Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

Who controlls the crisis
The war ends with
Tearce and Kosovo
74
Panta Dzhambazovski
That day in January, last
year, when at the evening I was
watching news with my family,
there was a report that the police
station in Tearce was bombed. (At
that point no one new about the
announcement of the organization
called NLA). I told my wife: "It's
time to leave this country". She
looked at me amazed by what I
said, because I have never said
anything like that ever before and
particularly because she couldn't
imagine a life far away from
Skopje.
I explained: "Soon we will be saying
that we've just had a good
week with only 2-3 attacks on the
police stations".
At that point, I wasn't aware how
much I was right, although, I was
actually believing that we were
entering the zone of an increasing
terrorism, similarly to Spain,
Ireland or even France or Greece.
Have I ever thought of a war? God
forbid! Leaving Skopje - never!
Few months later, I went to Tetovo
on a press-conference, where PDP
announced" "If the giant crucifixion
is built on the top of the Kale
(fortress), we will be forced to
destroy it."
I didn't believe in those words,
because that type of actions is not
typical for this political party. But,
one cannot beat one's profession,
so my photographer and I climbed
on the top of this fortress in
Tetovo to take some pictures of
the place where the issued crucifixion
was to be posted. We took a
lot of pictures and for the time we
spent there we encountered several
small groups of strange persons
wearing black clothes. They were
watching us. We felt unpleasant,
but we had to finish our job. I wish
now, we have at least assumed that
those unfriendly figures were
armed or that they could be a part
of some illegal army (NLA!).
Unfortunately, we haven't!
This adventure on the Kale happened
right before Tanushevci.
Even afterwards (that means even
after Tanushevci and March 14th,
when the actual conflict started), I
remembered everything.
The next-coming war seemed that
couldn't be stopped. Least with the
help of the international community,
because it looked like they
also participated in its escalation.
George Robertson came to Skopje
12 times, Xavier Solana - 23, during
the war conflict. I believe that
they haven't visited their homes
this much. With the TFH - the
"Harvest", hundreds of Albanians
were put in line to submit their
weapons. The ones who are familiar
with the Albanian mentality
will know what I mean.
They signed the Ohrid agreement
and after that, each day was
increasing the coldness around
Ohrid. Albanian military and
political leaders started giving
more careful and secured statements,
expressing hope for peace
and the returning of the coexistence.
They were always ending
their statements with the words:
"But, unless….".
The statements of the political factors
in the Macedonian government
were nothing but adventurous.
Those media that didn't just
count the shootings
and weren't hurrying
to distribute the information
of this kind:
from our sources, we
discovered……, were
vary rare, but fortunately
influencing.
Only a few of them
remained faithful to
the good old profession
rule to hear and
present both sides,
without adding different
epithets, which
should be forbidden
for the sake of the
objective informing.
The government has
lost its chance of
implementing the Ohrid agreement
in a classy manner, but
instead has allowed going backwards.
Then, under the intimidations
by sanctions, the government
agreed to complete its obligations.
(Remember the amnesty,
the retreat of the "Lions"….). The
Republic of Macedonia didn't
make a political aggression in
terms of the crisis, but it has created
some dreadful intern fights for
For the international
community,
Macedonia
is a good test
for testing the,
yet to be solved
problems on
the relations
Belgrade-
Podgorica and
Belgrade-
Prishtina
Will there be peace?, February 2002