Chento Versus Kolishevski: Battle Over History

Macedonia is a funny country! It honours a man, Metodija Andonov-Chento, who was falsely imprisoned for his belief in an independent Macedonia. It also honours a man, Lazar Kolishevski, who falsely imprisoned Chento!

Last year, a monument to Kolishevski was unveiled in the town of Sveti Nikole, his birthplace, and has opened up a historical can of worms.

Chento, a non-communist Partizan, who became Macedonia's first president in 1946 within federal communist Yugoslavia, believed in a united and independent Macedonia. His main political adversary at the time was Lazar Kolishevski, communist party boss and a close confidante of Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia's then ruler.

Chento and Kolishevski strongly disagreed over many things including the decision to use Macedonian Partizans in the controversial battle of Srem, near the end of World War II. Chento wanted the Macedonian Partizans for the liberation of Aegean and Pirin Macedonia, then under Greek and Bulgarian occupation. Kolishevski and Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Tito's Montenegrin emissary to Macedonia, pressured the Macedonian High Command into sending the troops to Srem in Northern Serbia to fight the retreating Germans in 1945. Kolishevski ordered the illegal execution of thousands of Macedonian Partizans who refused to deploy to Srem.

Apologists for Tito and Kolishevski have claimed that an armed uprising in Aegean and Pirin Macedonia was futile. However, British government documents have revealed that wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill conceded to his Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden that if the Macedonian Partizans in 1944 were to take the Aegean region of Greece no one would be able to stop them.

During the Greek Civil War (1946-49) and the offset of the Cold War, Tito actively intervened in Aegean Macedonia and thereby reversed his earlier policy. But his intervention proved disastrous, as the US and Britain had already taken control of Greece. Thousands of Macedonian refugees were forced to flee from the Aegean region. Many to this day have not been able to return to Greece.

By 1948, Chento was removed from power and later imprisoned on trumped up charges instigated by Tito and Kolishevski. One of the judges during the show trial was Kole Chasule, the father of Slobodan Chasule, Macedonia's Foreign Minister under the VMRO-DMPNE government (1998-2002); the prosecutor, Lazar Mojsov, who later became communist Yugoslavia's foreign minister.

Chento died in the late 1950s because of poor health. In 1990, a Macedonian court had overturned Chento's conviction and he was posthumously rehabilitated. In September 1991, Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia, and there was talk of Kolishevski, Mojsov and Chasule being put on trial for treason. Because of political pressure from the then government, made up of reformed communists, the public prosecutors office was pressured into not taking any action.

Kolishevski and Cashule were allowed to die peacefully in retirement, whilst Mojsov is in Serbia. As yet, no Macedonian government has ever asked for the extradition of Mojsov to stand trial. Chento's remaining family has asked the current Macedonian government for compensation.

In 1946, Kolishevski handed over to Serbia a few Macedonian villages, including the Prohor Pchinski Monastery, where the Macedonian republic was proclaimed on 2 August 1944. Because of Kolishevski's legacy, Macedonia is probably the only country in the world that is forced to celebrate its founding as a nation on technically foreign territory.

Ten years later, he gave to Kosovo the Gora region, which contains a large Muslim Macedonian population, known as the Gorans.

Sasha Uzunov is a freelance photojournalist an ex-Australian soldier who completed two peacekeeping tours of East Timor.