Border Crisis

April 2001 – 7’30’’

The war in Tetovo

0.04

First speaker

A few old T55 tanks up against a fanatical guerilla. The Macedonian army is hunting down rebels. The war is being waged by the Kosovo Liberation Army in Tetovo. The Albanian minority is fighting for more rights.

0.21

The long march through Macedonian institutions. They feel that the Slav majority discriminates against them and treats them as second class citizens.

1.13

Moderate talk of peace is in danger of disappearing in a hail of bullets. Radical action threatens both sides. The Albanian party in the coalition governing Skopje is losing its authority, and the KLA is gaining approval.

1.21

After a week of battle the rebels ignore the government’s ultimatum. They refuse to lay down their weapons. On the contrary - they declare war on new fronts.

1.29

Balkan ravines in the border territory between Macedonia and Kosovo. January sees the first armed struggles between Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces. Refugees flee from godforsaken villages like Tanusevci, Malino, Breza und Gosince - farmers’ and woodcutters’ families that the Macedonian state had forgotten about for years. Most of them have no identity papers.

2.08

They are now victims of the violence. One of the villages they are seeking refuge in is Aracinovo, 20 kilometres away from Skopje. This is where the Sandiku family’s flight ends. One of their relatives is putting them up. Aracinovo is hardly a holiday resort. Since Albanians shot a Macedonian policeman here, an icy peace has reigned between the ethnic groups. It is a breeding ground for extremists.

3.08

Second speaker

We’d never even heard of the KLA in Macedonia. The first we heard of it was when the fighting started in Tanusevco.

3.25

First speaker

What is this KLA? For some people they are a small group of fanatics from the Kosovo war, but for their followers they are freedom fighters.

Second speaker

3.43

Macedonia has had the last 10 years to improve Albanian rights, but so far hasn’t taken a single step in the right direction. The government has had ten years since the disintegration of Yugoslavia, but hasn’t done a thing - hence the need for the KLA.

4.00

First speaker

What is the aim of the struggle?

4.04

Second speaker

We want to show Macedonia and the rest of the world that Albanians in Macedonia, who make up 45% of the population, have the right to be a constitutional nation in their own right. Our aim is not to shift the borders between the Balkan countries, nor to use violence against civilians, be they Serbs, Macedonians or Albanians. We are concerned with the rights of Albanians in Macedonia.

4.35

First speaker

It is a war of liberation for the KLA.

4.40

Third speaker

The populations of Brest, Malina and Tanusevci have no right to Macedonian citizenship. They are stopped by Macedonian police and asked for their papers - of course they don’t have any.

First speaker

A hand granade goes off, stopping the interview

5.07

Second speaker

The KLA is a bunch of criminals

First speaker

The Jakumovski family is in mourning.

5.15

The KLA shot and killed Rades’ son. The world doesn’t make sense anymore to his brother in law, Sande.

Second speaker

There’s no logic in it. The Albanians are our citizens too. They live here. We all have a tough life. I’ve got two brothers - they are both unemployed but nobody helps us.

5.49

First speaker

Dejan Jakimovski, a soldier in the Macedonian army. The 25 year old from the village of Ajducka Cesma is one of the first victims on the Macedonian side in the fight against the KLA.

Despite all the reproaches of the Albanians, Macedonia is not Kosovo. The state did not organise massacres of the Albanian civilian population. In Gosativar near Tetovo, another radical stronghold, businessman Rufi Osmani, a former major and political prisoner, expresses a moderate view.

6.21

Third speaker

We don’t want to destroy Macedonia. Albanian politicians and the military respect Macedonian sovereignty and the integrity of its territory.

This is in accordance with the international desire for stability in the region.

6.48

The OSCE is trying to reach a compromise in Tetovo. A new university should see the end of the fight over education. Construction is due to start next week. Georgi Efremov, president of the Macedonian academy of science, does not think much of the project.

7.12

Second speaker

A new Albanian language college, whether it is run by the state or privately, is not going to educate people very highly.

7.27

Third speaker

Our university will be multicultural, but will be dedicated to the Albanian language, culture and population. It won’t split up the population, because Macedonians, Albanians and others from the region will be able to study here.