Interior Ministry withdraws all Macedonian police officers from Aracinovo

Interior Ministry withdraws all Macedonian police officers from Aracinovo?
Dnevnik - 16 June 2003

Written by: Emil Zafirovski

Dnevnik has learned that the Interior Ministry has withdrawn all Macedonian police officers from Aracinovo after a large group of armed Albanians invaded the police station and held six Macedonian policemen hostage for several hours on Thursday 12 June evening.

A number of Albanian police officers have also expressed the wish to have their deployment in Aracinovo terminated, immediately asking for a transfer to other police stations.

We have learned from sources within the Interior Ministry and from well-informed people from Aracinovo that the six Macedonian policemen only just managed to escape death in the police station, mostly thanks to Assembly deputy Xhezair Shaqiri, known as Commander Hoxha of the National Democratic Party - PDK in Albanian , who managed to establish control over the extremely tense hostage drama.

Shaqiri calmed down the enraged armed Albanians who barged into the station in an attempt to beat up the police officers in revenge for the killed Nexhbedin Demiri, who was shot on the same day by a group of policemen who tried to arrest him in the Skopje district of Cento.

While Shaqiri was keeping the armed individuals under control, the six Macedonian policemen were taken out from the station one by one under the protection of their Albanian colleagues and were taken to the police station in the district of Avtokomanda in five different vehicles.

Interior Ministry sources have indicated that the security situation in Aracinovo has deteriorated considerably. According to Interior Ministry spokesman Voislav Zafirovski, however, the police in Aracinovo are continuing with their everyday activities.

I have no information that the Macedonian police officers have been withdrawn from the station. Even after the incident the police have continued to carry out their duties regularly in Aracinovo, Zafirovski said yesterday.

Police officers who are deployed in Aracinovo claim, however, that the police have no conditions for normal functioning in Aracinovo!

It is a lie that the police function normally in Aracinovo. Both the police station and we are there only formally, for petty political interests, and merely to make it appear that some order is being restored. In effect, we are unable to function, police officers from the Aracinovo station have said.

Aracinovo residents have confirmed that the situation in the village is still bad and very tense, warning that the village is not safe for Macedonians these days. We have learned from them that after the killing of Nexhbedin Demiri and the hostage drama at the police station, their fellow villager Avdyl Jakupi, known as Commander Cakalla, has again threatened the Concordia EU mission soldiers. He apparently warned them that they should put an end to their activities of "holding with the hare and running with the hounds" and support his demands for declaring the country a protectorate.

SOURCE: Dnevnik, Skopje, in Macedonian 16 Jun 03 pp 1, 2

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