Interethnic Fights in Macedonia

Close Encounters of the First Order

The Macedonian state should make decisive steps to stop the unpleasant practice of mass fights on ethnic grounds between young Macedonians and Albanians, because they could remember their childhood games when they grow up

AIM Skopje, 18 June, 1998

Independent Skopje Fokus, for Macedonian circumstances the weekly with an enviable circulation and influence, also known for the fact that it much before others deals with topics which later intrigue the public for days, published in its latest issue an alarming reportage about the situation in Macedonian army. Referring to a strictly confidential staff document on readiness for combat (this is not the first time that such documents "stray" off to this newspaper), among numerous warning indications, especially interesting are those about the alleged "closing ranks" of the soldiers of Albanian ethnic origin, but since it is a report for the month of March, there is no reason to doubt that in some other reporting periods the situation had been just the opposite.

Such a conclusion imposes itself not for the mere need to make some forced balance, but it is the result of a series of information about a sad phenomenon which is gradually becoming a practice in Macedonia, at least if judging by the writing of independent media. Several times in the past few months, privately owned Dnevnik reported about individual and mass fights on ethnic grounds among the youth, even among children of elementary-school age. The latest example is from the central part of the capital of Macedonia. Two students of high school Zef Lus Marku of Albanian ethnic origin were taken to hospital in the end of May with injuries inflicted by stones and rods. First-grade students of this school went together to the near-by clinic for a check-up, and while they were passing by the Hristijan Todorovski-Karpos elementary school, they were attacked by a large group of children of Macedonian origin. The relation of forces was such that the young Albanians got the rough end of the stick. Teachers of this school claim that this is not the only case and that in the future they will organize compulsory check-ups somewhere else so as not to expose their students to possible danger.

This time young Albanians were among the injured. Two or three months ago, the same newspaper reported that a Macedonian student was seriously injured. In Kumanovo, town about thirty kilometres from Skopje, perhaps for some reason of their own, two boys of different ethnic origin started a fight, and then their respective compatriots came to their rescue. A Macedonian ended up in hospital, and there were bloody noses, bruises and scratches on both sides. Last winter, at the time of students' excursions, on their return from the lake of Ohrid, two buses with passengers of different ethnic origin, out of ignorance or negligence of the teachers, stopped at the same time at the same resting place. And whiile the teachers were sipping their coffee or mastic, the children caught each others by the necks. Had there been no visible traces of this unpleasant ending of a pleasant outing, the parents would not have known what had happenened to their children. The teachers, either for shame or in order to conceal their irresponsibility, failed to inform the police.

Generally speaking, it seems that after every such incident, persons responsible for behavior of children, try to minimise the conflicts. "Children's play", said the principal of the mentioned Hristijan-Todorovski-Karpos elementary school. However, it must be admitted that in some places, especially in ethnically mixed environments, efforts are made to prevent conflicts between students. Where conditions do not permit teaching for young Macedonians and for young Albanians in separate buildings, a specific "apartheid" is practiced. In order to avoid "close encounters of the first order", children are separated in different shifts, so if the Macedonians come to school in the morning, after a safe time pause, the Albanians take their places in their desks. When this is not possible, students learn on different floors, and just in case, during classes, teachers'-students' patrols are on guard. All that, of course, is not enough to keep children completely apart, so there are still minor or major incidents which warn that putting the fire out is not the true cure for the damage they cause.

It is worth mentioning another unpleasant event that occurred at the end of last football championship of Macedonia. Before the game of city rivals - Vardar, which used to be the national symbol, and Sloga Jugomagnat, which is from the other side of the river Vardar, that is from the part of the city populated with majority non-Macedonian population, a big fight almost broke out, consequences of which judging by the number of possible participants, mostly young boys, and estimates of the police could have been tragic. The police had no other choice but to form a cordon, wave rubber batons and prevent fans of Sloga to cross the river which somehow seems to be increasingly separating Skopje into the northern (Albanian) and the southern (Macedonian) part. Of course, one should not forget the incidents which are, practically regularly, happening on religious holidays. Especially in small towns and villages with mixed ethnic composition, every Bairam is observed by demolition of gravestones of the deceased of Muslim religion, and on Christmas and Easter, the same vandal raids are organized on the Orthodox cemetery.

In the whole story, it is interesting that in Macedonia "national awareness" comes earlier than customary. Fights on ethnic grounds are fought by boys who have just become teenagers, and those who are unable to participate in mass fights very often resort to stones and break windows on schools and religious buildings of the "others". "Children's play", let me quote a respectable teacher. But it seems that it is high time to begin with certain processes in education and up-bringing on that level already. Curricula of the young Albanians and Macedonians, although formally coordinated and unique for the whole state, in their most delicate aspects, are absolutely separated. A respectable Macedonian and a university professor declared at a symposium that in textbooks in Macedonian there was not a single element which indicated that in this space another tradition and culture existed. Obviously, time has come for all children, regardless what traditional circle they belong to, to start to be taught for joint life, to be taught religious and national tolerance, and although it may sound somewhat anachronous, to get children of different ethnic origin together so they can get to know each other, as on several occasions the Centre for Multicultural Cooperation had tried to do. On the contrary, these young people, when they grow up, might easily remember their favourite childhood games. If, of course, their parents do not do it first.

AIM Skopje

BUDO VUKOBRAT