The past two weeks have been hectic for Bulgaria’s south-western neighbour Macedonia.
As the British tabloid The Sun alleged that the Macedonian interior minister was being driven in a stolen car belonging to footballer David Beckham, a former interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, was being prosecuted in The Hague on April 16. Boskovski, together with police official Johan Tarculovski, are being prosecuted for war crimes in Macedonia in 2001, when seven ethnic Albanians were killed in the farming village of Ljuboten. This is the first trial of people suspected of committing war crimes in Macedonia. Both men deny the charges.
A videotape was screened in court, showing what prosecutors said was Boskovski witnessing the attack from behind a wall that overlooked the village. Moreover, prosecutors said Tarculovski (32) ran a private security unit loyal to Boskovski and led the attack on the village. “The police unit led by the accused Tarculovski deliberately chose unarmed civilians, wantonly burned and destroyed many homes without justification and cruelly treated a group of residents, seven of whom were killed,” another prosecutor said as quoted by the BBC.
The August 2001 attack on the village of Ljuboten occurred during a six-month insurgency in Macedonia. The then-nationalist government fought to suppress ethnic Albanian militias. Boskovski (46) was alleged to have effective command and control over the forces from his position as interior minister. “Due to his failure to take necessary and reasonable measures to punish the perpetrators of the crimes committed in the village of Ljuboten, the prosecution will ask you to find Boskovski criminally responsible as a superior,” prosecutor Dan Saxon said.
Footage showing smoke rising from homes in the village was also shown to the court. According to charges presented by the court, the attack on Ljuboten was launched in retaliation for an attack which killed eight Macedonian soldiers.
Lawyers for both defendants declined to make opening statements.
Nonetheless, a lawyer for Boskovski told the Associated Press news agency that the interior minister had been responding to “terrorist” actions and “took all necessary and responsible measures”.
The two men could face life sentences if convicted. The trial is to continue on May 7. Tarculovski and Boskovski were the last two men to be indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague over alleged atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia.
Days before the Hague trial, US president George Bush signed on April 10 a bill supporting the accession of Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, Georgia and Ukraine to Nato, the Macedonian governmental website said. The bill also envisages additional military aid to these countries. On March 6, the US house of representatives adopted a draft law supporting the accession of these five countries to Nato. In order to preserve stability and security in Europe, there is a necessity for economic and political integration of new democracies in existing European institutions, says the draft, entitled Law on Strengthening Freedom within Nato. The US senate approved the draft on March 16. According to the bill’s sponsor, congressman John Tanner, admitting the five countries to Nato would be a success for Europe, Nato and the US by expanding the area of peace and security. He also gave credit to Macedonia, Albania and Croatia (the Adriatic Group) on their achievements in reforms, which are part of the Action Plan for Nato membership adopted by the three countries in 2002.
On April 11, Macedonian news agency Makfax reported that Macedonia would repay $137 million in external debt to the World Bank and the European Investment Bank ahead of schedule, and the country would also repay its entire debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The country’s external debt repayments total $240 million. According to prime minister Nikola Gruevski, through external debt repayments ahead of schedule, Macedonia would no longer be classified as a medium-indebted but as low-indebted country.
“This move shows that Macedonia runs good, safe and stable economic policies, and the early repayments of foreign debts reconfirms the success of the government’s economic programme, which will have a positive impact on the country’s credit ratings as well as on all businesses in the country”, Gruevski said, as quoted by Makfax.
The early repayment of external debts has been done with funds from foreign currency reserves. “The early repayment will save us more than $37 million, which were to be repaid by 2021 as interest rates. The government will re-allocate the money to development projects,” Gruevski said. He said that early repayments referred to old loans inherited in 1997. With this move, Macedonia’s external debt will be cut down by 20 per cent compared to the debt reported just a few months ago. The percentage of the total public debt compared to GDP will be cut down from 34.9 per cent to 32.8 per cent. “The government plans to continue with this economic policy and early repayments of debts to other countries or institutions. The next to repay is the debt to the IMF,” Gruevski said. The repayment of the debt to the IMF will be a strong signal to the international institutions confirming Macedonia’s sound and stable economic policy.
Macedonian government figures say that the country’s total debt is 1.6 billion euro.
