[Nettime-bold] (Fwd) HRW: Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

Macedonian interior minister Boskovski immediately reacted to this 
report calling HRW "international mercenary organization" and 
argued that the report equalizes the victim with the aggressor - a 
tired argument we heard gazillion times over the past decade from 
various Croat, Bosnian, Serb and Albanian commanders. I guess, 
Boskovski is on his way to join them playing poker in 
Scheveningen. ICTY is already investigating what happened in 
Ljuboten.

ivo



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Human Rights Watch

For Immediate Release

Macedonian Troops Commit Grave Abuses
Role of Interior Minister in Ljuboten Abuses Must be Investigated

(New York, September 5, 2001)-Macedonian government troops committed
grave abuses during an August offensive that claimed ten civilian lives
in the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch charged
in a new report released today.

The report, titled Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces
in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001, charges that Macedonian police troops
shot dead six civilians and burned at least twenty-two homes, sheds,
and stores in the course of their August 12 house-to-house attack on
the village.

The rights group pressed for an immediate investigation, including
an inquiry into the role of Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube
Boskovski, who was present in the village on August 12, the day the
worst violations occurred.

"The Macedonian government must answer to the people of Ljuboten,"
said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's
Europe and Central Asia division.  "It is deeply disturbing that
the Minister of Interior appears to have been so intimately involved
in one of the worst abuses of the war.  We demand an immediate and
impartial investigation."

Human Rights Watch called on the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to make public the results of its investigation
into the events in Ljuboten.  Human Rights Watch pressed for a separate
investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the
Macedonia conflict.

Based on a two-week in-depth investigation, including a visit to
Ljuboten, interviews with victims and witnesses, and examination of
photographic evidence, the report also documented indiscriminate
shelling that claimed another three lives in Ljuboten.  Contrary to the
government's account of the offensive, researchers found no evidence
that the ethnic Albanian rebel National Liberation Army was present
in the village.

Hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians who tried to flee Ljuboten faced
further abuse.  Ethnic Macedonian vigilantes beat three men unconscious
in full view of the Macedonian police on August 12.  One of the men
was shot in the head by the Macedonian police as he attempted to flee
the beating.  Police separated over one hundred men and boys from their
wives and children and took them to police stations in Skopje, where
they were subjected to severe beatings.  Atulah Qaini, aged thirty-five,
was taken away alive from the village by police officers, and his badly
beaten and mutilated corpse was later recovered by family members from
the city morgue.  According to their relatives, at least twenty-four men
from Ljuboten, including a thirteen-year-old boy, remain in police
custody after suffering serious beatings from the police.

The police abuse suffered by ethnic Albanians fleeing Ljuboten is
consistent with patterns of systematic abuse Human Rights Watch has
documented in Macedonia over the past six months.  Human Rights Watch
urged international monitors to make a priority of monitoring and
reporting on the conduct of Macedonian police.

"Endemic police abuse is a potential spark that could re-ignite the
conflict in Macedonia," Andersen said.  "We can't wait for a gradual
restructuring of the police over the next three years.  Immediate
steps -- including monitoring and accountability -- are needed to
curb abuse."

The complete report is available on the Human Rights Watch website at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/macedonia/

To access the photo gallery accompanying the report, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/macedonia/photos/

==================================================================


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