Macedonian Albanians Protest Over Police Killing :: Balkan Insight

By David Edenden

Sabine Freizer Gunes ‏ @SabineICGStop police impunity in Macedonia before it leads to more ethnic tensions after 2 deaths in Gostivar:balkaninsight.com/en/article/alb…

David Edenden ‏ @DavidEdenden@SabineICG and I both don't know what happened. She:#Macedonian police have license to kill #Albanians Me: #ICG wants to destroy Macedonia,

The International Crisis Group is not our friend. They are a nest of vampires!

Macedonian Albanians Protest Over Police Killing :: Balkan Insight:

Thousands of ethnic Albanian protested in Gostivar, expressing anger over the police shooting of two young men and accusing the police of trying to downplay the gravity of the incident. Windows were broken and a police vehicle attacked after the rally, which passed off calmly.

The trouble started on Tuesday when an ethnic Macedonian police officer from Gostivar, while off duty, shot dead two ethnic Albanians in the town in unexplained circumstances.

Jakim Trifunovski, 39, was arrested the next day and a court ordered his 30-day detention.

But the police version of events - that he was attacked by a gang and opened fire in self-defence - was disputed by an eyewitness, sparking discontent among the Albanians who make a quarter of the country’s population and dominate Gostivar.

Police initialy said Trifunovski shot Imran Mehmet, 29, and Besnik Shehapi, 26, in self-defence. They said he was first attacked by four persons while parking his car outside his home in the presence of his young daughter.

But someone calling himself an eyewitness told Alsat M TV that the suspect killed the two young men in a banal feud over a parking space. According to this version, the suspect, after receiving a slap in the face, reached for his gun and blasted the two men.

“If the police fail to apologize and withdraw their claims that the policeman fired in self-defence, we will continue and intensify the protests,” one speaker told the rally in Gostivar.

lthough supported by prominent Albanians and by the Gostivar municipality, no group formally took credit for organizing the protest, which started before the town courthouse and proceeded to the main square. During the march shouts could be heard calling for revenge on “Slavo-Macedonians” and backing “great Albania”

"“Slavo-Macedonian” is a derogatory term for the country's Macedonian majority.


On Wednesday the US Ambassador to Macedonia, Paul Wohlers, asked for an investigation and urged people to await the judicial process with calm. On Thursday the OSCE office in Skopje delivered a similar message."

(Edenden: Paul Wohlers, why not call the ICC to investigate then ignore its recommendations?)