Intellectuals have asked: Where are Gruevski and Ahmeti to defuse the people?

In the strong appeals for calm and restraint from violence coming from all sides, there is no voice of
the main actors on the political scene. The NGO sector requires political leaders to come among the
people. Analysts warn - the situation is fragile, but has no capacity to escalate
24 May 2014 by Arta Tahiri- tahiri@inbox7.mkco-author: Biljana Stavrova
photo from protests: Robert Atanasovski
Leaders of the Albanian political scene are in silence after the dramatic events in the Skopje
municipality Gjorce Petrov. Condemnation and calls for calm of passions just arrived from the local
government in the neighboring municipality of Saraj and intellectuals. None of the Albanian political
parties publicly declared about the events and tensions in the Skopje municipality Gjorce Petrov.
Neither the murder of young Petkovski has been condemned, nor the demolition of shops and
property of innocent citizens. The exception is Bekim Murati, mayor of the municipality of Saraj, who
immediately after the tragic event announced that the Council and he as mayor condemn the killing
of young Angel Petkovski. Mayor Murati asked institutions to take all measures to prevent such
cases, which make the situation difficult and increase ethnic tensions.

Institutions are called to contribute this act of violence not to be repeated. We are concerned
about the destruction of property of innocent citizens, which was burned and smashed by
irresponsible people and hampered the free movement of thousands of citizens and tortured many
innocent people, said Murati.

The municipality Saraj requires the Ministry of Interior to take all concrete steps to detect the
perpetrators who had destroyed the properties. It appealed to the citizens to refrain from activities
that are contrary to law and that produce violence.

Intellectuals seek accountability from politicians and institutions
Albert Hani, civic activist, says the situation reflects the context or events that have been happening
for a long time.

This situation is reflected by violent incidents, from time to time, as a signal which indicates that
the relevant institutions should deal with conflict management seriously and with greater sensibility.
Also, the situation confirms the failure of governmental and non-governmental institutions, i.e.
Parliament, government, judiciary, police, and especially civil society, which should take more
encouraging steps towards promoting mutual understanding and building mutual trust, said Hani.

Zekjirija Ibrahimi, a researcher at the Institute of Spiritual and Cultural Heritage of Albanians in
Skopje, believes that the political elite should be more responsive to the situation. He called on
religious leaders to engage in calming tensions, because only then can we hope for sanity.


If we were in a normal country, first, MPs from Gjorce Petrov would together go to visit the
family of young Angel, would condemn the event and attend the funeral. Then, the leaders of the
Albanian parties, Ali Ahmeti and Menduh Thaci, would condemn the event and express condolences
to Angels family. Thirdly, the president of the municipality of Saraj along with his colleague from
Gjorce, would visit Angels family and go to the funeral together. Fourthly, the president of the
Islamic Religious Community (IRC) together with the head of the MPC would visit Angels family and
together participate in the funeral. Fifthly, civil society, both Albanian and Macedonian, would
condemn the incident and express condolences for the victim together. Sixthly, the media would
inform without ethnic cheerleading, says Ibrahimi.


Such an attitude through Facebook was given by Arben ejku, former Albanian ambassador in
Skopje. He noted that tensions with scenes of violence in Skopje, caused because of the death of
young Macedonian, in circumstances that need to be explored, should be placed under immediate
control of the state. According to him, only in this way it will be allowed the justice to say its word in
institutions, not on the street.
Macedonian and Albanian political leaders should immediately engage in reduction of tensions, not
religious institutions to solve it. Those who were at rallies a few days ago demanding the trust of the
people should not neglect their duties and be where the people today need their word and their
presence, said ejku. He recalls the murder in Gostivar in 2012 when two innocent young Albanians
were killed, and when, as he says, none of the Albanian families affected by pain were aggressive
towards their neighbors of Macedonian ethnicity and waited for justice to act.

Albanians in Macedonia are not orphans, therefore a fair and credible trial against the accused
murderer should be provided. And to ensure freedom of movement and normal life for Albanians,
who want to live in a country where everyone is equal before the law and respects civil institutions,
stated ejku.

The situation is stable, but fragile, with no capacity for escalation

The general assessment of the situation after the recent developments in Skopje settlement Gjorce
Petrov, according to the head of the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, Alexander
Krzalovski is that it is stable, but fragile.

Multiethnic relations after the 2001 conflict in Macedonia have stabilized and improved, but
some questions have remained unaddressed, like education, multilingualism, etc. Especially in multi-
ethnic communities as Skopje settlement Gjorce Petrov, interethnic relations and tensions always
come to the surface, but without the capacity for escalation and tension, especially after the
experience Macedonia had in the 2001conflict, said Krzalovski in a statement for Inbox 7.

He points out that individual cases should be treated as such, not to be identified with the whole
community just because of belonging to ethnic community. So the population is to refrain from
violent actions. It is necessary through the system of institutions to resolve such cases. With a
penalty to demonstrate that there is no tolerance for such events. For example, in the case of
Smikovci Lake there has been no sentence yet, says the head of MCIC.

According to him, it is necessary to work on promoting cooperation among the communities and
to have more opportunities for integration, primarily in schools.

Here it is the opposite and therefore not contributed to the construction of hegemony in society.
It is easy to be strong in your own community, but when at work or at school you face the members
of other entities you go into conflict easily. The lack of opportunities for integration creates parallel
worlds. For example, why, as a second language, kids at school do not learn some of the languages
of smaller ethnic communities, Albanian, Turkish, Bulgarian, but learn German and English, he says.

Zmijanac: Young people identify with the murdered boy and fear for themselves

Dragi Zmijanac, director and founder of the First Childrens Embassy in the World Medjashi, believes
that as it is a murder of a young boy it is understandable that many of the protesters are young
people, minors who are angry at what is happening and who want to express their anger.

They identify with this boy who was a victim and sympathize with him and fear for themselves
and their future to live in an environment where their life and safety can be called into question. But
it is also an expression of fear, for themselves, their peers and future. Whether fans, members of
groups or spontaneously gathered through social networks, young people have the democratic right
of association, freedom of expression of their own opinion and requesting protection from the state
before the worst happens. Young people have the right to express outrage and concern for their
safety and security regardless of ethnic, religious or any other affiliation, said Zmijanac regarding
the protests in Gjorce Petrov, attended by 15- year-old juveniles.

According to him, it is another thing how they express anger and concern about the threat to their
life and property from various criminal gangs and criminals who kill innocent citizens, who are
victims of not only criminals, but also non-functional protection of young peoples lives.

It results in rage and anger and after it appears, it is difficult to articulate and instead of being
demonstrated before the institutions of the state obliged to prevent violence, it focuses on people
and their property from other ethnic groups, which because of the criminals from their ranks, all
become potential victims, said Zmijanac.

He believes that the solution is not in responding to violence with violence, but violence prevention
and targeting police towards putting crime into control, prevention programs with youth who have
started criminal activities.

MOF: Stop for the chain of violence!

Youth Education Forum (MOF) condemns the murder of young Angel that took place in the
settlement Gjorce Petrov and sympathizes with his family, relatives and friends. This act of violence
must not be tolerated and perpetrators should be appropriately punished through trial, said Marjan
Zabrcanec of MOF.
marjan-zabrcanec

From MOF they call for understanding, clear-headed actions and diffusion of tensions and violence
which further escalated in the streets of Gjorce Petrov. Young people not to perceive ethnic
differences as the reason for killing and not to respond with violence against innocent citizens and
their properties. Therefore we urge the police force to refrain from violence against young people
and ensure a peaceful terrain without brutal behavior, in order not to bring additional tensions.

Zabrcanec addressed the strongest appeal to the decision makers in the country. We demand an
urgent response and call for peace by leaders of all political parties, holders of positions in
institutions, Prime Minister and President. The silence of institutions leads to speculations and
dissents among the public, so their clear and public reaction is necessary, they say fromMOF.

Helsinki: Nationalist propaganda brings only short-term political goals

Reconciliation will not happen until public officials, regardless of their ethnicity, refuse to jointly
rise above their party interests and continue with nationalist propaganda that only results in
achieving short-term political goals, said the Helsinki Committee for Human rights.

Helsinki Committee expresses serious concern for the escalation of hatred on ethnic basis as a result
of killing young Angel Petkovski.

In the past two years the Committee has repeatedly appealed that youth violence and hatred
escalate and there is no noticeable downward trend. On the contrary, the number of incidents,
injuries and violence among young people of Albanian and Macedonian ethnic community is
growing, it is said in the Helsinki Committee statement.

Helsinki Committee concluded that on this occasion initiators of these events are young people,
including minors. This organization refers to the attempt of the police to enforce censorship in the
media taking away journalistic recorded material from the protests:

Although the police mostly adequately dealt with the angry crowds, the committee was notified by
several journalists of seizure of photos and video material taken during the protests. Such treatment
at the time of arrest of several participants of the protest is a flagrant violation of Article 16 of the
Constitution of RM which guarantees freedom of public information, receiving and conveying
information and prohibits censorship.

How did Albanian language media report?

Albanian language media reported on the event, giving emphasis to the destruction of Albanians
property in Gjorce Petrov and harassment of citizens near the settlement. The portal ALMAKOS in
the article entitled The crowd on the bridge in Skopje Saraj left after the imams appeal, reported
on the Albanians meeting at the Saraj Bridge regarding tensions in Gjorce Petrov. According to the
portal, following the imams appeal, the citizens, who were in large numbers, went to their homes.
PORTALB reported in an article headlined Panic among the Albanian population, men guard the
property. According to this medium, in the Nerezi settlement in Skopje, men gathered deployed at
the beginning of the settlement in order to prevent the Macedonian crowd of protesters that was
trying like mad to enter Albanian settlements. Alsat M had a title The murder is being disclosed,
vandals are sought who demolished facilities.

Many media gave meaning to the statement of Naser Eshtrefis lawyer Rubin Dvojakov, who for
the newspaper Koha said that the knife which killed Angel Petkovski belongs to the victim and
Nasser defended himself.

It should be noted that the portal Republic in Albanian unlike the same in Macedonian wrote a
lot about the incidents in Gjorce Petrov, with emphasis on the Albanian perspective of events. <a
href="http://en.inbox7.mk/?p=509" rel="nofollow">en.inbox7.mk/?p=509</a>