Ethnic Albanians block Macedonia-Kosovo border

AlertNet ^ | July 2, 2002

[joan]

SKOPJE, July 2 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians in northern Macedonia blocked the country's main border crossing with the Yugoslav province of Kosovo on Tuesday, demanding the release of three fellow villagers detained there earlier by police.

Around 100 ethnic Albanians from the village of Blace north of the capital set up roadblocks near the border and refused to allow any vehicles past.

Columns of cars and trucks were stranded on the road, including NATO military vehicles heading towards Kosovo.

Police confirmed that they earlier detained three ethnic Albanians trying to enter Macedonia, but declined to say why. The protesters said they had done no wrong.

"They were arrested for no reason at all. We'll stay here and stop every vehicle until the police release our friends," one said.

One of those detained was a former guerrilla commander who fought against government troops during last year's six-month ethnic Albanian insurgency, the villagers said.

Under the Western sponsored peace accord that ended the conflict, the large ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia was granted greater civil rights and an amnesty for former fighters in return for guerrilla disarmament.

[joan]

The Albanians have been busy blocking traffic elsewhere in Macedonia too.

http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=2034

Australian Journalist Attacked In Skopje

An Australian journalist was set upon by an angry mob of ethnic Albanian merchants who were protesting against the Macedonian government closing down Bit Pazar market today in Skopje, the capital.

Sasha Uzunov, 34, a freelance photo-journalist for western agencies, was photographing the demonstrators, who were putting up barricades and blocking traffic, including three NATO buses containing Greek soldiers bound for Kosovo.

“About 10 or so demonstrators came running towards me and demanded my camera. A man with a mobile phone was giving orders to the others to attack me,” he said.

“One man grabbed me by the shirt and starting pulling me towards the ground, whilst another tried to take my camera.

“Four Macedonian Police officers stood nearby and watched the whole incident and didn’t intervene to help me. Luckily for me there where two Dutch NATO military observers close by and I ran towards them.”

[Free the USA]

Bump

[vooch]

Columns of cars and trucks were stranded on the road, including NATO military vehicles heading towards Kosovo

the KLA is now openly taunting Kfor in the Kacanik area......guess Hoplite eats some more crow.......

[Barnacle]

Hey! All you Ethnic Albanians. You're popping up in every corner of the Balkans and starting trouble. Don't you have your own home? A place called... What's it called... What's it called... Oh, yea, Albania! Why not try that place for a change?

[Voronin]

And so it begins.

VRN

[joan]

And so it continues:

No End To Violent Intimidation of Macedonians in Tetovo

Skopje, July 3 (MIA) - An explosive device was thrown Tuesday night at 23.15h in the garden of reservist Nebojsa Dimovski from Tetovo village of Semsevo, which caused material damage, the Media Activity Center within the Coordinate Crisis Management Body announced.

An officer employed in Tetovo police department was attacked Tuesday by Jusuf and Ljumni Selmani, who maltreated him under a threat of a firearm, for not issuing a passport to a third person that was under investigation. Gunfire and flares occasionally violated the public peace and order in Tetovo and Kumanovo-Lipkovo region overnight.