'We Albanians hate terror'
The six-month war between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian forces ended in 2001 with the signing of a cohabitation agreement. But the Albanian Liberation Army of Kosovo and Macedonia claims that the rights of ethnic Albanians are being ignored by the Macedonian authorities. In November 2007 Macedonian police launched an armed offensive on the Albanian village of Brodec. They were looking for terrorists. Local man Ziber Ziberi says that of the five villagers killed and 13 arrested, not one was a terrorist
Albanian man in ruined house An Albanian man sifts through the rubble of his house after the 2001 conflict. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis
At 6am our village, Brodec, was attacked without warning by Macedonian special police. First they shelled us from the surrounding hills, then they came in with helicopters and armed vehicles. The noise was unbearable. My wife, children, mother and mother-in-law ran to a small space under the stairs to hide.
They remained hidden there for several hours the shelling lasted from early morning to 3pm. My son was ill at the time and he should have been taken to a doctor, but it was impossible to move from the shelter.
There are 300 children in the village; they were supposed to go to school that day, but instead they ran to hide in cellars. The shelling made holes in the walls of our houses, but it was our mosque that took most of the damage. You could literally see through it. The house of my immediate neighbour was burned to the ground by a fire that spread after a grenade hit. The flames were so big we couldn't put them out.
Fortunately, the winds were not strong that day, otherwise the whole village would have burned. My neighbour has six children his daughter was supposed to get married this year. Now they are left with nothing. As their neighbours we are the only ones they can turn to for help. Nobody from this village will seek compensation for the damage from the state authorities. We have come to expect nothing from Macedonia.
In the afternoon the shelling stopped and the police entered the village. The streets were swarming with them all we could see was uniforms. They entered houses, searching for people and beating some of them up. Five people were killed, one of them butchered with a knife.
The police behaved like animals. My youngest son, who is four, saw them as they entered our house. Now he wets his bed every night. He is afraid of the dark and of police uniforms. I fear he will suffer from this for the rest of his life.
The police said that they were looking for criminals. Indeed, there were some criminals smugglers from Kosovo, who occasionally come to our village from the mountains across the border. They stay for a while and then disappear. But we never support them we are peasants and we hate terror.
Who could hate terror more than us, the Albanians? We survived the war in 2001, when our families fled and sought refuge in Kosovo. Men from our village remained and fought for the rights of all Albanians. You must understand, our war was not fought for territory. We don't need land we only seek our rights.
In 2001 Macedonia agreed to grant amnesty to Albanian fighters. But now they are retaliating I believe it's their revenge.
There are 1,300 people living in Brodec all of them Albanians. Most have Macedonian citizenship, but some don't, because Macedonia refused to grant citizenship to Albanian nationals after gaining independence from Yugoslavia. My mother only received citizenship recently, after a long struggle with the authorities. She was stateless for 17 years.
The Macedonian police arrested 13 of our men and boys. My brother among them. Not one of them is a member of a criminal group. Actually, the criminals the police were looking were never caught. The police have taken innocent people to prison, and convicted them of terrorism. Some of them are too young to be terrorists one of them is even handicapped.
The police gathered them together in the courtyard of my mother's house and left them lying on the bare ground. It was November, and they were on the ground for several hours, lying in their own blood. There were also dead bodies among them.
They have been in prison for several months now, and the court process has not yet started. Why do they keep them there? My youngest son keeps looking for his uncle around the village. We told him that he had gone away, but he asks about him every day. With my nephew it's worse. He has stopped going to school, and he doesn't learn anything any more. He ony wants to see his father.
We try to visit my brother in prison as often as possible. We have to shout through a glass wall to talk to him.
My mother has not visited the prison yet. She has not seen her son since last November. It would be no use taking her with us beacuse she is ill and has hearing problems; she wouldn't be able to talk to him and she would only cry. She doesn't speak much, but she cries a lot.
Since the attack 10 more people have fallen ill and died in the village. I'm sure it's because of the terror they went through.
The police behaved as if they themselves were terrorists they were wearing masks on their faces. Whom do they fear? Us? We provide for their paychecks. We pay the taxes in this country.
It was all a farce. Innocent people are now behind bars while the criminals the police were looking for walk free. What good could accession to the European Union and Nato be for Macedonia if there is no justice for us, the Albanians?
Ziber Ziberi was talking to Uros Skerl Kramberger.
The six-month war between ethnic Albanians and Macedonian forces ended in 2001 with the signing of a cohabitation agreement. But the Albanian Liberation Army of Kosovo and Macedonia claims that the rights of ethnic Albanians are being ignored by the Macedonian authorities. In November 2007 Macedonian police launched an armed offensive on the Albanian village of Brodec. They were looking for terrorists. Local man Ziber Ziberi says that of the five villagers killed and 13 arrested, not one was a terrorist
Albanian man in ruined house An Albanian man sifts through the rubble of his house after the 2001 conflict. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis
At 6am our village, Brodec, was attacked without warning by Macedonian special police. First they shelled us from the surrounding hills, then they came in with helicopters and armed vehicles. The noise was unbearable. My wife, children, mother and mother-in-law ran to a small space under the stairs to hide.
They remained hidden there for several hours the shelling lasted from early morning to 3pm. My son was ill at the time and he should have been taken to a doctor, but it was impossible to move from the shelter.
There are 300 children in the village; they were supposed to go to school that day, but instead they ran to hide in cellars. The shelling made holes in the walls of our houses, but it was our mosque that took most of the damage. You could literally see through it. The house of my immediate neighbour was burned to the ground by a fire that spread after a grenade hit. The flames were so big we couldn't put them out.
Fortunately, the winds were not strong that day, otherwise the whole village would have burned. My neighbour has six children his daughter was supposed to get married this year. Now they are left with nothing. As their neighbours we are the only ones they can turn to for help. Nobody from this village will seek compensation for the damage from the state authorities. We have come to expect nothing from Macedonia.
In the afternoon the shelling stopped and the police entered the village. The streets were swarming with them all we could see was uniforms. They entered houses, searching for people and beating some of them up. Five people were killed, one of them butchered with a knife.
The police behaved like animals. My youngest son, who is four, saw them as they entered our house. Now he wets his bed every night. He is afraid of the dark and of police uniforms. I fear he will suffer from this for the rest of his life.
The police said that they were looking for criminals. Indeed, there were some criminals smugglers from Kosovo, who occasionally come to our village from the mountains across the border. They stay for a while and then disappear. But we never support them we are peasants and we hate terror.
Who could hate terror more than us, the Albanians? We survived the war in 2001, when our families fled and sought refuge in Kosovo. Men from our village remained and fought for the rights of all Albanians. You must understand, our war was not fought for territory. We don't need land we only seek our rights.
In 2001 Macedonia agreed to grant amnesty to Albanian fighters. But now they are retaliating I believe it's their revenge.
There are 1,300 people living in Brodec all of them Albanians. Most have Macedonian citizenship, but some don't, because Macedonia refused to grant citizenship to Albanian nationals after gaining independence from Yugoslavia. My mother only received citizenship recently, after a long struggle with the authorities. She was stateless for 17 years.
The Macedonian police arrested 13 of our men and boys. My brother among them. Not one of them is a member of a criminal group. Actually, the criminals the police were looking were never caught. The police have taken innocent people to prison, and convicted them of terrorism. Some of them are too young to be terrorists one of them is even handicapped.
The police gathered them together in the courtyard of my mother's house and left them lying on the bare ground. It was November, and they were on the ground for several hours, lying in their own blood. There were also dead bodies among them.
They have been in prison for several months now, and the court process has not yet started. Why do they keep them there? My youngest son keeps looking for his uncle around the village. We told him that he had gone away, but he asks about him every day. With my nephew it's worse. He has stopped going to school, and he doesn't learn anything any more. He ony wants to see his father.
We try to visit my brother in prison as often as possible. We have to shout through a glass wall to talk to him.
My mother has not visited the prison yet. She has not seen her son since last November. It would be no use taking her with us beacuse she is ill and has hearing problems; she wouldn't be able to talk to him and she would only cry. She doesn't speak much, but she cries a lot.
Since the attack 10 more people have fallen ill and died in the village. I'm sure it's because of the terror they went through.
The police behaved as if they themselves were terrorists they were wearing masks on their faces. Whom do they fear? Us? We provide for their paychecks. We pay the taxes in this country.
It was all a farce. Innocent people are now behind bars while the criminals the police were looking for walk free. What good could accession to the European Union and Nato be for Macedonia if there is no justice for us, the Albanians?
Ziber Ziberi was talking to Uros Skerl Kramberger.
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