Political Solution and Terrorism in Macedonia

Axis Information and Analysis ^ | 11.10.2005 | Can Karpat

[Jane_N]

Turkish expert Gözde Kilic Yasin from the National Security Strategies Research Centre (TUSAM), Balkans Research Department analyses the crisis situation in Macedonia on the pages of the Turkish Strateji Dergisi magazine. Albanian terrorism in the country is not fading despite granting the Albanians more rights to the detriment of the Macedonians. AIA brings a translation of the article…

For the last three months, Macedonia discussed the apprehending of the elusive Albanian Agim Krasniqi, the perpetrator of several terror blasts and bombings. Krasniqi occupied Kondova, a little village near the capital city of Skopje with his gang of 80 (according to some sources, 200) heavily armed men, and threatened that they would attack Skopje if the government engage in any operation against them. Kondova became a highly important centre since it had been also the centre of the Albanian separatist revolt in 2001. Consequently anxiety of the population that the same violent events are going to come back and that the Macedonian security forces could not enter the zone for months caused a serious crisis for the government. In fact there was neither a serious damage nor human loss; yet the event had weakened people’s confidence in the state. According to the famous philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, men, who give up their unlimited freedom and authority, granting these to the State, expect that the latter guaranty their security and safety. A State, which does not hold the monopoly of legitimate repression instruments, cannot maintain the internal security. The Macedonians hoped that after so many rights and privileges had been granted to the Albanians, they would complete their integration with Macedonian society and political system, and thus they would live in a peaceful country again. However, the Macedonians as well as the Albanians lost their confidence in the government.

The Terror Reigns in Macedonia

According to Ohrid Agreement imposed by the Western countries, the Albanian minority was supposed to be granted more constitutional rights, and allowed to use their own mother language in schools and the Parliament. Later on through the process of strengthening of the local administration, the agreement made possible that in some regions, The Albanians got the control of education, health and finance and proclaimed the Albanian language as the second official language in those areas and finally began to use flags and ethnical symbols in public. According to the regional organisation regulation, areas where the majority of the population is Macedonian were put under the administration of Albanian mayoralties. Although that latter fact caused protestations amongst the Macedonians, the fear of an eventual conflict made them silent. The population is scared that a new wave of terror could get hold of the country, and did not even said a word before the fact that in some case the Albanians were granted rights that would be to their own detriment. Fear affected political behaviour. As a matter of fact, a terror movement, which follows the strategy of “reign through fear”, after some time will not need to commit new terror acts. That is why Krasniqi’s terror threats already reached their aim. As to the Albanians, separatist or not, they considered the fact that the government could not get hold of the Albanian leader and his band for months as very encouraging for those groups to start terror acts. That fact also prevented the eventual integration of some groups that are willing to integrate in the system before. Thus the social integration became impossible. Claims that the government had bargained with those criminals and that all of the juridical verdicts on Krasniqi's cases were abolished under political pressure made a shocking effect on the population.

The Double Standard in Favour of Terrorism

One of those, who criticise the most the government and the Prime Minister, Vlado Buckovski, on recent events, is former leader of the ruling party and the current President, Branko Zrevenkovski. Just at the beginning of the crisis, the Prime Minister, the President and the Minister of Interior met and agreed to make no concessions whatsoever and to resolve the problem with "zero tolerance". Nevertheless it seems that afterwards the government violating the article of the Macedonian Constitution, which stipulates that “the government has to inform the President of the security state of the country”, had begun to seek a different solution than the agreed one. Therefore the disagreement between the President and the government also reflected to the press was augmented. The statement of the President, Zrevenkovski on September, 29, is very significant: “Law will rule Macedonia or it will not? Either laws will be applicable to everyone or the lawlessness will spread”. The “State of Law” principle stipulates that citizens trust the State that it acts according to existing laws. In this regard, that a criminal is not punished would offence social conscience as well as those, who live according to laws. The West, the promoter of democracy, which compelled the Macedonian government to resolve that problem with a political solution without using security forces, should be aware of the fact that the indulgence shown to terrorists harm for a second time those citizens, who are willing to live according to the democratic rules. The West that is hunting for terrorism everywhere in the world with every means proposes to others to prefer political solution displays a double standard. It seems that democracy is to be interpreted differently according to the place where terror acts happen - the West or the East. Although Buckovski government could get rid of the vote of confidence about its management of Kondova revolt, has not answered yet to the President’s questions. Naturally questions about why a criminal could be caught only with an amnesty promise will remain unanswered or even if answered, the answers will not appear in the press. The government is inclined to present the capture of the criminal without any operation as a success. The government is convinced that Krasniqi compelling the police to use violence wanted to create the impression that the Albanian minority is tyrannised in Macedonia. The suspect was captured without human loss and regional upheaval, though the Macedonian population will always remember this event as a mark of failure of the government. The fact that some Albanians stated that “they will unify when Kosovo will be independent” and that “afterwards they will grant many rights including the use of their own flag to the Macedonians, who will become the minority”, justifies that a larger milieu is convinced of the government’s failure.

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