OVER 1,000 ALBANIAN REBELS IN CONTROL OF
LIPKOVO AREA
Makedonija Denes - 28 May 2003
This spring, as in the past two years, the higher mountainous areas of the
Lipkovo municipality between the villages of Tanusevci and Straza along
Macedonia's border with the Serbian
province of Kosovo shelter numerous KZK Kosovo Protection Corps - TMK in
Albanian members. Gathered mostly in the vicinity of an area called Dva Groba,
armed Albanians, who are former members of the OVK Kosovo Liberation Army - UCK
in Albanian , and former members of the ONA National Liberation Army, NLA - UCK
in Albanian are controlling the entire region. According to intelligence
services' estimates, in this part of Macedonia,
which is in fact controlled neither by the Macedonian Army, nor by the police,
the number of these paramilitary soldiers is over 1,000 and they represent not
only an important military factor, but they also influence, in a way, the
passage of political decisions, specifically, those that are prepared by the
political leadership of the Albanian population in the country. The crimes that
the Albanian population of the Lipkovo municipality has been complaining about
for the past two years and that Lipkovo Mayor's Adviser Abedin Zymberi has
finally spoken about do not include merely the demolition of houses of
Macedonians in this municipality, who still have the status of internally
displaced persons, but also those of Albanians. The efforts of Abedin Zymberi,
who is the former head of the ONA special police in this region, are not aimed
at resolving the security situation in the Lipkovo municipality, but at hiring a
higher number of Albanians in the Interior Ministry's ranks. Who else would go
from Dumanovce village up to the border, through the almost bare forest, which
continues to be damaged for the needs of the Kosovo population? After all, you
engage your own people for your own needs. The actual dissatisfaction of the
Lipkovo population is a result of frequent expenses for logistical support to
meet every possible need of the armed formation, whose only concern is to
procure arms and ammunition.
The local and state authorities' links with these armed formations were
confirmed by the case of the Kumanovo Power Company's attempts to get paid for
the electricity bills, because of which, as a warning, it imposed power cuts on
the Lipkovo municipality twice. In only a few hours the local authorities in
Kumanovo and the Kumanovo Power Company's management were informed that the taps
of the Glaznja Lake, which fills up the Lipkovo Lake, had been turned off.
Wishing to avoid another water crisis in the town of Kumanovo, they resumed the
power supply and forgot about the payment of the electricity bills. The Albanian
political bloc in Macedonia never reacted to this.
Source: Makedonija Denes, Skopje, in Macedonian
0000 gmt 28 May 03
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