The Best Pre-Election Undertaking

AIM Skopje, 20 September, 1998

With expressions of gratitude and congratulations for the successfully completed task, American colonel, Frederick Noseworthy amd Macedonian general, Sokol Mitrovski, on 18 September marked the end of a seven-day military drill of NATO and Partnership for Peace called "The Best '98 Cooperative Undertaking", which took place at the Krivolak testing ground near Negotino in southern Macedonia. This drill which had started on 12 September was assesed as the greatest of the kind according to the number of participants. Although at previous similar drills, the customary number of countries-participants was 15, this time soldiers from 26 countries took part in the event. For this drill, 15 countries had announced their participation, but later on, this number was increased to 26, 13 of which are members of NATO (only Belgium, Iceland and Luxmebourg did not participate) and 13 members of the Partnership for Peace, but it should be stressed that Russian soldiers did not take part. It is interesting that three out of four neighbours of Macedonia took part in this drill (Bulgaria, Albania and Greece), and side by side with the Greek soldiers were the Turks. Russian soldiers decided not to participate at the very end of preparations for the drill, it is believed as the result of Macedonia's refusal to receive Russian soldiers in UNPREDEP forces.

Although the final plenary session where the evaluation of the military drill was stated was closed to the public, information reached the ears of the media that it was marked with the highest grades, and that the role of the host country as the organizer of the event was also highly esteemed. Local media especially stress the role of the Krivolak military testing ground, which they are persistently trying to "sell" as the future training centre of the NATO for south-eastern Europe. This was especially underlined by the fact that simultaneously with this drill, 500 US marines were training in Krivolak. The presence of US marines which passed in the shadow of the "Cooperative Undertaking" was of special significance because it is the first case of the presence of foreign soldiers on the territory of Macedonia who are not under the UN flag. This event was in fact the realization of the agreement between two countries on the presence of American military forces on the territory of Macedonia, signed and ratified in 1996, at the time when the Russians were threatening that they would veto continuation of the presence of UNPREDEP in Macedonia.

During the week while the drill lasted, 1,300 soldiers from 26 countries performed a "battle" between "Northland" and "Southland", two neighbouring countries which disputed over a territory called "Krivolak". According to the scenario of American strategists in the NATO, "Krivolak" region belonged to "Northland" but was mostly inhabited by "Southlanders" who had separatist aspirations. "Southland" denied the right to territorial sovereignty of the fictive Northland, and as the result of the dispute in 1997, a fictitious military conflict broke out between the two neighbouring countries. Northland appealed on the UN to resolve the dispute, and as a result of pressure exerted by the international comunity the two parties agreed to sign ceasefire and accepted deployment in the controcersila region of international forces for transition and stabilization (TRANSFOR) headed by NATO, but with the mandate of the UN. The moment after positioning of international forces in "Krivolak" region marks the beginning of the main activities of the drill called "The Best '98 Cooperative Undertaking". Soldiers of all countries participants had 22 tasks which mostly consisted of drills of peace keeping on the territory controlled by "TRANSFOR". Various drills were performed in the field, such as reception of refugees, establishment of control points, marking of mine fields, evacuation of foreign diplomats from crisis stricken areas, securing public facilities in a country in deep economic crisis, saving civilians, overcoming all kinds of natural obstacles, etc.

Commander of NATO forces in Europe, general Wesley Clark, was present at the opening of the drill, and it was visited by former commander George Jewlan, who gave a lecture in Skopje on the topic "The Role of NATO in South-Eastern Europe". In his speech, general Wesley Clark underlined that the drill had no direct connections with the current developments in the region, revealing that it had been planned last year, that is, before the beginning of the latest crisis in Kosovo. However, general assessment of all observers of the drill is that it irrestistably reminds of the events in Kosovo, so that it is almost impossible to avoid linking it to the developments over there. One should be reminded that this drill came after a major NATO air-force drill a few months ago when about 80 airplanes of 16 countries participants flew over the territory of Albania and Macedonia, just a few kilometres away from the Yugoslav border. The message at the time was that the NATO was ready to intervene if the Serbian regime continued with military and police activities against the Albanian population in Kosovo.

What is not mentioned concerning the drill but what is evident is the fact that it started at the same time as the election campaign for parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on 18 October. Whether by mere coincidence or not, at the opening of the drill, American general Wesley Clark expressed support to moderate politicians in the region, which was commented on as support to Macedonian policy. Even the number of countries participants was commented on as a specific support to Macedonia and as a message to the aggressive regimes in the neighbourhood not to even consider an adventure on Macedonian territory. This point was made even clearer by the fact that simultaneously with the soldiers of NATO and Partnership for Peace, American marines were training in Krivolak, too, which is supposed to imply direct military engagement of the USA in Macedonia. This is also believed to be the first step towards putting Krivolak training ground on the list of NATO training centres in South-East Europe. It is not difficult to conclude either that the large number of countries participants was the doing of the Americans who had many times openly made it clear that they considered Macedonia their "sphere of interest" and that they did not mind investing the effort and the influence (and the money) to ensure a good image to their "protege", especially because the party which is very inclined to accept American stands is in power and the drill "happened" to be in the year of the elections.

Although this military drill is not directly used in the election campaign of the ruling Sociual Democratic Party (SDSM), indirectly it is described as a sign of defeat of the opposition parties, but especially of VMRO-DPMNE which is the most dangerous rival of the ruling party. The public is reminded of statements of this non-parliamentary party against letting NATO use Krivolak which it once assessed as "occupation and sale of Macedonian territories and sovereignty". There is no doubt that in a situation when there is shooting and killing in the Balkans, a political party in Macedonia which enjoys support of the USA and NATO, but especially if this support is open as it has been so far the case with Macedonian government, has big chances to win support of the voters in the forthcoming elections as well. By abstaining from using the drill for propagandist purposes while it still lasted, Social Democrats proved that that they were good pupils of Western democracy, but that their use of it as an election trump card should still be expected.

AIM SKOPJE

IBRAHIM MEHMETI