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who did not understand it are either fool or very very
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Western barbarians have no moral values, but are guided only by
their own interests. There is a sort of the phenomenon which could be compared to “ Pavlov reflex”, in the West . ��� Dragan St.Rakic -----Original Message----- Published on
Wednesday, August 15, 2001 in the Guardian of London NATO Gave Us This Ethnic Cleansing by Milcho Manchevski in Skopje The good guys of yesteryear have become the bad guys
in Macedonia. Reports from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, US state department and UN last week all point to the Albanian
separatists fighting here as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing directed at the
Macedonian population. This comes as no surprise to Balkan-watchers who have
been following the evolving tragedy in the country. During the 10 years of
fighting in what was once Yugoslavia, Macedonia managed to remain unscathed,
without help from the international community. After tense negotiations, the
Yugoslav army left peacefully, an admirable effort credited mainly to the first
Macedonian president, Kiro Gligorov. There was tension - Gligorov himself
survived an assassination attempt - but no fighting. The government and the people were repeatedly
applauded by the international community for their efforts in creating and
maintaining a multi-ethnic society. Parties representing ethnic minorities sat
in parliament. Albanian parties were coalition partners in all governments.
Today six out of 17 government ministers are ethnic Albanians, the
parliamentary vice-president is Albanian and so are several ambassadors. There
are primary and secondary schools and colleges teaching in Albanian; an
Albanian university is about to open. There are Albanian TV stations, theaters,
newspapers. Why then the recent ethnic violence? Albanian militants claim that they are fighting for
human rights. This is a mantra which has proved to be a winning argument in the
past. However, this time it is a front for an armed redrawing of the borders.
The occupation of territory; abduction and murder of civilians; threats to bomb
the parliament building in Skopje; cutting off water supplies to Prilep; and
the ethnic cleansing perpetrated on the majority Macedonians (a minority in the
area of the conflict) all raise the question: does one fight for language
recognition with mortar fire and snipers? The "ethnic cleansers", the NLA, are mainly
old KLA soldiers who fought in Kosovo alongside NATO. Most of their arms and
fighters come across the border from NATO.-administered Kosovo. The UN security
council last week requested that KFor and UNMIK (the UN's Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo) patrol the porous border more vigilantly. American, EU and NATO. diplomats have brokered a
peace agreement, which centers on a better guarantee of the Albanians' minority
rights, as a pre-requisite for disarmament. This misses the point: the radical
Albanians are fighting for territory. They are doing precisely what many
observers have been warning against for years - escalating the violence until
the average citizen is radicalized. Even though diplomats insist they will not negotiate
with the NLA, the west is, de facto, legitimizing killing in the name of a
language dispute. Meanwhile, this fragile and impoverished country - the same
country which was the primary base for NATO's operation against Milosevic's
Yugoslavia, continues to perform that role for peacekeeping in Kosovo (much at
its own peril) and which took 350,000 Kosovan refugees - is being ripped apart
under the onslaught of gunmen armed and trained by NATO. Macedonia is collateral damage of NATO's involvement
in the Balkans. The US and its allies consider it too risky to try to disarm
the KLA (or NLA), even though this was an explicit responsibility of their
Kosovo mandate. Last year's disarmament of the KLA was largely symbolic. Body
bags are not sexy, so NATO. chose to let the militants keep their weapons. NATO's Kosovo escapade did much more than arm and
train the militants. It escalated the conflict. The psychological effect of the
entire world siding with the Great Cause (as Albanian extremists see it) has
given a boost to their armed secessionist struggle. Ethnic cleansing and
occupying territories is an advanced step in redrawing borders. The last 10
years in Yugoslavia have taught us what this leads to. The international community cannot stop the bloodshed
by hypocritical appeals to "both sides". NATO., EU and the US applied
immense pressure on democratic Macedonia not to defend itself. Now, the
aggression and insurrection have got out of hand. As a result of the "peace
process," Macedonia is on its way to federalization and disintegration. The NLA must abandon its armed aggression and
insurrection before there are more political talks. The US has a moral
obligation to stop them from turning Macedonia into another Afghanistan or
Cambodia. As we learned in Bosnia, leaving the ethnic-cleansers unchecked
causes more trouble down the line. Milcho Manchevski wrote and
directed the award-winning film, Before the Rain. His next film, Dust, will
open at the Venice film festival in September � Guardian
Newspapers Limited 2001 ###
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Title: Message
