Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- The Daily Telgraph August 28, 2001 The targeting of civilians has been less overt and systematic than in neighbouring Kosovo, where tens of thousands of Serbs and gypsies have been forced out. But local Macedonians say that the fear created by the guerrillas' terror tactics is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. "It is a repeat of the Kosovo script. Their aim is ethnic cleansing and genocide." Villagers flee racial purge by Albanian guerrillas Ethnic cleansing haunts Macedonia, reports Julius Strauss in Tearce THE Matex clothing factory in the rebel-held village of Tearce was the main employer of local Macedonians. A little more than a week ago it was razed to the ground. Only the blackened, metal frames of sewing machines and chairs show where the seamstresses worked. Glass skylights were shattered by the heat of the flames. In the guardhouse, drawers were ripped out, and official papers and clothes scattered on the floor. Macedonian houses in the village fared little better. Several had been torched, others peppered with automatic fire. Two cafes and a general store had been looted and wrecked. Outside one an ice cream freezer stood, the cones and ice lollies giving off a sickly-sweet odour in the summer heat. Of the 1,200 Macedonians who lived in this village until a month ago, only a few dozen are left. "Their houses burned down because the electrical wires became too hot and they caught fire," smirked Samir Hyseni, the 29-year-old proprietor of the Sport cafe, who was wearing a Manchester United football shirt. His friends sniggered. As Nato began the task of collecting weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas, evidence was emerging of a widespread terror campaign by the rebels. They have kidnapped dozens of Macedonian men, put to the torch scores of Macedonian houses and looted many more. In the past five days alone they have also blown up an Orthodox church in the village of Lesok and they are the prime suspects behind a dawn explosion at the weekend which almost levelled a motel, killing two men who worked there. The targeting of civilians has been less overt and systematic than in neighbouring Kosovo, where tens of thousands of Serbs and gipsies have been forced out. But local Macedonians say the fear created by the guerrillas' terror tactics is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. "It's an unseen terror," said Jovan Milovanovski, whose 19-year-old son Robert was kidnapped near the village of Lesok on July 23. Today Jovan, who has not heard from his son since, lives in a sparsely furnished room at a refugee centre in Skopje which he shares with his wife Ljubica, two remaining children and a stranger. He said: "Two hours after the kidnapping we packed up and left. We had only the clothes we were standing in." The five share three beds, have an hour of hot water a day and wash their clothes in an old, red bucket. Each day Jovan travels to a road blockade set up by angry Macedonian refugees on the main road to Kosovo while Ljubica visits various relief organisations seeking news of her son. She said: "Robert was such a quiet boy. He didn't drink or socialise. Even the Albanians loved him. They said he was a child like no other." Budimir Apostolski, an official who lives in the front-line town of Tetovo, says he has another 52 such cases on his books. On Sunday evening the guerrillas released about 12 hostages, including an American Macedonian, but many more missing people remain unaccounted for. Yesterday, the Red Cross said another seven Macedonian civilians had been released. Mr Apostolski said: "And all we ask is to get them back. If they dead we want their bodies returned." One local man was kidnapped only days after his wedding. His distraught bride walks the streets of Tetovo each day visiting the local branches of the Red Cross, the United Nations refugee agency and any other organisations that might help. What the relatives fear most is that their men have been tortured. Three road workers kidnapped by the rebels a month ago were cut with knives. They said they were also forced to perform sexual acts on each other. Another man was reported to have been severely beaten and then hung from a tree with wire tied around his wrists. Mr Apostolski said: "It is a repeat of the Kosovo script. Their aim is ethnic cleansing and genocide." In Block 77, one of two huge, shabby Communist-era housing estates in Tetovo now controlled by the rebels, 70 percent of the Macedonians living there have already left. In the purely Macedonian village of Lesok, where Robert was kidnapped, the guerrilla's tactics have paid off. Of 380 villagers, only about 40 remain. A month ago armed rebels went door-to-door ordering people out. Then they made off with television sets, video players and other valuables before setting fire to several houses. "They took everything," said Ratko Gligorovski, who sat in his garden yesterday surrounded by carefully pruned pink and red roses. "Then they began to burn the houses." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
