[ALBSA-Info] Macedonia: Seeking Solutions – NEWSWEEK

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Macedonia: Seeking Solutions

Political leaders are edging closer to a coalition government. But the rebels 
say they will not stop fighting—and villagers are still cowering in their 
basements

By Juliette Terzieff
NEWSWEEK

May 11 —  When I met Aledin Osmani last Sunday, he was standing in the cellar 
of his home in a Macedonian village called Slupcane explaining why he no 
longer goes outside. Hiding out with him were some 40 other members of his 
family, including eight children, a pregnant woman and the family’s 
78-year-old matriarch. Their food supplies? Just one five-pound bag of flour, 
20 cans of meat and some sausages.
 
    MANY FAMILY MEMBERS were crying quietly in dark corners, avoiding the two 
windows that were boarded up after the head of the family, Ramzi Osmani, died 
from shrapnel wounds a week ago. “I know you will understand if I don’t show 
you out,” Aledin Osmani, 46, told us fearfully as we said our 
good-byes—minutes ahead of a tank and artillery barrage from Macedonian 
government forces positioned less than a mile way.

        When I went back to the Osmani house today, 14 family members had 
managed to get out of the village. The men, including Aledin, were outside, 
taking advantage of a temporary ceasefire to scavenge for water, food and 
information about the latest round of conflict in their tiny southern Balkans 
country.

        Today’s news was slightly better than usual. Prime Minister Ljubco 
Georgievski has succeeded in persuading a key ethnic Albanian political 
group, the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), to join a broad government 
of national unity scheduled to be formed tomorrow.

        The coalition government—formed largely in response to international 
pressure—will include political parties representing both the country’s 
Albanian minority and Slav majority. Its aim: to stop the latest outbreak of 
fighting while simultaneously having enough power to change some of the 
country’s laws.

        Inevitably, of course, that’s easier said than done. One of the 
coalition’s first hurdles will be winning the trust of the people and 
presenting some concrete plans for addressing the top issues concerning 
residents: government corruption, a staggering 40 percent unemployment rate, 
poverty and crime.

        Nor is significant change likely to come before the new elections, 
currently scheduled for January under the proposed agreement. 
        
    Another problem is that the PDP remains a reluctant participant in the 
government. “We were caught between pressure from outside and pressure from 
the painful knowledge that our people are suffering terribly under the army’s 
actions,” says one PDP official. “We made a decision [to join] that we may 
regret later, but that seemed the only course of action at the moment.”

        An even bigger stumbling block is that the new coalition excludes the 
rebel National Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian group that prompted the 
latest round of fighting by capturing a dozen northeastern villages near the 
city of Kumanovo on May 3.

        The Macedonian government refuses to negotiate with a group it sees 
as terrorists and which NATO Secretary General George Robertson has called 
“murderous thugs out to destroy a democratic state.”

        The rebels, though, are refusing to back down. An official communiqué 
signed by their political leader, Ali Ahmeti, insists that a coalition 
government “does not help solve the situation.”
      
      Out in the field, NLA fighter Commander Sokoli delivers a blunter 
message. “There can be no solution without our presence and participation,” 
he says from his base near Slupcane. “They must know that any government 
formed without our participation will only end in more bloodshed.”

        The exact extent of NLA support is hard to assess. The rebels claim 
to have more than 3,000 soldiers in the field and the ability to mobilize 
another 5,000; the Macedonian government says there are only about 500 
fighters—up from their estimate of 50 just two weeks ago—in the mountains. 
        
    Whatever the true number, the NLA undoubtedly poses a threat to the 
stability of the Balkans. The group sprang into the public eye in March, when 
it seized control of villages near the city of Tetovo and demanded that 
ethnic Albanians be granted a constitutional guarantee of equal rights and an 
end to employment, education and language policies that favor Slavs.
        
    After two weeks of fighting, the rebel group seemed to melt away, 
allowing Macedonian military officials to claim outright victory against 
them. This month, they came back.

        “Our disappearance in March was a political decision, not a military 
one,” says Sokoli. “The NLA appeared to put pressure on politicians to make 
the changes they only paid lip service [to] for 10 years. We do not want a 
war, but we do want change, so we withdrew to give them a chance.”

        While the wrangling continues, the specter of yet another 
humanitarian catastrophe is looming in the region. An estimated 8,000 
refugees have fled the fighting in the last week to seek shelter in 
neighboring Kosovo. Their arrival has doubled the number of displaced people 
in the U.N.-administered province.

        There are also thousands of civilians like the Osmanis, cowering in 
basements and hoping for the fighting to end. Their situation is 
deteriorating rapidly: when Red Cross workers reached some of them earlier 
today for the first time since last Sunday, they found food and medicine 
shortages, widespread diarrhea, food poisoning and, in at least one village, 
an outbreak of scabies. 
 
        The organization managed to evacuate 72 of the most frail from the 
area, but more than 15,000 people are still in NLA-controlled villages. “As 
time goes on people are more afraid of confronting Macedonian forces if they 
attempt to leave,” says Amanda Williamson, a Red Cross spokesman in Skopje. 
“There is also a growing sense of solidarity amongst those who remain.”

        Aledin Osmani is one of those who plans to stay—at least for now. “We 
don’t want to be refugees, we want normal lives,” he says. “We pray, every 
time we hear a tank fire, that it will be the last.” Given the murky 
political situation, that may not happen any time soon.