Smiljkovski massacre is most certainly the thing that has marked the year. On April 21st 2012, in the early evening before good Friday, and three days before easter, five people were killed near the Smiljkovsko Lake, in close proximity of Skopje. The investigation revealed that four young men of Macedonian nationality aged 17 to 21 years were identified, placed in a row and assassinated in cold blood. The fifth victim was an older man, aged 45 – a fisherman and most probably a witness to the crime. None of the young people had a criminal record, nor were they implicated in any activities that would explain this crime. Nothing whatsoever. People were shocked by the cruelty with which these crimes were committed, and the fact that merely ten years after the last war, a group of assassins can execute civilians in this way. As usual, two main ethnic groups involved, immediately began pointing fingers, and calling for retribution and protests. Our prime Minister spent the entire week playing hide-and-seek with the press (despite numerous appeals to make a public appearance, and lower the tensions threatening to escalate), which goes to show his own lack of awareness on what is going on.
But let us examine the state of affairs prior to this event. After last year’s media clash and the current onslaught of scandals, spin, slur and slander, a part of the public has removed itself from the media space, seeking refuge in internet networks, or fleeing entirely into a-political spaces. The other, visible, part of the public readily engages with the topics simply “thrown” into the public space. (I might sound harsh, but I simply do not believe the majority of “events” currently occupying public space, even that they took place at all. An event is taken, turned into a scare-crow, attacked from all sides and eventually nobody cares what really happened – just which interpretation is of interest.)
The topics were the following:
a) Skopje 2014, a colossal multimillion project is still the main benchmark for evaluating the success of the government. The project is in full swing. The value of the project is still a secret, as is its full scope and elements. (Is there an end to it?). After the placement of a grandiose monument “warrior on a Horse,” the other side of the river now prominently features “The Father of a warrior on a Horse,” and the last days saw the placement of a complex composition, which I can only assume is “The Mother of a warrior on a Horse.” Evil tongues say that the number 2014 does not signify the year of the project’s completion, but the number of monuments foreseen, but I do think they are overstating it. In my opinion, and I have counted, there are not more than two hundred. For several years now, the authorities refuse to hear criticism, demonize any dissonant voice, but have, only one day after the placement of prometheus’ nude figure, had a quilt made to cover his genitalia. A well known sculptor readily executed their demand. The mayor of the Center municipality said that he did it because he received complaints from “women’s” organizations. which ones – he never disclosed. So now, we have a Prometheus in diapers. Perhaps he will be able to bring us fire when he grows up. Just perhaps.
b) Playing with statistics: how we are listed as the third, or first, or second (I can never remember) country in Europe, in the world etc. and according to different parameters: managing economic crisis, and the lowest impact of crisis to economy (what is left for the crisis to have an impact on?). In other words, we’re on the road to recovery! Some other statistics however show that 30% of population is still below the poverty line.
c) Lustration was just a waste of time. The government pushed for the project, the opposition halted it. I cannot understand why. I advocate public disclosure of all remaining archives of state security agencies in SFrj[Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia]. It should be up on the web. It should be done in an atmosphere of trust and with a genuine intention to stop these types of policies. To acknowledge the possibility that the part of the archives could be destroyed or forged by the said agencies. But this will not happen. After theConstitutional Court suspended several provisions of the Law, the Parliament majority re-introduced a Law that was even stricter. It was turned into a tool for political elimination. The cases are examined in a selective manner (e.g. the priority should be the public officials who are still in power), and the decisions in the Commission are voted on despite the very clear guidelines on how is someone defined an “informant.” A public register has been put up on the web Site: . I don’t pity them, but I do regret the missed opportunity: this process could have lead to an acceptable stand towards the recent past, a stand that would be oriented more towards condemning the practice than revenge guided by political gains.
d) The dispute with Greece concerning the name is constant and actual, as is the misuse of both positions on the issue. The possibility might arise with accession negotiations with EU, but with both sides committing to start the negotiations with this dispute. The response from the greek side is still pending.
Multiethnic relations unfold in the midst of all these issues. More precisely, the relations between Macedonians and Albanians. A lot of issues re-surfaced in the last year. For a while, the main problem has been the lack of responsibility for the policies implemented. Each side will implement the agreed obligations, but they will not stand by them when they speak to “their people.” Their address usually references an emotional story of injustice and “outside pressure.” This lack of responsibility brews animosities, and feeds the careers of “national defenders.” It also tolerates even the most publicly expressed forms of inter-ethnic violence, as long as it feels it can control them. The Smiljkovski massacre occurred as a climax of increasing ethnic violence. It started with Islamic protests because of a controversial mask on a village carnival in the southwest of the country, that was insulting Koran. And then a church was damaged, and then graffiti was written on a mosque, and then someone tries to set a church on fire in another village, and then fistfights began in public transport in Skopje. It lasted the entire spring. And then the massacre happened. The minister of Police, accompanied by the deputy, an ethnic Albanian, very clumsily stated that the motif for the assassination was “radical Islam” (which can mean everything and nothing). This provoked reactions on all sides. And then something unexpected happened. Macedonian nationalists immediately scheduled the first protest. (The families of the murdered called for lowering of tensions.) Several hundred people gathered around the Government building, threw rocks which landed on both governmental officials and journalists, and then made an attempt to go to the “Albanian part of town.” Special police units took stark measures and blocked the groups, and then pushed them back. I have no recollection of a similar event, in which the police so determinately confronted Macedonian nationalists. The other day, after the Friday prayer [džuma] a lot of Albanians gathered and made their way toward the Government building. The police took extra precautions to secure the protest and did not allow for bigger incidents. I am not prone to expressing support for the police when they limit the right to protest, but in both instances they reacted properly to ensure that violence on the streets did not escalate. Therefore, they know the right procedures, when they wish to implement them. Street fights did not take place, because escalation of violence was prevented. Police took twenty people into custody; few were kept on several charges and two in direct connection to the assassination (the alleged chauffeur and one of the assassins). A wanted list was issued for two more Albanians suspected to be directly involved in the assassination. And then things stopped. It is now six months since they were taken into custody and they need to be either charged or acquitted. It remains to be seen what happens, but this crime is such that it cannot go unsolved. I hope we are moving closer to the truth.
In all honesty, I see this crime outside the wave of ethnic violence that is sweeping over us. The events that took place seem much more than the usual nationalism-infusing campaign in order to get our minds off other relevant problems, something we have witnessed for over two decades. But it came in the right time. The reaction of both partners in the government speaks of their awareness of situation’s severity, and that was to act in the best way possible to lower the tensions. I don’t know who organized the assassinations and for whom, I just hope we will not wait long for answers. I lost any hope that we will learn the lesson: that the same groups immediately react in the same way (by inviting for conflict), that we have forgotten how to mourn, that we have forgotten not to rush in pointing fingers, that we have completely forgotten about the families of the assassinated – while calling for retribution in their name, that six month after the incident we only have police reports and party confrontations, but no serious discussion and analysis about what had happened, and lastly, that we became a community that can be seriously divided by a group of merciless murderers.
After a small break, it feels like everyone had forgotten about the Smiljkovsko assassinations, and the spiral of violence continues with usual conflicts in the streets, sport arenas, and public transport. A generation of young people in urban areas is coming of age, having these conflicts as the only point of contact. A very weak peace movement is organized through which to be vocal. There is will, and there are wonderful people – and this time, I have a feeling, it has spread beyond the usual activist circles. But it was a problem to keep the focus on the issue of peace. We need a sustained commitment to peace and we don’t have it. And this summer marked the anniversaries of 2001 war. Fatmir Besimi, Minister of Defense, provoked a scandal when he went with the officialarmy delegation to pay respects to the fallen soldiers of KLA in the Kumanovo village of Slupčane. This stirred up tensions and infuriated the Macedonian side in the Government VMRO – DPMNE, as well as the public. You have to keep in mind that the grave stones of fallen soldiers from 2001 can only be kept in “your own ethnic backyard,” otherwise they are not allowed or are immediately destroyed. VMRO-DPMNE responded immediately with the draft Law on the Rights of Defenders that was put in pipeline (it encompasses only the members of regular army and police forces i.e. the Macedonian side). This was supported by the Macedonian opposition (Social Democrats) as well. Albania partner DUI rejected the proposal vehemently and announced that they will, along with the support of the oppositional Albanian party (DPA) stop the proposal and if need be ask for a new change of Constitution, which would lead to federalization of the country. (Allegedly there was an agreement that this issue remains closed during the mandate.) I do not know how this will end, but I do know that we will have new parliamentary elections unless a deal is struck, this winter or next spring, along with local elections. I do know that nationalism will be the main topic of campaigns yet again.
I don’t fear that this situation will escalate. Macedonia has a long history of multi-ethnic cooperation (even the war of 2001 saw functioning of a multi-ethnic government) and systems of inclusion. I am ready to believe that there were solid reasons in 2001 that the tensions did not spiral into a total chaos. And some of those reasons are still alive and strong in people here. But I am aware that the good credit has been spent on wrong politics for a while. Many careers were built on public animosities (and private tenders) in order to simply disappear. And indeed, there is some support in people too. It will not disappear, we need to acknowledge it and move on.
Few days ago I was chatting with my friends. We are all in our thirties; our paths of personal development are visible to some extent. We talked about how we used to see ourselves, and what do we do at the moment. We touched in our conversation on the written assignments we used to have in school, about the future, the world after 2000 and similar things. We shared similar thoughts on technological advances, voyages to the Moon and Mars, home robots and modern cars that fly through the cities. Nobody ever dreamt that we would, after all these years, deal with the problems we have at hand. We did not turn out to be how we fantasized, and neither did our society. It is only logical, right? We are of similar ages, and society did not jus spring out of thin air. The politics we don’t like will not disappear on their own, and they will not surrender in wake of our superior arguments. Neither will the people who embody those politics: who create them and perpetuate them. And what shell we do then? We need to do something with this awareness.
Boro Kitanoski