KARPALAK

KARPALAK

The entire public was informed about the operation “liberation of Tetovo” and about securing the Tetovo - Iazhintse road on television by the TV-A1 program, and the next day by the entire press. You can be certain that NATO and the so-called NLA were also informed and the NLA was rushing to prepare for it by bringing reinforcements to Tetovo. At that time they did not have enough fighters on the ground to withstand our advance. But they needed to impede us, for at least a few days, if not more, enough time until the negotiations were completed. It was also necessary to destroy the Skopje - Tetovo road, because it was the right time to block traffic again. The space Karpalak was definitely the best place for demolishing the road because there were no other easy passes to get around it. That is why Karpalak, since the beginning of the war crisis, was guarded by a police checkpoint. Unfortunately the police checkpoint was withdrawn, without the knowledge of the Ministry of Defense. It was withdrawn two days before the “Karpalak” incident. Someone certainly gave the order for the police post to vacate Karpalak. That someone was not known and neither was the reason for the withdrawal. But the only people that had the authority to give such an order were those of the Interior Ministry. A few days earlier, Liube Boskovski had taken a tour of Tetovo and Gostivar Regions and when he was returning to Skopje he passed through Karpalak. From what was discovered, while his armoured vehicles were passing through Karpalak Pass his entourage opened fire on the hills on both sides of the Karpalak site. That same evening, the media reported that the “Interior Minister was attacked at Karpalak”. I was surprised to hear that because, according to our information, there were no terrorists in that space. And this particular region was outside of the area covered by our military actions. Also, traffic from Skopje to Tetovo and from Tetovo to Skopje as well as Tetovo - Gostivar - Mavrovo was moving well without any incident. We also had OSCE and NATO presence there which had pacified the entire area. In any case, I contacted the NATO Ambassador to see what he had to say about this incident; i.e. the terrorists breaching the Agreement. He gave me a short reply, he said: “Do not worry; it is a tiny bit of media propaganda.” I found his response very strange so I contacted Liube Boshkovski and told him what the Ambassador had said. Then, in his own style of dialogue, Liube said to me: “To

let the villains know that we are here and ready for them.” I smiled and said nothing.

Taking into consideration everything that had happened I ordered air force defence and our combat helicopters to follow our units marching from Skopje to Eribeno to ensure their safety. Our units were expected to go on the march, in columns of two, on August 7, 2001. And even though each commander was required to organize his own security for the units under his command, as required in such circumstances, I gave them air support anyway just to be on the safe side.

On August 7, 2001 a visit to Leshok was organized by the Coordinating Body. The visitors were scheduled to travel along the Tetovo - Iazhintse road. Minister Vlado Buchkovski decided to join some of the displaced persons in this visit, primarily to ascertain whether the road was really closed and to see if the task the Supreme Commander ordered on July 5, 2001 had actually been carried out. Accompanying Buchkovski was Secretary Vlado Giorevski. Because the Minister knew that ARM units would be marching from Skopje heading for Erebino on August 7, 2001, Giorevski called me from Leshok and said: “General, the Minister asked me to ask you, to please delay the march to avoid any unforeseen incidents while we are returning to Skopje; not to provoke the terrorists to block the Leshok - Poroi road so that we and the displaced people can get back to Skopje.” I said: “Okay Giorevski, no problem, I will reschedule the march for tomorrow - we have time.” According to the order issued by the Supreme Commander I was given three days to prepare for this operation, therefore, instead of marching the units on August 7, 2001, I would reschedule the march for August 8, 2001 at 09:00 hours.

The units from the Second Army Corps - Bitola were deployed in Tetovo Region since the beginning, since we began to execute military operations. Exchange of the units was done as follows: Bitola - Gostivar-Kichevo - Tetovo and Bitola - Prilep - Skopje, Tetovo. There was a flow of military vehicles on these routes on a daily basis. This activity was the responsibility of the corps commander and the commanders of the brigades. On August 8, 2001 the Prilep Commander had plans to replace part of his artillery unit

stationed in Tetovo, with new soldiers - as was required. The unit was traveling along Prilep - Skopje Giorche Petrov - Tetovo. It was pure coincidence that the Prilep unit was separated by about 30 minutes of time from the combat units which, at 09:00 hours, pulled out from Skopje and headed for Erebino along the Tetovo highway. The “architect” of this incident wanted, at any cost, to stop the Tetovo operation from taking place, which, according to a TV - A1 report, planned and organized an ambush and to demolish the Tetovo highway at Karpalak.

The “architect” of the incident, assumed that the military vehicles traveling on the Tetovo highway were the leading part of the military column marching from Skopje to Erebino, prepared an ambush at 09:30 hours and acted against those vehicles. This gruesome and cowardly act by the terrorists inflicted heavy losses against innocent Macedonian soldiers, but failed to blow up the highway and stop the units from marching from Skopje to Erebilo, even although they had prepared about 200 kg of explosives to go off. And why did they fail? They failed because our combat helicopters were up in the air tracking the column’s movement and keeping an eye on the tanks and transporters for the planned operation. About 10 to 15 minutes later, when we detected problems, our helicopters attacked the area where the road was mined, leaving the terrorists no time to activate the explosives. Later we found wires laid down and explosives in a channel under the highway.

The air defense report filed for that day, among other things, said that five minutes before the ambush a KFOR helicopter was spoted flying in the air space above Karpalak. Two KFOR Jeeps were also seen in the Karpalak area. When they spotted our helicopters one escaped to Skopje and the other hid in Novo Selo.

Stavre Dzhikov, the public prosecutor for the Republic of Macedonia paid a short visit to the Karpalak site where the soldiers were executed by the terrorists. After examining the site he said that this entire incident was “just illogical”, but then a while later he sent me a letter requesting information on the Tetovo incident.