Introduction
Exploratory trip in Macedonia in the period November-December 2000 was
conducted by Ivana Franovic and Nenad Vukosavljevic from the Centre for Nonviolent
Action Sarajevo.
The exploratory trip had the following goals:
– To analyse the political situation in the country
– To explore the needs of groups active in the area of peace building, conflict
transformation and inter-ethnic relations
– To proof the possibilities of intensifying training-work in the triangle Serbia-KosovoMacedonia, through the opening of an additional CNA office in Macedonia
The political situation in neighbouring Serbia has drastically changed in-between the
time of planning and implementing the exploratory trip to Macedonia. Newly established
acting space within Serbia/Yugoslavia enables activities in the area of peace building and
civil society development that have been unthinkable until recently.
Political Situation in Macedonia
Inter-ethnic relationships, Democracy, Human Rights
The political situation in Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia has been the theme of all the
talks, which were held during our visits to various organisations and the contacts with
others. The views on the current political state of affairs and the work direction of the
present Macedonian government are very different, although two major, each other
opposing, points of view can be identified. Simplified, one can claim the existence of a
Macedonian and Albanian perception of causes for the disturbed inter-ethnic
relationships, which is considered an undeniable fact. Both points of view identify the
opposing side as the only one responsible for and guilty of the current situation. Inbetween there are few people which have analysed the situation and found their own
responsibility to act towards understanding and the establishment of communication
between both sides.
Macedonia is a divided country: the West of the country at the border with Kosovo
and Albania is populated by a majority of ethnicAlbanians; in the rest of the country
ethnic Macedonians represent a majority. Besides these two major ethnic groups there are
various other ethnic groups living in Macedonia: Turks, Slavic Muslims, Serbs, Roma,
Gorani, Bulgarians and Vlahs. Generally one can say that these national minorities share 7
the view of the Macedonian „side“. In the Capital City of Skopje, the Albanian minority
is strongly present making up already a quarter of the total population. The regional
centre of Albanians in Macedonia is the town of Tetovo, west of Skopje. Albanians make
up two thirds of Tetovo population. Tetovo University, which offers high education in
Albanian language, has an unclear legal status, not being funded by the government and
its graduate certificates not being recognised. In our exploratory trip, CNA has paid
special attention to areas, which have ethnically mixed population and therefore represent
a focus point of ethnic tensions. Those are the towns of: Skopje, Tetovo, Gostivar and
Debar.
The total number of people of Albanian origin in Macedonia is unknown and
controversial. While official numbers claim 25% of Albanian population, unofficial
estimates are 30-35%. Altogether there are about two million people living in Macedonia.
A census should be undertaken in 2001. The difference between official and unofficial
data may be explained by an extensive problem of statelessness in Macedonia. After
disintegration of former Yugoslavia, of which Macedonia was a member republic,
Macedonian authorities have denied the right to citizenship and Macedonian documents
to many people. Those affected by denial of citizenship are foremost Albanians who lived
in Macedonia, but have not been included in census 1991 or those who have been born in
Kosovo or other parts of former Yugoslavia, no matter of their decades of residency in
Macedonia. About 120 000 people are affected, claim Albanian sources. As a
consequence of this they have: no right to vote, to social insurance, to Macedonian
documents (usually just travel documents for stateless) and therefore no right to
participate in the political life of the society. Their citizenship requests are being rejected
without explanation, with a notice about discretional right of police to lay open their
reasons. In many cases one member of the family has no citizenship, whereas the others
have. Children of stateless persons born in Macedonia also remain stateless. This hard
discrimination act probably has a goal of reducing the political influence of Albanians
living in Macedonia, though creating a fertile ground for political extremism.
Political movement of Albanians in Macedonia is organised in two political parties,
the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), a member of the governing coalition and the
Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) which used to be a member of former government.
The major goal of both parties is the recognition of constitutional equal rights of
Albanians in Macedonia. The legalisation of Albanian language as official language, the
state financing of Tetovo University and the adjustment of percentage of Albanians in
state service, according to their percentage in total are just single steps towards the goal
of constitutional recognition of Albanians in Macedonia.
The percentage of Albanians is constantly rising due to the high birth rate. This can
be explained with the lack of education and traditionally strong patriarchal family
structures. High birth rate is connected with poverty, low economy growth, high
unemployment and finally the demotivation of parents to finance education of their
children. The educational trend of the 80s has been reversed in the 90s, because people
who received high education remained unemployed and have consequently been
demotivated to invest in the education of their children.
In ethnically mixed areas, as for example in Tetovo, two parallel societies exist beside
each other. Streets are clearly dived in Albanian and Macedonian ones. Particularly in the 8
evening it appears to be a rule not to enter premises which belong to the „others“. It goes
as far that people reject stepping into a cafe or restaurant of the „others“. Lectures in
school are divided in Albanian and Macedonian through time shifts, so that neither
teachers nor pupils, who use the same school premises, ever get in contact with each
other, studying in their own mother tongue respectively. Violence escalates regularly, as
recently on 28th November 2000, the Day of Albanian Flag, as Albanian pupils hanged
down the Macedonian flag off the school building and put up an Albanian one. In
respond to that, Macedonian pupils boycotted the lectures and organised demonstrations,
so that dangerous confrontation of pupils was hardly kept under control, divide by police
cordons.
Hatred and mistrust are ruling the country. The situation has similarities with the situation in Kosovo at the beginning of 90s, between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians. It is to
be mentioned that the situation in Kosovo is followed with great interest. While
Albanians in Macedonia feel solidarity with Albanians in Kosovo, many Macedonians
fear that a similar scenario may take place in Macedonia in order to separate West
Macedonia and merge it into Great Albania.
The current governing coalition is made up of extreme nationalist party of VMRODPMNE and their Albanian extreme nationalistic counterpart, DPA. This constellation
reminds us of coalition of Bosniak, Croat and Serb nationalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
that governed the country before the war and started the war itself. Many media reports
tell of corruption affairs in the government indicating criminal practice agreements
concerning smuggling of cigarettes, drugs and weapons. Clear proofs have not been
presented as yet.
Only few years ago, at VMRO rallies one could spot slogans as „Albanians into gas
chamber!“, whilst DPA has been playing with thoughts of Great Albania. Therefore it
seems unbelievable that the coalition of these two parties has been excellently
functioning for two years. Majority of Albanians in Macedonia is mainly satisfied with
the government’s achievements so far, as some steps towards equalisation of status of
Albanians with Macedonians have been done. On the other hand, the majority of
Macedonians is scared of this development. The slow but sure change of ethnic balance
in Macedonia scares Macedonian population extremely. One can hear statements as:
„They will take away everything from us.” «They will become majority here and make
our country a part of Great Albania“.
Some of our discussion partners have the opinion that democracy development has
been reversed under the new government. Local elections in 2000 have had various
irregularities, pointing out at attempts of election fraud. The great defeat of the governing
party VMRO during the first round of local elections, has been miraculously reversed in
the second round (in Skopje about 100 000 votes for the opposition were „not casted“ in
the second round). Independent election monitors reported of various physical attacks,
false identification documents and similar.
In all parts of Macedonia there are claims of ruling party corruption and abuse of
authority in favour of single political parties. This is also reported to be a reversed
political development trend and perceived as a burning issue. Although the previous
government lost the elections because of their numerous corruption affair involvements, it is now being described, in comparison to VMRO, as less corrupt. In the town of
Gostivar, populated with 95% of Albanians, an NGO activist claimed that especially
West Macedonia is, now after the fall of Milosevic regime, the last dictatorship bastion in
the Balkans.
All major parties of the political scene have been or are currently part of the
government, therefore all are connected with corruption. There is no recognisable
alternative to the nationalistic course of both sides. Oppositional parties are also using
nationalistic rhetoric, that appears to be a safe tool in the fight for power.
Some government moves have been faced with approval of the Albanian population,
because they are seen as steps towards recognition of equal rights. This policy is being
insufficiently presented and explained to the public, so the Macedonian part of the
population has small acceptance and understanding of it. Moreover, fear is growing
among Macedonians. Instead of leading a public debate and searching for support of
citizens and their initiatives, small government circles are making and implementing
decisions, hoping that glorifying tones of state TV will convince the public of their
success. The lack of democracy and the culture of dialogue is threatening to turn steps
which could contribute to stabilisation into a major violent setback in the future, possibly
at next general elections.
Existing Initiatives in the areas:
Peace, Conflict Transformation, Inter-ethnic Communication and Regional
Cooperation
There are only few organisations and initiatives that gather Albanian and Macedonian
activists. Ethnically divided, the NGO scene seems to be focussing on differently defined
goals. Hence, most Macedonian organisations that do some inter-ethnic work, describe
their goals as „education for loyal citizens“. Under these terms, assimilation is being
considered and hardly any space left for joint efforts in the creation of common future.
Albanian organisations, on the other hand, are mainly focussing on advocacy for their
own rights, which are indeed in many ways unfulfilled. There are hardly any cases of
solidarity across ethnic borderlines. A feeling of fear and discrimination is shared among
Macedonians in areas where they are a minority. Only few people have the awareness of
sharing the society they live in with others, and being responsible to further the social
transformation process through dialogue.
Obstacles for initiatives that wish to engage in sincere inter-ethnic dialogue, are
certainly present within the surrounding environment, which may extort pressure and
create fear. Besides this, NGOs are usually afraid of local authorities, which may use
tools in their hands to act against those groups, who dare criticise them or pursue
politically opposed goals. Questioned about the legal regulations concerning NGO work,
many of our discussion partners told us that there are no problems. During our visit at the
only organisation in Tetovo, to our knowledge, that employes both nationalities and does
inter-ethnic work with children, we asked our host whether they could somehow
intervene in ongoing troubles between high-school pupils. The person answered that they 10
do not dare do that, because they would immediately feel the power of local authorities
through intense financial control and otherwise. Similar to Bosnian NGO regulations,
Macedonian ones are also stuffed with beaurocratic forms and limitations, that force
NGOs to use „creative“ bookkeeping in order to meet the legal requirements. The
practice is known to the authorities and tolerated up to the point that someone needs to be
threatened.
There are some initiatives that focus on inter-ethnic meetings of youth and children,
designing those meetings with more or less recreative and educational contents. These
meetings are held in Macedonian language, that almost all Albanians speak, as hardly any
Macedonians understand or speak Albanian language. These activities are very valuable,
offering unique opportunities for people of different ethnic origin to get to know each
other and communicate.
In the area of conflict transformation, we met a single group that is the Ethnic
Conflict Resolution Project – ECRP, from Skopje, which does Trainings in Conflict
Transformation. The group gathers both Macedonians and Albanians, who work as
trainers with ethnically mixed groups of youth from high schools. In this case, the
activities go beyond meetings and educate participants in nonviolent communication,
conflict resolution, dealing with prejudice and difference, etc. Nevertheless, this group
has rather limited capacity with only 4 Trainers. CNA has brought this group in contact
with our participants from the Training for Trainers and besides this agreed on terms of
future cooperation. The cooperation should enclose attendance of ECRP staff and former
participants to our training courses and visits of ECRP trainers as guest trainers at CNA
events.
A particular problem seems to be the orientation of NGOs towards concrete projects.
This means that very few NGOs have a clearly designed mission and strategy. Most of
them create project proposals in the moment when Donors announce advertisments for
implementing partners in a specific area of work. Hence, donors define strategy of civil
society development and work priorities instead of authentic local activistic initiatives.
As a result of such practice, many groups were formed based on financial interest and
without activistic motivation. Occasional practice of NGOs connection with political
parties, whose policies they advocate, draws an even darker picture.
There are basically no local initiatives that concentrate their work on the wider
region, beyond Macedonia. Burning problems within Macedonia probably contribute to
such orientation. Despite that, some of the people we spoke to/discussed with expressed
interest in joining regional activities and profiting from cross-border experience exchange.
Conclusions
Capacity building
Existing capacities in Macedonia appear insufficient. Some of the initiatives founded
within the past 1-2 years offer potential for capacity development. Nevertheless, these
groups need in the first place training and structural support themselves.
The education of multipliers deserves particular attention.
Despite the lack of awareness about the need for regional, cross-border work, we estimate
it important for Macedonian participants to be included in regional activities.
Meeting Point Macedonia
Macedonia can be used as a neutral meeting point for people from Kosovo and
Serbia. Meeting and training work in conflict transformation can concentrate on these
three regions including minorities respectively. The exchange may get additional quality
and easen likely ethnic confrontation between Albanians on one side and Serbs and
Macedonians on the other, through inclusion of participants from Croatia, BosniaHerzegovina and Montenegro. Similar conflict lines, but partly different ways of their
expression and development stages, offer a rich background for necessary constructive
confrontation and conflict transformation.
Contacts with organisation gathering ethnic Albanians from Macedonia offer easier
access to Albanian organisations in Kosovo. These contacts have been made during the
exploratory trip and therefore a precondition for improvement of contacts to Kosovo has
been achieved. Due to many prejudices and recent terrible events in the region, it is
particularly difficult for people of Serb origin to get in contact with Albanians and the
other way around. Grave security circumstances in Kosovo make it very dangerous for
native Serbo-Croat-Bosnian speakers to travel through Kosovo.
Language barrier
Native Serbo-Croat-Bosnian speakers understand Macedonian language and the other
way around. Workshops that CNA conducted in Skoplje and Tetovo confirm this,
although language difficulties have occurred sometimes. In particular young people of
Albanian origin needed translation occasionally, as they never learned Serbo-CroatBosnian language in school, as it was practice previously.
Training need
The need for inter-ethnic work in Macedonia is very big. Trainings in nonviolent
conflict transformation with themes: nonviolent and intercultural communication, teamwork, dealing with difference, national identity, prejudice, gender; are perceived by CNA
as needed in order to initiate and enhance the communication process at different levels
of the Macedonian society.
To our knowledge, there is no Training for Trainers in nonviolent conflict
transformation in Macedonia. Some activists have taken part in educational courses
outside the country, primarily in USA and Scandinavia. Criticism about these courses
concerned mainly the non-adjustment of curricula and the non-applicability to the
settings of their local environment.
There are only few brochures in Macedonian and Albanian language, which can be
considered as literature concerning conflict transformation. CNA met a high demand for
our training Manual „Nonviolence?“, as there is no comparable literature in either of the
languages.
Strengthening of NGO capacities through NGO management deserves also attention,
since there are some international agencies and groups concentrating on this area. Some
local groups are already offering trainings in NGO Management and work on networking
and information exchange.
Strategy Recommendation
A group residing in Macedonia has various possibilities of contributing to peace
building. Nevertheless, because of public acceptance there are some possibilities that can
be recommended. It could be an initiative that gathers:
– Macedonians and Albanians , with or without additional activists of other ethnic
origin, that have conflict transformation as a focus of their work
– Only Macedonians, working with Macedonians on issues of prejudice reduction,
hence creating preconditions for further inter-ethnic work
– Only Albanians, working with Albanians on issues of prejudice reduction, hence
creating preconditions for further inter-ethnic work
A potential CNA office in Skopje should necessarily gather trainers from Macedonia
from both main ethnic groups, beside two activists from CNA Sarajevo (Serbian and
Serbian-Montenegrin origin) – who would help build up the office. Due to our knowledge
there are only few Macedonian trainers that could get engaged and no Albanians. A
contribution to trainers education and capacity building can be pursued also from outside
Macedonia.
Goal definition should foremost enclose the education of trainers of Albanian and
Macedonian origin. Lack of capacity appears apparent in Kosovo and Serbia, which are
having similar problems and conflicts. Regional focus of the work demands cross-border
cooperations which could, thanks to CNA Sarajevo’s experience, be successfully done
when the initiative is carried out by educated activists of various ethnic origin.
Communication barriers and prejudice can be overbridged more easily with such a set up.
The high priority of CNA should be support of local initiatives that wish to work on
improving inter-ethnic relationships in Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.
Political changes in Serbia have opened totally new space for action. Two activists
from CNA Sarajevo, who should pursue the extension and intensification of work in the
triangle Serbia-Kosovo-Macedonia, could do the following:
To develop regional training work in the triangle Serbia-Kosovo-Macedonia, hence
responding to numerous training requests from Serbia and Macedonia.
• To act as a local initiative within Serbia, contributing to the development of a culture
of dialogue, demilitarisation, communication with neighbouring regions and coinitiate the reconciliation process through dealing with the recent violent past.
Opening an office in Belgrade/Serbia as an authentic local initiative, gathering
activists from Serbia (current CNA Sarajevo staff), including further activists of nonSerbian origin (useful because of public acceptance), appears as a possible response to
the current situation. Unthinkable, until recently, this possibility has become realistic
through the revolution in Serbia.
The main goal of the Belgrade Centre should be furthering of training work in
nonviolent conflict transformation in the Balkan region. Trainings should, at this stage,
take place in Macedonia or Montenegro, including participants from Serbia, Kosovo,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Contacts in Macedonia
should be used for improvement of the contact net in Kosovo and reaching out to those
activists there who need such training.
An additional dimension of the Centre in Belgrade should be public acting, practice
and advocacy of the culture of dialogue and the overcome of the culture of violence in
Serbia itself. Future political agreements and solutions to the question of Kosovo’s status,
clarification of minority status, demilitarisation, will only be possible if there is a broad
acceptance by citizens of them. Such acceptance within the population can be reached
only through multi-level public work and the process of opening up taboo themes in
society. Those are the preconditions for a sustainable Peace and Democracy
development.
CNA Belgrade could give a strong contribution in capacity building, through trainers
education in the area Macedonia-Kosovo-Serbia. Contacts and knowledge of the situation
gathered during the exploratory trip in Macedonia are needed preconditions for an
efficient choice of partner organisations and well targeted development of human
resources there. Gathered knowledge is already been of benefit in the work of the CNA
Sarajevo office.
In order to secure efficient regional work, an exploratory trip within Serbia is to be
recommended. An exploratory trip in Kosovo is recommendable also, as far as the
security situation there allows free movement for Non-Albanians.