Meanwhile, the whole Macedonian Army (ARM) went through a similar process of growth and reorganization. It was officially formed on 18 August 1992 from former Yugoslav Army and TO personnel, as well as what little equipment was not removed by the Serbs. Initially it modelled itself as a smaller version of the former Yugoslav Army, its commanders envisaging no less but three corps, an air force and an air defence corps, as well as a number of operational commands. Such aspirations proved far beyond the capability of the small and poor nation and were never realized.
By 1996 Macedonia applied for membership in NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and plans were set the ARM to move from self-reliance to mutual protection capability. For this the military required a major reorganization. This began in 1998, when also first major arms donations arrived. However, during the following years similar, “new” plans for reorganization were published almost every six months and every time they were superseded long before realization. Under control of corrupt politicians and higher ranks each of which had own ideas about the future of the military, with many officers removed or retired for incompetence, the ARM – and so also the VViPVO – was eventually to become involved in one of the most difficult kinds of armed conflicts – a counter-insurgency war – before being ready for any kind of warfare. Finding itself in the middle of several simultaneous reorganizations, each of which was undertaken according to a different plan, the ARM and VViPVO at the time were not only not really functioning, but actually in a state of chaos. There were two corps HQs, but both were not yet operational. Some battalions were independent commands, others were organized into ad-hoc brigades. Personnel needed to be properly trained in almost all aspects of military art. Without surprise, an internal report was so highly critical about the situation within the ARM and its overall performance that the Chief of Staff, Lt.Gen. Andrevski, stood down.
The first out of four Mi-17s supplied to Macedonia was VAM-301. It is seen here as appearing after being camouflaged, in 1995. Note the heavy camouflage in Sand, Mid-Green and Dark-Green, with serial ("VAM-301") applied in Grey. "VAM-303" was an exception from this rule in having its serials applied in "low-visibility" fashion, in Mid-Green and Sand over Sand and Mid-Green. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)
Outbreak of the War
The first attacks by ethnic Albanians on Macedonian security forces occurred in late 2000 and early 2001, mainly along the border to Kosovo. The insurgents acted in a pattern similar to the one seen in Kosovo in late 1997 and through 1998, according to which they gradually took over one village after the other. Any such efforts were initially “peaceful”, the non-Albanian population being “encouraged” to leave. But, at some point armed actions followed against legitimate authorities, with the definition between peaceful domination and violence being ill defined – i.e. simply left in the hands of local rebel commanders.
The government at first did nothing against the situation because it received assurances from its „business partners“, that what was going on was not directed against Macedonia. Satisfied with the answer and their payments the authorities waited for almost two months – and then the situation was almost immediately out of control, in fact so much that the government was not only taken by surprise but also made one mistake after the other.
However, the payments then suddenly stopped, while the number of attacks was growing. In fact, in January 2001 a group calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA) appeared, claiming responsibility for attacks on police forces. The leaders of this NLA – including Ali Ahmeti and his uncle, Fazli Veliu, were all from Western Macedonia. They stated to have “between several hundreds and thousands” of fighters under arms. However, they were not supported by either of the two main ethnic Albanian political parties. The Macedonian government responded that the rebels were actually members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who “infiltrated” the country from Kosovo. Certainly, the KFOR and the UN-peacekeepers stationed in Macedonia already since 1992 were doing nothing to keep them outside the country. In fact, the NLA-fighters considered Kosovo as “safe heaven” where they could pull back in the case of larger Macedonian actions against them.
Finally, on 17 March the ARM was ordered to send a force in the conflict-ridden town of Tetovo and capture several local Albanian depots. During this operation, which resulted in first larger clashes between the Macedonian authorities and the Albanians in the country, a VViPVO Mi-17 crashed while landing at the ski resort of Popova Sapka. The helicopter was actually pushed by wind into an electric pole around 17:00hrs, shortly after dark. One technician, Mst.Sgt. Draganco Ilievski, was killed, while 12 other crewmembers and troops that were aboard were badly injured, five of them heavily and six slightly. All were subsequently evacuated to the hospitals in Skopje. Despite this mishap, after four days of fighting the Macedonian forces drove rebels off positions overlooking the city of Tetovo.
Reaction of the government was interesting: “suddenly”, funding for the military and security authorities – that was not available for years – became available. In fact, during the following months the ARM was to get so many helicopters, tanks, artillery, equipment and ammunition that it could have defeated an enemy that was two times as strong as the Albanian rebels in Macedonia would ever be. On 24 March the first two Mi-24Vs and four Mi-8MTs arrived from the Ukraine. During March also Greece supplied two Bell UH-1Hs taken from its 1st Army Aviation Brigade to VViPVO. The pilots for these were trained for 20 days in Stefanivikon.
It must be mentioned here that despite plenty of reports of the contrary, the Macedonian military had enough trained pilots and technical personnel to sustain new equipment. For example, there were no less but 55 pilots with the VViPVO left from the times of the former JRViPVO. For most of the 1990s these have not got more than 20 hours flying time annually, but under new conditions there was suddenly enough money for them to be re-qualified for different types of helicopters in a 20h long crash-course in the Ukraine. The first group of eight pilots then returned – together with their new escorts, and contracted Ukrainian personnel that was to take care about the maintenance of delivered equipment, as well as supervision of their deployment for a period of between six and 12 months – to Macedonia. Consequently, down to very few early combat sorties, the VViPVO Mi-24s were for most of the times flown by Macedonian pilots.
Having the ARM reinforced the government began preparing an operation that was to see the rebels being driven out of Macedonian towns and villages and into Kosovo. Simultaneously, the KFOR and the UN-troops in Macedonia were requested to take a more robust approach in stopping the rebels from crossing the border. Refusing to negotiate any terms with what they called “terrorists”, in late March 2001 the government then launched an offensive to regain control of rebel-held villages around Tetovo. Advancing slowly, sometimes supported by Mi-24s, the Macedonians carefully attempted to avoid mistakes of the Serbian police and military in Kosovo, namely to act overly aggressive and expose themselves to world condemnation. At first the resistance was minor and the ARM regained control over a number of villages. During an attack against the rebels that were meanwhile besieging Tetovo two Hinds were observed firing unguided rockets against enemy positions on the Mount Sar. In the following hours the same area was heavily bombarded by Macedonian artillery, and on the following day – 20 March 2001 - additional troops were deployed in the combat area by Mi-17 helicopters. Moving a column of armoured vehicles – including T-55s – through Tetovo towards the Mt. Sar, the Macedonians eventually advanced in such power that the NLA simply melted away in front of them, disappearing over the border to Kosovo. Eventually, this attack that was launched in such a bold manner came to an end on the evening of 25 March. The problem this time was that the sole objective of this operation was to push the Albanians only so far that these would be unable of laying mortar fire on Tetovo. Clearly, the ARM could not sustain a permanent presence of such a force in the area. As soon as a better part of the troops was away the incursions continued and the violence soon spread into Tetovo, the sections of which periodically came under intensive mortar attacks.
One from the original batch of Mi-24s supplied to Macedonia was this Mi-24V, serialled 201, and operated by 201 Squadron during the bitter fighting against Albanian rebels, in summer 2001. Note that all the Macedonian Hinds lacked rails for ATGMs, and were almost always carrying two UB-32-16 rocket launchers under each wing. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)