From mentor at alb-net.com Sun Oct 7 14:34:32 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 14:34:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [AMCC-News] Macedonians accused of war crimes: Call for Hague to investigate role of hardline interior minister Message-ID: 'The pan-European group wants the tribunal to investigate Mr Boskovski for "grave violations of the Geneva convention, violations of the laws governing wars and crimes against humanity".' 'ECHAC says the police, army and paramilitary groups have been using the war with the NLA as an excuse to launch a systematic campaign to force ethnic Albanians out of the country.' 'At the same time harassment of Albanians around Macedonia was stepped up, with kidnappings, killings and torture, it claims. It says the campaign reached its peak when a majority of ethnic Albanian civilians were driven out of the southern town of Manastir and their homes and businesses damaged.' http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,564266,00.html Macedonians accused of war crimes Call for Hague to investigate role of hardline interior minister Giles Tremlett in Madrid and Nick Wood Saturday October 6, 2001 The Guardian The Hague tribunal will next week be sent a list of alleged war crimes committed by the Macedonian army and police, accompanied by a request that it investigate the hardline interior minister, Ljube Boskovski. The chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, will receive at least two dozen eyewitness accounts of alleged killings, kidnappings, torture and the systematic destruction of mosques gathered by the European Council of Humanity, Action and Cooperation (ECHAC), which carried out similar work in Kosovo and East Timor. The pan-European group wants the tribunal to investigate Mr Boskovski for "grave violations of the Geneva convention, violations of the laws governing wars and crimes against humanity". The allegations surfaced as Mr Boskovski comes under criticism from former fighters of the recently disbanded National Liberation Army (NLA) for the failure of the government in Skopje to abide by an August peace deal to end six months of conflict. Macedonian security forces pulled back from positions close to the old frontline with the NLA yesterday, amid fierce international criticism. Parliament has failed to ratify the deal or to provide an amnesty for NLA fighters, as promised. Ratification is already 12 days behind schedule, and there appears little chance of most MPs finding the time, or inclination, to pass such a measure soon. The EU external affairs commissioner, Chris Patten, visited Skopje this week to rebuke the Macedonian regime and announced that a donors' conference scheduled for October 15 was being postponed. While alleged NLA crimes received coverage earlier this year, the ECHAC report contains the first claims of widespread abuses by the army and police. Human Rights Watch, a US group, has also denounced the killing of six ethnic Albanian civilians in Ljuboten, five miles north of Skopje, days before the ceasefire was signed. Western officials have said that an amnesty will allow indictments from the Hague to be brought against members of the Macedonian security forces and the NLA. "If peace in Macedonia is going to endure, the perpetrators of serious violations on both sides must be brought to justice," said Elizabeth Andersen, the executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. ECHAC says the police, army and paramilitary groups have been using the war with the NLA as an excuse to launch a systematic campaign to force ethnic Albanians out of the country. "An ample campaign was carried out aimed at varying the ethnic composition of the republic of Macedonia," the group says, adding that during May and June there was a deliberate policy of shelling civilian targets in the north. At the same time harassment of Albanians around Macedonia was stepped up, with kidnappings, killings and torture, it claims. It says the campaign reached its peak when a majority of ethnic Albanian civilians were driven out of the southern town of Manastir and their homes and businesses damaged. Although ECHAC claims Mr Boskovski was behind the campaigns, in collusion with senior defence ministry officials, it has provided little concrete evidence. It is appealing to the tribunal to demand documents about meetings and communications from the interior ministry that could show what was going on. ECHAC says it will produce a second collection of eyewitness accounts alleging abuse and crimes by the NLA. It says that its teams in the area in July and August received five times as many complaints from ethnic Albanians as from ethnic Slavs. Human Rights Watch has investigated several cases of erious NLA abuses. In June NLA forces detained and tortured eight elderly ethnic Slav civilians from the village of Matejce, and subjected them to mock executions. On August 7 the NLA allegedly kidnapped three road workers, who were severely beaten and sexually abused for several hours. There have also been claims of kidnappings, expulsion of civilians and destruction of Orthodox Christian sites by the NLA. ? ISMAIL MEIDANI said police in Skopje took away his friend, Metush Ajetit, on June 1. "Three days later they threw his body out on to the street from a car. The autopsy showed that he had been tortured to death. There were horrible marks on the body." ? Farmer LUAN KODRA said two planes and several helicopters appeared above his village of Lisec on June 27. "There were no NLA people in the village. But they started to bomb and machine-gun us. Adem Veliu, Ymer Veliu, Dorina Elezi and Alban Daci died because of the bombs." ? Student ERDI SHAMETI, from Matec, said police took away seven of his friends and tortured them on May 21. He said police claimed falsely to have found arms in their car. "They were beaten for three days with truncheons and burned with cigarettes." ? Captain ARBEN NEZIRI, an army officer from Skopje, said he was taken away from his home by interior ministry police on June 10 and tortured. "They want to clean Albanians out of the army and police completely." ? AGIM PJAZITIT, from Radushe, said three of his relatives and a friend were arrested and accused of belonging to the NLA. They were not allowed to see a lawyer. One saw a relative. "He said that the ministry of interior police's claims that they had admitted being terrorists were false and had come after they had been submitted to terrible tortures (beatings with truncheons, use of electrodes, burns)." ? BESA GJINALI, a housewife from Batince, said that her neighbour Mijazi Ibishi, a factory worker, disappeared on June 16. "We all know it was the police. They have been threatening us for months. They want us to leave our houses and go." From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Oct 17 10:11:36 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:11:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [AMCC-News] Macedonian President Threatens Talks Message-ID: "Trajkovski's role in the process is pivotal, as the president is the only figure with enough stature to act as a go-between among factions of the majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians." "But some also blame Trajkovski for the delay in passing the legislation. The law calls for the president to review all 15 amendments and pass them on to parliament ahead of any vote to make them law." "Instead of presenting parliament with the 15 amendments, for enactment as a package deal as called for by the ethnic Albanians, Trajkovski has only given them nine." http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011016/wl/macedonia_3.html Tuesday October 16 6:34 PM ET Macedonian President Threatens Talks By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's president threatened to pull out of peace talks Tuesday unless lawmakers stop stalling on a Western-engineered accord meant to upgrade ethnic Albanian rights. Under the August accord, ethnic Albanian rebels agreed to stop fighting and handed in more than 4,000 weapons to NATO in exchange for constitutional amendments granting the large ethnic Albanian minority greater rights. The weapons were turned over by Sept. 26, but parliament has failed to enact the amendments. Tuesday, President Boris Trajkovski condemned ``certain groups of deputies'' for ``continuing to block'' crucial constitutional amendments that are part of the August peace agreement. ``If these unacceptable efforts go on, I shall consider them a form of dictate and will have to reconsider my role'' in the peace process, Trajkovski said in a letter to parliament without elaborating. Trajkovski's role in the process is pivotal, as the president is the only figure with enough stature to act as a go-between among factions of the majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. If Trajkovski backs out of the peace process, the country could again be plunged into disarray. But some also blame Trajkovski for the delay in passing the legislation. The law calls for the president to review all 15 amendments and pass them on to parliament ahead of any vote to make them law. Instead of presenting parliament with the 15 amendments, for enactment as a package deal as called for by the ethnic Albanians, Trajkovski has only given them nine. Ethnic Albanian deputies have boycotted key parliament meetings, fearing a ploy by the Macedonians to introduce changes in some of the amendments, particularly one that would make all ethnic groups equal under the law. Zamir Dika, an ethnic Albanian deputy, said that Trajkovski's actions were ``unacceptable'' and the ethnic Albanian deputies will only return to parliament once all amendments are on the table. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, were expected in Skopje on Thursday. Officials in Brussels said the two would talk with Macedonian leaders about pushing through the amendments as a package deal. Also Tuesday, Macedonia's parliament postponed a debate on whether the peace deal should be put to a nationwide referendum, a move that the West has warned would sink the peace process.