HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[Not the first of the new fascists spreading through Europe to insist that he is actually a social democrat, it seems that Ali Ahmeti, the Western backed KLA-Macedonia chief, is modelling himself after such "upstanding" role-models like Blair, Schroeder, Fischer, and of course Djindjic, whose melding of fascist policies with the euphamistic language of "Third Way" social democracy is engendering free peoples worldwide.]
Macedonia rebel boss waits in slippers for new role
By Mark Heinrich
SIPKOVICA, Macedonia, Dec 27 (Reuters) - The man who remade Macedonia with a seven-month guerrilla uprising pads about his remote mountain home in slippers nowadays, waiting for an amnesty to parlay the new peace into a political career.
Ali Ahmeti became a folk hero among ethnic Albanians in the homeland he had not seen for 17 years after he slipped back in from exile in Switzerland and fought the government into a deal on equal rights, eclipsing the conventional leadership of his community.
He transformed his National Liberation Army from "a bunch of murderous thugs," as NATO's secretary general once called it, into a dutiful peace partner by having his men turn in almost 4,000 weapons to NATO collectors, then demobilise.
Since then, Ahmeti has kept the NLA fraternity calm despite the government's delay in implementing the peace terms. At one point he intervened to nip fresh fighting between militants and security police in the bud, grateful Western diplomats say.
Ahmeti wants to enter politics, but his fear of arrest, given the government's refusal to pardon him like lesser guerrillas, has confined him to the police-free northwest mountains from where he commanded the insurgency.
Ahmeti must contend with profound Macedonian bitterness over having had to reform the constitution "at gunpoint."
So he is trying to change his image from "Albanian terrorist" bogeyman, imprinted on the Macedonian public, to pro- European Union civic reformer appealing to people across the ethnic divide weary of venal, incompetent governance.
He has declared himself a "social democrat" seeking to end what he calls a corrupt system of sharing the spoils of power that eroded the reforming zeal of ethnic Albanian party leaders after they were ushered into ruling coalitions.
FIGHTING 'POWER FOR PROFIT'
"So far politicians in this country have sought power for personal profit. I mean Albanian politicians too," he said in an interview in the borrowed home of a friend tucked away down an alley in the highland village of Sipkovica.
Ahmeti, 43, a short wiry man with a grave, academic air that made him look out of place in a uniform, was holding forth in his usual soft mumble. He sat with his legs crossed underneath him on the cushion of an armchair. Slippers sat on the floor at his feet, he held an omnipresent cigarette between his nicotine-yellowed fingertips.
"What Macedonia needs is a social democratic party not just for Macedonians or for Albanians but for all the people as in (multi-ethnic) Switzerland," he said.
"People in Macedonia need to be released from this ethnic mind-set, to have parties based not on ethnicity or nationalism but on the quality of their programmes and policy.
"This is how Macedonia will enter the European Union and achieve modern European standards. This is really the ultimate desire of both Albanians and Macedonians and the reforms we had to fight for bring the whole country closer to it."
CHARM OFFENSIVE
Previously reclusive and enigmatic, Ahmeti has begun a charm offensive, receiving journalists -- especially those from the suspicious if not hostile but increasingly curious Macedonian media -- to drum home his message of rapprochement.
He played genial host to this reporter and a prominent Macedonian journalist for six hours in the wood-panelled living room of his temporary home with a glorious view of the snowy Sar Mountain range that reminds him of Switzerland.
The interview carried on into dinner, prepared by Ahmeti's aides, of pasta with mussel sauce, filet mignon, salad and fine Macedonian wine. The Macedonian journalist allowed herself to be photographed with Ahmeti, and shook his hand in leaving.
Yet the former guerrilla chieftain knows he cannot emerge from the political wilderness unless the government drops a "war crimes" indictment, which international peace mission diplomats here have dismissed as spurious and divisive.
"This situation arises in part," he said, "because the public is very badly misinformed by irresponsible politicians and media."
But Macedonians are offended by Ahmeti's inability, or unwillingness, to speak Macedonian in public and his long-time immersion in the Albanian nationalist diaspora which fomented and funded insurrection in Kosovo and Macedonia alike.
Protesting that they did not oppress the Albanians like the Serbs did in Kosovo, they fear that like them, they may be forced to leave majority Albanian areas if local Albanians are allowed political and security control.
Born in Kicevo in southwest Macedonia when it was still a Yugoslav republic, Ahmeti began agitating in high school for the right to study in the Albanian language. "I signed a petition and had three teeth broken by the police for that," he recalled.
He spent time in jail, then attended Pristina University in Kosovo just as its majority Albanians were turning militantly nationalist in a gathering storm against Yugoslav repression.
FLIGHT INTO SWISS EXILE
He went into hiding in 1984 "when they came to arrest me" and fled to Switzerland, where he obtained political asylum and became heavily involved in diaspora causes for "national liberation."
When Macedonia won independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Ahmeti was denied citizenship.
By 1998 he had resurfaced in the Kosovo Liberation Army, whose uprising brought about NATO intervention, a Serbian withdrawal and ethnic Albanian autonomy under loose U.N. administration.
Ahmeti won't talk about links between the KLA and NLA. Their Albanian acronym was identical, many NLA fighters were KLA veterans -- although mainly natives of Macedonia -- and most NLA arms were smuggled in from Kosovo.
Political analysts believe Macedonia's conflict was caused in part by the return of KLA veterans like Ahmeti disgruntled at being largely frozen out of post-conflict power-sharing in Kosovo dominated by non-KLA "moderates" elected by Albanians fed up with continuing rule by the gun once Serb forces had gone.
But the "second-class citizen" status of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia also galvanised the NLA, enabling it to apply the winning KLA formula of aggrieved violence leading to diplomatic intervention on behalf of "human rights" and "regional stability."
Ahmeti's leadership also drew lessons from the failings of KLA extremists. There were no known, deliberate killings of non-Albanian civilians, or a pattern of violent "ethnic cleansing" to seize assets and cement territorial gains.
The demobilised rebels have allowed Macedonian police -- ethnically mixed now -- to resume patrols in Albanian-majority areas under close NATO, EU and OSCE monitoring. They say they are keen to reintegrate in a reformed Macedonia.
"We rigorously controlled this conflict to avoid a large-scale civil war. We did not fight for a parallel army and institutions. We have always opposed the terrorist way of acting," said Ahmeti.
He has a wife and two young children still living in Switzerland, and is said to be sad at being separated from them. The Swiss government declared Ahmeti persona non grata last summer for having used its territory to sponsor combat in the Balkans.
21:04 12-26-01
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