Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

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dents. Because of that, OSCE has
recently warned the local community of
Shemshevo, "If people do not stop acting
irresponsibly, communication with
the village will be interrupted."
The plan for the return of the police
forces had police forces enter 139 communities.
So far, with help from OSCE
and the "Amber Foxes" from the NATO
forces, the police have succeeded in
establishing 24-hours patrols in 65 villages.
According to OSCE and EU
observers, even though the greatest part
of the peace process is successfully
implemented, time is still needed to
return the trust between the mixed ethnic
local communities, as well as the
trust of the Albanians in the Macedonian
police. Allen Le Roi, the special representative
of the European Union, says
that things are moving in a positive
direction.
"When we planned the process for
the entrance of the police forces in the
villages of the crisis region, a lot of people
didn't believe in the success of this
mission. From a total of 139 villages,
the police are back completely in 132.
During the following weeks, I hope that
the police teams will establish control in
the rest of the villages, where now there
are still no conditions for safe travel. I
am thinking primarily of the regions of
Skopska Crna Gora. But, that is only the
first phase of the plan, and we will continue
working on the complete reintegration
of the crisis regions", says Le
Roi.
He emphasized that the return of
dislocated people and refugees is also
very successful.
"At the beginning of the conflict,
more than 170,000 abandoned their
homes. So far around 155,000 have
returned to their homes, and soon we
will create better conditions for the
return of the rest of these people," says
the special representative of EU.
According to Florin Pasniku, the
spokesman of OSCE, the peace plan is
being implemented even earlier than
expected.
"The general plan for the patrolling
of the police is proceeding splendidly.
The fact that there were only a small
number of incidents is also very encouraging.
It indicates that people are in
favor of peace. People support the return
of the police and that gesture is a proof
that peace is their only option," emphasized
Pasniku.
The part of the Macedonian people
that during the crisis abandoned their
homes is returning progressively. But,
the number of those who are still living
in the refugee centers/shelters throughout
Macedonia is still big. In the villages
on Shar Planina, above the Tetovo-
Jazhince road, mainly only the older
Macedonian inhabitants are returning to
their homes. The younger ones live in
the shelters. They refuse to come back
because of "fear of the local Albanian
people".
It is not safe. There are shootings
every day, and the former terrorists are
still controlling the region. There are no
other laws except for those of the
KLA/UCK. We demand that the government
secure our villages and repair our
ruined homes. After that, we can go
back," say some of the dislocated people
from Tetovo, now living in the shelters
in Skopje.
According to the State Coordinative
Body for Dealing with Crisis, the reconstruction
of the destroyed houses, the
return of the police and the deactivation
of the minefields are the main terms for
the return of the dislocated people.
"We work intensively to help the
return of the people to their homes. But,
it is necessary first to create safe conditions
and to reconstruct the ruined houses.
The slower process of reconstruction
is delaying the return of the dislocated
people, because they simply do not have
anywhere to come back to," says Zoran
Tanevski, spokesman of the
Coordinative Body for Dealing with
Crisis.
President Boris Trajkovski has
recently met the European ambassadors
and has asked them to hasten the process
of reconstruction. After the meeting, the
German ambassador, Werner Burghard,
said that they would use the necessary
methods to hasten the reconstruction of
the houses. Besides the reconstruction
of the houses and the return of the
police, one of the main priorities in the
peace process is the deactivation of the
minefields. According to the peace plan,
it would allow additional security for the
people that are planning to come back.
In that sense, special teams of Bosnian
experienced experts are working intensively
at the moment on that matter. Last
year they cleaned the region around
Tetovo and Kumanovo. They discovered
and destroyed two different types
of mines, as well as 149 non-detonated
devices used in the military actions.
These are the so-called special ITF
groups (International Fund for Helping
the Victims of Mines). The group consists
of 36 experts, divided into three
teams of 12 people. The number of people
in this group will be increased
through the training of domestic experts.
The entrances of all the villages in the
crisis regions are expected to be cleaned
from the non-detonated devices by the
end of the fall. There are still some
regions in Skopska Crna Gora that are
not cleaned from the mines. When that
is finished, it will be safe for the police
to go back there. Abejdin Zimberi, president
of the local community of the village
Slupchane around Kumanovo (one
of the last villages the mixed ethnic
police patrols entered), emphasized that
peace is coming back to our country and
that in the future we will have to work
more on strengthening trust and coexistence.
"The entering of the police in
Slupchane and the other crisis regions is
proving that the situation is stabilizing.
The war is over and is not coming back
any more. The process of returning the
police was a bit delayed in the village of
Slupchane, but it was not ill-intentioned.
We had to secure the region first, as well
as cooperate with the local people to
assure them that the police need to
patrol in this village. That was very
important for avoiding possible incidents,
which can be fatal and can bring
us back to where we started," says
Zimberi, former head of the NLA military
police in the area of Kumanovo.
According to him, the situation in the
region of Lipkovo and Kumanovo is
more than satisfying at the moment.
"It will stay like that in the future
as well. We are ready to control this
region and we will not let anyone take
peace away from us," he says. A large
number of inhabitants of the Lipkovo
region were left without a home during
the crisis. Now they are facing poverty
and misery, living only on social support.
They are revolted because, as they
say, they receive only little humanitarian
help.
Elections for peace, July 2002