[AMCC-News] Massacre waiting to happen (Scotland On Sunday; Jul 8, 2001)

[Mentor Cana]

Excerpts from the Scotland On Sunday article: "Massacre waiting to happen"

  "A SENIOR government official has warned that Macedonian armed forces
   could massacre Albanian civilians unless the international community
   intervenes in the countrys burgeoning civil war."
  "He said some elements of the police were not under government control
   and one of the major Macedonian political parties, a partner in the
   coalition government, was actively destabilising peace efforts and
   fomenting ethnic hatred."

  "The official, a Macedonian Slav, said there was a real danger of some
   Macedonians committing war crimes on a scale seen in Croatia, Bosnia and
   Kosovo. "We have our own Karadzic and Mladic (Bosnian Serbs indicted by
   the Hague for massacres of Bosnian Muslims) in our midst. We need the
   European Union to make it clear to some members of this government that
   they will be sent to The Hague to answer for their actions if they step
   outside acceptable boundaries.""

  "The nationalists have also become increasingly anti-Nato, blaming them
   for the resurgence of Albanian guerrillas and a recent agreement where
   NLA fighters were removed from the outskirts of Skopje. "There is a
   clear anti-Nato structure emerging within the government of Macedonia.
   It is not inconceivable that when Nato comes they will be fired on by
   these elements rather than the NLA," said the government official."

  "As the fighting continued this week, hundreds of Albanians were
   re-building their homes after government officials supported by police
   bulldozed and destroyed Albanian houses claiming that they contravened
   planning regulations. The action appalled Macedonian moderates in the
   government but they were unable to take action because the two
   ministries involved are controlled by VMRO elements pursuing an
   anti-Albanian agenda"


Full article at:

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/world.cfm?id=SS01025113&feed=N

Destruction: government officials supported by police have bulldozed
Albanian houses claiming they contravene planning laws.

Massacre waiting to happen
Conal Urquhart (curquhart at scotsman.com)

July 8, 2001

A SENIOR government official has warned that Macedonian armed forces could
massacre Albanian civilians unless the international community intervenes
in the country’s burgeoning civil war.

He said some elements of the police were not under government control and
one of the major Macedonian political parties, a partner in the coalition
government, was actively destabilising peace efforts and fomenting ethnic
hatred.

The official, a Macedonian Slav, said there was a real danger of some
Macedonians committing war crimes on a scale seen in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo. "We have our own Karadzic and Mladic (Bosnian Serbs indicted by the
Hague for massacres of Bosnian Muslims) in our midst. We need the European
Union to make it clear to some members of this government that they will be
sent to The Hague to answer for their actions if they step outside
acceptable boundaries."

The Macedonian government will struggle to deliver the ceasefire it signed
on Thursday because of the malevolent power wielded by some members of
VMRO, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, which holds a
number of key ministries.

The ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) control a large swathe
of border territory and have resisted the attempts of the Macedonian
security forces to dislodge them. British soldiers will lead a Nato
peacekeeping force, when and if a political solution is agreed, which will
feature improved rights for Albanians in Macedonia.

The VMRO, whose name derives from its roots as a nationalist party opposed
to Turkish occupation a century ago, has used its ministries to arm
civilians, create paramilitary groups and persecute Albanians, according to
Macedonian government sources.

The nationalists have also become increasingly anti-Nato, blaming them for
the resurgence of Albanian guerrillas and a recent agreement where NLA
fighters were removed from the outskirts of Skopje. "There is a clear
anti-Nato structure emerging within the government of Macedonia. It is not
inconceivable that when Nato comes they will be fired on by these elements
rather than the NLA," said the government official.

As the fighting continued this week, hundreds of Albanians were re-building
their homes after government officials supported by police bulldozed and
destroyed Albanian houses claiming that they contravened planning
regulations. The action appalled Macedonian moderates in the government but
they were unable to take action because the two ministries involved are
controlled by VMRO elements pursuing an anti-Albanian agenda.

Garip Azemi, 46, returned to his home in the suburbs of Skopje to find its
supporting walls knocked out and the roof on the point of collapse. "I was
devastated. My home is all I have."

Veli Mici, 31, a relative, said the police inspector was sympathetic to
their appeals to halt the destruction but each time he tried to stop the
demolition he was over-ruled by his superiors.

Telephone calls to the ministry responsible for planning were not answered
and it was left to local politicians to intervene on the ground in other
areas. Imer Selmani, the mayor of a local council outside the capital,
managed to prevent bulldozers from levelling an Albanian house.

"I warned the official and the policemen in attendance that if they began
flattening houses here they were declaring war on 80% of the population
here or 20,000 people. I told them that they were creating a crisis and
they would be responsible for its consequences."

Tens of thousands of Albanian homes are not recognised by the state and
some Albanian villages that have existed for decades cannot be found on
official maps because the central government has not recognised their right
to own land or build property. Historically a visit from a planning
official was dealt with by a bribe which would supposedly lead to legal
recognition but simply gave the owners a few years grace until the next
visit.

The destruction of houses is just one of a host of hostile actions taken by
extremists in the government which have radicalised the Albanians in
Macedonia, who make up one-third of the population.

The NLA began their uprising in February purportedly to demand equal rights
for Albanians in Macedonia. Some Macedonians believe the NLA aims to
separate Albanian-dominated areas from the rest of Macedonia to create a
Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo.

Boris Trajkovski, the Macedonian president and a member of the VMRO, is
keen to reach a political settlement with the ethnic Albanian community but
he and other moderates are undermined by his fellow VMRO cabinet ministers,
including Ljupco Georgievski, the prime minister, and Ljube Boshkovski, the
interior minister who controls the country’s main military force, the
police.

The two ministers have been described as "completely insane" by government
colleagues, a view which is shared by western diplomats. They are believed
to have been behind recent anti-government, anti-Nato demonstrations during
which foreigners were beaten up and shots were fired through the window of
the president’s office.

The senior government official said: "We do not know what will happen next.
Some of the police reservists are not under any official control. I would
not be surprised if there was a bombing attempt in the capital or some kind
of political assassinations. There is a battle for the government between
those who want a political solution and those who want a purely military
solution. It is not clear who will win."

The VMRO also controls television stations and newspapers which feed the
Macedonian Slav public their prejudices in which the terms ‘Albanian’ and
‘terrorist’ have become synonymous. One report featured a presenter placing
a round in a mortar and then firing it at an NLA position. Faced with such
reporting, Macedonians, who have mostly co-existed peacefully with
Albanians, are coming to distrust and fear them.

The Albanian community have become increasingly alienated since the dispute
began in February. Every military assault on a rebel-held village begins
with the shelling of the mosque, which to Albanians symbolises not merely
an attack on the NLA but an attack on their faith.

This week has seen the arrest and harassment of senior Albanian figures and
Albanian journalists . According to Human Rights Watch, some refugees have
been refused re-entry into Macedonia. In one incident confirmed by the
government, police reservists harassed and threatened civilians in the
village of Rasce where there has been no NLA activity.

Over 100,000 refugees, mostly Albanian, have left Macedonia. In Kosovo, the
international community is preparing for many more. Eight miles north of
the Macedonian border, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
has prepared a large refugee transit camp with water, sanitation and plenty
of room for expansion.

The Macedonian government has increased its firepower, leasing or buying an
airforce of eight helicopters and four ground attack fighters from the
Ukraine. The aerial power has flattened Albanian villages but made only
minimal impact on the NLA, whose numbers have swelled from 300 to 3,000
over the past five months. Government officials admit they do not have the
equipment or the ability to defeat the rebels.

The NLA is likely to carry on growing as instability continues and it
develops new supply routes to circumvent increased policing of the Kosovo
border by Nato troops. It can draw on the arms and manpower of the Kosovo
Liberation Army, from which it emerged, while recruiting disaffected
Macedonian Albanians.

In the Kosovar town of Elisan, Vebi, 28, said that he was resting after
fighting with the NLA in Gracani. A former KLA fighter, he said that there
were around 150 men from his town currently with the NLA, while dozens of
others were waiting to be summoned into action.

"Crossing the border into Macedonia and avoiding Nato troops is easy. I
have been smuggling here for years and guiding supplies into Kosovo during
the war. They would need to build a wall to stop us.

"And even then, we would just tunnel under it," he said.