Neither war nor peace

The former residence of Josip Broz Tito, the villa "Biljana" by Lake Ohrid, ten years after the unsuccessful meeting of the SFRY-six, was again given the epithet "cafe of the last chance". The leaders of the four largest Macedonian political parties, Ljupco Georgijevski, Branko Crvenkovski, Imer Imeri and Arben Xhaferi, with the help of facilitators (read mediators) James Perdue and Francois Leotard, are trying to find a way to resolve the six-month war crisis in Macedonia. However, unlike in 1991, when the presidents of the then Yugoslav republics were at the same time the leaders of the conflicting parties, now the negotiations are conducted within a large government coalition, while the paramilitary Liberation National Army, which is undeniably one of the parties in the conflict, does not have its own representatives for green table. At first glance, this seems normal because there is no negotiation with terrorists, but in this case the question arises: "What will be the purpose of a possible agreement, if the same agreement is not to the liking of ONA leaders and if they refuse to lay down their arms?"

Nevertheless, the concessions made by the Macedonian side during the negotiations in the direction of increasing the rights of the Albanian minority, such as the officialization of the Albanian language in municipalities where more than 20 percent of Albanians live, the use of the Albanian language in the plenary sessions of the Macedonian Assembly and the proportional participation of Albanians in the police, give some chance that the eventual agreement will be liked by Ali Ahmeti and his terrorist ONA and that the weapons will finally fall silent.

NA FIELD EVS GORE: And while politicians on the shores of Lake Ohrid are trying to find a way to peace, the situation in the crisis areas is getting worse day by day. Ethnic cleansing, which was characteristic of the Yugoslav wars, and which Macedonia resisted for almost six months, these days is starting to become a practice of the National Liberation Army as well. Lesok, Tearce, Neprošteno and several other villages in Tetovo were, so to speak, completely cleared of Macedonians, and their houses were looted and burned.

"At least for now, my house has not been burned, but I do not believe that I can safely return to Tearce, even though an agreement has been reached on the withdrawal of terrorists from my village." There is simply no life there anymore. We were shot at by our Albanian neighbors, but also by the Turks. How can I go there and let my six year old daughter play outside? The state did not help us... they gave us rifles with 120 bullets for each of us and told us to defend ourselves. How do you defend yourself against hundreds...thousands of terrorists who have far more weapons and ammunition?" says angrily the middle-aged resident of Tearac who sits hopelessly on the steps of the Macedonian Sobranja together with his family.

The action to return the Macedonian population to Tetovo villages organized by the OSCE and the Ministry of Defense did not produce the desired results. Most people just looked at their destroyed homes and returned to Skopje again.

Refugees from the Karadakh-Kumanov region are mostly silent in Skopje because Macedonians, Serbs and other non-Albanian inhabitants of the villages that fell under the control of Albanian terrorists even before the signing of the last truce fled.

The state media in Skopje, in an effort to calm the passions of Macedonians, often resort to formulations that are, to put it mildly, "ridiculous". Thus, for example, the national television repeated several times that the terrorists behaved well towards the Macedonian residents of the Tetovo villages when they searched their houses.

The rallies that are held almost every other day in front of the Assembly of Macedonia are organized mostly spontaneously or by marginal parties and organizations, and the only anti-Albanian ones are anti-Western. The stoning of the German, British, and American embassies and McDonald's restaurants, the burning of vehicles of foreign organizations, and the beating of Western journalists became a regular feature of these rallies. The Macedonians were particularly revolted after the cannonade of fireballs that were fired a few days ago by a British helicopter as part of KFOR, no less than over the residences of President Trajkovski and Prime Minister Ljupcet Georgijevski. Macedonians apparently did not accept the alliance's justifications that it was a technical error, but the firing of fireballs from a British helicopter was interpreted by the majority of the Macedonian public as a military threat by NATO in order to force the Macedonian side to be more lenient in negotiations.

INCREASE revolt: The revolt of the Macedonians was reinforced by the information that an American helicopter recently dropped a container with unknown contents in the Tetovo village of Šipkovica, which is still under the control of terrorists. The denials that came from the American representatives in Skopje did not do much to calm the passions of the Macedonians. Pressure from American diplomacy on Ukraine to stop supplying arms to Macedonia was also met with much anger in Macedonia. When you add to this the fact that 17 American military consultants were present in Aračinovo during the military action of the Macedonian security forces to liberate this village, then the picture of the anti-American and anti-NATO mood in Skopje becomes clearer (stories about the presence of American military consultants among ONA members e, which at first spread through the Skopje bazaar these days was also confirmed by the German newspaper "Der Spiegel").

Most of the staff left the American Embassy in Skopje, which with its five-to-six meter high fence looks more like a fortress than an embassy. The security of the embassy was reinforced with forty more US Army marines after the stoning by the protesters. Foreigners employed in other Western embassies also began to leave Macedonia. It is becoming increasingly clear that "gringos" in the land of "chokali" feel less and less safe.

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The roots of the anti-Western mood among Macedonians come from the time of the collapse of the SFRY, when the West recognized the independence of Slovenia and Croatia, although according to the opinion of the Badenter Commission, apart from Slovenia, only Macedonia met the conditions to be recognized as an independent state. Western diplomats conditioned the non-recognition of Macedonia by the European Union and the United States to solve the name problem, which was imposed by Greece at the time. When asked why Macedonia was not recognized even though European legal experts gave the green light for Macedonian independence, Western diplomats usually answered that the name issue is not a legal but a political problem. Such answers sounded extremely absurd and contradictory to the Macedonians, because according to these same Western diplomats, "law" had priority over "politics" when it comes to managing states and relations between countries.

BOMB I ECONOMY: The bombing of Yugoslavia also caused an avalanche of anti-Western reactions in Skopje. The American embassy was completely demolished by the protesters, who along the way destroyed all the cars of foreign missions and organizations that happened to be on their way. Macedonians simply could not support the Western policy that punished one and supported the other hegemony, especially since the latter was much more dangerous for Macedonia at that moment. Even then President Kiro Gligorov made it clear to NATO that his country would not allow a neighboring country to be attacked from its territory. Because of his views that he announced at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the formation of NATO, Gligorova was sent by Madeleine Albright for clarification (read the report) to then US President Bill Clinton. Undoubtedly, the other political entities in Macedonia were also against the permission to use the Macedonian sky to attack Yugoslavia, but the military action of the Alliance was already a foregone conclusion. "It was too big a bite for us," former President Gligorov said one year after the war in Yugoslavia.

Claims that the Macedonians showed their readiness for a new alliance with Serbia with their protests are incorrect, because the citizens of Macedonia expressed their fear of the spread of Albanian hegemony, whose next goal was obviously Macedonia. The best evidence for this is the fact that the demonstrations lost their power the moment the Janaćković-Miletić duo tried to take over the situation and when Serbian flags flew on the streets of Skopje.

The economic factor also played an important role in distancing Macedonians from the West. During the war against Yugoslavia, the West promised Macedonia honey and milk, but in the end it all came down to $160 million in aid. The unfulfilled promises made the Macedonians look at every promise of some big help that would come from the EU and the USA with reservations. Macedonia spent more than 250 million dollars on Kosovo refugees, and NATO troops caused 109 million dollars worth of road damage while crossing Macedonia. Macedonia has not yet received compensation for this. There is also the damage done to Macedonia by the termination of trade relations with companies from Yugoslavia during the war, which has not yet been precisely determined, but is estimated at several hundred million dollars. Someone had to pay for all this damage... Stability Pact? Macedonians almost talked about him, and even if they didn't, they don't take him seriously.

The anti-Western feelings of the Macedonians were also reinforced by the irresponsible behavior of the drivers of NATO vehicles who killed a dozen Macedonian citizens in 1999 and 2000, including a minister and his family. Admittedly, the Macedonian media also helped a lot in creating an anti-NATO mood because they only reported on traffic incidents in which the soldiers of the alliance were involved, and did not even mention the fact that in the meantime hundreds of people lost their lives due to the carelessness of local drivers. Fights between KFOR members and local boys who were not used to strangers acting like bosses in their village were not rare either.

CHANGE THE ROLE: The leader of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski, then tried to shift the burden of blame for the behavior of members of the alliance in Macedonia onto the backs of Ljupčo Georgijevski and his ruling VMRO-DPMNE, claiming that the government is too servile and lenient in its relationship with the West and blaming Georgijevski for failing to show foreigners that in Macedonia the forces of the alliance are only guests and that they should behave like guests. At the time, Crvenkovski ignored the fact that he was the signatory of the SOFA-arrangement with NATO, which practically gives the guests from the West the legitimacy of the hosts.

According to the old rule, until a few months ago, the anti-Western oriented Crvenkovski changed his rhetoric and became cooperative in relations with the EU and the USA, just at the moment when his eternal rival Ljupco Georgijevski fiercely attacked the West for helping Albanian terrorists and leading a policy of destroying Macedonia. Crvenkovski's turnaround is interpreted by some analysts as a sign that Georgievski's time has passed and that Crvenkovski's latest pro-Western turn is trying to get the support of the EU and the US in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for February next year. This kind of role reversal in the style of "anti-Western" and "pro-Western" rhetoric is nothing new in Macedonian politics. Only Crvenkovski and Georgijevski changed "anti-Western" and "pro-Western" roles four or five times in the last ten years.