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Since NATO's air campaign against Slobodan Milosevic got underway, Macedonia--a small, impoverished state that broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991--has faced a nightmare: how to cope with a torrent of refugees fleeing Kosovo. Overwhelmed, Macedonia slammed its borders shut last week, trapping tens of thousands of refugees in a squalid no man's land. By the time the Macedonians relented, Serbian authorities had forced most of the refugees back into Kosovo. Later, Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov discussed the crisis with NEWSWEEK's Rod Nordland in the president's office in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Excerpts:
NORDLAND: How do you feel about so many refugees trying to flee into Macedonia?
GLIGOROV: No one expected such a huge influx. As far as I know, even NATO didn't expect such numbers, nor did [other] neighboring countries. It's not just a case of refugees fleeing Kosovo to save their lives from airstrikes; these are people who were deported from Kosovo--ethnic cleansing.
There were many cases of Macedonian authorities treating refugees improperly, splitting up families, forcibly putting them on buses. Are you concerned about this?
With such an enormous influx of refugees in a small country such as ours--the figure is now estimated to be about 140,000--it was an organizational and economic difficulty to take in so many. So incidents of this kind are not to be excluded, although I believe these have been individual cases. Otherwise, people are very compassionate about the refugees, and we are all trying to help them. The fact that about 30,000 families have taken in refugees despite our dire economic situation speaks for itself.
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Are you concerned that too large an influx of Albanian refugees could upset the delicate ethnic balance in your country?
NATO and the European Union [maintain] that refugees should be located as near as possible to Kosovo so they [can] return. On the other hand, we know well that Albanians who have been coming into Macedonia from Albania and Kosovo do not [leave]. Notwithstanding the economic weakness of our country, life here is much better than it is in Albania or Kosovo. With this experience in mind, our people are perhaps rightly concerned that under the great numbers of people coming in, as well as the fact that this situation may be prolonged, we may be seeing other problems as a result.
Are you concerned that the war in Kosovo could spill over to Macedonia and provoke a wider Balkan war?
In the course of our independence, we have constantly pointed out that the war in Bosnia and Croatia could spill over into a Balkan war or even a wider war. And Kosovo is right next to us.
How worried are you about this?
If some kind of a peace agreement is reached then this danger is decreased. If no peace agreement is reached, and particularly if NATO opts for sending in ground troops, such a danger would increase.
Do you think airstrikes will succeed in making the Serbs agree to NATO's demands?
These strikes are not at all minor and not at all without consequence. The longer they last, the greater the damage will be. What's left to be seen is how long [the Serbian] people endure and how long NATO persists. Let us hope that Milosevic is not carried away by the mad idea that he may prevail over NATO. The Serbs are people who are brought up on history and myths; they live in the belief that no great power has ever succeeded in being victorious over them. This is a situation which demands a cool head and cool reasoning in order to prevent further damage. But whether this is also Milosevic's line of reasoning and thinking remains to be seen.
Are airstrikes the right thing to do?
As a human being, I stand against any kind of strikes. But Milosevic since 1989 has abolished all the constitutional rights the Albanians had. The efforts to achieve peace have been unsuccessful, and the only way left was to resort to the use of force.
Macedonia wants to become a member of NATO. Has this crisis helped or hurt?
Everything we have done so far in support of NATO's operation clearly shows our long-term orientation toward integration into NATO and the European Union. But it's a different question whether this is also their opinion.
The treatment of the refugees and incidents like the attack on the American Embassy have given Macedonia a black eye in the West.
I don't know of a single Balkan country that has not had demonstrations. [The attack on the U.S. Embassy] was in fact the work of the Democratic Party of the Serbs in Macedonia, perhaps even in coordination with some organizations in Serbia.
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