These events in Macedonia dominated the May 29–30 meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Budapest. The meeting of the U.S.-led imperialist military alliance came as the government in the Macedonian capital of Skopje used helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, tanks, and ground troops against areas currently held by the National Liberation Army (NLA).

The NLA is demanding a change in the country’s constitution to acknowledge Albanians as a distinct national minority, to recognize Albanian language rights, and to address discrimination faced by the Albanians, who constitute one-third of the country’s population. Their demands for national equality are proving an increasingly explosive element in Macedonian politics, as in the wider territory of Yugoslavia.

A few days earlier Albanian parties that are part of a new and shaky coalition government announced an agreement in which the rebels would lay down their weapons in exchange for an amnesty and steps to address their demands. "Under the draft accord," reported the New York Times, "the rebels would agree to disarm and disband in return for amnesty and the freeing of political prisoners." The document also reportedly granted the rebels a say in political decisions on Albanian rights.

The government, military, and police is dominated by so-called "Slavic" parties. Formed hastily in mid-May as a "government of national unity" in an attempt to deflect the support for the rebels’ demands, the coalition is headed by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski’s Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity.

In response to the agreement, NATO secretary general Lord Robertson said, referring to the rebels, "Those who have taken up arms have no place at the negotiating table." Others expressed worries over the possibility the fighting might spread. "The territorial integrity of Macedonia is the decisive element for peace and stability in the entire region," said German foreign minister Joschka Fischer. Germany has troops deployed in Macedonia as part of NATO’s "peacekeeping" forces.

NATO has to remain "very engaged" in the situation, France’s foreign minister Hubert Vedrine added. "We do not want extremists to challenge all the work over the past few years."

"Extremists" is the term used by capitalist politicians, many in the Macedonian government, and the capitalist media for the NLA forces and their demands.

"Critics angrily charged that by signing the statement, the politicians had given legitimacy to the rebels and their political leader, Ali Ahmeti," wrote David Holley in the Los Angeles Times.

Leaders of the Democratic Party for Albanians and the Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity initially defied President Boris Trajkovski’s order to repudiate the deal. NATO then dispatched Javier Solana, the foreign policy and defense minister of the European Union, from the Budapest meeting, who shuttled back and forth to Skopje for 24 hours until the Albanian politicians signed a declaration by Trajkovski that the agreement was "no longer relevant."

"What [the guerrillas] have to do is lay down their weapons and get themselves incorporated into the political system. Those who don’t want to do that will have to be prosecuted," said Solana on May 30. The same day, foreign ministers from the member countries of NATO agreed to "strongly condemn" the Albanian guerrillas.

Macedonian prime minister Georgieviski said several days later that the coalition government was "barely functioning. We can’t get on with any serious work because of daily squabbles."  
 
Encountering resistance
The Macedonian army and police are encountering stiff resistance in their month-long drive against Albanian rebel forces in the north of the country. The toll extracted by the offensive in dead, wounded, and displaced people of the region is growing.

The fighting is taking place in and around a number of villages in the hilly, farming terrain between Skopje, the capital, and the territory’s border with Kosova.

"We will advance step by step until we restore order to these villages," said Interior Minister Ljuben Boskoski on May 26. He spoke during a tour of Vaksince, which had been reduced to "a virtual ghost town of bullet-riddled houses and streets littered with spent shells," by a successful effort to drive the rebels out, according to the Associated Press. In Slupcane, Matejce, Orizare, and many other villages, however, the rebels have countered the bombardment with mortar, sniper, and machine-gun fire.

"Reports that circulated on Friday [May 25] suggested that as many as 60 civilians had been killed in fighting," continued the AP article. The Macedonian police have admitted to "dozens" of deaths, but have insisted that all have been rebels--including those who died in civilian clothing.

Thousands of people are continuing to flee the bombardment to other parts of Macedonia, as well as to nearby Kosova and the Presevo Valley in Serbia.

Tens of thousands of refugees have been created since the conflict escalated early this year. Some 8,000 who have fled to the rebel-controlled town of Lipkovo 15 miles north of Skopje face increasingly "desperate" shortages of food and water, according to the Red Cross.

Local ethnic Albanian community leaders told Reuters that many hesitate to leave for fear of exposing themselves to "mistreatment by Macedonian security forces." The mayor of Lipkovo, Husamedin Halili, told reporters that a government offer to hold fire to allow for the village’s evacuation had been turned down because the regime "did not give assurances that men will not be separated from the women and beaten at the police station."

Refugees from Runica told researchers for Human Rights Watch of the brutal treatment they received at the hands of the security forces in a May 21 assault. After unleashing a barrage of mortars, tank shells, and helicopter fire, they reported, the government forces stormed the hamlet. They seized and "beat all members of [one] family, and twice doused the 31-year-old son with gasoline and threatened to set him on fire," according to the organization’s report.

"From the morning hours until 11:30 a.m., they never stopped beating us," said the mother of the family. The report noted that "all of the villagers interviewed separately vehemently claimed that the Albanian insurgency...had never been present in the village." The security forces burned the entire village of around 50 houses to the ground, including the mosque and school.

Refugees from other villages spoke of being too afraid to leave their bunkers in spite of their lack of food and water. "They faulted the government for the bombardment and Slavic and Albanian parties in the government for failing to find an understanding," reported Carlotta Gall in the May 26 New York Times.

"The strongest one is more to blame," said 50-year-old Hasan Isufu in reference to Georgievski’s party. His family, all shepherds, watched the shelling take two of their houses and many of their livestock.

By June 4, after clashes erupted on the outskirts of Tetovo, Macedonia’s second largest city, NATO spokesperson Roy Brown said the imperialist military alliance "will further reinforce the border region with highly mobile troops to support the more static units and interdict logistics for the armed extremists."

The BBC reported June 4 that the Yugoslav government in Belgrade "signed an agreement pledging military support for Macedonia’s efforts to crush ethnic Albanian rebels."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home