"Our commemoration will start at 2pm and we expect that several hundreds of our members, sympathizers and local residents will attend. We hope that the police will not try to block their arrival," Ivan Gargavelov, secretary of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin" stated yesterday for Dnevnik.
He welcomed the decision of the Bulgarian authorities to allow the commemoration. In February this year the municipal authorities in Blagoevgrad did not allow holding of a celebration of Goce Delcev's birthday.
Incidentally, the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria last year banned activities of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin", which is now challenging that decision in front of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. The other Macedonian organization, "OMO Ilinden" will hold a separate commemoration on Sunday, in the morning.
In 1990 ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria held the so far largest commemoration of Jane Sandanski's death. That year about 10,000 of our compatriots gathered in front of Rozenskiot Monastery. After this the Bulgarian authorities refused to provide permits for commemorations, and on several occasions even used physical force against ethnic Macedonians.
However, nevertheless the Police was present in force in front of the monastery and controlled the gathering. At first they banned the display of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin" flags, which are based on the Kutles star. Later that was allowed. Before the start of the commemoration, unidentified persons covered Sandanski's grave with a Bulgarian flag, which the present citizens, just like in previous years, totally covered with flowers, after which the commemoration started.
Hundreds of members of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin", the organization that is challenging a ban by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court in front of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, have numerous complaints regarding the status of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria.
Ivan Singartiski, president of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin", stated that ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria are still exposed to pressures, threats, and blackmail. "Ethnic Macedonians are still not recognized as an ethnic group. The authorities are manipulating with us and with the recent population census, with the goal of reducing the number of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria. We shall not recognize the results of that population census," he stated.
In his address in front of Jane Sandanski's grave, the president of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin", Ivan Singartiski, stated that Sandanski was one of the greatest sons of the Macedonian nation. "Jane was a warrior and protector of the Macedonians. He was aware of all the dangers for the Macedonian people lurking in the foreign propaganda. For him, all nations were brothers and were supposed to live like brothers," he said.
According to the members of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin" the mayor of Sandanski issued this year permit for the holding of a commemoration as a ban would have earned negative points for Bulgaria in the European public and would portray her as a state that bans laying of wreaths on monuments to distinguished individuals.
"Contrary to all the words and declarations about democratization of the Bulgarian society, the rights of ethnic Macedonians are not respected. Recently, during the census, a census taker filled in the census form with a pen. However, when we demanded that he enter our ethnic affiliation as Macedonian, he used a pencil. It is clear that his was done to enable that that declaration be later modified. Instead of 'the Macedonian language', he wrote that we spoke 'the Bulgarian language'," Vladimir Koncelov from Blagoevgrad said.
These ethnic Macedonians state that in practice in those areas with largest numbers of ethnic Macedonians census takers wrote data on blank pieces of paper. Supposedly, the data were later to be entered in an official form. Even the president of the State Census Commission, Ivan Balev publicly stated that census takers use pencils "due to their diligence. They are afraid of making mistakes".
We also heard examples of village chiefs who collected passports from the villagers and filled in the forms on their own. The worst example of pressures is the recent demand that the "mayor" of the village of Kromidovo, Borislav Filadov, resign because he declared to be an ethnic Macedonian. In this village, another 90 individuals, about half of residents declared themselves for ethnic Macedonians. "If such a number was recorded in a small village then you can imagine how many ethnic Macedonians there are in hundreds of other villages," Ivan Garavelov stated. Bulgarian Police has these days been questioning numerous members of "OMO Ilinden-Pirin" because they distributed before the population census fliers calling on ethnic Macedonians to declare themselves as such in the census.
The Bulgarian media have abandoned objectivity and have, before the publication of the official census results, already started to claim that only about 2,000 ethnic Macedonians were registered in the census. "That is a lie. The previous census indicated that there were only 7,800 ethnic Macedonians, which was another lie. We shall not recognize results of such a count. Only our organization has more than 5,000 members," Ivan Singartiski stated.
In 1965 state intelligence service of the former Yugoslavia registered the first suspicious activities of the resident of Debar, Gzim Ostreni, when he had contacts with Bido Memetaj, the first secretary of the Albanian embassy in Belgrade. At the same time Ostreni had regular contacts with people from Albania, including his relatives at top positions in that country, who cooperated with illegal organizations of ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslavia.
In 1985 Ostreni compiled a list of his collaborators, who were employed in the Territorial defense headquarters in the Ohrid Municipality. At that time Ostreni was the chief of staff of the Territorial Defense in Ohrid. He retired from that post in 1990. After retirement he worked on the establishment of paramilitary formations of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, until 1998 when he joined the KLA in Kosovo.
At the beginning of this year Ramush Hajredinaj publicly stated that Gzim Ostreni had been fired from the KPC, allegedly because of his close contacts with the UCK. Incidentally, Daut Hajredinaj, Ramush Hajredinaj's brother, is a commander of the special units of UCK terrorists and is right now together with Ostreni in the villages near Kumanovo. After his release from the KPC Ostreni went to the Presevo valley where he participated in the founding of several military units of the UCPMB. From there he went to Macedonia, where he immediately joined UKC terrorists.
"Ethnic Albanian citizens and children from the Kumanovo region and other parts of Macedonia are fighting in the ranks of the UCK and they have the right to do so, because they do not want to leave their homes as they have nowhere else to go to," Gzim Osterni from Debar stated yesterday for the Kosovo TV. The commander of UCK terrorists denied that the UCK was holding civilian population hostage in the villages near Kumanovo and said that he had demanded from the European Union to send its representatives to get the true information on the spot.
A lawyer from Skopje, Antonio Apostolski, stated for Dnevnik that according to the UN convention for the rights of children adopted in 1989, articles 28 and 38 ban recruiting and inclusion of children under 18 in military activities. Apostolski claimed that if persons who violated this convention are arrested they should be extradited to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.
In connection with the ultimatum of the Macedonian authorities to the terrorists to lay their arms and leave positions within 48 hours, the terrorist chief of staff stated that his fighters had nowhere to go to and would therefore stay at their positions. According to Ostreni, the terrorist chiefs of staff maintain their view that there are always open solutions, adding that the UCK has always respected "cease fire agreements".
"We are against the escalation of armed clashes and bloodletting between the Albanian and Macedonian peoples. We want to live together after the war," Ostreni stated for the Kosovo TV.
Finally, Ostreni confirmed that the truck full of arms intercepted and confiscated by the Albanian police in the harbor in Drac was meant for the UCK terrorists.
The Macedonian Police stated that a small part of local population has voluntarily joined the terrorists, while most of them are held as hostages and recruited by force.
Police sources also stated that terrorists had told the local population that the Macedonian security forces would kill all ethnic Albanians who leave the villages [controlled by the UCK].
According to our sources, the terrorists have tried to scare the local population with stories about how they will face maltreatment if they try to leave the villages. Women will be raped and imprisoned and men murdered.
Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of UCK stated for Reuters that their "positions are unchanged". He added that ultimatums were not a way out and warned that that would only provoke conflict and it was possible that conflicts would spread to new regions.
by R.D.
Our sources claim that first threats to the PDP and DPA officials were sent at the beginning of the military activities of terrorists against Macedonian security forces in the border village of Tanusevci. Our sources claim that similar letters were first received by Menduh Thaci and Arben Xhaferi.
Threats against lives of leaders of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia were sent via letters, which always included a silver bullet. Some political leaders have also received threatening phone calls. Police sources claim that it is customary for ethnic Albanian mafia to send a silver bullet as a signature to confirm the authenticity of a threat. Bullets are always followed by a threatening message, or a death sentence.
DPA spokesperson Ernat Fejzulahu denied that leaders of that political party had received any threatening letters and commented that "these are speculations that are a part of the general chaos in the country."
Simlarly members of the PDP have received death sentences from the UCK and silver bullets after agreeing to participate in the new government. Allegedly, for these reasons Naser Ziberi refused to accept a ministerial post. According to the leaders, all ethnic Albanian representatives in the Macedonian parliament have also received threats. Threats gave them a deadline to follow the example of Hisni Shaqiri and join the UCK or face certain death. We have learned that the heart attack suffered by Imer Imeri, the leader of the PDP, was allegedly not a consequence of a fight with his collaborator Abdurahman Haliti, but exactly the pressure of the UCK terrorists.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs states that so far not a single leader of a political party has reported to the Police any threats made against his life. Terrorist have similarly regularly sent appeals to all the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia serving in the ranks of the Police and the Army to immediately desert and join them. Otherwise they will be treated as traitors as they "serve those who maltreat and kill Albanians". Consequently in their every statement UCK terrorists stated that all persons in uniform in Macedonia, members of the Macedonian Army and Police, were their targets.
Dnevnik has learned that there is a lot is dissatisfaction among the people who finance the so-called UCK. The last straw was the seizure of four trucks transporting weapons for the UCK terrorists four months ago. After the seizure of the trucks, it was announced that machine guns and ammunition of Chinese origin were found in them. The dispute arose due to the fact that the chief financiers of the UCK, Lirija Kombetare [National Freedom], were told that their contributions would be used to buy modern weaponry for the UCK fighters, rather than old Chinese Kalashnikovs, that had been stolen from military dumps in Albania in 1997 and could be bought cheaply. The UCK fund was formed a few months ago as the hitherto leaders of the terrorist expressed dissatisfaction because main financial contributions had been coming from the fund Verlindja Therjet [Homeland Calls], formed a few years ago and earmarked for the needs of the KLA in Kosovo. The moneys form the "Homeland Calls" fund mysteriously disappeared, and the remaining funds could not satisfy the needs of the UCK. Consequently a new fund, earmarked exclusively for the needs of the UCK terrorists was founded.