[AMCC-News] Albanians live in fear of forced exodus from Macedonia

[Mentor Cana]

   "In the poor Albanian districts on the far side of the Vardar river, the
    sight of angry crowds chanting "Albanians to the gas chambers" has had
    its effect."

   "The Human Rights Watch organisation (HRW) says riots in the southern
    city of Bitola, where hundreds of Albanian homes and shops were set
    alight earlier this month, were a pogrom deliberately aimed at driving
    Albanians out of town."


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=80419

Albanians live in fear of forced exodus from Macedonia

With the Macedonian parliament stormed by the Slavs who are furious with the Nato deal, ethnic Albanians cower in suburbs
By Justin Huggler in Skopje

27 June 2001
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Straw pulls out of Skopje visit as war looms

Fear was running through the Macedonian capital last night as ethnic
Albanians gathered in nervous huddles on street corners to discuss the
storming of parliament by army reservists the night before.

When Macedonia's parliament was stormed on Monday night, there was shooting
in the dingy Albanian suburb of Gazibaba too. The local people say the
Macedonian police, who have a checkpoint just up the road, started shooting
in the air for no apparent reason. "They were trying to frighten us," one
man said. "They want us to leave."

They were cleaning up the debris around Macedonia's parliament building
yesterday.

There have been no reports of casualties in Skopje since the city saw its
first serious disturbances, as angry Macedonian Slavs broke into
parliament, incensed at a Nato-brokered ceasefire with Albanian rebels.

In the poor Albanian districts on the far side of the Vardar river, the
sight of angry crowds chanting "Albanians to the gas chambers" has had its
effect.

A young Albanian journalist, who gave his name only as Xhemal, had just
returned to Gazibaba from driving his sister to Kosovo, where she will join
more than 50,000 refugees who have already fled there from the crisis in
Macedonia.

Almost half the people in Gazibaba are already refugees. They fled here, to
Skopje, from the towns and villages affected by earlier rounds of fighting.

Now some are considering moving on again, as the capital begins to look a
less safe place to stay. Some of those here came from the village of
Aracinovo, just a few miles up the road. It was a Nato ceasefire deal,
under which Albanian rebels were escorted safely out of Aracinovo, that
enraged the mob who stormed parliament.

"I wanted my parents to leave but they refused," says Xhemal. He says he
will not go either. "I was born here. This is my home," he says. "We are
prepared to surrender our lives. It's a hard thing to say, but I am ready
to die."

Xhemal said he had heard that Macedonian Slavs were planning to attack
Albanian areas, to intimidate Albanians into fleeing, but this could not be
verified.

The Human Rights Watch organisation (HRW) says riots in the southern city
of Bitola, where hundreds of Albanian homes and shops were set alight
earlier this month, were a pogrom deliberately aimed at driving Albanians
out of town.

"Skopje will not be like Bitola," says Xhemal. "Here we have the means to
defend ourselves." Others in the district agree, though they say they have
no guns.

The Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Amry (NLA) yesterday
threatened to enter Skopje if there were attacks on Albanians there. A
rebel commander called Sokolli claimed the UCK had "two brigades in the
outskirts of Skopje". It echoes a claim made a few days ago by another
rebel commander.

Opinion is hardening on both sides of the river. "All my life, I have never
been a nationalist, but now I have become one," insisted Milo, a young
Macedonian. "Nato is holding back our army," he said angrily. "If they
allowed us, we could kill all the terrorists in two days." But the
Macedonian army was losing on the battlefield months before the
controversial Aracinovo ceasefire.

Questions are being asked over how much the Macedonian government did to
prevent Monday night's riots. Witnesses say police did little to interfere.

President Boris Trajkovski, in a nationally broadcast radio address, said
yesterday that his government's aim was to "eliminate the terrorists from
Macedonia". But he pledged that government forces would do so "with as
little loss of human life as possible".

The government was forced into accepting the Aracinovo ceasefire by Nato
and EU diplomats furious it had begun an offensive there behind their
backs, even as they were announcing that peace talks were working. But the
Macedonian government is still smarting over its climbdown. When the
Macedonia crisis first began, Nato and the EU were desperate to shore up
the Macedonian government against the rebels. In the Slav-dominated centre
of Skopje yesterday, graffiti showed Nato depicted with a swastika. That is
a sign of how successfully the rebels have changed the agenda.