US State Department joins in condemnation of the lack of religious freedom in the FYR Macedonia

The Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor published the annual report on the situation with the respect of religious freedom in the FYR Macedonia in the course of 2006.

There is an impression that the greater art of the report has been dedicated to the denial of religious freedom to the citizens, members of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71394.htm

FYR. Macedonia has religious prisoners.

The report deals with the imprisonment of His Beatitude, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje, k. k. Jovan implying that with the decision of the Supreme Court from February 2006, his prison sentence was reduced “which led to his release from prison, after which there were no cases of religious or political prisoners in the country”. We remind you that the Archbishop k. k. Jovan, after two releasing verdicts, has once again been put in prison, and the Macedonian Orthodox Church has once again filed a complaint against the liberating verdict reached regarding a third charge raised against him. The indicated proverbial corruption of the Macedonian judiciary is not subject to comment in this observation .

Police coercion and denial of religious freedom may be noticed in the following quotation: “In October 2004 policemen demolished a small monastery that was being built by members of the “Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid” in Nizepole, near Bitola. The organization’s lawyer conceded that the monastery was being constructed without a permit but noted that other buildings in the area, also built without permits, were not destroyed. At the end of the period covered by this report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) was unable to obtain a copy of the decision by the competent ministry authorizing the monastery’s destruction.”

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71394.htm

European Commission criticises lack of religious freedom in the FYR Macedonia

Maintaining the religious freedom is a fundamental right, and at the same time, a condition for the FYR Macedonia in order to fulfill the criteria to join the Euro-Atlantic civilization currents. Unfortunately, the Republic is continually violating the elementary religious freedoms of its own citizens and tax payers. In its last year report, the European Commission presented its attitude that “cases of violations of religious freedom exist” in its report (ttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/nov/fyrom_sec_1387_en.pdf). It also emphasized that the new law “should provide more liberal procedure for registering religious communities”.

According to the newest report of the Venice Commission, yet there are disputable items in the draft law of religious communities, especially at the point – registering religious communities. This report will be a subject of the following text.

The Government of the FYR Macedonia, which protects the monopoly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, is sacrificing the European future of the citizens. Critics point out the Government is only declaratively ready for reforms, while practically the reforms in terms of religious freedoms are tending to be evaded.

At the same time, with the critics, in terms violating religious freedoms in the FYR Macedonia by the International Community, the Fund “Archbishop Jovan” from the United States of America has issued its newest

pdf of report: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/nov/fyrom_sec_1387_en.pdf

Religious institutions vandalised and demolished in the FYR Macedonia

Suspicions have been raised about the FYR Macedonian governement's involvement in the demolishing of a half-built Serbian Orthodox church. The incident highlights the rising levels of ethnic hatred and intolerance in the country . The backlash of the campaign to release the imprisoned Serbian Arch Bishop Jovan is also being felt by the Serbian minority. A monastery was also vandalised in the recent backlash against the small Serbian minority.

the church, of which the contruction had been on hold for some time, was recently demolished by local authorities:















http://freearchbishop.com/?p=30

A Serbian Orthodox Chapel was also Vandalised last week in the FYR Macedonia

http://freearchbishop.com/?p=31

"European best practices" urged on Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

European Parliament Press Release
12-06-2007 - 12:22

EU drumbeat? 90% of FYROM citizens are said to support EU membership
A report heading for July's plenary session is likely to call on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to look to "European best practices" on ethnic and linguistic differences as a model for its EU hopes. Education and public administration should take account of the two official languages and diverse ethnic mix in this country of 2 million people, the report says. It calls for EU accession negotiations to start in "the nearest possible future", once it meets the necessary preconditions.


Independent since 1991, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) was accepted as a "candidate" for EU membership in December 2005, but negotiations with the mountainous Balkan state have not yet begun.

Small country of many languages and peoples

Although small the country is ethnically diverse. As well as Macedonians it has an Albanian minority of 23% as well as communities of Roma, Turks, Romanians, Serbs and Bosnians. Its two official languages are Macedonian and Albanian.

In early June, MEPs in the foreign affairs committee discussed the EU hopes of the country and adopted by a substantial majority a report stressing among others things the importance of protecting its ethnic and linguistic diversity. It called on the country to learn from the best practices of other European states that have accommodated linguistic differences. In particular it stressed that education and public administration should take into account linguistic differences so "minorities can live with on another on an equal and harmonious basis".

The report goes on to say that it appreciates efforts to enable inhabitants belonging to the two main language groups to "live together in equality and peace". It says that this is being done by including minorities in decision-making and improving the position of the Albanian language in government and education.

Respect for languages key to EU hopes says report

The report was drafted by Dutch MEP Erik Meijer who sits as an MEP for the European United Left and Nordic Green Left group (GUE/NGL). Speaking during the foreign affairs committee meeting he called for negotiations on EU accession to be "launched in the nearest possible future" on the condition that the country "recognises the equal value of languages of its inhabitants".

The current efforts of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were also praised during the meeting by another MEP with experience in the region. Doris Pack - who heads the Parliament's Delegation of MEPs to South-East Europe - called the country's current law on minorities "exemplary".

Although not a member, the country has already made EU history by being the scene of the EU's first ever military mission with NATO. In 2003 "operation Concordia" helped stabilise the country and enforce a peace agreement as it teetered on the brink of a civil war between government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists. After the failures in the Balkans in the 1990's this was a success for EU foreign policy and the efforts of its chief Javier Solana.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/027-7721-155-06-23-903-20070611STO07711-2007-04-06-2007/default_en.htm

FYR Macedonia leader 'watched attack' on Albanian civillians

From the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6558617.stm

Ljuboten is remembering its dead as the trial begins

FYR Macedonia's interior minister watched as police entered a village and killed seven ethnic Albanian men in 2001, UN prosecutors have said.

'Criminally responsible'

Mr Boskovski, 46, was alleged to have effective command and control over the forces from his position as interior minister.

"Due to his failure to take necessary and reasonable measures to punish the perpetrators of the crimes committed in the village of Ljuboten, the prosecution will ask you to find Ljube Boskovski criminally responsible as a superior," prosecutor Dan Saxon said.

Prosecutors say Mr Tarculovski, 32, ran a private security unit loyal to Mr Boskovski and led the attack on the village.

There is support for Mr Boskovski in FYR Macedonia

Trial opens in 2001 FYR Macedonia killings

By GARENTINA KRAJA of the Miami Herald


Residents of this close-knit, predominantly ethnic Albanian community still remember the day when they say police stormed their village tucked between green fields and snow-covered mountains, killing seven men.

On Monday, FYR Macedonia's former interior minister and a senior police official go before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of murder, wanton destruction and cruel treatment in the operation.

Prosecutors say they will be the only people to be tried there on charges stemming from FYR Macedonia's 2001 conflict between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.

The trial, which is expected to hear opening statements Monday before adjourning until May 7, may test the reconciliation between the FYR Macedonian Slavic majority and the ethnic Albanian minority.

"I want to ask them why they attacked Ljuboten. Did they see signs of fighters? None were here, no one had a uniform on and no one fought," said Elmaz Isufi, whose son was killed in the operation.

According to the U.N. indictment, seven civilians were killed in house-to-house police searches on Aug. 12, 2001, and officers gutted 14 homes with hand grenades or fire and destroyed other buildings with shelling. Villagers who fled were stopped at checkpoints and beaten.

The indictment says the action was "organized, systematic and pervasive."

The operation was apparently launched in retaliation after eight FYR Macedonian soldiers were killed when their truck hit a land mine.

The indictment says former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski had "superior responsibility" for the actions of police and failed to punish his subordinates for the killings. The senior police official, Johan Tarculovsky, was part of a joint criminal enterprise to direct "an unlawful attack on civilians," it says.

Both men have pleaded not guilty. Boskovski's lawyer, Edina Residovic, argued in a pretrial brief that there was no war in FYR Macedonia at the time and it was impossible for the men to have committed war crimes. The brief added that none of the alleged killers had been under Boskovski's control at the time.

The defendants face a possible punishment of life imprisonment. The policemen who allegedly carried out the killings are not on trial.

FYR Macedonia, a landlocked country of 2.1 million people, split from Yugoslavia in 1991 with Croatia and Slovenia. FYR Macedonia remained at peace as a brief armed attempt to prevent Slovenia's secession failed and fighting in Croatia killed up to 10,000 people.

In 1999, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians poured into northern FYR Macedonia from neighboring Kosovo to flee former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's troops. Two years later, FYR Macedonia's ethnic Albanians launched their insurgency to fight for more rights for their minority, which comprises about a quarter of the population. A Western-brokered peace deal ended the fighting after six months.

But in the village of Ljuboten, residents say that hate still runs deep between the two groups. Many ethnic Albanians remain outraged over the 2001 police operation.

Isufi is expected to travel to The Hague to testify in the case, despite the fact he is paralyzed and frail. He said he hopes to see Boskovski and Tarculovsky punished.

His son, Rami Isufi, a 33-year-old father of four, had stayed in Ljuboten despite a buildup of forces around the village, which is in a predominantly FYR Macedonian area of the country. Isufi said his son believed a peace deal that was about to be signed that would end the fighting.

The next day, Rami was hit by a string of bullets allegedly fired by police officers who had forced their way into the family's yard. According to the indictment, he was unarmed and was shot at close range in the stomach.

"We saw him dying," said Isufi, 64, tears running down his cheeks.

"It will never satisfy me," he said of the possible punishment of the defendants. "It will lessen my pain a bit, because at least it will be known who is the guilty one, so that this crime is not covered up."

Sadik Qaili, whose cousin Atullah died of injuries from beatings he received during the raid, said reconciliation between the village's ethnic Albanians and FYR Macedonians was difficult to imagine.

"We're waiting day and night to see how The Hague tribunal will decide," he said. "We were empty-handed and they were bent on ethnically cleansing us."

Many FYR Macedonians regard Boskovski and Tarculovsky as heroes. On Sunday, hundreds of supporters attended a nationally broadcast service outside the main cathedral in the capital, Skopje, and demanded a fair trial.

Vera Gluvceva, an 83-year-old FYR Macedonian, said she believed the charges had been invented. "I think they want only FYR Macedonians to be blamed for the conflict," she said.

FYR Macedonia's government said Sunday it expected a "fair, transparent and objective" trial and pledged to continue giving moral and financial support to the two men and their families, according to a statement.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/691/v-print/story/74942.html

FYR Macedonia leading Anti-Bulgarian campaign

2007 has got off to a bad start for ethnic minorities in the FYR Macedonia where the hostilities towards those who identify themselves as Bulgarians inside the country has boiled over once again. Given historical sensitivities (in recent years there was a law in FYR Macedonia "to protect the honour of the Macedonian language" were it was a crime to refer to the Macedonian language as being of Bulgarian origin). In the same way it was and still is dangerous for someone to publically identify themselves as Bulgarians in the FYR Macedonia.

13 January 2007, Saturday.

A deliberate anti-Bulgarian campaign has been going on in Macedonia over the past five months, Krassimir Karakachanov, head of the VMRO nationalist movement said.

Karakachanov talked to Darik News about an incident from Saturday morning, when a group of Bulgarians commemorating a local patron were attacked in Macedonia. Some 40 people attacked those gathered to mark 79 years since the death of Mara Buneva, a revered fighter for the rights of the Bulgarians in Macedonia. The attackers were yelling "Die Bulgarians," and "Go away." They used rocks and metal pipes, hitting the people gathered to celebrate, who were mostly elderly. Most of the injured have already prepared medical statements, describing their injuries, so they can take the matter to court.

The attack was organized, Karakachanov said, adding that Macedonia's authorities are seriously ticked by the fact that more and more of their citizens apply for Bulgarian passports. He also commented that the number of Bulgarian unions in Macedonia is increasing and that bothers the government. "People start to openly express their Bulgarian national self-awareness and the government is helpless to do anything but lead campaigns against Bulgaria," he said.

Bulgaria should ask the EU and NATO to cut all talks with Macedonia until the Saturday attackers are identified, arrested and tried, Karakachanov added. The first thing that the country should do is serve Macedonia a very firm letter of protest, demanding that the organizers and perpetrators of the attack are caught, he added.

Someone in Macedonia has already carried the hatred too far in organizing such an action, but the question is why doesn't Bulgaria react firmly, Karakachanov fumed.

At present, police have increased their presence before Bulgaria's embassy in Skopje to prevent more violence.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=75334