Slav paramilitary forces worry West
BY MICHAEL EVANS
THE build-up of two paramilitary-style Slav Macedonian forces is causing increasing alarm among Western diplomats in Skopje. One is an aggressively promoted official police unit called the Tigers and the other is an unauthorised body of former police and military reservists known as the Lions.
A huge video monitor in the centre of Skopje, urging young Macedonians to join the Interior Ministry’s feared Tigers, serves as a daily warning to the West that, once Nato troops have left after their arms-collection mission, these highly trained men, alongside the unofficial Lions, also sponsored from within the same ministry, pose a potential threat to the peace settlement. “It’s these groups we’re worried about, not dissident Albanian rebels,” one Western diplomatic source said.
The Tigers are a legitimate force, coming under the control of Risto Galevski, the Macedonian police chief, but the man who holds the real power over their activities is Ljube Boskovski, the hardline nationalist Interior Minister and former head of the secret services, who has openly talked of clearing out remaining Albanian rebels from occupied villages after Nato leaves.
He has also espoused the cause of the Lions, referring to them as “noble” citizens. The potential for trouble after Nato has gone is evident. There are reports of rebels from the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army handing over weapons, then being followed home and beaten up by assailants in ski masks.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001303638,00.html
And just when you thought that they couldn't sink any lower! Am I to believe that suspicious men hang around and wait for the poor Albanians to give up their weapons, and then follow them through KLA controled area wearing ski masks (at 25-30°C) just to beat them up? And don't forget that even Albanians admit that they still have two-thirds of their weapons. Wonder who gave them [reporters] such info.