- At least ten of Osama bin Laden’s close
associates were involved with the organizing, financing and arming of
the NLA in Macedonia
According to the Utrinski Vesnik, a Skopje daily newspaper, at least
ten of Osama bin Laden’s close associates are directly and personally
involved with the organizing, financing and arming of the NLA were in
Kosovo during the crisis. Using false passports they infiltrated
Macedonia to organize the NLA.
Two Saudi nationals, Fatah Ali Hasanin and Omar Alavadi, are
considered the principal founders of the NLA in Macedonia. Utrinski
Vesnik published a list of bin Laden’s associates in the Balkans
claiming that Hasanin, an Al Qaida member, is supposedly in charge of
the jihad in Southeast Europe.
During the Kosovo crisis, “according to some intelligence sources,”
Hasanin was in Macedonia, i.e. in Skopje, Tetovo, and Gostivar to
organize military training for the NLA. He occasionally traveled to
Kosovo via a KFOR vehicle with French license plates. He had a meeting
with Hashim Taci, who used to be a KLA(UCK) leader and is now a leader
of the Democratic Party of Kosovo.
During the past few years, Hasanin stayed in Vienna, where he had
founded a humanitarian organization, named “The Third World,” tasked to
finance the expansion of Muslim fundamentalism in the Balkans,
especially in Kosovo and Macedonia. Formerly a councilor to President
Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, he traveled throughout the Balkans.
According to the Skopje paper, Omar Alavadi, is an associate of Bin
Laden and is closely connected to Hasanin. It is believed that he made
necessary arrangements for military training of Albanian terrorists in
Macedonia, coordinating with them in Tetovo, Gostivar, Skopje, and
Kicevo. His associate, Edi Debsi, is thought to be connected in some way
with German intelligence.
The war in northern Macedonia was direct spillage from the conflicts
in Bosnia and Kosovo. I know for a fact that weapons bought on the
black-market in 1993 in Tomislavgrad, Bosnia, were shipped to Kosovo.
The looting of Albanian armories armed most of the NLA rebels.
Hundreds of thousands of AK-47s and other weapons were looted from
Albanian Army supply depots during the Albanian crisis in 1997. Many
were smuggled across the border by Albanian militants to arm the Kosovo
Liberation Army in their secessionist war against Serbia. Those weapons
have since found their way into northern Macedonia. Usually strapped to
the back of a KLA veteran.
A Capital At War
- Skopje, the capital of Macedonia
Skopje, the capital of Macedonia (population about 440,000), is
located in the north central part of the country where it straddles the
Vardar River. Skopje is also the birthplace of Mother Theresa and a
plaque in the main square, Macedonia Place, marks the site of the house
where she was born.
In ancient times Skopje was the capital of the kingdom of Dardania.
In the late medieval period it was captured first by the Serbs (1282),
then by the Turks (1392), and became a key city in the Ottoman Empire.
Following the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), it was ceded to Serbia and became
part of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed
Yugoslavia in 1929).
An earthquake destroyed most of the city, including many of its
ancient mosques, in 1963, but some of the city’s surviving architecture
still reflects the Ottoman influence.
Unarmed soldiers in BDU pants and green t-shirts walked around openly
in Skopje. Skopje like any modern city has a myriad of soft targets for
dedicated urban terrorists, whether an unarmed soldier wearing his
cammies and walking home, a street-side cafe, the Macedonian
telecommunications building, or a crowded shopping center.
Yet people went about their business shopping, working, and hanging
out in cafes. Young boys were trying to cool off in the Vardar River,
lovers lounged in the park, Albanian-Muslim women wearing head scarves
and the heavy dark dresses which look like winter coats did their
shopping, and pairs of young men sat in cafes where they drank beer and
watched the girls go by.
I was doing much the same. Having arrived in late afternoon, too late
to coordinate with the Ministry of Defense or anyone else, I dropped my
ruck in a cheap bed and breakfast type hotel, stuffed my notebook and
some film in my pockets, grabbed one of my cameras and caught a cab down
to the city center.
I took a walk around the historic section taking in the square with
Mother Teresa’s monument, the 15th century bridge over the Vardar, and
the old Kale fortress ruins – all Skopje landmarks. Having worked up a
good sweat in the summer heat, I stopped at a popular cafe to cool off
with a cold Skopsko beer. After about ten minutes people began to stop
on the sidewalk nearby to look up the street.
I left my table to see a group of marchers with a Macedonian flag and
a few carrying signs of protest. I followed the crowd which swelled
with other curious onlookers and, as can be expected, the usual gaggle
of kids, teenagers, and lay-abouts looking for trouble and / or
excitement.
- The Skopje riverfront
Having blocked the street with bicycle racks and small dumpsters the
demonstration gathered in front of government offices in the lee of the
hill occupied by the Kale ruins.
A girl wrapped in a Macedonian flag saw my camera and waved at me …
some of these kids were media savvy. Some were obviously University of
Skopje students. After I photographed the girl with the flag the local
press finally arrived: a reporter from a newspaper but without a
photographer, a photographer from another paper, and a TV cameraman.
The cops (some were already blocking the street to vehicle traffic)
then showed up in force in a van. About ten cops piled out. Some wore
helmets with riot visors, but most looked unprepared for riot control –
unless that meant popping off 9mm rounds into the crowd. They pushed
through the crowd and took up positions by the doors.
I went over to take a photo. Having initially stood atop a three-foot
high dividing wall as many people were doing and been screamed at by
one old lady on my right and some guy with a sizeable beer gut on my
left, I had moved to the outer ring of the crowd. Crowds sometimes
become mobs, and I made sure I had an escape route. But now there was no
other recourse but to move quickly and aggressively into the crowd to
get pictures of the cops.
A few of the cops saw me and waved me off. I got off a few frames and
then some asshole wearing only knee shorts appointed himself boss and
pushed me yelling, “Go! Now, go! Now.” Well, hell, I thought that’s not
very nice. The local press could take photos but I was not welcome.
There were no other non-Macedonian journalists there.
I told one of the reporters to be careful, we’d been talking
previously and someone might think he was with me. The crowd moved off
down the street, resuming their march, to demonstrate in front of the
American Embassy. Yes, everything was America’s fault!
I’d only been in country three or four hours and soon experienced
some obvious anti-foreigner feelings in Skopje. Friends in Bulgaria told
me this the day before. Yep, when your country is all screwed up …
blame the foreign journalists.
There was a widely held belief that the Albanian insurgents were
hiding behind EU/NATO/US forces and diplomats whenever things got tough.
Whether true or not this perception was not making us any friends in
Macedonia.
- anti-U.S. sentiment during a demonstration in Skopje
I was warned a few days later by three Skopje twenty-something’s that
if I saw another demonstration or a group gathering to beat feet as the
level of anti-western and anti-U.S. sentiment was so high that it could
be very dangerous. The U.S. had stepped in to prevent the sale of more
heavy military weaponry to Macedonia from Ukraine (like the Hinds).
This was greatly resented in both countries (I had just left Kiev the
week before traveling to Skopje). Most Macedonians thought the west
supported Albanians because of what happened in the village of
Arachinovo where strong diplomatic pressure and U.S. soldiers with buses
re-located beleaguered Albanian fighters.
The papers were full of articles about U.S. instructors working in
Kosovo with “Albanian terrorists” and the U.S. Army’s support of the
Kosovars. Americans definitely weren’t flavor of the month in Skopje.
I had noticed a few looks from people just in passing, but by and
large the average person in Skopje was friendly toward me and quite a
few shopkeepers and taxi drivers made a point of giving me unexpected
change — passing up the opportunity to rip-off a foreigner. However, it
was a different dynamic in a mob of angry demonstrators.