(For more information on the plight of the Macedonian children please read cha - Part 04

On December 26, 1999, after Boris Traikovski the new President of the Republic of Macedonia was elected, the Minister of Defense, Academic N. Kliusev, organized an orientation for introducing the supreme commander with the situation in the former Army and the plan of reorganization for the next 5 years.

A report regarding the current ARM situation was filed by the then Army Chief of Staff General Traiche Krstevski, and I (Pande Petrovski) filed a report on what ARM should look like in five years, after the reorganization.

Among other things, in this report I stressed: “We have disagreements with the MPRI team (the American/NATO organization) about the reorganization, but that was superseded because the plan was twice fully accepted in Brussels by all NATO member states without any reservations.”

Shortly after that, in January 2000, about 500 officers, including all generals, were retired i.e. for being “obstacles” to the reform.

After that, after the officers were retired, the plan prepared by the MPRI team was accepted - and in 2000 the ARM reorganization was started under MPRI control. The Republic of Slovenia refused the MPRI team’s offer to reorganize the Slovenian Army. Croatia accepted the MPRI but then expelled them after a while. Here, in Macedonia, we kept the MPRI active until May 2001.

Before the crisis, at the beginning of 2001, ARM was in the final stages of reformation or “dismantling” (3. Army Corps disbanded, 2. Army Corps - Bitola disbanded, tank and artillery units disbanded, aviation dissolved), the border brigade was under reformation and each guard house had 10-12 soldiers, etc.

First of all in 2000: a newly formed unit was promoted. It consisted of a light infantry brigade with two battalions officially launched by President Boris Traikovski which, in their composition, had one professional battalion and one battalion with conscripts.

The MPRI team proposal signed by H.J. Haen, accompanied with a letter, was sent to the NATO ambassador in the Republic of Macedonia which included, among other things, the following:

In reference to the ARM structure or what kind of army the Republic of Macedonia should have, it said: “The hardest question is the necessity of helicopters. The current budget cannot support a force that will be compatible with NATO and with pilots trained by NATO standards; this should remain an inspiration for the future...”

For more information on American and NATO involvement in the 2001 war in Macedonia please read Pande Petrovski’s book “Testimonials 2001”.

In 2001 these illegal bands, first branded by the international community as terrorists and later as “freedom fighters” began to occupy camps and later villages in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia. Initially these bands were seen as benign but as they started to assert themselves by restricting travel, kidnappings, torturing civilians and cutting off electricity and water supplies to various communities, the Macedonian police and military began to pursue them. There was an immediate backlash from the western media which, in spite of their violent acts, the Albanian band were viewed as human right fighters and the Macedonian government and its people as aggressors.

As the war raged on in western Macedonia, rumors were flying, some substantiated, that certain elements in the Macedonian

government were involved in sparking the conflict in order to partition the Republic of Macedonia perhaps between Albania and Serbia, Greece or Bulgaria.

Here is what correspondent Sasha Uzunov had to say about the volatile situation in the Republic of Macedonia: “In 1992 I came across a high-ranking NATO source in Brussels, Belgium. He revealed to me the secret plan to partition Macedonia along ethnic lines after a short war: the west would be incorporated into a Greater Albania and the left over parts would be incorporated either by Serbia or Bulgaria. I found the plan to be far-fetched when I first heard it. I thought this person was pulling my leg. But later events showed that it wasn’t far-fetched.

The NATO source invited me out for drinks a number of times. He was a big vodka drinker. He must have had 5 or six when he let rip with the revelation that Macedonia’s days as an independent nation were numbered. I laughed and said, ‘I agree with you unless the problem of corruption and the economy are fixed.’

‘No it’s not just a matter of money,’ he said. ‘There are greater outside forces at work that you don’t know about.’ He would not elaborate. He had another 5 vodkas and left. This cat and mouse game kept going for a month or two, until he let it all hang out.

He revealed in great detail how war would start in Macedonia; he named names; told me how weapons were being smuggled by ethnic Albanian insurgents into Macedonia through Kosovo and from Albania. He said a favourite supply route was through the western town of Debar, which sits on the Macedonian-Albanian border. He mentioned there were a number of mountain caves near Debar being used to hide weapons. Donkeys were being used to ferry ammunition.

But he would not tell me who was pushing for war in Macedonia. By 1993 UN peacekeepers from the UNPROFOR mission were deployed to protect Macedonia’s borders. This mission later became UNPREDEP. Years later, for some crazy reason the Macedonian government recognized Taiwan and China in retaliation used its seat in the UN Security Council to stop the mission. With UN

peacekeepers out of the way, the 2001 war in Macedonia began as a spill over from the Kosovo conflict of 1999.

The whole thing was mind-boggling. I remember talking to Mira, an elderly Serbian woman who was teaching the Macedonian language to Belgian children. She asked me what I was interested in writing about Macedonia. I said to her I would like to investigate the claims made by the NATO source and look into past Yugoslav communist crimes in Macedonia such as the infamous Chento show trial of 1946.

Her response was ‘You don’t need to dig up the past nor worry about the future.’ I found her lack of curiosity surprising considering her ex-husband was famous Macedonian writer Meto Jovanovski, and both her children are journalists. Son Borian Jovanovski was a former Presidential media spokesman whilst daughter Svetlana Jovanovska is the Brussels correspondent for major newspaper Dnevnik.

One day walked into our Brussels office a fit looking man in his late 30s or early 40s. He had very short blonde hair and had a military bearing. He introduced himself as Andreas Renatus Hartmann, a Member of the European Parliament for the German political party, The Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Mr. Hartmann invited Dr. Naumovski and myself to dinner at a swanky Moroccan restaurant. The dinner went well. We talked about a wide variety of subjects but the attention inevitably turned to the Balkans. I was enjoying eating the couscous and almost choked when Mr. Hartmann said matter of fact that German Intelligence was about to open its first ‘station’ in Tirana, Albania since World War II, and the British were pissed off at being beaten to the punch.

I thought to myself why is this guy telling me this? He dropped more bombshells when he said that Europe, in particular Germany and France did not want an Islamic state in the Balkans namely Bosnia-Herzegovina or a Greater Albania. The German and French right wing parties wanted to strengthen Macedonia to act as a buffer state against possible Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

I found this at odds with the NATO source’s revelations. Was Macedonia caught in the cross-fire of a power play between competing European nations? What could it possibly all mean? And why was I told this?

I could only speculate and say maybe they saw me as a young and enthusiastic journalist wanting to make a name for myself who would float the information in my articles. But what they didn’t count on was unbelieving newspaper editors!” (Sasha Uzunov)

A month later it was confirmed, when a force of 400 KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) fighters was surrounded in the Village Arachinovo near the capital, Skopje. As Macedonian security forces moved in, they were halted on NATO orders. U.S. army buses from Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo arrived to remove all the heavily armed terrorists to a safer area of Macedonia.

It is important at this point to mention that I believe seventeen Americans were also among the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in Arachinovo. It was later revealed that they were assisting the Kosovo fighters. There were also unconfirmed reports that when the Americans/NATO ordered the Macedonia president to halt the assault they threatened him and told him they would “turn Skopje into ashes” if he did not immediately halt the assault. In other words, President Traikovski was told that if he did not immediately stop the assault on Arachinovo NATO was going to bomb Skopje.

Here, in part, is what General Pande Petrovski said about the Arachinovo incident:

Everyone was in good spirits that day because we were all expecting to completely destroy the terrorists. A while later, Liube Boshkovski received a telephone call on his mobile telephone. At the time he was sitting beside Liubco Georgievski. The call made him very nervous so he got up and, with a high pitched tone of voice, shouted back abusive words. Colonel Stoian Petrovski happened to be in the near vicinity so I gave him a look and signaled him to get out of the room and not listen to what Liube Boshkovski was saying. I looked at the Prime Minister but he did not react, he kept watching the battle taking place in Arachinovo. When Boskovski was finished

talking on the phone, he nervously said: “He wants the actions stopped right now!” I then immediately realized that he must have been talking to the President about what the President had told me at 09:00 hours, so I imagine he had not communicated this to Boshkovski until now. After he calmed down Boshkovski said to me: “Traikovski told me to tell you to terminate all military actions and for me to terminate all police actions!” The Prime Minister did not say a word but got up and the two left for Skopje. After they left I went to the Choilia command post where, around 12:45 hours, I received a call from the President who told me: “General, I want you to terminate all action in Arachinovo at 13:00 hours. Now go back to ‘Belvi’ hotel and meet with the NATO officials!” I said: “I understand but I will need at least an hour to end the offensive; for the orders to trickle down. On top of that I have the aviation ready for a final blow.” He then said: “No, no, under no circumstances are you to deploy the aviation. I want you to call me at 13:30 hours and tell me that you have ended all actions!” He then added: “Don’t you try to employ the aircraft, no, this is not a game, and I explained to you this morning what is going on!” I then reassured him that I would do as he ordered.

After receiving the call from Traikovski, Brigadier General Zvonko Stoianovski, commander of air defense, called me and informed me that: “The helicopter pilots were reporting seeing white sheets displayed on top of the houses in Arachinovo. What should we do?” he then asked. I gave him a short reply. I said: “Okay Zvonko, at 13:00 hours you are to terminate all actions. Those are the Supreme Commander’s orders! Also, after all the helicopters have returned, call me, in the meantime you will be receiving a written order for this termination!”

Because General Metodi Stamboliski and General Miroslav Stoianovski were standing beside me while I was talking to the President, and because they were in command of the units on the ground, I immediately ordered them to cease all military actions and take necessary measures to defend our current positions. In the end I told them: “I am going to a meeting now so please stay in contact in case of further developments. Please keep the units on alert and be ready to attack on short notice, only if so ordered. They are only

allowed to open fire on the terrorists if attacked, for security purposes and to protect themselves!”

I arrived at “Belvi” hotel around 14:00 hours and noticed many journalists, TV crews, various diplomatic vehicles, etc., standing in front of the hotel. I entered the hotel through the restaurant hall and there I saw the entire diplomatic corps accredited to the Republic of Macedonia. Amongst them, from our side were Vlado Buchkovski, Liube Boshkovski, Nikola Dimitrov, Todor Pendarovski and many others.

Immediately after entering the hall I asked Vlado Buchkovski: “What is that going on?” He said to me: “You will soon find out, there will be a meeting; Javier Solana is due to arrive at 16:00 hours.” Then Air force commander Brigadier General Zvonko Stoianovski informed me that our radar had picked up six planes, fighter-bombers coming out of Italy, flying through Albania and heading towards the Republic of Macedonia. I told him to keep an eye on them, follow them and watch where they are going. In the meantime, prepare our helicopters to be moved to the village Lozovo to the reserve airport!”

I thought to myself: - it’s no joke; NATO is prepared to use force if we continue with our actions. The President of the Republic of Macedonia was certainly aware of this meeting this morning when I was at his office, but he did not say anything to me, I do not understand why. I asked Liube Boskovski what was going on. He said: “We will both soon find out brother, I don’t know anything. I have no idea what these NATO people are planning?!”

National Security Advisor to the President, Nikola Dimitrov, representing the President on this occasion, introduced me to a civilian. He said: “This is Mr. Peter Faith, envoy to the NATO Secretary-General; he will be leading the meeting today and present the plan for extracting the terrorists out of Arachinovo.” So I asked him: “Does the President know about all this?” Dimitrov then said: “Yes, and I will inform him about everything that transpires.”

The meeting started around 14:30 hours. Without any introduction, Peter Faith indicated that he was going to come into contact with the

terrorists and offer them passage out through his organization. In other words NATO was prepared to extract the terrorists out of Arachinovo and transfer them to Kosovo. Liube Boshkovski strongly objected to Peter Faith’s proposal and said that he would not allow the terrorists to be extracted without being punished. I interrupted Minister Boshkovski, took him to the side and said: “Wait, let him finish talking and then we will talk. The terrorists are surrounded and going nowhere.” After Boshkovki calmed down he went back to his place and the meeting continued.

We all, for one thing or another, reacted, we did not want the terrorists to be taken to Kosovo. In the end it was agreed that: “The terrorists to be extracted by NATO with their own buses and taken to the village Nikushtak. We were to take our tanks out of Arachinovo and out of the road Arachinovo - Nikushtak.”

Basically NATO and OSCE had three variants of the extraction plan, which in fact were two plans:

“A” - to extract the terrorist with vehicles owned by civilian companies - from Tetovo, “B” - to extract the terrorists with NATO/KFOR buses, or “C” - to extract the terrorists in their own vehicles.

From the three variants available we accepted a combination of variants “A” and “B” - (i.e.: First round to be completed with 4 buses from Tetovo and the second round with 7 NATO buses, 5 combat hummers, 5 medical hummers and 2 trucks).

We certainly were not going to accept variant “C” - the terrorists extracting themselves in their own vehicles. The meeting lasted only briefly. I was surprised to see that 10 to 15 minutes after our meeting ended, NATO troops were rushed in, in front of the hotel with all the agreed upon vehicles ready to do the extraction. This, for me at least, confirms that the plan was already in motion before we even had our meeting. All we did at the meeting was confirm it!”

For more information on American and NATO involvement in the 2001 war in Macedonia please read Pande Petrovski’s book “Testimonials 2001”.

The fighting in western Macedonia began as isolated attacks in the early spring of 2001 by armed and uniform wearing Albanian insurgents who claimed that their quarrel was with the government and its forces in Macedonia.

They also claimed that their goal was to achieve more equal rights for the Albanian minority population of Macedonia. However, in July of 2001 after achieving a sufficient mobilization of the local Albanian population, they began the conquest of territory where the Albanian population formed the majority.

Western journalists have continued to portray this insurgency as some kind of armed civil rights movement, but the reality on the ground is quite different. The insurgents, in fact, achieved a semi-permanent occupation of territory through an on-going campaign of ethnic cleansing. It is now clear that in July of 2001 there was a sudden shift in the focus of their movement from conflict with police and army units to systematic terrorization of the civilian ethnic Macedonian population in the NLA occupied territories.

One of the first documented cases of such terrorization in occupied western Macedonia occurred on July 8, 2001 in the village of Neproshteno, about 7 miles north of the city of Tetovo. Thirty year old Darko Boshkovski was alone, unarmed and in civilian clothes when he was abducted from his car at a road block near his home that day. He reported that it was about 6:30 in the evening when a group of about 150 men in Albanian National Liberation Army NLA uniforms stopped his car and forced him at gun point to accompany them first to the nearby village of Poroi, and then to Drenovec 2, and finally to the village of Giermo.

There, he was locked in a horse stall with two horses. He was blindfolded and questioned about his father, a retired policeman who had worked on drug-related crimes, and his possible family connection to Interior Minister Liube Boshkovski. Then his arms were stretched and bound behind him with a rope that also bent his back to the point where breathing was made difficult. He was then repeatedly beaten over the course of the evening by a series of men, some with fists, others with clubs or shovels. He was also tied to a

horse and dragged around the barn and later force fed horse urine and dung.

About 1:30 in the morning NLA commander Avzi came and told him that they were releasing him. They then took him by car to the city of Tetovo and delivered him to his waiting family, his wife and parents, who had paid a ransom for his release. He was warned not to reveal what had happened to him under the threat of further violence. He was later treated for numerous wounds, including serious internal injuries, at the local hospital and later at a sanatorium in Serbia. When his family was finally able to return to their home in the village months later they discovered that their house, shop and outbuildings had all been looted and burned. Darko’s automobile, a tractor and all of the goods from their building supply business had been stolen.

A year later the family remained homeless and destitute. All that they had slowly built up or acquired over the years was gone. And visits to the village or nearby town are made all the more painful by the open presence, after the public amnesty of the rebels, of those who tortured him and destroyed his family’s home and livelihood in western Macedonia. It wasn’t just the Macedonian authorities and press who were reporting such incidents either. According to a report issued on July 26 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, their mission human rights specialists found evidence of numerous human rights violations by the rebel NLA forces. The report on their meeting with three young Macedonian men who were being treated for injuries at the hospital in Tetovo on Friday, July 20, 2001 is typical of what they found during their investigation.

Although the young men refused to participate in a formal interview, the Mission report states that they were able to learn the following: “These persons appeared extremely fearful of Mission’s presence, but ultimately consented to showing their injuries to the investigator. There were chafing marks on their wrists that appeared consistent with their hands being bound. By observing the pattern of the bruises and abrasions, it appeared they had been beaten whilst their hands were bound behind their backs. From the appearance of their injuries, it appeared they had been struck with rifle butts and

wooden or metal rods, objects typically associated with the kinds of deep bruising observed on the subjects.

One person stated briefly that a particular pattern of injuries had been caused by being struck with a wooden broom handle and a police baton. All had been beaten on the soles of their feet as well as on the back of the legs. One had reduced kidney function upon admission, but was improving. These impressions were later confirmed in conversations with the attending doctor. It was also discovered that the three young men had attended an engagement party and were standing outside the house of one of them when a car with three armed NLA members drove up and accosted them. They were roughed up, blindfolded, and driven to a location where the beating was administered.”

These two incidents were among the first of what soon proved to be a series of abductions and beatings of unarmed individuals or small groups of Macedonian civilians in the western part of the country. By July 23, the OSCE Mission had received credible information that at least 25 people had been abducted at gunpoint in the Tetovo region.

The ethnic cultural basis for these attacks can be seen in the case of Macedonian Orthodox Christian priest Perica Bojkovski. He was first threatened by an Albanian armed group on July 14, 2001. At that time he was pulled out of his car by an armed group that blocked the road at the village of Odri. At that time men dressed in the black uniforms and wearing the insignia of the Albanian NLA beat the priest and told him not to come back to his parish.

Three weeks later on August 9 Father Bojkovski was stopped again during a visit to one of the mountain villages that were his responsibility. At the time he was riding in a car with Pero Marchevski on the way to the village of Dobroshte. They were both dragged from the car by armed men wearing NLA uniforms. They were taken by car to the village of Djepchishte, where they were put in a barn. There they were questioned about the names of reserve policemen and the location of army and police units in the villages they visited. When their interrogators didn’t receive the answers they sought, they began to beat the two men with guns and fists.

They also put a gun barrel in the priest’s mouth during the interrogation.

Their captors then drove them to another location in the village where about fifteen young men in civilian clothes locked them in a cellar. This new group continued the beating, which included demands that the priest sing Albanian nationalist songs and the call of the Moslems to worship.

Eventually the priest lost consciousness and was revived with cold water. When it was discovered that he was coughing up blood, he and his companion were driven back to the village of Dobroshte, where they were again beaten and then released at their car. Father Bojkovski was later treated at the Military Hospital in Skopje, where doctors found injuries over the entire length of the priest’s body.

This maltreatment of a cleric who carried no weapons and traveled openly in his religious dress on his priestly duties was clearly intended to intimidate the Christian Macedonians in that parish. It was meant to teach the lesson that no one from their ethnic religious cultural community was safe there any longer. Ethnic cleansing in western Macedonia by organized Albanian armed groups took on a truly mass character on the July 23rd, 2001. At that time the NLA launched a series of attacks on the mixed Macedonian-Albanian villages of Tearce and Neproshteno and the all-Macedonian village of Leshok in direct violation of a cease fire that their leadership had signed onto the preceding week. Poorly armed policemen and a few local reservists tried to defend the villages, but they were overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of hundreds of heavily armed NLA fighters.

The NLA soldiers went door to door in the middle of the night dragging people from their homes, from the smallest child to the oldest grandmother. Several thousand people were driven out with little or no time to gather any possessions and with little hope that there would be anything to return to later. Long lines of people, many hundreds, were forced to make their way on foot to the nearby Macedonian hamlets of Ratae and Zhilche. Some did resist. Men who had invested years of their lives in the creation of a home, and those who could not bring themselves to abandon homesteads and

communities with over a thousand years of family history in them. Some defended their homes with guns. Many resisted the invaders until it was clear that they could not win, and then they retreated along with their families. Others resisted until they were wounded or killed by the NLA. About a dozen men of Leshok and Neproshteno were wounded that day and one, Gjoko Lazarevski, died from his wounds. He was 30 years old. He had just completed construction of a new home and he soon to be married.

The NLA aggression and ethnic cleansing of Leshok, Gjoko Lazarevski’s home village, was among the most indefensible acts of the recent conflict. The aggression took place in direct violation of a cease-fire agreement signed by the NLA with NATO mediation. It involved the occupation of a village that had never had a single Albanian inhabitant in its several thousand year history. It resulted in the criminal looting and destruction of the lifelong personal possessions and property of all of the residents.

The NLA would later, completely outside the military conflict, set explosive charges under the foundation of a Macedonian and world cultural monument in Leshok, a beautiful Orthodox church, first built in the 14th century and expanded into a grand cathedral in the 20th century, reducing the Church of St. Atanasij to a pile of rubble. One young man who tried to resist this ethnic cleansing was made the ultimate example of what resistance would bring, when he paid with his life.

The campaign of ethnic cleansing that day also included one of the worst crimes of terror imaginable, the abduction that ends in the disappearance of individuals from a community. It was on that day, July 23, 2001, that the terrible crime had occurred. It was on that day that NLA gunmen abducted 52 year old Cvetko Mihajlovski from a field near his home in the village of Neproshteno. At the same time they took his 37 year old son Vasko, whose wedding had taken place the night before, and an elderly neighbour, 69 year old Krsto Gogovski, from their homes in the same village. They were led at gunpoint in some unknown direction and have never been reliably heard from since.

That same day 62 year old Dimo Dimoski, who was visiting his wheat field in the neighbouring settlement of Djepchishte, was also taken by NLA gunmen. And the next day 60 year old Sime Jakimovski was literally taken off the street of a suburb of Tetovo called Drenovec One. The day after that, July 26, 2001, in that same northern suburb of Tetovo, where some of the most heated fighting between NLA and government troops would occur, 47 year old Gjoko Sinadinovski and 28 year old Bobi Jeftimovski were taken. Elsewhere on that same day the NLA apparently also took 48 year old Ilko Trajchevski and his 25 year old son Vasko Trajchevski. Two weeks later, also in the vicinity of Drenovec, two brothers, 59 year old Slavko and 42 year old Boshko Dimitrievski were taken by the NLA.

The families and friends of these 12 men have endured a number of years now of agony-filled uncertainty concerning the fate of their loved ones. NLA commanders claim no knowledge of these men.

Swedish Ambassador to Macedonia Lars Wahlund recently headed an international commission to determine the facts of some 20 cases of unsolved abductions during the time of the conflict last year. His commission concluded that NLA commanders probably know the fate of the Macedonians abducted, and Macedonian officials may know the fate of several missing Albanians and a Bulgarian, but no one will reveal what they know.

Angelina Mihajlovska waited for over a year for news of her husband Vasko. The day after their wedding she and her husband and most of the guests at their wedding were kidnapped by the NLA. She and some others were released after three days. But there is a rumour that she received her husband’s ear and a hand later from local NLA commander Leka. This was said to be in retaliation for Vasko having pulled a gun on Leka when he and his men appeared at their wedding. The commission concluded that it was likely that Leka, in particular, does know the fate of eight of the Macedonian men seized in his district of operations in July of 2001. Several bodies exhumed from a site near Neproshteno, according to the commission report, may yet prove to be some of the missing. But people like Angelina Mihajlovska have no choice but to continue a campaign of public protest before the public, government and

international community in Macedonia until the fate of her loved ones are resolved. And to this day they must occasionally pass amnestied NLA leaders such as commander Leka on the streets, men who probably know of their missing men even if they are not directly responsible for their fate.

During the six months of open conflict 15 civilians from the Tetovo region are known to have been killed and many others injured. The dead included Natsa and Petar Petrovski, a mother and son whose car hit a land mine set by Albanian rebels on the road between Leshok and Zhilche in mid-July of 2001. It also included the particularly gruesome murder of two night custodians at the Hotel Brioni in the village Chelopek. One night late in August Albanian gunmen appeared at this Macedonian-owned business. They took the two hotel employees present at the time prisoner, named Svetislav Trpkovski and Bogoslav Ilievski. They then mined the premises with explosive charges and blew up the hotel, at the same time killing the two workmen, who they had tied up and left inside the building to die.

Other grisly crimes committed against Macedonian civilians by armed Albanian groups during this period included the abduction and torture on August 8, 2001 of four construction workers from a site on the Tetovo-Skopje highway. These four men, who were later released, reported to authorities that in addition to beatings, they were subjected to sexual abuse by their Albanian captors, and in a final act of barbarism before letting them go, they carved the initials of the rebel group into the living flesh of the backs of their captives with knives.

Abductions, robberies and brutal beatings of unarmed civilians in the Tetovo region have continued since the open conflict ended in the fall of 2001. On the 3rd of November 2001, for example, 32 year old Cane Trpevski was returning to his home in the village of Ratae from Tetovo, where he had gone to pick up his monthly wages, when he was captured by an armed Albanian group. They robbed him and then held him for two days. During that time they beat him over the entire length of his body, while keeping his hands tied and with a feed sack placed over his head. He reported that the worst

part of his ordeal had been the fact that during that entire time they had refused to give him a single drop of water to drink.

Reserve policeman Dushko Simoski received similar treatment on April 14, 2002, when he was taken prisoner by an armed Albanian group in the village of Shemshevo. They also held him bound and blindfolded in a livestock stall while brutally beating him for over two days, before he was finally released.

Of course, active policemen and soldiers of the Macedonian army have suffered their share as well at the hands of Albanian armed groups, but at least their suffering came in the course of their sworn service, for which they are honoured today for their sacrifices.

The continued campaign of terror, death and destruction included the looting and burning of over thirty churches in the Tetovo region since hostilities began in the spring of 2001 and many hundreds of houses. The looting and destruction of Macedonian homes continued in outlying villages such as Otunje or Varvara, and even certain Tetovo neighbourhoods continue to lose residents who find life unbearable there.

It also included the destruction of many Macedonian-owned businesses, thus denying the people their livelihoods. These have included destruction of a textile factory and bakery in the village of Tearce, small shops, restaurants and gas stations in Tetovo, and the infamous destruction of the Brioni Hotel in the village of Chelopek. Of course, many thousands of people were denied their livelihood simply because they did not dare to go to work for extended periods. Farmers couldn’t reach their fields and other workers couldn’t drive the roads to various workplaces. And the Popova Shapka major ski centre on the picturesque mountain above Tetovo had no tourist season.

The Republic of Macedonia was forced to concede defeat and was obliged to accept all the terrorist demands. When the peace treaty was signed, Lord Robertson proclaimed, “This day marks the entry of Macedonia into modern, mainstream Europe ... a very proud day for their country.” (James Bisset).

This war placed great strains on Macedonia’s economy and created a long-lasting divide between the Macedonian and Albanian communities in Macedonia, communities that coexisted peacefully for centuries.

American and French negotiators helped craft the Ohrid Accord of 2001 that ended the military conflict by granting Albanians in Macedonia rights and privileges that no minority in the Balkans has ever enjoyed to this day. It also altered the Macedonian Constitution so that it no longer refers to the Republic as the state of the Macedonian people, but as the state of all citizens of the Macedonian Republic, making it the first and only Balkan state to “denationalize” itself. The Accord was a source of terrible humiliation to the Macedonian people, but it put an end to the violent struggle that was tearing the country apart at a time when “only” hundreds had died in the fighting rather than the thousands who have been killed in the other wars that have accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Since 1991 all governments in the Macedonian parliament have been coalition governments comprised of allied ethnic Macedonian and Albanian parties. In fact, Albanian militants who only a few years before had led armed paramilitary units now sit in parliament as elected representatives of their people. Obviously, this is not a country where citizens are denied their democratic right to free association. This, however, cannot be said for their neighbours, Greece and Bulgaria and to some extent Albania. Macedonians who merely demand the right to self-identity as Macedonians and free association in organizations of their minority group are routinely harassed and intimidated by governmental authorities there.

Both the Macedonian minority organizations OMO Ilinden in Bulgaria and Vinozhito in Greece have well-documented cases of violations of their rights. Human rights groups worldwide have come to their defense and issued reports on many of these violations. Human rights courts have also ruled in their favour in suits. Nothing, however, has been done to improve their situation.

The western media vilified Macedonia, quickly forgetting that Macedonia was the only republic to peacefully break away from Yugoslavia. I wonder why?

“The West has always insisted on the just principle that violence, terror, and ethnic cleansing should not pay. This principle was enforced - sometimes militarily - in Bosnia and Croatia. Yet, for tactical and political reasons, the West has made two exceptions: Kosovo, and Macedonia. In Kosovo, it rewarded a crime organization turned liberation movement (the KLA or UCK). It armed it, trained it, and transformed it into a respectable (respected by the west) political player and partner in shaping the future and nature of Kosovo. In Macedonia, it has leaned on the democratically elected government of a sovereign country to accommodate the demands of armed terrorists, even as these terrorists continued to intimidate, murder, occupy land, and ethnically cleanse its Macedonian inhabitants. Thus, Macedonia is made to pay for the mistakes of the West in creating a monster (the KLA) that is now well out of their control (in the form of the NLA and ANA) and threatens to transform KFOR into 50,000 hostages in Kosovo.” (Sam Vaknin)

The war lasted approximately six months and officially ended with the signing of the Ohrid agreement on August 13, 2001.

“According to the Ohrid Peace Agreement, the international community was invited to support the challenging road of Macedonia from the brink of civil war in August 2001 to peace, stability and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures.

In response to a request for NATO assistance made by the Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on June 20, 2001, this military organization drew up the operational plan that was dedicated to the peace and stability of the Republic of Macedonia. However, NATO had imposed three conditions for its help in resolving the crisis: conclusion of political agreement between the various parties in the Republic of Macedonia, armistice linked with amnesty for the members of the NLA and finally pledge of full demilitarization from the NLA. Once the Macedonian political parties signed the Ohrid Peace Agreement, the way was opened for

NATO’s first mission in the Republic of Macedonia. The NATO military support to the Republic of Macedonia effectively commenced on August 27, 2001, with Operation Essential Harvest / Task Force Harvest (TFH). This UK-lead mission involved the rapid deployment of 4,600 Allied troops that were initiated to fulfill NATO’s promise to assist the Macedonian people by collecting and destroying arms and ammunition on a voluntary basis from ethnic-Albanian extremists.

By September 14, 2001, the successful disarmament of the armed Albanians was achieved and in so doing, established the conditions for the peaceful resolution of the crisis that could well have engulfed this country. Essential Harvest succeeded in collecting and destroying 3,875 weapons over 30 days. Included were four tanks and armored personnel carriers that the NLA have captured from the Macedonian security forces, 17 Strela-2M (NATO: SA-7b Grail) man-portable low-altitude air defense weapons systems, 161 anti-tank systems, 483 machine guns, 3,210 assault rifles and nearly 400,000 mines, explosives and ammunition. Because the armed insurgency was a manifestation of “discontent” among the ethnic Albanian community in the Republic of Macedonia, in accordance with the Ohrid Peace Agreement, constitutional changes have been made that are granting more rights to the ethnic Albanian minority that is 22.7 percent of the country’s population of just over 2 million.

In order to prevent a rise in ethnic conflicts after the termination of the NATO Operation Essential Harvest, the Macedonian government, the EU, and the OSCE agreed that international observers should supervise the orderly return of Macedonian security forces to the areas formerly held by ethnic Albanian extremists. In order to provide additional security to the international observers, while authorities of the Republic of Macedonia had primary responsibility for their security, on September 26, 2001, NATO began restructuring Task Force Harvest (TFH) and the next day Operation Essential Harvest was replaced by Operation Amber Fox / Task Force Fox (TFF). Further democratization and improvement in human rights through the process of dialogue and reconciliation progressed significantly and

Operation Amber Fox was extended for a period of three months in March 2002 and again in July 2002.

As a result of the greatly improved security in the country, authorities of the Republic of Macedonia and NATO finally decided to bring the mission to an end on December 15, 2002. The Operation Amber Fox was of great importance for Germany because for the first time in this country’s history the German Federal Armed Forces assumed leadership and logistics of a NATO military operation that was consisting of some 700 German and other NATO nation’s troops.” (http://www.airserbia.com/magazin/bozinovski/eu-nato/eu-nato_in_macedonia.htm).

In regards to developments with the Macedonians in Greece, on September 8, 1995, members of the ethnic Macedonian political party in Greece, the RAINBOW PARTY, also known as the “VINOZHITO PARTY” in Macedonian, opened an office in Lerin.

On January 19, 1997 a Second Conference of the “RAINBOW” party was held in Lerin and was attended by 76 delegates of all local units. A Political Manifesto and Organizational Principles were adopted and a Central Council comprised of 19 members was elected.

The Central Council held its first session in Voden on January 26, 1997, and elected a five-member Political Secretariat, an Economic Commission, an Editors’ Council, etc.

In its Political Manifesto “RAINBOW” has aired its wish to cooperate with all democratic and anti-nationalist forces in the country in its struggle for peace and European integration.

The RAINBOW PARTY is a member of the European Free Alliance which has been standing up for the rights of stateless nations, peoples and regions for decades.

Other development with regards to the Macedonians in Greece includes the opening of the Greek branch of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), an organization dedicated to the preservation of lesser used languages in Europe.

Across the European Union, no fewer than forty million people speak languages in their everyday lives, which are different from the official language of the state in which they are living. At present this figure represents 10% of the total European population, but shortly, with the expansion of the Union, the number of people speaking a different language from the official language of their state will be much, much greater. Greece, too, is no exception; however vigorously the state may deny it, the facts tell their own story. A by no means negligible section of the Greek population is bilingual. It is not possible to provide precise figures, since none of the censuses carried out to date has included a question on language. The one exception was the census of 1920, yet the figures it yielded for the northern regions of the country were never published.