Peace in Macedonia: While Soldiers Build, Civilians Destroy

In the first three days of Operation Essential Harvest NATO collected one-third of the weapons, as planned. President Boris Trajkovski is not expected to find an excuse enabling him to avoiding informing Parliament Speaker Stojan Andov of this, in order to postpone a debate on constitutional changes in accordance with a peace agreement. Certain MPs, however, mostly from the VMRO-DPMNE, have announced they will not comply and plan to vote against the changes their party leader Ljubco Georgijevski committed himself to on the party's behalf. Meanwhile, Todor Petrov is practicing blockades, Skopje is being shaken by explosions, and in addition to soldiers, major Western diplomats keep arriving at Petrovec Airport

AIM Skopje, August 30, 2001

Not heeding discussions as to whether the quantity of the weapons it is supposed to collect from the National Liberation Army (NLA) realistic or not, or whether the weapons should be in a museum or are similar to those used by the Macedonian army, NATO believes that during the three days of Operation Essential Harvest it has collected about one-third of the planned quantity. It believes it has kept its part of the bargain, and that it will continue its operation only after the Macedonian Parliament verifies its commitments and makes good on one-third of its pledges. Parliament is supposed to initiate constitutional and other changes envisaged by the Ohrid agreement, signed by four major parliamentary parties and brokered by President Boris Trajkovski and foreign mediators Francois Leotard and James Pardew.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson arrived in Skopje to see for himself how the operation was proceeding, but also to exert pressure on some of Macedonia's leaders (Prime Minister Georgijevski and Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski) who appear to be having second thoughts about what Parliament is supposed to do. Robertson has said that "some weapons might be obsolete, but are equally capable of killing as new weapons," and that for him it was more important "that those who have promised to lay down their arms are doing so," and that he himself had seen very modern and powerful weapons that the NLA had handed over to NATO.

In other words, he also believes Parliament should keep its end of the bargain. No one expects President Boris Trajkovski to come up with an excuse to not inform Parliament Speaker Stojan Andov of these events, which would delay the start of a debate in Parliament, since one-third of the weapons have been collected.

The same day French Defense Minister Alain Richard arrived at Skopje airport shortly before Robinson, and on Aug. 30, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was also expected to arrive. Richard visited French soldiers and matter-of-factly and rather tactlessly told the Macedonian public that anybody who attempted to ignore the agreement would be in for hard times. The British foreign secretary, on the other hand, was due to arrive on a postponed visit to Skopje, but his coming had much more to do with the new NATO mission in the Balkans. On one hand, some 2,000 British troops account for almost one-half of the soldiers needed to "harvest" the rebel weapons, and on the other because the first victim of the mission was a British soldier, Ian Collins. Straw will certainly express his displeasure over speculation that Collins did not die because his vehicle, pelted with stones, flipped over and killed him, and questions police raised about the nature of the incident because they were not present at the investigation.

Robert Badinter also arrived in the Macedonian capital. At the invitation of Stojan Andov he is to explain to parliamentary groups what he thinks of the agreement and the expected changes to the constitution. This was due to the fact that, during negotiations in Ohrid, many said a paper drafted by Badinter, that was to serve as the basis for the talks, was not taken into consideration.

Badinter's first response was a "No!" to questions asking whether the agreement was an ideal document and whether there was any such thing as an ideal document. Explaining the latter "No!" he said that political agreements today are by definition compromises, and that as such they do not please any side, because a compromise cannot meet all the requests of any of the sides involved. The French constitutional law expert said he was optimistic that an overwhelming majority of Macedonian MPs would vote for the changes. He probably disappointed everybody who expected him to be reserved about the agreement, more so because he stressed something quite unexpected. He said that anybody who voted against the changes had only one alternative -- war, and that if they do so, "many will, not surprisingly, question the maturity of your politicians." When the leaders of four major parties placed their signatures on the Ohrid agreement, and even before when they were forced to form a national unity government, and all sorts of coalitions, they did so under the conviction that they had a comfortable majority to pass the required constitutional amendments. Even today it is so, but only on paper. Their parties control 96 seats, 16 more than the required minimum of 80. Political analysts have said that up to 10 percent of the MPs could vote against the will of their respective parties, but the outcome of the vote cannot under any circumstances be negative. There is no way in which usual trickery and last minute letdowns typical of local politicians are possible.

The NLA, on its part, is keeping its promise and is not making any big fuss over the fact that citizens' blockades prevented the Macedonian army's heavy artillery from being withdrawn, which was also a precondition for their laying down their arms. It is good that Ali Ahmeti, political representative of the Albanian fighters, is not commenting on announcements that part of the MPs might vote against the agreement. As far as he is concerned, his side has firm NATO guarantees, and it is no concern of his what the Macedonian side will do in Parliament. On the other hand he knows quite well that if it comes to the worst, his people will still be there and weapons will not be hard to obtain again, if there is enough money. And it is clear that the Albanian side has no shortage of that.

Thus, statements like the one made by the VMRO-DPMNE whip in Macedonia's Parliament, Cedo Kraleski, that his party's MPs would vote "individually," and earlier ambiguous statements by the prime minister and some other people, seem to be nothing more than propaganda. The Utrinski Vesnik paper recently reported that Georgijevski and VMRO-DPMNE vice presidents Dosta Dimovska and Marjan Gjorcev are pressurizing top party leaders, including five MPs, so as to convince them to vote in favor of the constitutional changes. According to the newspaper, they are using other methods as well -- threats of revocation of their privileges and sanctions against some of their not very legal businesses.

Todor Petrov and the World Macedonian Congress got hold of some of the most persistent fugitives from the Tetovo villages and blocked the road leading to the Blace border crossing, blocking KFOR vehicles as well. On Aug. 29, they blocked the border crossing on the Serbian border at Tabanovce. Petrov, who made it into prominence and politics at the end of the 1980s, when as chairman of the Association of Craftsmen of Gevgelija he organized a blockade of the border with Greece, seems to have specialized in such tasks. This, ostensibly radical Macedonian nationalist is fortunately not strong enough to stir up any serious trouble.

An announced religious march on Lesok and the church destroyed there fortunately passed without any incidents. Its organizer, the Skopje newspaper Dnevnik, whose editors as of recently decided to mobilize the public in favor of war as a way out of the crisis, could find the fact that only 700 people showed instead of the thousands they announced a very sobering thought. The danger of fiercely opposing the spirit of the agreement, which can frequently be seen on MRTV, is perilous in itself.

The MAAK-Conservative and certain non-government organizations have announced they will prevent the parliament session. If they cannot stop MPs from entering the building, they said, "we will do everything to prevent them from hearing each other by making lots of noise."

Simultaneously, mysterious explosions are taking place in Skopje on an almost daily basis. Some believe it is the beginning of urban terrorist activities, while other are convinced they are deliberate attempts at creating an unstable atmosphere ahead of the parliament session.

The population is gradually getting used to peace, although it is far from what can be considered stable. Macedonia seems torn apart by the intentions of two groups which seem to have switched their roles: the soldiers, who are doing their best to establish peace, and the civilians, who want to turn back the clock to the beginning of a yet another bloody war.

Several days ago 500 Canadian soldiers arrived at Petrovec Airport. Very few people here know that Canada actually has an army and is a NATO member. Even less are they aware that the Canadian soldiers' almost sole task is participation in various peacekeeping missions throughout the world. In other words, Canadian soldiers have no tasks at home, if they ever did. Will the local civilians-politicians ever let its soldiers do the same?

Iso RUSI

(AIM)