Macedonia
in Crisis
SUMMARY
By
The British
Helsinki Human Rights Group, BHHG
For more information, call 01865-439483; or
contactMark Almond (07885-625415) or John Laughland
(02087419749).
SUMMARY
Anti -Western Feeling -
no surprise
This Group's observers detected unprecedented
hostility towards Westerners on the part of ordinary
ethnic Macedonians during their mission to Macedonia
before 20th June and so they were not surprised when the
angry crowds which stormed theMacedonian parliament in
Skopje on the night of June 25th after agroup of Albanian
rebels had been escorted to freedom by Nato troops
earlier in the day also vented their frustrationon
Western journalists.
The four month crisis in Macedonia provoked by an
Albanian guerrilla insurgency has led to repeated calls
in the West for the EU and Nato to act as "honest
brokers," yet the widespread perception among Macedonians
that the insurrection has been facilitatedat best by the
failure of Western troops to interdict weapons smuggling
across the Kosovo-Macedonia border and at worst that
collusion between the Albanian guerrillas and Nato's Kfor
contingent provoked the violence means that any
Nato"peacekeepers" could face a "rough ride" rather than
a friendly reception.
West humiliated Macedonia by escorting armed
guerrillas back to base. Whatever the sources of the
conflict and however ill-advised the Macedonian security
forces' response to it since 21st June, by escorting
armed guerrillas to safety from their Aracinovo base,
US-Kfor troops humiliated Macedonia and spurred the
bitter resentment among ethnic Macedonians against
what they see as the abuse of their small and fragile
country by the great powers of the West who use it as a
logistical base and rest-and-recreation area with scant
regardfor its majority population.
Western intervention and
mediation has made matters worse
EU and Nato leaders have flip-flopped on the
Macedonian crisis since it started in March. Having
condemned Albanian guerrillas in the strongest terms
then, now the same leaders denounce the Macedonian
security forces with equal intensity. Western meddling
has kept the conflict simmering instead of encouraging
clear resolution. Now it may be about to explode.
If that happens, it is doubtful if it will remain a
two-way conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels based in
the hills that separate the country from neighbouring
Kosovo and the Macedonian army. Leaving aside the
potential horrors of an inter-ethnic civil war, it would
be naïve to think that Nato could intervene as an
honest broker without facing resistance.
Macedonia is not Serbia, the Kosovo model will
notwork. Unlike Serbia which had faced a decade of
sanctions and propaganda warfare for Belgrade's alleged
complicity in the Croatian and Bosnian Wars, and was
bombed by Nato for its refusal to countenance self-rule
for Albanian-majority Kosovo, the suddenness of the
crisis and the West's hostility has come as a great shock
to Slav Macedonians. Their majority bitterly resents
EU/Nato pressure to concede the de facto partition of
their country and the abrogation of the norms of
constitutional democracy in favour of a Lebanese style
ethnic constitution.
Given the widespread perception that the international
community in the form of the US, EU and Nato actually
caused the violence in order to plunge the country into
ungovernability and provide a pretext for setting up an
international protectorate on the lines of Bosnia and
Kosovo, the fact that the EU has appointed a 'resident'
envoy to the country can only compound Macedonian
suspicions. A Nato-run protectorate may not be easily or
peacefully installed.
Internal or external
causes?
Although isolated incidents of racial tension between
Macedonians and Albanians have taken place since the
country's independence in 1991 Macedonia has been praised
for its inclusive constitution and harmonious ethnic
relations. Ethnic Albanians are part of the governing
coalition in parliament. Only well-organized (and
ill-intentioned) interference could have damaged the
status quo. Many Macedonians believe that this
interference comes from neighbouring Kosovo where
c.38,000 Nato troops arebased.
Why should the West want to take over the running of a
small, poor country like Macedonia with few natural
resources? The answer is strategic. The country lies on
the route to be taken by oil pipelines set to run from
the Black Sea coast in the east to Albania's Adriatic
coast. Control of the pipeline is regarded as essential
to the West's long-term energy plans.
BHHRG representatives recently visited Macedonia. They
went to Tetovo in the West of the country, to the
outskirts of then rebel-occupied village of Aracinovo and
nearby Kumanovo which has been without water for several
weeks. Other members of the group travelled to Bitola to
investigate the recent wave of violence against the small
Albanian community in the town. They talked to
politicians, police and journalists and to ordinary
citizens - both Macedonian and Albanian - wherever they
went.
This Group has chronicled election fraud as the
internal root of crisis. The Group has published several
reports since 1994 on Macedonia dealing with general
human rights issues as well as conducting several
election observation missions. They detailed the
derailment of democracy by the post-1998 coalition
between the ostensibly Macedonian nationalist party,
VMRO, and the equally Albanian nationalist DPA.
While Western-dominated institutions like the OSCE
blandly endorsed rigged elections based on the
manipulation of the ethnic Albanian vote in particular,
this Group feared the long-term consequences for
Macedonian-Albanian relations of basing power on votes
provided in rigged circumstances primarily by one ethnic
group. This has left President Trajkovski's government
with little democratic legitimacy. It is with great
sadness that the conclusions reached in this, its latest
report, should be so pessimistic.
Western collusion with electoral fraud has been
compounded by Kfor's collusive approach to policing the
Kosovo-Macedonia frontier. This means that the recent
tragic events in the country are not the fault of the
majority of its citizens, both Macedonian and Albanian,
who have found themselves since March the latest pawns in
yet another Balkan power-play decided by forces out of
their control.
Full
report available at from 27th June,2001-06-26
The British Helsinki HumanRights Group's reports do
not express corporate opinions but is grateful to the
authors of its reports for their research and
conclusions.
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