[AMCC-News] Macedonia: Kidnappings Unnerve Albanian Leaders (from iwpr)

[Mentor Cana]

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200305_429_3_eng.txt

Macedonia: Kidnappings Unnerve Albanian Leaders

Ethnic Albanian party claims bitter political rivals behind series of
abductions in west of the country.

By Irfan Agushi in Skopje (BCR No 429, 12-May-03)

Macedonia is battling a kidnapping crime wave, belying government
initiatives to restore law and order and highlighting that criminal groups
remain active in the areas devastated by ethnic conflict in 2001.

Interior ministry officials have reported more than 10 cases of kidnapping
in the last two months alone, though these recent victims were all released
once their captors had received the money they demanded.

Both victims and the kidnappers come from the ethnic Albanian community,
which makes up at least a quarter of the republic's population.

International officials are voicing concern. "The abduction of Albanians,
presumably by Albanian criminal groups, is a new challenge," said Harald
Schenker, of the OSCE.

"While some cases were clearly spontaneous and the work of amateurs, others
have involved organised criminal structures, and present problems for the
local police."

After the internationally-brokered resolution of the conflict between
Albanian insurgents and Macedonia's armed forces in 2001, police returned
to the northwestern parts of the country that were formerly under rebel
control.

Mixed ethnic police patrols, aimed at restoring trust and boosting
reconciliation, were set up in the former crisis areas.

It is these areas that have seen most of the recent kidnapping incidents.
The authorities have refused to name many of those affected for security
reasons.

The series of high-profile abductions started last December, when the son
of a well-known local businessman was seized in the centre of Skopje. The
daily paper Vest said the kidnappers demanded a ransom of one million euro
- and the family had no choice but to pay up.

The title said the exchange occurred at the Blace border crossing and that
the abductors, who were armed an in disguises, took the money, released
their victim and fled into Kosovo.

A more gruesome fate awaited Fatmir Lika, abducted on December 31 near
Tetovo. Witnesses said three armed men seized him and threatened to kill
him if he did not obey their orders.

That night an unknown person informed the police by telephone that Lika had
been murdered and that his body was lying near the village of Zelino, in
the northwestern part of the Tetovo municipality.

Police disclosed that Lika had been tortured before he was shot with seven
bullets. They later traced the suspect, from the village of Larce, but the
motive behind the kidnapping and murder remains unclear.

The latest reported case on May 5 involved four men wearing disguises and
carrying automatic weapons who opened fire on a 31-year-old man from the
village of Zelino, near Tetovo.

According to the interior ministry, the victim was in his car with his wife
at the time of the incident. He was wounded in the leg. The two were forced
into another car, which drove off in an unknown direction. Hours later,
after they had paid money to their kidnappers, they were released.

The largest Albanian party outside the government, the Democratic Party of
Albanians, DPA, insists that their rivals in the government, the Democratic
Union for Integration, DUI, are behind the abductions, in particular those
of the children of leading Albanian figures.

Kujtesa Hasani, 16, from the village of Dolgozda, in the Struga region, was
kidnapped on April 21.The kidnappers, some believe, may have been trying to
get at her father, Mendi Hasani, DPA mayor of Dolgozda. She was released
less than an hour after being seized.

Hasani's father insisted the abduction was politically motivated. "Criminal
elements in the Democratic Union for Integration were involved," he
alleged.

On April 24, there was failed attempt to kidnap the son of Bedredin
Ibrahimi, a member of the DPA presidency and a former labour minister.
Ibrahimi said the case had political overtones. "People who cannot compete
politically with DPA act in this manner," he said.

The DUI denies involvement in any of the abduction cases. "We condemn these
acts just as we condemn all organised crime in the country," said Ermira
Mehmeti, a DUI spokeswoman.

"The DUI is very concerned about the whole phenomenon and we support taking
action to eliminate these types of crime and establish order."

The government has declined to involve itself in the war of words between
the Albanian parties. It has branded the abductions as the work of
gangsters. "The background of these kidnappings is entirely criminal,"
Voislav Zafirovski, a police spokesman, told IWPR. He said in most cases
the family of the kidnapped victim was in debt, owed money, or had some
unsettled score.

Observers say the kidnappings illustrate the degree to which the
authorities have failed to restore law and order since the ethnic conflict
ended two years ago.

"Such incidents underline the necessity of continued support for the
government's efforts to combat organised crime," said Schenker. "This issue
represents a major challenge to police work."

However, he was careful to add that an upsurge of organised crime in
post-conflict societies, such as Macedonia, was "not unusual", adding that
"it is certainly not a Macedonian phenomenon".

Irfan Agushi is a journalist with daily Fakti