BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN AND ANNE HOWIE
SKOPJE, Macedonia - "No, the NATO bombings are not helping us," Ismet Selami, a farm worker from Petrovo, Kosova, told Militant reporters April 27 at the Stankovic II camp in Macedonia. "They're making everything worse. They're not helping at all."

Albanian working people and others from Kosova have continued to pour into this former Yugoslav republic, terrorized into leaving by paramilitary gangs and special police forces of the regime of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. More than 13,000 arrived the last week of April, raising the number of Kosovar Albanians here to 170,000.

Ismet Islimi, a bakery worker from Ferizaj - the Albanian name for Urosevac, a town in Kosova about 20 miles north of Skopje - told a story similar to Selami's. "Ethnic cleansing started before, but it was when the NATO bombing began that the police forced us to leave," he said. Islimi and his brother both worked in a bakery, alongside workers who are Serb. Just before the bombing started they were sacked, along with all the workers there who were Albanian, for "security reasons."

"Working there was fine until NATO threats got the tension mounting. When we were sacked, the Serb workers were saying, `If you want NATO to save you, you had better get out of this factory.' "

While these views represent a minority among Albanians from Kosova and those who are citizens of Macedonia, they find a hearing across the board.

"I can understand why most Albanian people welcome the bombing, but I don't think NATO is doing this to help us," said Fiknete Bajrami, an 18-year-old high school student of Albanian origin from Tetovo, Macedonia. "They are maybe starting World War III, looking for a fight with Russia, I don't know," she said. Bajrami avidly read through leaflets produced by students at Skopje University, entitled "I Am The Enemy You Will Kill, My Friend." The flyers contain e-mail messages from students at Belgrade University, many of whom participated in the 1996-97 protest movement against the antidemocratic annulment of election results by the Milosevic regime. Bajrami took copies to show her friends.

Ivan Simeonov, an architecture student at Skopje University, and a member of AEGEE, a Europe-wide student's organization, smiled broadly when he heard of Bajrami's response. "Two years ago, Serbs and Albanians protested the Milosevic government together," said Simeonov, who has friends at Belgrade University and took part in some of the protests there against Milosevic. "That was a big gain. But now we have lost that." Simeonov blames NATO and says the U.S.-led attack has only strengthened the Milosevic regime.

As Bajrami pointed out, though, the limitation of the students' statements is that "they have nothing to say about Kosova, about the Albanians." Simeonov himself supports the struggle for national self-determination of Albanians in Kosova. "Of course the Albanians want independence," he said. "After what has been done to them they can't trust the Belgrade government." But he questions what will happen if Kosova were to separate from Yugoslavia. "If you do give independence to Kosova, what will happen to the rest of the Balkans?"

Opposition to NATO troops widespread
As Washington, London, and other imperialist powers have increased their troops here to somewhere between 14,000 and 20,000, NATO's presence continues to meet strong resistance from Macedonian, Serb, and other people here.

On April 27 two homemade hand grenades were thrown on the doorstep of a building occupied by NATO personnel in Kumanovo, a town 19 miles northwest of Skopje. Street protests have been limited by a government "request" not to cause any "provocation," after the initial outpouring the day after Washington launched the bombing of Yugoslavia started. A large demonstration took place outside the U.S. embassy that day. "A lot of people tore down the high fence. They burned the embassy flag and sign," said Simeonov. "Then they marched on to Alexander Palace Hotel and cars of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe], which were parked outside, were overturned. The demonstration then continued to the German embassy." Ever since that day, the street outside the U.S. embassy has been closed off for all traffic and permanently guarded by police on both ends of the street. Many people refer to it with derision as the "American street." The embassies of other NATO countries remain heavily guarded.

"People don't like the presence of the NATO troops here," said Remzija Ramadanova, a member of the Roma Organization of Women from Macedonia in Kumanovo, a town of 30,000 where many of the NATO troops are located. "We don't like the color of their uniforms.... They don't pay for electricity or to use the Krivolac base. They don't even want to drink our water here, they bring in water from Italy - and ours is the cleanest water in the Balkans. If they don't trust our water, what should we think about their trust in us? It's degrading to our country!"

Dilbera Kamberovska, president of the Roma women's organization, described a visit she made to a nearby village a few days previously, to see Roma deportees she had heard were in a school there. "When we got there we were faced with so many NATO soldiers, aiming their loaded guns at us."

Kamberovska works on the production line of a tobacco factory in Kumanovo. She is one of five Roma workers out of a work force of 700. "When I was hired 24 years ago, the factory hired one Roma and one Albanian worker for every two Macedonian workers, according to the proportions of the population in this area." Since then, workers have been laid off or fired several times, and they now worry about the future of the factory. The plant has raw materials, but can not sell to their market in all of former Yugoslavia any more.

"We talk about the war all the time now," Kamberovska said. "We are Macedonians, Albanians, and Roma. Everybody is pushing his or her side, of course. It is normal to think about your own people first. I think about the Roma refugees here, the Albanians about their refugees, the Macedonians and Serbs about their relatives in Serbia. But we don't quarrel, after all we share our bread there."

"If you have worked together for 10, 15, 30 years, you are friends. After so many years together, you don't want to harm each other," said Mgleka Zgkirovska, another member of the Roma organization.

"NATO should go home and not ruin relations with our neighbors here. We have lived together, we used to go without passports all over, and we married each other. We were all Yugoslavs. I am a child of all of Yugoslavia!" exclaimed Ramadanova.

Further north, Ivan Ristic farms two hectares of land with his son Nikola. Their farm is three miles from the border with Yugoslavia and 550 yards from a NATO base. Ristic described the constant low-level helicopter activity over their land that disrupts their farming, and said local farmers have found pieces of missiles and other things on their land, which were later spirited away.

He virulently opposes the NATO bombing. "Why are they bombing the factories, why the people? If you want Milosevic, OK, but why bomb the people?"

Both the current and the previous governments in Skopje have charted a course towards joining NATO. "But this action has changed people's view of this," said Simeonov. "People forgot it was a military alliance, that its purpose is to fight wars." He said the government had promoted the application on the basis that Macedonia would get economic aid for joining. "But 10 years ago we had no NATO and we had no war. Now we have NATO and we're one step away from war. At least we know now that there is no democracy in the `West.'"

Cost mounts for workers, farmers
With a per capita Gross Domestic Product of $1,663 in 1997, Macedonia was already the third-poorest area of the Balkans, after Albania and Bosnia. The government, a shaky three-party coalition, was only elected in November 1998, when the eight-year rule of the Social Democrats in Macedonia (SDSM) -largely the former Communist Party - was brought to an end. The new government is a coalition of VMRO-DPMNE, a Macedonian nationalist party; Democratic Alternative, which is also Macedonian; and the Albanian Democratic Party (DPS). Many people hoped that this government would adopt policies to improve living standards for workers and farmers, both Macedonian and Albanian.

Minister of the economy Zanko Cado, however, resigned April 26, blaming the lack of international financial aid and differences with other cabinet members for the rapidly deteriorating economic situation. A meeting of foreign ministers of European Union member countries that day promised "upgraded relations with Albania and Macedonia in the direction of association agreements." But no financial support has been forthcoming, despite pleas from Skopje.

Much of the economic activity of Macedonia has continued to rely on the raw materials and markets of Yugoslavia, despite the formal breakup of the federated workers state in 1991-92. So the imperialist bombing campaign has had a devastating impact. Government estimates put the cost of the war to Macedonia, in lost trade and contracts, at $200 million in the first month. It's expected to rise to $1.2 billion by the end of the year. Half of the workforce of 600,000 are unemployed, in a population of 2 million. About 300,000 are retired and 270,000 people are dependent on social welfare payments of 100-120 German marks a month (1 mark = $.55). Of the 300,000 who have jobs, 80,000 workers have not received their paychecks the last two or three months because of lack of funds in their companies.

"At this moment we are only talking about the war at work," said Stoica Jovanovcku, who has worked in the Zletovo mine for 21 years. "Seven to ten years ago, when all of Yugoslavia was together, it was fine. Since then every year something bad has happened. Now we don't know what will happen with the mine."

The Zletovo zinc mine has 1,450 employees in Probistip, a town with 8,000 inhabitants. Until five weeks ago, the concentrate of zinc was sent to the Trepcka mine in Kosova for further processing. When the war in Yugoslavia made that impossible, processing was arranged in Romania. Transportation costs will increase, however. The company's Greek business partner used to pay for a month's wages in advance. Now he only pays for the concentrate the mine is actually able to send out. Some 250 nonproductive workers have been put on forced "holiday."

Textile industry devastated
Zorica Iceva, who works in the office of the textile factory of Astinov in Stip, has been laid off at least through May. After that she doesn't know what will happen. Stip has a population of 50,000 and is totally dependent on the textile industry, which has been devastated by the current war situation.

"When the war broke out, all the U.S., British, Belgian, and German firms canceled their contracts," Iceva stated. The foreign partners in the joint venture used to supply the raw materials to be sewn in Stip and get the finished products back. Now they want guarantees in the form of money or from the government before they will supply the Astinov factories with raw materials. But the company has no funds and no guarantee can be gotten from the government.

"I am very proud of the factory," Iceva said. "It is the best one in the Balkans." Before the breakup of Yugoslavia, Astinov used to have 85 shops, located throughout all the republics. Since the break up 40 percent of the products have been sold in Yugoslavia and 60 percent abroad.

Iceva is worried that the present managers are preparing for a privatization, by separating the plant into different areas. Last year, she said, the management stopped working with the partners abroad. "I think they wanted to ruin the factory to be able to buy it cheaply," she said. "But the workers want to be the owners of this factory. I hope the workers and the union won't let it be sold so easily."

The U.S.-NATO bombing has exacerbated an already deep crisis in agriculture too. "Before the war it was hard but we found a way," said Ivan Ristic. Small farmers worked second jobs to finance their farming. "But now all the jobs are gone. On top of that, now the border is closed so we can't go north, which is where we did business." Ristic said farmers bought fertilizers and fodder in Yugoslavia because it was cheaper there, and sometimes they sold their produce there. "In a year's time all the people in Macedonia will need humanitarian support too!"

The constant refrain of the government of president Kiro Gligorov, that the key is to "maintain stability," reflects the deep fear of these economic facts and of the impact the arrival of tens of thousands of politicized Kosovar Albanians will have on the oppressed Albanian population of this country.

Twenty-three percent of the population in Macedonia is Albanian, according to official figures. Many Albanians say the real number exceeds 40 percent. With the influx of 170,000 Albanians from Kosova for an unknown period of time, the figure might well be half the population.

Two-thirds of the deportees live in the homes of Albanians, Turks, and others in Macedonia, the rest in the refugee camps.

In Gostivar, a majority Albanian town in western Macedonia with a population of 60,000, there are 9,000 Kosovars in the town itself, and 23,000 in areas around it, said Jevat Hebibi, of the aid organization El-Hilal (The Crescent), April 25. His organization, together with other groups working to defend the rights of ethnic Albanians, has played a big role in relocating Kosovars coming across the border, or those who have managed to leave the camps.

"We have some experience from helping refugees from Bosnia before," he said. "We were expecting an exodus, so we prepared, but we never expected anything like this. The first days were just chaos. [Deportees] had been out in open air for five days, and we were the first to offer help." The mosques in Gostivar were opened to provide initial shelter, until people could be placed in homes. Now El-Hilal is providing food, clothing, and medicine with funds raised from donations locally. "There is not a single Albanian or Turkish family here who does not have Kosovars in their homes, even if the family lives on welfare," Selami said. "The government takes all the credit for helping the Kosovars, but they have not supported us at all.

El-Hilal has also helped organize a temporary clinic for the Kosovars in one room in the mosque, which is staffed by 30 doctors and nurses from Kosova, working in three shifts. "We are all volunteers," said Dr. Flamur Ukaj, who had responded to an appeal from El-Hilal after having spent four days as a deportee at the border in Blace, and after helping four additional days in a tent clinic there.

The situation of deported Kosovar Albanians in the camps here is increasingly desperate. As thousands continue to cross the border, often being held at the Macedonian checkpoints for several days before being allowed to enter the republic, necessary resources, from food to facilities are being delivered eye-dropper style.

Dealing with the problems facing Albanians forced out of Kosova becomes increasingly intertwined with the struggle for national rights of Albanians who have been living in Macedonia for generations.

Unofficial University of Tetovo
Most Macedonian Albanians these reporters met explained in detail how they face constant discrimination in every aspect of life here, from education to jobs to location of workplaces. There is a parallel school system with classes taught in Albanian and Macedonian up to high school, but no university in Albanian. After tuition fees were imposed for all but the very best students, it became even more difficult for Albanian youth to study at the two official universities in Macedonia.

"Out of 29,000 university students in the two official universities in Macedonia, only 500 to 600 are Albanian. Out of 2,000 to 3,000 university professors, only three are Albanian," said Fadil Sulejmani, rector of the University of Tetovo, which was formed in 1994. It now has 2,200 students but is not recognized as an official university and receives no government funds.

On the contrary, the authorities have harassed the unofficial institution. Sulejmani was imprisoned for two years after the university opened four years ago. "He was charged because he was the initiator of our university," said Ihpend Bajrami, one of the members of the executive committee of the student union. "They arrested him as a symbol. It was like putting education in jail."

"The Macedonians don't want Albanians to study," Sulejmani said. "They want Albanians to work in agriculture or other physically heavy jobs, or to go abroad to Germany or the United States and bring in money. They want Albanians to work with tools, so Macedonians can work with pencils."

Before the partition of Yugoslavia, Albanian youth could study in their own language at the University of Kosova in Pristina. After 1992 when Macedonia declared independence, however, the erection of the new border prevented students from continuing their studies there. "The Serbian police took their passports so they could not cross the border," Sulejmani stated.

The University of Tetovo is funded through contributions from the Albanian community. "Everybody is supposed to contribute 1 German mark, but we have to collect the funds. The Albanian population also provided the buildings. We have 15 houses here that we can use, mostly for one year at a time. Then we have to move everything to another house," Sulejmani said. Students pay 100-200 marks a semester, and professors are paid 300-400 marks per month.

In the hall of the student union in another loaned private house across the street, Ihprend Bajrami and Jusuf Zejneli, president of the student union, are busy registering students from Kosova.

"We help our brothers from Kosova register here so they can continue their studies. We help them find a place to stay and students here have donated books. It is our moral obligation," Bajrami said. Students have also increased the fees they pay, to cover the costs of those from Kosova. "Four hundred students from Kosova have registered now, and the number is growing."

The students from Tetovo tell about the fight to open the university. Apart from the rector being arrested, students were constantly harassed by the police. "They took their documents and tried to scare them. But it did not work. And now we are mostly left alone," explained Bajrami. "And every deed like that is useless. They can not help it or stop it. It does not depend on their will. All we want is to be treated like civilized people. We don't deserve to be treated like we are now."

"We fulfill all the obligations of citizens of Macedonia, we pay taxes, we go into the army. So we want all the rights of a citizen," Zejneli said.

Because the university is not recognized, students here cannot postpone their military duty as students from other universities. While more than 50 percent of the soldiers are Albanian, however, less than 2 percent of the officers are, according to Sulejmani.

Discrimination on job, plant location
"The industrial capacity has been mostly located to Skopje and eastern Macedonia," said Mumin Kadrin, principal of the Kiril Pejcinoviz high school in Tetovo.

"A steel and metal factory was build in Skopje," he said. "It used electricity and materials from Kosova, so this location made it unprofitable, because of increased transportation costs. Likewise a brewery was located in Skopje, despite the best natural water in the region being here, at the foot of the mountains. They were not built here because of the Albanian inhabitants."

A worker from a food distribution company in Tetovo, who did not want to have his name used, was among that half of the workforce of 330 who was fired four years ago despite having worked for 28 years. "Now the Macedonian manager has his own people there, friends and family."

Albanian and Macedonian workers had worked together in this company, the worker said. "But Albanians were always on the lower level. The Macedonians got the best jobs, and we were their helpers and their cleaners. They got loans from the company; we could never get loans. I asked three times to get an apartment through the company. But only two or three Albanians got an apartment; the Macedonians took the others. And how come the Macedonians could go on vacation in the company's vacation houses at the Ohrid Lake and my children never saw the lake?"

"The government has a chance now it if respects the Albanians, if it offers equal opportunities, if it recognizes the University of Tetovo," said Sulejmani. "If Albanians in Macedonia see the government helping them, they will accept Macedonia as their country and their own government." But Albanians will press their demands he says.

As NATO escalates its assault on Yugoslavia, on the pretext of opposing discrimination against Albanians, tensions in this republic are bound to intensify as well.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home