MK DK

MK/ DK

COMMANDER Brigadier General Ilija Nikolovski

Copy of the report issued by the Commander of 2.AK from General Headquarters about the “Karpalak” incident

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On August 9, 2001, the President paid a visit to the Ministry of Defense and then came to my office at General Headquarters.

The first thing he asked me was if I was okay and if I was serious about resigning. I said: “I am fine and yes I am serious about resigning. That is why I have invited all the unit commanders here so that I can explain to them the reasons for my resignation. It would be a good idea if you also stayed,” I replied to the President. He then asked: “Who do you propose will replace you?” I said: “If you don’t have anyone in mind or if you are not sure who should replace me, I recommend Major General Metodi Stamboliski but you should check with the Defense Minister first, he is in his office right now.” The President contacted the Minister and Vlado Buchkovski came into my office. I repeated what I had said to the President.

We went down to the “leather room” where the commanders were waiting for me. Included among them were the commanders of 1.AK, 2.AK, BB and PVO air defense, Skopje Defense Command and the generals of General Headquarters. After the President explained the purpose of the meeting, I took the floor and said: “As a moral human being I cannot stand at the head of General Headquarters when 10 innocent soldiers were murdered cowardly because of someone’s interest; I do not want anyone to manipulate me to achieve their narrow political interests. I do not want to provoke a civil war in the Republic of Macedonia and to be part of

someone’s pre-planned scenario. I therefore resign from this function.” After that a discussion followed. Some of the generals present confirmed my explanation with concrete examples from the field, i.e. who was essentially causing the provocations. General Zvonko Stojanovski, Commander of BB and PVO air defense, among other things, said: “At 09:30 hours on the day of the incident in Karpalak, a KFOR helicopter flew over the area. At 10:00 hours when our helicopters were heading for Karpalak we saw two NATO vehicles (two sports utility vehicles) fleeing the area. One vehicle managed to escape, while the other hid in Novo Selo…”

After that the President ordered Nikola Dimitrov to make a public announcement about my resignation, but for the reasons I stated; and to make sure that I was okay with it before it was released. Unfortunately Nikola Dimitrov was under pressure from someone else, so he wrote a statement and gave it to the public media without me having seen it or having agreed to it.

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Republic of Macedonia Office of the President

PRESS RELEASE For Information Purposes

The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Boris Trajkovski, today signed a decree that sacked the Chief of Staff of the Macedonian Army, General Pande Petrovski from office. President Trajkovski’s immediate reason for this decision was because of yesterday’s tragic incident in Karpalak where terrorist gangs had ambushed and attacked a military convoy killing ten reservist members of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Security Council, General Pande Petrovski emphasized his personal moral responsibility for the way the defenders were killed for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Macedonia, voicing his thoughts to resign from his function.

President Trajkovski thanked General Petrovski for his engagement in performing his duty in his office.

General Stamboliski, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia will temporarily perform the functions of Chief of Staff.

Skopje August 9, 2001

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

The above is a copy of the announcement made to the media

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Even though I was too offended, I called the president and asked him if he had seen the statement Nikola Dimitrov gave to the public media. He said, and I believe he gave me an honest answer, that he had not seen it. “In that case, I said, since your Nikola did not do his job, tomorrow I will give my own statement to the media and I will not be attending the action plan meeting in Parliament; I will send General Metodi Stamobliski instead”. He said: “Wait a minute!” and while he thought he had hung up the telephone with me, he picked up another handset and called Nikola Dimitrov. I could hear the President yelling at him saying: “Nikola, what did I tell you? I told you not to play games with General Pande Petrovski! I also told you to take the statement and let him have a look at it before you released it! I want you to go to A1 television this evening and tell the truth!” No matter what, I think the President was a sincere and honest man and wanted to calm the situation in Macedonia. Unfortunately his motives were not always properly understood. There were too many obstacles put in front of him. That he knew and had good information about what was happening on the ground and beyond. They were intimidating him and threatening to liquidate him and with other malicious acts, but he persevered in his own idea for resolving the crisis.

And with that I decided to go public and reveal the reasons of my resignation on my own. On August 10, 2001 I held a press release.

The only responder to my statement delivered over the media was Prime Minister Georgievski. He thought that I was going to be publicly uncovering names and giving out facts, i.e. revealing the truth about the military crisis and that it was purposely concocted and strictly controlled by specific instruments. But he was wrong. I had no intention of continuing to debate that subject publicly, over the media, knowing full well that it would only complicate matters and make the final solution even more difficult to achieve. I had no intention, after the fact, to start a military or least of all, a political career.

Being familiar with the whole situation Major General Stamboliski had reservations about replacing me and refused to accept the office of Chief of Staff of General Headquarters and so I was again asked to stay on and help in resolving the crisis. I decided to stay in that position until August 29, 2001. After that, by Presidential Decree (no. 40 as of August 29, 2001), I was appointed advisor to the Minister of Defense for the development and use of ARM.

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