One Dead in Macedonia Pre-Election Violence

A person was killed in one of several incidents in Macedonia over the weekend, amid ongoing rivalries between the country’s two main ethnic Albanian parties.

Baskim Rustemi, 42, from the village of Gajre, near the western town of Tetovo, died from stab wounds on Saturday night, after being involved in a quarrel with another man, police said. The identity of the killer is apparently known to police.

The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA said Rustemi was a long standing member of the party.

Earlier on Friday, five activists from the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI , were beaten in the village of Kondovo near Skopje after trying to display party flags ahead of the election campaign which officially kicked off on Sunday.

The activists, who needed hospital treatment, claim they were beaten by members from the ruling DPA.

In a separate incident, a night club owned by a former DPA member, Fadil Arslani was torched in Tetovo. A club security guard was previously kidnapped and released shortly afterwards with his head covered and hands tied.

Arslani claimed his club was torched due to his recent association with the DUI.

Meanwhile the DUI party headquarters in the villages of Golema Recica and Kamenjane around Tetovo and Gostivar were shot at on Saturday night.

DUI accused the DPA for the incidents but the ruling party denied any connection.

The police have said the incidents are being probed. So far there have been no arrests.

Prior to the start of the campaign, all major parties signed a code pledging free and democratic elections.

European Union and NATO officials have said that the snap polls set for June 1 must be fair, so Macedonia can continue to deepen its Euro-Atlantic integration

During parliamentary elections in 2006, there were several incidents between the rival Albanian parties but international monitors assessed the procedure on a whole as fair and democratic.

Employee of robbed bank in Tetovo also stole money

An employee of the Tetovo's branch office of Uni Banka, which was robbed last Monday, is suspected of having stolen 15,000 euros out of the total 34,000 that were robbed.

The armed robber probably took the rest of the money.

The Police filed formal accusation against the bank's employee D.G., 42, explaining that during the robbery itself, he was throwing money from the strong-box into the trash bin and then, unnoticed from his colleagues, brought the money to his home.

But , fearing from exposure, the next day D.G. put some of the money back in the bin, hoping that police or other bank employees will find it.

The Police did find these money (3,000 euros and 100,000 denars), and after searching his house, retrieved additional 7.900 euros and 150,000 denars.

More than 20 people, includig policemen, arrested in Macedonia’s Prilep

Prilep. More than 20 people including policemen were arrested in the Macedonian town of Prilep in a vast operation of the crime fighting department and the quick response team of the country’s Ministry of Interior, the Maceodnian TV channel A1 reported. The operation was held early on Saturday and reportedly was aimed at a crime group acting on the territory of Prilep for the last five years. Police said the group was blamed for several explosions, racket, blackmailing, trashing restaurants.

Residential apartments fraud in Ohrid, Macedonia

Over 30 people fell victims to illegal sale of apartments in the Macedonian town of Ohrid, Makfax's correspondent reported.
According to sources, the damaged citizens are keeping constant touch among themselves in an attempt to locate Milco Najdeski, the owner of the real estate agency "Centar", who is suspected of having committed the fraud.
The Police are also trying to track down Najdeski as well as the Bulgarian citizen Yuliana Antova, a suspected accessory in the scheme.
The two are suspected of having sold a single apartment to several buyers in a building that was to be constructed on a property owned by Antova, scooping nearly 300,000 euros from about 20 citizens.
Unofficial information suggests that the total amount of the illegally generated money and the number of defrauded citizens might be much higher.
The suspects are unavailable to the law enforcement authorities and are very likely to have fled aboard.

Macedonia Challenges Fake Diplomas

Forged university diplomas from neighbouring Bulgaria are the most popular among Macedonians who want to get a prestigious job without proper qualifications.

According to Macedonia’s Education Ministry, fake diplomas from Albanian institutions are in second place.

A total of 122 forged degree certificates have been detected in the last five years, the ministry’s figures show.

Of them, 66 are from Bulgarian universities, 54 from Albania and just two from Serbia.

The latest scandal relating to forged diplomas erupted on Thursday when police expressed suspicions about the qualifications of a top official in the Ministry of Defence.

After checking with Interpol, the police said that State Secretary Liljana Steriovska’s diploma from the University of Belgrade was a forgery.

Steriovska denied the allegation, and her party leader, Tito Petkovski from the New Social Democrats, said the claim was politically-motivated.

No fake diplomas from Macedonia’s own universities have been discovered so far.

Cop killer dies during arrest

SKOPJE -- Naser Nebija, a suspect in the murder of a Macedonian policeman, was killed yesterday.

Nebija's house in the village of Archinovo, near the capital of Skopje, was surrounded by Macedonian police who attempted to arrest him when the suspect opened fire at officers.

They returned fire shooting and killing him, MIA news agency reported today.

Nebija, who escaped Idrizovo prison in September 2006, was suspected of murdering a member of Macedonian special police force, Zoran Markovski, on January 3 this year in Skopje.

Three policemen were also wounded in the attack.

Nebija served a ten-year sentence in Idrizovo after he was found guilty of rape. Previously, he was a suspect in a number of robbery cases.

Police search for gunmen in Avtokomanda shooting

The gunmen who killed a policeman and injured two other policemen are still at large, police sources told Makfax news agency on Friday.

"The police pressed ahead with a thorough investigation, but so far there are no new information," Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

The police believe that the car they have recovered late Thursday was used hours before in the attack. The car was found just outside the village of Aracinovo. The police found two automatic rifles, one heavy machine-gun, one hand-mortar and several shells of firearms, as they scoured the car for clues. The car had fake license plates.

Late on Thursday, gunmen ambushed police vehicle, carrying members of special police unit Tigers, in Skopje's district Avtokomanda. The attack left three policemen injured. One of them died on the way to hospital.

Macedonian elite police officer shot dead

A member of an elite Macedonian police unit was killed and two others were wounded when their car was shot at in the capital Skopje on Thursday, police said.

"Attackers opened fire from a moving vehicle at the police jeep," said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski. "Three officers were wounded, and one of them died on his way to hospital."

Kotevski said the motive for the attack in a Skopje suburb was unknown.

Tensions remain in Macedonia in the wake of a 2001 insurgency by ethnic Albanian guerrillas fighting for greater rights for the country's 25 percent Albanian minority.

Organised crime is also rife in the former Yugoslav republic.

Cocorovska sentenced to 14,5 years in prison

The Skopje Court sentenced to 14,5 years in prison Stanislava Cocorovska, who was accused of having masterminded smuggling of nearly half a ton of cocaine that was seized by Macedonian border authorities in early 2007.

The Court pronounced identical sentence to Alija Azirovic, the driver of the lorry in which 440 kilograms of cocaine stashed in paint cans were found on 7 January, 2007 at Blace border crossing.

Cocorovska and Azirovic's lawyers announced to appeal the verdict. The defense claimed that their clients were victims of a set-up and that the prosecution failed to sustain the accusation of their involvement with sufficient material evidence.

Cocorovska, who is also a holder of a Serbian citizenship, has been put under custody in the Skopje investigative prison since last May, when Serbia approved her extradition to Macedonia, Azirovic has been under temporary detention since the day of uncovering the drug.

The formal accusation against Cocorovska and Azirovic was raised last May by the Department for fighting organized crime and corruption with the Skopje prosecution office.

The indictment act mentions also two Greek citizens, however, except for Cocorovska and Azirovic, no person has been arrested in relation to the cocaine smuggling case.

The drug was loaded in a Croatian freight boat last year in Venezuela and transported to the
Montenegrin port of Bar. The shipment was en route to Greece when it was seized at the Macedonian border.

Firefight Kills Eight In Macedonia Near Kosovo Border

The authorities say the firefight took place after an operation against an "armed criminal group" and that all the dead were members of the gang.

The clash comes amid rising ethnic and regional tensions in the run-up to the end of talks on Kosovo's future status on December 10. Ethnic Albanians make up around 25 percent of Macedonia's population.

The Macedonian authorities maintain that the recent fight was part of a routine police action targeting criminals crossing the border from Kosovo.

The Interior Ministry said the operation was aimed at a group led by Lirim Jakupi, a fugitive from a Kosovo prison and a former member of the outlawed Albanian National Army. Jakupi, who goes by the nickname "the Nazi," managed to escape capture.

The Albanian National Army includes former members of the Albanian nationalist movement that spawned the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK).

In spite of the police description of the operation as an anticrime crackdown, others say it has broader implications.

Biljana Vankovska, a professor at the Institute for Defense Studies in Skopje, says that the police found more -- and more dangerous -- weapons than an ordinary criminal gang would possess. The police, Vankovska says, announced that they would need several trucks to transport the seized weapons, which include rocket-propelled grenades and other sophisticated equipment.

Vankovska also says that, while the group involved in the clash may indeed take part in criminal activities, they behave more like a guerrilla movement. Their members wear black uniforms, and last week they set up informal checkpoints on mountain roads in the area where they operate.

And Vankovska says that "the past relations between Kosovo fighters and [ethnic Albanian] Macedonian fighters are still very close."

She says the intentions of the groups remain vague, but appear to link to a power struggle within Kosovo as the ethnic-Albanian government of the province plans to declare independence from Serbia in the beginning of December.

"This is not only a fight of gaining independence for Kosovo but also for the leadership in the future state of Kosovo," Vankovska said. "So, many people, many leaders have much at stake right now. It is very much I would say an intra-Albanian conflict but not only in Macedonia but you have to take in mind a regional context as well."

Northwestern Macedonia was on the verge of a civil war in 2001, but a growing Albanian insurgency was quelled and a broader conflict averted by a broad peace-and-reforms package brokered by the West to give ethnic Albanians more rights.

But the area has remained volatile due to ethnic-Albanian hostility to the central government, and porous borders with Kosovo to the north and Albania to the west.

Skopje, keen to project an image of stability as it seeks eventual membership in both NATO and the European Union, has frequently downplayed the risk presented by armed groups in the country’s northwest.

And on November 7, Avni Arifi, a spokesman for Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, said that Kosovo authorities are interested in stability in Macedonia.

"We urge the institutions in Macedonia to protect the lives of its citizens and private property. Peace and stability in the region is very important for Kosovo and the process Kosovo is going through," Arifi said.

The same day, Kosovo police spokesman Veton Elshani said that the Kosovo police force and the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, have increased control of the Kosovo-Macedonian border and are acting in cooperation with Macedonian security institutions.

A key factor in avoiding further conflict in the coming weeks will be the reaction of ethnic-Albanian political parties in Macedonia, says Blagoja Kuzmanovski, the head of the Macedonian-language bureau of RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service in Skopje.

"If they support these police actions, it will be good for the situation in Tetovo and Macedonia. But if they want to benefit from the situation for their own purposes, it will be bad," Kuzmanovski says.

Kuzmanovski notes that the November 7 incident is not an isolated one. Last week, another Kosovo prison fugitive was shot dead in the same region. Police denied involvement, saying Xhavid Morina was killed in a skirmish between rival criminal gangs.

Official findings wrapped up, six deaths confirmed

An official report, issued by deputy prosecutor general and investigative judge, confirmed the death of six people during Wednesday's operation "Mountain Storm".

Makfax's correspondent in Tetovo quotes the investigative officials as saying that one of the bodies, blown-up by hand bomb explosion is presumed to be the body of escaped fugitive Ramadan Shiiti.

The bodies were transported to Skopje's funeral enterprise Butel to undergo official identification. The bodies will undergo an autopsy.

Four of the bodies were found near a mosque in Brodec, whilst two other bodies were found at a site near the village on the road to Veshala.

Police uncovered large quantity of weapons. The gunmen used all types of weapons - trench mortars and light infantry weapons.

Deputy prosecutor and investigative judge confirmed that there were no casualties among police force.

Unofficial reports say 12-15 suspects have been detained so far. The extremist criminal gang included members from Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo.

Gen. Stamboliski and Petkovski will defend themselves while free

The retired General Metodi Stamboliski and the Manager of MZT FOP Mitre Petkovski will be released from police custody to prepare while free their defense in the trial relating wrongdoings in procurement of spare parts for Macedonian Army's tanks.

An investigative judge of the Skopje District Court 1 came up with this decision today.

The former Chief of Staff of ARM, Stamboliski along with Petrevski is due to be released from the Investigative Prison in Skopje tomorrow, once they provide guarantees and hand over their passports. The two have been placed under temporary detention eight days ago.

The decision came after the Court decided not to order detention to the ex-Premier Vlado Buckovski, the prime suspect in the case that took place at the time of Buckovski's tenure as a Defense Minister. Ex-State Secretary for Defense Aco Gjurchievski is also at large.

The suspects are accused of having committed embezzlement in procurement of spare parts for army tanks in 2001, causing 4 million euros damages to the State Budget.

Cocorovska on trial for cocaine smuggling

Opening statements in the trial of Stanislava Cocorovska-Poletan, accused of attempting to smuggle nearly 500 kilograms of cocaine into Macedonia, are scheduled today in Skopje Ditrsict Court 1.

Co-defendant Alija Azirovic was driving the truck carrying the cocaine hidden in paint cans. The huge cocaine shipment was seized on Blace border crossing between Macedonia and Kosovo in January this year.

Cocorovska, the suspect mastermind of the cocaine smuggling is being held in police custody in Skopje. She was arrested in Serbia and was handed over the Macedonian authorities in May. Truck driver Azirovic was detained in Skopje on 7 January.

The Anti-Organized Crime Department within Skopje Prosecutor's Office unsealed the indictment against Cocorovska in May.

The indictment alleges that two citizens of Greece were also involved in cocaine smuggling, but no arrests have been carried out thus far in Greece.

The prime suspect Cocorovska faces drug smuggling charges for allegedly masterminding the operation to transfer 483 kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela.

The cocaine, packed in paint cans and carted by a truck for Greece, has gone through customs and border checkpoints in Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo before being uncovered by Macedonian police.

Cocorovska denies involvement in smuggling of half a ton of cocaine

Stanislava Cocorovska rejected accusation of having masterminded the operation of smuggling half a ton of cocaine that was seized in the beginning of 2007 in Macedonia.

Cocorovska, the prime suspect of the trial that began today in Skopje, said that the accusations included in the indictment were false and claimed that she never saw the persons accused of being part of her smuggling network.

She stated that the shipment of the emulsion paint in which the Macedonian Police found 493 kilograms of cocaine on 7 January, was organized by a Greek citizen she identified as Yannis.

In her testimony before the court, Cocorovska said that Yannis phoned her from Venezuela and promised her to send the emulsion shipment as a compensation for $78.000 of debt.

According to the defendant, since she had no use of the third shipment of paint in which the cocaine was found, Yannis organized sellout of the same in Greece and Cocorovska was to organize the transportation of the shipment from the Montenegrin seaport of Bar to Greece through her company Makfood.

The trial of Cocorovska and co-defendant Alija Azirovic, the driver of the truck in which the cocaine was stashed, started after six-month investigation.

The main hearing will go on until Thursday, which will be followed by taking testimonies of the witnesses and the defendants.

Department for fighting organized crime and corruption with the Skopje Prosecution Office initiated the indictment act, which involves also two Greek citizens who are wanted by the Police.

The prime suspect Cocorovska is accused of having masterminded the transportation of 483 kilograms of cocaine originating from Venezuela. The drugs arrived in the Montenegro's seaport of Bar by a Croatian freight ship, where it was stashed in emulsion containers and loaded in a truck driven by Azirovic.

Former PM faces fraud charges

Macedonian prosecutors planned on Wednesday to probe into the alleged involvement of former prime minister Vlado Buckovski into an arms procurement scandal that led to the arrest of the country's retired army chief.

A court asked to strip the former Prime Minister of his immunity that he is enjoying as a member of parliament and put him under investigation, news reaching here from Skopje reported.

On Tuesday, retired General Metodi Stamboliski, former army chief of staff, was put under temporary detention on suspicion of over-ordering spare parts for T55 tanks in 2001, costing the country 3 million euros (4.14 US dollars).

Vlado Buckovski was defense minister when the order was made and he was suspected of getting involvement in the case.

"I will cooperate with this new investigation," Buckovski, who served as Macedonia's prime minister from 2004 to 2006, said in a statement.

He pointed out that another investigation, carried out during the period of September 2002-July 2003, had found nothing wrong with the case, Makfax, Macedonia's independent new agency, reported.

Former army chief in FYROM arrested on embezzlement

he FYROM army's former chief of staff has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling €1.8 million (US$2.5 million) through an order of spare tank parts, authorities said Tuesday.

"Police have detained retired Gen. Metodi Stamboliski ... on the suspicion that he abused his authority," police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

The spokesman said Stamboliski, 60, is suspected of ordering four times the quantity of tank parts required by the armed forces in November 2001.

"He was not authorized to sign that deal and he damaged the state," Kotevski said.

The deal was signed after a conflict between FYROM government forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 2001. The six-month conflict is blamed for the deaths of 80 people.

Kotevski said Stamboliski appeared in court Tuesday for questioning. Formal charges are still pending, he said.

FYROM is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Probe widens in FYROM military corruption scandal

Prosecutors in the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM) have launched a probe Wednesday into the alleged involvement of former prime minister Vlado Buckovski into an arms procurement scandal that led to the arrest of the country's retired army chief.

The office of public prosecution said the investigation was ordered based on a request by the police's fraud agency.

The office gave no details of Buckovski's alleged involvement.

On Tuesday, a former army chief of staff, retired Gen. Metodi Stamboliski, 60, was arrested on suspicion of ordering four times the quantity of tank parts required by the armed forces in November 2001, costing the state €1.8 million (US$2.5 million).

The arms deal was signed after a conflict between FYROM government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels in 2001. The six-month conflict is blamed for the deaths of 80 people.

Buckovski was defense minister when the order was signed. He then served as Social Democrat prime minister between 2004 and 2006, when the party was defeated in elections by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's conservatives.

24 women held by police in Western Macedonia

Skopje. 24 women, who had worked illegally in restaurants in the regions of Gostivar, were arrested by police in Macedonia, Makfax reports.
The police operation was organized late last night in Gostivar and the villages of Cegrane, Raven and Dobro dol. According to the information, 10 of the women were from Macedonia, 9 from Serbia, 4 – from Albania and one from Bulgaria.

Villager killed after a fight for water

An inhabitant of the Ohrid nearby village of Konjsko slew a fellow-villager after a fight that broke out for water used for watering of cattle.

P.B., 59, hit with a blunt object Srebre S., 61, who later on succumbed to the severe injury. The incident took place at the Asanzura locality Tuesday evening, the Police announced.

The wife of Srebre S. found her dead husband's body Wednesday afternoon.

P.B. has been detained by the Ohrid Police, who will face criminal charges.

Defendants in Army Weapons case get cumulative sentence of 13 years in prison

Skopje District Court sentenced to a total of 13 years imprisonment four of the defendants in the Army Weapons case, and pronounced suspended sentences to the remaining four co-defendants.

The Trial Chamber Presided by judge Pavlina Hristova pronounced the verdicts, including four-year prison term to both Nelko Menkinovski, the former head of the logistics sector, and to Viktor Raichki, the former advisor on the logistics sector with the defense ministry, Macedonian Television reported.

Ilija Shkodrovski, a high-ranking officer in the ARM General Staff got three years, while Gligor Stojanov, the head of the MZT Repair Shop will serve two years in prison.

Suspended sentences were pronounced to Vladimir Lazarov, commander of ARM's WING, to Blazho Kopachev, high-ranking officer of the ARM General Staff, to Mitko Rafajlovski, the head of the procurement department with ARM General Staff, and to Toni Popovski, the head of the Veles-based training headquarter command.

The last four got three-year suspended sentence each.

According to the indictment, the convicts have damaged the state budget by $690.000 by selling out the arms by a fraction of the actual price to the Bulgarian Company Emko.

The defense lawyers announced to appeal the verdicts.