Getting closer to total war

Four months after the beginning of the crisis caused by the actions of Albanian extremists, Macedonia is getting closer to total war, and further away from finding a peaceful solution. Apart from military and political analysts, unfortunately, the majority of Macedonian citizens are beginning to accept this statement. Because, while politicians of all colors and nationalities agree on peace, before the eyes of the Macedonians, part by part of their homeland is disappearing every day. After the occupation of the northern part of Šar Mountain and a dozen villages in the Karadakh-Kumanov region, these days the National Liberation Army (ONA) managed to occupy Aračinovo, a village of about 15.000 inhabitants located only 20 kilometers from the center of Skopje.

Citizens' trust in the political establishment is seriously questioned, especially due to the fact that just a few days before ONA's entry into Aračinovo, the authorities confidently claimed that no terrorists would enter this village, as the police and army completely control the terrain. The number of terrorists controlling Aračinovo has not been precisely determined, and estimates range between 30 and 800. Representatives of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) claim that there are several dozen terrorists in Aračinovo and that the figure of 800 terrorists is a "fabrication" of VMRO-DPMNE. in order to justify the idea of ​​introducing martial law.

ABSURD DO ABSURDITY: One of the biggest absurdities of Macedonian daily political outwitting is the fact that the leader of SDSM, Branko Crvenkovski, until the formation of the grand coalition, criticized Prime Minister Georgijevski that the actions carried out by the Macedonian security forces were not decisive enough, so that just a few days after the formation of the coalition of national unity, he started to represent a political option for exiting the crisis.

Prime Minister Georgievski also made a U-turn and replaced the political option with a military one, so that the two bitter rivals switched roles for the umpteenth time. The situation in which Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski found himself, who was nominated by VMRO-DPMNE, was elected thanks to the votes of the Albanians, and then was considered illegitimate by the SDSM for two years, is also absurd. Trajkovski, who advocates a political solution to the crisis, is now supported only by the SDSM, the same party that claimed until a few months ago that he could not be considered the president of Macedonia, because the way in which he was elected was not regular.

And while Macedonian politicians are outsmarting each other, terrorists are already starting to threaten to bomb targets in the Macedonian capital. One of the ONA commanders, a certain Hoxha, threatened to target the Petrovec airport and other targets in the city if the Macedonian security forces did not immediately stop the military action in the Karadakh-Kumanov region. Macedonian military experts rejected the possibility that the 120-millimeter mortars used by the terrorists could target targets in the city, but they did not rule out the possibility that Skopje's Petrovec airport could be the target of Albanian terrorists, because it is located

less than ten kilometers from Aračinovo. All the Macedonians left this village after the terrorists entered, but most of the Albanians also left the village. The former mostly went to relatives in Skopje, and the latter to Kosovo.

ABSENCE COORDINATION: The military actions of the Macedonian security forces in the Karadac region did not produce the desired results. That something is wrong with the strategy was also confirmed by the spokesman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Stevo Pendarovski, who emphasized the necessity of forming a joint command over the army and the police in order to make the action more synchronized. The idea of ​​a joint command has been accepted by almost all the relevant political subjects in the country, but for now the army and the police are continuing the action in a rather scattered manner. Some analysts explain the poor coordination by the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is headed by Ljube Boškovski (VMRO-DPMNE), and the Ministry of Defense is headed by Vlado Bučkovski (SDSM), and that the bad relations between the two largest Macedonian parties are directly reflected in the situation at the front. . A growing problem for the coalition government in Skopje is also the strengthening of Macedonian nationalism. The killing of five soldiers, three of whom were from Bitol, which happened a few days ago near the village of Gajre on the Shar mountain, caused an eruption of anger in Bitol. 50 shops and houses of local Albanians and Macedonian Muslims were burned. The house of Muharem Nedzhipi, deputy minister of health and presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Albanians in the elections held two years ago, also burned down. The police barely managed to use tear gas to break up the crowd of several thousand people who went to the Bitola barracks to get weapons. "It was a terrible night. People wanted to go with weapons to the village of Kiševa, where ethnic Albanians live, which is located a few kilometers from the city. Here in the city, Macedonian Muslim shops were also damaged. I don't understand why they are to blame, but that's how it is when the crowd comes," says 24-year-old Mende from Bitola.

WAR CONDITIONS U CITIES: Big cities that until now lived a mostly normal life are starting to adapt more and more to wartime living conditions. This is especially true for Kumanovo, where not a drop of water has flowed from the taps for a week. The problem is that the Lipkovo Lake, from which Kumanovo and its approximately 100.000 inhabitants are supplied with water, is in the hands of terrorists who have closed the valves. Columns of citizens up to 50 meters long can be seen every day in front of the water tankers coming from Skopje. Health workers warn that, if the situation does not change soon, Kumanovo is threatened with epidemics.

Tetovo also faces similar problems, where the water from the taps drips more than it flows, because the main water pump does not receive enough electricity due to a fault in the transmission line that was damaged in the fighting, and repair is impossible because the fault is located in an area controlled by terrorists. The residents of the higher floors have not had a drop of water for several days. And while the Euro peacemakers led by Javier Solana come to Skopje every four or five days with new plans for a peaceful solution to the crisis, the split in the coalition government is becoming increasingly visible. The rhetoric of the leaders of the Albanian political parties in Macedonia, Arben Xhaferi and Imer Imeri, is becoming day by day more and more similar to the rhetoric of ONA commanders, and the rhetoric of Macedonian politicians is also changing. "What is happening in Macedonia is a logical continuation of the breakup of Yugoslavia," DPA leader Arben Xhaferi told Croatian Television. "Well, for God's sake, Yugoslavia has already disintegrated," answered the HTV journalist in surprise.

Prime Minister Ljupco Georgijevski is increasingly using the term "armed rebellion of Albanians" instead of "terrorist attacks". One gets the impression that the political solution to the crisis advocated by President Trajkovski and Social Democrat leader Branko Crvenkovski will not withstand the pressure of the Macedonian public for long.

This is supported by the fact that every day the number of people who left their homes before the onslaught of terrorists and whose patience has already given up, and the families of soldiers and policemen who die every day in clashes with them, also give up patience. The "Oasis of Peace" was overtaken by a storm. Whether the "oasis" will be forever covered by sand or survive in the harsh Balkan desert is more and more a matter of power and less and less wisdom.