R
RAYTHEON23
Гостин
сакам да напоменам дека темава не е концентрирана на конфликтот-туку на улогата на НАТО(тоа е главно)па сметам декаима простор за дискусија.
On Wednesday, August 15, NATO approved plans to send 3,500 troops to Macedonia to take part in 'Operation Essential Harvest', with the stated aim of disarming the Albanian rebels who have been involved in armed conflict with the Macedonian army over a period of months. Those troops have now started to arrive. But even as they were arriving the supposed cease-fire was being broken by fighting between the Albanian rebels and the Macedonian army.
The real reason for the deployment of NATO troops is to attempt to prevent Macedonia's descent into open civil war. If this were allowed to spread and get out of control it would have far greater consequences than simply destabilizing Macedonia itself. We have explained many times that a war in Macedonia could spark off a far wider war, involving Albania, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.
The role of Turkey is a complex one. The Turkish speaking population in Macedonia so far has not come into conflict with the Macedonian state. Although the Turks are Muslims, like the Albanian population, they haven't shown any "sympathy" for the rebels. Quiet the contrary, they have condemned the terrorist actions of the NLA and together with the other forgotten minorities they have urged for some kind of peaceful solution to the conflict.
The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ismail Cem, visited Macedonia recently, but the Albanian political leaders were not satisfied with the position of Turkey which showed no willingness to intervene in a war in Macedonia. The Turkish government is obviously under pressure from US imperialism and it is being pushed into using its weight to convince the Albanian rebels in Macedonia to agree to a peace deal. Albania, however has a de facto agreement with Turkey in the case of war. If Albania were to be sucked in "to defend" the Albanian minority in Macedonia this would increase pressure on Turkey to come down on the side of Albania. .
Bulgaria would probably be the first country to intervene as they regard Macedonia as simply a part of Bulgaria anyway. They would, of course, disguise what would be a de facto attempt to annex parts of Macedonia to Bulgaria, as helping their "brothers". Greece and Serbia would also attempt to carve up spheres of influence for each other. With the intervention of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, Turkey would find an excuse to intervene in place like Cyprus and Bulgarian Thracia.
What is most worrying for Western imperialism is that this whole scenario would inevitably involve a war between Greece and Turkey, who are both members of NATO. Thus it would seriously weaken NATO's south eastern flank. NATO is attempting to pre-empt such a disastrous scenario. These are the real concerns of the imperialist powers in the Balkans - not the interests of the peoples.
The August 13 "agreement"
The sending in of NATO troops is based on the so-called "agreement" of August 13. This agreement ended the long drawn out talks with the president. These "talks" between the president of Macedonia, the four leaders of the strongest Macedonian political parties (two from the Macedonian side, Georgievski and Crvenkovski, and two from the Albanian side, Xhaferi and Imeri) were "mediated" by the so-called "alleviators" [Note: this is the term which has actually been used in Macedonia, and which to many Macedonians is seen as both vulgar and a joke] the frenchman Leotard and his companion Perdew from the USA. The imperialist powers imposed this illegal and feudal-like institution, consisting of the same parties that are presently engaged in a broad coalition government. This body is to overlook the proposed changes to the Macedonian constitution.
The result of these talks, under the pressure of the NLA attacks, has been a political piece of paper, a draft preliminary document, which states that Macedonia will continue to be one sovereign state, indivisible and integral. The proposed constitutional changes are in the domain of the usage of languages and the police forces. Thus Albanian would become an official language. And positive discrimination would be applied in the distribution of nationalities in the public sector. The key to one's future employment would be one's ethnic origin.
This will not solve the problem in Macedonia. If applied it would actually exacerbate the conflict. In a situation where unemployment is so high, reserving jobs for people on the basis of their ethnic group will only lead to resentment on all sides. Jobs will not be allocated on the basis of need but on the basis of ethnicity. It will lead to a revolt among the skilled workers (both Macedonians and Albanians) who would feel themselves discriminated on the basis of this method.
All this is a concession to the Albanian guerrillas. They have promised to give up their arms on the basis of these concessions. In reality they will not disarm. Thus the Macedonian speaking majority will be further enraged. This agreement solves nothing. It only prepares new conflicts in the future.
NATO will not be able to leave
The 3,500 troops are supposedly going on a very short term mission of 30 days, in which they are to disarm all the Albanian fighters in North Western Macedonia. This is going to prove an impossible task. As NATO spokesman asked "If 100 per cent of the weapons will be handed in? The honest answer, I think is no" (Financial Times, 13.8.01). The fact is that NATO does not know how many weapons are held by the rebels. Most likely the rebels will make a show of handing over their guns, while the bulk of their weaponry will be stashed away in safe hiding places within Macedonia itself and also just across the border in Kosovo.
Thus the NATO troops will not be able to leave. If they left the conflict would flare up again. In Bosnia and Kosovo, where 20,000 and 40,000 NATO troops respectively, are stationed there is no indication of when they are to withdraw. In the region as a whole, there are around 80, 000 troops.
On Wednesday, August 15, NATO approved plans to send 3,500 troops to Macedonia to take part in 'Operation Essential Harvest', with the stated aim of disarming the Albanian rebels who have been involved in armed conflict with the Macedonian army over a period of months. Those troops have now started to arrive. But even as they were arriving the supposed cease-fire was being broken by fighting between the Albanian rebels and the Macedonian army.
The real reason for the deployment of NATO troops is to attempt to prevent Macedonia's descent into open civil war. If this were allowed to spread and get out of control it would have far greater consequences than simply destabilizing Macedonia itself. We have explained many times that a war in Macedonia could spark off a far wider war, involving Albania, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.
The role of Turkey is a complex one. The Turkish speaking population in Macedonia so far has not come into conflict with the Macedonian state. Although the Turks are Muslims, like the Albanian population, they haven't shown any "sympathy" for the rebels. Quiet the contrary, they have condemned the terrorist actions of the NLA and together with the other forgotten minorities they have urged for some kind of peaceful solution to the conflict.
The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ismail Cem, visited Macedonia recently, but the Albanian political leaders were not satisfied with the position of Turkey which showed no willingness to intervene in a war in Macedonia. The Turkish government is obviously under pressure from US imperialism and it is being pushed into using its weight to convince the Albanian rebels in Macedonia to agree to a peace deal. Albania, however has a de facto agreement with Turkey in the case of war. If Albania were to be sucked in "to defend" the Albanian minority in Macedonia this would increase pressure on Turkey to come down on the side of Albania. .
Bulgaria would probably be the first country to intervene as they regard Macedonia as simply a part of Bulgaria anyway. They would, of course, disguise what would be a de facto attempt to annex parts of Macedonia to Bulgaria, as helping their "brothers". Greece and Serbia would also attempt to carve up spheres of influence for each other. With the intervention of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, Turkey would find an excuse to intervene in place like Cyprus and Bulgarian Thracia.
What is most worrying for Western imperialism is that this whole scenario would inevitably involve a war between Greece and Turkey, who are both members of NATO. Thus it would seriously weaken NATO's south eastern flank. NATO is attempting to pre-empt such a disastrous scenario. These are the real concerns of the imperialist powers in the Balkans - not the interests of the peoples.
The August 13 "agreement"
The sending in of NATO troops is based on the so-called "agreement" of August 13. This agreement ended the long drawn out talks with the president. These "talks" between the president of Macedonia, the four leaders of the strongest Macedonian political parties (two from the Macedonian side, Georgievski and Crvenkovski, and two from the Albanian side, Xhaferi and Imeri) were "mediated" by the so-called "alleviators" [Note: this is the term which has actually been used in Macedonia, and which to many Macedonians is seen as both vulgar and a joke] the frenchman Leotard and his companion Perdew from the USA. The imperialist powers imposed this illegal and feudal-like institution, consisting of the same parties that are presently engaged in a broad coalition government. This body is to overlook the proposed changes to the Macedonian constitution.
The result of these talks, under the pressure of the NLA attacks, has been a political piece of paper, a draft preliminary document, which states that Macedonia will continue to be one sovereign state, indivisible and integral. The proposed constitutional changes are in the domain of the usage of languages and the police forces. Thus Albanian would become an official language. And positive discrimination would be applied in the distribution of nationalities in the public sector. The key to one's future employment would be one's ethnic origin.
This will not solve the problem in Macedonia. If applied it would actually exacerbate the conflict. In a situation where unemployment is so high, reserving jobs for people on the basis of their ethnic group will only lead to resentment on all sides. Jobs will not be allocated on the basis of need but on the basis of ethnicity. It will lead to a revolt among the skilled workers (both Macedonians and Albanians) who would feel themselves discriminated on the basis of this method.
All this is a concession to the Albanian guerrillas. They have promised to give up their arms on the basis of these concessions. In reality they will not disarm. Thus the Macedonian speaking majority will be further enraged. This agreement solves nothing. It only prepares new conflicts in the future.
NATO will not be able to leave
The 3,500 troops are supposedly going on a very short term mission of 30 days, in which they are to disarm all the Albanian fighters in North Western Macedonia. This is going to prove an impossible task. As NATO spokesman asked "If 100 per cent of the weapons will be handed in? The honest answer, I think is no" (Financial Times, 13.8.01). The fact is that NATO does not know how many weapons are held by the rebels. Most likely the rebels will make a show of handing over their guns, while the bulk of their weaponry will be stashed away in safe hiding places within Macedonia itself and also just across the border in Kosovo.
Thus the NATO troops will not be able to leave. If they left the conflict would flare up again. In Bosnia and Kosovo, where 20,000 and 40,000 NATO troops respectively, are stationed there is no indication of when they are to withdraw. In the region as a whole, there are around 80, 000 troops.