Replacements in the Police

"Pair without Coxswain" Sunk

AIM Skopje, 15 February, 1998

Dime Djurev, until recently under-secretary in charge of public security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Macedonia, should have known the ancient wisdom according to which everyone who cuts with a saber muct count on having his own head roll down from some block. As a figure of speech, of course. The first man of Macedonian police in uniform is believed to have been for years the main executioner in purges among the Macedonian "men in blue", although there are few of those who would actually give their right arm that he had decided on his own in each and every of about 200 cases. In the beginning of February, however, some would say divine retribution visited on him, and others, that he met with a crack of doom, when he was at least for the public suddenly, relieved of his post along with his professional counterpart, the "greatest ear in Macedonia", the first man of the secret intelligence and counterintelligence part of the police, Dobri Velickovski.

    The replacements at the two highest professional posts

in such a delicate sector could not pass unnoticed and without diverse speculations, although, as customary, the one who initiated the replacements pretended innocence. The leading tandem of the repressive part of the state is, allegedly, leaving with "positive results", and according to the official interpreter of government decisions, at the same time, due to the intention to make the police hierarchy in compliance with European standards and due to the demand of Velickovski to retire, and in the case of Djurev, in order to respond to the "need for engagement on other tasks". It is considered to be normal (is it?) to send the head of the police to be something like a diplomatic representative in for Macedonia the key place - in Sarajevo, which should allegedly "befall" Djurev. However, he thanked for the offered diplomatic career and chose to remain in the same ministry and do the job of an ordinary inspector. Malicious persons have not forgotten that the former head of the police had skipped this professional rank and they say that it will do him good, although they are not sure that in the process of education he will have the friendly support of men who do not remember him for having done them a good turn.

Be what may, large spring cleaning of the top floor of the police was welcomed by the public with great interest, and the opposition with stressed maliciousness. In Skopje there are speculations that in the background of the whole case lies a large showdown within the ruling Social Democratic Alliance, in which men belonging to one faction are replaced by those belonging to the other. Velickovski and Djurev were appointed, to general surprise of professional circles, by the controversial Ljubomir Frckovski, minister of the interior at the time, and later foreign minister. Last year Frckovski was relieved of duty of the minister of foreign affairs, and it is generally believed that the faction he belongs to is on the defensive at the moment. Who the mentioned "pair (which has remained) without coxswain" worked for in the meantime is a mystery even for coonnoisseurs of the local political scene, so that the articles in the papers on this topic are mostly indigestible. Although it is customary in this space for certain persons to remain at posts for the very reasons for which they should be discharged, and vice versa, in the case of Velickovski, and - it is believed in Skopje - especially Djurev, apart from high politics, there are a number of professional reasons.

Among the first and foremost, one should be reminded that two and a half years have passed since the attempt on the life of the head of the state Kiro Gligorov, and despite all the efforts, there are still no indications that anyone on earth knows about it any more than was known about noon on that 3 October '95. Velickovski had, indeed, the misfortune to be appointed the head of the department for espionage and counter-espionage just a few months prior to this terrorist act, but, along with Djurev, he participated in the futile investigation, and also in making certain dubious decisions concerning material evidence. During the whole period, behind the ministry at the head of which they were a long tail of internal scandals dragged connected with the allegedly illegal public purchases and dubious business transactions, and just rarely any of these scandals came out in the open without the name of Dine Djurev being mentioned in its connection. Although the Macedonian government on several occasions announced a final showdown with crime, in the current summing up of the balance sheet of the two former officials, the media cannot find a single positive example in which the police distinguished itself. The professional part of state security services mostly lagged behind the journalists, trying to diminish their findings instead of at least once claiming the main role for itself.

Right under the nose of the Macedonian police, in the past few years, all forms of crime have flourished, from massive smuggling of arms and narcotics, racketeering, everyday armed robberies, collective fraud and corruption, to cruel murders with the lowest motives, even occasional gangster-style executions in the streets. In the end of last year, Macedonian public was simply shocked, and the police and its main function to protect peace of ordinary people extremely humiliated, by a murder in the very heart of the capital. Certain Ace Bocevski, alias Gypsy, gave himself up to the police, and later it turned out that the mentioned murderer had done certain services to the ruling party during elections. About the same time, the scandal was revealed with smuggling of arms from America at the time of the embargo and, by the way, an intelligence scandal with the name of Velickovski linked to it.

A number of similar examples could be listed, but that would leave little space to mention a few still unclarified explosions around the New Year's eve, in front of state administration buildings, police stations inclusive. Although all kinds of controversial speculations are circulating about the bombing attacks in Gostivar, Tetovo, Kumanovo and Prilep, including the far-fetched assumption that the perpetrators belonged to the Liberation Army of Kosovo, Macedonian citizens seem to have realised that the police is not capable even to defend itself, least of all to ensure civil safety of the tax payers. In the end, it should not be forgotten that the mentioned pair are the officials without whom it would be impossible to explain the past summer's bloodshed in Gostivar, town in western Macedonia with majority Albanian population in which three people were killed, and several ten were seriously or slightly injured. At the moment, a parliamentary commission is working in order to give the expert opinion whether in the conflict with the demonstrators on the occasion of taking down the Albanian national flag from the Gostivar municipal building the police was too enthusiastic, but in Albanian circles it is also believed to be one of the reasons for relieving Velickovski and Djurev of duty.

Connoisseurs of the circumstances forecast that the operation of "spring cleaning" will continue, but not only because of the fact that the new bosses have the right to choose the teams they will work with. Simply, because the pair Djurev-Velickovski is just the tip of the ice-berg. Judging by the articles in local media, the next on the list could easily be Spirko Nikolovski, the "number one policeman" of the capital. Noone should forget that Skopje is one third of Macedonia.

AIM Skopje

BUDO VUKOBRAT