Testimonials 2001 By Pande Petrovski (Translated from Macedonian to English and edited by Risto Stefov) Testimonials 2001 Published by: Risto Stefov Publications [email protected] Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review. Copyright 2015 by Pande Petrovski & Risto Stefov e-Book Edition ****** February 23, 2015 ****** 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................4 THE MILITARY CRISIS IN MACEDONIA IN 2001 ...................10 TAKING MILITARY ACTION AGAINST THE “NLA”..............20 MILITARY OPERATION IN SKOPJE TSRNA GORA “MH -1” 38 EXECUTING THE OPERATION ..................................................45 KUMANOVO OPERATION “MH - 2”..........................................53 EXECUTING OPERATION “MH - 2”...........................................63 EXECUTING OPERATION “VAKSINTSE” ................................73 OPERATION “RUGINTSE”...........................................................76 ARACHINOVO - AN ATTEMPT TO RESOLVE THE CRISIS BY POLITICAL MEANS ......................................................................86 EXECUTING OPERATION “ARACHINOVO”............................98 CONDITIONS AFTER THE MILITARY OPERATION IN ARACHINOVO.............................................................................111 EVENTS AFTER THE CEASEFIRE............................................127 KARPALAK..................................................................................156 LIUBOTEN....................................................................................181 DISARMING THE SO-CALLED “NLA” ....................................185 SUMMARY ...................................................................................189 AUTHOR’S SHORT BIOGRAPHY .............................................197 EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK REVIEW - TESTIMONIES 2001 ........................................................................................................199 ATTACHMENTS..........................................................................201 3 INTRODUCTION The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), as a federal army in the composition of Yugoslavia, with the disintegration of the state, gradually began to collapse. The Yugoslav disintegration began with military actions primarily in Slovenia and Croatia. JNA units, after leaving part of their military assets in Slovenia and Croatia, withdrew from those territories as those states declared their independence as sovereign states. Three types of people lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians. From that aspect the JNA tried to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from unraveling, but failed on account of the international community sending military forces to prevent a conflict - a civil war broke out with serious consequences. Macedonia gained its independence without war - peacefully, with a referendum on September 8, 1991 in which 95% of the people voted for an independent state. Parliamentary elections were organized during the course of 1990 in a multi-party system along with independent institutions: Parliament, a government with its own ministries, etc. In December 1991, the Republic of Macedonia and the Coalition Secretariat for National Defense of the former Yugoslavia (SSNO) began negotiations for the peaceful creation of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM). After the talks an agreement was reached for JNA to be withdrawn from the Republic of Macedonia in February and March 1992. After JNA’s withdrawal, the Republic of Macedonia, as the last republic to achieve its independence from former Yugoslavia, finally formed its own army. The ARM was a joint army of all nationalities living in Macedonia. After the agreement between the then government and SSNO, the JNA peacefully withdrew and took all military vehicles, equipment and other personal weapons belonging to the border guards who secured the border between the Republic of Macedonia and Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. The formation of ARM began with the appointment of the chief of staff who was then part of the JNA, but without equipment and 4 armaments. Using the experience and enthusiasm of the then JNA Macedonian officers and staff, the establishment of the Army began with the first recruits for military service being called in on April 1, 1992. Until then, until 1991, the JNA command of the 3rd Army Region (under the authority of the 3-AO were: territories of the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and FR Southern Serbia) was deployed in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, and its units (joint operating units) had Bitola Corps for Western Macedonia, Kumanovo Corps in Eastern Macedonia and the town Vranje in Southern Serbia. Besides these operating units that were deployed in the Republic of Macedonia there were also air force units and air defense missile units and some independent brigades, etc., i.e. a composition of 20-25,000 soldiers and officers. Even though the JNA took all the equipment and weapons, it did not take the human factor. The Republic of Macedonia had an active and reservist, skilled and JNA trained soldier and officer composition of about 120,000 people. The human factor was not a problem for forming the ARM. Therefore, the Republic of Macedonia immediately began its establishment using the trained officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO’s), personnel from all generations and branches (infantry, artillery, armour, engineers, pilots, sailors, etc.). The officers and NCO staff were the basis for the quick formation of the ARM. Besides that, the Republic of Macedonia also opened a number of military facilities in the cities with good infrastructure and provided them with quality training. Three Army Corps were then quickly formed: the Bitola Corps, the Skopje Corps and the Kumanovo Corps. Territorial defense became part of ARM’s structure. In the nine year period before the military crisis began, ARM had three reorganizations during which it formed a small, mobile and modern army which, above all, represented a factor of deterrence against all possible aggressions and, at the same time, became combat ready to ensure execution of the tasks specified by the Republic of Macedonia’s Constitution and by the Law on Defense. 5 In 1998 I (Pande Petrovski) was given the task to organize and lead the ARM reorganization, to primarily establish a compact army, similar to those in NATO member states. This was to be done within 5 years and as such the army was to be reorganized so that it could be a candidate for NATO membership. The plan for the ARM reorganization, under its current composition, by constitutional rights, was signed by Commander in Chief, President Kiro Gligorov. According to that plan, ARM was composed of: 14,000 active soldiers and officers of whom 50% were professional soldiers and 50% were recruited. On top of that about 40,000 reserve soldiers and officers were included. The total number of military personnel in the ARM was around 55,000, corresponding to international standards in terms of the number of inhabitants and economic power of the state (2% in terms of the number of residents in the state). Before this ARM reorganization, together with the reserve and active composition, there were about 120,000 military personnel. To assist in the ARM reorganization, the then government of the Republic of Macedonia signed an agreement with the United States, or with an instructor team of retired U.S. military veteran officers known as the MPRI. The MPRI was hired to assist with the drafting of a stabilization and deterrence plan and, because the Republic of Macedonia was already a member of the Partnership for Peace, it became a member in the partnership for peace system. The group of instructors offered a plan to reorganize the ARM but that plan was declined by the ARM General Staff and by the Ministry of Defense. The proposed plan was for the Republic of Macedonia to have a single brigade, i.e. a light infantry brigade with two light battalions and a small part of special units. (No artillery, armour, aviation, etc.) At that time (1998) the Republic of Macedonia, in terms of military equipment, had: 94 T-55 tanks, 36 105 mm howitzers, over 100 122 mm howitzers, over 100 120-60 mm mortars and over 300 APCs, etc. 6 On December 26, 1999, after Boris Trajkovski the new President of the Republic of Macedonia was elected, the Minister of Defense, Academic N. Kljusev, organized an orientation for introducing the supreme commander with the situation in the former Army and the plan of reorganization for the next 5 years. A report regarding the current ARM situation was filed by the then Army Chief of Staff General Trajche Krstevski, and I (Pande Petrovski) filed a report on what ARM should look like in five years, after the reorganization. Among other things, in this report I stressed: “We have disagreements with the MPRI team about the reorganization, but that was superseded because the plan was twice fully accepted in Brussels by all NATO member states without any reservations.” Shortly after that, in January 2000, about 500 officers, including all generals, were retired i.e. for being “obstacles” to the reform. After that, after the officers were retired, the plan prepared by the MPRI team