Macedonia News - Galina Schneider

Your recent article, "Macedonia ceasefire at risk as rebels hold line" by Justin Huggler, dated 28 July 2001, does no good service to either the Albanian or Macedonian citizens of the Republic of Macedonia.

In the article Mr. Huggler does not differentiate between the people he calls "Albanian rebels in Macedonia's second largest town, Tetovo" and Albanian Macedonian citizens who have, together with their Macedonian Macedonian neighbors, worked to uniquely maintain the only former Yugoslav state to form a successful multiethnic and tolerant entity with rights for all. The ceasefire negotiations are with paramilitaries, not Albanian Macedonian citizens. These paramilitary mercenaries and terrorists go by nicknames, not real names, and are based in Kosovo, which is a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, not a part of Macedonia.

Your reporter has probably not been to Macedonia or has only visited it briefly. Thus, when he talks about "nervous Macedonian troops" on one "side" and "Albanian fighters on the other," he is fundamentally incorrect. Those understandably "nervous Macedonian troops" (aren't all troops nervous who haven't fought battles before in their lives?) are 40% Albanian Macedonian and the rest other heritage groups. Although there are sides, the article makes it appear as if one faction in the country was fighting another. Rather the country is fighting an invasion of KLA regulars who have invaded the country from Kosovo from bases and training places over the border, i.e., some of the army is Albanian Macedonians fighting Albanian Kosovars. Meaning there are Albanian "fighters" on both sides, one a legitimate military or special police force from Macedonia on the side of defending their country and the other terrorists, i.e., illegitimate military forces form outside the country.

It is especially egregious when an article confuses Albanian members of Parliament with terrorists from outside the country, even if some of these members of Parliament are taking advantage of the threat to stability that the terrorists have accomplished to further political agendas.

Your articles should clearly differentiate between the NLA/UCK (acronym in English/acronym in Albanian) in discussing issues. So, when a phrase like --

"peace talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority were scheduled to start in Tetovo yesterday, as agreed under pressure from Lord Robertson, the NATO Secretary-general, and Javier Solana, the EU's security affairs chief, who flew in for talks on Thursday"

-- it would be good to know whether the talks were being held with the terrorists or with regularly elected Macedonian citizens who happened to be Albanian.

Additionally, you might wish to inform your reporter that there is no such thing as a "Slav" people in Macedonia. Macedonians call themselves Macedonians and have done so for many generations. Think how confusing an article would be if it happened to discuss a number of countries that included people with part or wholly Slavic heritage. Or, if a term like the "Slav majority in the Balkans" was used. You probably don't know how silly it sounds but such a phrase would not conjure up Macedonians. It would conjure up the period from the 2nd through 6th century AD when various and sundry different Slavic tribes entered the Balkans and mixed with the various and sundry indigenous peoples there. In the 21st century, it would be appropriate to provide Macedonians as much rights to a heritage as Albanians and to dignify Albanian Macedonian citizens without confusing people with a suggestion that all Albanians presently in Macedonia involved in ethnic cleansing have anything to do with dignified Albanian Macedonian citizens.

The people involved in ethnic cleansing at present in Macedonia are either paramilitary terrorists or, on the rare occasion and sometimes through coercion, Albanian Macedonian opportunists or traitors who have joined a foreign paramilitary movement. Thus, a sentence like the following in the article is confusing and misleading:

"The police said Albanian rebels had kidnapped four Slav Macedonians in the overwhelmingly Albanian town overnight."

Properly rewritten it could read:

"The police said the NLA paramilitaries had kidnapped four Macedonians from the multiethnic town last night."

I hope you will pay closer attention to articles coming out on the Macedonian crisis with Kosovo terrorists, particularly making sure not to confuse good Albanian Macedonian citizens with terrorists from Kosovo.

Galina Schneider Washington, D.C.

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