Macedonia admits assassination of illegal immigrants

4.00pm

Macedonian police confirmed on Sunday that six Pakistanis and one Indian, killed two years ago as "Mujahideen terrorists", were in fact illegal immigrants executed for political purposes by the government of the time.

"It was a monstrous fabrication to get the attention of the international community," Interior Ministry (police) spokeswoman Mirjana Kontevska told reporters in the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

Mrs Kontevska accused former interior minister Ljube Boskovski, a hard-line Macedonian nationalist, of masterminding the crime.

Mr Boskovski lost the job after his party's grip on power slipped in elections two years ago, but he remained an MP.

The state prosecutor has now demanded that he be detained.

A parliamentary committee stripped Mr Boskovski of political immunity over the weekend.

In March 2002, Mr Boskovski claimed to have achieved "major success in the war against international terrorism".

He claimed that seven alleged "Mujahideen" from Pakistan and India, who were killed in Macedonia, planned to attack Western embassies in Skoplje before going on to "infiltrate the West".

At the time, Macedonia was aiming to gain favour with the US.

It also aimed to present itself as a potential victim of Islamic terrorists.

The killing of the seven took place at a highly sensitive time, six months after the September 11 terrorist attack against the US and just months after civil war was averted in Macedonia itself.

"Only a sick mind could construct and give the order for such a gross liquidation of seven people, whose destiny ended as though they were in a horror movie," Mrs Kontevska said.

She blamed Mr Boskovski for taking seven lives "in the name of the state".

According to the investigation, details of which were revealed only last weekend, a police chief was told in February 2002 to find migrants who could fit the description of Islamic terrorists.

The victims were chosen as they crossed into Macedonia from neighbouring Bulgaria.

Both countries are on the route of many illegal immigrants who try to find better lives in Europe.

Once they entered Macedonia, the seven men were ambushed, kidnapped and brought to a spot named Rastanski Lozja, five kilometres north of Skoplje.

They were killed by special police unit members in cold blood.

Macedonian special police dubbed the action "Rastanski Lozja".

The public was told that the seven were killed after ambushing a police patrol.

Local TV stations showed footage of the dead men with guns stuck in their waistbands.

The violent action and the discovery of alleged terrorists in March 2002 was met with suspicion by analysts and diplomats at the time.

Although Macedonia left the Yugoslav federation in 1991 unscarred, the tiny republic saw six months of violence between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians in 2001. Dozens of people died.

The conflict, which threatened to develop into a full-scale civil war, ended with the so-called "Ohrid Agreement" in the summer of 2001.

The internationally sponsored agreement enabled greater participation of ethnic Albanians in all walks of life, including politics.

It also prevented further bloodshed between Macedonians, who are of Slav origin and of Orthodox faith, and their ethnic Albanian neighbours, who are Muslims.

Mr Boskovski's actions in the 2001 conflict attracted the attention of The Hague-based war crimes tribunal.

An investigation is under way into the violent response of Macedonian police against the ethnic Albanian insurgency.

The police were led by Mr Boskovski.

Mr Boskovski used the deaths of the seven alleged terrorists to claim that the ethnic Albanian rebels sympathised with militant Islamic groups, including al Qaeda.

His statements threatened to ruin the fragile peace in the country.

Macedonian police said on Saturday that four ex-police officers and a businessman had been arrested in connection with the March 2002 crime.

Mr Boskovski denied all the allegations.

"I have not given any such order to eliminate such a group" he said. "Before I'm taken into custody, I solemnly declare I'm telling you the truth".

Relatives of the six Pakistanis said yesterday they would seek damages.

Ansar Burney, a lawyer who heads Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, a civil rights group which has campaigned on behalf of the victims' families, said he was preparing to file a suit in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, seeking US$2 million in damages for each family.

"We will sue the government for US$12 million," he said from London, where he is based.

- INDEPENDENT