The Macedonian MUP filed 17 criminal charges, against those detained and against four other persons on the run (among them Lirim Jakupi the Nazi, who during the armed conflicts in the south of Serbia was one of the main associates of the ex-commander of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac Shefćeta Musliju) - due to terrorism, association for hostile activities and illegal arms trade. In the action, weapons of Russian and former Yugoslav production were seized, which could equip a battalion of 650 soldiers, which, according to the Macedonian Minister of the Interior, Gordana Jankulovska, is the largest seizure of illegal weapons to date. The seized weapons had the opportunity to be seen by journalist teams from the neighborhood, as well as diplomatic representatives in Skopje, and according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, such a large amount of weapons (hand and rocket launchers, "zolles", "axes", recoilless guns, mortars, grenades... ) was most likely to be used in the future escalation of the conflict on a much wider field. Minister Jankulovska stated that in the investigation, through the statements of the detainees and intelligence information, they will prove in what way, from where and in what period the weapons were delivered to Šar.
In the first reactions, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski assessed that the police action was "highly professionally carried out" and in the direction of "law enforcement in the entire territory of Macedonia". Among those who greeted her, for the Macedonian public, which is constantly intimidated by some Albanian leaders with the possibility of "a repeat of 2001", the assessment of the American ambassador to NATO Victoria Nuland, who the day after the action in Skopje led a high-ranking American interdepartmental delegation, has special weight. the task was to evaluate Macedonian achievements on the way to the Alliance. "I can say that we were informed about this action by the security forces." We were impressed that it was carried out by a multi-ethnic police force, which highlights the importance of such structures in the country," said Victoria Nuland.
However, not everyone was unanimous in praising the action. Although the position of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE is that "citizens have had enough of instability, racketeering and lawlessness and should keep their composure and understand that the actions of the MUP are aimed only at criminals", among the reactions of the Macedonian part of the opposition there was also the opinion that realized their claims in the parliament that these are not ordinary criminal gangs, but terrorist groups that threaten the security of the country and that we should not euphorically welcome an action that has not been fully completed, because the leader of the group succeeded to escape. On the other hand, Amnesty International warned the Macedonian authorities and the Albanian community in Macedonia to respect human rights in a statement by Nikola Duckworth, Director of the Program for Europe and Central Asia, and pointed out that due to political tensions between ethnic Macedonian and Albanian parties in the parliament, events such as that of On November 7, they can lead to human rights violations.
ARSENAL OF WAR: Confiscated weapons in Macedonia
With 51 votes "against", 12 "for" and five abstentions, the Macedonian parliament on Monday rejected the proposal of the opposition Democratic Union for Integration (DUI, created by the pacification of the former Albanian Liberation Army from the conflict in 2001) to hold an extraordinary discussion on the action in the village of Brodec. DUI coordinator Rafiz Aliti, whose deputies returned to Sobranje after a six-week boycott, accused the authorities of excessive use of force and alleged physical abuse of those detained in the action. "Seriously concerned about the intervention of the police forces", the DUI accused both the ruling VMRO-DPMNE and the Democratic Party of Albanians of being responsible for the disproportionate use of force against the civilian population, as well as for the arrest of former ONA members in an action allegedly carried out in several Skopje neighborhoods. The leader of the party, Ali Ahmeti, even stated that even the large amount of weapons found was not a sufficient reason for the MUP's action, because "one small group, no matter how armed it is, cannot be effective precisely because of its numbers." "We regularly condemn criminal groups and distance ourselves from them, but in such actions we must also count on the fact that there are no consequences for citizens who are not at fault," said Ahmeti. The mayor of Tet, Hazbi Lika, a member of the DUI, protested because he was not informed about the action, and, according to him, the municipal delegation concluded after visiting the village of Brodec that "brutal force was carried out without selecting targets" and that among the residents, ethnic Albanians, there is "anxiety about the fate of the injured who are in prison or hospitals".
DUI's assessment is that the action threatens Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations and worsens inter-ethnic relations, and its timing will surely be the subject of further comments both on the political scene and in the media. After the last ambush attacks by criminal or terrorist gangs on police patrols killed a police station commander (the suspect for his murder was recently extradited from Kosovo) and a 24-year-old policeman, the leader of the ruling DPA, Menduh Thaci, appeared on the show "Returning to Arms" " of a TV station from Tirana stated that "the entire territory of Macedonia is under the control of the authorities" and that "there is not a single uncontrolled hotspot". Menduh Thaci promised that the DPA "will not allow spectacular actions by army and police units." And, the mountain storm followed... The police action may have prevented the escalation on the ground, because the media had already speculated that one of the DPA deputies in the parliament, Daut Redzepi Leka, organized "defense groups" in the Tetovo region to protect the population from organized criminal groups that allegedly controlling DUI. The fierce action of the special forces, immediately before the elections in Kosovo on November 17, immediately after the partially negative report of the European Commission on Macedonia, which dashed the hopes of the Macedonian public about possibly obtaining a date for negotiations during the Slovenian mandate, and the day before the visit of a high-ranking American delegation led by Ambassador Nuland, will still open many questions.
Just a few days before the police action, another fugitive from the Kosovo prison, otherwise sentenced to several years in prison for terrorism, Javid Morina, known as Commander Drenica, who, according to media reports, wanted to join to the Yakupi Nazi group. The Skopje media then cited unnamed intelligence sources according to which the relatives and friends of Javid Morina came from Kosovo to the Tetovo region to take revenge on his killers and those who ordered the murder. According to media speculation, behind the perpetrators of Morina's murder - who was allegedly tortured and beaten before the murder - is the group of Agim Krasnići from the Skopje village of Kondovo (his brother, wounded in the confrontation, is recovering in a Skopje hospital), close to the ruling Democratic Party of Albanians. The parties of the Albanian bloc used the murder of Javid Morina to exchange mutual accusations in an otherwise tense atmosphere. The DPA accused the DUI of supporting criminal groups that want to destabilize Macedonia, and the DUI counter-accused the DPA of being responsible for the worsening security situation. But if the speculations about the party's trange-frangeray with the underground turn out to be true, i.e. that the elimination of the Kosovar Morina, with the eyes of the police closed, was left to Albanian criminal groups from Macedonia, the danger of further losing control over the situation becomes even greater. Encouraging criminals of any nationality and with anyone's party (patriotic) support is the shortest path to chaos.
