Calm Returns to Devastated Macedonian Town

Normality was returning to the northern town of Kumanovo on Monday after gun battles between police and a shadowy armed formation claimed eight police lives and turned it into a war zone.

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Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

Locals were allowed to return to their homes in the Kumanovo neighborhood of Divo Naselje on Monday, after a weekend of heavy fighting left eight policemen dead and some 37 wounded. At least 14 gunmen were also killed.

As people returned to their devastated homes, pools of blood on the streets, wrecked cars, scattered bullet cartridge cases, shells and bomb triggers made the scene resemble a war zone and bore witness to the ferocity of the battle that took place in Kumanovo on Saturday and on Sunday morning.

The suburb, not far from the town centre, brimmed with people on Monday as non-residents came to see the devastation. Despite the crowds, an eerie silence prevailed, interrupted only by the occasional photo snap.

While some residents started to clean up the debris, the owners of some houses have not yet returned. Their wide-open doors afforded a sight of the mess left inside.

Before people were allowed back, police on Sunday used transport trucks to extract four incapacitated, bullet-riddled armored vehicles from the area.

Many people on the street insisted that the shootout would not damage relations between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians who make up 37 per cent of the town’s population – and a quarter of the population of Macedonia. They recalled that the 2001 conflict in Macedonia between Albanian militants and the security forces did not result in armed fights inside the town.

A video on YouTube showed ethnic Albanians and Macedonians expressing good neighbourliness – as well as disbelief in the government’s version of events. Initially posted on Facebook, it gathered over 500,000 views.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov on Sunday chaired a session of the national security council, which opposition party leaders also attended.

The session noted that prompt police action neutralized a group of several dozen people that had planned terror attacks across the country, intending serious destabilization.

“The police action was undertaken in order to prevent civilian casualties and that’s why the police took so many casualties,” Ivanov told reporters after the meeting.

Ivanov called on NATO and the EU to find ways to unblock Macedonia’s accession applications, adding that its exclusion from these organizations had boosted radical groups in the country.

Macedonia has been an EU candidate since 2005 but has not made much progress towards joining the EU or NATO owing to a Greek blockade related to a dispute over the country’s name.

Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

On Sunday, a court in Skopje put 30 people who were part of the armed group who had surrendered in detention. Most are charged with terrorism offences.

Eighteen are Kosovo citizens, nine are Macedonian citizens, one is an Albanian citizen with residency in Germany and two more are Macedonians with temporary stay in Kosovo, the court noted.

Previously, the police said they had arrested at least three of the five suspected leaders of the group. Police said they were all Kosovo citizens.

They were named as Muhamed Krasniqi, known as Commander Malisheva, Mirsad Ndrecaj, known as Commander NATO, Sami Ukshini, known as Commander Sokoli, Beg Rizaj alias Commander Begu, and Deme Shehu, alias Juniku.

However, police said that Ndrecaj, mentioned as the suspected leader, was not among those who surrendered.

The police operation happened against a backdrop of deep political crisis revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people.

Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

Some opponents of the government, including the opposition Social Democrat leader, Zoran Zaev, have voiced suspicion that the authorities may be attempting to distract the public from the crisis – and from further planned mass protests – by orchestrating ethnic unrest.

James Ker-Lindsay, a British expert on Southeast Europe at the London School of Economics, said the timing of the latest violence raised obvious questions.

“The timing just seems too suspicious. Questions are being asked as to whether the government has somehow orchestrated this in order to divert attention away from the growing scandal,” he said.

“Such views cannot be easily dismissed as Balkan conspiracy theorising. Given the evidence of serious wrongdoing by the government, many people believe the administration is more than capable of staging a terrorist attack in order to stay in power,” he told Matisak’s Blog.

Since February, the opposition has been releasing taped conversations that appear to show that the government has been involved in a wide range of misdeeds and political tricks, including electoral fraud, abuse of the justice system and covering up for the murder of a young man by a police officer.

Large anti-government protests that took place last week before the shootout saw the country’s various ethnic communities coming out onto the streets to demonstrate together.

Protesters at several occasions tied Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian and Turkish flags together to show their solidarity and unity.

Photo by: Ines Efremova

As the country is still in mourning for the casualties of the violence in Kumanovo, protesters have decided that on Monday they will dress up in black and white and light candles in front of the government HQ to express their grief for those killed in Kumanovo.

Protesters and rights NGO activists complained that while the actions were taking place in Kumanovo, the police in Skopje arrested eight more students for alleged violence. Earlier, nine students were placed in detention for the same reason, which protesters say is aimed at intimidating the entire protest movement.

In a joint reaction on Sunday the OSCE, the EU, the US and NATO said that they hoped the hostilities in Kumanovo would remain an isolated event.

“It is… our understanding that the armed group in Kumanovo is an isolated phenomenon. We strongly believe that it must not be allowed to harm relations within society,” they said.

“We also hope that this will be the moment for the county’s leaders to pull together and engage in dialogue on all issues facing the country including the prolonged political crisis and necessary reforms,” the statement added.

Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

In neighbouring Kosovo, the leftist nationalist opposition Vetevendosje, [Self determination] movement urged Macedonian Albanians to join anti-government protests in Skopje, saying the Prime Minister was directing “police terror against Albanians” in the country.

“Gruevski will fall in Skopje, not in the neighborhoods and villages of Kumanovo,” the movement said.

The opposition Social democrats are to decide on Monday how to proceed with publishing of the tapped conversations. They say they will not cancel a major anti-government rally scheduled for May 17.