DECEMBER 2007
an incident in Macedonia
The New York
Review of Books
May 17, 2001
original text at NYREW Site "Greater
Albania"
By Tim Judah- (Excerpt from article, This
article discusses political developments . I have taken
only the following "incident" that demonstrates
a problem that was dormant during Yugoslav
rule.J.Braddell,editor)
No major party in Albania calls for the creation of a
Greater Albania. Most Albanians just want their country
to emerge from decades of poverty and oppression and
become a normal place. Remzi Lani, the head of the
Albanian Media Institute and an astute political analyst,
told me: "If I said there were no people who dreamed
of a Greater Albania I would be wrong. But it is not a
popular idea. If the Security Council or an international
conference offered us a Greater Albania we would not
refuse it, but on the other hand we are not going to
fight for it either."
.........................................................
In March, with Jean-Baptiste Naudet, a friend who works
for the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, I climbed a
towering hill of rubbish in the western Macedonian town
of Tetovo, most of whose citizens are ethnic Albanians.
The Kosovo border is only ten miles away, but still
twelve hours' walk across the mountains. The Macedonian
security forces lounged behind their armored personnel
carriers in the streets and said we could not drive
through their last checkpoint. That meant we could not
drive up into the hills behind the town to find the
guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (NLA), which
says it is fighting for Albanian rights in Macedonia.
We asked local Albanians the way and they pointed upward.
We got lost, and had to make our way over the piled-up
garbage and walk for several hours in order to get behind
the Macedonian lines to see the NLA. When we arrived in
the village of Sipkovica we could see across a valley the
guerrilla stronghold at Selce. We clambered down the hill
and crossed the river on the valley floor, only to be
sent back by the guerrillas we encountered below Selce.
They were abrupt and tense. A twenty-four-hour Macedonian
cease-fire was to run out that night and they were in no
mood to talk to journalists.
Back in Sipkovica, men stood in the streets in anxious
knots, whispering and worrying. We met the mayor,
Zulqufli Ajvazi, who explained that he was arranging for
people to sleep in cellars. At this point a black-clad
NLA man angrily took him aside. Our interview was over.
Mr. Ajvazi stared at his feet. "I'm sorry, we are
not allowed to give any more information," said the
mayor's translator, who normally works as a concierge at
the Marriott Hotel at Heathrow Airport. He had just come
back because he was worried about his daughter.
Since the NLA had appeared in the hills above Tetovo
there had been no electricity in the villages. That
night, by candlelight, people talked a little more
easily, since the NLA men were not around. "To hell
with both of them!" said one man, meaning both the
NLA and the Macedonian security forces. "All I want
is a decent job, and money in my pocket," said
another. "Two weeks ago, the Macedonian police came
hunting for arms," said one man, "especially in
the houses of those who fought in Kosovo." But, he
went on, "they beat people up, and ripped gold from
the necks of our women. We're Muslims. They can't touch
our women."
None of the Albanian Macedonians I spoke to in Sipkovica
seemed much interested in "Greater Albania."
One man said: "I went to Albania once. Awful! They
are all thieves! Kosovars? Just as bad! Of course, we
Albanians from Macedonia have a far higher level of
culture than all other Albanians." The next day,
Jean-Baptiste and I tried to go to Selce again. A
commander on a donkey told us to go away. We headed back
down the valley toward Tetevo and, as we did so, the
Macedonian cease-fire ended. Every few minutes a
Macedonian shell hit the side of the steep hill above
Tetovo where there is an ancient castle, from which the
NLA was not firing back. But we were walking right into
the Macedonian firing range. We turned away and climbed
for a couple of hours. When we got to the top of a hill
we watched the desultory shelling and listened to the BBC
on the radio. Apparently this was an "intense
artillery bombardment." What, we wondered, was a
light one?
Something odd was happening up here in the hills. The
more we talked to the villagers the more it was clear
that they were ambivalent in their support for the NLA.
Unlike the early months of the Kosovo war there was no
euphoria, but there was fear of both the Macedonians and
the NLA. Meanwhile, the Macedonians were announcing a
"final offensive" and the NLA was not fighting
back. Why was this? Was it because they would kill
Albanians in the city below if they did or was it because
they did not have much to fire with? A few days later the
Macedonians climbed the hills and the NLA ran away.
Hardly anyone had died during the fighting. There were no
massacres, no ethnic cleansing, and no mass graves. The
Macedonians did not fall into the trap that the Serbs
fell into in Kosovo; they have not burned villages and
driven people into the arms of the guerrillas. They may
yet do so, but for the moment this has not happened.
—April 17, 2001