(Ab)Use of the Displaced

It is increasingly difficult to enter or to leave Macedonia. It took the public almost three weeks to figure out that somebody was abusing the misery and misfortune of displaced Macedonians from the crisis stricken regions for selfish political objectives

AIM Skoplje, September 5, 2001

The Government coordination committee for overcoming the crisis is zealously registering the number of displaced inhabitants of the crisis stricken regions - around Kumanovo and Tetovo - which has exceeded 70 thousand in the first days of September. They are mostly ethnic Macedonians from the villages where military operations took place in the past six months. They claim that they were banished by members of the National Liberation Army (NLA); their statement was whole-heartedly accepted by local media in Macedonia, international humanitarian organisations at first shyly avoided giving their own qualifications but gradually sided with the prevailing stand. From its side of the trenches, the leadership of National Liberation Army not only denied that it was engaged in the banishment of ethnic Macedonians, but on the contrary: in interviews which are receiving increasing attention in local media (that was unthinkable in the beginning of the crisis), leaders of NLA appeal on the displaced inhabitants to return home.

Statistical data on the number of the displaced, apart from international humanitarian workers and government services in charge of providing for them, is obviously interesting for politicians. Mostly, one should say, those that political analysts tend to call "obscure".

Macedonian World Congress, non-governmental organisation with a high-sounding name but a hollow content and a significant stronghold in the diaspora, called the displaced citizens of Tetovo and Kumanovo to move from in front of the building of Macedonian Assembly to the road towards Blace border crossing leading to Kosovo. The call arrived at the very moment when NATO set out, partly from Greece and partly from Kosovo, to begin the operation of collecting voluntarily submitted arms of the National Liberation Army. The appeal was welcomed because the enthusiasm of the displaced gathered in front of the “temple of Macedonian democracy” – the Assembly - who were pleading in vain to be enabled to return home, to help free their fellow citizens, to have their ruined homes reconstructed was dying down. Their misery had once already been abused when a hundred odd bullies from Skoplje (the police has never stated any more detailed information) in their name demolished Western embassies and shops owned by ethnic Albanians in the capital on several occasions.

With such bitter experience, the displaced set out towards Blace... To the same place from where the pictures of sad columns of the Albanians and Roma after them traveled around the world exactly two years ago, at the time of the Kosovo crisis.

And that is how they appeared at the road which is the lifeline for KFOR in Kosovo, they put up barricades which prevented movement of powerful vehicles of an even more powerful military machinery. On the screens of TV sets of the Westerners, in the midst of idle summer vacations, desperate faces appeared all over again of women angry with the whole world who in highly pitched voices cried out in the name of their children... the children who nobody asked whether they wish to seek justice in the sun that makes the head swirl. Some prominent artists even organised a performance hoping perhaps to give their contribution to the "national cause". TV cameras zoomed the slogans bearing the new interpretations of the abbreviation of the most powerful military alliance on the planet: Nazism-Aggression-Terrorism-Occupation or New Albanian Terrorist Organisation.

The officials of the alliance at first helplessly shrugged their shoulders, but as the time went by, they became impatient. They warned Macedonian authorities that "The Harvest" operation could not be carried out as planned if the key roads were blocked. Besides, the Americans in Bondsteel (in Kosovo) were frustrated because they had run out of ice-cream!

As if that was exactly the sign they were waiting for, the advocates of the "log-revolution" set up new barricades: one at the foot of Tetovo fortress called Kale aimed at preventing the withdrawal of heavy armament of security forces agreed with NATO. Last week barricades were set up at Tabanovci border crossing towards Serbia, and it was announced that another will be set up on the railroad between Athens and Belgrade via Skoplje, and the border crossings towards Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. President of the World Macedonian Congress Todor Petrov could be satisfied: his election campaign was going better than he could have hoped for! He is keen on winning a vacated seat in the parliament just three months before the already scheduled early parliamentary elections...

And this is where a new personality steps on the scene: Petrov's colleague in (un)successful convincing the public in his political brilliance, Straso Angelovski, leader of MAAK - United Macedonian Option (ungrateful citizens have not even noticed the historical moment when its previous name was changed from MAAK-Conservative) who announced that he would prevent the work of the Assembly which is expected to pass Constitutional amendments according to Ohrid agreement of four leaders which give greater rights to ethnic Albanians. And then – a call to the citizens of Tetovo again to gather in front of the assembly building!

Last Friday when deputies should have gathered in order to begin the process of ratification of the Ohrid agreement, all the entrances to the Assembly building downtown Skoplje were blocked. World news agencies could do nothing but report that the session was postponed. And just as everybody started to believe that the "people" have prevailed, it occurred to somebody that the deputies could reach the conference hall through a "back-door" escorted by a police cordon. Literally in complete conspiracy, they listened to the introductory speech of Boris Trajkovki, President of the Republic, and the debate got well under way when night fell and after a day full of excitement the deputies did not have the strength to continue the debate. The next morning, chairman of the Assembly Stojan Andov postponed the session with the pretext that return to Skoplje of a humanitarian convoy with displaced inhabitants was prevented by a blockade set up by NLA on the road between Tetovo and Jazince. Besides, he set up two or three conditions in order to continue the session of the Assembly that simply could not be met. In the meantime the blockade in front of the building of the Assembly disappeared.

Perhaps an important detail for this story is that that same evening Minister of defence Vlado Buckovski said that the blockade was lifted after negotiations with civilians (not members of NLA!) in the village of Poroj. Buckovski accused Andov of obstruction and he was joined in the accusations, through clenched teeth, by international envoys Pardew and Leotard. Andov resisted for a while longer, but then gave in. But that is a different story!

Approximately at the same time, during weekend, rumours started about an open split among organisers of blockades; their leaders kept accusing each other of abuse. The public which is fed up of blockades learnt that "the most inventive ones" made a business of the barricade: newspapers determined that they charged up to 5000 German marks for undisturbed passage of a vehicle. Thanks to mutual accusations, in the past few days blockades occasionally appear and then disappear in Blace and Tabanovci. And nobody knows when this ill end.

However, another dimension is becoming visible: like in a bad puppet show, the public saw the strings someone behind the scene was moving the puppets with. In Tuesday issues of newspapers Mane Jakovlevski, one of the powerful man in Prime Minister Georgijevski's VMRO-DPMNE abroad confirmed that last week he had "financially and morally" assisted Petrov! Those well-informed have sensed something like that for a long time.

Obviously, an old play practiced many times before in the Balkan in the past ten years is drawing to an end. Unfortunate citizens of Tetovo will probably set up some new barricades, Todor Petrov will run in the elections on Sunday. Straso is happy because he was able to prove to his relatives and friends that "the elephant and mouse are making a difference together". The "big players" will calmly analyse whether they have succeeded in making history take a roundabout way at least for a moment.

ZELJKO BAJIC

(AIM)