1) NATO Praises Terrorist Client's *Election Victory*:
Statement by NATO Secretary General on the Election in FYROM
2) Ali Ahmeti: once a terrorist, now a politician
3) Analysis of UCK "transition" (Pravda.ru)
4) Assassination bid on Macedonia minister (AFP)
USEFUL LINKS:
Macedonian Information Agency (MIA)
> http://www.mia.com.mk/webang.asp
Makfax News Agency (FYRM)
> http://www.makfax.com.mk/index-a.asp
TFF Sweden: All About Macedonia
> http://www.transnational.org/features/2001/Coll_Macedonia.html
Reality Macedonia (FYRM)
> http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/firstpage.asp
BHHRG: Report: Macedonia Parliamentary Election 2002
> http://oscewatch.org/CountryReport.asp?CountryID=15&ReportID=184
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NATO Praises Terrorist Client's *Election Victory*
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 02:18:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@...>
To: r_rozoff@...
1) http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2002/p02-105e.htm
[Background information follows below.]
NATO Online
Updated: 16-Sep-2002 NATO Press Releases
Press
Release
(2002) 105
16 Sep. 2002
Statement by NATO Secretary General,
Lord Robertson, following the elections in
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1)
The people of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia(1) voted yesterday in free and democratic
legislative elections. These elections, held in a
generally peaceful environment, were largely conducted
in accordance with international standards. Across the
whole country, large numbers of citizens from all
ethnic communities voted. In doing so, they strongly
expressed their will to take an active part in shaping
their common future.
The people of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia(1) and their political leaders have
demonstrated political maturity and have set an
example for the region as a whole. They have given
themselves the power to build a dynamic, prosperous
and peaceful society. The work is not finished yet and
there will be more hard work ahead and many more
challenges but these elections are a decisive step in
the right direction and a clear rejection of the
violence which tarnished the last months.
By voting in such large numbers, the people of the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1) delivered a
clear and positive message: they want a strong,
multi-ethnic and democratic society. They want to
leave behind the past and they are resolutely turned
towards the future, their future. And that future is
within the mainstream of the Euro-Atlantic community.
I commend the efforts of the OSCE, the European Union
and other international observers as well as of the
soldiers of Task Force Fox who worked with dedication
and professionalism, contributing to a smooth and
peaceful voting.
I want to assure the people and political leaders of
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1): NATO and
the international community will stand by your side
and will continue supporting the consolidation of
peace and stability in the country.
---
2)
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/ag/Qmacedonia-vote-ahmeti.ROsS_CSG.html
Ali Ahmeti, once a rebel, now a politician
-He returned [to the Serbian province of Kosovo] to
help set up and organise the the National Liberation
Army (UCK) in Kosovo to take up arms against the
forces of the former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan
Milosevic....
-He slipped over the border into Macedonia and helped
revive the UCK in February last year to fight....there
in a conflict which claimed between 70 and 150 lives,
and nearly brought down the government of the former
Yugoslav republic.
-About three weeks ago the government announced that
an arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmeti for
alleged "genocide" and war crimes.
MALA RECICA, Macedonia, Sept 16 (AFP) - Ali Ahmeti,
whose party swept the ethnic Albanian vote in
Macedonia's parliamentary elections, is a clean-cut
one-time guerrilla turned politician who is still seen
by many as a "terrorist" because he once took up arms
against the Skopje government.
His new Democratic Union of Integration (DUI) formed
only last June and based in Mala Recica near the
western town of Tetovo, has fared better than other
more established Albanian parties on the political
scene in the southernmost former Yugoslav republic.
Now he is set to become the undisputed symbol of
inter-ethnic rapprochement in Macedonia.
It has been a long journey.
Smallish, clean-shaven, close-cropped, and usually
turned out in a jacket and tie, Ahmeti looks the
studied opposite of a former revolutionary warlord.
Born in the predominantly Albanian Kicevo district of
western Macedonia in 1959, he went to Pristina,
capital of the neighboring province of Kosovo, where
the population is mainly Albanian, to study
philosophy.
>From the 1980s, he started protesting for years
against successive governments in Belgrade and later
Skopje, which he said, sought to "stifle" the rights
of the mainly Muslim Albanians, people they regarded
as "second tier" citizens.
He said he spent two years in hiding and served time
jail. Such was the pressure, he said, that in 1986, he
fled to Switzerland where two years later, he was
granted the status of a political refugee.
>From his Alpine exile, he said, he constantly
petitioned the United Nations and Western embassies
about the discrimination against the Albanian
community.
He returned to help set up and organise the the
National Liberation Army (UCK) in Kosovo to take up
arms against the forces of the former Yugoslav
strongman Slobodan Milosevic, now on trial for war
crimes in The Hague.
After the NATO aerial blitz of Kosovo in 1999 forced
the withdrawal of Serbian forces, political agreements
led to the disbanding of the UCK in June that year.
He slipped over the border into Macedonia and helped
revive the UCK in February last year to fight for
Albanian rights there in a conflict which claimed
between 70 and 150 lives, and nearly brought down the
government of the former Yugoslav republic.
He became a wanted man.
But under the terms of the Ohrid peace accord, which
guaranteed his quest for better rights for Albanians
who make up nearly a quarter of the population of two
million, the UCK disarmed and he was amnestied.
About three weeks ago the government announced that an
arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmeti for
alleged "genocide" and war crimes. Despite its
obviously political motivation, Ahmeti said he was not
concerned.
"Such measures will never be applied. I am too well
protected, as much as by my entourage as by the
Albanian citizens," he said.
Ahmeti not only calls for restraint on the part of his
adversaries, but also seeks to quash dreams of a
Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo which are shared by
some of his fellow ethnic-Albanians.
"I am only interested in opening the borders for the
free circulation of people and goods," he said.
Today, he insists, his goal is that of a resolute
European.
---
3) http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/29/31465.html
Pravda.ru
June 29, 2002
"SPEAK FREELY, ONLY THE AMERICANS LISTEN TO WHAT WE SAY"
An investigative journalist from the Dutch media house
'VPRO' obtained some scandalous documents from
European intelligence services, which confirm that the
USA was deeply involved in last year war in Macedonia
and that they supplied Ali Ahmeti;s 'Uckas' with
telecommunications devices and provided them with
military training," writes Dnevnik's Friday edition.
The documents that the "VPRO" has can be divided in
three groups - documents for the UCK leaders, schemes
for organizational positioning of the "NLA" and daily
records for the events on the front. The first group
of documents clearly shows that Ali Ahmeti was
receiving orders directly from Hasim Thaci. The
journalist Hub Jaspers confirms the claims of the
Macedonian security forces that the "NLA" is not
"local" terrorist organization, but that it was
established and led by centers in Kosovo. The "VPRO"
cannot integrally publish the documents in order not
to harm its sources.
"The reports that we received have been developed by
intelligence services for several European
governments. They include warning to the governments
to prepare themselves to answer to some very
unpleasant questions regarding the war in Macedonia,"
Hub Jaspers told Dnevnik. The two parties from the
Dutch ruling coalition have already asked from the
government to comment the claims of the "VPRO", to
which the Dutch ministry of defense rejected the
claims that the USA was involved in the urging of the
war in Macedonia.
Rob de Vijk, former advisor in the Dutch army staff,
was called to see the documents. On Thursday he
confirmed that the documents were authentic and
developed by intelligence services of several European
countries. He did not want to name the countries whose
services developed the documents.
Jaspers claims that the documents confirm that the
disarmament of the UCK in 1999 in Kosovo was only
symbolical. The Albanian extremists have kept most of
the weapons in warehouses in Kosovo and the same
weapons were used in the combats in Macedonia. there
is also an information that before the "Essential
Harvest" operation huge quantities of weapons were
transferred to Macedonia from Pec, and later this
weaponry was handed over to the NATO troops. The
documents do not say it that weaponry was old as the
local media claimed, however it was brought it order
the number of 3,500 pieces to be achieved.
The documents also point out that the "NLA" was helped
by the USA with logistic support and weapons.
"Speak freely, only the Americans listen to what we
say. OK, perhaps the Russians can hear us as well,"
this is a quote from a conversation between two "NLA"
commanders during the conflict last year. The
information that Jaspers received shows that the USA
have equipped the "NLA" commanders with communication
devices so they can communicate during the clashes
without to be heard. However, the UCKas did not know
that their conversations were recorded by intelligence
services of several other European NATO member
countries, and Jaspers obtained these recordings.
"According to these information, 70% of the weapons
that the NLA had was produced in the USA," Jaspers
says.
One of the most shocking news is that in the village
of Arachinovo, together with the commander Hodza's
UCKas, also 17 American military instructors from the
mercenary MPRI went in.
"The European intelligence services were surprised
when 17 Americans exited from the buses with which
they pulled out the Albanian terrorists from Kosovo.
It is not certain if they fought on the side of the
"NLA" but they have certainly trained them for
combat," Jaspers says. Similar claims were also
published in the Greek "Kathimerini" and the German
"Hamburger Abenblat."
The MPRI is an organization established by retired
American officers or officers who after the training
simply see more profit in working as mercenaries than
as officers in the US Army, Dnevnik writes. Washington
has to approve its engagement. Yesterday the MPRI
issued an announcement claiming that its employees
were never pulled out or saved by the American Army or
some international organization. Jaspers' documents
indicate that the European intelligence services did
not know before the offensive that there were MPRI men
in the village. It cannot be determined if the strong
pressure from the international community for
termination of the offensive in Aracinovo was due to
the need these people to be saved.
=== * ===
4)
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/di/Qmacedonia-vote-minister.ResK_CSH.html
Assassination bid on Macedonia minister
SKOPJE, Sept 17 (AFP) - The interior minister in the
outgoing Macedonian government escaped an
assassination attempt by a paramilitary ethnic
Albanian group, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
Ljube Boskoski was the target when militants from the
ethnic Albanian National Army (AKSH) opened fire on a
vehicle on Saturday, said the spokesman, Voislav
Zafirovski.
The car was in the line of vehicles accompanying the
minister back to Skopje after his father's funeral in
the western Tetovo region's village of Celopek.
"Fortunately, the minister was not in the car" and
nobody was hurt in the incident, Zafirovski told
reporters here.
The AKSH had previously planned to carry out the
attack on the minister during the funeral but some of
attackers clashed with a police patrol in the village
itself earlier, Zafirovski said, adding that police
killed one attacker, wounded two and arrested another
two.
He said word of the attempted hit had been kept quiet
in order not to "complicate" elections which were held
on Sunday.
A top ethnic Albanian rebel leader, Ali Ahmeti, has
asked for a cabinet role after preliminary results
showed his fledgling party had scored well in the
polls.
It was the country's first election since a bloody
uprising by ethnic Albanians last year.
Statement by NATO Secretary General on the Election in FYROM
2) Ali Ahmeti: once a terrorist, now a politician
3) Analysis of UCK "transition" (Pravda.ru)
4) Assassination bid on Macedonia minister (AFP)
USEFUL LINKS:
Macedonian Information Agency (MIA)
> http://www.mia.com.mk/webang.asp
Makfax News Agency (FYRM)
> http://www.makfax.com.mk/index-a.asp
TFF Sweden: All About Macedonia
> http://www.transnational.org/features/2001/Coll_Macedonia.html
Reality Macedonia (FYRM)
> http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/firstpage.asp
BHHRG: Report: Macedonia Parliamentary Election 2002
> http://oscewatch.org/CountryReport.asp?CountryID=15&ReportID=184
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NATO Praises Terrorist Client's *Election Victory*
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 02:18:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@...>
To: r_rozoff@...
1) http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2002/p02-105e.htm
[Background information follows below.]
NATO Online
Updated: 16-Sep-2002 NATO Press Releases
Press
Release
(2002) 105
16 Sep. 2002
Statement by NATO Secretary General,
Lord Robertson, following the elections in
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1)
The people of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia(1) voted yesterday in free and democratic
legislative elections. These elections, held in a
generally peaceful environment, were largely conducted
in accordance with international standards. Across the
whole country, large numbers of citizens from all
ethnic communities voted. In doing so, they strongly
expressed their will to take an active part in shaping
their common future.
The people of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia(1) and their political leaders have
demonstrated political maturity and have set an
example for the region as a whole. They have given
themselves the power to build a dynamic, prosperous
and peaceful society. The work is not finished yet and
there will be more hard work ahead and many more
challenges but these elections are a decisive step in
the right direction and a clear rejection of the
violence which tarnished the last months.
By voting in such large numbers, the people of the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1) delivered a
clear and positive message: they want a strong,
multi-ethnic and democratic society. They want to
leave behind the past and they are resolutely turned
towards the future, their future. And that future is
within the mainstream of the Euro-Atlantic community.
I commend the efforts of the OSCE, the European Union
and other international observers as well as of the
soldiers of Task Force Fox who worked with dedication
and professionalism, contributing to a smooth and
peaceful voting.
I want to assure the people and political leaders of
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(1): NATO and
the international community will stand by your side
and will continue supporting the consolidation of
peace and stability in the country.
---
2)
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/ag/Qmacedonia-vote-ahmeti.ROsS_CSG.html
Ali Ahmeti, once a rebel, now a politician
-He returned [to the Serbian province of Kosovo] to
help set up and organise the the National Liberation
Army (UCK) in Kosovo to take up arms against the
forces of the former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan
Milosevic....
-He slipped over the border into Macedonia and helped
revive the UCK in February last year to fight....there
in a conflict which claimed between 70 and 150 lives,
and nearly brought down the government of the former
Yugoslav republic.
-About three weeks ago the government announced that
an arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmeti for
alleged "genocide" and war crimes.
MALA RECICA, Macedonia, Sept 16 (AFP) - Ali Ahmeti,
whose party swept the ethnic Albanian vote in
Macedonia's parliamentary elections, is a clean-cut
one-time guerrilla turned politician who is still seen
by many as a "terrorist" because he once took up arms
against the Skopje government.
His new Democratic Union of Integration (DUI) formed
only last June and based in Mala Recica near the
western town of Tetovo, has fared better than other
more established Albanian parties on the political
scene in the southernmost former Yugoslav republic.
Now he is set to become the undisputed symbol of
inter-ethnic rapprochement in Macedonia.
It has been a long journey.
Smallish, clean-shaven, close-cropped, and usually
turned out in a jacket and tie, Ahmeti looks the
studied opposite of a former revolutionary warlord.
Born in the predominantly Albanian Kicevo district of
western Macedonia in 1959, he went to Pristina,
capital of the neighboring province of Kosovo, where
the population is mainly Albanian, to study
philosophy.
>From the 1980s, he started protesting for years
against successive governments in Belgrade and later
Skopje, which he said, sought to "stifle" the rights
of the mainly Muslim Albanians, people they regarded
as "second tier" citizens.
He said he spent two years in hiding and served time
jail. Such was the pressure, he said, that in 1986, he
fled to Switzerland where two years later, he was
granted the status of a political refugee.
>From his Alpine exile, he said, he constantly
petitioned the United Nations and Western embassies
about the discrimination against the Albanian
community.
He returned to help set up and organise the the
National Liberation Army (UCK) in Kosovo to take up
arms against the forces of the former Yugoslav
strongman Slobodan Milosevic, now on trial for war
crimes in The Hague.
After the NATO aerial blitz of Kosovo in 1999 forced
the withdrawal of Serbian forces, political agreements
led to the disbanding of the UCK in June that year.
He slipped over the border into Macedonia and helped
revive the UCK in February last year to fight for
Albanian rights there in a conflict which claimed
between 70 and 150 lives, and nearly brought down the
government of the former Yugoslav republic.
He became a wanted man.
But under the terms of the Ohrid peace accord, which
guaranteed his quest for better rights for Albanians
who make up nearly a quarter of the population of two
million, the UCK disarmed and he was amnestied.
About three weeks ago the government announced that an
arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmeti for
alleged "genocide" and war crimes. Despite its
obviously political motivation, Ahmeti said he was not
concerned.
"Such measures will never be applied. I am too well
protected, as much as by my entourage as by the
Albanian citizens," he said.
Ahmeti not only calls for restraint on the part of his
adversaries, but also seeks to quash dreams of a
Greater Albania or Greater Kosovo which are shared by
some of his fellow ethnic-Albanians.
"I am only interested in opening the borders for the
free circulation of people and goods," he said.
Today, he insists, his goal is that of a resolute
European.
---
3) http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/29/31465.html
Pravda.ru
June 29, 2002
"SPEAK FREELY, ONLY THE AMERICANS LISTEN TO WHAT WE SAY"
An investigative journalist from the Dutch media house
'VPRO' obtained some scandalous documents from
European intelligence services, which confirm that the
USA was deeply involved in last year war in Macedonia
and that they supplied Ali Ahmeti;s 'Uckas' with
telecommunications devices and provided them with
military training," writes Dnevnik's Friday edition.
The documents that the "VPRO" has can be divided in
three groups - documents for the UCK leaders, schemes
for organizational positioning of the "NLA" and daily
records for the events on the front. The first group
of documents clearly shows that Ali Ahmeti was
receiving orders directly from Hasim Thaci. The
journalist Hub Jaspers confirms the claims of the
Macedonian security forces that the "NLA" is not
"local" terrorist organization, but that it was
established and led by centers in Kosovo. The "VPRO"
cannot integrally publish the documents in order not
to harm its sources.
"The reports that we received have been developed by
intelligence services for several European
governments. They include warning to the governments
to prepare themselves to answer to some very
unpleasant questions regarding the war in Macedonia,"
Hub Jaspers told Dnevnik. The two parties from the
Dutch ruling coalition have already asked from the
government to comment the claims of the "VPRO", to
which the Dutch ministry of defense rejected the
claims that the USA was involved in the urging of the
war in Macedonia.
Rob de Vijk, former advisor in the Dutch army staff,
was called to see the documents. On Thursday he
confirmed that the documents were authentic and
developed by intelligence services of several European
countries. He did not want to name the countries whose
services developed the documents.
Jaspers claims that the documents confirm that the
disarmament of the UCK in 1999 in Kosovo was only
symbolical. The Albanian extremists have kept most of
the weapons in warehouses in Kosovo and the same
weapons were used in the combats in Macedonia. there
is also an information that before the "Essential
Harvest" operation huge quantities of weapons were
transferred to Macedonia from Pec, and later this
weaponry was handed over to the NATO troops. The
documents do not say it that weaponry was old as the
local media claimed, however it was brought it order
the number of 3,500 pieces to be achieved.
The documents also point out that the "NLA" was helped
by the USA with logistic support and weapons.
"Speak freely, only the Americans listen to what we
say. OK, perhaps the Russians can hear us as well,"
this is a quote from a conversation between two "NLA"
commanders during the conflict last year. The
information that Jaspers received shows that the USA
have equipped the "NLA" commanders with communication
devices so they can communicate during the clashes
without to be heard. However, the UCKas did not know
that their conversations were recorded by intelligence
services of several other European NATO member
countries, and Jaspers obtained these recordings.
"According to these information, 70% of the weapons
that the NLA had was produced in the USA," Jaspers
says.
One of the most shocking news is that in the village
of Arachinovo, together with the commander Hodza's
UCKas, also 17 American military instructors from the
mercenary MPRI went in.
"The European intelligence services were surprised
when 17 Americans exited from the buses with which
they pulled out the Albanian terrorists from Kosovo.
It is not certain if they fought on the side of the
"NLA" but they have certainly trained them for
combat," Jaspers says. Similar claims were also
published in the Greek "Kathimerini" and the German
"Hamburger Abenblat."
The MPRI is an organization established by retired
American officers or officers who after the training
simply see more profit in working as mercenaries than
as officers in the US Army, Dnevnik writes. Washington
has to approve its engagement. Yesterday the MPRI
issued an announcement claiming that its employees
were never pulled out or saved by the American Army or
some international organization. Jaspers' documents
indicate that the European intelligence services did
not know before the offensive that there were MPRI men
in the village. It cannot be determined if the strong
pressure from the international community for
termination of the offensive in Aracinovo was due to
the need these people to be saved.
=== * ===
4)
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/di/Qmacedonia-vote-minister.ResK_CSH.html
Assassination bid on Macedonia minister
SKOPJE, Sept 17 (AFP) - The interior minister in the
outgoing Macedonian government escaped an
assassination attempt by a paramilitary ethnic
Albanian group, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
Ljube Boskoski was the target when militants from the
ethnic Albanian National Army (AKSH) opened fire on a
vehicle on Saturday, said the spokesman, Voislav
Zafirovski.
The car was in the line of vehicles accompanying the
minister back to Skopje after his father's funeral in
the western Tetovo region's village of Celopek.
"Fortunately, the minister was not in the car" and
nobody was hurt in the incident, Zafirovski told
reporters here.
The AKSH had previously planned to carry out the
attack on the minister during the funeral but some of
attackers clashed with a police patrol in the village
itself earlier, Zafirovski said, adding that police
killed one attacker, wounded two and arrested another
two.
He said word of the attempted hit had been kept quiet
in order not to "complicate" elections which were held
on Sunday.
A top ethnic Albanian rebel leader, Ali Ahmeti, has
asked for a cabinet role after preliminary results
showed his fledgling party had scored well in the
polls.
It was the country's first election since a bloody
uprising by ethnic Albanians last year.