[AMCC-News] NYT: Macedonia Albanian: "They beat me with all their strength, with their fists. They said they would cut my throat with a knife"

[Mentor Cana]

*** NOTE: The following are few excerpts from the NY Times article "A Trail
    of Misery as Macedonia Fights Albanian Insurgency", By CARLOTTA GALL

 "He recounted how he had gone to tend his cow at dawn and been
  caught by the police. With four others, he said, he was beaten and
  interrogated while blindfolded and handcuffed for five days, before being
  dumped in the countryside on Tuesday miles from home."

 "Last week, he said, a group of 10 police officers seized him and beat
  him, he said. "They beat me with all their strength, with their fists.
  They said they would cut my throat with a knife. Then my brother and a
  friend came looking for me and they grabbed them too."

Full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/world/18MACE.html
May 17, 2001

...
Wednesday evening, for example, residents of nearby Opae, which lies just a
mile from rebel positions in the village of Slupcane, abandoned the village
after the police searched houses and hauled off the men for questioning.
...
Farther south, in a small house in the capital of Skopje, a farmer from
Opae named Salih and one of two brothers badly beaten by the police this
week, sat hollow-eyed with fear considering a future without a home or an
income. He recounted how he had gone to tend his cow at dawn and been
caught by the police. With four others, he said, he was beaten and
interrogated while blindfolded and handcuffed for five days, before being
dumped in the countryside on Tuesday miles from home.
...
International aid workers say 16,000 Macedonian Albanian refugees have
arrived in neighboring Kosovo 9,000 in the past month alone. Another 10,000
civilians remain in the hill villages under government siege.
...
For Salih, 46, and his brother Sami, 40, who were so badly beaten this
week, and for their young families, the future is even more bleak.
...
"We cannot think of going back home, because we have nothing," he said. "We
Albanians have less now than we had before we asked for more rights. For
now we are losing everything."
...
Last week, he said, a group of 10 police officers seized him and beat him,
he said. "They beat me with all their strength, with their fists. They said
they would cut my throat with a knife. Then my brother and a friend came
looking for me and they grabbed them too."
...
"They took us to Kumanovo, where they made us strip and they beat us with
metal bars," he said, showing the bruises on his shoulder and legs. After
five days he was dumped in the countryside and made his way to Kumanovo.
...