A fragile hope for peace

"Why do you criticize violence so much when it is clear that this agreement meets the demands of ONA, which tried and succeeded with violence to fight for greater rights of Albanians in Macedonia?" With this question, which is both a statement and a diagnosis of the Macedonian war crisis, the journalist CNN managed to completely confuse the first man of NATO, George Robertson, at the press conference after the signing of the framework agreement to resolve the war crisis in Macedonia. The agreement was signed on Monday by the leaders of the four largest political parties in Macedonia: Ljupco Georgijevski, Branko Crvenkovski, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri.

Robertson's answer was reduced to the fact that the agreement does not foresee any special rights for Albanians, but only those that would have to belong to them if Macedonia wants to integrate with Europe.

It's strange, but nobody in Macedonia remembers that before the outbreak of the war crisis, the EU demanded a change in the Macedonian constitution, the officialization of the Albanian language, proportional representation of Albanians in the police, etc., etc., or maybe the EU had it in its plans, but they ONA members preempted. No! Violence still won. If the CNN journalist had arguments for such a statement, then the citizens of Macedonia have at least 1000 more arguments. But let's start in order.

NOVIA LAP VIOLENCE: Just at the moment when it seemed that the occasional shooting in the crisis areas of Macedonia was only the last echo of the war clashes and when Macedonian citizens were expecting the end of the political negotiations in Ohrid at the end of last week with a lot of doubt, but also hope, the war conflicts started again. returned to the former "oasis of peace". The shooting in the Čair settlement in Skopje, when five Albanian extremists lost their lives in a clash with the Macedonian police, was the beginning of a new round of violence. The very next day, ten Macedonian reservists were killed in an attack by Albanian terrorists near the village of Grupcin, on the Skopje - Tetovo road. The citizens of this Macedonian city didn't even wait to hear the names of their fellow citizens who died, and already started demolishing and burning. However, they ran into a problem. Only a few Albanian families live in Prilep. Someone "had" to be guilty after all. Macedonian Muslim shops were destroyed, and the only mosque in the city was set on fire (the mosque was built in the 15th century and was a cultural monument).

The following day, a Macedonian army truck ran into a mine on the Ljubanci - Ljuboten road (Skopska Montenegro). Eight reservists were killed. They were all from Skopje. Then the people of Skopje "charged the guild" created by Albanian terrorists by breaking the windows of Albanian and Muslim shops in Skopje. The next day, Albanian terrorists started mass burning of Macedonian houses in the vicinity of Tetovo. The vicious cycle of violence has closed.

Regardless of the political agreement, which guarantees greater rights to the Albanians in Macedonia, but which also guarantees the unitary character of Macedonia, the line of ethnic demarcation is becoming increasingly visible day by day. The surroundings of Tetovo were practically cleared of Macedonians, and most of the Albanians from Bitola found refuge with their relatives in the western part of Macedonia a month ago. Real estate agencies are working full steam, offering Macedonians from the western part of the country houses and apartments in areas where the majority Macedonian population lives, and Albanians from the eastern and central part of the country offering houses and apartments in areas with an Albanian majority population.

COME JE THE HARDEST: "I don't believe in further living together with Albanians after what happened to us in our village." How can I live with a neighbor who I know for sure set fire to my house," says Tearce, a middle-aged resident of the Tetovo village who has been sleeping with his family for 15 days in a park located twenty meters from the Macedonian Parliament. At the entrance to the park, between two trees, the slogan "Refugee Camp BORIS TRAJKOVSKI" is hung. Several tractors covered with tent wings have been parked in front of Sobranje for two weeks, where several Macedonian families from the Tetovo area spend their days and nights: "I would go back even if I only found ashes from my house." I don't understand why they don't include us in military operations, because we know the terrain best and can be much more useful there than here," says the 42-year-old resident of the village of Lesok. When asked if it is possible to live together with Albanians, the man answers briefly: "NO!" ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

Of all the ethnic groups, the Macedonian Muslims are in the most difficult situation, and they find themselves between two fires through no fault of their own.

"My son went to defend Macedonia last week as a military reservist, and for me, the Macedonian protesters demolished the shop the other day. I've always been loyal to this country and I don't see why I'm the one paying the guild for the stupid things that Albanian terrorists do, I have nothing to do with them. "I don't know what I'm going to live on now, and even less do I know if it's wise to redecorate the shop and continue the business," says 50-year-old Jakup, the owner of a Skopje pastry shop.

POLITICIANS - UNIQUE: The flare-up of fighting near the villages of Raduša and Ljubanci, from which the capital of Macedonia rumbled for several days to the rhythm of artillery fire, and the reinforcements that arrived to the extremists from the Kosovo side (near the village of Raduša, from the Kosovo side, 600 to 700 members of the Kosovo Protection Corps crossed the border) they forced the Macedonian political elite to react strongly to the international factor. President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljupcho Georgijevski and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilinka Mitreva each sent letters to Kofi Annan, George Robertson and Javier Solana in which they strongly protest the passivity of the KFOR forces who are doing almost nothing to prevent Albanian terrorists from leaving Kosovo they enter Macedonia. After two years of silence, the Macedonian political leadership unanimously announced to the West in the aforementioned letters that NATO's military intervention against Yugoslavia was the result of wrong assessments and that Macedonia is now paying for the wrong policy of the West.

It is particularly surprising that Trajkovski and Georgijevski (VMRO-DPMNE) on the one hand and Mitrev (SDSM) on the other reacted in the same way, because this broke the habit of the two largest political parties in the country to change roles in the style of pro-Western and anti-Western parties. According to some analysts, the "verbal slap" received by the West from the Macedonian political leadership was necessary for domestic use as well, because the anti-Western (especially anti-American) sentiment among Macedonians intensified so much that it began to get out of control (on the streets of Skopje it is rare to see undamaged parked vehicles of Western countries and international organizations, while beating foreign journalists and stoning Western embassies are a regular practice of citizens of the Macedonian capital). Almost all Western countries have already recommended their citizens not to travel to Macedonia, and the personnel in the embassies in Skopje has been reduced to a minimum.

EVS LESS NADE: Despite the pompous speeches full of optimism and hope delivered during the signing of the framework agreement between the leaders of the four largest Macedonian parties, there are fewer and fewer people in Macedonia who believe that with the arrival of 3500 NATO soldiers, the terrorists will voluntarily lay down their arms and peace will finally reign in the country. ONA's political leader Ali Ahmeti's acceptance of the deal was the main reason why the recently unknown Albanian National Army (ANA), which claimed responsibility for the attacks near Grupcin and Ljubanc, asked for his resignation. Ahmeti's sudden turn from a radical to a moderate is the subject of numerous assumptions ranging from the fact that he intends to extend the mandate of NATO soldiers indefinitely after the arrival of them and thus consolidate power in the occupied territories, all the way to theories that asking for the resignation of on the part of the ANA, a simple terrorist's bluff who, as members of the ONA, will hand over a hundred Kalashnikovs, while the rest of the weapons will remain with the paramilitary ANA, which will contain the same extremists from SHE.

Such a change of the name of the Albanian paramilitary organizations can last indefinitely. It's only strange that the West turns a blind eye to the fact that the UCK, UCKKPMB, ONA and ANA are just different names for the monster he created and whose head is in Pristina. That monster is called the Kosovo Protection Corps, and to make the absurdity even greater, it is financed by the United Nations. In any case, the plan for the voluntary handing over of weapons by Albanian terrorists to NATO troops is practically unachievable, as the leaders of the alliance are surely aware. After all, if the terrorists really want to lay down their arms, it could be done without the entry of NATO troops into Macedonia, let's say a truce is concluded and a deadline is set for the terrorists to hand them over to KFOR soldiers on the border with Kosovo, which is located on only ten kilometers from the front line.

Peace ??? Ivo Andrić would say: Hope says yes and everything else says no.