Socialist Action /April 2001
Macedonian Chauvinist Regime Attacks
Albanian Guerrillas
By GERRY FOLEY
The conflict that has come out into the open between
the Albanian minority in Macedonia (about a third of the total population)
and the Slavic chauvinist regime resembles the pattern already seen in Kosovo.
The Belgrade daily Politika reported March 30 that the Macedonian government
was on the verge of crushing the Albanian guerrillas: "The Macedonian
army and internal security police now control all of northern Macedonia."
A day later, the Macedonian government officially
announced that the Albanian rebellion had been "crushed" and that
it would end its closure of the border with Kosovo.
In Kosovo likewise, in 1998, the Yugoslav army
offensive that drove the KLA out of the territories it had occupied was
proclaimed to be the end of the Albanian insurgent force, both by the Belgrade
regime and by the imperialist governments that shed crocodile tears over
the fate of the Kosovo Albanian people. The actual result of the Yugoslav
offensive was a major extension of the influence of the KLA.
A correspondent for the London Observer (April
1) took note of what has been happening politically in Macedonia: "Each
day the shells fly out of the Macedonian army positions in and around Tetovo
[the main city in predominately Albanian western Macedonia] and crash into
the mountain-top positions of the NLA [National Liberation Army].
"And each shell hardens support for the gunmen
and a rejection of the Albanian Democratic Party, which joined power with
the Macedonian majority in 1998."
Kosovapress, the daily news service dominated by
the wing of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) dominated by Ibrahim
Thaci, has been reflecting this process with statements from Macedonian
Albanian political figures announcing their resignations from the Albanian
Democratic Party and their adherence to the National Liberation Army. Thaci's
Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) has also proclaimed its support for "political
change in Macedonia."
The NLA has demanded that the Macedonian constitution
be changed to define the country as a state of two peoples, rather than
just one, the Slavic Macedonians. It has also demanded recognition of Albanian
as an official language.
The Macedonian army offensive against the Albanian
rebels also had a powerful impact on the Kosovo Albanian population, particularly
after the Macedonian army hit a village inside the Kosovo border on March
28. Thousands of students demonstrated on March 29 in Kosovo's capital,
Pristina, denouncing the Macedonian government's military campaign.
One of the Kosovo student leaders, Syzana Paqazari,
told the crowd: "We resolutely support the just struggle of the NLA
against the Slavo-Macedonian chauvinist forces." Paqazari also criticized
the NATO occupying forces for not defending Kosovo against the Macedonian
attack. In fact, Macedonia is also occupied de facto by imperialist military
forces, and the Macedonian military could hardly do anything without their
approval.
Clearly, the growth of armed struggle for Albanian
national rights in Macedonia has been impelling a radicalization of the
Albanian population in Kosovo as well as in Macedonia. The logic of this
is an increasing confrontation between militant Albanian national fighters
and the imperialists that dominate the region.
The Albanian radicals, both because of their weakness
and continuing feeling among the Albanian populations that NATO defended
them against the worst excesses not only of Serbian but also Macedonian
chauvinists, have maintained an obsequious language toward the imperialists.
But they have not abandoned their struggle. Objectively the conflict is
growing and, in the long run, can only sharpen.
All the imperialist powers, including the United
States, have been quite consistent in their opposition to Albanian national
aspirations. They only made some tactical adjustments during the confrontation
with the Milosevic regime in Serbia out of deference to the outrage of world
public opinion at the attempt of Serbian chauvinists to destroy the Kosovo
Albanian people.
Even during the war, when the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) could have given invaluable help to the NATO military campaign,
the imperialist commanders took every possible means to avoid aiding the
armed organization of the Albanian people itself. After the war it imposed
the dissolution of the KLA and stubbornly opposed any attempt by the fighters
to organize the Kosovo people.
Now facing a new spread of the Albanian national
struggle, the imperialist spokespersons and their press are more openly
expressing their opposition to Albanian national aspirations and denouncing
the Albanian fighters as "extremists," thereby lining up with
the still chauvinist regime in Yugoslavia and the Macedonian rulers against
the Albanian rebels.
It is becoming obvious that the struggle of the
Albanian people, the most oppressed and disinherited of the Balkan peoples,
is in fundamental conflict with the imperialist plans for the region. Principled
revolutionists should support their self-determination struggle.
Socialist Action /April 2001 |