SVETLANA JOVANOVSKA
01.11.2010 @ 12:11 CET
Ali Ahmeti, the most powerful and popular political leader of the Albanian minority in Macedonia, is at the centre of a scandal casting a shadow over the history of Albanian liberation movements in Macedonia and Kosovo. The Macedonian Dnevnik daily last week published documents indicating that Mr Ahmeti was a collaborator of the secret services of former Yugoslavia.
01.11.2010 @ 12:11 CET
Ali Ahmeti, the most powerful and popular political leader of the Albanian minority in Macedonia, is at the centre of a scandal casting a shadow over the history of Albanian liberation movements in Macedonia and Kosovo. The Macedonian Dnevnik daily last week published documents indicating that Mr Ahmeti was a collaborator of the secret services of former Yugoslavia.
mr Ahmeti leads the DUI party, representing ethnic Albanians, which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition of Prime Minsiter Nikola Gruevski. The DUI has described as a form of "war" the allegations against its leader.
At the centre of the files published by Dnevnik is a person codenamed "Ibar" - allegedly a collaborator of the Communist secret police in Belgrade. The documents say Ibar was recruited by the secret police in the 1980s, continued to work for them during the 1990s and took part in the constitutive meeting of the Macedonian UCK, or National Liberation Army, in Switzerland where he lived.
The UCK meeting agreed to put the UCK's military wing under the control of the Belgrade secret service, according to the documents. The papers praise Ibar as one of the top collaborators the secret service had in the large Albanian diaspora in Switzerland. The documents do not mention a name, but the biographical data all point to Mr Ahmeti, who became a commander of the UCK military formation that led the Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001.
The material has been forwarded by Dnevnik to the Macedonian Commission for Lustration, charged with checking the authenticity of files on alleged agents working for the security apparatus of the Communist regime.
The Commission for Lustration has also received, from unknown sources, the files of three more Albanian DUI politicians containing similar accusations. The documents were handed over to the Commission by an Albanian professor named "Ljushi," who said he found them in his garden. Ljushi is said to be close to the DPA, an Albanian-Macedonian opposition party and a rival of the DUI. The professor is under police protection.
The revelations are an additional threat to political stability in Macedonia, a country with a 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority and an uneasy multi-ethnic social balance.
Macedonia's path into Nato and the EU, the number one priority for the Albanian population, has been blocked for years by its bitter name dispute with Greece.
Mr Ahmeti has promised DIU voters to deliver Nato and EU integration, but his Macedonian coalition partner, Mr Gruevski's Christian Democrat VMRO DPMNE party, is showing no willingness to find a compromise with Greece.
The DUI party has called the publication of the Ibar dossier an attempt to discredit Mr Ahmeti. DUI secretary general Abdulakim Ademi said: "This is a war to discredit the work and personality of the founder of the UCK, the bright history of the Albanian people and the successes of our leader Ali Ahmeti and his associates. This can not be assessed otherwise than as the product of the sick mind of a group of people in the leadership of one political party and their mentors."
Stevo Pendarovski, ex-national security advisor to two Macedonian presidents, told the Macedonian Service of the German radio station Deutsche Welle that an internal fight for power between the two biggest Albanian political parties might stand behind the Ibar revelations.
"I do not exclude that some people in the Macedonian government are trying to discipline DUI before the publication of the reports of Nato and the EU on Macedonia," he added, however. The annual EU report on Macedonia is due on 9 November. The Nato summit in Lisbon a few days later is likely to see Macedonia told once again to solve the name issue with Greece if it wants to continue towards EU and Nato membership.
The affair may have consequences in Kosovo as well. If it is proven that ex-Yugoslav secret services helped to create Albanian rebel movements, it could tarsnish the reputation of the Albanian uprising of the late 1990s in Kosovo. Macedonian media has published stories in which Kosovo Albanians defended Mr Ahmeti.
Experts say that the Ministry of Interior in Skopje will have to assess quickly whether the files are genuine. Continued uncertainty could aggravate political instability and further jeopardise the country's euro-atlantic integration prospects.
At the centre of the files published by Dnevnik is a person codenamed "Ibar" - allegedly a collaborator of the Communist secret police in Belgrade. The documents say Ibar was recruited by the secret police in the 1980s, continued to work for them during the 1990s and took part in the constitutive meeting of the Macedonian UCK, or National Liberation Army, in Switzerland where he lived.
The UCK meeting agreed to put the UCK's military wing under the control of the Belgrade secret service, according to the documents. The papers praise Ibar as one of the top collaborators the secret service had in the large Albanian diaspora in Switzerland. The documents do not mention a name, but the biographical data all point to Mr Ahmeti, who became a commander of the UCK military formation that led the Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001.
The material has been forwarded by Dnevnik to the Macedonian Commission for Lustration, charged with checking the authenticity of files on alleged agents working for the security apparatus of the Communist regime.
The Commission for Lustration has also received, from unknown sources, the files of three more Albanian DUI politicians containing similar accusations. The documents were handed over to the Commission by an Albanian professor named "Ljushi," who said he found them in his garden. Ljushi is said to be close to the DPA, an Albanian-Macedonian opposition party and a rival of the DUI. The professor is under police protection.
The revelations are an additional threat to political stability in Macedonia, a country with a 25 percent ethnic Albanian minority and an uneasy multi-ethnic social balance.
Macedonia's path into Nato and the EU, the number one priority for the Albanian population, has been blocked for years by its bitter name dispute with Greece.
Mr Ahmeti has promised DIU voters to deliver Nato and EU integration, but his Macedonian coalition partner, Mr Gruevski's Christian Democrat VMRO DPMNE party, is showing no willingness to find a compromise with Greece.
The DUI party has called the publication of the Ibar dossier an attempt to discredit Mr Ahmeti. DUI secretary general Abdulakim Ademi said: "This is a war to discredit the work and personality of the founder of the UCK, the bright history of the Albanian people and the successes of our leader Ali Ahmeti and his associates. This can not be assessed otherwise than as the product of the sick mind of a group of people in the leadership of one political party and their mentors."
Stevo Pendarovski, ex-national security advisor to two Macedonian presidents, told the Macedonian Service of the German radio station Deutsche Welle that an internal fight for power between the two biggest Albanian political parties might stand behind the Ibar revelations.
"I do not exclude that some people in the Macedonian government are trying to discipline DUI before the publication of the reports of Nato and the EU on Macedonia," he added, however. The annual EU report on Macedonia is due on 9 November. The Nato summit in Lisbon a few days later is likely to see Macedonia told once again to solve the name issue with Greece if it wants to continue towards EU and Nato membership.
The affair may have consequences in Kosovo as well. If it is proven that ex-Yugoslav secret services helped to create Albanian rebel movements, it could tarsnish the reputation of the Albanian uprising of the late 1990s in Kosovo. Macedonian media has published stories in which Kosovo Albanians defended Mr Ahmeti.
Experts say that the Ministry of Interior in Skopje will have to assess quickly whether the files are genuine. Continued uncertainty could aggravate political instability and further jeopardise the country's euro-atlantic integration prospects.
waz.euobserver.com
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