Frå International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/24240.htm
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Disappearances Blamed on Macedonian Police
Carlotta Gall New York Times Service
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Ethnic Albanians Wary of Slav-Led Force
STRUGA, Macedonia
Several prominent ethnic Albanian community leaders have disappeared in
Macedonia in recent months and here in the southwestern region, where one
local Albanian political leader was killed, the Albanians increasingly
blame the police force, which is dominated by the country's majority
Slavs.
Government officials and foreign observers talk of increasing signs that
elements in the Interior Ministry have been organizing and arming
paramilitary groups and are behind the violence against ethnic Albanians.
Some officials have accused Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski himself of
orchestrating attacks and stirring ethnic tensions.
Those tensions now are palpable in most communities in this country of 1.9
million people, as many as one-third of whom are ethnic Albanians.
In this lake resort, armed police officers have begun regular patrols. And
in the surrounding region, many Albanians alternately seethe and are
fearful about the disappearances of a prominent businessman and a
political activist, and the killing of a local politician, Naser Hani, 43.
Mr. Hani's friends say he died when kidnappers shot him a half-dozen times
and then fled.
"It was like when there is a lot of gasoline spilled and it takes only one
thing to happen and the whole thing blows up," said Tahir Hani, a relative
of the dead man and the mayor of Velesta, Naser Hani's home village.
Relatives and colleagues of the victims blame the police force for what
they call a conscious effort to attack local leaders and members of the
main Albanian political party, the Democratic Party for Albanians. The
party is the national government coalition of two Slavic and two Albanian
parties and its associates included Mr. Hani and the two missing men.
The Interior Ministry said it was looking into those and other cases.
Some ministry officials and reports in the Macedonian Slav media have
suggested that Mr. Hani and the missing men were linked to shady business
dealings, even organized crime, and that Albanian business rivals are
behind the killing and the kidnappings. Smuggling and trafficking in women
is known to occur in the Struga area, which is near the border with
Albania, the officials said. But relatives and Albanian politicians tell a
different story, supported by the justice minister, Ixhep Mehmeti, an
Albanian. Two weeks ago he presented a list of 56 Albanians who he said
had disappeared or been arrested by the police.
Numerous arrests and police beatings of ethnic Albanians have been
reported in the three to four months since ethnic rebels, known as the
National Liberation Army, began their insurgency.
"It is our obligation to clear up all these cases," said Stevo
Pendarovski, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. "We have to restore
the trust of all Macedonians, regardless of their ethnicity."
For the Albanians in Velesta, the killing of Mr. Hani was political and
aimed against them all.
"The message is clear," Mayor Hani said.
"It is to scare the Albanian people from pursuing political
issues and to scare Albanians from speaking out and acting
in Macedonia."
U.S. Tells Americans to Leave
The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday ordered as many as 30 Americans to leave
Macedonia following riots that revealed rising anti-Western sentiment in
the tense nation, The Associated Press reported from Skopje, Macedonia.
An embassy spokeswoman said the order to evacuate 10 nonessential embassy
staff members and 20 contract workers was intended to shield U.S. citizens
from ethnic violence.
"This is something the U.S. Embassy does not want to fool around with,"
said the spokeswoman, Yolanda Robinson.
"It's a very unsettled situation and potentially dangerous."
Canada, Germany and Britain also published travel warnings, but did not
order citizens to leave.
Western officials noted that the United States has more workers in
Macedonia than other Western nations. About 2,000 Americans live in
Macedonia, compared with about 120 Britons, for example.
Bush Acts to Restrict Rebels
President George W. Bush moved Wednesday to limit the funds and mobility
of ethnic Albanian rebels fighting in Macedonia, The Associated Press
reported from Washington. The actions were part of what the White House
called an effort to "face down extremists."
The president signed an executive order barring Americans from any
transactions involving the property of known rebel leaders. In a separate
proclamation, Mr. Bush also restricted their entry to the United States.
He took the action two days after a decision by General Joseph Ralston,
commander of all U.S. forces in Europe and the top NATO commander, to use
some of the 700 U.S. troops in Macedonia to protect buses carrying ethnic
Albanian rebels. It was the Americans first direct involvement in the
continuing
hostilities.
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