A people under siege

By Vaiju Naravane

MATKA (MACEDONIA), JUNE 20. Matka is a tiny village of less than 400 inhabitants perched in the mountains around the Macedonian capital of Skopje. There are 45 Albanian families here and only eight Macedonian ones.

Mr. Kovan Blagoja has just come from the woods and looks like a tree, covered in foliage from head to foot. ``I have a couple of goats and a donkey and I bring them fresh leaves whenever I can,'' explains the tree-man. ``I am Macedonian. My neighbours are Albanian. We have lived here forever, peaceably, amicably as long as I can remember. My window gives on Zeair's courtyard and my wife is always chatting with his wife Hanife. Now, all of a sudden, we are supposed to be enemies. I don't understand it,'' he says.

Haizie is a woman of 80. Her face is lined and worn and she has trouble breathing. ``Come, I will show you,'' she says taking me by the hand. ``The helicopters came and made so much noise that the ground shook. And my old house just fell down.'' Haizie is bewildered. She gets Marks 22 per month as pension and has to rely on her neighbours for food. ``Now, even my house has collapsed,'' she says weeping softly into her apron.

In these villages there is a sense of bewilderment. ``We have all been equally poor and we have all shared our poverty. I hate the Government. They have created all these problems. The President and the Prime Minister are both fighting for power and the Albanians become a scapegoat,'' says Zeqir, farmer and father of 10 children.

It is close to midnight. The car hurtles down the pot- holed road, swerving dangerously on the curves. Bashkim is nervous and would like to get to Skopje as soon as possible, ``without incident''. As we turn towards the Skopje valley, two very powerful electric torches are turned on, practically blinding us. There is the rat-tat-tat of automatic guns fired in the air. The car screeches to a halt. The doors are flung open by machine gun- toting army reservists. They are rough, rude men, ready to use their weapons at the slightest provocation. Who are we? Where are we coming from? Where are we going? Where are our papers? After a thorough search during which my notebooks are shaken open for any photographs, my camera examined and my bags rifled, we are allowed to go with admonitions not ``to use the phone too much''. As a parting shot the leader of the checkpoint tells Bashkim: ``Tell the lady we don't like foreigners here. We are not impressed by whether she is a journalist or from the U.N. It's foreigners like her that are destroying our country and we won't let it happen.''

Bashkim has turned pale. ``Ever since the guerillas started firing in the hills, I have to endure this and worse every day,'' he says. ``Now when I go back after taking you to your hotel they will stop me again but even more rudely. I live in dread although I am not afraid of dying. I have a wife and old parents. Many of my countrymen have fled to the West. Although I have a visa I shall not run away. If they want to kill me let them come to my house.''

I travel east towards the town of Aracinovo. The 25,000-strong town is controlled by Albanian fighters from the National Liberation Army (NLA) and is surrounded by Macedonian troops.

My accreditation is in order. Written in Cyrillic it says, I, accompanied by my interpreter Bashkim Aliu, have free access to the entire country. The soldiers read the letter carefully. The letter is signed by the Director of the Macedonian Information Agency. I cannot read the name but am told it is Albanian. ``A letter signed by an Albanian Director. Accompanied by an Albanian interpreter. You must go back to Skopje and get another permit signed by the Interior Ministry. Now jump back into your car before we get tough,'' says the sergeant, tapping me on my back.

NATO has called the uprising ``illegal'' and is preparing to send a special force to disarm the guerillas. But amongst the Albanian population in Macedonia the rebels enjoy tremendous popular support. Says journalist Sefer Musjliu of Macedonian TV: ``The success of the KLA in Kosovo encouraged our boys to take up arms. This uprising was inevitable. The 1992 Constitution is a step backwards, not forward. We fought non- violently through the ballot box and through democratic debate for 10 years. At least now they are listening''.

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