Wolfowitz in Skopje – What Next for Macedonia?

antiwar.com ^ | May 20, 2003 | Christopher Deliso

[Destro]

Wolfowitz in Skopje – What Next for Macedonia?

by Christopher Deliso

May 20, 2003

A total eclipse of the full moon on Friday morning, street warfare between Macedonians and Albanians in Tetovo on Friday night – could these portentous events have had anything to do with the next day's visit from US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz?

Über-hawk Wolfowitz touched down briefly in Skopje on the third leg of his Balkan tour. At his first stop (Sarajevo) Wolfowitz oversaw the signing of a treaty guaranteeing that Bosnia will never extradite an American soldier to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. At the second stop, Kosovo's Camp Bondsteel, Wolfowitz inspected the troops at this all but forgotten imperial outpost.

Wolfowitz's trip to Macedonia was decidedly low-key, and lasted only a few hours. Officially, he came for the photo op and speech praising the Iraq-bound Macedonian conscripts. However, the fact that he also met in private with former NLA boss Ali Ahmeti, President Boris Trajkovski, and later with Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and Defense Minister Vlade Buchkovski seems to indicate that Rumsfeld's right-hand man came to talk business.

Operation Evade Journalists

However, it is slightly unclear as to what that business was. Wolfowitz's entourage, which included US Ambassador Laurence Butler and the proverbial men in dark suits and sunglasses talking on mobile phones, were escorted briskly in and out of government buildings all morning, leaving little chance for interrogation. Although Wolfowitz answered two or three mundane questions in a mundane way when meeting with Trajkovski, no real explanation for his visit was given. And the US Embassy on Saturday claimed to have no one available who could speak on the matter.

Saturday's final photo op for Wolfowitz was the Macedonian Army's Ilinden barracks, a sprawling encampment situated on a high wooded bluff overlooking Skopje. Here Wolfowitz gave a short speech to the 39 Iraq-bound Macedonian soldiers. Among them are members of the Wolves (special forces), as well as army medics.

Flanked by officials, Wolfowitz stood opposite the neatly-arrayed Macedonian troops and thanked them for playing their part in the "liberation" of the Iraqi people from "…one of the worst dictators of modern history." He also alluded to the US-imposed Ohrid Agreement when praising the Macedonians for "settling issues by talking instead of by fighting." He then proceeded down the row, cordially shaking hands with each of the conscripts. Much snapping and flashing ensued from the thicket of cameras adjacent.

photo by Cvetin Cilimanov for Antiwar.com

[Hoplite]

Spam, wonderful spam.

You are clueless and choose to believe anything critical of the US that fits in with your prejudices.

Got any pictures or actual proof of our having armed the ANA?

You never have, and you never will, 'cause it never happened. All you have are a bunch of stories from the leftist/Macedonian Nationalist coalition against America's actions in the Balkans, which you are regurgitating well past their freshness dates.

What it comes down to is this: if we wanted Greater Albania, it would be in existence right now.

It's not, ergo you, and all your links and articles to the contrary are worthless junk.

[Destro]

Leftists and nationalists??? all agreeing??? wow

[mark502inf]

Destro, the Gowans article is ridiculous. Neither, NATO, the US, or Canada are or were supporting the guerillas in Macedonia. On the contrary, they have supported the Macedonian govt with statements, diplomacy, financial aid, and military assistance funds and advisers. KFOR has patrolled the border with troops & UAVs to prevent illegal crossings. U.S. troops during that time have even had several skirmishes with Albanian guerillas crossing between Kosova and Macedonia. Blackhawks were used to insert, resupply, and extract some of the NATO/US troops vicinity the Kosovo-Macedonia border--the rumor that those helicopters were supporting Albanians started shortly later--I thought it had been put to rest when even the Macedonian military stated that it was baseless. Now, you can justifiably argue that KFOR did not use enough troops to do a good job of cutting off outside support coming through Kosovo, but that is much different than the utter B.S. about NATO/US support for the guerillas. That just did not happen. Ditto for the training of "private" armies and support for Albanian extremists in southern Serbia. Destro, the Albanian extremists were wrong and needed to be defeated, on that I agree, but you weaken your good points when you come up with this whacky conspiracy stuff.

[Destro]

Of course we werent supporting the Albanians---just giving them air conditioned bus rides.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

How is the proof of the diplomat confirming the "armed the ANA" role Hoplite? Is that good enough?

Would you like my identifying this diplomat? We ate at the Sunce Restoran in Novi Pazar. He had Raznici and I had Cevapi.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

Some of the information is baseless/clueless garble, but in the same proximity does ring true, albeit hollow in parts. All I can say is I recieved confirmation about the "ANA" extraction, the training and financing of the "KLA" by the US, dealings with the KLA to this day in coordination of a covert policy of ethnic cleansing of all Serbs from Kosovo. I stand by my sources to this day, I do not care what the "Internet" newsgroups/clippings/articles state. Nothing supplants the truth up/close and personal. I'm sure you understand what I am saying on that mark and hoplite. No one who has "served" understands what it AD is like/experience, as I use the military as a general example.

People write/gossip on what happened, what that unit "did" and how they are "barbarians" after an incident, i.e. What of the ones who know 1st hand, who knew some of the operators and such? On here, people such as Hoplite come right out and denounce those ppl as "traitors, Slobo-lovers, etc...". No, just reporting facts of eyewitness. :)

[DestroyEraseImprove]

What it comes down to is this: if we wanted Greater Albania, it would be in existence right now.

De facto, Greater Albania is already in existence right now. You know that. And as long as there is 'Camp Bondsteel' there will be a Greater Albania in the balkans. Congratulations. A real success story.

[Hoplite]

De facto, Greater Albania is already in existence right now.

In your world, maybe.

Meanwhile, in the real world, things are a bit different.

You should spend some time exploring reality - it would make your posts less of a source of amusement.

[DestroyEraseImprove]

De facto, Greater Albania is already in existence right now.

That's the reality we are facing today in our world. The facts on the ground speak for themselves. Why don't you go to Kosovo and see it with your own eyes? You should spend some time travelling to the places you are talking about instead of pretending to know something about these places you have never seen with your own eyes. Or do you think your computer is the 'real world' and reality is your cyber-space-imagination?

[Hoplite]

The facts on the ground speak for themselves.

Fine: Prove the existence of a single Albainian governing structure stretching from the Adriatic to Tetovo.

Better yet, accept that your statements on the matter and reality are out of synch and resolve not to let it happen so easily in future.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

DEI- I was just there in parts of Kosovo and Southern Serbia... You are absolutely correct. Cyber world is differant then the real world. I met hostility in Novi Pazar as well as Kosovo and the border region, til I displayed that I was an "American". Beograd plates can get you killed there!

[DestroyEraseImprove]

There is Albania and and an albanian Kosovo under the protection of NATO today. That makes two albanian entities in the Balkans leading defacto to a 'Greater Albania' even if they are not united into one recognized state. Try to pass the 'border' from Albania to Kosovo and then go to Serbia and try to pass from there to Kosovo. You can't be that much retarded not to understand what I'm talking about. Under 1244 Kosovo is part of Serbia, but that's theory. In reality Kosovo is much more part of Albania today. So difficult to grasp for you? No, you're just playing dumb.

[Hoplite]

Not even a nice try.

You point to two different regimes in Kosovo and Albania - that itself gives the lie to your statement. Greater Albania is the idea of one monolithic bloc of Albanians used to scare simpletons who can't be bothered to figure out the Albanians are not a monolithic group, much less being overly concerned about the conditions of their fellows in neighboring states.

Remember how well 'Greater Serbia' held together when the rubber hit the road in '95? All Karadzic had to say was that the Krajina Serbs were used to moving, and that was that.

The Albanians have never had anything approaching 'Greater Serbia', and they never will - the Albanians lack the centralization of purpose, organization and equipment to bring such a scheme to fruition.

Sorry, DEI - you can scare yourself with your boogeyman, but you're not scaring anybody who has a clue.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

DEI- the way I had to enter Kosovo was under the radar, there is a checkpoint. Kosovo-Albanian border, clear sailing...

The reason why Hoplight doesnt acknowledge any of my posts is he knows I have facts and he can not dispute it in his cyberworld of nonreality. That is all he has, what the Net provides. I have offered him an all expense paid Pedal in Peace ride- start to finish. He has yet to answer the bell. He is cowardly, typical of these Net HumWarriors.

[Putnik_1915]

Folks, let's all admit it...Hoplite is simply a schizophrenic simpleton. I have no doubts that he, like many of his ilk, is all for sealing the Mexican border and then escorting the million or so illegals from south of the border to the other side. However, he has no problem at all allowing a million or more ALBANIANS (i.e., from the country of Albania) to swarm (yes, like insects) over Kosovo and demand their legitimazation as 'Kosovars'. What absolute cheek!

If an analogous situation to the one that existed in Kosovo were to occur here (masses of illegal Mexican immigrants in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas openly proclaiming their 'Aztlan' and murdering and persecuting 'Anglo devils'), you can depend on the fact that Hoplite and his ilk would be screaming for B-52 bombing missions. Collateral damage be damned.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

antiwar reprints what is aleady on the net, then it is up to each indvidual to decipher right v. wrong.

[mark502inf]

1. There is currently no "Greater Albania" in existence. Hoplite has it right--there is no central governing authority over the various ethnic Albanian factions nor is there any unifying authority over all the geographic areas where ethnic Albanians predominate.
2. There is little likelihood of a Greater Albanian in the future. The country of Albania has too many problems of its own. The different Albanian factions in FYROM, Kosova, south Serbia, and Montenegro do not have the same goals; in Kosovo and Macedonia they even fight amongst each other. Further, why would those outside Albania want to be united with that country--other than a vague romanticism? The ethnic Albanian living standards, opportunities, and education levels are much better in the neighboring areas than they are in Albania itself.
3. There are not a "million or more" Albanian immigrants in Kosovo. The population of Kosovo has only increased by a couple hundred thousand in the last 12 years--with a reduction of 200,000 Serbs, that gives an increase of about 400,000 Albanians over that time. Given the notoriously high ethnic Albanian birth-rates, only a minority of that increase came from immigration.
4. The major problem now and in the future with both Kosovo and Serbia is the same; that is to establish a rule of law democracy where the majority rules, but the rights of minorities are protected. UNMIK/KFOR is failing to do that now in Kosovo with the Serb minority and, ironically, the hesitance to take any steps at all toward reincorporation of Kosovo into Serbia is based on the fear that Serbia will do the same with the Kosovar Albanians.
5. The problem will not be ultimately solved until people in the Balkans see themselves and others as individuals first instead of as members of one ethnic group or another.

[PiP PiP Cherrio]

I will comment soon on the issues araised by 502/homeagain.

I do beg to differ with your assesment on a number of issues relating to "Greater Albania" i.e. Coming Soon. A few pics from Bosna/RS

[kimosabe31]

Well if you're not going to mention that, I won't mention how the Macedonian Government spent a couple of weeks trying to expel the ANA from Aracinovo through force of arms and, having failed, requested the intercession of the US to move the rebels away from Skopje.

Sorry hoplite...looks like your head is up your ass AGAIN. US forces under direction of state dept traitor James Pardew intervened to rescue what was left of the KLA(al qaeda) and US mercenaries trapped at Aracinovo and about to be annihilated totally by the Macedonians. Everyone knows Trajkovski is merely a state dept puppet hanging in there to collect his pension. Everyone also knows that you're just a phoney islamic bullshitter and no one takes you seriously.

[mark502inf]

PiP PiP, nice pics--thanks for putting the link on your posts.

Kimosabe--The KLA does not equal either Al Qaeda or U.S. mercenaries! In fact, a significant driver in the decrease in hostilities in FYROM after 9/11 was the desire of UCK leadership NOT to be seen as linked in any way with Al Qaeda or Islamist terrorism. While there were a few ethnic Albanians who returned from the USA to fight with the KLA, they came of their own volition--and, again, it is not is the interests of the USA in any way to encourage more violence and ethnic separatism in the Balkans--where is the motivation of the USA to hire mercs, support the guerillas, etc?

The problem the Macedonian government had with the ethnic Albanian extremists in Macedonia, to include at Aracinovo, was in large measure a problem caused by a poorly trained and led Macedonian military. Because they had a short-term conscript Army with few professional NCOs or junior officers, they had little ability to conduct effective movement or fire & maneuver with small units---which is exactly what is necessary against an enemy holed up in towns or fighting guerilla style. So the Macedonians resorted to firepower-intensive solutions; tanks, attack helos, arty. The result was little harm to the Albanians who would just reposition, but lots of collateral damage that was widely reported and shown throughout Europe on TV. Consequently, although in the spring of 2001 virtually every European country was openly supporting FYROM in its fight against the ethnic Albanians, by summer public opinion and government attitudes had changed and the pressure was on FYROM to negotiate on relatively unfavorable terms. The inability to militarily defeat or at least take away the initiative from the Albanian extremists was a failure, not of the Macedonian soldiers or because of US "state dept traitors", but of the senior Macedonian political-military leaders who did not properly train or organize their army.