Reality Macedonia
July 27, 2001
Terrorists Continue Ethnic Cleansing In Tetovo Region
More Than 30,000 Macedonians Expelled
"Our [Albanian] neighbors drove us from our home. They
came armed with machineguns, although in the past we
shared the good and the bad times with them."
At least 30,000 Macedonians from Tetovo and the
surrounding villages have left their homes running
away from the Albanian gangs' terror and moved to
Skopje and other towns throughout the country.
Yesterday, 10,000 Macedonians left Polog [the valley
where Tetovo is situated]. The Macedonian Red Cross
checkpoint close to the Saraj village at the Skopje
entrance has noted more than 2000 vehicles with Tetovo
license plates yesterday. There had been at least five
persons in each vehicle, and around ten busses full of
people have also entered Skopje. Around 300 displaced
persons from Tetovo were placed in the "Pelagonija"
hotel in Skopje. Some of the infuriated citizens
refuse to be placed anywhere and insist to return to
their homes.
Families with babies and small children, pregnant
women, old and exhausted people were leaving Polog
yesterday. The city of Tetovo, as well as the villages
of Brvenica, Jegunovce and other villages are rapidly
being emptied since yesterday. The villages of
Rogachevo, Vratnica, Staro Selo and Beloviste are cut
off and the local population can only be evacuated
from there with helicopters.
- We run away from the Albanian terrorists. A person
who was a friend and a colleague of my husband's until yesterday
expelled us from our home in Lesok, someone with whom we used to share
good and bad for over twenty-five years. He came to our house with an
automatic gun and threatened us that we had to leave the village. He is
Albanian and we had never been bothered by that, until yesterday. We did
not even succeed to take clothes, so we wait here for relief like people
on social welfare - a mother of three minors, villager from Lesok tells.
They are placed in the hotel "Pelagonija" in Kisela Voda, where more
than 30 families from Tetovo, Leshok and Neproshteno have reported.
According to the statements of the local villagers
there are around 160 Macedonian houses in Neprosteno,
around 400 in Leshok, and around one thousand
Macedonians had lived in Tearce. Around 10.000
villagers with ethnic Macedonians live in Brvenica.
The discontent of the Macedonian population from
Tetovo and the surrounding area is enormous because
they are forced to run away in front of the guns of
the Albanian gangsters, and the small number of
members of the Macedonian security forces can not
protect them, persons from Tetovo tell with tears in
their eyes.
Men return to safeguard their homes, leaving their
wives, children and the elderly with friends and
relatives across the country.
- I left my wife and children with some relatives in
Skopje. I am returning to my village Jegunovce to try
and safeguard at least a part of what I have been
struggling to create all my life. I was very upset the
day before yesterday, when I saw how Albanian
gangsters forced Macedonian population to leave the
villages on the Tetovo-Jazince road. The terrorists
also approached Jegunovce yesterday. They were
fortifying their positions by the Skopje-Tetovo
railway, around two kilometers away from the emptied
villages under the Sara mountain, a fifty-year old
villager from Jegunovce tells, upset by the desperate
situation of the Macedonian population of this part of Macedonia.
The hotel "Pelagonija" in the Skopje settlement Kisela
Voda is a temporary home for the displaced persons
from the Tetovo area since yesterday. Citizens from
Tetovo, Lesok, Neprosteno were arriving there the
whole day long. Some of them with a traveling bag
only, or with a plastic bag, some of them-without any
luggage at all. Macedonian Red Cross activists noted
the displaced persons yesterday and issued health care certificates.
- There is room for 500 persons in the hotel. Food has
been provided, hygienic and baby-packages but we don't
have enough bed linen. - the authorities say.
The International Red Cross Committee distributed
humanitarian relief in the hotel yesterday. Anique
Bovier, when asked what do the activists from this
organization do in order to save captive villagers
from Tetovo and other villagers, she says:
- We had calls from Neprosteno, Lesok and Tearce. We
sent four teams, but they could not enter the villages
due to safety reasons. Only the Tearce team entered
Tearce, from where we evacuated five Macedonians and
Albanians. Our mandate is to work in order to satisfy
the most urgent needs of the people - says Bovier.
Ljubica Balaban, Dejan Nikolovski
Source: Dnevnik #1612 (Thursday, July 26, 2001)
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REALITY MACEDONIA
Translated by Goran V.
It is forbidden to use the materials from this site in
ways that promote hatred, racism, or ethnic
hostilities, especially in ways that implicate, hint,
or openly blame all Albanians for the consequences of
the murderous acts committed by the terrorist
NLA/KLA/UCK. We understand that only small percent of Macedonian
Albanians support KLA in its self-destructing quest for the old fascist
construct, Great Albania, and even fewer do so voluntarily. Most of
Albanians involved in the hostilities are pushed into them by way of
forced mobilization or are misguided by continuous brainwashing.
Macedonia has always been a multiethnic entity, where different cultures
and religions lived side by side. This diversity is the foundation of
its beauty and strength. Please help the Police and the Army of Republic
of Macedonia protect its diversity, democratic values, and the lives of
innocent people threatened by the KLA terrorists by continuing the
Macedonian tradition of tolerance. Please do not vent your frustration,
anger, and pain on your neighbors just because they speak the same
language as the KLA criminals. Ordinary citizens of Macedonia belonging
to all its ethnic groups (Macedonians, Albanians, Vlachs, Turks, Rroma,
Serbs, Bosnians, and others) all share the same problems, same joys,
just like they share the same sun and stomp the same ground. They have
been living and working together for ages, and will continue to do so as
soon as the supporters of KLA and all who promote violence are moved
from the scene and put into jail, where they belong.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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