Albanian Terrorism in Kumanovo

[DraganOfStip]

The Macedonian MOI will demand extradition from Kosovo.

http://www.vest.mk/default.asp?ItemID=D7513874A43FA74CB8B9EA6A4FA37120

[George S.]

the Kosovo govt is the most uncooperative there is.The last thing they'll do is hand over the terrorists.

[DraganOfStip]

In another large-scale police operation this morning,a further 7 people that are thought to be connected and helped the Kumanovo terrorist group this May have been arrested without incidents:

http://24vesti.mk/policiska-akcija-uapseni-osomnicheni-sorabotnici-na-teroristichkata-grupa-od-divo-naselje

[George S.]

What t heyll play the victims card and get a slap on the wrist??? What will they get?

[DraganOfStip]

This morning the albanian police officer who was arrested along with the Kumanovo group has been released due to lack of evidence.

http://alsat.mk/News/217706/osloboden-policaecot-uapsen-vo-kumanovskite-nemiri

[DraganOfStip]

The trial for the Kumanovo events is set to start today:

http://www.akademik.mk/86715-2/

[VMRO]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...a-02-08-2016-1

Kumanovo Gunmen Face Trial in Macedonia

Twenty-nine ethnic Albanians accused of involvement in a shootout that left 18 dead in Kumanovo face terrorism charges at a trial that starts on Tuesday in Skopje.
Sase Dimovski
BIRN
Skopje

Kumanovo after the fighting | Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

The 29 men, accused of being part of or aiding an armed group that took on the police in the northern town of Kumanovo on May 9-10 last year, face sentences of eight years to life if found guilty.

The prosecution charges the ethnic Albanian men from both Macedonia and Kosovo with attacking the Macedonian police, “participating in a terrorist association” and “terrorism.”
The outcome of the two-day armed clash in the ethnically mixed town was eight dead and 50 injured policemen. Ten gunmen were also killed.

The defendants have been in detention since May 10 and have now spent almost nine months behind bars in prisons in Bitola and Prilep.

Seventeen of the defendants are not from Macedonia but Kosovo - Sami Ushkini–Morina, Andi Krasniqi–Malisheva, Deme Shehu, Fadil Elshani, Esat Kagedzoli, Ardijan Bujari, Shefket Kalaci, Hajrush Avdija, Betim Kabashi, Genci Sefa, Landrit Rustemaj, Mirsat Kerimi, Valdet Sekaj, Bajram Elshani, Lirim Krasnici, Fatimir Recica and Bek Bajra.

One suspect, Enver Hoxha-Klein, has both Kosovo and German citizenship.

The remaining ten, Kenan Iseni, Fadil Fejzulahi, Irfan Ljutfiu, Lirim Demiri, Nasuf Bekiri, Nedzbedin Lika, Sevdailj Miftari, Fejzula Rushitovski, Besnik Ajdini and Arsim Bajrami, are Macedonian while the eleventh, Rufki Dogani, resides in Kosovo but was born in Macedonia.

Attack on the police station:

The prosecution says the group led by Mirsad Nrecaj and Beg Rizaj - both now dead - devised a plan to form a terrorist group for which purposes they acquired cash, weapons, ammunition and medical materials.

According to the prosecution, the group initially attacked and robbed a police station in the mountainous village of Goshince, near the Kosovo border on April 21 and 22.

The group stole a considerable quantity of weapons from the police station, which they used three weeks later for the terror attack on the police in Kumanovo.

“The deceased Nrecaj and Rizaj, together with Zekaj Valdet, Deme Shehu and other unidentified persons, armed with automatic rifles and masked, crossed the Kosovo-Macedonia border in April 21, 2015.

“They were intercepted by Nasuf Bekiri, Fejzula Rushitoski and Sulejman Osman, and, around 2.30am, attacked the police station [in Goshince], overcame and tied up four police officers, after which they searched the station and took the weapons,” the prosecution charge reads.

The prosecution says the group took “65 automatic rifles, three machine guns, two sniper rifles, 49 guns, 15,600 pieces of ammunition of 7.62 caliber as well as over 1,700 pieces of ammunition of other calibers. They also took binoculars, radio communication devices, cameras, a flair gun with ammunition, handcuffs and other equipment from the police station.”

According to the prosecution, the group put the weapons in vehicles and left, while Sulejman Osman hid some of them at a location inside the border village of Brest.

The prosecution claims that the group, following a previously devised plan, infiltrated Macedonia once more between May 2 and 8.

The battle in Kumanovo:

On entry to Macedonia, the group was initially sheltered in the village of Otlja, near Kumanovo, in a house belonging to one of the defendants, Kenan Iseni, the prosecution says.
Police in Kumanovo | Photo by: AP / Radovan Vujovic

The next day, using three vehicles, the group was transported to the Kumanovo suburb of Divo Naselje, scene of the bloody shootout, where they were accommodated in the home of the defendant, Fadil Fejzulahu.

On the morning of the critical day, May 9, when the fighting begun, a special police unit acting on a court order tried to search a house in the same street where the group was stationed, seeking the weapons stolen from the police station in Goshince.

The prosecution says that the bloodshed began when the group detonated a bomb in the direction of the special police that injured several people. They then opened fire from automatic and sniper weapons at the police.

The shootout lasted during the entire day on May 9 and continued on May 10. By the end, eight police officers had lost their lives and 50 were wounded. Ten of the gunmen were also killed.

By their actions, the defendants “created fear among the population, took human lives and destroyed property”, the prosecution says, concluding that they committed two criminal acts - “terrorism” and “participation in a terrorist organization.”

The ten gunmen killed in the shootout were identified as Mirsad Nrecaj, Beg Rizaj, Samid Kastrioti, Valon Kabashi, Vatlum Vishesela, Xhafer Zumeraj, Nusret Kaljoshi, Arben Rexhaj, Turgaj Gashi and Rushiti Husen. All were Kosovo citizens.

The prosecution has proposed that the court call 49 police officers who took part in the fighting as protected witnesses. Their identities will not be revealed.

The spouses of some of killed police officers are also expected to appear before the court as an aggrieved party.

The prosecution has also insisted on all the defendants being kept in custody, noting that some have residence permits in and family, logistical and financial ties to Germany, and could escape if released.

Judges Verka Petovska and Goran Boshevski will preside at the trial. Unusually for Macedonia, the prosecution act is signed and represented in court by not one but two prosecutors, Naum Panovski and Vilma Ruskovska.

Police will maintain a heavy presence at the Criminal Court in Skopje during the trial. At least three security officers will guard each of the defendants during their stay in the courtroom.

The defence lawyer representing eight of the defendants, Naser Raufi, as well as other defence lawyers, have asked for the relatives of the defendants to be allowed in court during the trial.

At a pre-trial session in the Skopje court in December, all 29 defendants denied charges of terrorism and said the bloody shootout occurred as they defended themselves from the police.

Their lawyers have accused the police of interrogating their clients inhumanely, and claim officers beat them for days without allowing them medical assistance.

Naser Raufi said that he had “not seen any evidence for the crime” with which his clients are charged.
Kumanovo after the fighting | Photo by: AP / Visar Kryeziu

Evidence kept in boxes and folders:

The evidence of the prosecution before the court is held in more than ten boxes and folders.

They contain records of telephone conversations between the defendants and people employed in Macedonian state institutions and private companies, such as the Tetovo State University, the Tetovo Medical Centre, the State Pension Fund and Stopanska Bank from Skopje.

The prosecution says the records were procured from Macedonian telecom operators on a judge’s warrant.

The evidence also includes video and photographic documentation from the scene of the shootout that more or less destroyed several houses in Kumanovo.

The evidence also includes forensic data of the blood collected from the spot, ammunition shells and weapons and other biological traces.

Medical documentation on all those killed and injured in the clashes are kept in separate boxes, including those of the wounded police officers who are due to appear as protected witnesses.

The police initially reported up to 22 dead in the shootout but later revised the number down to 18, having miscalculated the number of killed gunmen.

Other evidence of the prosecution includes forensics data on the weapons used by the group, which should confirm that they originated from the robbed police station.

The list of evidence, which the defence lawyers have been allowed to inspect before the trial, further includes many classified data that had to be de-classified for use in court.

A case with vast implications:

In 2001, Macedonia went through a short-lived armed conflict between Albanian insurgents and the security forces.

The conflict ended the same year with the signing of an internationally brokered peace accord that guaranteed greater rights to Albanians who make up a quarter of the country’s 2.1 million people.

The shootout in Kumanovo came against a backdrop of a deep political crisis in Macedonia, revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people.

Some have accused the authorities of actually plotting the violence in order to distract attention from the ongoing crisis.

Days after the carnage, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and secret police chief Saso Mijalkov resigned.

However, in their resignation notes submitted to parliament, they insisted that their departure was not related to the events in Kumanovo.

Suspicions expressed then by opposition leaders and some political observers that the shootout was a political set-up to divert attention from the crisis buffeting Gruevski’s government remain unresolved.

The defence now wants evidence brought before the court to include recordings made by intelligence services of other countries as well as Macedonia’s that allegedly show the group was paid by the authorities €2 million to carry out the operation in Macedonia.

Several EU countries including Germany last year supported local calls for an international inquiry into the clashes.

[Benito]

And the west didn't even reported about it (not the attention it deserved).

[Risto the Great]

The defence now wants evidence brought before the court to include recordings made by intelligence services of other countries as well as Macedonia’s that allegedly show the group was paid by the authorities €2 million to carry out the operation in Macedonia.

This will be fun.

[VMRO]

http://www.independent.mk/articles/2...+Rather+in+Air

Suspect in Diva Naselba Trial: We Were Told Not To Shoot At Police, But Rather in Air


Nasuf Bekiri from Kosovo, one of the defendants for the events in Diva Naselba settlement in Kumanovo, in his statement in court said that upon arriving in Kumanovo, they were told that they would only be figures, and if police officials were to approach them, they should not fire at them but rather in the air. He also stated that four of the terrorists who surrendered to the police were allegedly killed in a police station.

"We are not terrorists and we did not come to Kumanovo to involve in terrorist acts. I remember the words of Mirsad Ndreckaj and Bek Rizaj that in Kumanovo we will only be figures, and if policemen were to approach us we should not fire at them, but rather in the air. We will not admit anything. We are not terrorists. I demand Europe and America to clear the case. Even a two-year-old would know that we have been used for political goals. We are not admitting, we will not admit anything. We are not the first, nor the last to be framed," Bekiri said.

In his introductory speech, he also said that Bek Rizaj, Mirsad Ndreckaj, Valon Kabashi and Samit Kastrioti were killed in a police station, after surrendering to the police. His lawyer said later, Bekiri was also one of the group that surrendered.

However, these claims were news for his lawyer Mefal Aslani as well.

"As defense, our evidence will be based on verbal evidence. Today, all of us, including myself as his lawyer, discover a new information from my client, Nasuf Bekiri, who said that Bek Rizaj, Mirsad Ndreckaj, Valon Kabashi and Samit Kastrioti were alive when they surrendered to the police, and were later executed in the police station they surrendered to. That was the introductory speech of my client," Aslani said.

On the question whether Bekiri was a witness, his lawyer said: "Well, surely, since he claims he surrendered with the group as well."

"We discovered another fact from my client today. Mirsad Ndreckaj and Bek Rizaj told others in Kumanovo they will only be figures, and if they see policemen they should shoot in the air, not at them. This opens many dilemmas, which is going to make the evidence procedure very interesting," Aslani said.

He, as well as the other defenders, at the second hearing on Thursday, for the events in Kumanovo on May 9-10, 2015, in his introductory speech denied the legal qualification of the charge. According to them, the acts of their clients have no elements of terrorism.

The charge refers to 29 persons, most of which are from Kosovo and from Macedonia, one from Albania, and one from Germany. They have been charged on the act of involvement of terrorism and terrorist organizations.

On Thursday, the Criminal Court held the second hearing, at which the defenders had their introductory speeches. At the first hearing, on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, all suspects claimed not guilty.

[Tomche Makedonche]

"We are not terrorists and we did not come to Kumanovo to involve in terrorist acts. I remember the words of Mirsad Ndreckaj and Bek Rizaj that in Kumanovo we will only be figures, and if policemen were to approach us we should not fire at them, but rather in the air. We will not admit anything. We are not terrorists. I demand Europe and America to clear the case. Even a two-year-old would know that we have been used for political goals. We are not admitting, we will not admit anything. We are not the first, nor the last to be framed," Bekiri said.

If you were framed and all you were doing was shooting in the air, then how did 8 police officers die?, how were another 50 police officers wounded?, did the police officers draw straws to pick who will be sacrificed for this supposed political cause? (whatever that may have been), did they go back to the police station and pop themselves off?, or perhaps they used fake bodies and the real officers are really alive living in another country with new identities?, and they hired some Hollywood make up artists for the rest? or maybe Gruevski came and done it all with his magical powers?, IF YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT FOR A CAUSE, THEN OWN UP TO IT YOU FILTHY, GUTLESS, CHICKEN, RAT, PIECE OF SHIT, YOU CAN CRY TO UNCLE SAM AS MUCH AS YOU WANT, YOU INVADED A COUNTRY AND ATTACKED ITS FORCES, YOU FAILED, THE WORDS DIGNITY AND HONOUR DON’T EVEN COMPUTE TO YOU AND YOUR BRETHREN, YOU’RE THE SHIT STAIN OF HUMANITY, RATS!!!, YOU’RE ALL FUCKEN GUTLESS RATS AND YOU DESERVE TO BE DROWNED, THE WHOLE FUCKING LOT OF YOU!!!

[Phoenix]

If you were framed and all you were doing was shooting in the air, then how did 8 police officers die?, how were another 50 police officers wounded?, did the police officers draw straws to pick who will be sacrificed for this supposed political cause? (whatever that may have been), did they go back to the police station and pop themselves off?, or perhaps they used fake bodies and the real officers are really alive living in another country with new identities?, and they hired some Hollywood make up artists for the rest? or maybe Gruevski came and done it all with his magical powers?, IF YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT FOR A CAUSE, THEN OWN UP TO IT YOU FILTHY, GUTLESS, CHICKEN, RAT, PIECE OF SHIT, YOU CAN CRY TO UNCLE SAM AS MUCH AS YOU WANT, YOU INVADED A COUNTRY AND ATTACKED ITS FORCES, YOU FAILED, THE WORDS DIGNITY AND HONOUR DON’T EVEN COMPUTE TO YOU AND YOUR BRETHREN, YOU’RE THE SHIT STAIN OF HUMANITY, RATS!!!, YOU’RE ALL FUCKEN GUTLESS RATS AND YOU DESERVE TO BE DROWNED, THE WHOLE FUCKING LOT OF YOU!!!

...lol

Clearly all the dead (on both sides) didn't follow the carefully crafted script...obviously the Macedonian side was also shooting in the air...perhaps the bullets richocheted off flying pigs...

[Soldier of Macedon]

Meanwhile, in relation to Kerry's recent visit to Albania:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/kerry-notes-friendly-relations-with-albania-in-his-first-visit-there/2016/02/14/4c89699a-d2a8-11e5-90d3-34c2c42653ac_story.html

Albania, with an arsenal of Russian-made weaponry dating from the era of the Soviet Union, has donated about 1,500 tons of small arms and ammunition to the peshmerga, the Iraqi Kurdish force fighting against the Islamic State. In 2013 and 2014, up to 140 would-be terrorists were believed to have traveled to Syria from Albania, a Muslim-majority country. Last year, a senior State Department official said, that number was believed to have dropped to zero. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department, described the Albanians as “regional heavyweights” in efforts to counter extremist propaganda and recruitment in the rest of the Balkans.

Maybe Albania should direct their efforts at their brethren in Kosovo.

[Soldier of Macedon]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albanian-opposition-parties-join-to-rally-in-kumanovo-04-27-2016

27 Apr 16

Macedonia Albanians to Mark Kumanovo Carnage

One year after the bloody shootout in Kumanovo, ethnic Albanian opposition parties have scheduled a protest on May 9 against the governing VMRO-DPMNE and DUI alliance.

Fatjona Mejdini BIRN Tirana

Ethnic Albanian opposition parties in Macedonia are organizing a protest march on May 9 in the northern town of Kumanovo, to mark the first anniversary of the bloody events there that led to the death of 14 citizens and eight policemen. Under the umbrella of the Opposition Council, the parties are gathering efforts to stage a rally that also mark the beginning of a more coordinated anti-government front among Albanian opposition supporters.

The protest will be held under the slogan "Justice, Dignity, and Democracy" and aims to condemn what opposition call the abuses that the government of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski committed against Albanians. Bilall Kasami, leader of the Besa movement, a new opposition party, said it was time to end the injustice done to ethnic Albanians. "Albanians are going to say 'stop' to injustice, discrimination and staged court processes against them," Kasami posted on Facebook. On Wednesday, another ethnic Albanian party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity, also announced it will join the march on May 9.

"We inform our supporters that we are going to participate in the protest against the abuse of power by VMRO-DPMNE [the party led by Gruevski] and their Albanian subordinates," the party statement said. In the next few days, other opposition parties are also expected to join in the protest, which is also directed against the ethnic Albanian junior party in government, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, led by Ali Ahmeti. The Albanian opposition parties accuse the DUI of betraying Albanian interests in Macedonia in order to preserve its coalition with Gruevski. The planned protests by Albanians conicide with ongoing anti-government protests in Skopje and other towns that started after President Gjorge Ivanov on April 12 stopped criminal investigations into top politicians, including Gruevski, his former ministers and their associates. The Besa movement said it supports all forms of protest against the regime and many Albanian flags have been seen waving alongside Macedonian flags at previous anti-government protests.

The crisis in Macedonia revolves around opposition claims that, as Prime Minister, Gruevski orchestrated a massive illegal surveillance of over 20,000 people among other crimes. The causes of the bloodshed in Kumanovo one year ago between police and Albanian gunmen from Macedonia and Kosovo remain unclear. Gruevski called the shootout a deliberate plan to destabilize the country by attacking state security forces. However, Albanian opposition parties and some observers, including the opposition Social Democrat leader, Zoran Zaev, voiced suspicion that the authorities attempted to distract the public from the brewing crisis by orchestrating the ethnic unrest. Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party has strongly denied claims that it was behind the Kumanovo shootout and that it was staged in order to divert attention from the country's political crisis.

[Soldier of Macedon]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kumanovo-detainees-pretend-of-being-tortured-04-28-2016

29 Apr 16

Kumanovo Detainees Say Macedonia Police Tortured Them

Families of detainees in the 'Kumanovo case' say their menfolk have been routinely tortured in jail awaiting trial for the shootout a year ago in northern Macedonia.

Fatjona Mejdini BIRN Tirana

Relatives of the ethnic Albanian men held in Macedonian prisons in connection with the bloody shootout in Kumanovo a year ago are asking diplomats and foreign organisation to support their claim that the prisoners have been tortured. The families on Friday will ask Kosovo's Foreign Ministry to ask their Macedonian colleagues to allow experts into the three prisons where the ethnic Albanians are being held. A petition distributed to the Albanian Macedonian press on Wednesday will be sent to international bodies in Skopje, such as the OSCE office, the US embassy and the Red Cross.

Dashurie Sefa, one five members of the "Council of Kumanovo", which represents families of the detainees, told BIRN that when she went to see her husband, Genc Sefa, in the Shutka pre-trial detention prison on Wednesday, she found him in a poor condition. "He told me that they [the "Kumanovo case" prisoners] were being beaten and abused while being transported from prison to the cellar of the court in Skopje for the April 21 trial," said Sefa, who lives in Ferizaj, Kosovo. "He said they torture them in the police cars and court basements because there aren't any security cameras there and they feel safe to do so," she said.

"We cannot tolerate this situation any longer and are asking Kosovo to intervene, as well as seeking help from international organisations," she continued. Nine Kosovars were among the 22 people killed in a shootout in Kumanovo in northern Macedonia one year ago between alleged terrorists and the Macedonian police. Macedonian police later detained 29 people in connection with the attack, 21 out of whom are Kosovo Albanians. In the letter distributed to the media on Wednesday, the detainees' families claimed that the torture inflicted on the prisoners was severe and had continued for almost a year.

"The physical and psychological tortures against the detainees in the Kumanovo case continue even after one year in the basements of the courts. This fact was confirmed by lawyers after the last court session, on April 21, where the worst tortured were Enver Hoxha Klein, Genc Sefa, Bajram Elshani, Rufki Dogani," the letter read. "They have told their families during prison visits of details of the tortures that sound like the scariest horror movies," the letter continued. The letter also said that one of the prisoners, Enver Hoxha Klein, on April 21 had started a hungry strike in Shutka prison. One of the defence lawyers of the Kumanovo detainees, Naser Raufi, was quoted as saying he was suing the police who are believed to have beaten members of the group while accompanying them to court.

Lidija Gavrilova, head of the Directorate for Sanctions, which runs Macedonian prisons, declined to comment. "I am not authorized to give any statements on such issues," she said. Ethnic Albanian opposition parties in Macedonia are organizing a protest on May 9 in Kumanovo to mark the anniversary of the events there that led to the death of 14 men and eight policemen. The real causes of the bloodshed remain unclear but ethnic Albanian and opposition parties have long maintained that the carnage was staged for political reasons, to divert public attention from the country's growing political turmoil.