2007 has got off to a bad start for ethnic minorities in the FYR Macedonia where the hostilities towards those who identify themselves as Bulgarians inside the country has boiled over once again. Given historical sensitivities (in recent years there was a law in FYR Macedonia “to protect the honour of the Macedonian language” were it was a crime to refer to the Macedonian language as being of Bulgarian origin). In the same way it was and still is dangerous for someone to publically identify themselves as Bulgarians in the FYR Macedonia.

13 January 2007, Saturday.

A deliberate anti-Bulgarian campaign has been going on in Macedonia over the past five months, Krassimir Karakachanov, head of the VMRO nationalist movement said.

Karakachanov talked to Darik News about an incident from Saturday morning, when a group of Bulgarians commemorating a local patron were attacked in Macedonia. Some 40 people attacked those gathered to mark 79 years since the death of Mara Buneva, a revered fighter for the rights of the Bulgarians in Macedonia. The attackers were yelling “Die Bulgarians,” and “Go away.” They used rocks and metal pipes, hitting the people gathered to celebrate, who were mostly elderly. Most of the injured have already prepared medical statements, describing their injuries, so they can take the matter to court.

The attack was organized, Karakachanov said, adding that Macedonia’s authorities are seriously ticked by the fact that more and more of their citizens apply for Bulgarian passports. He also commented that the number of Bulgarian unions in Macedonia is increasing and that bothers the government. “People start to openly express their Bulgarian national self-awareness and the government is helpless to do anything but lead campaigns against Bulgaria,” he said.

Bulgaria should ask the EU and NATO to cut all talks with Macedonia until the Saturday attackers are identified, arrested and tried, Karakachanov added. The first thing that the country should do is serve Macedonia a very firm letter of protest, demanding that the organizers and perpetrators of the attack are caught, he added.

Someone in Macedonia has already carried the hatred too far in organizing such an action, but the question is why doesn’t Bulgaria react firmly, Karakachanov fumed.

At present, police have increased their presence before Bulgaria’s embassy in Skopje to prevent more violence.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=75334

By GARENTINA KRAJA of the Miami Herald

Residents of this close-knit, predominantly ethnic Albanian community still remember the day when they say police stormed their village tucked between green fields and snow-covered mountains, killing seven men.

On Monday, FYR Macedonia’s former interior minister and a senior police official go before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of murder, wanton destruction and cruel treatment in the operation.

Prosecutors say they will be the only people to be tried there on charges stemming from FYR Macedonia’s 2001 conflict between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.

The trial, which is expected to hear opening statements Monday before adjourning until May 7, may test the reconciliation between the FYR Macedonian Slavic majority and the ethnic Albanian minority.

“I want to ask them why they attacked Ljuboten. Did they see signs of fighters? None were here, no one had a uniform on and no one fought,” said Elmaz Isufi, whose son was killed in the operation.

According to the U.N. indictment, seven civilians were killed in house-to-house police searches on Aug. 12, 2001, and officers gutted 14 homes with hand grenades or fire and destroyed other buildings with shelling. Villagers who fled were stopped at checkpoints and beaten.

The indictment says the action was “organized, systematic and pervasive.”

The operation was apparently launched in retaliation after eight FYR Macedonian soldiers were killed when their truck hit a land mine.

The indictment says former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski had “superior responsibility” for the actions of police and failed to punish his subordinates for the killings. The senior police official, Johan Tarculovsky, was part of a joint criminal enterprise to direct “an unlawful attack on civilians,” it says.

Both men have pleaded not guilty. Boskovski’s lawyer, Edina Residovic, argued in a pretrial brief that there was no war in FYR Macedonia at the time and it was impossible for the men to have committed war crimes. The brief added that none of the alleged killers had been under Boskovski’s control at the time.

The defendants face a possible punishment of life imprisonment. The policemen who allegedly carried out the killings are not on trial.

FYR Macedonia, a landlocked country of 2.1 million people, split from Yugoslavia in 1991 with Croatia and Slovenia. FYR Macedonia remained at peace as a brief armed attempt to prevent Slovenia’s secession failed and fighting in Croatia killed up to 10,000 people.

In 1999, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians poured into northern FYR Macedonia from neighboring Kosovo to flee former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s troops. Two years later, FYR Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians launched their insurgency to fight for more rights for their minority, which comprises about a quarter of the population. A Western-brokered peace deal ended the fighting after six months.

But in the village of Ljuboten, residents say that hate still runs deep between the two groups. Many ethnic Albanians remain outraged over the 2001 police operation.

Isufi is expected to travel to The Hague to testify in the case, despite the fact he is paralyzed and frail. He said he hopes to see Boskovski and Tarculovsky punished.

His son, Rami Isufi, a 33-year-old father of four, had stayed in Ljuboten despite a buildup of forces around the village, which is in a predominantly FYR Macedonian area of the country. Isufi said his son believed a peace deal that was about to be signed that would end the fighting.

The next day, Rami was hit by a string of bullets allegedly fired by police officers who had forced their way into the family’s yard. According to the indictment, he was unarmed and was shot at close range in the stomach.

“We saw him dying,” said Isufi, 64, tears running down his cheeks.

“It will never satisfy me,” he said of the possible punishment of the defendants. “It will lessen my pain a bit, because at least it will be known who is the guilty one, so that this crime is not covered up.”

Sadik Qaili, whose cousin Atullah died of injuries from beatings he received during the raid, said reconciliation between the village’s ethnic Albanians and FYR Macedonians was difficult to imagine.

“We’re waiting day and night to see how The Hague tribunal will decide,” he said. “We were empty-handed and they were bent on ethnically cleansing us.”

Many FYR Macedonians regard Boskovski and Tarculovsky as heroes. On Sunday, hundreds of supporters attended a nationally broadcast service outside the main cathedral in the capital, Skopje, and demanded a fair trial.

Vera Gluvceva, an 83-year-old FYR Macedonian, said she believed the charges had been invented. “I think they want only FYR Macedonians to be blamed for the conflict,” she said.

FYR Macedonia’s government said Sunday it expected a “fair, transparent and objective” trial and pledged to continue giving moral and financial support to the two men and their families, according to a statement.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/691/v-print/story/74942.html

FYR Macedonia’s interior minister watched as police entered a village and killed seven ethnic Albanian men in 2001, UN prosecutors have said. 

‘Criminally responsible’

Mr Boskovski, 46, was alleged to have effective command and control over the forces from his position as interior minister.

“Due to his failure to take necessary and reasonable measures to punish the perpetrators of the crimes committed in the village of Ljuboten, the prosecution will ask you to find Ljube Boskovski criminally responsible as a superior,” prosecutor Dan Saxon said.

Prosecutors say Mr Tarculovski, 32, ran a private security unit loyal to Mr Boskovski and led the attack on the village.

There is support for Mr Boskovski in FYR Macedonia

Ljuboten is remembering its dead as the trial begins

UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Concerned at the Situation of Roma in Macedonia
Macedonian Government Urged to Take Concrete Steps to Improve the Situation of Roma

Budapest, Kumanovo, 15 December 2006. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the National Roma Centrum (NRC) today welcomed the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) on Macedonia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The comments follow the Committee’s review of Macedonia at its 37th session in November.

In its Concluding Observations, the CESCR raised many issues of concern for Roma in Macedonia. In particular, the Committee expressed concern about widespread discrimination against Roma in access to employment, social assistance, health care, education, personal documents and citizenship, as well as the substandard and insecure housing situation of Roma.

The CESCR also issued a serious of recommendations to the Macedonian government aimed at improving to situation of Roma in accessing economic, social and cultural rights. Specifically, the Committee recommended that the Macedonian government:

*       “[…] consider the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation covering also indirect discrimination and without undue citizenship requirements.
*       “ […] intensify its efforts to combat discrimination against Roma in all fields covered by the Covenant, urgently process pending citizenship claims from Roma, Albanian and other minority applicants, and take immediate steps, e.g. by removing administrative obstacles, to issue all Roma applicants with personal documents, with a view to ensuring their equal access to social insurance, health care and other benefits.
*       “ […] adopt temporary special measures to ensure that women, in particular Roma and other minority women as well as women living in rural areas, have the same access to the regular labour market as men, including to senior positions, and that the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value is implemented in practice.
*       “ […] increase its efforts to combat unemployment through specifically targeted measures, including programmes aimed at reducing unemployment among women and disadvantaged and marginalized groups, and to gradually regularize the situation of persons working in the informal sector.
*       “ […] take all necessary measures to combat the phenomenon of street children and to protect their families, inter alia, by constructing low-cost housing and providing basic infrastructure and amenities; relocating waste disposal sites from Roma settlements; providing job opportunities; opening additional day centres for street children, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, as well as outpatient clinics; and providing medical counselling and basic medication to these children and their families.
*       “ […] ensure, by legalizing and improving the infrastructure and amenities of existing Roma settlements or through social housing programmes, that all Roma have access to adequate and affordable housing, security of tenure, electricity, adequate drinking water, sanitation and other essential services, including safe access to roads. It also urges the State party to ensure that adequate alternative housing is provided whenever forced evictions take place, in line with the Committee’s general comment No. 7 (1997), and to include updated statistical data on an annual basis on the number of forced evictions, arrangements for alternative housing and the extent of homelessness, as well as information on the measures taken to legalize and improve the infrastructure and amenities of Roma settlements, in its next periodic report.
*       “ […] intensify its efforts to educate children and adolescents on sexual and reproductive health and to enhance the accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services, including gynaecological and counseling services, in particular in rural areas and in communities where Roma and other disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups live.
*       “ […] ensure free primary education for all children and gradually reduce the costs of secondary education, e.g. through subsidies for textbooks, school kits and aids, and increased scholarships, in particular for disadvantaged and marginalized children, in accordance with the Committee’s general comment no. 13 (1999); promote universal school attendance through intensified awareness raising campaigns for parents on the importance of education and their obligation to send their children, including girls, to school and catch-up classes and other special programmes to address the specific needs of less performing pupils; and conduct literacy campaigns for adults.
*       “ […] end the practice of segregating Roma and other minority and refugee children in separate schools, ensure, to the extent possible, adequate opportunities for minority children to receive instruction in or of their native languages by effectively monitoring the quality of minority language instruction, providing textbooks and increasing the number of teachers instructing in minority languages, and intensify its efforts to promote respect for cultural values of ethnic communities and the right of everyone to take part in cultural life in order to enhance understanding, tolerance and mutual respect among the different ethnic groups in the State party.”

The full report can be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/E.C.12.MKD.CO.1.pdf.

In the run-up to the Committee’s review, the ERRC and the NRC jointly submitted a parallel report, highlighting concerns in all areas noted above. The full report is available on the ERRC’s website in English and Macedonian at http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2138 and on the NRC’s website at: www.nationalromacentrum.org. ERRC/NRC action in Macedonia, including work toward the production of this submission, was supported in 2005 and 2006 by grants from the European Commission and the Swedish International Development Agency.

For additional information, please contact:
*Tara Bedard (ERRC Projects Manager): tara.bedard@…, +36.1.413.2200
*Claude Cahn (ERRC Programmes Director): ccahn@…, +36.20.983.6445
*Asmet Elezovski (NRC President): elezovski@…, +389.31.427.558
_____________________________________________

The European Roma Rights Centre is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the European Roma Rights Centre, visit the ERRC on the web at http://www.errc.org.

European Roma Rights Centre
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Tel: +36.1.413.2200
Fax: +36.1.413.2201

_____________________________________________

The National Roma Centrum is a professional Romani non-governmental organization based in Kumanovo, Macedonia, which represents and stimulates the active participation and integration of Romani people on the principles of the modern multiethnic European society. Its activities focus on human rights, lobbying, education and employment.

National Roma Centrum
Dove Bozinov 11/5
1300 Kumanovo
Macedonia
Tel/Fax: +389.31.427.558

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=907

Chief government religious affairs official Zvonko Mucunski has refused to provide religious communities with the latest text of the new draft religion law, religious minorities have complained to Forum 18 News Service. The big sticking point in the draft law due to go to public discussion as early as March is whether more than one denomination of any one faith can gain legal recognition, banned in the present law and in the previous version of the draft new law. “Both we and Brussels criticise
this,” Isa Rusi of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights told Forum 18. Imprisoned Archbishop Jovan, who heads the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia which has been denied legal status, insists the new law must allow all faiths to register “not only when they result from differences between religions, but also from possible conflicts with leaderships of already recognised religious communities”. Mucunski insisted to Forum 18 that the current draft law “carefully” guarantees full religious freedom for all religious communities, “taking care of our specific circumstances”.

The Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor published the annual report on the situation with the respect of religious freedom in the FYR Macedonia in the course of 2006.
There is an impression that the greater art of the report has been dedicated to the denial of religious freedom to the citizens, members of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71394.htm

FYR. Macedonia has religious prisoners.

The report deals with the imprisonment of His Beatitude, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje, k. k. Jovan implying that with the decision of the Supreme Court from February 2006, his prison sentence was reduced “which led to his release from prison, after which there were no cases of religious or political prisoners in the country”. We remind you that the Archbishop k. k. Jovan, after two releasing verdicts, has once again been put in prison, and the Macedonian Orthodox Church has once again filed a complaint against the liberating verdict reached regarding a third charge raised against him. The indicated proverbial corruption of the Macedonian judiciary is not subject to comment in this observation .

Police coercion and denial of religious freedom may be noticed in the following quotation: “In October 2004 policemen demolished a small monastery that was being built by members of the “Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid” in Nizepole, near Bitola. The organization’s lawyer conceded that the monastery was being constructed without a permit but noted that other buildings in the area, also built without permits, were not destroyed. At the end of the period covered by this report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) was unable to obtain a copy of the decision by the competent ministry authorizing the monastery’s destruction.”http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71394.htm

Maintaining the religious freedom is a fundamental right, and at the same time, a condition for the FYR Macedonia in order to fulfill the criteria to join the Euro-Atlantic civilization currents. Unfortunately, the Republic is continually violating the elementary religious freedoms of its own citizens and tax payers. In its last year report, the European Commission presented its attitude that “cases of violations of religious freedom exist” in its report (ttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/nov/fyrom_sec_1387_en.pdf). It also emphasized that the new law “should provide more liberal procedure for registering religious communities”.According to the newest report of the Venice Commission, yet there are disputable items in the draft law of religious communities, especially at the point – registering religious communities. This report will be a subject of the following text.

The Government of the FYR Macedonia, which protects the monopoly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, is sacrificing the European future of the citizens. Critics point out the Government is only declaratively ready for reforms, while practically the reforms in terms of religious freedoms are tending to be evaded.

At the same time, with the critics, in terms violating religious freedoms in the FYR Macedonia by the International Community, the Fund “Archbishop Jovan” from the United States of America has issued its newest pdf of report: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/nov/fyrom_sec_1387_en.pdf

French Byzantist historian Rene Guerdan, 1969:

Dear Sir,The magazine HISTORIA has just provided me with the very beautiful book that you so kindly sent me. I have first of all admired the presentation and then was struck by its contents.

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