Macedonia Does Not Want Refugees, But Refugees Do Not Want Macedonia
Temporary stay but with no certain end, of about 218 thousand of banished Kosovo Albanians quite evidently was bound to affect the overall relations and situation in the Republic of Macedonia. These consequences can be classified in several categories - humanitarian, economic, sociological and political.
AIM Skopje, 10 May, 1999
The humanitarian situation of the banished persons could be described as "neither warm nor cold". About half of the people are accommodated in camps the largest of which is Stenkovac (number one and two) in which there are about 60 thousand people. It should be mentioned that the camps are all, except a part of Radusa camp, made up of tents which are becoming increasingly cramped because of influx of new refugee. Except for Radusa again, there are no hot meals. The reason for this is once more the influx of new refugees due to which the start-up of kitchens with hot meals had to be postponed. In the small Radusa camp where only about 1600 banished persons are accommodated, this was possible because of the size of the camp. Deported Kosovars are fed two hot meals a day over there by soldiers of the Bulgarian army who came to Macedonia as aid with military field kitchens.
Sanitary conditions are even worse than those with food. While there are no refugees who are not fed (not speaking about the quality of food), there is a very big number of these unfortunate people who have no possibility to wash their faces, take a bath, shave or similar. Field showers installed in camps are very few and they are of poor quality, while in Radusa and the new camp called Cegrane, there simply are not any. In the former they are just being installed, while in the latter a problem arose because of quibbling of the government and the Hgh Commissioner for Refugees whether temporary sanitary facilities should be installed without delay or whether it would be better to wait for construction of short waterworks which the government demands about three million German marks for, which would be left for the local inhabitants to use after the refugee crisis. Toilets are a special problem. Witnesses claim that they are dirty, that unbearable stench is spreading from them and that they were not properly built.
The problem that the camps are overpopulated and that social life is not organised (the banished and refugees simply do not know what to do and how to pass the day) were reasons for spreading of speculations that a refugee rebellion might break out. These speculations which fortunately proved to be incorrect were supplemented by speculations that the Albanians from Macedonia who had received a large number of their "brethren" from Kosovo in their homes (about 100 thousand refugees) started to express their discontent because of lack of living space and financial aid for food. For the time being, these speculations published in daily press did not prove to be correct.
The only thing that is truly encouraging and which can be considered satisfactory is the health siuation - there are no indications of an epidemic, and generally refugees are in quite good health. Refugees can use health services in the camp itself or in the clinical centre in Tetovo, as well as to get free drugs from Macedonian public pharmacies, if there are any at the moment. However, things are not going quite smoothly in this field either because of failures in organisation. Macedonian physicians who are from the beginning engaged in taking care of refugees and who are working in the field and who were vaccinating children in the past week, still have not been paid for this work in the field, there has been no cooperation so far with various teams of physicians engaged by UNHCR, nor with the humanitarian group "Medecins sans Frontieres", and others.
The war in Yugoslavia and the refugee crisis reflected with full intensity on Macedonian economy. The economy, agriculture and trade which were to a large extent linked to Yugoslavia are declining according to all parametres. It is estimated that the social product will this year decline by between 5 and 10 per cent, although the macro-economic policy planned a humble increase of a few per cent. The Chamber of the Eocnomy of Macedonia has already reported that some branches of industry last month registered a decline of 50 per cent. According to official estimates, the damage suffered by this country, as mentioned at the just completed donors' conference in Paris where Macedonia has directly been allocated 60 million dollars, and indirectly another 165, by the end of the year will reach the total of 1.6 billion dollars. "If Macedonia is not helped in time and if the promised aid from developed countries does not arrive, it may experience economic collapse which nobody wishes and I think that this is a scenario for destabilisation of the Macedonian state", say deputy prime minister Dosta Dimovska in the latest issue of the pro-government Nova Makedonija daily. The situation will be even worse because realistic estimates are that due to lost business deals companies are forced to discharge 50-60 thousand workers (this process has already begun) who it is estimated will need to be paid about 80 million German marks of social welfare from the budget, of course.
What may sound absurd, but is nevertheless true, is that the presence of the deported and the refugees is helping in alleviating the results of the economic crisis caused by the war. A part of the humanitarian aid for the refugees, after difficult negotiations and persuasion, is now supplied by Macedonian manufacturers. Refugees from Kosovo have since recently started drinking milk from Bitola dairy farm, eating beans from Tetovo and rice from Kocani, and they will wash with soaps and brush their teeth with toothpaste made in Macedonia. Although this will not be the case in all the refugee camps, it should be noted that this amounts to several million dollars of foreign aid which will end up in domestic companies.
The great tide of deported persons and refugees that has swept into Macedonia after the beginning of the war has affected social relations in general, on the interethnic level, but it especially caused an evident increase of xenophobia. But as there are no quantified qualitative sociological analyses, it is possible to talk only of impressions. It seems, however, that even they are sufficient. It appears that a change has occurred among ethnic Macedonians. After a surprising appearance of pro-Serb and Yugo-nostalgic feelings in the first two weeks of the NATO air campaign against FR Yugoslavia largely stimulated by activities of Serb propaganda and intelligence in the country, they have nowadays turned into anti-war sentiment and fear of a change of the ethnic composition of the population due to the enormous inflow of refugees. Not rarely self-proclaimed experts for the question of refugees in the press and on electronic media persistently claim that a large number of refugees will not return to Kosovo but will remain in Macedonia. Chances for that, however, are small. Apart from the lack of conditions (they cannot remain in tents even until winter, least of all further on), results of a poll conducted by a Macedonian non-governmental agency (MCMS) which runs the Radusa camp deserve to be mentioned. Of all the pollees, only four per cent wish to return to Kosovo, but only five per cent wish to remain in Macedonia, while the majority of 52 per cent wish to be transferred to Germany...
Xenophobia reaches such proportions that neighbours in a building in Aerodrom part of Skopje declared to a journalist of Dnevnik daily that the murderers of a couple were most probably Kosovo Albanians who were living as refugees in the same building. The alleged motive was the fact that the victims had often called the police because the refugees enjoyed listening to loud music... To make things even more absurd, the murder was clarified the very same day when it happened and the murderer turned out to be a Macedonian who did not live in that building at all.
Increase of xenophobia and emotions is present among ethnic Albanians as well. Although they act peacefully (which is the result of great effort and energy invested by the Democratic Party of the Albanians of Arben Xhaferi, coalition partner in the government) in expression of mass protests and demonstrations because of gatherings of the Serbs and Macedonians in Skopje and other cities in the country, but also because of certain actions of Macedonian authorities, in everyday conversations they do not conceal their excitability, wrath and sometimes even hatred. According to various elements available to this author, the war has deepened distrust of the Albanians towards Macedonians - because of the tragedy and "mistake" in the case of Blace (the first tide of banished persons who had spent a few days on "no man's land" in abominable conditions), because of the refusal of the government to permit use of Macedonian territory for ground intervention of NATO, because the government and almost all Macedonians insist that the refugees be forwarded as soon as possible to Albania or to western countries...
However, relations are not strained to such an extent that one could speak of a dramatic increase of tensions in the interethnic sphere and of a crisis that might end in a possible dissolution of the Macedonian-Albanian coalition government. This is proved by statements of the leaders of coalition parties. Arben Xhaferi, leader of DPA a few days ago declared to BBC that the government had faced a crisis, but that thanks to great efforts of all coalition partners but especially the DPA, it was saved. In mutual exchange of compliments, the other coalition partner went even one step further. The already mentioned deputy prime minister, and vice president of the ruling VMRO DPMNE Dosta Dimovska declared: "Cooperation with minsiters from DPA is extraordinary... Contacts and consultations about moves made by the government are frequent, so that the coalition with DPA which is influential among majority of the Albanian minority and which is the most respected Albanian party, has contributed to maintenance of peace in this period".
Affairs and relations in the government are not by far so bright as leaders of the ruling parties are presenting, but it is nevertheless clear that all participants in power are aware that at this moment any defiance or uncompromising and unbending firm stand would be a direct threat to the state itself and a game that would play into the hands of Slobodan Milosevic.
When all the impressions and facts are put together, it is clear that Macedonia, or rather the Macedonians do not want refugees, but that refugees do not want Macedonia either.
AIM Skopje
TEOFIL BLAZEVSKI