Socialist Action /May 2001
Macedonia Continues War Against Ethnic
Albanian Guerrillas
By GERRY FOLEY
The Macedonian security forces suffered their most
serious loss to date in their war against the Albanian guerrilla army on
April 28. Eight soldiers and police were killed.
The political leader of the Ushtria Clirimtare
Kombetar [UCK-National Liberation Army], Ali Ahmeti, said that the guerrillas
had not attacked the Macedonian force but only shot in self-defense. The
bloody incident created general shock in the country.
However, it does not seem as if the Macedonian
government, which includes one of the two parliamentary parties based on
the Albanian population, is doing much to stop the polarization between
the Slavic and Albanian communities.
In the wake of this incident, it suspended the
state media news program in Albanian, claiming that its reports were contributing
to the "destabilization of the country."
On April 11, Kosovapress, the on-line press service
close to the former Kosovo Liberation Army, reported that European Union
monitors had complained to the Macedonian government about brutalities committed
against the Albanian population during its military offensive against the
UCK:
"They visited many villages suspected of being
bases of the UCK. They returned with pictures showing houses that had been
destroyed and marked with the Macedonian cross." That symbol was presumably
the Eastern Orthodox cross, which is a symbol shared by the Greeks and Serbs.
Kosovapress quoted "a Western diplomat"
as saying: "We approved the [Macedonian] army's success, but we don't
want brutalizing and beating of Albanian civilians."
That fairly well expresses the contradiction of
the imperialist powers. They support the Macedonian government but they
are pressing it not to drive the whole Albanian community into desperation.
Macedonia as presently constituted is an inherently
unstable state. It defines itself as a state of the Macedonian people. But
Albanians make up at least a third of the population. (The Albanian leaders
say that Albanians are close to half the population,)
Obviously in such a state, the Albanians cannot
be consigned to the role of the national minority. But they have had to
struggle to gain even cultural rights. The UCK is demanding that Macedonia
be redefined as a state of two peoples and that Albanian be recognized as
a national language.
It has not demanded the right of secession from
Macedonia, although the Macedonian government and its supporters generally
brand it as an advocate of "Great Albania."
However, it is true that the division and oppression
of the Albanian people in the region makes Albanian national unity an unfading
ideal for the most determined of the Albanian fighters.
Half of the Albanian population was forcibly incorporated
into Yugoslavia. That created a permanent sore, since the Yugoslav partisans
had felt obliged to offer the Albanians national unity within a Balkan federation
in order get their support for the fight against the fascist occupiers.
A solution to the Albanian problem has always been
the key to untangling the knot of ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, and that
remains true today. Offering the Albanians justice is the first step toward
a democratic unification of the region.
Socialist Action /May 2001 |