Horizon - Macedonia

May 2001

02:00 V/O

The Macedonian mountains with their ethnic-Albanian villages near the border with Kosovo.

The village cellars, with women, children and the old…

The Albanians claim they are to scared to be evacuated to Macedonia.

But the Macedonians believe they are being used as human shields.

The Albanians say helicopters and artillery are being used in a terror campaign to remove the villagers from the NLA liberated area.

Whilst the Macedonians call them Albanian terrorists and gun-runners from Kosovo.

02:33 I/V

This is for the people, but the NLA is the people, and the people are the NLA.

Train tracks

02:38 V/O

The war zone starts here...along the railway line to Belgrade.

The war has eased up the past few days, but the Macedonian soldiers are ready… as are the press corps.

We asked two newspaper editors from each community to describe the conflict.

First, the editor of Fakti, written in Albanian.

02:59 I/V Emin Ezemi

Fakti

The reason for this crisis is the discrimination of Albanians on all fronts.

It is an institutionalised discrimination, the statistics show that not even two percent of Albanians are employed in the existing institutions. This has created distrust between the Albanians and Macedonians.

The Macedonian press contributes to this distrust by not discussing the possibility of coming closer to one another.

Hopefully the new broad-coalition government can reduce the mistrust.

But I am sceptical. I don't think the government can satisfy the different communities.

It's about achieving a relaxed attitude in the Macedonian society, because stability depends upon the Albanians achieving their rights.

03:58 V/O

Now the editor of the largest Macedonian newspaper, written using the Cyrillic alphabet.

04:04 I/V Zarko Jordanoski

DNEVNIK

Albanians are not discriminated against. They have all the rights everybody else has.

They have many more rights than other minorities in EU countries.

They have the right to schooling and their own press.

They have the right to practice their professions.

They have political parties and representatives in the authorities.

Many of the so-called freedom fighters are criminals.

They will not be able to return to Macedonia, if the state survives.

They have had run ins with the law:

murder, crime, drugs, smuggling, etc.

Therefore, it is not right to call it a war between two ethnic groups.

It is a war between criminals and a state trying to defend itself against them.

It's unknown if the government can satisfy the terrorists' appetite - and it's wrong for EU-politicians to put such massive pressure on for talks - between the ethnic minorities now, whilst there is fighting.

05:18 V/O

Meanwhile, international relief agencies get ready for the worst.

05:26 Clean sound

05:34 V/O

Annelise Wendelboe is on inspection near the areas of fighting.

05:40 I/V Annelise Wendelboe Petersen; Red Cross

Question

Answer

"My primary objective is to co-ordinate the surgical efforts for the worst-case scenario."

"You mean, civil war?"

"that's right"

05:54 V/O

Amongst other things the job entails getting an overview of the number of casualties each hospital can handle. Medicine supplies are also checked. Four hospitals are ready with emergency measures.

06:06 I/V Annelise Wendelboe Petersen

Red Cross

"That means that we have four hospitals...and one of them has a capacity of more than 3 thousand beds, and 1 thousand of them are surgical beds. So I feel we are well prepared if anything should happen."

06:26 V/O market scene

Language, religion and tradition divide the sides in Macedonia.

And the differences between them has increased in the past few months. The press are partly to blame.

Eran Frankel has studied the Macedonian conflict since Yugoslavia began falling apart ten years ago.

06:45 I/V Eran Frankel

Director

Question

Answer

”Those media see their role as reporting about their own community, to their own community. In other words it is completely self-reflexive. It is like standing in front of a mirror.”

”Is it responsible or irresponsible press; politically?”

”As the fighting continued, and as the crisis continued, the media have become as polarised as the population, and there have been increasingly more radical, provocative and inflamatory.”

07:26 V/O

The war broke out in February. Everything appeared peaceful when a female reporter from Macedonian TV was on assignment up by the border with Kosovo.

But then she and her crew were stopped by armed men and taken to the village of Tanusevic.

She realised the area was not under the control of the Macedonian authorities.

07:45 I/V Snezana Lupevska

Reporter

A-1 TV

I asked who they were. They answered 'The National Liberation Army.'

I was not allowed to interview them.

They said they help people in the village.

Neither the army nor the police had been in the village for two months.

They said we should go, and not come back.

It took half-an-hour. We left there without our camera, equipment or tapes.

We filed a police report.

08:17 V/O

08:19 I/V

And so began the war.

The military attacked the terrorists in the village from a roadblock.

They killed a young man - whom the terrorists said was from the village.

08:35 V/O

Heavy exchange of fire followed … and the guerrillas retreated to Kosovo.

Negotiations began between the Macedonians and Albanians … but the NLA then attacked in a new area, calling the army into action.

08:48 I/V Macedonian Politician

The Macedonian army is showing the unity in the government and in …

Get Down!!

09:03 V/O Drawing

On the whole only this district of Skopje was left relatively undamaged when an earthquake hit the capital in 1963.

Here Macedonian stores stand peacefully beside those of Albanians and Turks.

But this is an exception, otherwise the two peoples keep to themselves. The railway station stands as a memorial to the destruction of ’63.

Skopje today has a new architectural look.

It is just thirty kilometres from the battle grounds.

09:34 Palle Rasmussen/stand-up

"On the surface, on an early summer day like today, the capital Skopje can look quite relaxed and calm. But in reality, the city is sharply divided into a Macedonian part (where we are now) and an ethnic Albanian part...and a gulf of mistrust and suspicion runs between the 2 communities."

09:57 I/V Eran Frankel

Director

”Blame is part of the problem. In the fact that Macadonians blame the Albanians and the Albanians blame the Macedonians; and as a consequence, neither is willing to accept either individual or collective responsibility. Nor, as a result, see a collective responsibility for creating the future. I think that the main conflict stems from an inability of the ethnic Macadonians and the ethnic Albanians to identify their common interests in creating a common state. And this lack of recognition of their common interests comes from the history that they’ve had over the past 50 years. Under Tito’s Yugoslavia and further back, because they have really not shared political institutions and social institutions over history; and are now having a difficult time finding this common basis for creating a new civil society.”

11:03 V/O

Up to one third of Macedonians are ethnic Albanian Muslims, who have lived here for centuries.

A call to prayer is heard from the Mosque … here in the Albanian village of Glogje. It is not far from the border with Kosovo, where many have family.

Xherit Amiti is a part-time farmer and teacher in the town.

11:25 (Xherit: under pictures)

Over the past few months the situation in the village has had a negative impact. People are traumatised.

11:34 V/O

His extended family remain neighbours and come to visit Xhevit and his wife and children.

Macedonians and the War are frequent topics for discussion.

11:45 I/V Mexhit Amiti:

People live in fear, anxiety for what tomorrow may bring.

They watch TV and follow events in the newspapers.

People are being beaten, killed and butchered. The authorities exercise violence.

The tension between people is building up.

You don't dare drive to Skopje in a car with number plates from an ethnic-Albanian town.

12:13 I/V Xherit Amiti:

12:59 I/V question

13:03 I/V Emir Amiti answers

Relations have neither before nor now been what they should be in a civilised society, or how the international community demands them.

We have had contacts, but they were very rare.

We drank coffee together on some special or official occasions.

They are used to see Albanians as the weakest, as illiterate and as servile people.

We were not and are not sadists. It is the Slavic people who are sadists.

They have massacred and tortured us, raped us and burned down our homes.

• How do Macedonian and Albanian children get along in school?

• 
  

Albanians are rarely friends with Macedonians.

Some would like to be friends with them, but they do not want to be friends with us.

13:14 V/O

Central school has six hundred students, almost all ethnic Albanians. They have lessons in Macedonian, but otherwise all teaching is in Albanian..

13:27 Sound bite

13:31 V/O

In a small classroom, set aside from the others, the school's 18 Macedonian students learn Macedonian and arithmetic, at the same time.

None in this class can speak Albanian.

13:43 Sound bite with child

I can only count to seven.

• So how do you communicate with the two Albanians?

They can speak Macedonian.

13:54 V/O

Albanians rarely speak well enough to enter university, where all lessons are in Macedonian.

Why don't the Albanians study in Macedonian?

14:01 I/V Xherit Amiti:

” Because they do not understand it.

And one cannot study science in depth in a foreign language.

Why teach Macedonian students in Macedonian, but not Albanians in Albanian?

We and our parents were born here. It is our country.”

14:25 V/O

The NLA is popular in this region, despite accusations of connections with weapons and drugs smuggling.

14:36 I/V Xherit Amiti:

” The NLA's goals are the same as the people's goals.

Those who are up in the mountains are not there in vain.

It is the people's elite who want the best for the people.

They are brave. You live only once.

No one is dumb enough to die for nothing.

14:53 V/O

will your family escape from here if the fighting flares up and expands?

14:58 I/V Xhemil Amiti

”We are here to stay. We will not run from our homes.

We hope the NLA will protect us. We are afraid of the police.

They are almost solely Macedonians.”

15:12 V/O

Many survive by having family working abroad and sending money home.

15:19 I/V Salajdin Ziberi

Question

16:09 V/O

16:22 I/V Branko Velicovic:

woman

"We Albanians are upset with many things. We have no jobs...the schools don't function, as you have seen...nothing happens. We are 6 people to a house...we get no wages... nothing functions as it should."

"But when you talk to Macedonians, they say they have the same
problems..."

"Maybe...but that is not true. It just isn't correct...because 5 or 6 Macedonians do not live in each house. They all get wages. They get everything they want."

Residents in this Macedonian - Christian village do not agree. The village is just one kilometre from the fighting.

The children are afraid, we don't say that there is bombing and shooting

We say it is somebody working. Then they are not so afraid.

The children say it is thunder and lightning.

16:38 V/O

The Macedonians do not understand why it has come to war. A war which could, in the worst case, come to their village.

They feel the Albanians have already had their demands fulfilled.

16:49 I/V Branko Velicovic:

We weren't were close with the Albanians, but we also did not have any problems with them.

But now we don't trust them.

We don't know what they are going to do to us.

What with their rights… they have many. They have everything.

They have more democracy than all the others.

They have both basic schooling and further education.

They dream of a Greater- Albania. They want land, not rights.

17:28 V/O

Branko is an educated welder, but has been unemployed for ten years.

For him, and many others, the shooting is just the latest crisis.

17:38 I/V Branko Velicovic:

When the crisis began in the former Yugoslavia, life in the village stagnated.

Now we can only just survive.

You can't do or create anything, just live a normal life.

There is no work because of privatisation.

I don't know what should be done.

18:03 V/O

Macedonians are also disillusioned, and complain about the police and politicians who must be bribed if you need anything.

18:17 I/V Branko Velicovic:

There are some things I can understand though:

The transition period, the state, unemployment.

We had hoped that things would get better, but we have lost that hope after all of this.

The politicians and the others don't build factories or anything to improve the society. They only think of war and their own wealth.

18:44 V/O

Also his son cannot find work in Macedonia.

18:48 I/V Kasimir Velicovic:

We pray to God that things will get better.

Both for us, the Muslims and everyone else.

That we all get work.

18:58 V/O

The poor state of the economy has increased tensions between the two ethnic groups.

Here in the village inn, however, there is hope that relations with those on the other side of the railway tracks can be mended.

19:12 Macedonian Inn guests:

guest 2:

90% of the Albanians came here from Kosovo.

No one is attacking us, and we are not attacking anybody.

We have lived together before and been good friends with them.

We will continue to live together.

19:18 V/O

Here in the inn there are also harsh words for the politicians, Albanian as well as Macedonian.

19:40 Macedonian Inn guest:

Everything will calm down once the politicians agree with one another.

I think the government should do something.

They must put an end to it so the people don't suffer.

The innocent suffer. The military suffers. It must stop straight away.

They must find a common language and negotiate at once.

Governments leave the problems for the next government without first solving them.

At the moment there is a crisis.

It has been lying-in-wait a long time.

20:17 V/O

Dislike for politicians runs deep.

Even the ethnic Albanian writer Kim Mehmeti does not mince his words.

20:27 I/V Kim Mehmeti,

writer

When I want to be cynical, I say that Macedonia is building democracy using former Yugoslavia's template.

Co-operation is only created between the political elite.

Down on the ground the people are split and because of this, they can not talk to one another.

With 'politicians' I do not differentiate between the ethnic groups.

The Albanian parties have also contributed to the worsening of the situation.

They have let themselves be used by different governments as second-rank citizens.

They have all knowingly done this.

At the same time they have radicalised the young Albanians with their promises, which they knew they could not fulfil.

21:14 V/O

It is four in the morning: the Red Cross is going to try and evacuate the wounded women and children from the war zone.

21:21 I/V Annelise Wendelboe Petersen

Red Cross

"We have been inside twice...and now we shall try the third time this morning, to see if we can persuade the population, the civilians, to leave. We know that women and children are huddling together in basements."

21:40 V/O

21:46 I/V

The attempted evacuation must be completed within the six hours the sides have agreed to hold a cease-fire.

"I shall be very happy if we succeed."

21:51 V/O

21:56 V/O

The OSCE

Up to now, evacuation has not been allowed.

Europe and the US have twisted the arms of all political parties, to create a Government of national unity, in an attempt to prevent a threatening civil war.

It appears at the moment to have succeeded.

Macedonians and Albanians have been forced back to the negotiating table...to discuss the Albanian's demands.

Amongst other things they want equality for the Albanian language, and more Albanians in the public sector.

Albanians are sceptical, the President's top-advisor to the negotiations, however, is clear that compromises must be made.

22:32 I/V Ljubomir Ferskovski

Advisor to the President.

Former Interior Minister and Foreign Minister

First of all there is a using of language; there is a space for enlargement, extension for using Albanian language. In education, in state administration especially assessed state administration, in local communities. Business, public careers, general media. The second issue is definitely the frustrating position about the recruitment of Albanians in the state administration, that is quite low. The best situation is the ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is around 16%; Police is around 5-7% average level across the state; and general administration is 3-4%, which is very low compared to population figures. This will have to be enlarged; enhanced; pushed.

23:34 V/O

23:47 V/O

Despite the coalition government, the shooting hasnt stopped. However the fighting is not as bad as 2 weeks ago, due to international pressure on the NLA and the Macedonian army.

The Red Cross is working at full stretch.

The convoy with Annelise Wendelboe has returned from the villages in the mountains. The evacuation has not been a big success.

23:58 I/V Annelise Wendelboe Petersen Red Cross

question

answer

"Most wanted to stay at home"

"Or they were pressured to do so?"

"Yes, it is hard to say."

24:10 V/O

So, only 17 came out, because others feared what would happen to their homes.

24:19 I/V Gammel Kone (evacuee):

”I left behind 3 sons, grand children, daughter in law.

There isn’t any food there,

there isn’t...without food, without bread, without water...lying down in the basemant...I have nothing more to tell you.”

24:32 V/O

The Macedonian government has repeated its promise of restraint.

This will only increase the stream of refugees from the mountains.