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EDITORIAL
by VETON SURROI
My fax arrived in President Gligorov's cabinet just about in the same time Belgrade
communicated that he had met with Serbian President Milosevic, and that the result of this
meeting (as well as the previous secret ones) would be the soon institutionalization of the
Macedonian-Serb relations. Gligorov had, verbally, agreed to give us an exclusive, for both
Prishtina and Shkupi publications.
The interview should have taken place last week. On Tuesday, instead of a reply to my fax
about the exact time of the meeting, came the public explosive information about the
impossibility of the President to receive us.
Game of the Destiny, this time between an interview and a terrorist act... The Destiny of the
interview is not that important compared to what is happening to President Gligorov. But
Destiny is playing a bigger game. For example, with the fact that the act of terror affected one
of the few leaders of the Former Yugoslavia who was predestined for peace, a kind of
maturity symbol of an old man from Southern Balkans. Or, that violence is happening in the
very moment the tensions between Macedonia and the northern and southern neighbours
started easing.
Western diplomats in Shkup say that Gligorov, who is now suffering serious brain injuries,
will hardly go back to work. If this were true, the bomb which exploded beside the President's
vehicle, will be a reason to make a collective interview, first of all with the people in
Macedonia, and then all those who are interested in the region. Because, Gligorov managed,
with the results of a sixty-years' long political career, to become the symbol of independence
and existence of Macedonia: since ASNOM, the assembly of Macedonian partisans and up to
the solution of the conflict with Greece, now as a president of an independent state. He is,
right now, the point of credibility for a relative domestic (inter-ethnic) stability of the state,
and good neighboring relations with the surrounding sates. And, what is also very important,
he is an accepted figure by the majority of the Macedonian ethnicity, so much that he has
become the symbol of the development of this ethnicity in the period following WWII.
The collective interview which is conducted these days in Macedonia and the world is
centered on the question usually put to the aged heads of state in societal circumstances when
these aged men are the most relevant institution of a state: what after him? It is a very
difficult question for a society which in such has created only one institution of the kind in
The weekly Koha (The Times) was published in Prishtina (Kosovo) between 1994 and 1997. Edited by Veton
Surroi, a young Kosovar journalist and one of the pioneers of democratisation in former Yugoslavia, Koha
soon became a symbol of quality among the region's media. In 1997 it started to be published daily under the
name of Koha Ditorë. W ith the kind permission of Mr. Surroi, Koha digests were originally posted on
http://koha.estudiosbalcanicos.org.
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such a brief period. It is also that difficult for a society which lives in the Balkans of the end
of the centuries.
MACEDONIA
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cause abrupt reactions of the opposition parties and the
Macedonians proper. With this agreement, Macedonia
practically accepted what it had been denying decisively for
years. The forecast was that this would cause strong reaction
of the Macedonian public, which until then considered that
none of the Macedonian postures would change. However,
everything was reduced to severe verbal reactions and a
protest meeting in Shkup, which managed to gather only
several hundreds of people. There was no time for reactions
to Gligorov's visit to Belgrade, because the attempt occurred
the very next day.
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from the political leaders and parties, different adventurers,
and their volunteers which appeared proposing radical
measures".
The way the attempt was perpetrated leaves much space for
dilemmas and different speculations. All experts have
evaluated that it was done by professionals. The car was
bought in the market and the property was not transferred
formally, meaning that the buyers remain unknown and even
no one knows how they look like. The car which was full of
explosives and sand bags which oriented the blow towards the
street, was most likely parked there at least a night before. On
the next day, when the President took the normal route (as if
it were the only one!) from his residence towards the building
of the Parliament, where his office is, the explosive was
activated by remote control. Twenty kilograms of explosive
burst only one meter away from the Mercedes which was not
armoured. A piece of the car-shell passed by Gligorov's head
and killed his driver. The pieces of metal wounded the
President who was sitting up front(!?) and his bodyguard who
was sitting behind. The professionalism applied launched the
wave of suspicions that it could have been ordered from the
neighboring countries, or that it is an act of the western
informative agencies to force Macedonia to enter the package
of solutions which doesn't foresee independent Macedonia.
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Speculations go so far that they don't exclude the possibility
that Gligorov were to be liquidated from the inside, because
he started being an obstacle for some people reaching for
power.
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policy of not solving the problems but stalling them, is proven
to be the biggest weakness of the policy, which was often
qualified as - wise. The lack of the wise politics can cause
problems in the coalition, as well as the government and the
opposition. The continuation of the Greek-Macedonian
negotiations is in danger. The unsettled relations with
Yugoslavia, the obstacles in the reactions with Bulgaria and
the internal problems, could be the causes of destabilization.
Macedonia will be the biggest loser.
COMMUNIQUE - PPDSH
COMMUNIQUE - PPD
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against the peace-wanting orientation, against the alternatives
of peace of this state and its citizens, against the tolerance and
inter-citizens, i.e. inter-ethnic harmony, one of the main
columns of the internal and exterior policies of Macedonia.
TRUSTEESHIP
WHISPERING TRUSTEESHIP
by KOHA / Prishtina
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General, oriented with the consent of the self-proclaimed
Yugoslavia (quote -respecting the sovereignty and the
territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -
unquote), would declare Kosova a territory under temporary
full or partial administration of the UN for a period or three
years, with the right to extend the mandate for additional three
years - or as many as needed - until the final solution reached
in negotiations between FRY officials and those of Kosova
(further referred to as "territory").
This idea is not a recent one. The truth is that during this
century, trusteeship became a component of the decolonization
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process, especially the one in Africa. Nevertheless, differing
from trusteeship, which expressively was a means of gradual
decolonization, the basic idea of UNTANS would be the
application of a peaceful conservation of the present situation
(preservation of Serbian laws, the recognition of FRY as
successor of SFRY, its domination *over Kosova, the
recognition of the process of the des-institutionalization of
Kosova as a fait accompli), as of a state, in which, with the
help of civilian peacekeepers, negotiations could be organized.
SERBIAN REMARKS:
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2.FRY was suspended from the UN and other bodies.
"We are willing to cooperate with the states, members of the
UN, separately as well as with individual governmental or
non-governmental organizations, but to have such a
cooperation with the UN we must have an equal treatment and
participation in the bodies of this organization".
ALBANIAN REMARKS
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KOSOVA
PALE MEMORY
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the political debate on the Constitution (e.g. Borislav Jovic:
"The opposers of Serbia's unification are now isolated",
Politika, 6 January 1989); Threats and imposed staffing
changes; at the eve of the declaration, the state-party dictate
was imposed (Raif Dizdarevic, President of the Presidency of
SFRY would publicly say: "The constitutional changes in
Serbia must be ended by all means"), and something similar
was said by the member of the Presidency, Lazar Mojsov and
many others from the political leadership; a special form of
pressure was the declaration proper, in conditions of imposed
martial law. "It is not allowed in the constitutional-juridical
plane to make any decisions in conditions of external
psychological pressure, which implies the increased pressure,
the threat and application of physical state force outside the
juridical-constitutional framework which restrict the spread
and application of the physical state violence" - was the
content of the appeal. Finally, the seventh form of pressure
was the direct psychological pressure on the delegates of the
Assembly of Kosova in informative talks just before the
session and the different, serious threats, and also inside and
during the session proper, through the presence on an
incredible number of "non-delegates" coming from different
societal-political structures with the delegates. All of these are
corroborated by a series of archive material, video shots,
photographs, newspapers, statements of the members of the
Constitutional Commission of the Assembly of the SAP of
Kosova, the minutes of the session. There was another very
illustrative moment, described in the report of the Belgrade
daily "Politika", dated 24.03.1989, stating that after MP
Melihate Tërmkolli discussed, insisting that the amendments
were not harmonized and as such should not be given
approval and consent, Vukasin Jokanovic, the then Speaker of
the Parliament (and present Federal Minister of Interior)
reacted by saying: "...MP Tërmkolli is denying all postures of
all the organs of Kosova, Serbia and Yugoslavia. She either
is not informed, or she is into something else". In conditions
of the state of emergency and such political mentality, it is
very clear how serious allusion would this stigmatism and
disqualification represent. But, irregularities happened in the
session proper, celebrated on March 23, 1989. Even though
it was said that there was quorum, the total number of
delegates was never ascertained, i.e."the attendance of the
majority of delegates of all chambers" was never established,
and the votes "in favor" were never counted. Article 339 of
the Constitution of Kosova, which was still in force while the
disputable decision was made, foresaw that "the consent to
change the Constitution of SFRY and that of SRS will be
granted by the Assembly of the SAP of Kosova if the majority
of two thirds of delegates of all the chambers (there were
three chambers) votes in favor". According to Art. 152:1 of
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the Constitution of SAP of Kosova, the delegates have the
independence to vote and declare themselves. In fact, from a
series of breaches, the one referring to Article 230:1 of the
Constitution of Kosova is specific, because the disputed
decision was never published, despite the obligation. On the
other hand, Article 399 of the Constitution of Kosova
determined the procedure of adopting a decision, in fact it
determined that the majority made up of three thirds of all
delegates of the Assembly means "special majority" and not
"voting majority". From this, it can be ascertained that is was
a constitutional obligation to precisely determine whether that
kind of majority voted in favor. This especially after the post-
festum analysis of the session was made, when photographs
showed that many of the people sitting in the room were not
delegates, but policemen, and what is worse, they are seen
raising their hands, voting.
This verdict was prepared, but was never signed because the
Parliament of Serbia decided (and according to the
Constitution of SFRY it had not this right) to suspend the
Constitutional Court of Kosova!, In fact, the same day of this
act, the gathered citizens protested against this authoritarian
decision, and this cost Kosova another 30 mortal victims. This
was an original reply to this voting. This is also the end of the
story about "the democratic decision of the Albanian
representatives to unify with Serbia". This is maybe the best
reply to Milosevic, regarding the anatomy of the loss of
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Kosova's autonomy. And we believe that his mind has not
gone so blank in these past six years. But, the thick skin of
those who decided about the autonomy of Kosova seems not
to respect the philosophy of law and justice, despite the fact
that this is not addressed to them. This kind of communication
can't bring back justice, but at least can prove that the
deprivation from the autonomy was far away from what is
known to be democratic...
KOSOVA
Really, did the most serious and drastic looting wave come
together with the colonists? The responsible at the Council for
the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) state
that everything started on August 11, when first colonists
came. There is not one day, not to mention market days
throughout Kosova, in which the police raids are not
organized, when all goods are confiscated. The pretexts are
different: starting from the lack of different documents (sale
permissions, customs certificates, veterinarian certificates,
etc.) and to the extent that the goods are not exposed in the
place they should, that the people are dealing with hard
currency, etc.
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of a private enterprise is characteristic. Based on the turnover,
it is one of the largest in Kosova. It's confiscated goods worth
600 thousand DEM were returned one year and a half later,
and only thanks to bribery.
It is true that the damage is quite big, but that the figures
which are mentioned in different reports of associations and
institutions of Kosova, or even in the Albanian media, are
only estimations. The impression is that these figures only
contain the partial damage which is caused. Let's just mention
that one week ago, on market day in Mitrovica, the police
blocked the market and the areas where private shops and
artisans are located. On that day, clothes worth 70 thousand
DEM, potatoes and peppers worth 10 thousand, then
construction material worth 60 thousand were confiscated,
carpenters were fined with a total of 8 thousand DEM and the
police took away a total of 48 thousand dinars from private
shops owners. "Ashti commerce" in Prizren was confiscated
a total of 3.850 liters of kitchen oil, as the CDHRF claims,
without any reason. All the quantity was sent to the kitchens
where the food for colonists is prepared.
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citizens, as is the case with the special water tax. The
Albanians are avoiding to pay the tax, however, the rumor is
that the fines will be three or four times bigger than the fee.
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