Human Rights Watch World Report 2003
Table of Contents
> Europe & Central Asia
>
Human
Rights Developments
Defending
Human Rights
The
Role of the International Community
Implementation of the August 2001 Framework Agreement
for Peace (known as the Ohrid Agreement) brought Macedonia considerable change,
including an amnesty for the insurgents, emergence of new political parties,
and general elections that replaced the government of Prime Minister Ljubco
Georgievski. Reforms required by the peace agreement began in earnest only in
late 2001 with Parliament's approval of constitutional amendments recognizing
Albanian as an official language and guaranteeing proportional access for
ethnic minorities to public sector jobs, including in the police. Parliament
adopted a further set of reforms giving ethnic Albanians and other minorities
the right to use their own languages in state institutions. However, prior to
its departure from office, doubts about the commitment of Georgievski's
government to the Ohrid process affected overall stability for much of 2002,
and the government's record was marred by its assaults on press freedom,
harassment of human rights organizations, impunity for abuses committed during
the conflict, and evidence of widespread corruption.
Although generally
declining during the year, there was an upsurge in inter-ethnic and political
violence and intimidation in the weeks preceding the mid-September 2002 general
elections, underscoring the fragility of the peace deal. The elections took
place with few incidents, however, and resulted in the "Together for
Mutual distrust still
permeated relations in some communities, strained further by several isolated
but serious attacks. Shootings, bombings, and kidnappings took place during the
year, in particular in the northwest. One of the more serious incidents
occurred in late August, when ethnic Albanian extremists kidnapped seven
people, demanding the release of three suspects in the killing of two policemen
that same week. Due to intervention by international mediators, all seven
abductees were freed within a few days.
Following the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, the Macedonian government
repeatedly used anti-terrorist rhetoric, invented threats to score political
points, and raised the specter of Islamic fundamentalism among Macedonia's
Albanians. After police shot and killed seven foreign men on the outskirts of
Skopje in March, the government cast the incident as a thwarted "terrorist
attack" on Western embassies in the capital. The Ministry of the Interior
attempted to link the men with the NLA and al-Qaeda, and called them
"mujahideen" fighters. Suspicions emerged when official versions of
the incident changed, and the ministry rejected a request for international forensic
experts to examine the bodies. The Wall Street Journal later reported
that the victims were Pakistani and Indian migrants traveling to Greece to seek
employment. The government continued, however, to label them
"terrorists."
During the year,
journalists suffered threats and violent attacks, including a September 9
shooting in the Global newspaper's printing offices and the bombing of
the newspaper editor's car a day later. Macedonia's first newspaper printed in
both Macedonian and Albanian, Global had reported on corruption and
incompetence among government officials. No one was injured in either attack,
which editor Ljupco Palevski attributed to members of the Democratic Party of
Albanians, an allegation that was denied by a party spokesman. Also in
September, the Ministry of the Interior filed criminal libel charges against
reporter Marjan Djurovski of Start magazine, which had published an
article claiming the government might start a war in order to delay elections.
Earlier that month, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski had threatened to detain
any editors for "spreading western scenarios in order to destroy the
government." Other journalists were physically attacked in what they
believed to be attempts to suppress their investigations into shady government
practices. One of the most serious incidents took place in late September when
persons suspected of being members of the "Lions," a special police
force, attacked journalist Zoran Bozinovski late at night in the Tumba radio station.
Bozinovski sustained a concussion, lacerations to the head, and several broken
fingers. One person was subsequently arrested for his part in the attack.
Investigation of the perpetrators was ongoing at the time of writing.
Police continued to perpetrate
racially motivated abuses against Roma with impunity, and there were several
reports of violent attacks against Roma by non-state actors. Discrimination
against Roma in various fields of public life remained widespread. Refugee Roma
from Kosovo were particularly vulnerable to abuse.
The government took
steps against trafficking in human beings by passing a law criminalizing
trafficking and signing an agreement with the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) for the pre-screening of female undocumented migrants to
identify victims of trafficking. The Ministry of the Interior opened a shelter
for trafficked women and girls, which reportedly provided good accommodation
but no information to the women on their legal rights. In addition, the shelter
received only those willing to return to their country of origin. Those who did
not participate in the IOM program were liable to deportation and renewed
exposure to the trafficking cycle.
The Macedonian Helsinki
Committee (MHC) and other organizations became targets of
government-orchestrated intimidation campaigns. The publication of MHC's 2001
annual report, which included accounts of violations by the Macedonian police,
triggered accusations of treason and lack of patriotism by the
government-controlled media. A statement from the Ministry of the Interior
labeled Mirjana Najcevska, the MHC chairperson, "state enemy no.1"
and "anti-Macedonian." In September, Najcevska was also verbally
attacked by Minister of the Interior Boskovski following an MHC statement
expressing doubts about the political impartiality of the police. Boskovski
launched a similar smear campaign against the Brussels-based International
Crisis Group and the author of its report on official corruption in Macedonia.
The Civil Society
Resource Center (CSRC) provided free legal representation to 150 asylum
seekers, including in three cases before the European Court of Human Rights. It
also provided legal aid to victims of torture, police abuse, and other human
rights violations. A network of nongovernmental organizations coordinated by
the CSRC worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees to find solutions to the situation of thousands of former Yugoslav
citizens (including many ethnic Albanians) who had not been granted Macedonian
citizenship after independence, despite their established residence in the
country.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The international
community continued to monitor closely and react to threats to peace and
stability in Macedonia. Unfortunately, considering only short-term security, it
repeatedly sacrificed justice and accountability for the serious crimes
committed by both sides in the armed conflict. The international community
should have supported and monitored fair domestic war crimes trials in
Macedonia, as a complement to international justice before the ICTY.
United Nations
In late 2001, the ICTY
initiated two separate war crimes investigations into the Macedonian conflict
and in 2002 opened three new investigations. The ICTY had not issued any public
indictments as of this writing.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
The Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) supported reforms required by the
Ohrid Agreement. The organization trained a multiethnic police force: as of
mid-year, over six hundred police cadets had completed basic training under the
program. The OSCE's Skopje mission was reportedly taking steps to enhance its
limited human rights monitoring capacity. In the largest election observation
mission ever deployed in Europe, the OSCE sent approximately eight hundred
international observers to Macedonia for the September 15 elections. The
observers judged the elections to be largely free and fair.
Council of Europe
The Committee for the
Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Macedonia in July to assess the treatment
of persons detained by law enforcement agencies. The country also remained
subject to the Parliamentary Assembly's post-monitoring dialogue and a
delegation of parliamentarians visited the country ahead of the September
elections. In contrast to the majority of international bodies, the Council of
Europe expressed reservations about the amnesty law, noting that an amnesty
preventing domestic prosecutions for violations of international humanitarian
law would be counter-productive. As of this writing, the Macedonian government
was almost four years overdue in submitting its initial report under the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
European Union
The E.U. was supportive
of the reform process but expressed concern at the pre-election violence. The
E.U. warned the Macedonian government that the increased violence cast doubts
on Macedonia's ability to form closer ties with the E.U. and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). A €530,000 (U.S.$520,000) grant from the European
Commission supported a national census sought particularly by ethnic Albanian
political leaders, who claimed government figures understated the real size of
their community. Resolving this long-standing controversy was a critical
element of the Ohrid Agreement, providing for the proportional representation
of minorities in public administration and other areas of public life.
Disagreements between Greece and Turkey continued to delay the establishment of
the E.U.'s European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF) and thus postponed the ERRF
taking over the Macedonian mission from NATO. An April report on Macedonia's
implementation of its commitments under the Stabilization and Association
Agreement with the E.U. listed several human rights concerns. Among "key
areas needing attention in the next twelve months," the report identified
improved implementation of the Ohrid Agreement, including the census; stronger
legal and constitutional guarantees on free expression; intensified police
training in human rights; and promotion of civil society.
The