[NYC-L] Discrimination against Albanians in Macedonia/Poloce/Army

[Imer Berisha]

Dear friends and compatriots,

The very core of the problem in Serbia was/is not only Milosevic as a single 
individual/criminal or whatever you may call him.

The main problem in Serbia was and still is the Milisevic in the heads of 
too many Serbs. I am afraid but it is the majority of Serbs that have agreed 
and some of them participated in Serbian policy of killings and deportations 
in Kosova.

It was Serbs that is "ordinary serbs" (again the vast majority) who brought 
Milosevic in power and kept him for so long, until there was no seat left 
for him to try.

It is all to well to be politically correct.  But the truth is that 
Milosevic did not loose elections because of what he did in Kosova but
MILOSEVIC LOST ELECTIONS IN SERBIA BECAUSE HE DID NOT COMPLETE WHAT HE 
STARTED/THAT IS THE EXPULSION OF ALBANIANS FROM KOSOVA.

Not only that, he brought NATO in Kosova too, these are the reasons why 
Milosevic lost, not because Serbs changed their mind towards attrocities 
committed against Albanians in Kosova. They still pretend it was a theatre, 
it did not happen.

The same  explenation applies to Macedonia.  Every single Albanian no matter 
where he/she is from, knows (or should know) how much Macedonians hate 
Albanians and Albanian language in general.  It is a said truth that 
majority of Macedonians does share this feeling, of course together with the 
government.  So I agree that as in Serbia, in Macedonia too the problem is 
not only with the governmental structure, it is wider.

Of course if the Govrnment is a progressive one it can affect the change in 
peoples attitudes by opting in favor of democratic solutions and towards 
accepted standards in relations to its citizens, or towards Albanians in 
this case.

The example of Montenegro shows how much can a government do if it decides 
to distinguish itself and the country from a faschizoid policy, i.e. of 
Milosevic.  It was unimaginable some years ago to talk of differences 
between Serbian and Montenegrin policy, but this is reality now. As was it 
unimaginable for Albanians to escape the attrocities of Milosevic and seek 
refuge in Montenegro (about 50.000).  I think this is appreciated by 
Albanians and shows that we do know and can distinguish "goodies" from the 
"bedies".

The EU and others are slowlly becoming familiar (if they did not know that 
before,I doubt they didn't know) about the position of Albanians in 
Macedonia. No matter how much they are condemning the rebels they do mention 
more and more the problems that need to b addressed. Unfortunattely, as this 
problems are nearly 10 years old and EU did not care for this, this showa 
that they have no prevention mechanism, and they will only act if the there 
is a war. If only few figures are mentioned it is obvious that Albanians in 
Macedonia have been marginalized to the extreme:

Tetova 90% Albanian population,
mind you 80% Ethnic Macedonians as policemen,

Workforce in Macedonia:

- Ethnic Macedonians......................84,5%

- Ethnic Albanians.........................9,4%
(potential workforce is................. 18,5%)    (Source: BBC)


Army and Police Force employees:

_ Ethnic Macedonians......................93,9%

- Ethnic Albanians.........................3.1%     (Source BBC
  (Ethnic Albanian Solders/not employees..40%    (Source: Karl Bild)

Only from this data one can easily infer what are the reasons for the 
unhappiness of Albanians in Macedonia.

Macedonian stance seems to be:

"We did not kill you every day as Serbs killed Albanians in Kosova, so you 
(Albanians in Macedonia) should be lucky to alive"

I'm afraid Albanians do know what are modern standards of a civilized 
society towards ethnic communities and they will not rest until they reach 
them.

Thanks

Imer Berisha

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