[Prishtina-E] [AMCC-News] Macedonia: 1) Small Victory in Battle Against Traffickers, 2) School Desegregation Plans Shelved

[Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center News & Information]

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1. Macedonia: Small Victory in Battle Against Traffickers
2. School Desegregation Plans Shelved

### 1 ###

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200310_464_4_eng.txt

Macedonia: Small Victory in Battle Against Traffickers

Much trumpeted conviction of human traffickers belies problems in getting
successful prosecutions.

By Yigal Chazan and Dragana Nikolic-Solomon in London and David Quin in
Skopje (BCR 464, 16-Oct-03)

Macedonia's battle against people-smuggling was boosted last week with the
sentencing of five convicted traffickers to long prison terms, but the
country still has much to do if it is to bring more offenders to justice,
observers say.

A Skopje court sentenced four Macedonians and an ethnic Albanian to a total
of 33 years in prison under laws classifying trafficking as a crime, which
were introduced in 2002. The verdict came after the court heard harrowing
written testimony from the victims, who were not present for the trial.
Their statements to investigators, which have been seen by IWPR, show how
they were beaten and forced to have sex in brothels across the country.

Zan Jovanovski, a Macedonian police liaison officer with the
Bucharest-based Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, SECI, tasked
with getting countries in the region to do more to combat trans-border
crime, commended the authorities' handling of the case, describing it as
"an encouraging sign".

Vladimir Danailov, senior legal assistant at the International Organisation
for Migration in Skopje, said the conviction will have a very "big
preventive impact" on traffickers as they will now realise that they face
long prison sentences if they are caught.

Other similar cases are in the pipeline and the authorities are doing more
to combat human trafficking in general: in a first for the region, victims
who've returned to their country of origin after escaping their captors or
freed by police are encouraged and helped to come back to Macedonia to
testify; they are also offered compensation for their suffering, which, it
is hoped, will make them more inclined to come forward; and there are plans
to try people who are indirectly associated with trafficking gangs.

The country, then, is clearly making progress in the battle against
people-smuggling - and doing much more than its neighbours in this regard -
but, nothwithstanding last week's conviction, it's finding it difficult to
bring offenders to justice. Since trafficking was a made a crime, there
have been five convictions, with those found guilty receiving short or
suspended sentences. Many more have been charged but not successfully
prosecuted.

The lack of effective protection for witnesses, legislative inconsistencies
and limited legal expertise in trafficking cases are thought to have been
major stumbling blocks in securing convictions.

The IOM in cooperation with the authorities has opened a centre for victims
where they are made to feel secure and offered counselling, but more such
facilities are required otherwise they simply return to their country of
origin and are reluctant to return to testify when their former captors are
put on trial.

And the fact that under Macedonian law convictions for people-smuggling are
based largely on witness testimony, with little or no regard for other
material and circumstantial evidence, means that unless victims are
prepared to come forward cases simply collapse.

Samoil Filipovski, a lawyer specialising in trafficking cases, says there's
also a problem with judicial interpretation of the law, " [Trafficking is]
a new charge and we do not have any prior court practise in using the
legislation."

Critics of the authorities' handling of such cases have insisted that
recent convictions only came about because the prosecution got lucky, with
witnesses fleeing their captors and providing highly detailed evidence,
despite inadequate provisions for their safety.

Referring to last week's trial, one western diplomat said, "This a step
forward but it's mainly due to some very courageous women who testified
even though they had no legal protection. If it wasn't for these women,
these men would be free."

Significantly, diplomatic sources have told IWPR lack of witness testimony
is believed to have undermined the authorities attempt to try a leading
suspected gang leader Dilaver "Leku" Bojku, currently facing six charges of
procuring girls in the south of the country, for trafficking.

"Leku is charged for prostitution when everybody knows he is involved in
trafficking but nobody dares to step forward as there is no witness
protection," said one diplomat.

Danailov acknowledges that more should be done to safeguard victims; that
the law should be changed so that trafficking convictions are not based
just on the testimony of victims; and that judges and prosecutors are
better trained to deal with such cases.

The IOM official pointed out that efforts are underway to address all the
aforementioned problems. The situation, he said, "is not ideal, but getting
better and better".

Nonetheless, he said the US State Department rates Macedonia as one of the
countries doing most to tackle people-smuggling and points out that its
efforts to date have actually forced the traffickers to change the way they
operate: previously, girls were held in bars and clubs, but increasingly
their captors are moving them into rented accommodation making it harder
for the police to find them.

He says the authorities' attitude towards the problem has changed hugely,
as it wasn't long ago that the victims of trafficking were considered
little more than illegal migrants and expelled from the country.

Yigal Chazan is IWPR managing editor, Dragana Nikolic-Solomon is an IWPR
assistant editor and David Quin is an IWPR investigations editor. Saso
Dimovski, a journalist with Skopje Sitel TV, also contributed to this
report.

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### 2 ###

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200310_462_4_eng.txt

Macedonia: School Desegregation Plans Shelved

Fierce protests force government to back down over bid to teach Albanians
and Macedonian students side by side.

By Ana Pteruseva and Boris Georgievski in Skopje (BCR No 462, 03-Oct-03)

The Macedonian authorities. controversial attempts to desegregate two
schools have been criticised as clumsy and badly-timed by western diplomats
and analysts.

Plans for an Albanian language class in a Bitola school were halted last
week after hundreds of Macedonian students took to the streets in protest,
with some insisting that they would never allow an Albanian class in their
city.

The Macedonian students went back to school, but only after receiving
assurances that an Albanian class will not be opened. Protesters threatened
to hold further rallies if there is a new attempt to teach students from
the two communities side by side.

Ethnic tensions also soared last week at the Arseni Jovkov high school in
Skopje when Macedonian parents and students rallied against the decision to
include seven Albanian classes in the same building. Previously, the
Albanian students had been attending a facility in another part of the
city. Following the protests, the plan to bring the two groups together was
put on hold.

Multi-ethnic education has been an explosive issue for more than a decade.
Macedonian and Albanian students have been strictly segregated - studying
in different schools or, if in the same building, in different shifts - and
previous attempts to unite the two have also failed.

The latest desegregation initiative was not part of a broader attempt to
bring an end to the ethnic divide in the country.s schools, but a goodwill
gesture by the governing ethnic Macedonian parties towards their Albanian
partners.

Education minister Azis Polozani, a member of the Democratic Union for
Integration, DUI, the ethnic Albanian party in the ruling coalition, faced
calls from the protesters to abandon the desegregation plans or resign.

Faced with continuing popular unrest over the reforms, the government
appears to have shelved the issue indefinitely. .The decision has been put
on ice until ethnic tensions calm down,. said DUI spokesperson Ermira
Mehmeti.

The trouble began immediately after Polozani announced the changes in early
September.

The minister has since come under fire for trying to implement the reform
after the school year had already started, and for not anticipating the
likely reaction, especially in Bitola, which was the scene of riots against
the town.s Albanian community during the 2001 conflict.

"Polozani should have known that this cannot be done without thorough
preparations," one western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
told IWPR.

"He should have consulted people on local level. You cannot make an
administrative decision and just hope it will be respected.

"The timing was also crucial. If the decision had been made before the
school year had already started, it would have been a different situation.
Maybe there would still have been tensions, but probably not on this
scale."

A government source also commented on the poor timing of the move, saying
tensions could have been avoided had Polozani announced the decision while
the students were on their summer break. .However, there is no
justification for the acts of the Macedonian students,. the government
source said.

Gjuner Ismail, director of Forum magazine, told IWPR that a lack of
foresight by the education ministry has fuelled Macedonian nationalist
feeling in Bitola.

.The minister should solve, not generate problems. He did not respect the
reality of the situation," Ismail said. "Bitola is a specific city, and one
that was very much involved in the war. This way [the minister] has created
an opportunity for those who organised the incidents in 2001 to do so
again..

The hard line opposition Democratic Party of Albanians has reacted angrily
to the government.s climb-down, describing it last week as the result of a
.well thought-out and organised action to prevent Albanians from exercising
their rights..

Mirjana Najcevska, who heads the local branch of the Helsinki human rights
committee, said that the latest events should not be seen as an isolated
problem, but rather as the result of the government.s heavy handedness and
lack of transparency over reforms.

"We have many situations when a school director or a teacher is replaced
without local consultation and parents and students protest,. she told
IWPR.

.As for the ethnic dimension, on the Albanian side there is a belief that
things can change overnight, while the Macedonians are building a wall and
absolutely refusing to think of the legitimate and unsatisfied needs of
others..

The International community has expressed deep concern over the recent
upturn in tensions. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, OSCE, in Macedonia called the Bitola protests .frightening and
unacceptable..

OSCE spokesperson Isabelle De Ruyt said, .It is disappointing to see people
mobilising against the a common education opportunity for students. The
OSCE believes that the students should be able to go to schools close to
their homes, and that multi-ethnic education should be encouraged..

Ana Petruseva is IWPR project manager in Macedonia, Boris Georgievski is a
journalist with the Skopje daily Utrinski vesnik
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