HUMAN RIGHTS IN MACEDONIA

AIM, Skopje, September 2,1994

SUMMARY: During his visit to Macedonia, a Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, encountered two, completely separated, truths: the Albanian and the Macedonian. While representatives of the Democratic Forum for Human Rights, which rallies Albanians, pointed out that the human rights of exclusively the non-Macedonian population were being violated, (50 thousand Albanians, Turks and other non-Macedonians were imprisoned in the last three years, twenty people were killed - 13 soldiers and seven prisoners), organizations rallying Macedonians advocated the assertion of the Macedonian national being. Much more defeating is the fact that not a single important non-governmental organization rallying like-minded supporters of all nationalities, is operating in Macedonia.

The recent visit of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and his meetings with representatives of non-governmental organizations in Skopje, were primarily a reflection of Macedonia's political reality. This time too, on two sides, completely separated, were the Albanian and the Macedonian truths. While representatives of the Democratic Forum for Human Rights, which rallies Albanians, pointed out that the human rights of exclusively the non-Macedonian population were being violated, organizations rallying Macedonians advocated the assertion of the Macedonian national being.

Much more discouraging than such a course of the talks is the fact that in this republic of the former Yugoslavia there is no single important non-governmental organization rallying like-minded supporters of all nationalities. As if their joint problem in this, not large area, is not the trade embargo imposed by Greece, nor the large number of unemployed, nor the low living standard of those still working. It is interesting to note that only a few people remembered to say that it were not collective as much as individual civil rights that were endangered, although a number of the participants in the talks upheld that thesis.

Truth to tell, like other post-communist societies, Macedonia is passing through a process of transformation and facing all the difficulties of a time when a break has been made with the past without even a sketchy vision of the future having been created. In that interim period, many are fishing in troubled waters, in particular numerous political parties who are ready to keep only one of all their promises, most often completely out of touch with reality: to come to power. Under such conditions, disregard of human rights is not uncommon. As could be heard at these talks all this is happening in Macedonia in conditions of a readily visible national division.

The two most numerous national communities - the Macedonian and the Albanian ones, live side by side, coming into touch only in Parliament, most frequently through heated quarrels about "Macedonian" and "Albanian" interests. This powder keg on which about 2 million inhabitants are sitting threatens to ignite the entire Balkans. By all accounts, the task of Boutrous Ghali's special envoy was, this time, much less to establish the state of human rights in Macedonia and much more to emphasize these facts before both the representatives of the government and non-governmental organizations. Mazowiecki therefore pointed out that it was unnecessary to discuss who was more and who less to blame for the evidently bad situation in the republic, but rather to make the first step for overcoming such a state of affairs.

A series of examples adduced at the meeting in Skoplje clearly shows that the situation should not be underestimated. Here are some of the most drastic ones. The Albanian side primarily drew attention to political processes. Representatives of the Democratic Forum claim that as many as 50 thousand Albanians, Turks and other non-Macedonians were dragged through prisons in the last three years.

During that same period, they claim, 20 people (13 soldiers and 7 prisoners) were killed. In addition, no reply has been received to the request of March last year for court proceedings to be initiated against the leading structures in the Ministry of the Interior because of shooting at innocent citizens. On the other hand, the National Convention for Macedonia stated that the members of this organization did not agree with the numerous compromises accepted by the government, while the Albanian delegate group was not only abstaining from the work of the Parliament but also attacking the government. They asked how a national group could be exposed to maltreatment and disrespect while its representatives were participating in that same government.

If we add the allegations of the drastic violations of the rights of the child in this area, and especially in the city of Debar in western Macedonia, where the Democratic Party of the Turks is exerting pressure on children of Moslem nationality to study in the Turkish language, the general picture becomes even more gloomy. Examples of disregard of the Constitution and laws by the bodies of the judiciary themselves, the abuse of the mass media and an information blockade, are also numerous, claim the participants in the talks. Such a picture of Macedonian reality led the "Center for Ethnic Relations" recently to conduct a survey entitled "Do you feel like a second-class citizen". The results of the poll show that 6% Macedonians, 35% Gipsies, 42% Albanians and 52% Serbs feel so. In spite of such indicators, only one of the participants in the meeting observed that all the people in Macedonia were in the same pot, which means that they should seek a way out jointly, lest Bosnia happen to them.

However, the political climate in the country is evidently not conducive to such thinking. Macedonian national quarrels are causing increasing concern both of Europe and the world at large. That is why the message of the world, under the guise of concern for human rights, reads: instead of drawing apart, come closer together, instead of shifting the blame from one another, try to right things jointly. That same world has little concern for the fact that, as the Democratic Forum claims, there are only 4% Albanians among the employees of the state administration or if their number is somewhat smaller or higher, or for numerous other human rights issues, when a match has been lighted beside the powder-keg. What is much more important, as Mazowiecki also emphasizes, is to put that match out.

RAJKA STEFANOVSKA