I believe these are the words you would hear from every honest citizen ofMacedoniaif you asked them – “What’s going on in your country?“ It doesn’t look good, and it won’t end well.
Last year, a bona fide media war broke out inMacedonia. The media had been in a rather poor state, and nothing changed for years. There is a large number of different types of media, and all of them feel the pressure of their owners’ political ambitions (despite the law, which states that the media owners cannot simultaneously be political party leaders). Also, the pressure is exerted by the prevailing climate, where employee rights and labour unions are, virtually non-existent. Nevertheless, the government played the key role when they categorically decided to intervene, and eliminate the pro-opposition media. The main opposition TV station, A1, was the first to be targeted last year, when the Prime Minister publicly advised people not to trust the news broadcast by A1. In addition, the Ministry of Internal Affairs posted an official statement on their website, which enticed all citizens to file lawsuits against A1. Finally, in winter 2010, the police, together with members of the Public Revenue Office, broke into the TV station headquarters. For several months, the television continued to operate with a blocked bank-account. However, in July 2011, the station had its work permit revoked, and was closed down. This happened immediately following the early parliamentary elections (which once again confirmed the government’s popularity). Today, four A1 chairmen, including the owner, are in prison, having been charged with tax evasion worth millions of euros. A1 used to be, not only the biggest privately-owned television station in the country, but also, the most trusted broadcaster among the people ofMacedonia. Besides A1, same owners held three other daily newspapers (one of which was in Albanian), and all three are no longer being published. What is certain is that the field of public information has been left with a great void, one which will be difficult to fill with the quality level characteristic of A1. A genuine impression is, that all forms of media are financially “dirty“, and that this case was an example of selective justice. And it was not an isolated one.
The “benefit“of including the dispute about country’s name withGreece, in internal politics, was evident last year. I can openly state that, this issue has been used extensively as a weapon of choice for political defamation. Whatever the argument is about, one can always twist it to the issue of dispute withGreece. That’s how fixated people are on this issue. What we end up with is, a lot of emotions, bad communication, and people listening only to their own voice. A joke can illustrate this more vividly – “Three scientists, an American, a Frenchman and a Macedonian, were sent on an expedition to the South Pole. Once they returned, the American wrote a book, ‘The Ranking of Penguins and Their Role in Solving the Economic Crisis’. The Frenchman called his book ‘The Penguin Love Life’. Finally, the Macedonian published his work, and named it ‘The Role of Penguins in the Macedonia Name Dispute’.
Dividing people into “patriots“ and “traitors“ is an everyday phenomenon. Still, it is a cruel practice, and given the ever-present lynch mob mentality, ultimately very sad. In reality, no progress has been made in Macedonia-Greece negotiations, and most likely, won’t be made any time soon.
The numerous construction works of the more ancient, antique and baroque-lookingSkopjetown are continuing. Government is not revealing the full costs, but it is estimated that the total sum exceeds 200 million euros. On a number of occasions, we witnessed the fragility of multi-ethnic relations, and the practice of keeping things under the carpet. The deciding incident took place on the Kale Fortress inSkopje. At the time, the fortress was the building site of the Ministry of Culture’s brainchild – Skopje 2014, a nebulous, odd museum-church hybrid. Anyhow, one night local Albanians, politicians included, came and demolished the entire construction. A few days later, a mass fight broke out between football fans on the same location. For a while, the possibility of further violence escalation was a major threat. The result? The entire Skopje Fortress was declared a hazardous zone, and closed for visitors. Several other “urban“ ethnic mass fights broke out, and it didn’t end there. This year, after a period of hibernation and primacy in conflict withGreece, we are finally faced with the challenges of the co-existence between Macedonian people and the Albanians. Therefore, the wall of silence, built around the existing disagreements, has to be torn down. And to top it all off, the census fiasco was promptly explained by the pro-government media, claiming it was all just a part of the Prime Minister’s brave plan to prevent data forgery. Normally, such offence would receive an immediate charge and a speedy judicial process. It goes without saying, that there will be no aftermath at court. So, everything remains shrouded in mystery. Nothing is going to change. The new census date has not been set yet.
I’d like to mention two more incidents, which starkly illustrate the sad reality of the 21st centuryMacedonia:
The first incident. The murder of Martin Neskovski. On the day of the Parliamentary Elections, as the city was celebrating the victory of VMRO DPMNE on the Skopje’s main square, a member of the special police force killed a young celebrator – twenty-year old Martin Neskovski, with his bare hands. Allegedly, Martin’s attempted to climb the stage and congratulate the Prime Minister in person. Afterwards, his body was left with the regular police officers, and the perpetrator left the scene. The murder was witnessed by several bystanders. The following day, the news spread like wild fire via Twitter. The witnesses started to speak out, enquiring about the lack of media coverage concerning the case. There was no mention of it in the daily police newsletter, where one could typically find reports on petty burglaries, let alone murder cases. In a matter of hours, a group of Twitter users, organized around the hashtag #protestiram, came together and lead the protest. The Police spokesperson was still denying his knowledge of the murder. Nevertheless, the whole truth emerged later when it was revealed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel were present during the autopsy, which confirmed violent death. It was not until the end of the next day that the killer turned himself in. The Ministry was literally caught red-handed, trying initially to cover up the murder, and later to even hide any involvement of the high-ranking ministers in the very process of the cover-up. Meanwhile, a campaign was organized and for a period of time, daily protests were held at every major town. Every day at 6 o’clock! The entire archive of the protests is available at http://justiceformartin.blogspot.com/. However, instead of a direct government response to the justice-seeking demonstrations, a series of dirty campaigns, the worst I had ever seen in Macedonia, were launched against the demonstrators. Some claimed that the protesters were mercenaries hired by – the oppositions, Greece, George Soros… Even an extremely crude (and failed) attempt at a counter-protest was made. The young people were put on the spot, with the media portraying them as organized inciters, trained in Belgrade (by Otpor?), financed by Soros, and all kinds of other nonsense. The victim’s family would receive visits from people who told them to stay low and remain silent about the case. By the way, the parents learned about their son’s death two days after he was murdered, because supposedly, the victim couldn’t be identified. In the aftermath, besides the killer’s arrest, no other responsibility for the cover-ups was taken. Also, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Macedonia still holds her position, in her second mandate. The protests were truly impressive, particularly the number of those participating, which would sometimes number several thousands. The demonstrations were peaceful at all times, and no violent incidents were reported. Strategically speaking, it was hard, since the lack of experience put people at an unfavourable position where they didn’t know how to react to medial defamation attempts and counter-campaigns. Though, that is an entirely different topic, and demands an in-depth analysis of a different kind, which will not be dealt with in this text. Nevertheless, #protestiram is an idea which is still alive and well. It represents a glimpse of hope for a brighter future, where the truth will be known from the very start, and the path cleared for those brave enough to fight injustice.
The second incident concerns the so-called Hague cases amnesty of the July 2011. Namely, the Hague Tribunal abandoned four war crimes cases in 2004, and allowed the indictments to be brought against the jurisdiction of the local courts.The Hagueeven took part in the training process of the judges and prosecutors, so that they could tackle these cases more efficiently. Sincethe HagueTribunal simply sent the indictments back without handling them, the Court is allegedly free of any responsibility when it comes to their involvement in the legal process. Ever since, the cases were merely an instrument of the Macedonian government partner, whenever the successor parties UCK, DUI needed some disciplining. Only one of the cases barely reached the court. After the elections, DUI imposed a condition of government employment, which stated that these cases had to be granted amnesty, based on the post-war amnesty law and its instrument of “authentic interpretation“. And that is exactly what happened – the proposition was passed after receiving majority of votes in the Parliament. So we now find ourselves in a rather illogical situation. The Parliament adopted the proposition which grants amnesty for potential war crimes cases. How is that even possible?!! I don’t know. Only the Supreme Court has the power to repeal the law, but it has been three months now, since the Supreme Court has not held a session. This amnesty is directly thwarting the process of dealing with the past, and instead, suggests a politics of forgetting and impunity. There is no individual responsibility, only the nationalist narratives remain to tell the story of a nation’s crimes, not those of a person. What is left are the emotions, instead of attempts to enforce a procedure and give the system some credibility by making it nonpartisan and independent. There have been very few public reactions to this case. I’ve been trying to figure out why is that so. I believe people are reluctant to start dealing with conflicts in an environment where they feel unsafe. Yet,Macedoniaof today, shadowed by its rulers vanity and propaganda-fuelled personal interests, is hardly a synonym for safety. So, it is obvious that the only people who can benefit from forgetting injustices of war, are those who are unaffected by it, and criminals. Nobody else.
In this context, the admittance ofMacedoniain the REKOM Initiative was a flicker of hope. On more than one occasion, putting the question of war legacy in the regional context was very beneficial forMacedonia, and it made things much easier. However, work on a local scale is essential, and except for several initiatives, that is precisely what we lack.
I will end my text with an account of a modern Macedonian affair, typical of the 21st century. (It’s not about ajvar, even though it turned out to be rather delicious this year.) Last night, the Prime Minister’s cabinet made an announcement. Apparently, the Prime Minister himself will take part in a Facebook chat, answering questions about the Euro crisis and its influence on Macedonian economy, or something along those lines. Naturally, thousands of people flooded his Facebook page. Many of them asking about solutions to their own personal problems, some concerned about employment, the involvement of parties in the administration, health care and educational system. All of this followed by hundreds upon hundreds of blessings, and expressions of gratitude for the Prime Minister’s brave leadership. I browsed around a little, and stumbled upon one question:
“Mr Prime Minister, if a Macedonian citizen would suggest changing the name “FYROM“ into “The Beautiful and Rich Republic of Macedonia“1 , would he be considered a patriot or a traitor?“
Really…I would love to know the answer.
Boro Kitanoski
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1 Same local abbreviation of FYROM.