Misplaced Pages

2001 insurgency in Macedonia
Part of the Yugoslav Wars
Clockwise from top left: Macedonian T-55 tank and crew in Aračinovo; A detachment of the Macedonian Special Police Unit for Fast Interventions near Kumanovo, Macedonian police border patrol near Raduša; 2001; Monument of the Defenders of Macedonia;
Date 22 January 2001 – 13 August 2001 (6 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Polog and Kumanovo regions of Macedonia Result See aftermath
Belligerents
National Liberation Army Albanian National Army	Republic of Macedonia
Commanders and leaders
Ali Ahmeti Gëzim Ostreni Xhezair Shaqiri Tahir Sinani † Fadil Nimani † Avdil Jakupi Jakup Asipi Jetullah Qarri Rahim Beqiri †	Boris Trajkovski Pande Petrovski Ljubčo Georgievski Jovan Andrevski Ljube Boškoski Dosta Dimovska Vlado Bučkovski Ljuben Paunovski
Strength
2,000–3,000 (beginning of the war) Unknown	20,000 soldiers and policemen 60 T-55 tanks 4 Su-25 aircraft 4 Mi-24
Casualties and losses
64–105 militants killed	63–77 soldiers and policemen killed 3 tanks and 2 APCs captured 1 tank and 1 APC destroyed 1 Mi-17 crashed
90 civilians killed 150–250 total dead and 1,000 total casualties 70–250 killed in fighting Other: 140,000 people displaced One British soldier killed Two EU monitors killed

The 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia was an armed conflict which began when the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) insurgent group, formed from veterans of the Kosovo War and insurgency in the Preševo Valley, attacked Macedonian security forces at the end of January 2001, and ended with the Ohrid Agreement, signed on 13 August of that same year. There were also claims that the NLA ultimately wished to see Albanian-majority areas secede from the country, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this. The conflict lasted throughout most of the year, although overall casualties remained limited to several dozen individuals on either side, according to sources from both sides of the conflict. With it, the Yugoslav Wars had reached the Republic of Macedonia which had achieved peaceful independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Background

When it declared its independence from Yugoslavia on 8 September 1991, Macedonia was the only ex-Yugoslav republic that managed to secede non-violently from the federation. Because of this, Macedonia was considered one of the bright spots in the former Yugoslavia.

Although Macedonia had seceded from Yugoslavia as one of its poorest regions, socio-economic interventions undertaken by the consecutive democratically elected governments managed to improve the economic picture in the country. According to the International Crisis Group, there was nearly 3% growth in 1999. The second half of 2000 also saw steady growth, leading to a 5% GDP increase for the year. In January 2001, the government projected a budget surplus for the second year in a row. In 2000 the country's emerging middle class began buying new cars, adding extensions to apartments and planning summer vacations abroad.

Although the ethnic Macedonian majority and the largest minority, the ethnic Albanians, had co-existed uneasily both before and after the country declared independence in 1991, their relations had generally been peaceful. All of the successive Macedonian governments had included Albanian parties as coalition partners, and several problems were resolved through political dialogue. The mood was more or less optimistic until the beginning of 2001. The main cause for incidents though, was the repression by the Macedonian governments on the use of the Albanian language in Macedonia and the ban of the use of the Albanian flag in public institutions. In 1997 the Constitutional Court restricted the use of the Albanian flag in public institutions to state holidays after the mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar illegally hoisted the Albanian and Turkish flag in the town halls of Gostivar and Tetovo. The removal of the flags sparked protests.

The Macedonian Army was formed in 1992 with the withdrawal of the Yugoslav National Army under the agreement that it would take all of its equipment with it, stripping the facilities bare, and mining them for demolition, in some case even army apartments were stripped of wire and plumbing. According to Belgrade newspapers the army removed equipment worth $14 billion and $20 billion which could equip an army of 30,000. This left Macedonia severely weakened and forced Macedonia to rely on donated surplus vehicles and outdated weaponry, the World War II t-34/85 was the main battle tank of the Macedonian Army until the Bulgarian donation of 100 M −30 howitzers and 94 T-55 tanks in 1999.

In 2001 Ukraine was the only supplier of military weapons to Macedonia based on a bilateral military cooperation agreement that started in 1999. Western officials vehemently protested Ukrainian arms shipments to Macedonia, Kyiv was visited by EU Secretary-General Javier Solana, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, to pressure the Ukrainian government into suspending its arms supplies to Macedonia, the Ukrainian government agreed to suspend all military sales to Macedonia in July.

Albanian demands in Macedonia

According to the 1994 census, there were 442,914 Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia, making up about 22.9% of the total population of the country (1,936,877). This made them the largest ethnic minority alongside the majority Macedonian population of 1,288,330 (66.5%). In 2001, the Albanians of Macedonia lived largely in compact settlements in the western part of Macedonia, towards the international border with Albania. They also lived in the north-western part of Macedonia, toward the border with the Yugoslav province of Serbia and the then-UN-administered Kosovo, as well as in the Macedonian capital Skopje and the city of Kumanovo. They also comprised the majority of the population in the Macedonian towns of Tetovo, Gostivar, and Debar.

Since independence, the Republic of Macedonia had been trying to focus on its internal affairs. The promotion of democracy and harmonised inter-ethnic relations had been defined as the main goal of the new state. Since the first democratic elections in 1991, the Albanians of Macedonia used all constitutional and political opportunities to play a significant political role in the country. There were several Albanian political parties, whose behaviour and rhetoric (just as in the case with the parties of the Macedonian political block), depended on whether they were in the governing coalition or not. Despite these political fluctuations, the Albanian parties were included as coalition partners in all post-communist Macedonian governments.

According to the Albanian politician Arben Xhaferi, there was systemic discrimination against Albanians in Macedonia. The Albanian flag was banned from public display. The Albanian language was taught in some schools but could not be used for official correspondence. The United States Department of State reported that the following forms of discrimination against ethnic Albanians continued to exist in Macedonia: limited access to Albanian-language media and education; poor representation in public sector jobs; poor representation in the police corps; poor representation in the military officer corps; denial of citizenship to many long-time ethnic Albanian residents of Macedonia as well as discrimination in the process of citizenship applications; and unfair drawing of voting districts which dilutes their voting strength. Because of these reasons and many more, Albanians in Macedonia began to demand greater political rights. These included making amendments to the constitution to declare the Albanians as a second titular nation of the country, recognising Albanian as a second official language, and providing state support for the underground Albanian-language university in Tetovo. Albanians also claimed to represent as much as 30% and even 40% of the country's population, not the 22.9% recorded in the official June 1994 census.

In 1994, some Albanian politicians in Macedonia advocated for wider collective political rights. In 1994, a prominent manifestation of these demands was the declaration of an autonomous republic called "Ilirida" in the western part of Macedonia. Other pressing issues were the attempted creation of an Albanian language university in Tetovo (1995), declared illegal by Macedonian authorities, as well as the anti-constitutional raising of the Albanian flag in front of the municipal assemblies in Gostivar and Tetovo in 1997. Macedonians considered these two events as steps towards the creation of "parallel authorities" of the Albanians in Macedonia.

Macedonia and the Kosovo crisis

During the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, Macedonia opened its borders to thousands of Kosovo Albanian refugees who were fleeing into the country. According to figures released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on 17 May there were 229,300 Kosovo Albanian refugees in Macedonia. The number of Albanian refugees in Macedonia at that stage was more than 11% of the country's population. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, around 360,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees repatriated in the second half of 1999.

Macedonia's ability to receive refugees was limited, because contingency planning assumed only 20,000 refugees. Despite all the difficulties, Macedonia accepted refugees according to international standards until the end of the war.

The burden of having to address the needs of 360,000 refugees took its toll on Macedonia's economy. Instead of experiencing modest growth as projected for 1999, the Macedonian economy shrank by as much as 10% of GDP for the rest of 1999. Trade with Yugoslavia, Macedonia's main trading partner, had collapsed, causing Macedonia to lose one of its most important export markets and a vital source of raw materials. Consequently, a number of factories had to close down, adding to already high unemployment. At the same time, the main transit route for Macedonian exports to most of Europe had been closed, increasing the costs for exports. State coffers, almost empty before the outbreak of the crisis, were now practically exhausted.

Macedonians were worried about the impact that more than 360,000 Albanian refugees might have on Macedonia's own ethnic mix. They were afraid that the refugees' presence could disturb the Republic's demographic balance. Macedonians were worried about the possible destructive spill-over effects that could result from the newest phase of the Kosovo conflict and also feared that they had the most to lose. As a Chicago Tribune journalist stated in March 1999, "People are afraid that after Kosovo comes Macedonia."

At the same time, insurgents from the Kosovo Liberation Army began crossing the border and entrenching themselves in Albanian-populated municipalities of the Republic. Macedonian authorities frequently intercepted and seized weapons deliveries en route to Kosovo.

Initial NLA attack

In the prelude to the conflict in late 2000, groups of armed Albanians started opening fire on Macedonian police and security forces located on the border with Yugoslavia. These events appeared to catch the Macedonian government and the international community by surprise. The first attacks occurred in the small village of Tanuševci, located in northern Macedonia near the border with Kosovo.

The conflict began on 22 January 2001, when a group of armed Albanians attacked the police station of the village Tearce near Tetovo, killing a police officer and injuring three others. Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians, which was a part of the Macedonian government, criticized the attack against the police station and said the following:

The Tetovo incident is part of an orchestrated action against the government and a very crude attempt to overthrow it. Regardless of who is behind it, as a political party we deeply condemn this act. This is a deeply anti-Macedonian act, but also an act against the interests of the Albanians in Macedonia.

In the same month, a group calling itself the National Liberation Army (NLA) claimed responsibility for the attacks against the police. Initial reports gave conflicting information about the NLA. Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski claimed that the rebels were primarily Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) members who had infiltrated the country from Kosovo. Macedonian officials accused NATO of not doing enough to disarm the Albanian insurgents, discouraging their encampment in the buffer zone (Ground Safety Zone) area between Kosovo and Serbia, or preventing their entry into Macedonia. The NLA claimed that the rebel force comprised several thousand men, coming mainly from Macedonia.

After a month of clashes, by late February, the Macedonian special police units neutralized the positions of the NLA in Tearce and Tanuševci, temporarily driving them across the border into Kosovo.

NATO surveillance of the Kosovar border

By March 2001, NATO forces deployed in and around Kosovo began to interdict rebel supplies from areas under KFOR control, with surveillance carried out by drones. USAF Predators from the 11th Reconnaissance squadron were moved to the Skopje airport and later replaced by Task Force Hunter, a drone unit made up of IAI RQ-5 Hunter unmanned aircraft. A combined ground and aerial mission was assigned to German troops along their sector of the Macedonian-Kosovar border. Given the mountainous nature of the terrain, there were many dead spots for the observer on the ground. To overcome this disadvantage, the German military integrated the armoured-vehicle-mounted RATAC surveillance radar and the Luna X-2000 UAV. The Luna X-2000 flew a total of 175 sorties, and a number of suspected rebels were arrested. US Army forces of the 2/502nd & 3/502nd Infantry Regiments of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) controlled much of the border. Infantry Squads patrolled the mountains 24/7 conducting clandestine observation and interdiction. Mortar platoons provided illumination support for night observation. On March, KFOR and the Macedonian forces led a joint operation against Albanian rebels in the Macedonian-Kosovar border region, which resulted in the capture of the village Tanuševci. US Forces coordinated with Macedonian Forces to minimize border traffic and activity.

Fighting in Tetovo

In the middle of March, NLA forces reappeared in the hills above Tetovo, a key northwest Macedonian town with an ethnic Albanian majority. The insurgents fired down on Macedonian positions using rifles, machine guns and mortars. At that point the NLA controlled at least seven villages to the north and west of Tetovo, all of which were up in the mountains and easily defensible.

On 22 March 2001, tensions soared further in Tetovo, when two Albanian men, a father and a son, were shot dead during a routine search at a police checkpoint. The incident began when their car was stopped and the officer saw the man reach for his pocket. Fearing it was a grenade, the officer panicked and ran. The man exited the car, dropped to his knees, and threw the grenade at the police checkpoint but failed to explode. A cordon of Macedonian troops, positioned behind sandbags, unleashed a volley of gunfire at the Albanian. At first he slumped against the car, then fell on the curb, dead. Moments later the father was also shot as he tried to run from the car. Despite photographic evidence of the grenade witnesses later interviewed insisted the father and son died with mobile phones in their hands, claiming that the pair were victims of revenge by police.

The strategic position of the NLA units gave them an overview of the town. The front line between the NLA and the Macedonian security forces expanded along the wooded hills adjacent to the city center to the north. The same day that a front opened in Tetovo, the NLA took control of the medieval city fortress north of the city center, and started shooting at police stationed in the urban areas. After the initial clash, the Macedonian police pushed the NLA out of Tetovo and captured the medieval fortress. The NLA were pushed back into the surrounding hills where several houses were reportedly burning. Medical officials said one person was killed and at least fourteen injured, including eleven police officers.

The government issued an ultimatum asking the National Liberation Army to lay down their arms and leave the country, or face a full-scale offensive. The NLA rejected the ultimatum, announced a unilateral ceasefire, and called for political dialogue. In response, President Trajkovski claimed that the government first had to "neutralize the terrorist threat", but agreed to start a political dialogue with legitimate Albanian political parties in Macedonia.

Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski declared, in a televised speech to the nation, that he would not negotiate with "terrorists". He rebuked the United States and Germany, whose troops patrolled the border from the Kosovar side as part of NATO's contingent there, for not doing enough to stop the rebels. Georgievski accused NATO of "creating a new Taliban in Europe" and allowing Albanian extremists to operate out of UN administered Kosovo.

Government counter-offensive

After five days of guerrilla attacks against government forces in and around Tetovo, on 18 March 2001, the Macedonian government ordered a general mobilization of reservists to execute a wider counter-attack against the National Liberation Army's positions in the hills around Tetovo.

The offensive of the Macedonian security forces was launched against NLA positions on the hillsides overlooking the city on 25 March 2001. While encountering fierce resistance from the rebels, more than two-hundred troops, aided by tanks and mortars, advanced about a kilometer up the hills fighting their way towards the village of Gajre. By early afternoon, the village of Gajre was captured by the police; they entered Šipkovica, but the NLA insurgents put up stiffer resistance at Lavce.

Macedonian government forces continued to move carefully to the north of Tetovo during the second day of the offensive (26 March 2001), consolidating their control of villages that had been held by Albanian rebels for almost two weeks. After the Macedonian security forces' artillery and infantry assault, most of the NLA insurgents had abandoned their positions farther north into the mountains stretching toward Kosovo.

On 28 March 2001, two days after the NLA was driven out from the greater part of Tetovo, Macedonian security forces launched a second offensive, this time directed at clearing the insurgents from their remaining strongholds stretching from east of Tetovo to the village of Tanuševci, north-west of Skopje. During the second offensive, the security forces attacked the NLA positions near the villages of Brest, Malino Malo, Gračani and Gošince, where clashes had taken place earlier in March before the later clashes around Tetovo. The government said the guerrillas fled northwest towards Kosovo, which they "used as a rear base".

On 31 March 2001, the Macedonian government announced an end of its offensive against the NLA armed groups. The Macedonian government claimed to have killed a dozen NLA guerrillas during the offensive. The rebels also claimed to have killed at least a dozen Macedonian border police, however this was denied by security officials. Hospital officials in Tetovo said thirty police officers and ten civilians were wounded. One civilian, an Albanian man, was killed. NLA sources however, confirmed that during the Tetovo offensive of the Macedonian army they had lost seven armed men.

The NLA's dislodging from the hills above Tetovo led to a month-long lull in the conflict.

Escalation

During the month-long calm period, a result of the offensive by Macedonian security forces, the government launched roundtable discussions with Macedonian and Albanian political parties on legislative reforms. However, this did not end the violence. On 28 April 2001, eight Macedonian police officers were killed in the Vejce Ambush in an NLA ambush. Reports concluded that the attackers must have been informed by radio about the route of the police vehicle.

Macedonian sources disclosed that the ambush was executed by Ismail Shinasi (alias Komandant Hoxha), Ceka Ilaz (alias Komandant Qori) and Ceka Bilal (alias Komandant Brada) – all three, and most of their people, were born in Kosovo and were veteran members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Ceka Bilal was a member of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency and was one of the main organizers for weapons smuggling in Kosovo.

In reference to the attack, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski stated, "We are fighting terrorists, not rebels, and we have exercised the utmost restraint in tackling them".

The killing of the eight Macedonian soldiers and police officers led to riots in Skopje, Bitola, and Veles, during which ethnic Macedonians attacked Albanian-owned businesses and shops. At least ten Albanian shops in the city of Bitola were destroyed, and dozens of buildings were damaged.

To suppress the riots, the Macedonian government imposed a curfew in Bitola, and Premier Georgievski announced that his cabinet considered declaring a state of war to have greater flexibility in fighting the NLA insurgents. According to the Macedonian Constitution a state of war would give enhanced powers to the President and the army, and allow for presidential rule by decree, fewer restraints on the army, the banning of demonstrations, a nationwide curfew, and sealing the country's borders. During the entire conflict, however, the United States urged Macedonia not to declare a state of war in its fight against the NLA.

Fighting near Kumanovo

In the beginning of May 2001, a large group of NLA rebels infiltrated Macedonia from Kosovo and set up bases in several villages to the north of Kumanovo. This armed group of NLA insurgents, known as the "113 Brigade of the NLA", was led by the Kosovo Albanian Fadil Nimani.

On 3 May, the NLA launched another ambush on Macedonian security forces in Vaksince, near Kumanovo, and killed two Macedonian soldiers and kidnapped a third. The three soldiers were on a border patrol which was returning from routine duty when it was ambushed near the village. State radio said that the rebels had claimed the area around Vakcince as their "liberated zone".

On the same day, the Macedonian security council decided to engage in a new offensive against the NLA to drive them out of their strongholds in the villages north of Kumanovo. People in the villages held by the NLA were given until 15:00 to evacuate before Macedonian security forces would launch their offensive. Army spokesman Gjordji Trendafilov told the Associated Press that the NLA was holding thousands of villagers as human shields. The offensive started with the shelling of selected targets in Vaksince by military helicopters and field artillery.

In the next several days, Macedonian security forces shelled NLA positions in the villages of Slupčane, Orizari and Otlja. Afterwards, Macedonian police and infantry units advanced. On 7 May 2001, Macedonian Army officials announced that in the previous three days the Macedonian security forces had managed to destroy fourteen NLA entrenched positions, eight machine-gun bunkers, seven sniper nests, six control points, three arms storage facilities, and one mortar position. Army officials also stressed that during the operations only selected targets were being hit, to avoid civilian casualties and unnecessary material damage.

The most intensive clashes occurred during the first week of the offensive in Kumanovo, on 8 May 2001, at the entrance to the village of Slupčane. Army infantry launched an onslaught, causing insurgents to leave their positions and retreat towards Vaksince. Army helicopters then intercepted them with machine-gun fire and inflicted heavy casualties. That same day, a position of twenty NLA insurgents was destroyed by the Macedonian Army in the "Mining colony" that was located close to Lojane.

On 25 May 2001, Macedonian security forces launched the long-awaited general offensive against the NLA in Kumanovo. Fighting continued into the next day and turned into urban warfare. The police and army infantry had to fight for every house in the large villages of Vaksince and Lojane, two NLA strongholds, as the NLA resisted fiercely. A special police unit called the "Tigers", who specialised in urban counter-guerrilla fighting, was also deployed. After two weeks of heavy fighting, on 26 May 2001 the Macedonian security forces recaptured Vaksince and Lojane. During the battle for Vaksince, Macedonian forces killed Fadil Nimani, chief commander of the NLA in Kumanovo.

Macedonian troops continued their offensive towards the NLA strongholds of Slupčane and Matejce, both about thirty kilometres northeast of the capital Skopje. After several clashes in which the NLA insurgents were defeated, on 29 May 2001, Macedonian police and army units entered the village of Matejče. While searching the houses, the police found weapons and military equipment. The police also discovered a system of tunnels which provided connection between several houses. After the Macedonian security forces captured Matejče, the NLA initiated a coordinated attack on the village from the directions of Otlja, Orizare and Slupčane. The insurgents were firing machine-guns, automatic rifles, sniper rifles, and rocket propelled grenades".

During the next two days, Macedonian security forces carried out an offensive towards Slupčane, which was shelled on a daily basis. In the meantime, there was news that there was renewed fighting in the villages north of Tetovo, more than a month after the Macedonian security forces crushed the rebels in an offensive in March 2001.

On 8 June 2001, the Macedonian Army and the police launched a major new onslaught against the NLA in their strongholds in the remaining villages that had been occupied since the beginning of May 2001. The main goal of the operation was to secure the Lipkovo dam, which was held by the insurgents. The NLA closed the valves that were used for control of the outflow of water from the dam of the Lipkovo Lake This stopped the supply of water for Kumanovo causing a humanitarian crisis for the civilian population in the city. The Army captured the Lipkovo lake and pushed the NLA back into the village.

Unlike Vaksince, Matejče and other villages on the battleground, Lipkovo still had 10,000 people who were not evacuated by the government or the Red Cross. To prevent civilian casualties, government representatives ordered the civilians in Lipkovo to evacuate the village. However, this order was not followed since the NLA insurgents in the village would not allow the International Red Cross to evacuate the civilians. The Mayor of Lipkovo, Husamedin Halili, issued an order opposite to the government's. He told civilians that they would be safer in the basements of their houses rather than attempt to leave the village because they would find themselves in the cross-fire between the security forces and the NLA.

Because the civilians had not fled the conflict zone, to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Lipkovo, and to resume the supply of water to the village, a temporary ceasefire was brokered by the OSCE, and President Trajkovski ordered a halt to the offensive on 12 June. During the ceasefire, the supply of drinking water for Kumanovo would be turned on again, and civilians in Lipkovo would receive food, water and medicine by the OSCE.

The temporary cease-fire was violated by the NLA only hours after the agreement, when insurgents shot at a police vehicle near Tetovo. During the exchange, which lasted until dawn, nine police officers were wounded, two seriously. The NLA apologized for the attack, describing it as a "mistake". During the ceasefire, the NLA also set fire to a historic Eastern Orthodox church in Matejce, considered one of the most important cultural monuments in Kumanovo, as well as to houses of ethnic Macedonian civilians. Before Macedonian police entered the village in June 2001, the church was used as a headquarters for the NLA.

The Macedonian offensive in Kumanovo came to a temporary standstill, because a new front was opened by the NLA which pulled attention away from Kumanovo. On 13 June 2001, insurgents who had infiltrated previously declared a "free territory" in Aračinovo, a village just outside the capital Skopje.

During the month-long battles in the Kumanovo region, the Macedonian security forces managed to recapture several villages that were NLA strongholds and clear them of the insurgents' presence. According to Macedonian official claims, security forces killed at least 30 NLA insurgents, including commander Fadil Nimani, while the NLA claimed they lost 16.

Aračinovo crisis

The Macedonian offensive in Kumanovo came to a temporary standstill, because a new front was opened by the NLA which pulled attention away from Kumanovo. On 12 June 2001, insurgents who had previously infiltrated the area declared a "free territory" in Aračinovo, a village geographically located only a few kilometers north of Skopje. Through Aračinovo, which became one of the NLA 's headquarters, Albanian rebels threatened to shell Skopje with mortars, especially the parliament and government buildings. The commander-in-chief of Aračinovo was Hoxha or Xhezair Shaqiri.

On 22 June, Macedonian security forces launched a massive offensive to clear the ground of Albanian insurgents in the village. The next day, two Sukhoi 25 fighters of the Macedonian military squadron, piloted by ARM pilots , carried out the first reconnaissance operations over the village. Macedonian forces advanced rapidly, surrounding the Albanian rebels from three sides. According to General Pande Petrovski, who commanded the Aračinovo operation, the ARM had at its disposal about 20,000 soldiers with armored battalions, 54 tanks, 120–130 mortars, Mi-24 helicopters and a sufficient amount of ammunition to carry out a decisive operation and complete the disbandment of the NLA. The battle lasted only three days, and ended with two-thirds of the village under Macedonian control. Under NATO auspices, a ceasefire was agreed to evacuate NLA members from Aračinovo to Lipkovo.

Thus, about 350 insurgents were allowed to leave the village with their weapons, with the help of US troops serving in KFOR and NATO forces in Kosovo, the OSCE and the European Union Mission, which sparked controversy. The Macedonian side was ordered to withdraw. As a sign of this, that same night several thousand Macedonians gathered in front of the parliament in Skopje to protest, during which the building was occupied and the protest turned into mass riots.

General Ceasefire Agreement

After mediating by OSCE and NATO and receiving increased pressure to halt hostilities, the Macedonian government agreed to NATO's request to sign an unconditional ceasefire. The ceasefire agreement was signed on 5 July 2001 by the President, by army general Pande Petrovski and by police general Risto Galevski from the Macedonian side, and by Peter Feith, a representative from NATO. NATO was the guarantor of the General Ceasefire and the same agreement was then signed with the NLA in Prizren.

The General Ceasefire Agreement required a de-militarized zone be established extending between the border with Kosovo to the southern side of the Tetovo – Jažince highway. In accordance with the agreement, the Macedonian army retreated from Tetovo, and from all of the villages that were under its control in the conflict zone, and took up new positions on the Kosovo border, and south of Tetovo. Some reinforcements were also sent to the army positions on Popova Shapka. After the relocation of the army to the new positions south of the town, there were only four police checkpoints and the police units located in the building of the SVR left in Tetovo. Police units were also removed from the villages of the conflict zone. Police remaining in the region around Tetovo after the signing of the Ceasefire were as follows: twenty in Lesok, seventy in Tearce, one hundred and twenty in Vratnica, twenty-five in Jažince, one hundred in Jegunovce, fifty in Ratae, seventy in Selce, as well as five police checkpoints with fifteen policemen each.

According to the ceasefire agreement, Macedonian security forces could open fire only when their lives were directly threatened and the return of fire had to be proportionate to any attacks by the NLA.

The agreement also envisioned a 3,000 strong NATO contingent to be deployed in the conflict zone after a political settlement was agreed between the Macedonian and Albanian political leaders. The mandate of the NATO force was to last forty-five days and the task was to disarm the NLA insurgents.

Events after the General Ceasefire

The General Ceasefire Agreement, signed on 5 July 2001, was not respected by the NLA, which proceeded to violate it constantly. According to Macedonian army records, between the signing of the General Ceasefire on 5 July until the end of August, the NLA executed one hundred and thirty-nine direct attacks against Macedonian security forces: one hundred and seventeen in Tetovo, twelve in Kumanovo and ten in the Skopje region. The Macedonian security forces returned fire seventy-four times: sixty times in Tetovo, seven in Kumanovo and seven times in the Skopje region. There were eighty-one cases of the NLA kidnapping ethnic Macedonian civilians, with sixty-one of them being released.

New clashes in Tetovo

After the signing of the ceasefire agreement, and the removal of the army from the villages north of Tetovo, NATO gave guarantees to civilians who had fled the area for Kosovo, or were internally displaced, to return to their homes. Subsequently, ethnic Albanian civilians began to return to their homes in the Tetovo villages of Selce, Lavce, Gjermo, Šipkovica, Brodec, Vešala and Vejce. The return of the civilians, and the departure of the army, created favourable conditions for the NLA to reappear in these villages. Army observation positions spotted insurgents digging defensive positions around these villages, but the soldiers were not given permission to open fire.

The first major incident caused by the NLA was an artillery attack on Tetovo on 7 July 2001, only two days after the signing of the ceasefire. From their positions north of Tetovo, NLA insurgents began an artillery bombardment of the city. Mortar grenades were launched on the northern part of the city, towards the city stadium, and the central shopping mall "Tetovčanka". Insurgents continued firing on police checkpoints in the city with RPG launchers and automatic weapons from the direction of the villages of Gjermo and Poroj. The Macedonian police, stationed in the city, answered this fire with all of their available weapons. At the same time there were attempts by the insurgents to bomb the police station in Tearce.

During the weekend, the NLA entered the ethnic Macedonian villages of Brezno and Varvara and started digging in positions. Insurgents also started digging in above the big ethnic Macedonian village of Lesok. The Ministry of the Interior recorded the movements but did not intervene. But it warned the EU and OSCE monitors to take countermeasures. From their positions in Varvara, the insurgents opened fire with automatic weapons on Lesok and on the police positions at Jažince. During these incidents the police did not react, respecting the Ceasefire agreement. There were also sightings of the NLA establishing checkpoints on roads to the east of Tetovo.

On 9 July, it was announced in the media that when the insurgents first started shooting towards Lesok, a police unit came to the villagers and armed them with firearms and ammunition to defend themselves, because the police were not allowed to intervene. The armed villagers organised a village militia, took up defensive positions, and repelled the NLA's attempts to enter the village for two days. On the same day, groups of Tetovo Macedonians went to see the President to demand that the army be ordered to enter Tetovo and expel the insurgents from the ethnic Macedonian villages of Setole, Otunje, Jadoarce, Brezno, Varvara and Jelošnik so that civilians could be returned to their homes. They claimed that the NLA attacked the remaining Macedonian villages in the region to ethnically cleanse the region of Macedonians. They also stated that they thought that the General Ceasefire Agreement was "an unthought-of act which may, and already is, very harmful to the Macedonian population in the Tetovo region".

Toward the middle of July, the NLA entered the Tetovo suburb of Drenovec, which was already emptied of army and police personnel. Armed citizens organized control points in the suburb and started building positions in close proximity to former police positions at the stadium. Because of the fact the NLA used the Ceasefire to infiltrate Tetovo and come in close to the security forces' positions, General Pande Petrovski issued an order allowing the security forces to open fire if the insurgents came within 200 meters of their positions.

On 21 July, Macedonian army radar detected a NATO Chinook helicopter entering Macedonian air space from Kosovo and dropping a container on the village of Šipkovica (which after 5 July had fallen into NLA hands). Fifteen minutes after the first drop-off, another NATO helicopter dropped another container in the area of the village of Brodec. After dropping the cargo, the helicopters returned towards Kosovo. Macedonian air defence did not open fire on the helicopters, but the Macedonian Ministry of Defence demanded an official answer from KFOR about the two incidents. NATO officials initially denied any involvement, but later confirmed that they dropped the containers but stated that the cargo was not designated for the NLA, but for use by KFOR.

On 22 July, NLA insurgent positions in the villages north of Tetovo, as well as in the Drenovec suburb, started a massive onslaught against the Macedonian police near the villages as well as inside Tetovo. The attacks started at 11:00 with an attack on the police positions at the city stadium, Drenovec 2, and the army barracks on the outskirts of the city. The police answered fire leading to an outburst of heavy fighting. Fighting continued uninterrupted for a second day, and the insurgents moved slowly toward the city stadium, and Drenovec 2 suburb, and approached the city centre. On the same day the Defence Minister warned the NLA to withdraw from ground it had taken during the truce or face an all-out attack.

On the third day, the NLA seized control of the soccer stadium and the fighting spread toward the army positions on the Kosovo border. This triggered the army to intervene. On 24 July, the army started an attack on the NLA by shelling villages from which the rebels had advanced, in the mountains above Tetovo. Fighting also continued towards the Kosovo border. Army Suhoi fighter planes were also sent on a reconnaissance mission over NLA positions. At noon, backed by army artillery, police units attacked NLA positions in Drenovec 2 and the Tetovo teqe, starting the most serious of the clashes in Tetovo. In the attack the Macedonian police destroyed several insurgent positions in Drenovec 2, Strmno and Poroj, pushing the NLA away from the centre. During the battle for Drenovec 2, a police bullet seriously wounded the NLA commander who was in charge of the attack on Tetovo – the Kosovar Rahim Beqiri, also known as Komandant Roki. He was transported immediately to the Pristina hospital, where he died one week later.

The battle ended on 24 July 2001 after a night of fighting. The next day Tetovo was quiet while ethnic Albanian insurgents built up defences with sandbags. Across the graveyard Macedonian security forces were stationing armoured personnel carriers. After the battle there was a line dividing Tetovo with the city stadium being the"border". Although there were individual armed provocations until the end of 2001, the positions held by both sides inside the city of Tetovo, after the battle of 24 July, did not change. The biggest incident after the clashes on 24 July, happened on 7 August when the NLA made another attempt to take control of the city. The attack failed when the special units of the police launched a counter-strike and forced the insurgents back to their former positions.

During the July clashes in Tetovo, five members of the Macedonian security forces lost their lives. NLA sources confirm that they lost seventeen insurgents during the battle – the biggest loss being the death of Komandant Roki.

Karpalak and the "Tetovo-Jažince" operation

Toward the end of July and the beginning of August, NLA increased its presence in the demilitarised area around the Tetovo-Jažince highway, after ethnically cleansing five ethnic Macedonian villages located next to the highway. The Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister were putting pressure on the President to order a full-scale offensive by the army to retake the territory which NLA occupied during the Ceasefire period after 5 July. This territory included most of the villages north of Tetovo, the Tetovo suburb of Drenovec, as well as an area north of the Tetovo-Jažince highway. The Prime Minister was continuing to push for a state of war to be declared to give the army the necessary freedom to resolve the crisis by military means. General Pande Petrovski prepared the plan of the offensive named "Operation Polog", but President Trajkovski refused to sign it. According to Petrovski, Trajkovski was constantly being assured by NATO and US envoys that the NLA would retreat peacefully from the area once the political dialog with the Albanian political parties intensified.

At the beginning of August 2001, Macedonian Intelligence Service received information that a special unit of the NLA had infiltrated the suburb of Čair in Skopje. The ten member group was led by the Albanian national Lefter Bicaj (known as Komandant Telli), and, according to the intelligence information, the group was tasked with organising terrorist attacks within the capitol. On 7 August, police discovered the group's hiding place and conducted a raid during which five members of the NLA group were killed and five others arrested. In the apartment police found a great number of: automatic rifles, handguns, mortars, explosive devices and grenade launchers.

The next day, on the way to Tetovo, a military convoy sending reinforcements to army positions around Tetovo, was attacked in an ambush set by NLA insurgents. Ten Macedonian soldiers lost their lives in the attack. They were attacked on the Tetovo-Jažince highway next to the Karpalak locale.

On 9 August, thirty NLA insurgents kidnapped five civil workers who were busy doing construction work on the Tetovo-Jažince highway. These people were brutally beaten and their skin was cut off with knives. When they were released, all of them were taken to intensive care.

On the same day, the President authorised a joint military-police action aimed at liberating and securing the Tetovo-Jažince area, which was demilitarised after the Ceasefire Agreement of 5 July. The operation started early on 10 August, and after several clashes with the insurgents, the Tetovo-Jažince area was retaken from the NLA and security check-points were established. The Tetovo-Skopje highway was also completely secured and the de-mining teams cleared the area of landmines while a strong police presence secured the road from diversions.

Battle at Raduša

The battle at Raduša was the worst violation of the General Ceasefire Agreement signed between the Republic of Macedonia and NATO (in the role of a guarantor for the NLA). The battle consisted of a series of clashes between the Macedonian security forces and the NLA insurgents in the area around the village of Raduša, near the border with Kosovo. The first incidents began near the end of June and escalated in the middle of August 2001.

The first clash took place on 20 June 2001, when four policemen from the Raduša police station discovered an NLA camp of forty insurgents on the steps of Žeden mountain, during a patrol of the terrain on the border. The police patrol opened fire killing one insurgent and wounding another. The patrol called on air support which came immediately and pushed the insurgents towards Kosovo.

On 23 July, one of the most dramatic single events in the conflict occurred when another police border patrol was attacked in an NLA ambush near Raduša. The police patrol was led by Aco Stojanovski, the Deputy-Commander of the Raduša police station. The insurgents fired at the police vehicle with RPG rockets, throwing three policemen out of the car and leaving one inside. The NLA attempted to approach the badly wounded policemen. Commander Stojanovski's firing six rounds from an AK-47 at the insurgents saved them until soldiers from the Raduša border post arrived and repelled the NLA with fire from an armored personnel carrier. After the conflict, commander Stojanovski became the president of the Union of Army and Police veterans of the Conflict in Macedonia. In the early hours of 10 August 2001, the NLA launched an offensive from the area of Krivenik in the Kosovo Municipality of Đeneral Janković (Hani i Elezit), invading the territory of Macedonia in the region of Raduša. The offensive took place during the ceasefire period, only days before the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The first actions began at 20:00 the same day with a mortar attack on the Raduša police station, located at the entrance of the village. The police station was manned by only thirty-five policemen. The security forces returned fire and the shootout lasted until 2:00 am. Afterwards, the NLA initiated an infantry attack which was repelled by the police. During the attack one police officer was injured.

According to information obtained by the Macedonian intelligence service, the attack was conducted by more than six hundred NLA insurgents, supported by volunteers from the Kosovo Protection Corps. The Corps came from the town of Krivenik in Kosovo and crossed the Macedonian border into Raduša during the night. According to the same information, the NLA plan of action was to neutralise the security forces in the Raduša sector, then penetrate southwards and capture the Rašče water spring which feeds the Macedonian capital Skopje with drinking water. Cutting water supplies would create a humanitarian crisis in the city.

The Ministry of Interior single-handedly declared an alert condition and sent detachments of the "Tiger" special police unit to dig in and secure the Rašče spring. Other detachments of the "Tiger" were sent to rescue thirty-five policemen surrounded at the Raduša station. Because of the lack of artillery support, and the overwhelming numbers of the NLA encirclement, they dug–in at positions outside Raduša. The Minister of Interior Ljube Boškoski and Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski asked President Trajkovski for an immediate activation of the army to neutralise the invasion from Kosovo. The president, however, encouraged by the NATO and EU envoys, was concentrated on reaching a political solution that respected the conditions of the 5 July Ceasefire Agreement. He asked that the police not respond to provocations to avoid an escalation of the conflict. Meanwhile, the encircled policemen in the Raduša station were left on their own.

In a letter to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan the Macedonian Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski said:

Yesterday's and today's armed aggression from Kosovo by more than 600 members of the Kosovo Protection Corps against the territorial integrity of Macedonia, yesterday's siege of the village of Radusa and its bombardment by weapons stationed on the territory of Kosovo, for me personally, as a Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, are nothing else but an official declaration of war against my country by an international protectorate, Kosovo, i.e. the Kosovo Protection Corps, which – unfortunately – is part of your civilian administration of the United Nations in Kosovo.

On 11 August, the second day of the battle, the NLA began the most serious attack against the security forces in the Skopje region. A column of two hundred Albanian insurgents attacked the Raduša army border post with mortar, automatic rifle and sniper fire. The Raduša army border post, located between the villages of Kučkovo and Raduša, was manned by twenty-five soldiers with mortars, automatic rifles, one tank, and three armoured personnel carriers. At the same time, the NLA conducted another assault attack on the encircled police station at the Raduša village. The army and police returned fire and, during the heavy fighting, the NLA managed to set fire to the petrol barrels within the barracks of the army border post. The insurgents managed to come so close that they started cutting the wire fence. The soldiers repelled all of the attacks on the army border post, and witnesses state that they could observe the insurgents carrying away the bodies of numerous dead and wounded. The policemen also managed to repel all of the attacks made on 11 August. Western media later showed images a Macedonian T-55 tank captured by the Albanian rebels in Raduša.

On the third day of the battles, 12 August, under great pressure to act by the Minister of Interior and the Prime Minister, the army decided to intervene in the battle. The army involved itself by sending military helicopters followed by two efficient flights by Macedonian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25s. The air bombardment, and the consequent approach of the army infantry and armed vehicles, put an end to the advances by the NLA, and brought a turnaround on the battlefield. NLA insurgents withdrew to their trenches and earth bunkers at their initial positions around the village of Raduša, or escaped to Kosovo. After breaking the encirclement, the army extracted the thirty-five policemen, with their equipment, and repositioned them in a more strategic position at the abandoned buildings on the Raduša mine road towards Skopje. One hundred and seventy policemen were added to reinforce this new position. The army also reinforced the already established positions for the defence of the Rašče water springs.

Although during the first two days of the battle there was a serious lack of coordination between the Macedonian military and police, the army was pressed to intervene to prevent the NLA from taking control of the whole territory around Raduša. Thus, the NLA failed to connect territories under its control in the Tetovo and Lipkovo regions, which would have created a single "liberated territory" in the north-west of Macedonia. On the other hand, the outcome of the battle further fuelled members of the Macedonian police force who were in favour of a military solution of the conflict. On 13 August Ljube Boskovski stated:

At this moment it is necessary to initiate the largest offensive so far, due to the danger that terrorists will widen the conflict.

The Macedonian security forces had a dozen men wounded in the battle but sustained no fatalities. Although Macedonian sources state that there were tens, if not hundreds of dead in the battle, Albanian sources do not give a precise number. However, at the location of the battle, there is a memorial stating "To the fallen NLA soldiers of 2001".

Ljuboten police action

On 10 August 2001, eight Macedonian soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion near the capital Skopje. The blast occurred on the road between the villages of Ljubanci and Ljuboten, five kilometres from the outskirts of Skopje, when a convoy of army trucks ran over three landmines. Another six soldiers were wounded in the explosion.

The next morning, the police sent a patrol to search the village of Ljuboten after receiving intelligence that a group of three NLA insurgents had moved into the village, after having planted the mines on the road. When the police entered the village, three grenades from a 120 mm mortar were shot at them from the northern part of the village. Then a detachment of the reservist "Lion" police unit was called in as reinforcements, backed by a police TM-170 armoured personnel carrier. According to police witnesses, when the police entered the village, insurgents opened fire on them with automatic rifles from four houses. The police called an army mortar battery not far away from the village for artillery fire to be directed at the four houses in the village. The army mortar unit fired sixty grenades, both 120 mm and 80 mm, at the four designated targets. According to CNN two helicopter gunships were also called to shell the village, whose hundreds of residents were hiding in basements.

When the shelling stopped, the police entered the village on 12 August. OSCE observers could hear gunfire and explosions coming from inside the village. Three people were killed by the police inside the village, and four were killed while trying to escape by snipers located in positions outside the village. Around one hundred men from the village were arrested by the police and taken to the neighbouring village of Mirkovci, where they were subjected to the paraffin glove test (a test used to determine whether someone has recently shot a firearm.) Twenty-seven men tested positive and were detained and sentenced for terrorism. The rest were released. Evidence later indicated that the detainees were subjected to severe beatings, as a result of which one person had to be hospitalised.

The Ljuboten police action is considered one of the most controversial episodes of the 2001 conflict, and was among the four ICTY cases arising from the conflict.

The police action in Ljuboten coincided with the security forces' counter-offensive in Radusa. It was part of the Premier's and Minister of Interior's efforts to resume the general offensive against the NLA which was stopped after 5 July 2001. However, the general offensive was not conducted because on 13 August, one day after the Ljuboten action, the ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political official representatives in Macedonia signed the Ohrid Framework Agreement, putting an official end to the hostilities. Although the NLA was not included in the negotiations, nor in the signing of the document, the NLA leaders agreed to disarm themselves to NATO troops.

Aftermath

Ohrid Framework agreement

The Ohrid Framework Agreement, which was signed on 13 August 2001, put an official end to the armed conflict. The agreement set the groundwork for increasing the rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. The Agreement also included provisions for altering the official languages of the country, with any language spoken by over 20% of the population becoming co-official with the Macedonian language on the municipal level. Currently only Albanian, spoken by approximately 25% of the population, fulfils this criterion. According to the document, the version in English is the only authentic version of the Ohrid Framework Agreement.

The Agreement was preceded by the Ohrid discussions, a series of talks between Albanian and Macedonian representatives, along with representatives from the United States and European Union. The talks took place in Ohrid in the south-west of Macedonia. The agreement was negotiated by Zoran Jolevski, Secretary General of President Boris Trajkovski. The Macedonian side was represented by the VMRO-DPMNE and the SDSM, while the Albanian side was represented by the DPA and the PDP. Although actively participating in armed conflict, the National Liberation Army did not participate directly in the talks.

Ceasefire and disarmament

Under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government pledged to improve the rights of Albanians in the country. Those rights included making Albanian the second official language, and increasing the participation of ethnic Albanians in government institutions, the police, and the army. The Macedonian government agreed to a new model of decentralization. The Albanian side agreed to give up any separatist demands and to fully recognize all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this agreement, the NLA was to disarm and hand over its weapons to NATO.

Operation "Essential Harvest" was officially launched on 22 August and effectively started on 27 August. This 30-day mission involved approximately 3,500 NATO and Macedonian troops, whose objective was to disarm the NLA and to destroy their weapons. Before the ratification of the Ohrid Agreement, three Macedonian police officers were killed in an ambush by ethnic Albanian gunmen on 12 November 2001.

Casualties and displacement

Casualty figures remain uncertain. By 19 March 2001, the BBC reported that Macedonian security forces had claimed five of their soldiers were killed, while the NLA claimed that it had killed eleven. No definitive Albanian casualty figures were cited at the time. On 25 December 2001, the Alternative Information Network cited figures of sixty-three deaths claimed by Macedonian security forces for their side and sixty-four deaths claimed by the NLA for their insurgents. About sixty ethnic Albanian civilians are thought to have been killed while possibly ten ethnic Macedonians died during the conflict. Macedonian authorities did not release figures for the latter at the time. As of December 2005, the fate of twenty missing civilians, thirteen ethnic Macedonians, six ethnic Albanians and one Bulgarian citizen remains unknown. By August 2001, the number of people displaced by the war reached 170,000, mostly Macedonians. Of these 170,000, 74,000 were displaced internally. As of January 2004, 2,600 people remained displaced. Two European Union monitors were killed by the explosion of a mine during the conflict. One British soldier was also killed in the course of Operation Harvest when the armoured Land Rover he was driving was pelted with concrete lumps by a hostile crowd.

During Operation Essential Harvest the NLA was in possession of two tanks and 2 APCs which they claim were captured from the Macedonian army. According to Macedonian General Pande Petrovski one T-55 tank was destroyed by friendly fire in the village of Matejce and another got stuck in a small river was abandoned and disabled by the crew to prevent it being used which the NLA later found and presented as a war trophy.

NLA Freedom Museum

As a result of the conflict, some Albanians of the Čair Municipality in Skopje established a 'Museum of Freedom' in 2008, presenting what they consider the battles of the Albanians in the region from the period of the Prizren League in 1878 until the 2001 insurgency. It is also known as the NLA Museum and commemorates those who died during the conflict. Items include paramilitary clothing and insurgent flags used in 2001. Many Albanians see it as a non-military continuation of the uprising. Former NLA leader turned politician, Ali Ahmeti stated at the opening ceremony: "My heart tells me that history is being born right here, in Skopje, the ancient city in the heart of Dardania. Our patriots have fought for it for centuries, but it is us today who have the destiny to celebrate the opening of the museum. Fighters from Kosovo are here to congratulate us ..."

Alleged war crimes

In July 2001, the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Mircea Geoana condemned the ethnic cleansing undertaken by Albanian insurgents.

Alleged war crimes included incidents such as a three-day operation by Macedonian police against the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, from 10 to 12 August 2001, which left ten civilians dead and resulted in the arrest of more than one hundred ethnic-Albanian men, many of whom were severely beaten and tortured while in police custody. According to the Macedonian government, there was an insurgent presence in the village; however, a Human Rights Watch investigation on the ground in Ljuboten found no direct evidence of this. These events led to the trial of the then-Macedonian Minister of Internal Affairs, Ljube Boškoski, in the International War Crime Tribunal in The Hague. He was acquitted in 2008, but his co-defendant Johan Tarčulovski was found guilty; both verdicts were upheld in 2010.

The NLA was involved in kidnappings and abuse of mostly Macedonian and Serbian civilians with one of these taking place in Mavrovo in August 2001 when the NLA kidnapped 5 Macedonian roadworkers, another time this happened was in Matejce when the NLA kidnapped and abused 8 ethnic Serbs, the NLA has been accused of many other war crimes in the conflict.

The bombing of the 13th-century Orthodox monastery Sveti Atanasij in the village of Lesok is considered a war crime by some. However, no one has ever claimed responsibility for the attack. Albanian guerrilla officials have dismissed all responsibility and placed the blame on Macedonian special forces, saying it was another poor attempt to link the NLA to terrorism. However, upon closer inspection, it was discovered that near the rubble that had once been one of the most revered religious sites for the Macedonian Orthodox Church, there lay a dead donkey, its bloated body daubed with red paint spelling out the letters UÇK, the Albanian abbreviation for the rebel National Liberation Army. Three uniformed NLA guerrillas in an observation post overlooking the monastery said they had logged the explosion at 3.10 am. They said they had not seen those responsible, but believed that they were Macedonians from the nearby Macedonian village of Ratae. This incident is disputed to this day and the monastery is now undergoing reconstruction. On the other hand, the Macedonian forces themselves destroyed a mosque in the village of Neprošteno. The mosque was rebuilt in 2003 with funding from the EU.

The monastery at Matejče, near Kumanovo, was also damaged in the fighting and the church of St. Virgin Hodegetria was vandalized by the Albanian insurgents.

The Macedonian government also claimed the Vejce ambush, in which Albanian insurgents ambushed and killed eight Macedonian soldiers, to be a war crime. According to these claims, soldiers captured by the insurgents were, executed, mutilated, and burned. The claims were not verified by international observers, and to this day, the bodies have not been released to the public or to civilian investigators and autopsies were carried out in a military morgue. However, news of the deaths sparked local riots against ethnic-Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia, and such revolts included burning and vandalizing shops and mosques.

Foreign involvement

According to Anthony Tucker-Jones and Aristotle Tziampiris, about 150 Mujahideen fighters participated within the NLA, and played only a minor role. Rumors concerning Serbia's purported involvement in the crisis in Macedonia and the alleged presence of foreign Mujahideen fighters in the country spread widely.

During the conflict, various rumors arose of Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Mujahideen presence among the NLA, primarily from Macedonian media and the Macedonian government. Following the September 11 attacks against the United States, the Macedonian government repeatedly used anti-terrorist rhetoric and invented threats to score political points. After police shot and killed seven foreign men on the outskirts of Skopje in March, the government described the events as an attempted "terrorist attack" on Western embassies. The Ministry of the Interior attempted to link the killed foreigners with the NLA and Al-Qaeda, and described them as "mujahideen". Official versions of the incident were changed, and the ministry did not accept a request for international forensic analysis of the bodies. The Wall Street Journal eventually described the victims as Pakistani and Indian migrants going to Greece for employment reasons. The government continued, however, to label them "terrorists". According to Wim van Meurs, the allegations about a Mujahideen involvement were an attempt by Macedonian hardliners to lower Western resolve to implement the Ohrid Agreement and consolidate Macedonia as a multiethnic state. Per Aristotle Tziampiris, the NLA was similar to the Kosovo Liberation Army, having a nationalist irredentist ideology far removed from Islamic theology or agendas. However, Tziampiris added, around 150 Mujahedeen did fight in its ranks but played a minor role.

The conflict gave Russia an entry point in the region. Russia backed the most militant elements in the Macedonian government, and its claims that the Albanian side of the conflict was made up of Islamic fundamentalists and drug traffickers were supported by pro-Russia Macedonian politicians. Such claims were denied by Albanian politicians and guerrilla fighters, who were staunchly pro-American. Russia, as part of a disinformation campaign, blamed NATO for the conflict. This was mimicked by pro-Russia Macedonian politicians, including the Macedonian National Assembly speaker Stojan Andov who said that the West was using the Albanian rebels to weaken Russia's presence in the region. Although there were persistent reports about possible clandestine arms transfers from Russia during and after the insurgency, Russia reportedly was hesitant to provide specialized military equipment to Macedonia to not alienate the US and EU. On the other hand, Ukraine, which had close ties with Russia, provided Macedonia with arms and training.

Bibliography

Macedonian authors

• Testimonies 2001 by General Pande Petrovski, Сведоштва 2001 од Генерал Панде Петровски (2006)
• Unfinished Peace by Jadranka Kostova, Незавршен мир од Јадранка Костова (2003)
• 2001: War with two faces by Mančo Mitevski, 2001: Војна со две лица од Манчо Митевски (2008)
• In focus of civil war in Macedonia by Jordan Jordanov, Во фокусот на граѓанската војна во Македонија од Јордан Јорданов (2003)
• Road of truth by Svetlana Antikj Jovčevska, Патот на вистината од Светлана Антиќ Јовчевска (2004)

Macedonian authors of Albanian descent

• Testimonies of the general by Gëzim Ostreni, Сведоштва на Генералот од Гзим Острени

Foreign authors

• Fires over Tetovo by Rišard Bilski, Пожари над Тетово од Ришард Билски (2003)
• NLA-message and hope by Petrit Menaj, ОНА порака и надеж од Петрит Менај (2008)

See also

• 2012 Republic of Macedonia inter-ethnic violence
• Albanian nationalism in North Macedonia
• Operation Mountain Storm

References

1. "Macedonia – defense: Buckovski: "Let tragedy be the beginning of the end of the war"". Relief.web. 10 August 2001. Retrieved 26 June 2022. "ANA" CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR KILLING OF TEN MACEDONIAN SOLDIERS Skopje, August 10 – A new armed group of ethnic Albanians on Thursday claimed responsibility for the killing of ten Macedonian army reservists in a highway ambush a day earlier. The "Albanian National Army" (AKSH) e-mailed a statement to several media in the region, on Albanian-language, saying a combined unit of its fighters and of the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA) carried the attack out "in revenge" for the killing of five NLA members by Macedonian security forces. .}}
2. ^ "Komandantët e UÇK-së, disa të vrarë, disa në arrati, shumica në poste". Lajm Maqedoni. 13 August 2010
3. ^ "Убиен Фадил Лимани, командант на терористите за Куманово" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Вест. 28 May 2001
4. "Зошто Македонија се чувствува поразена од војната во 2001?!". МКД.мк (in Macedonian). Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
5. Pettifer, James (2004). "The 2001 Conflict in FYROM-Reflections" (PDF). Defence Academy of the United Kingdom: 20.
6. "Svedostva 2001 | PDF". Scribd. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
7. Petrovski, Pande. "Testimonials-2001.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2022. They sent the one tank along the way from the south to the north of the village and to the mosque. About 30 to 40 meters behind the tank they filled bags with sand and made shelters, in other words they built a check point. Then, because supposedly there were terrorists in the mosque, they started to act. in this action a police officer hit the tank with a weapon "zolia" – certainly not intentionally. The driver of the tank was wounded and the tank was set ablaze in front of the mosque
8. Gordon and Dawes 2004, p. 99.
9. Jeffries, Ian (16 May 2002). The Former Yugoslavia at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: A Guide to the Economies in Transition. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-46050-2. 'Two Mi-24 helicopters flown by Ukrainian pilots ... blasted the hillside with rockets' The helicopters a gift from Ukraine'
10. Petersen, Roger D. (30 September 2011). Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-50330-3.
11. "Історія однієї дружби. Як Україна боролася за єдність Північної Македонії". BBC News Україна (in Ukrainian). 7 February 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
12. Михаил Жирохов, Александр Заблотский. Воздушная война в Югославии. Часть 3 // Уголок неба : авиационная энциклопедия. — 2004.
13. ^ Bugajski, Janucz (2004). Cold Peace: Russia's New Imperialism. Praeger. pp. 198–199.
14. "2001/12/30 00:57 What Do the Casualties of War Amount to?". 26 April 2023. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
15. "Dëshmorët e Ushtrisë Çlirimtare Kombëtare". tanusha2001. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
16. "Ja kush janë dëshmorët e Luftës së Maqedonisë në vitin 2001, nga Maqedonia, Kosova e Shqipëria (Emrat) • LIDERI". 18 March 2021.
17. ^ "20 Years On Armed Conflicts Endures In North Macedonia". balkaninsight.com. 1 January 2021.
18. Fatlum Akifi. "Поранешните војници на ОНА револтирани за својата состојба". ALSATM (in Macedonian). Archived from the original on 6 June 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2022. За време на конфликтот освен уништувањето на приватниот имот за време на војната загинаа околy 105 припадници на ОНА / In addition to the destruction of private property during the war, about 105 NLA members were killed during the conflict
19. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
20. "What Do the Casualties of War Amount to?". AIMS Press. 30 December 2001.
21. Phillips, John (25 June 2004). Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85771-451-0. This was strange, as the tank was later one of three the NLA captured that would be handed over during the disarmament.
22. ^ "British soldier killed in Macedonia". 27 August 2001.
23. "CNN.com – Battle for Tetovo rages – August 9, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
24. ^ Phillips, John (2004). Macedonia: Warlords And Rebels in the Balkans. Yale University Press. p. 161. ISBN 0-300-10268-2.
25. Uppsala Conflict Data Program, Macedonia, FYR: government (entire conflict), viewed 3 May 2013 Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
26. "CNN.com – UK soldier killed in Macedonia – August 27, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
27. "EU monitors killed in Macedonia". The Guardian. 20 July 2001. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
28. "Macedonia's 'Liberation' Army". Zurich: World Press Review. 20 June 2001. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
29. "Who are the rebels?". BBC News. 20 March 2001.
30. "Success in the Balkans? A Case Study of Ethnic Relations in the Republic of Macedonia" by Robert W. Mickey and A. S. Albion. Minorities: The New Europe's Old Issue. Institute for East West Studies. New York (1993) p. 58
31. ^ "The Macedonian Question: Reform or Rebellion" Archived 3 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. International Crisis Group (ICG). 2001
32. "Macedonia: The penalty for publicly raising a foreign flag, and the treatment of first-time offenders (January 1998 – July 1999)". Refworld. Retrieved 27 June 2022. Then, on July 8, around 11 p.m, parliament approved a new Law on the Use of Foreign Flags, which allowed state flags other than the Macedonian to be flown at any time on private property and in front of town halls on state holidays.
33. "Macedonia: The penalty for publicly raising a foreign flag, and the treatment of first-time offenders (January 1998 – July 1999)". Refworld. Retrieved 27 June 2022. On January 27, 1997, the city councils in Tetovo and Gostivar, two predominately ethnic Albanian towns in western Macedonia, voted to raise the Albanian and Turkish state flags next to the Macedonian state flag outside of the cities' town halls. The Macedonian Ministry of Interior informed the Tetovo and Gostivar governments that their decision was illegal, but the city councils refused to take the flags down.
34. "Timeline: Macedonia". BBC News. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2012. 1996 – Sporadic ethnic Albanian protests over curbs on Tetovo's Albanian-language university. 1997 – Constitutional court forbids use of Albanian flag, sparking protests. Parliament adopts law on restricted use of the Albanian flag.
35. Stojanovic, Dusan. "Macedonia's Peaceful But Troubled Road To Independence". Associated Press. Retrieved 10 July 2022. In January, the Serb-dominated federal army unexpectedly began to withdraw from the republic of 2.1 million people, taking along everything it could carry and destroying the rest.
36. "Army of the Republic of North Macedonia Equipment". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
37. Lyubmirov, Vlad. "Bulgaria grants military aid to Macedonia". UPI. Retrieved 10 July 2022. In 1999 Bulgaria presented Macedonia, free of charge, with 94 Russian-made T-55 tanks and 108 heavy mortars
38. Kuzio, Taras (31 October 2001). "Ukraine Forges Military Alliance with Macedonia". Jamestown. The Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
39. "Ukraine to continue military cooperation with Macedonia despite possible halt in weapons sales". Kyiv Post. 27 July 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2022. «It doesn't mean that Ukraine halts military and technical cooperation with Macedonia, which started in 1999 according to bilateral agreement on military cooperation with the country's legal government,» Serhiy Borodenkov, a spokesman for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry
40. R. Gordon, Michael (6 July 2001). "A Hobbled Army Casts A Cloud in Macedonia". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2022. The arms purchases from Ukraine have drawn protests from Western governments
41. "Ukraine to continue military cooperation with Macedonia despite possible halt in weapons sales". Kyiv Post. 27 July 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2022. U.S National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in Kyiv Wednesday that Ukrainian officials promised to halt weapons sales
42. Wesolowsky, Tony (9 April 2008). "Ukraine: Rice Delivers Stern Message During Kyiv Stopover". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 9 July 2022. Rice also said Ukrainian officials reassured her that Kyiv will halt arms supplies to Macedonia
43. "KYIV SAYS IT WILL HALT ARMS SALES TO MACEDONIA". RFE RL. Retrieved 9 July 2022. Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh said in the Crimean resort of Foros on 31 July that his country will stop selling arms to Macedonia, dpa reported, citing Ukrainian news agencies. Kinakh made the statement after meeting with Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy and security chief.
44. ^ ""The Kosovo Conflict and Macedonia" by Prof. Dr. Vladimir Ortakovski. Rethinking Identities: State, Nation, Culture. Harriman Institute, Columbia University. New York. 1999" (PDF). Retrieved 17 July 2023.
45. "Between Preventive Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution: The Macedonian Perspective on the Kosovo Crisis" by Prof. Biljana Cvetkovska. International Studies Association 40th Annual Convention. Washington, D.C. 1999
46. Georgieff, Anthony (9 April 2008). "Macedonia: Local Albanian Leader Complains of Discrimination". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
47. "UNHCR Web Archive". webarchive.archive.unhcr.org. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
48. ^ "Macedonia: Country Background and Recent Conflict" Archived 25 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine by Julie Kim. United States Congressional Research Service (CRS). Washington, D.C. 2002
49. ^ "MACEDONIA: TOWARDS DESTABILISATION? The Kosovo crisis takes its toll on Macedonia". International Crisis Group (ICG). 2001
50. "Refworld | U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2001 – Macedonia". Retrieved 17 July 2023.
51. ^ "NATO Air Strategy Under Fire: Macedonians Fear Divisive Spillover". by Hugh Dellios. Chicago Tribune. 29 March 1999
52. "Interethnic Relations and Minorities in the Republic of Macedonia" Archived 29 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Southeast European Politics – Vol 2, N.1. May 2001
53. ^ Daskalovski, Zidas (2004). The Macedonian Conflict Of 2001: Between Successful Diplomacy, Rhetoric And Terror (PDF). Centre for Post-Communist Studies, St. Francis Xavier University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
54. Carlotta Gall (8 March 2001). "NATO Troops Help Macedonians Drive Away Ethnic Albanian Rebels". New York Times.
55. "Surveillance – An eye on the Balkans". Flightglobal.com. 7 August 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
56. "Macedonia warns rebels to quit or else government turns back on call for talks". Juliette Terzieff. San Francisco Chronicle. 21 March 2001
57. "Death on the street". The Guardian. 23 March 2001. Retrieved 9 July 2022. Photographs and television footage show that the officer, realising the Albanian was carrying a grenade, panicked and ran. The Albanian dropped to his knees and threw the grenade in the direction of the running policeman. It landed at his feet but failed to explode. At the moment the grenade was thrown, a cordon of Macedonian troops, positioned behind sandbags, unleashed a volley of gunfire at the Albanian. At first he slumped against the car, then fell on the kerb, dead. His fellow Albanian was also shot a few yards away.
58. "Death on the street: Albanians shot in Tetovo". The Guardian. 23 March 2001
59. "In pictures: Death in Tetovo". BBC News. 23 March 2001
60. Video footage of the incident on YouTube
61. Erlanger, Steven (24 March 2001). "Albanians in Macedonia Mourn 2 Killed by Police". The New York Times.
62. ^ "Macedonia Gets Ready for War With Albanians: Fighting with guerrillas expands" by R. Jeffrey Smith. San Francisco Chronicle. 19 March 2001
63. "Albanian Rebels Carry Fight to Major Macedonian City" by Juliette Terzieff. San Francisco Chronicle. 15 March 2001
64. "The Tetovo advance" by Paul Anderson. BBC News. 25 March 2001
65. "In pictures: Macedonian ground offensive". BBC News. 25 March 2001
66. "Macedonia Calls Push a Success: Ethnic Albanian rebels leave hills – West seeks progress in talks" by Steven Erlanger. San Francisco Chronicle. 27 March 2001
67. "Macedonian army in fresh offensive". BBC News. 28 March 2001. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
68. "Chronology for Albanians in Macedonia". Minorities at Risk Project, UNHCR. 2004
69. "Macedonia begins 'final offensive'". CNN world. 20 March 2001
70. ^ "UÇK. Message and hope. Part II" Archived 27 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine by Petrit Menaj. Open Society Institute, Macedonia. Skopje. 2008
71. "Искршена спомен-плочата на бранителите кај тетовско Вејце" Archived 18 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Утрински Весник. 3 May 2010
72. ^ "Масакрот крај Вејце ја згрози јавноста". Утрински весник. 16 October 2006
73. ^ "Macedonia moves against rebels". CNN World. 3 may 2001
74. "Macedonian rioters wreck shops". CNN World. 2 may 2001
75. "Macedonia riots alarm EU". CNN World. 2 May 2001
76. "САД ја повикува Македонија да не прогласува воена состојба" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 8 June 2001
77. "Soldiers killed in Macedonia". CNN World. 3 May 2001
78. ^ "Macedonia attacks rebel forces". CNN World. 3 May 2001
79. "Macedonia moves against rebels". CNN World. 3 May 2001
80. "КУМАНОВСКИ ФРОНТ – Лабава офанзива или затишје пред бура?" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 7 May 2001
81. "Терористите се повлекуваат кон планината" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 8 May 2001
82. "АРМ конечно удри врз терористите" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 25 May 2001
83. "Ваксинце се освојува куќа по куќа, жесток отпор од терористите" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 26 May 2001
84. ^ "Macedonian forces take villages". CNN World. 26 May 2001
85. "СЕЛАНИТЕ МАСОВНО ГИ НАПУШТААТ СЕЛАТА" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 30 May 2001
86. Македонските сили влегоа и во Матејче" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 29 May 2001
87. "Macedonia blasts rebel village". BBC News. 28 May 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
88. "Fresh fighting hits Macedonia". BBC News. 2 June 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
89. ""Monthly report". HELSINKI Committee for Human Rights, Republic of Macedonia. June 2001". Archived from the original on 31 October 2011. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
90. "PovertyVision.org". Retrieved 5 December 2014.
91. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
92. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
93. ""Прогласен привремен прекин на огнот" ВЕСТ. 12 June 2001". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
94. ^ "Macedonia army calls ceasefire". CNN World. 11 June 2001
95. ^ "Macedonia truce holds despite attack". BBC News. 12 June 2001
96. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
97. ""Арачиново во сценарио за воена состојба". BECT. 12 June 2001". Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
98. "Macedonian army 'kills 30 rebels'". BBC News. 12 May 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
99. "Rebels killed in Macedonia" Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. CNN World. 13 May 2001
100. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
101. "CNN.com – Macedonia army calls ceasefire – June 11, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
102. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
103. ^ Chulev, Basil (1 January 2015). "Testimonials – 2001 War in Macedonia". СВЕДОШТВА 2001 – Pande Petrovski.
104. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
105. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
106. "2001 Војна со две лица". Манчо Митевски. Култура. 2008
107. ^ "Сведоштва 2001". Панде Петровски. Киро Дандаро. 2006
108. ^ "Безусловен прекин на огнот" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 6 July 2001
109. "Dnevnik". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
110. "Rebels breach Macedonia truce". CNN World. 12 June 2001
111. Gallagher, Tom (17 July 2005). The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-34940-6. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via Google Books.
112. ^ ""ОНА не го почитуваше прекинот на огнот". ВЕСТ. 7 July 2001". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
113. ^ "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
114. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
115. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
116. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
117. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
118. ^ "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
119. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". star.vest.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
120. "Macedonia ceasefire broken". CNN World. 22 July 2001
121. "Macedonia truce in jeopardy" Archived 18 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. CNN World. 23 July 2001
122. "Fighting rages in Macedonia". CNN World. 23 July 2001
123. "Macedonia issues rebel ultimatum" Archived 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. CNN World. 23 July 2001
124. "Dnevnik". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
125. "Tetovo calm after fighting". BBC News. 25 July 2001
126. "Тетово нема да падне" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 10 August 2001
127. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
128. "Протерани повеќе од 30.000 Македонци" Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Дневник. 26 July 2001
129. "Гнев, разочaраност и тага" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 26 July 2001
130. . Дневник. 25 July 2001 "Терористите вршат етничко чистење на Македонците" Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
131. . Дневник. 26 July 2001 "Пратениците од ВМРО-ДПМНЕ бараат да се прогласи воена состојба" Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
132. ^ "Во Чаир застрелани петмина припадници на ОНА" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ВЕСТ. 8 August 2001
133. "Одбележана 11 – годишнината од ѕверското убиство на Карпалак". Дневник. 8 August 2012
134. "Петте киднапирани работници ѕверски претепани, па пуштени" Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Дневник. 9 August 2001
135. ^ "Dnevnik". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
136. ^ "Исповед – Радуша 2001". Звонко Младеновски. Скопје. 2003
137. ^ "ВО БОРБИ КАЈ РАДУША. Разбиена терористичка група на Жеден" Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Дневник. 22 June 2001
138. "Терористите нападнаа со зољи и минофрлачи а се најдовме и во вкрстен оган од автомати" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Весник ВЕСТ. 5 December 2001
139. "Цела деценија ме измачува Радуша" Archived 27 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Нова Македонија. 24 June 2011
140. "Бранителите формираа унија". Дневник. 30 July 2007
141. ^ "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
142. "Нападнати пунктови на полицијата и на АРМ кај Радуша и Чашка" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Весник ВЕСТ. 11 August 2001
143. ^ "Погребите ја погребаа командната одговорност" Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Жаклина Митевска. Македонско Сонце. 28 January 2005
144. ^ "Radusha Battle" by Sasho Ordanoski. Forum Magazine. 2 December 2004
145. "Dnevnik". star.dnevnik.com.mk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
146. "A soldier of the Albanian National Liberation Army stands atop a T-55..." Getty Images (in Spanish). 11 November 2002. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
147. "German soldiers in Macedonia – Editorial Stock Photo – Stock Image | Shutterstock". Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
148. ^ "Soldiers killed in Macedonia blast". CNN World. 10 August 2001
149. "Macedonian troops killed by landmine". Centre for Peace in the Balkans. 10 August 2001
150. ^ "Testimony of Henry Bolton (OSCE monitor in 2001) as a witness of the prosecutor". ICTY tribunal – Tarculovski and Boshkoski trial Archived 27 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine 8 June 2007
151. ^ "Testimony of Nikolce Grozdanovski as a witness of the defence". Tarculovski and Boshkoski trial Archived 27 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine ICTY tribunal – 6 March 2007
152. Brunnbauer, Ulf (2002). "The implementation of the Ohrid Agreement: Ethnic Macedonian resentments" (PDF). Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (1/2002). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
153. The Ohrid Framework Agreement Negotiations by Vasko Popetrevski and Veton Latifi Archived 18 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine (as a PDF)
154. "Macedonia police killed in ambush", BBC, 12 November 2001
155. "Casualties in the Macedonian conflict", BBC, 19 March 2001
156. "AIM overview" Archived 22 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, and "AIM listings on the Council of Europe programmes, 2000–2001" Archived 27 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine, Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
157. "What Do the Casualties of War Amount to?", Alternative Information Network, 25 December 2001
158. "Macedonia: Covering events from January – December 2005" Archived 8 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Amnesty International, 2006
159. "Profile of internal displacement: Macedonia", United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 26 February 2004
160. Bogovinje, Nicholas Wood in (21 July 2001). "EU monitors killed in Macedonia". the Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
161. "British Soldier Killed in Macedonia". ABC News. 27 August 2001. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
162. Petrovski, Pande. "Testimonials-2001.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2022. They sent the one tank along the way from the south to the north of the village and to the mosque. About 30 to 40 metres behind the tank they filled bags with sand and made shelters, in other words they built a check point. Then, because supposedly there were terrorists in the mosque, they started to act. In this action, a police officer hit the tank with a weapon "zolia" – certainly not intentionally. The driver of the tank was wounded and the tank was set ablaze in front of the mosque
163. Petrovski, Pande. "СВЕДОШТВА 2001" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2022. При нападот, ноќта еден тенк се заглави во Кривеничка Река, онеспособен и оставен во реката. Покасно терористите го извлекоа и пласираа како заробиле тенк од АРМ
164. Karajkov, Risto (28 January 2009). "The Museum of Freedom". New Europeans Magazine. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
165. "FYR Macedonia: OSCE "stands ready to assist in implementation of a peace agreement", says Chairman-in-Office in Skopje - the Republic of North Macedonia | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 27 July 2001. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
166. "OSCE "stands ready to assist in implementation of a peace agreement", says Chairman-in-Office in Skopje". www.osce.org. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
167. "OSCE Newsletter" (PDF). OSCE. 2001. p. 17.
168. ^ "Macedonia – Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10–12, 2001". Retrieved 5 December 2014.
169. "ICTY – TPIY : Judgement List". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
170. "Mavrovo Workers' Trial Postponed in Macedonia". 7 September 2010.
171. "Macedonia: Albanian Rebel Abuses of Serb Civilians". 6 June 2001.
172. "Macedonia blast hits monastery". The Guardian. London. 21 August 2001. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
173. Smith, Michael (22 August 2001). "Monastery blast fails to derail Nato peace effort". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
174. "Macedonia blast hits monastery". BBC News. 21 August 2001. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
175. "NATO Secretary-General and responded to Patriarch Pavle : The village was demolished, and the Church intact in Matejevac". Arhiva.glas-javnosti.rs. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
176. Yahoo! Groups
177. "Eight years since the Vejce massacre". Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
178. Thomas, Nigel (2006). The Yugoslav Wars (2): Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia 1992–2001. Bloomsbury. 20 February 2013. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-4728-0244-6. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
179. Anthony Tucker-Jones (19 August 2010). The Rise of Militant Islam. Pen & Sword Books. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-84468-548-6.
180. Shray, Shaul (2006). Islamic Terror and the Balkans. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
181. ^ Tziampiris, Aristotle (June 2009). "Assessing Islamic terrorism in the Western Balkans: the state of the debate" (PDF). Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. Taylor & Francis: 218. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2021.
182. ^ Neofotistos, Vasiliki P. (14 March 2012). The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0656-2.
183. Fraser, John M. (2002). International Journal. Canadian Institute of International Affairs. p. 362.
184. ^ van Meurs, Wim (2013). Prospects and Risks Beyond EU Enlargement: Southeastern Europe: Weak States and Strong International Support. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. p. 35.
185. ^ "Human Rights Watch World Report 2003: Europe & Central Asia: Macedonia". archive.hrw.org. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
186. "VEST – Macedonian daily newspaper". Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
187. "Второ издание на "2001 – војна со две лица" од Манчо Митевски". Утрински весник. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
188. "Утрински Весник". Archived from the original on 8 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
189. "Dnevnik". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
190. "Генералот на ОНА Гзим Острени промовира книга за 2001–та". Дневник. Archived from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
191. "Пожари над Тетово". Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
192. "Албанска иредентистичка книга против Македонците, финансирана од Владимир Милчин и неговиот Соросов институт". Sitel (in Macedonian). 16 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2024.

Sources

• Icevska, Gordana; Ajdini, Ilir (January 2004). "Same World, Parallel Universes The Role of the Media in the Macedonian Conflict". Conflict Studies Research Centre.

External links

• Casualties and displacement
• Macedonian offensive in March and May 2001 on YouTube. Video footage of the fighting activities.
• "Macedonia: Step back from the abyss", BBC, 29 December 2001
• "Macedonia: Understanding History, Preventing Future Conflict", United States Institute of Peace, Special Report No. 115, February 2004
• "Macedonia's Civil War: 'Made in the USA'", Antiwar.com, 20 August 2001
• Chronology of the war
• Video of an ethnic standoff in Tetovo on YouTube CTV
• Battles −9/2001
• Battles – 3/2001
• Walker, Tom (10 June 2001). "Macedonia on Brink of War". Sunday Times.
• Macedonia On War Footing Over Kosovo Border Provocations
• November Battles, Start of War, January 2, 2001
• 2002 attacks
• Boskovki interview
• War in the Balkans, again?

v t e Yugoslav Wars
Wars and conflicts	Log Revolution (1990) Slovenian War of Independence (1991) Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) Bosnian War (1992–1995) Croat–Bosniak War (1992–1994) Kosovo War (1998–99) Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001) 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)
Background	SFR Yugoslavia Breakup of Yugoslavia
Anti-war protests	Belgrade Sarajevo YUTEL for Peace
Successor states	Republic of Croatia Republic of Slovenia Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Republic of Macedonia Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY/SRJ)
Unrecognized entities	Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (HRHB) Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (APZB) Republic of Kosova Serb Autonomous Regions Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia SAO Krajina SAO Western Slavonia Republika Srpska (RS) SAO Bosanska Krajina SAO Herzegovina SAO North-Eastern Bosnia SAO Romanija Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia Dubrovnik Republic
United Nations protectorate	UNTAES UNMIK
Armies	Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Yugoslav Territorial Defence (TO) Slovenian Territorial Defence (TORS) Yugoslav Army (VJ) Croatian Army (HV) BiH Territorial Defence (TORBIH) Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina (SVK) Croatian Defence Council (HVO) Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK in R. Serbia) National Liberation Army (UÇK in R. Macedonia) Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB)
Military formations and volunteers	Croatian National Guard (ZNG) Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) White Eagles Serb Guard (SG) Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG) Scorpions Yellow Wasps Garda Panteri Dušan the Mighty Kninjas Serb Falcons [sr] Tobutski sokolovi Jackals Greek Volunteer Guard Wolves of Vučjak AKSH Green Berets (GB) Patriotic League (PL) Black Swans Bosnian mujahideen People's Defence of Western Bosnia (NOZB)
External factors	NATO IFOR SFOR KFOR EU (EUMM) United Nations (UN) UNPROFOR UNCRO
Politicians	Fikret Abdić Milan Babić Mate Boban Momir Bulatović Milo Đukanović Nijaz Duraković Vuk Drašković Goran Hadžić Alija Izetbegović Janez Janša Borisav Jović Mirko Jović Radovan Karadžić Vojislav Koštunica Momčilo Krajišnik Milan Kučan Ante Marković Milan Martić Stjepan Mesić Slobodan Milošević Ante Paradžik  X Dobroslav Paraga Lojze Peterle Biljana Plavšić Jadranko Prlić Jovan Rašković  † Ibrahim Rugova Vojislav Šešelj Haris Silajdžić Franjo Tuđman Krešimir Zubak
Top military commanders	Rahim Ademi Janko Bobetko Agim Çeku Wesley Clark Rasim Delić Sefer Halilović Veljko Kadijević Ratko Mladić Mile Novaković Dragoljub Ojdanić Života Panić Nebojša Pavković Momčilo Perišić Milivoj Petković Ridvan Qazimi  † Martin Špegelj Gojko Šušak
Other notable commanders	Mehmed Alagić Tihomir Blaškić Đorđe Božović  † Valentin Ćorić Jovan Divjak Atif Dudaković Ante Gotovina Zaim Imamović Adem Jashari  † Blaž Kraljević  X Vladimir Lazarević Veljko Milanković  (DOW) Mile Mrkšić Naser Orić Arif Pašalić Slobodan Praljak Ivica Rajić Željko Ražnatović Ljubiša Savić Stjepan Šiber Veselin Šljivančanin Vukašin Šoškoćanin  † Milan Tepić  † Milorad Ulemek Dragan Vasiljković Blago Zadro  †
Key foreign figures	Robert Badinter Lord Carrington Jimmy Carter Willy Claes Pieter Feith Richard Holbrooke Lord Owen Cyrus Vance Jacques Paul Klein Peter Galbraith Javier Solana Manfred Wörner
v t e Croatian War of Independence Part of the Yugoslav Wars Prelude Log Revolution SAO Krajina 1991 Pakrac clash Plitvice Lakes incident Siege of Kijevo Battle of Borovo Selo 1991 riot in Zadar 1991 protest in Split SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia Killings of Serbs in Vukovar Sisak killings Tenja killings Operation Stinger Dalj massacre Operation Labrador SAO Western Slavonia Banija villages killings Battle of Vukovar Battle of Osijek Battle of Gospić Petrinja killings Berak killings Battle of Kusonje Četekovac massacre Battle of the Barracks Siege of Varaždin Barracks Siege of Bjelovar Barracks Battle of Zadar Battle of Šibenik 1991 Yugoslav campaign in Croatia Korana bridge killings Tovarnik massacre Siege of Dubrovnik Novo Selo Glinsko massacre Bombing of Banski dvori Široka Kula massacre Lovas killings Gospić massacre Baćin massacre Saborsko massacre Požega villages massacre Operation Otkos 10 Battle of Logorište Poljanak and Vukovići massacres Erdut killings Pula incident Battle of the Dalmatian channels Kostrići massacre Škabrnja massacre Vukovar massacre Novska murders Vance plan Murder of the Zec family Operation Whirlwind Paulin Dvor massacre Gornje Jame massacre Operation Orkan 91 Voćin massacre Joševica massacre Operation Devil's Beam Bruška massacre Vrsar airport bombing 1992 Sarajevo Agreement 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing Operation Baranja Operation Jackal Battle of the Miljevci Plateau Operation Tiger (1992) Operation Liberated Land Battle of Konavle Operation Vlaštica 1993–94 Operation Maslenica Daruvar Agreement Operation Backstop Operation Medak Pocket Z-4 Plan Operation Winter '94 1995 Operation Leap 1 Operation Flash Medari massacre Zagreb rocket attack Operation Leap 2 Operation Summer '95 Operation Storm Kijani killings Golubić killings Uzdolje killings Bosanski Petrovac refugee column bombing Dvor massacre Komić killings Gošić killings Varivode massacre Operation Maestral 2 Timeline of the Croatian War of Independence Internment camps Begejci camp Bučje camp Kerestinec camp Knin camp Kuline prison camp Lora prison camp Marino Selo camp Ovčara camp Pakračka Poljana camp Sremska Mitrovica prison camp Stajićevo camp Velepromet camp Other Independence of Croatia Persecution of Croats in Serbia during the war in Croatia Erdut Agreement (UNTAES) Category Commons
v t e Bosnian War Part of the Yugoslav Wars Belligerents Bosniak side Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1st Corps 2nd Corps 3rd Corps 4th Corps 5th Corps 6th Corps 7th Corps Paramilitary Patriotic League Green Berets Croatian Defence Forces Bosnian mujahideen Croat side Croatian Defence Council 1OZ 2OZ 3OZ 4OZ Paramilitary Croatian Defence Forces Knights Serb side Army of Republika Srpska 1st Krajina Corps 2nd Krajina Corps 3rd Corps East Bosnia Corps Herzegovina Corps Sarajevo-Romanija Corps Drina Corps Paramilitary Wolves of Vučjak White Eagles Serb Volunteer Guard Scorpions Yellow Wasps Western Bosnian side National Defence of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia Prelude Milošević–Tuđman Karađorđevo meeting Zulfikarpašić–Karadžić agreement RAM Plan Serb Autonomous Regions Bosanska Krajina Herzegovina North-East Bosnia Romanija Establishment of the Croatian Community of Herzeg Bosnia Establishment of Republika Srpska Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum Sarajevo wedding attack Declaration of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Battle of Bosanski Brod Sijekovac killings Bijeljina massacre 1992 anti-war protests in Sarajevo 1992 Battle of Kupres Siege of Sarajevo Kazani pit killings Foča ethnic cleansing Bosanski Šamac ethnic cleansing Siege of Srebrenica Zvornik massacre Doboj Snagovo massacre Prijedor ethnic cleansing Sarajevo column incident Siege of Goražde Graz agreement Glogova massacre Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing Tuzla column incident Zaklopača massacre Siege of Doboj Bradina massacre Sarajevo bread line massacre Bijeli Potok massacre Pionirska Street fire Operation Jackal Višegrad massacres Bosanska Jagodina Paklenik Barimo Sjeverin Čemerno massacre Siege of Bihać Ahatovići massacre Croat–Bosniak War Operation Vrbas '92 Operation Corridor 92 Bikavac fire Killings in Bratunac and Srebrenica Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia Korićani Cliffs massacre Mičivode massacre Novoseoci massacre Gornja Jošanica massacre 1993 Kravica attack Duša killings Skelani massacre Štrpci Siege of Mostar Srebrenica shelling Ahmići massacre Trusina massacre Sovići and Doljani killings Zenica massacre Vranica case Dobrinja mortar attack Battle of Žepče Battle of Travnik (1993) Battle of Bugojno Operation Irma Operation Neretva '93 Grabovica massacre Mokronoge massacre Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia Inter-Bosniak conflict in Bosanska Krajina Stupni Do massacre Operation Deny Flight Križančevo Selo killings 1994 Operation Tvigi 94 First Markale massacre Banja Luka incident Washington Agreement Establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Operation Bøllebank Attack on Spin magazine journalists Operation Tiger Operation "Breza '94" Battle of Kupres Operation Amanda Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347 Operation Spider Operation Winter '94 1995 Operation Vlašić Operation Leap 1 Battle of Orašje Operation Leap 2 Split Agreement Operation Summer '95 Pale air strikes Tuzla shelling Battle of Vrbanja Bridge Srebrenica massacre Kravica Battle of Vozuća Operation Miracle Operation Storm Second Markale massacre NATO bombing campaign Operation Mistral 2 Operation Sana Operation Una Operation Southern Move Exodus of Sarajevo Serbs Dayton Agreement Establishment of Bosnia and Herzegovina Internment camps Silos Manjača Liplje Luka Vilina Vlas Omarska Keraterm Trnopolje Sušica Čelebići Musala Batković Dretelj Uzamnica Heliodrom Gabela Vojno Kamenica camp Aspects Ethnic cleansing and massacres Bosnian genocide Bosnian genocide denial Internment camps Rape Peace plans NATO intervention Foreign support Foreign fighters Timeline of the Bosnian War (Timeline of the Croat–Bosniak War) Category Commons
v t e Breakup of Yugoslavia Overview Breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–1992) Timeline of the breakup of Yugoslavia (1980–2008) Background Josip Broz Tito (until 1980) Brotherhood and unity (until 1990) League of Communists of Yugoslavia (until 1990) Croatian Spring (1967–1971) 1981 protests in Kosovo Islamic Declaration (1983) SANU Memorandum (1986) Contributions to the Slovene National Program (1987) Slovene Spring (1987–1988) Agrokomerc Affair (1987) 8th session of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia (1987) JBTZ trial (1988) Hyperinflation in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1980s) Events and actors Anti-bureaucratic revolution (1988–1989) Gazimestan speech (1989) 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1990) Independence of Croatia (1989–1992) Log Revolution (1990–1991) Milošević–Tuđman Karađorđevo meeting (1991) RAM Plan (1991) Brioni Agreement (1991) Role of the media in the breakup of Yugoslavia Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia (1991–1993) v t e Independence referendums in Yugoslavia Republics and provinces Slovenia (1990) Croatia (1991) Macedonia (1991) Kosovo (1991) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992) Montenegro (1992) Montenegro (2006) Autonomy SAO Krajina (1990) Sandžak (1991) Srpska (1991) Ilirida (1992) Eastern Slavonia (1997) Macedonia (2004) Consequences Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001) Ethnic cleansing Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) Ten-Day War (1991) Bosnian War (1992–1995) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–) Graz agreement (1992) Sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2001) Hyperinflation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–1994) Dayton Agreement (1996) Joint Criminal Enterprise Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control (1996) International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1993–2017) Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević (2000) Nationalism Greater Albania Greater Croatia United Macedonia Greater Serbia United Slovenia Anti-Serbian sentiment Islamophobia Albanian nationalism Bosniak nationalism Croatian nationalism Macedonian nationalism Montenegrin nationalism Serbian nationalism Serbian–Montenegrin unionism Slovenian nationalism Yugoslavism Category
Category Commons

• Conflicts in 2001
• 21st-century rebellions
• Wars involving North Macedonia
• Wars involving the Balkans
• Modern history of North Macedonia
• 2001 in the Republic of Macedonia
• Insurgencies in Europe
• 2001 insurgency in Macedonia
• Ethnic conflicts
• Albanian separatism