[ALBSA-Info] "Guns may well have the final say in Tetovo"

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

"Guns may well have the final say in Tetovo"
Fadil Suleyimani, ideological leader of Albanian irredentism and dean of an 
illegal university in FYROM's second city, conveys the tone of the conflict

By Stavros Tzimas
Kathimerini

TETOVO: "Our nation is experiencing its historical moment, which was a long 
time coming. If nothing happens now then tomorrow might be too late. I am 
afraid that if the moment is lost that guns will have their say!"

Fadil Suleyimani, rector of the Albanians' illegal university in Tetovo, 
speaks with passion of the rights of the Albanians, which he says the state 
of FYROM continues to trample on. He comes across as a fanatic radical. For 
Slav-Macedonians he is the extreme nationalist, the dangerous troublemaker, 
the personification of extremism, but his fellow countrymen see him as 
something of a national hero. They shed blood for him and his ideas in 1995 
when the police intervened to prevent the illegal Albanian university from 
operating. An Albanian was killed and Suleyimani was jailed for two and a 
half years. He now heads a university that is perfectly organized but not 
recognized by the state, with 10,000 students to whom he passes on his 
radical principles in connection with the national question. 

'Xhaferi became a traitor'

When he appeared at the rally in support of the KLA last Wednesday, he was 
given a tremendous reception. Not a few people see him as the future leader 
of the Albanians in FYROM.

"I don't belong to any party," he says. "Our politicians are frauds, they are 
interested in establishing themselves, and most of all Xhaferi, who sold out. 
He became a traitor to the people and the Albanian nation, apart from the 
fact that he is involved in smuggling. They have sold out our national 
question."

We met Suleyimani in the four-story university building, which is quite 
luxurious by the standards of the Albanian quarter on the west side of 
Tetovo. The university, the "secret school" of Albanian irredentism, has been 
in operation for the past seven years, and has 10,000 students, 29 
departments and 400 teachers.

"Where do you get the money to run this institution?" we asked him. 

"Operating costs come to 10 million marks a year, which are met by Albanian 
migrants abroad and the Albanians of FYROM, each of whom contributes one mark 
a month," he says, seizing the opportunity to attack the state which he says 
"undermines in every way" the operation of the university. "The state 
distinguishes between Macedonian and Albanian citizens. Thus it finances 
their two universities with large sums, but it doesn't give us even one mark, 
insulting 10,000 students." Legalization of the Tetovo university is a 
leading Albanian demand, and with the current troubles it has been brought to 
the fore by Albanian hardliners, who do not recognize the Van Der Stoel 
Institute which the international community is setting up as a tertiary 
education institute in Tetovo. "It is nothing but a shack which was set up to 
undermine the attempts to legalize our university," he claims.

'Things have come to a head'

When discussion touches on the armed clashes on the border and around Tetovo, 
and we point out that the Albanians are seen by some people abroad as a 
destabilizing factor, Suleyimani becomes angry. "The Macedonia state 
oppresses us. Things have come to a head. Their idea is one state, one nation 
- the Macedonians - and one religion. No - so far and no further. We 
Albanians are here too, about a million of us, and we want the rights they 
have deprived us of for so many years, and that's why we have turned to armed 
struggle. If the government doesn't change the constitution and provide for 
us as an equal nation, and if the terrorism doesn't stop, then this state has 
no future."

When asked about those fighting in the nearby hills and whether they were 
former KLA members from Kosovo, Suleyimani responds: "That's a joke. I don't 
know, perhaps some of them have come from Kosovo, but most of them are our 
people, from the cities and villages, who took up arms against the terrorism 
of the Macedonian state, for our freedom. Now whether all those who took up 
arms for that purpose are terrorists, as the Macedonian state calls them, 
then the 1 million Albanians and I their leader are all terrorists!"

This final phrase of his is to be heard everywhere in the Albanian areas of 
FYROM, and there is no doubt that it signals a wave of radicalism that is 
sweeping across the population and which acts to build tension. 

Albanian flags are flying on many houses, and people in villages and towns 
are following events with bated breath, ready to put themselves at the 
service of the national question, if need be.

"We warn the Macedonians that we cannot accept the violence and terrorism of 
the army and police. The clashes on the border result from the oppression of 
the Albanians by the Macedonian state, and the government must realize that 
the Albanian people and its heroes, who have taken up arms did so to put 
across the message that equality and freedom are the most important things 
for us," says Mikereme Rusi, president of the Albanian Women's Union of 
Macedonia, one of the three organizations which ran last Wednesday's rally.

This rally took place in the main square where Xhaferi's DRA (Democratic 
Albanian Party) has its offices. The party is a member of the ruling 
coalition. At the sight of the party's offices and slogans, the 5,000 
demonstrators shouted "Down with the traitors!"

So is Xhaferi, until recently the unquestioned leader of the Albanians, a 
traitor?

"Their passion for power has blinded them to the national question, and 
Xhaferi most of all," says Rusi. Those who hoped that Xhaferi, Medoch Thaci, 
Imer Imeri - the current Albanian political leaders - would defuse the 
crisis, have probably been disappointed. Public opinion has gone past the 
traditional Albanian parties and society is following its own path.

As in Kosovo, where Rugova failed to put across the message of peaceful 
resistance to his fellow countrymen, so in FYROM the voices of reason are not 
being heard, it seems. The Albanians feel powerful now. The Kosovo Albanians 
have come out on the winning side. So far, their armed struggle in southern 
Serbia has brought them positive results, so why should the same not happen 
in FYROM?

'We demand recognition'

"Your demands for equality and an end to terrorism are not very specific; 
what exactly are you asking for?" we asked Suleyimani.

"We want NATO to intervene so as to start a dialogue on revision of the 
constitution to establish us as an ethnic group. We also want recognition for 
the Tetovo university; official status for the Albanian language; and 
analogous representation in the state mechanism and services."

In other words they want to co-administrate the state, which in 10 years' 
time, given the rapid growth of the Albanian population, would mean rule by 
the Albanians, the very though of which alarms the Slav-Macedonians.