Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

Hostages kept by criminals
What does it matter if the Macedonian flag waves over the Tetovo
fortress again if only Albanian flags will be fluttering on the streets of
Tetovo for the next national holiday? And what does a story about
flags have to do with what follows?
Goran Mihajlovski
The horrible thing is that all foreign
journalists I talked to during
the fighting in Tetovo told me "there
is no end to this story." Even more
horrible is that I have no counter
arguments. I also can see no end.
Macedonia is a hostage being
held by criminals. They have successfully
put forward ethnic questions
behind which they hide their alleged
high national interests they are
defending. They do not care about the
rights of Albanians in Macedonia;
especially not if one of "theirs" is trying
to take over their dirty business
when he realizes he has been cheated
or that someone owes him money.
President Boris Trajkovski
should not deceive himself that
there may be some individuals who
forced Albanians to vote for him
among terrorists from Tetovo who
are throwing bombs at his policemen.
He should ask his "big mama"
Dosta Dimovska why she ordered
policemen to withdraw from
Tanushevci, Brest, and Malino as
soon as she became minister of
internal affairs, and why did the
police not patrol the famous Tetovo
fortress? Was it because of relaxed
interethnic relations; because Arben
Xhaferi complained that the very
presence of Macedonian police disturbs
Albanian inhabitants? Or was
it to allow for smuggling, which
lines the pockets of those who are
allegedly necessary for peace in
Macedonia?
Now we've seen them in their
true light. There is no peace with
them in Macedonia, although they
are still trying to present themselves
as politicians and peacemakers.
We have to pay the bill. Law
disappeared from this country a
long time ago. First the SDSM
(Social Democratic Union of
Macedonia) demolished the Hard
Rock Cafe because they hadn't been
paid for their "political fieldwork."
Then Ade Ciganot suddenly vanished;
he who had become famous
thanks to the first gangster-style
murder in central Skopje. This continued
with the murders during the
local elections in Kondovo. It
became obvious with the circus
called Minister of Justice Xhevdet
Nasufi, when Xhavid Asani was
exchanged for four Macedonian
soldiers kidnapped in Tanushevci.
And with the papers lost for Fazli
Veliu's extradition. Wasn't it also
strange when we discovered the
Deputy Minister of Defense's personal
chauffeur had fired at a traffic
policeman and, before that, the
Deputy Minister of Defense had
accidentally gone to Kondovo
(when a man was shot while voting)
with weapons found in the trunk of
an official vehicle? Did the president's
bodyguard accidentally go to
Ohrid at the time of the armed incident
during the local elections?
Well, when you're in bad company…
Now, when the time has come
for Prime Minister Ljubcho
Georgievski to pay, he plays innocent.
He finds other people guilty of
spending his money. He could have
simply read the papers and watched
television. He could have believed
their stories about Tanushevci as the
terrorists' base; about suspicious
uniformed individuals walking
down the slopes of the Shar
Mountain; and about unidentified
trucks crossing the border from
Blace toward Kosovo. Now, when
he is blaming the whole world for
what has happened to him, how can
he expect us to believe that he did
not know?
Poor us. We believed that this is
all about ideology; that someone was
trying to create a Greater Albania;
that someone was fighting for
Albanian human rights, and that others
were refusing to yield; that
Europe told them to be nice, which is
why they are cooperating. The truth
is that common interests bind them.
And now, when they see that criminals
have endangered their power,
they are trying to present themselves
as the most resolute fighters against
criminals. How ridiculous!
I will mention again the story
about flags from the beginning of
this text. Why is it so that we, the
common people on both sides,
believe in such things, whereas
those who decide our destiny think
about far more concrete things in
their pockets?
The story began with flags, didn't
it? Remember Gostivar?
(The author is editor-in-chief
of the Macedonian
daily newspaper Vest)
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Liberation from war, April 2001