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Macedonia: Guns, Policing and Ethnic Division

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Macedonia: Guns, Policing and Ethnic Division REPORT Small arms and security in South Eastern Europe Saferworld and Bonn International Center for Conversion Macedonia: Guns, policing and ethnic division Anna Matveeva with Duncan Hiscock, Wolf-Christian Paes and Hans Risser October 2003 Macedonia: Guns, policing and ethnic division Anna Matveeva with Duncan Hiscock, Wolf-Christian Paes and Hans Risser SAFERWORLD AND BONN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR CONVERSION OCTOBER 2003 Macedonia International boundary Autonomous province boundary Republic boundary Montenegro Sofia Prisˇtina KOSOVO Vranje SERBIA Prizen BULGARIA Kriva Palanka Lipkovo Vratnica Kumanovo Tearce Kratovo Blagoevgrad Aracˇinovo Tetovo SKOPJE Probistip Delcˇevo Kocˇani Sveti Nikole Gostivar Sˇtip Titov Veles Berovo ALBANIA MACEDONIA Radovisˇ Debar Brod Kicˇevo Negotino Kavadarci Strumica Novo Selo Krusˇevo Prilep Valandovo Murgasˇevo Struga Gevgelija Elbasan Ohrid Resen Bitola GREECE Thessaloníki Contents Acronyms 4 Preface 5 Executive summary 7 1. Recent history of Macedonia 12 2. Security challenges in the new state 15 3. Prospects and obstacles for disarmament 43 4. Disarmament options in a multi-ethnic state 58 APPENDIX 1: Report from the Skopje roundtable meeting 64 ‘Small arms and light weapons in Macedonia: priorities for action’, March 2003 APPENDIX 2: Skopje roundtable agenda and list of participants 69 Acknowledgements This report was produced as part of Saferworld’s small arms project in South Eastern Europe. Saferworld is grateful to the UK Government for funding their small arms programme. Saferworld would like to thank Larry Attree, Chrissie Hirst, Zoran Jachev, Aleksandar Matovski, Dana Plavcova and Trpe Stojanovski for their respective contributions to the report. Thanks also go to Henry Bolton, Kim Benedict Johnsen, Edward Joseph, Ann Rogers and Simon Rynn for their comments and feedback. Acronyms ABB Army Border Brigade ANA Albanian National Army (Armata Kombëtare Shqiptare – AKSh in Albanian) APC Armoured personnel carrier ARI Army of the Republic of Ilirida ARM Armija na Republika Makedonija (the Armed Forces of the Republic of Macedonia) BCP Border check point BCPR UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery BICC Bonn International Center for Conversion DDR Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration DPA Democratic Party of Albanians DUI Democratic Union for Integration (Bashkimi Demokratik për Integrim – BDI in Albanian). EAR EU European Agency for Reconstruction EUFOR European Union Force FRY Former Republic of Yugoslavia FYROM Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia HCNM High Commissioner on National Minorities ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IMF International Monetary Fund IOM International Organisation for Migration IWPR Institute for War and Peace Reporting JNA Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija (Yugoslav Peoples’ Army) KFOR Kosovo Force KLA Kosovo Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës – UÇK in Albanian) KPC Kosovo Protection Corps MoD Ministry of Defence MoI Ministry of the Interior (Ministerstvo za vnatreshni raboti – MVR in Macedonian) MPRI Military Professional Resources Incorporated NCB National Co-ordination Body NDP National Democratic Party NLA National Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare – UÇK in Albanian) OSCE Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe PDP Party of Democratic Prosperity PfP NATO Partnership for Peace RPG Rocket propelled grenade SACIM Small Arms Control in Macedonia SADU UNDP Small Arms and Demobilisation Unit SALW Small arms and light weapons SAM Surface-to-air missile SDSM Socijaldemokratski Sojuz na Makedonija (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia) SECI Center Southeast European Cooperative Initiative Center for Combating Cross- Border Crime SEE South Eastern Europe SEESAC South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons SFRY Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia UÇPMB Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanocit (Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac) UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNMIK United Nations Mission in Kosovo UNPREDEP United Nations Preventive Deployment Force VMRO- Vnatreshnata makedonska revolucionerna organizacija – Demokratska DPMNE partija za makedonsko nacionalno edinstvo (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation-Democratic Party of Macedonian National Unity) Preface THROUGHOUT THE 1990S, Macedonia was held up as an oasis of peace and stability whilst conflict affected most of South Eastern Europe, although by 1999 the conse- quences of the conflict in Kosovo were beginning to exacerbate tensions between the two communities in Macedonia. However, overt armed conflict did not appear until 2001, when Macedonia became the next link in a chain of conflicts that had accom- panied the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The easy availability of arms contributed to instability and created a strong temptation to use violence to settle political scores.In an impoverished and poorly functioning economy, the line between political and criminal activity became increasingly blurred. When fighting broke out in 2001 between rival Macedonian and Albanian communities, the international community machine that was engaged in nearby Kosovo was again galvanised into action to broker a peace agreement and help plot the way forward. Despite continued instability, the peace process has been gaining momentum, and the country’s prospects for developing a viable state and a functioning economy have improved with a return to comparatively stable and responsible governance in September 2002, in contrast to the political adventurism of the previous administra- tion. However, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) inside the country and the high level of smuggling across Macedonia’s borders remain significant problems and continue to endanger peace. The political crisis in 2001 broke the taboo against the use of violence, and today arms are more visible, and more likely to be used than before the conflict. In such circumstances, collecting weapons and introducing effective gun control measures form an important pillar of the conflict prevention agenda. Now that there is a new government in office and the political tension has lessened, this is an opportune moment to address the issue of SALW in Macedonia, both by exploring the dimensions of the SALW problem itself, and by assessing national and international policies in the field of human security. The report seeks to explore the prospects for weapons collection programmes and the introduction of effective gun control measures in the current security environment in Macedonia. With the government weapons amnesty due to start on 1 November 2003, the report takes a timely look at its chances for success – and considers the possible implications if the amnesty does not go as planned. The chapter on ‘Sources and Scale of Arms Proliferation’ was written with valuable input from Zoran Jachev, Trpe Stojanovski and Aleksandar Matovski.1 The report is based on two fact-finding missions undertaken in July 2002 and January 2003, surveys of openly available sources, and conclusions and observations drawn from 1 In January 2002 Saferworld commissioned Forum – Center for Strategic Research and Documentation to produce a background research report on SALW in Macedonia. Parts of the report were used to prepare the current publication. 6 MACEDONIA: GUNS, POLICING AND ETHNIC DIVISION Saferworld’s and BICC’s other activities in the region. The report first analyses the nature of the problem of SALW proliferation by asking the following questions: how was the present situation arrived at? How did the initial armament take place? Who are the groups holding weapons and how do they operate? Why does the population continue to hold on to their guns? It then goes on to assess national and international measures that have so far been undertaken to tackle the problem, i.e. political commit- ments to disarmament, police reform, steps to revise the law and address cross-border crime, and public attitudes and the role of civil society. It concludes with an outline of the pros and cons of various disarmament options, and the implications that their implementation might have in Macedonia. The main argument of the paper is that the problem of SALW proliferation in Macedonia is a question of both politics and policing, resulting both from internal challenges and from the country’s vulnerability to outside influence within its turbulent neighbourhood. Therefore, measures to tackle the problem have to combine increased confidence among citizens in the political process with building public support for disarmament without letting criminal groups benefit from more humane approaches. The international community has expressed its willingness to help. The question now is how this willingness will be utilised by political forces in Macedonia. Executive summary THIS REPORT IS CONCERNED with the issue of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation in Macedonia. Before the 2001 crisis, when fighting broke out between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, most people in the country did not consider SALW proliferation to be a serious problem. This has now changed, and the government that was elected in September 2002, made up of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), con- cerned that the large number of illegally-held guns could act as a further catalyst for violence, has placed measures
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