GUILTY OF NATIONALITY

AIM Skopje, 22 July, 1997

Interethnic relations in multiethnic, multicultural and multiconfessional Republic of Macedonia have always been strained and uncertain, especially when speaking of the two predominant ethnic groups - the Macedonians and the Albanias. However, even in such a situation which certainly is quite unpleasant, there has always been a chance for a dialogue as the only possible manner of resolving controversial questions, which greatly contributed to relaxing of the situation and to an acceptable coexistence in Macedonia.

The recent bloody events in Gostivar, town in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, where a real small war had broken out between the Macedonian special police and the Albanian demonstrants, seems to have ruined the last chance for the so badly needed dialogue to continue and to have all disputable questions, which of course exist and which burden the interethnic relations, resolved in a democratic atmosphere. In other words, at this moment it is truly hard to believe that the situation could be brought back to the level before 9 July, because it is more than obvious that things have started to develop in a completely different direction and that the Macedonian authorities have no intention to resolve problems in the way it had done so far and by methods which we usually mark as democratic. As concerning the Albanians, it is also not realistic to expect that after the violent police action, three persons killed and several hundred arrested, they will remain loyal citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, although it is their homeland.

The dispute about the Albanian flag, taking down of which from the flagpost in front of the municipal buildings in Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar (where the Albanians are the majority population in relation to the Macedonians) was the direct cause for the "close encounter" between the Macedonian special police unit and the Albanian demonstrants, has lasted for some time and it simply had to be resolved because it had been rendered impossible by a lack of legal regulations. In fact, the law on the use of the flag existed, but it was the old, Yugoslav law, quite anachronous and incompatible for the new situation in the independent and sovereign Macedonia. In any case, before the Macedonian law on the use of the flag had been adopted (on 8 July by the assembly of Macedonia), the constitutional court of the Republic of Macedonia, with astonishing presistence and with no special reason, entrusted the Macedonian government to apply the law and take down flags of ethnic minorities from the posts of public institutions. Why this was done at that moment, and neither before or after that, will remain a mystery, just as it is still unknown why the constitutional court is not as consistent concerning eighty odd non-constitutional laws adopted by the government of Branko Crvenkovski. In lack of an answer to this question, speculations are increasing in Macedonia, and not only among the Albanians, that the constitutional court had done by order of the executive authorities, which would be glad to redirect justified revolt of the citizens due to catastrophic economic situation, unemployment, lack of money, poverty and similar, to a completely different track. Unstable relations, even open animosities in interethnic relations between the Macedonians and the Albanians certainly offer possibilities of the negative disposition of the citizens to be at least temporarily buffered by turning this energy in a new direction and using it for the needs of the authorities.

A large number of citizens in Macedonia cannot escape this impression, because on the very day when war was waged in Gostivar, the government reached a decision on devaluation of the Macedonian currency for more than significant 16 per cent; the devaluation which affects the citizens and shows the impotence of the Macedonian economy, but was pushed to the margins because of developments in Gostivar.

Regardless of the considerably low level of interethnic relations, there is no doubt, during all the past years, along with impatience, a spirit of tolerance has existed in Macedonia, as well as true willingness of the one and the other party for coexistence and resolving controversial issues only through dialogue and negotiations. However, more than an impression is the fact that after 9 July this simply is not possible because there is a mutual conviction that the developments in Gostivar have definitely shown that it is impossible to live together, and the two ethnic collectivities have been brought to a position to look upon each other as bitter enemies digging each other's grave. It is nowadays impossible to dissuade an ordinary Macedonian that the intentions of the Albanians are not to make the dream on greater Albania come true by militant means, and that their current demands in the sphere of national symbols, education, language and so on, are not just an introduction to realization of the mentioned goal. A large number of the Macedonians also believe that the Albanians as an ethnic minority were given more than prescribed by international standards, and in this way, at the very start, by establishing positions of the one who is entitled to give and the one who receives (let us not forget that Macedonia declares itself as a civic and democratic country), all illusions on joint and true coexistence in a true civic country are utterly destroyed.

Just as the Macedonians were stimulated to believe that they were the ones who would be determining the level of the rights of the Albanians, their status and position in the society, at the same time the Albanian population in Macedonia is already convinced that this state is treating them as citizens of the second order and that even their fundamental human rights have been suspended. Politics, of course, plays the decisive role in creating these impressions, but it also bears the responsibility for everything that might happen in Macedonia in the future, and a real catastrophe may happen, perhaps even greater than the one in Bosnia & Herzegovina. With the surroundings of Macedonia, its neighbours each and every one of them with specific interests concerning it, it would be realistic to expect that a possible conflict between the Macedonians and the Albanians would not remain on the level of a local war, but that it would spread to the whole region of the Balkans. The Albanians in Macedonia, after Gostivar events, have won open support of official Tirana and of Kosovo Albanians, and at the same time threats arruived from the militant Albanian groups from these two neighbouring countries "that brothers in Macedonia would be protected and that they would fight for their liberation". Such assumed situation might mean nothing else but involvement of Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, and even Turkey, or in simple terms a possible Balkan war and a new massacre.

Has the Albanian flag really endangered the existence and life of the Macedonian population? According to majority of the Macedonians - it has. But there are also those who think that a flag as an expression of national individuality and identity of the Albanians, even if illegally hoisted on fklagposts of three municipal buildings (in Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar), which is certainly true, implies a minor or no danger at all in relation to consequences which might be expected after the brutal police intervention in Gostivar. It should be openly said that hardly anything that day was done in the spirit of a state ruled by law, both concerning the behavior of the demonstrants and that of the special police. When speaking about the latter, it is true that it was defending the constitution and laws, but it is also true that it manifested unseen cruelty not only to the aggressive demonstrants but also to everything that was Albanian and happened to be on their way. Even those who had not been in the streets, but were pulled out from their homes, without warrants of course, were severely beaten up. More than 400 people were arrested on the occasion, mayor of Gostivar Rufi Osmani inclusive, and it is more than certain that many of them have not participated in the riots. Media have reported that by means of the method of "paraffin wax glove" it was established for only a few that they had held arms and "Molotov's cocktails" in their hands.

In Macedonia, like anywhere else in the world, laws must be obeyed and the state protected. But, regardless of anything else, regardless of demonstrations in Gostivar and the violently manifested discontent, an unpleasant impression remained that many citizens of Albanian nationality had been humiliated, maltreated and cruelly beaten up without any justification, with the only aim to show force and power of the state and of the authorities to the public. Sequences of the events in Gostivar carried down to the last detail by various television stations mercilessly showed that at this moment in Macedonia an Albanian would not be judged for a subjective guilt but for his objective property - his nationality. If this had not been true, only those who had started to fight for justice by militant means would have been punished, and not those who were mere observers of the events. But, the social climate and the needs of the authorities are such that out of political pragmatism the Macedonian government proclaimed a whole ethnic group the enemy of the state. Why would the authorities take a risk of the discontented people turning against them and remembering their social misery and poverty, when everything can be taken care of by diverting their attenton from the real and burning problems to the always unstable interethnic relations. It is an established rule that if you have no enemies you should simply invent them, because it is a safe way to remain in power and the people who are always liable to manipulations, instead of "down with the regime" will readily yell "death to the Albanians". Besides, protection against the "Albanian hordes" may be useful - it can convince the Macedonian part of the population that the regime is concerned about the state and the majority nation. The question remains whether the people might not forget Gostivar by the time of the elections and remember their poverty again.

MILAN BANOV