[ALBSA-Info] Various news

[Agron Alibali]

FYROM communities struggling to cope with the legacy of conflict 

AP 
An ethnic Albanian boy looks over Muslim worshippers at the Tetovo mosque, west of Skopje, during prayers last week. The former Yugoslav republic is still grappling with a legacy of conflict. 
By Kole Casule - Reuters

SKOPJE - The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) may be getting nearer to a long-lasting peace but, a year after armed ethnic conflict broke out in the former Yugoslav republic, it has a long way to go to deal with the legacy of the fighting.

The two communities that fought each other, Slav-Macedonians and Albanians, now coexist following a Western-backed peace deal struck last August - but they have lost the fundament of trust that existed between them.

People living in mixed areas such as the capital Skopje look at each other with distrust and contempt, fearing the worst.

«One of the primary legacies of the conflict is the absolute rupture in confidence between the two communities,» said Edward Joseph, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank.

A year ago both communities were stunned when a small group of armed ethnic Albanians took control of a small village on the FYROM-Kosovo border and defied government orders to withdraw. Identifying themselves as the National Liberation Army (NLA), they said they were launching a rebellion for better human rights. The government of FYROM called them «terrorists» seeking to divide the country along ethnic lines.

The seizure of Tanusevci in late February 2001 marked the start of a conflict that was to last six months, embroil large areas of the country, kill around 100 people and displaced more than 70,000. Twenty people are still unaccounted for.

Fighting ended in August with a Western-brokered deal granting FYROM's large Albanian minority greater civil rights. The NLA agreed to disarm under NATO supervision.

Concessions to Albanians included use of their language at state level, greater representation in state institutions including the police, and decentralized local government. Some analysts argue that the true causes of the conflict run deeper and include broader regional questions such as the eventual status of Kosovo, the ethnic Albanian-dominated Yugoslav province currently under UN rule.

«The peace agreement represents a good basis for solving some of the open questions, but the roots of the crisis were not in what's agreed,» said political analyst Saso Ordanovski, owner of the weekly current affairs magazine Forum.

Consolidation

Today, a year after an anxious world saw the start of yet more Balkan bloodshed, FYROM seems to have escaped the threat of war and is attempting to consolidate.

Although the Slav-Macedonian media are filled with stories about the prospect of new ethnic Albanian uprisings, Western sponsors of the peace deal are more optimistic.

«The country is on the right track, but just at the beginning, as there is still a lot to do,» said Alain le Roy, the EU's special envoy to FYROM.

Although armed incidents are not uncommon in present-day FYROM, progress has certainly been made on some fronts.

Police have re-established patrols in more than 50 of the 120 villages formerly held by ethnic Albanian guerrillas. The large majority of people displaced during the conflict are returning to their homes.

Le Roy said FYROM had put the security issue largely behind it and should now concentrate on other important matters. «There is less to do on security, but more on the real problems of the country, like the economy, creating jobs, attracting foreign investment and fighting corruption,» he said.

Analysts are more cautious in declaring FYROM out of the woods, saying that some forces might still try to sow instability.

«It's imprudent and risky to pronounce Macedonia stable,» the ICG's Joseph said.

Although there are plenty of weapons still around in FYROM, Joseph said that it was unlikely that a single flare-up could spark a full-scale conflict.

«It's not a matter of a haphazard incident but it's rather a matter of those who are in power deciding whether or not a conflict suits their interests,» he said.

===

Prosecutors call new witnesses to testify about Kosovo atrocities 
By Anthony Deutsch - The Associated Press

THE HAGUE - Serb forces pillaged Kosovar Albanian villages in 1999, leaving the bodies of children and even a crippled old woman in the smoldering ruins, a retired farmer testified at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic yesterday.

Another witness, a Kosovo Albanian physician, described how he saw Serbian police gun down two cousins and drag out the bodies of four other relatives after torching their home in the province’s southwestern town of Suva Reka.

The former Yugoslav president’s trial before a UN tribunal moved into its third week as prosecutors called more witnesses to testify about atrocities that left thousands dead in the province and more than 800,000 ousted from their homes.

Halil Morina told the court that Serb troops ransacked his property and burned homes in the southern Kosovar village of Landovice. His family of 39 fled for their lives.

“I saw them (Serbs) when they burned the village. They killed a Gypsy,” Morina said. “And an Albanian woman, they set fire to her in her own home.”

Morina said he searched the village for survivors, but found only bodies. Mosques were destroyed and “everything had been razed to the ground,” he told the court.

Among the dead were many of his friends and relatives, including an 18-month-old baby girl and an elderly paralyzed woman, he said.

Milosevic spent around an hour cross-examining the Albanian peasant, asking him if he had seen Albanian rebels in the village or if the inhabitants had suffered during the 78 days of NATO bombing.

Morina told Milosevic he was “just a farmer” and couldn’t tell him about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). He said he hadn’t seen NATO bombers on raids or the damage they had inflicted.

Growing frustrated, Milosevic persisted that the witness must have seen crimes against the Serbs committed by the KLA independence fighters.

“No, there were none because the (Serbian) army was close to the village,” the witness replied. “I had six sons and none of them were members of the KLA.”

“All right, quite obviously you know nothing of what I am asking you,” Milosevic snapped angrily. He then accused the prosecution of “bringing in witnesses of this kind to ill-treat me.”

The second witness, the physician Agron Berisha from Suva Reka, recounted how Serb police stormed the house of his uncle Vesel, setting it ablaze and forcing 25 people who were hiding inside to run for their lives. Berisha watched from the window, hiding with 11 family members in his own home.

“They ran out in a rush, at great speed... some couldn’t even put on their shoes,” he said.

Hand them over

STRASBOURG (AFP) - Yugoslavia’s failure to hand over suspected war criminals to a UN tribunal was condemned yesterday by the Council of Europe, which said the country must fully cooperate with the court.

“The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s obligation to cooperate with the tribunal... includes the handing over of any indicted persons who are currently on its territory,” Council President Peter Schieder said in a statement.

A new civil war

In an interview in the German weekly Der Spiegel yesterday, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic rejected demands that he arrest Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic and hand him over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Djindjic suggested a new civil war could erupt if Mladic was arrested.




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