[Nettime-bold] briefing 11.05.2001

[ebalkan@soros.org.mk]

"EURO-BALKAN" INSTITUTE ON MACEDONIAN CRISIS

11-05-2001

CONTENTS:

- Daily briefing from Macedonian press about Macedonian crisis
- Daily briefing from international press about Macedonian crisis
SUPPLEMENT 1: “TERROR AND ROSES IN GROUND ZERO VILLAGE” - NICK WOOD DESCRIBES HOW HE AND PHOTOGRAPHER ANDREW TESTA WERE CAUGHT IN MACEDONIAN ARMY TANK FIRE 

a) DAILY BRIEFING FROM MACEDONIAN PRESS ABOUT MACEDONIAN CRISIS

THE MACEDONIAN FORCES ACT ON NEW TERRORIST POSITIONS
The Spokesman of the Macedonian Army Headquarters, Blagoja Markovski, marked yesterday as one of the most peaceful in the past week. He said that yesterday no intense movement was noticed of the Albanian terrorist groups in the Kumanovo region. “The Macedonian security forces acted twice in direction of the terrorists’ positions, at 11:30 action was taken directed on the revealed new positions of the terrorist group in Orizare, and an hour later, on a bunker south from Otlja”, stated the Macedonian Army spokesman, Blagoja Markovski. Two Danish journalists yesterday sought help from the Macedonian forces to be pulled out from Lipkovo. Markovski said that the journalists will be pulled out from there and that it remains unclear how they entered the village. (“VEST”)

THE NEW COALITION IS FORMED TOMORROW, WITH OR WITHOUT PDP
The new coalition government may be formed tomorrow, regardless or the participation or non- participation of the Party for Democratic Prosperity. This is agreed by all coalition partners and is supported by the international community. The Prime Minister, Ljubcho Georgievski, announced for today a meeting with the political leaders on which all problematic issues are to be discussed. If possible, already tomorrow the Macedonian Parliament will hold the formal event of choosing of the new government. The PDP announced that it will present their definite standpoint on the participation in the coalition. They remain categorical with their request to get guarantees for change of the Macedonian Constitution and the stop of the military actions before they give their approval. The leaders of the PDP had contacts with foreign ambassadors in Macedonia and asked them to guarantee them change of the Constitution, the same guarantees are asked from the SDSM (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia). In the SDSM, they say that they have no intention to give any guarantees beforehand that the Constitution will be changed, but that they are only willing to discuss the problematic issues. (“DNEVNIK”)

THE TV NETWORK “TELMA” CONTACTED THE CAPTURED MACEDONIAN ARMY SOLDIER, GORAN MITROVSKI
The captured Macedonian Army Soldier (23 years old), from Pehchevo, who is in Kosovo for two weeks already in the hands of the terrorists, is alive and well. This was announced on the TV network “Telma”, the day before yesterday, live by phone by the Captured soldier Mitrovski personally. Asked how he is being treated by the kidnappers and if he is tortured, Mitrovski said that they feed him regularly, give him water and all other necessities, and that they treat him quite well. (“VEST”)
IS THERE A SECRET AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NEGOTIATORS OF THE GRAND COALITION AND JAVIER SOLANA TO WHOM THE PDP CALL UPON?
The TV Network “Channel 5” from Skopje, in the second edition of the news, showed a document allegedly signed by the negotiators of the grand coalition and Javier Solana. According to their information, there are 8 requests in the document: ceasefire, while the security forces will keep their positions and will not progress; giving the NLA members 48 hours to leave Macedonia and to surrender their arms to the KFOR and not to be arrested, unless they are charged in Kosovo. Then, with the mediation of international representatives, 72 hours after the retreat of the NLA, the Internal Affairs Ministry should enter the villages which the terrorists will leave and they should be restrained in this action, the Macedonian Army will enter the terrain 10 days after the retreat, but accompanied by international monitors. The international community should announce their support of an intensified political dialogue publicly, which is agreed by the 4 political parties that support the participation in the grand coalition. There is a request for amnesty regarding reforms that will be conducted in three phases after which the NLA stops with all kind of future use of threat and military force. “The presented requests, on which the PDP calls upon are not true. In bilateral negotiations with Mr. Javier Solana, we agreed on the forming of a grand coalition that will be the base for stabilizing of the situation in Macedonia, without any preset conditions, says the general secretary of the SDSM, Gjorgji Spasov. (“VECHER”)

MESSAGE FROM THE MACEDONIAN JOURNALISTS – POLITICIANS, COME TO YOUR SENSES FINALLY
“It seems as if you have forgotten that Macedonia is at a verge of an abyss. With completely unexplainable relaxation and ease, you are spending the little time left to get out of this chaos. The functioning of your grand coalition hesitates. In the meantime, the paramilitary army is intensified, the regions out of state control are spreading, and the international public is losing interest for the occurrences in our country. We, the Macedonian journalists, are reminding you that while you continue with your fights for ministerial and directorial positions, soldiers and policemen are meaninglessly losing lives on the battlefield with the paramilitary formations, awaiting your political decisions. Politicians, come to your senses finally! With each passing day, we are getting closer to our doom. Is that your political platform? It is true that Macedonia is all we have, but it is also true that we are losing it because of you”, it is said in the joint message sent by the journalists from the medias “A1 TV”, “Sitel”, “ZUM”, “Channel 5”, “Makedonija Denes”, “Denes”, “Dnevnik”, “Vest”, “Kanal 77”, “Young Journalists’ Forum”, “Sky Net TV”.

THE CLAIM OF A WESTERN DIPLOMAT IN SKOPJE
A western diplomat, yesterday in Skopje gave a statement for Reuters that Great Britain and the USA are trying to convince the PDP to give up the requests for changing the Constitution as a condition to join the grand coalition. In the talks, as stated by the anonymous diplomat, “it seems that ceasefire will be agreed”, which is one of the main requests made by the PDP. “We are pressuring the PDP to enter the coalition. We are trying to convince the PDP to stop insisting terrorist representatives to join the Government”, stated the diplomat. (“VEST”)

b) DAILY BRIEFING FROM INTERNATIONAL PRESS ABOUT MACEDONIAN CRISIS

MACEDONIA CAUGHT IN MILITARY AND POLITICAL STALEMATE
In addition to its call for a total halt to shelling, the PDP wants the withdrawal of all fighters and a phased return of police to the conflict zone under foreign monitoring. It also backs the “National Liberation Army” rebels' demands to join the coalition - a non-starter with the government. Britain said it was worried by the delay. “Every passing day increases the risk of deepening divisions between Macedonia's different ethnic communities,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. (Reuters) Ethnic Albanian guerrillas say they have not retreated an inch despite heavy army bombardment of villages they hold. The army has not yet moved forward, partly, it says, because civilians cannot or will not leave the battle area. Government sources said a quiet deal with the PDP would give "National Liberation Army" (NLA) fighters 72 hours to pull out. But Macedonian presidential adviser Nikola Dimitrov said there could be no unilateral ceasefire with "terrorists. "If the PDP's ceasefire condition envisages a stop in defending the country, it would be unacceptable," he said. The government fears the rebels will simply create another flashpoint somewhere else, claiming that Albanians are being offered empty promises. (Reuters) But Georgievski said the army guns, which were silent Thursday apart from occasional shellfire, could not stay out of action for long. "We have the generals' recommendations not to cease fire for a long period of time because it would only be abused by the rebels to regroup and bring in more weapons." A western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the PDP's tactic was thought to be a means of raising the stakes, gaining publicity and securing better ministerial posts in an eventual coalition. He admitted that officials had been caught off guard by the party's change of tack after the coalition had been announced Tuesday, but predicted the party would fall into line after winning short-term political capital. (AFP) The party, however, says it will only join the government if the army declares a unilateral ceasefire. Mr. Georgievski says a truce is out of the question. (VOA) “There will be no long- lasting cease-fire except for the daily five- hour break we give civilians to enable them to leave the villages,” he told a news conference. (Reuters)

PDP IS DELAYING THE DECISION
PDP Deputy Chairman Abdylhadi Veseli said he hoped to find a solution to break the deadlock in a crisis. “We want to rule responsibly with the coalition,” he said. Hashim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader in Kosovo but now head of the main ethnic Albanian party in the United Nations run Yugoslav province, urged PDP to do just that. “We all understand that the (PDP's) boycott of this process does not help in solving the problems,” Thaci said. Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said a new government would be formed on Saturday regardless of who signs up. “The PDP will be asked for the last time: 'Are they ready?'” NLA Commander Sokoli said the PDP's maneuvering would not end the insurgency that the shelling has sought to crush. “All they're interested in is being co-opted into the political process to try and feather their nests,” he said. (Reuters) PDP spokesman Bektesi said the PDP believes that joining the coalition would be counterproductive without an end of military operations. “The international community should help in creating conditions for an end of military operations,” he added before the planned PDP meeting started. (AP) “We are waiting today for a confirmation of our demands, which have to be guaranteed by international institutions and Macedonian authorities,” said the party's vice-president, Aziz Pollozhani. (Toronto Star)

ROBERTSON: THE NATION’S SURVIVAL IS AT STAKE
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson reiterated on Thursday his plea that political leaders in Macedonia find a way of creating a united government. "When the nation's very survival is at stake, there is no room for playing politics," Robertson told a news conference in Madrid "All political leaders who care for the future of the people of Macedonia should unite, stand together and face the future as a united country," he added. NATO has provided military advice to Macedonia while its peacekeeping troops in Kosovo attempt to seal the border to infiltrators. (CNN) In a statement issued Thursday by Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, the European Union said Macedonia's leadership had been talking about a unity government for more than a month “without any progress being made.” “I would urge the leadership of the PDP to take their responsibility for the stability of the country and join the coalition,” Lindh said, referring to the ethnic Albanian party. (AP)

MACEDONIA'S SURVIVAL AT STAKE
Mr. Sakolski said Macedonia is more threatened now than at any time in its ten years as an independent state. As United Nations assistant secretary general, Mr. Sakolski was in charge of the U.N. Preventive Deployment Force [UNPREDEP], whose several hundred military personnel patrolled the tense Macedonia-Kosovo border between 1993 and 1999. "I strongly believe that it helped the country survive in the more than six years it was placed there," said Mr. Sakolski. Speaking at Washington's U.S. Institute of Peace where he is a senior fellow, Mr. Sokolski is convinced that if the force were still in place Macedonia would not be facing the possibility of civil war between its Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minority. The force was disbanded because of a Chinese veto in the Security Council after the Macedonian government extended diplomatic recognition to Taiwan in 1999. "It was, said Mr. Sakolski, disbanded at the time it was needed most." The Polish diplomat strongly advocates the creation of a Macedonian government of national unity and a social compact to draw the country closer together: "First of all we should get rid of the problem by really negotiating what I call a pact for Macedonia. And a social contract between all the political forces in the country," said Mr. Sakolski. Mr. Sakolski blames outsiders from Kosovo for instigating the ethnic Albanian insurgency that he believes could tear the country apart. He calls for closer ties between Macedonia's armed forces and Nato and increased foreign assistance. (VOA)

FEARS GROW FOR MACEDONIA REFUGEES
The United Nations fears a humanitarian crisis may erupt in Macedonia as tens of thousands of civilians get caught in the nation's conflict zone. Hordes of frightened villagers are continuing to stream from the villages about 30 km (20 miles) north of the capital, Skopje, into neighboring Kosovo. CNN's Chris Burns said tens of thousands of others appear unable or unwilling to leave the area, despite government appeals. The army claims the rebels are forcing civilians to stay as human shields-charges they deny. "There are 30,000 civilians in this area. How could we possibly keep them hostage against their will?" one rebel commander, Commander Sokoli told Reuters. CNN

SOKOLI: MACEDONIAN FORCES USE RUSSIAN TACTICS
Meanwhile, ethnic Albanian rebel leaders accused Macedonian forces on Thursday of systematically destroying remote villages to drive Albanians out. "That's what they're aiming for. They're using the scorched earth tactics the Russians did in Afghanistan," said Commander Sokoli of the National Liberation Army (UCK). "In Slupcane there, they're shelling the houses, not our positions. We're in front of the village and above it but not in it. But that's doesn't matter to them," he said. The NLA insists a solution is possible. "This can all be solved by a ball-point pen and an agreement to sign," said one rebel. "Sooner or later we will be sitting at the negotiating table, you'll see. Until then, we won't be moving." CNN

DANGEROUS STALEMATE IN MACEDONIA
The situation of Albanians in Macedonia may not be ideal: there are certainly instances of occasional discrimination. Few Albanians are civil servants or officers in the army or police. But then, traditionally, Albanians have not been greatly interested in such careers, preferring their own closely-knit trade networks to provide a means of subsistence. Under Prime Minister Georgievski, conditions for Albanians have been improving, rather than deteriorating; and in any case, their plight has never been comparable to that of the Kosovo Albanians, oppressed under Slobodan Milosevic. What poisons every attempt at resolving the current crisis in Macedonia is the thought that the March rebellion in the hills over Tetovo (later that month crushed by the army) and the May upsurge northeast of Skopje were if not initiated, then at least actively stimulated by former ethnic Albanian guerrilla fighters from Kosovo. People who, when they saw no future for themselves in the UN-administered province, decided to export their revolution to neighboring Macedonia. Even though it wasn’t really what most Albanians in Macedonia were waiting for most urgently.(Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep)

MACEDONIA, SERBIA TO WORK TOGETHER
Macedonian and Serbian leaders pledged to work together to fight ethnic Albanian rebels on both sides of the border with Kosovo, as the army pressed its assault Thursday against the insurgents in northern villages. The Macedonian government and Western observers have linked the rebels in Macedonia with members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army. Djindjic accused the rebels of serving under a joint command.
“The terrorists are well-coordinated,” he said. “That means that we have to cooperate at least just as closely and coordinate our actions.”
Georgievski agreed, calling for “coordination” between Macedonia and Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, by exchanging information that could lead to the “stifling of terrorism.” They did not elaborate or indicate whether they were considering any joint military action - a step that would anger other Balkan nations. (AP)

META AND XHAFERI: PEACEFUL AND POLITICAL SOLUTION OF THE CRISIS
Prime Minister Ilir Meta Wednesday asked a key ethnic Albanian leader in Macedonia to help bring an end to the violence there and form a grand coalition government. Meta and Arben Xhaferi, meeting in the Albanian town of Pogradec, agreed that the ongoing clashes between ethnic Albanian guerillas and Macedonian soldiers was detrimental to Macedonia's long- term stability and ethnic Albanian demands for equal rights. "A further radicalization of the situation in Macedonia does not serve Albanians or Macedonians," said a statement issued by Meta's office. Both agreed on the need to stop the fighting and begin reforms to solve the crises with peaceful and political means. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and the president of European Commission, Romano Prodi, met the Albanian prime minister in Brussels, Belgium, early this week and asked Meta to use his influence to ease the tension in Macedonia. Last week, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell also met with Meta, asking him to play a part in ending the violence in Macedonia, as well as Kosovo. (United Press International)

44 SUSPECTED TERRORIST FREED ON PROCEDURAL ERROR
On Thursday, Kosovo's high court released 44 ethnic Albanians who had been arrested by German peacekeeping troops along the border in March on suspicion of involvement in the fighting in Macedonia. UN spokeswoman Susan Manuel said the suspects were freed because of a procedural error during their detention. She did not elaborate. (The Canadian Press)

c) SUPPLEMENT 1 : “ TERROR AND ROSES IN GROUND ZERO VILLAGE ”  NICK WOOD DESCRIBES HOW HE AND PHOTOGRAPHER ANDREW TESTA WERE CAUGHT IN MACEDONIAN ARMY TANK FIRE   We set out shortly before 6am. The ceasefire announced by the Macedonian government was due to end in four hours' time. On the road to Slupcane, ground zero of the government's battle with the ethnic Albanian guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, two small groups of people were walking along the road, holding bags between them and heading west. The approach to the village looked much the same as the last time we had gone down the road on Sunday. There were a few more mortar craters in the road, but the dead cow I had seen lying bloated, face upwards in a field, was now being picked at by crows. We were granted permission to see the village by a rebel commander who insisted that a "press officer", a gaunt man in a puffa jacket and dark trousers, go with us. He did not appear to be armed. First stop was a series of houses at the southern end of the village. We drove in the BBC's armoured car, a large white Land Rover marked in six places with the letters "TV", which was supposed to afford protection against machine-gun fire.  Our press officer directed our attention to the houses at the edge of the village. All had gaping holes in them. A telegraph wire lay across the road. As Andrew Testa, the Guardian photographer, went ahead with our translator, Artan, I turned the Land Rover around so that we faced back toward the centre of the village.  I caught up with them near a line of sandbags and a bunker. "Keep in," Andrew said, adding that Macedonian army positions were down the road. Before I had time to think about it, the crack of machine-gun fire opened up around us. I ran to the right and fell into a trench running along a wall, and then a few seconds later into the bunker itself. Half a dozen guerrilla fighters followed suit. A loud bang followed.  "They blown up your car," Artan said as rebels shouted down to us. The terror of what was happening was just beginning to sink in. The Macedonian army had broken its own ceasefire. The idea that journalists could safely wander in and out of the rebel-held area had literally been blown away. We set about making frantic phone calls to government spokesmen and other contacts. The only place with a signal was just outside the entrance to the bunker, in a shallow trench. Andrew and I took it in turn to call. "I'll do everything I can, but its not my area, it's the army's," said a despairing ministry of interior official.  This wasn't getting us anywhere. I returned to the dugout. Foam mattresses had been laid out on the floor and covered in blankets. Opposite me a gunman clicked worry beads and sang. Eventually the Red Cros s spokesman, François Stam, called: "I've just spoken to the president's chef de cabinet. He says the army's ceasefire is still holding." A tank shell slammed into a building behind us, quickly dispelling that idea. "Are you sure you know where the shooti ng is coming from?" the voice on the other end of the mobile asked.  "Don't worry Nick, everything's going to be alright," Artan said as I jogged my knee with increasing intensity. So long as the Macedonian army stuck to heavy machine gun and tank fire he was right. Mortars and artillery shells however could pierce the earthworks piled on to the wooden roof above our heads.  We were with six guerrillas, including an 18-year-old woman who had fought with the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army two years ago. She went out during the shelling and came back with a bunch of roses, removed the thorns and handed me one. After two hours the shooting had died down to intermittent cannon fire. By now the Red Cross, senior ministry of defence and interior ministry officials were pulling out all the stops. I was eventually given the number of the local army captain. We could leave but there was one problem. Which way did we want to go? By 9am, my hopes of getting out were fading. We had one hour until the government was due to relaunch its bombardment. More phone calls were made, and half an hour later we had the signal to leave. We were to make a white flag, and walk about a third of a mile towards the army's checkpoint. Andrew made quick work of a whitish woolly carpet lying beneath us. Artan was too afraid to leave with us and said he would try to get out with the rebels, via a back road.  I waved the flag over the sandbags for a few seconds and emerged on to the road, with hands raised. It was only now we could see how near we were to the army's lines. Ten minutes later, we walked up to a line of tanks and an armoured personnel carrier, waving as we got closer. While we were being searched, a soldier asked. "Whose white van was that?" "Ours", I said, pointing at my chest.  "Oh, sorry," he replied. An hour later the shelling resumed.
(The Guardian)


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