Socialist Action /July 2001
US Deal with Albanian Guerrillas Leads
to Macedonian Police Riot
The U.S. government got a lesson in the pitfalls
of manipulating Balkan politics on June 25. It persuaded the Albanian National
Liberation Army to evacuate the village of Aracinovo, from which the Albanian
rebels were in a position to shell the Macedonian capital of Skopje, the
country's main airport, and its only oil refinery.
The guerrillas would not agree to withdraw except
under the protection of "international forces." They left under
the guard of U.S. troops. The Albanians were disarmed before being allowed
in the buses but given their weapons back after the trip.
The Albanian National Liberation Army leaders have
indicated that they will allow NATO troops to disarm their forces if the
Macedonian Slav rulers agree to a political solution to the conflict that
would meet their immediate demands-equality for the Albanian population
within the Macedonian state.
However, once the imperialist negotiations had
forced a retreat of the Albanian National Liberation Army, they were faced
with a revolt by Macedonian nationalists, apparently led by auxiliary police
and obscure paramilitary groups.
A crowd, including armed auxiliary police and paramilitaries,
stormed the government building in Skopje.
The chant taken up, according to the June 26 issue
of the Belgrade daily Politika, was "round up the damned Siptars [a
derogatory name for Albanians] so that the Macedonian name will not disappear."
The Slavic chauvinists had been convinced that
the Macedonian army was on the verge of crushing the NLA in Aracinovo and
that therefore NATO had saved the Albanian guerrillas. Their revolt took
on a violently anti-American character.
The Macedonian government, however, has been claiming
victory for months. Before the NLA captured Aracinovo and threatened to
besiege Skopje, the government claimed its latest offensive had broken the
back of the Albanian movement.
Following the NLA retreat from the suburbs of Skopje,
it captured five Macedonian Slav villages in the western part of the country.
The Western powers know that the Macedonian government
cannot defeat the Albanian uprising militarily, although they have provided
heavy arms to the state army and Britain has reportedly sent experts in
"counterinsurgency warfare" to help.
The imperialists are relying on their ability to
bully the Albanians into making a deal, as they did in Kosovo. But Macedonian
forces are sustained by Slavic chauvinism (fed by offers of military help
from the rump Yugoslavia and Bulgaria). And that makes them ticklish bedfellows.
Socialist Action /July 2001 |