous
gamesmanship:

The Macedonian Government, media and leadership. Together, they seem to have
succeeded in persuading themselves that they can fool the US, the European
Union and NATO in addressing the Albanian issues in Macedonia as a simple
rebellion by a bunch of terrorists that must be destroyed as soon as
possible. They have invented a new version of the NATO bombing of Serbia,
except that they bomb and destroy only Albanian inhabited homes, and arrest,
torture and kill innocent Albanian civilians. At the same time they keep
telling the world that they are fighting the terrorists who in the mean time
seem to be enlarging what they call the liberated areas of Macedonia. These
Macedonian leaders are convinced of their success because they have received
wholehearted support from the whole community of Western and Eastern world
players and therefore they believe that when they have destroyed the
terrorists they can turn around and give the Albanians the same dose of
crumbs they have dished out during the last ten years, all packaged with the
flourish of democratic slogans.
The Albanian political parties and the Albanian guerrillas. They are dumb-
founded by their inability to communicate and to land their story, to tell
the world their simple and self evident predicament in the Macedonian state:
In Macedonia, the Albanians who make up approximately a third of the total
population are second class citizens. Their employment as civil servants in
the state and municipal administration scores a two to five percent
participation. Note that, as yet, civil service is the largest employment
sector in Macedonia. The Albanians cannot get the world to hear that the
fruits of democracy and free market, meager and limited, still are
disproportionately harvested by ethnic Macedonians at the expense of the
rest of the population in the country.
Albanian political leader Arben Xhaferi is as clear as crystal and yet no
one in a position of power and influence in the West wants to hear and
understand the simple truth that democratic Macedonia is a sham with all the
trappings of democracy but still a segregated society. The Americans can
understand and relate to that: There has been democracy in the US for the
last 226 years but only recently the people of color in the country have
begun to feel that they are getting places. Remember the school
desegregation movement and American society at that time? That is where the
Albanians are today in Macedonia, except that for them the segregation is
based on ethnic background instead of the color of their skin. Can the Black
little boy and can the Albanian little girl help it, can they change who
their parents were?

The third player in this tragedy is made up of leaders from the US, the
European Union and NATO. In unison they want to make sure of two things:
Macedonia's territorial integrity is inviolate and that the Albanian
guerillas (I remember, I was a proud guerilla a long while back) are a pain
in the neck for causing this commotion especially when we suspect that they
are terrorists. Of course, we are against terrorism, in any shape or form.
We do not want to hear what they have to say, and if, God forbid, they make
the same claims as the Albanian political parties in Macedonia then those
parties are equally suspect and do not deserve a hearing either. This
argument clearly shows that the analysts from the West have not done their
homework and have fallen prey to century old ethnic Macedonian chicanery.
It is really simple. The segregation in Macedonia is real and obvious. The
Macedonian State cannot survive as an island in the middle of the Balkans
without political and economic support from the West. The Balkan states,
finally, are being treated as an integral part Europe, albeit at much effort
and expense born by the West. The US, NATO and the European Union simply
will tell the Macedonian leaders that they are off base. Cut the nonsense
about terrorists and terrorist, invisible yet conquerable. Now, start fixing
the governance of your society. When you join the European Union, your state
borders will be a line on the map only. Your equal rights for your citizens
will be your fortress and your nourishment for your Macedonian tradition.
There are tons of experts to put together a constitution and a crisp
memorandum of understanding between the two ethnic groups so that social and
political readjustments can begin peacefully.
The Albanian "terrorists", i.e. the rebellious Albanians are not a problem
at all. In my old age I will go and talk with them. Better yet, a competent
American or European union representative can talk with them. They will be
persuaded to lay down their arms and join the citizenry of their country as
if nothing had happened. The Albanians are not fools to believe that they
would actually trick the West into an unwanted military intervention
especially when, in fact, it is not even necessary.
Unfortunately, it took the courage and wisdom of the Albanian guerillas to
bring the Macedonian reality to the diplomatic table. For the USA, the
European Union and Russia, the Macedonian crisis is, apparently, devoid of
any kind of strategic issues. Therefore, solving the crisis with the sword
of simple truths is quite desirable and at the same time it is very
effective.
         Sejfi Protopapa

June 23, 2001. Wayland, MA

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