2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia

Insurgency in Macedonia
Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Date January – November 2001 Location Polog region of the Republic of Macedonia near the border with Albania & FR Yugoslavia (Kosovo) Result Ohrid Agreement signed, ceasefire established, Albanian militants agree to disarm in exchange for greater ethnic rights.
Belligerents
National Liberation Army (NLA)	Macedonia
Commanders
Ali Ahmeti Samidin Xhezairi	Boris Trajkovski Ljubčo Georgievski Ljube Boškoski
Casualties and losses
64 (NLA sources)	63 (Macedonian sources)
Civilian casualties: 70 dead (60 ethnic Albanians, 10 ethnic Macedonians) Other: 2 EU monitors[1] 1 UK soldier killed[2]

The insurgency in Macedonia (January – November 2001) was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group attacked the security forces of the Republic of Macedonia at the beginning of January 2001. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen for either side, according to the sources from both of the sides in the conflict.

Overview

Beginning of the Albanian insurgency

The first actions by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia occurred in late 2000 and early 2001, mainly along Macedonia's border with then-United Nations-administered Serbian province of Kosovo. The insurgents acted in a pattern similar to the one seen in Kosovo in late 1997 and through 1998, according to which they gradually took over one village after the other. Any such efforts were initially “peaceful”, the non-Albanian population being “encouraged” to leave.^[3] But, in January-February 2001 combat actions against legitimate authorities begun.

The government at first did nothing against the situation because it received assurances, that what was going on was not directed against Macedonia. Satisfied with the answer and their payments the authorities waited for almost two months – and then the situation was almost immediately out of control, in fact so much that the government was taken by surprise.^[3]

In January 2001 a group calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA) appeared, claiming responsibility for attacks on police forces. The leaders of this NLA – including Ali Ahmeti and his uncle, Fazli Veliu, were all from Western Macedonia. They stated to have “between several hundreds and thousands” of fighters under arms. However, they were not supported by either of the two main ethnic Albanian political parties. The Macedonian government claimed that the rebels were actually members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who infiltrated the country from Kosovo. In fact, the NLA-fighters considered Kosovo as “safe haven” where they could pull back in the case of larger Macedonian actions against them.^[3]

Macedonian reprisals

After several attacks on Macedonian security forces, Macedonians took to the streets of some towns, attacking and setting on fire Albanian-owned shops, mosques and houses. Such attacks took place mainly in Prilep, Skopje and Bitola.^[4] Local Macedonian citizens in Prilep demanded weapons to attack neighboring Albanian-populated villages, which they claimed needed to be done "in order to save Macedonia". Those targeted in the attacks were mostly Albanians. The border town of Tetovo also gained worldwide attention for its' episodes of fierce fighting between rebel and government forces (see Battle of Tetovo).

Aftermath

Ceasefire and disarmament

After the Ohrid Agreement, the rebels agreed to cease-fire in June, however there were other agreements in August, before settling on a final one in January 2002. Under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government pledged to improve the rights of the Albanian population, that makes up just over 25.3 per cent of the population. Those rights include making Albanian language an official language, increasing the participation of ethnic Albanians in government institutions, police and army. Most importantly, under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government agreed to a new model of decentralization.

The Albanian side agreed to give up any separatist demands and to fully recognize all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this accord the NLA was to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force.

Operation "Essential Harvest" was officially launched on 22 August and effectively started on 27 August. This 30-day mission involved approximately 3500 NATO and Macedonian troops to disarm the NLA and destroy their weapons. Just hours after NATO wrapped up the operation, Ali Ahmeti told reporters attending a news conference in the rebel stronghold of Sipkovica that he was dissolving the National Liberation Army and that it was time for ethnic reconciliation.

Several months after the conflict, some armed provocations persisted. Small bombings and shootings used to happen. The most serious provocations happened when three Macedonian police officers were killed in an ambush by ethnic Albanian gunmen on November 12, 2001.^[5]

Casualties and displacement

Casualty figures remain uncertain. By March 19, 2001, the BBC reported that Macedonian security forces claimed five of their soldiers were killed, while the NLA claimed it had killed 11.^[6] No definitive NLA casualty figures were cited at the time. On December 25, 2001, the Alternative Information Network^[7] cited figures of 63 deaths claimed by Macedonian security forces for their side and 64 deaths claimed by the NLA for their fighters. About 60 ethnic Albanian civilians are thought to have been killed while possibly about ten ethnic Macedonians died during the conflict (Macedonian authorities did not release figures for the latter at the time).^[8] As of December 2005^[update], the fate of twenty "disappeared" civilians —13 ethnic Macedonians, six ethnic Albanians and one Bulgarian citizen— remains unknown.^[9] By August 2001, the number of people displaced by the war reached 170,000 of which 74,000 displaced internally. As of January 2004^[update], 2,600 remained displaced.^[10]

Alleged war crimes

Although the conflict in Macedonia was brief, it was not free of war crimes. The most notable incident was the Asian Immigrant Massacre, when Macedonian special police forces killed six Pakistanis and an Indian immigrant afterwards planting weapons, explosive and Islamic literature on the corpses calming they were Al-Qaida cells which were about to attack US Embassy in Skopje. This was conspired by Macedonian government to link the Albanian guerrillas to Al-Qaida so that Macedonia can sympathise with the west by making it seem they are to fighting a War on Terror against Islamic extremists. This atrocious war crime was heavily criticised by the whole world and caused Macedonia to lose much of its foreign support especially from the west, the EU and Pakistan governments strongly insisted that the people responsible for this war crime be brought to justice but the four men allegedly responsible for this were cleared of all charges and received a hero’s sheared after they left court.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]} There were disturbing images of the dead bodies released to parade the victims on TV as trophies.

Other crimes were like that of a three-day operation by Macedonian police against the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, from August 10-12, 2001, which left ten civilians dead and resulted in the arrest of more than 100 men, many of whom were severely beaten and tortured while in police custody.^[20] According to the Macedonian government there was a presence of Albanian National Liberation Army in the village; however, the Human Rights Watch investigation on the ground in Ljuboten found no evidence of this and said it was a clear violation by Macedonian forces on human rights. These events led to the trial of the Macedonian minister of internal affairs of the time, Ljube Boškoski, in the International War Crime Tribunal in The Hague.^[20]. Eventually he was found not guilty. ^[21]

The alleged NLA bombing of the 13th-century Orthodox monastery Sveti Atanasij in the village of Lesok^[22] however no one has ever claimed responsibility for the attack and Albanian guerrilla officials have demised all responsibility and placed the blame on Macedonian special forces saying it was another poor attempt to link the NLA to Islamic extremism, like that of the Asian immigrant massacre and that these incidents were seriously putting the Ohrid agreement and the established peace treaty into jeopardy. Eye whiteness interviewed by British Telegraph reported claimed the cooperates of this incident came from the ethnic Macedonian village of Rate. Even the Macedonian ministers and diplomats in Skopje agreed that the possibility of this attacking being carried out by Albanians was unlikely as the NLA had no history of attacking any religious or cultural buildings or sites. NATO Military experts said that by evidence gathered from “The fact that the battery was lying within an area spattered by rubble and wreckage seemed to suggest that it was detonated using a relatively sophisticated timer device“ also the extensive amount of explosive used and the type of explosive all pointed to the Macedonian military.^[23] This incident is to this day disputed and the monastery is now under reconstruction built with some donations from the Albanian Islamic Union of Macedonia to erase any bad blood and Macedonian government.^[24]On the other hand, the Macedonian forces blew up a mosque in the town of Neprosteno. The structure was rebuilt in 2003 with funding from the EU.

Another incident which is claimed by Macedonian government to be a war crime was that of the so-called Vejce massacre where Albanian guerrillas ambushed and killed 8 Macedonian special forces from the Lions unit. Where allegedly the victims were executed with cold steal weapons. A patrol of 16 special operatives were coming back from a raid in a nearby village which they had raided a few hours earlier they looted and beat the villagers is what they said, this was done several times a week through 5 villages the patrol rout was always the same which the investigation after the massacre claimed that Albanian guerrillas had been monitoring the patrol for some weeks after they got complains by the ethnic Albanian villagers and had realised that the patrol was always the same rout and approximate times. The families of the dead soldiers and several ministers claim that the information was sold to the guerrillas and that a major betrayal took place. After setting up and ambush and attacking their lightly armoured Humvee vehicles with small arms fire and RPG’s the patrol stopped and Macedonian forces and guerrillas exchanged fire in a short skirmish, after soldiers started retreating half of the patrol managed to escape one soldier was shot and 7 others captured and allegedly executed which knifes and then their corpses were allegedly burned. News of the massacre sparked local uprisings against Muslim Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia, and such revolts included burning and vandalising shops and Mosques. Surviving members of the roadside patrol that was massacred gave eyewitness testimony of the killings. They claimed that the massacre was carried out by a group of 10 bearded men. Till this day the bodies were not released to the public or civilian investigators and autopsies were carried out in a military morgue.^{[25][26][27][28]}

See also

• Ohrid Agreement
• Operation Essential Harvest
• Preševo valley crisis
• Operation Mountain Storm

References

External links

• Casualties and displacement
• "Macedonia: Step back from the abyss", BBC, December 29, 2001
• "Macedonia: Understanding History, Preventing Future Conflict", United States Institute of Peace, Special Report No. 115, February, 2004
• "Macedonia's Civil War: 'Made in the USA'", Antiwar.com, August 20, 2001
• Chronology of the war
• Youtube video of an ethnic standof in Tetovo CTV
• Battles -9/2001
• Battles - 3/2001
• Macedonia On Brink of War - 6/2001
• Macedonia On War Footing Over Kosovo Border Provocations
• November Battles, Start of War, January 2 2001
• 2002 attacks
• Boskovki interview
• War in the Balkans, again?