A rchive Date
[ 30-04-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Macedonia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/04/30/442598-ap.html
Macedonia staged anti-terror action
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonian police revealed Friday that the killings of seven alleged Pakistani terrorists two years ago were staged to win U.S. support and that the victims were innocent illegal immigrants.
Speaking after two years of investigations, a police spokeswoman, Mirjana Konteska, told reporters that six people, including three former police commanders, two special police officers and a businessman, have been charged by police with murder. "That was an act of a sick mind," Konteska said. "They . . . ordered the brutal murder of the seven Pakistani men."
Konteska refused to directly name the suspects but mentioned police generals Goran Stojkov and Boban Utkovski, as well as Aleksandar Cvetkovski, another senior police official, as among those allegedly involved. She also named former interior minister Ljube Boskovski in connection with the shootings.
Shortly after the revelations, a parliamentary committee revoked Boskovski's immunity from prosecution that he had enjoyed as a legislator. Officials said the committee had met earlier in the day on request of the investigative judge heading the inquiry.
Boskovski, appointed interior minister by the previous nationalist government, headed the police during Macedonia's 2001 ethnic conflict and at the time of the killings of the Pakistanis. He denied the allegations, telling reporters that he and his associates got the tip about the alleged terrorists from unidentified "American intelligence officers."
Konteska however said that an additional forensic and ballistic investigation confirmed that the action was staged. She said the investigation was ongoing and there could be more suspects. If found guilty, the accused could face from 10 years to life in prison.
The so-called "Rastanski Lozja" action was carried out in March 2002 by special Macedonian police who claimed to have eliminated a terrorist group allegedly plotting to attack international embassies and representatives in Macedonia. Senior police officials said at the time that the seven men were killed as they tried to ambush a police patrol and that the police fired in response to their attack. The police also claimed that AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and ammunition were found near the van that the men were using.
But Konteska said that the seven Pakistani men were in fact illegal immigrants who were lured into Macedonia by promises that they would be transferred to Western Europe.
She said that the plan to set them up and kill them was made by top police officials in February 2002, after which the victims were brought in from neighbouring Bulgaria and initially kept for days in an apartment in the capital, Skopje.
On March 3, 2002 they were transported by police to the Rastanski Lozja area, about five kilometres northeast of Skopje, where they were encircled and gunned down by special police using automatic weapons, Konteska said. "They lost their lives in a staged murder," said Konteska.
At the time of the killings, the U.S. Embassy released a statement that said U.S. personnel were "not aware of any indication that there was a specific threat" to the embassy.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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