A big increase of ethnic Albanians in the Macedonian
police appears to be encouraging trust between the rival
communities.
By Mustafa Hajrulahi in Skopje (BCR No 408,
20-Feb-03)
You could be forgiven for giving the scene a double
take - Albanians in Macedonia's trouble spots meeting
policemen and chatting cordially over a cup of coffee.
It would have seemed unthinkable two years ago, when
Albanians battled for six months to improve their civil
rights. The fighting stopped in August 2001 when the
western-sponsored Ohrid agreement undertook to give the
community a greater say in their own affairs.
Part of the accord was to enlist about 1,000
Albanians and other minorities into the police force,
which had previously been overwhelmingly manned by
officers from the Macedonian majority.
Training of Albanian recruits, at the police centre
in Idrizvo near Skopje, is proceeding at a rapid pace.
The interior ministry organises three courses a year in
conjunction with the Office for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the OSCE.
About 500 minority recruits were trained in 2000 and
600 more should be ready by July 2003.
The campaign has already started bearing fruit with
the introduction of mixed patrols, each consisting of
three Macedonians and three Albanians, in areas
dominated by the latter.
Nazmi Mailqi, a senior academic at the Southeast
Europe University in Tetovo, said police used to treat
minorities in an overbearing manner, and the inclusion
of Albanians in the police and the interior ministry was
a step in the right direction.
"Participation of Albanians in police patrols…
is a precondition for regaining lost trust," he
told IWPR, although he believes more should be done to
increase the community's representation in the senior
ranks of the police and the army.
Interior ministry spokesperson Mirjana Kontevska said
its four advertising campaigns for police recruitment of
minorities between September 2001 and December 2002 had
elicited more than 1000 applications, 80 per cent of
them from the Albanian community.
Before the crisis in 2001, Albanians accounted for
only about seven per cent of the police force - it is
estimated the proportion will rise to 20 per cent.
In October 2001, police started returning to western
parts of Macedonia where they'd previously been
reluctant to go. "The Albanian presence in the
patrols has improved the cooperation of the local
population," said Orce Todorovski, an ethnic
Macedonian a policeman in a mixed unit at Rasce police
station, which covers a number of Skopje municipalities.
His Albanian colleague, Nexhati Idrizi, said,
"Police disdain and maltreatment of the local
population before and during the 2001 conflict led to
mistrust among the Albanians. Relations are much better
now and if police continue to treat the population well
things will improve even further."
Idrizi said that upon their arrival in western
villages, mixed patrols are usually greeted warmly by
Albanian residents, "We meet the villagers, have
coffee with them and discuss everyday problems. The
locals seem eager to talk to us and I think that this is
an important step towards rebuilding trust."
Femi Bajrami, a resident of the village of Radusa,
commented, " People here have accepted the patrols
without any problem. This is obvious from the fact that
they can move around here freely day and night."
OSCE representative Wolfgang Greven said the new look
patrols have gone down well in a number of villages.
"Some residents even demand more frequent
patrols," he said. Greven placed great importance
on the chats over coffee and other friendly exchanges,
"I believe it signals a return to trust in the
police."
Muhamed Osmani, the commander of Rasce police
station, told IWPR that the police are now viewed not as
part of the problem but as part of the solution.
Mustafa Hajrulahi is an Albanian journalist.