After being released the team members reported the incident at the police station in Mirkovci.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs yesterday stated that its teams were investigating the case.
The TV-team, which included journalist Snezana Lupevska, cameraman Risto Misev, and the organizer Nehru Hoxha headed in the morning to Tanusevci with the goal of checking the information about the alleged existence of a KLA training camp in that village. According to the initial information, at the entrance to the village an armed person appeared in front of the A-1 vehicle, fired several times in the air and forced them to stop. The person jumped on the jeep and ordered them to drive to the center of the village. Soon afterwards other persons appeared from elsewhere in the village and surrounded the journalists.
"They asked us why we had come to the village. Some of them were wearing uniforms with the KLA insignia, while others were in civilian clothing. Some of them carried guns, while others were armed with axes. They told us that they were protecting the village and that the Police should have warned us not to come to the village and that they were in charge of the security in the village," stated Snezana Lupevska.
After being held for thirty minutes, the team was released, but their mobile phones and TV camera were taken away. After the release, the A-1 TV team immediately left the village. However, they did not seek assistance from the Macedonian Army soldiers at the border post near Tanusevci as the path to the post was, in their judgment, too risky. The police assistance was sought at the station in the village of Mirkovci. In the afternoon, the journalists of the Skopje TV station returned to their offices.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that their police forces immediately went to the field to establish the details of the incident. According to the Police the TV team spent time in the border belt without a necessary permit. The village of Tanusevci, near Skopje, is located immediately next to the border with Kosovo. Recently, this village was mentioned several times as the village whose residents provided logistical support for KLA members during the war in Kosovo. Xhavid Hasani, who last year was exchanged for the Macedonian border guards captured by the KLA is also from this village.
Ljuben Paunovski, the Defense Minister, assured the public in his yesterday's interview for A-1 TV that there is nothing to worry about.
"Although the incident should not be underestimated, the Macedonian Army will carry the whole burden in the border belt of one hundred meters, and in the other parts of the territory together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs [Police]. The border cannot be hermetically sealed, but will be guarded in accordance with the military rules that turned out to be successful in the incident near Tanusevci. There are no logistical bases in Tanusevci, but it should be investigated whether the residents assist armed individuals. The Defense Ministry has full control of the territory of Macedonia. The fact that the Macedonian Army is the most stable factor in the region of the northern and western border, which is a part of a very unstable region, proves that," stated Paunovski.
According to the Defense Ministry, the incident took place after a Macedonian Army patrol informed the border post Tanusevci about the automatic weaponry fire that could be heard in the area. Most likely, these were the shots fired in the air by one of the armed individuals who on that day kidnapped the A-1 TV team. After the alarm was sounded at the border post, the soldiers immediately went out to search the terrain.
At about 4pm, one of the Macedonian Army patrols spotted an armed group of four persons in camouflage uniforms moving from the Kosovo village of Debalde towards our village of Tanusevci. At the same time, in the forest about 150 meters north-west from the local grocery store Macedonian soldiers were approached by two individuals, to whom they ordered to stop. Ignoring the order, these fled and at the same time the patrol was fired at from several directions from the forest. The soldiers returned fire. In the shootout the Macedonian side did not have casualties. After pulling out, five persons in black uniforms one more time shot at the soldiers from the edge of the forest.
According to Paunovski, such incidents are caused by those dissatisfied by the positive solution of the demarcation of the state border between Macedonia and Yugoslavia.
"Macedonia must not succumb to such provocations, end open a hot spot on a part of her territory, which would become a serious international problem," said Paunovski.
His message for the outlaw armed structures crossing to the Macedonian territory from Kosovo was to refrain from incidents because they were thereby definitely inflicting huge damage on the Albanians in the Balkans. Paunovski referred to the attitude of the legitimate political leaders of Kosovo that incidents such as the attack on the political station in the village of Tearce near Tetovo and the incident on Friday are terrorist attacks. He claimed that the international community would crash the attempt of the structures that think that it is possible to simulate in Macedonia the alleged lack of Albanians' rights, as was the case in Kosovo after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
In connection with the statement of the A-1 TV journalist that the soldiers of the border post Tanusevci did not react to the presence of her team, the Defense Ministry asserted that the border guards not only registered their vehicle, but also initiated the identity check procedure. "The fact that the TV team did not register the border guards, only confirms that the ambush was well hidden and the border post had already been in the red alert stage, acting in accordance with the rules for the protection of the border," states the statement.
Yesterday the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that members of the A-1 TV team who on Friday reported at the police station in Mirkovci that they had been kidnapped, during the identification procedure did not point out residents of Tanusevci as their abductors. The Police assume that the armed persons had come from Kosovo and returned there after the incident. The Police is carrying out increased controls in and around the village of Tanusevci, claims the MIA statement.
In connection with the events on the northern border, president Trajkovski also invited to talks ambassadors of NATO-members countries in Macedonia.
At the meeting between Trajkovski and Leu, which was attended by the Chief of Staff of the Macedonian Army, General-Colonel Jovan Andrevski, according to the president's office the topic of discussion was the cooperation between the Macedonian Army and the KFOR forces stationed in Kosovo in the context of security on the northern border between Macedonia and the Serbian province [of Kosovo].
Trajkovski, as we unofficially learned, expressed huge dissatisfaction with the way the border was guarded on the other side, which is one of KFOR's obligations according to the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The Macedonian President also emphasized the need for the increased presence and engagement of KFOR.
Allegedly, General Leu justified the attitude of KFOR forces by the agreement according to which KFOR does not have access to the zone of about 1,500 meters [1 mile] from the border. The Macedonian side rejected that excuse, because KFOR forces freely move through the country and are not prevented from overseeing the border between our country and FRY, in the part bordering Kosovo.
After the meeting with president Trajkovski the commander of rear forces of KFOR, General Leu, left visibly angry and refused to give a statement for the journalists. Yesterday the KFOR spokesperson in the country was also unavailable to comment as he had urgently left to Kosovo.
As we found out, the meeting of ambassadors was attended by the ambassadors of the U.S.A., Great Britain, France and Italy, Mike Inick, Mark Dickinson, Jean Fransoa Tral, and Antonio Tarelli respectively. German ambassador Werner Burkart, although invited, did not attend the meeting due to illness. At that meeting Trajkovski again expressed harsh criticism of the manner in which KFOR was securing the border on the Kosovo side. Also, the Macedonian president requested assistance, in the sense of understanding and political support manifested in use of their political influence in the Alliance in the interest of the country, because of which the National security Council was convened.[sic]
After the most recent incidents on the Macedonian border, as well as the escalation of the violence in the south of Serbia and Kosovo, president Trajkovski, in the role of the commander-in-chief, concluded that the conditions for the establishment of a joint attitude and taking of concrete measures regarding security situation are ripe. The members of the Council, which is an advisory body, are the president of the Parliament, the Prime Minister, Ministers of Internal and Foreign Affairs, and Defense and the director of the Intelligence Agency. As external members, at president's request, Trajan Gocevski and Vladko Popovski, professors and former Defense Ministers, and the vice-president of the Parliament, Ilijaz Halimi, also attended the meeting. Regarding the presence of Dosta Dimovska, the government sources state that it makes sense that she attended the meeting of the Council, as a minister of internal affairs in resignation, since her resignation still hasn't been accepted. Dimovska would have attended the meeting even if her resignation had been accepted, as a new minister still would not have been appointed.
"The true risk is the construction of the unltranationalist 'Greater Kosovo' which would threaten the stability in the region," states the analysis. According to the magazine, the international community must dedicate serious attention to the terrorist actions of the Albanian extremists in Macedonia, whose plan is identical to that currently applied in the south of Serbia. "The intensity of terrorist actions in Macedonia is low, as it was in Kosovo between 1995 and 1998, but the ultimate goal is to provoke a military response of the authorities, which would lead to the unification of the Albanian minority in western Macedonia," believes the analyst of the respected British magazine.
The terrorist actions in Macedonia, clashes with KFOR in Kosovo and violence in the south of Serbia have a common root in the radical Albanian nationalism and the lack of efficient strategy of the UN mission in Kosovo, which has not succeeded in overcoming the problem, believes the British analyst.
On the other hand, in the context of events in the south of Serbia, the high representative for the external and security policy of the European Union, Javier Solana, was getting ready on Friday in Skopje, during the summit of the Initiative for Southeastern Europe, to meet Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica and discuss with him details of the support that the EU can give in the solution of the crisis in the Presevo valley.