"Macedonia Risking a New War"

The latest visit of NATO Secretary General George Robertson and OSCE Chairman Mircea Djoana with the old aim of "forcing the politicians to honour their given promises" ranged from the usual clear pessimism upon their arrival to feigned optimism after their meeting with the local political elite.

AIM Skopje, November 8, 2001

"Macedonia is faced with a new wave of violence because of the prolonged debate on the Framework Agreement from Ohrid," said NATO Secretary General George Robertson at the beginning of his most recent visit to Macedonia. The aim of his visit, which he made together with the OSCE Chairman Mircea Djoana, was to find a way to force local politicians to honour their word (given in the signed Ohrid Agreement) and speed up the implementation of the document which brought the country a fragile peace. Namely, the implementation of the Framework Agreement from Ohrid got stuck in Parliament which is still debating the agreed constitutional amendments. Concluding his visit, Robertson said to the press that an agreement was reached that the amendments would be adopted already at the today's continued Parliament session and promulgated on Monday. Robertson said that a solution was found for the issue of amnesty of the National Liberation Army (NLA) members. Thus, his visit commenced with a clearly expressed pessimism and ended that same day on an optimistic note.

But, Robertson's optimism seems feigned, customarily unrealistic because, as a rule, the Macedonian state leadership and politician do not keep their word nor fulfil the given promises. Parliamentary debate on the proposed constitutional amendments can be concluded in one day, but it is hard to believe that something that has been delayed for two months can be finished so easily. The more so as one of the Albanian parties (Party of Democratic Prosperity - PDP) remained adamant that it would not vote for the constitutional amendments because of its disagreement with the proposed text of the new preamble.

Although there are no details on what Robertson and President Trajkovski discussed, the certain details reached the public about NATO Secretary General's meeting with the President of Parliament, Stojan Andov. This time too, Parliament Speaker Stojan Andov (one of those directly responsible for the delay adoption of constitutional amendments by Parliament) replied to Robertson's demands that in case two-thirds of Albanian deputies refuse to vote he would not promulgate constitutional amendments, even if they were adopted. He only gave Robertson guarantees that they would be adopted within the set deadlines. If it is known that the adoption, without promulgation, does not mean their entry into force, it is more than clear that Andov has left sufficient space for him to manoeuvre as he sees fit.

The way Robertson, President Boris Trajkovski, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, State Public Prosecutor Stavre Djikov and Justice Minister Idzet Memeti resolved the problem of amnesty is, to say the least, peculiar. First, they all concluded that there was no way they could implement the only right solution (to adopt a law) simply because debate on that proposal, same as its result, would be quite uncertain, almost impossible. Then, in a makeshift manner they came up with a solution that which practically meant that President Trajkovski and NATO Secretary General Robertson would exchange letters which guarantee amnesty to all NLA members. Also, the President took it upon himself to set free by abolition all those who were under investigation for membership in the NLA members. Interior Minister promised not to arrest the NLA members and the Prosecutor not to prosecute them! All in all, this amnesty would have rather wobbly legs. On the other hand, bearing in mind the "qualities" of the local politicians, it is only a matter of time and what could be gained, when this "gentlemen's agreement" would be broken and become inapplicable. Even after his meeting with Robertson, Justice Minister insisted on his and his party's (PDP) opinion (that the only way out is the adoption of the Law on Amnesty) that resulted in a brief boycott of the Government's work by this party's Ministers.

The NLA's reaction about so conceived amnesty, which is based on sand, is equally important because the NLA's leadership has firm guarantees of the US Government, EU and NATO that its members would get real protection from any possible legal prosecution.

Investigations of military crimes were also mentioned in Robertson's talks with Government representatives about amnesty in view of the announced discovery of mass graves with bodies of missing persons. Although Macedonia has not ratified an agreement on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, it insisted that perpetrators of military crimes be exempted from amnesty instead of the practice applied so far on the territory of former SFRY, to bring before the Tribunal all those against whom there is sufficient evidence and which the Tribunal decides to prosecute. As far as the mentioned graves are concerned, based on an anonymous tip received by the State Prosecutor, President Trajkovski has requested of the Hague Tribunal to initiate an investigation. For its part, the Hague replied that instead of his request President Trajkovski should have sent evidence. After all that has been said and done, Carla del Ponte is expected to arrive to Skopje around the middle of this month so as to clarify things.

At the end of his visit George Robertson sounded almost comical when addressing the journalists he added, like a cherry on the cake, that Interior Minister Boskovski had given him firm assurances that the ranks of special police units "Tigers" and "Lions" (which are now "ethnically clean") would soon become "multi-ethnic" - i.e. would be expanded with members of other entities. As if Robertson has forgotten the incident that happened between Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and the American Special Envoy and Mediator in local political negotiation, James Pardew whom the Prime Minister threw out after only 13 minutes of the talks just because the latter referred to "Lions" as the Macedonian paramilitaries. The American Embassy always pointed out that, in addition to expressing the stands of the American Ambassador here, Pardew was also expressing the State Department's stands. This thesis about "Lions", which some Macedonian media treated as the Macedonian paramilitary, was present even in the Macedonian public.

No less important was the role Interior Minister Boskovski played and is still playing. This "party soldier", in addition to practically being a personification of repeated demands for the military resolution of the problem since February (i.e. ever since the beginning of the war in Macedonia) till today, generated chaos several time by his direct decisions with a view to provoking the declaration of the state of war, is at the same time practically the only certain Macedonian passenger destined for the Hague. For, in the Ljuboten case, when dozen civilians paid with their lives for the police operation against alleged terrorists and the NLA members, Boskovski's role, who supervised the police action on the spot, is fully documented.

It seems that what Robertson said at the beginning of his visit ("The international community would like to see the end of parliamentary procedure in Macedonia, because Macedonia is seriously in danger of a new eruption of violence") more precisely reflects the reality of Macedonian events and dangers of such new developments. But, it seems that for the time being such warnings are not causing much concern of the majority of politicians, nor of the Macedonian public. A good indicator of this is certainly the way the local media treated Robertson's visit, which shows that for them Robertson's and Djoana's visits were not real news.

ISO RUSI

(AIM)