http://www.bgnewsnet.com/story.php?sid=4807
Bulgaria News Network
April 30, 2004

Macedonia Police Said to Stage "Anti-terrorist" Coup

SKOPJE, Apr 30 (BGNES) -- Macedonia charged four officers
of its security forces with murder on Friday in the 2002 killing
of what the interior minister at the time said were seven armed
"Mujahideen terrorists" from Pakistan.

The public prosecutor's office said it had asked parliament
to lift the immunity of former interior minister Ljube Boskovski
so he could be charged. A parliamentary committee was debating
the request.

"It was a monstrous fabrication to get the attention of the
international community. Only a sick mind can construct and give
the order for such a gross liquidation of seven people whose destiny
ended like in a horror movie," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Mirjana
Kontevska told a news conference.

According to police sources, the prosecution said a police chief was
told to find migrants who could fit the description of Islamic terrorists.

They said the group, in fact economic migrants passing through Macedonia,
was pin-pointed, kidnapped and killed in what security forces claimed
was a coup against global terrorism.

"Nobody has the right on the basis of his own craziness to take
someone's life in the name of the state," Kontevska said, in an
apparent reference to Boskovski, who earned a reputation in office as
an extreme nationalist.

She said the seven dead men, pictured in police photographs at the time
with guns in their belts, were economic migrants passing through Macedonia
on their way westwards.

Police sources said two of those in custody were generals in the police
force and a further two men had been charged.

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

"There was no order to kill civilians," he said. His rightist
VMRO-DPMNE party lost a presidential election on Wednesday to
Social Democrat Branko Crvenkovski, whose party has held power for
18 months.

The ambush occurred in March 2002, six months after the September 11
attacks in the United States, at a time when Macedonia was recovering
from a five-month ethnic conflict which almost ignited all-out civil war
with separatist Albanians, who are mainly Muslim.

The West chose to tread softly with Skopje at the time but diplomats
said questions remained unanswered about the ambush and killing of the
seven, believed to be six Pakistanis and an Indian.

Boskovski's then ministry said three policemen had killed the
armed fighters in a rural area just north of the capital Skopje.

They had been ordered to stop but opened fire, according to the
official version of events.

No police were wounded in the ambush, allegedly set on the basis
of a radio intercept and suspicion the group was planning attacks
on state officials and Western embassies. -- (Reuters)
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3674533.stm
BBC News | Europe Friday, 30 April, 2004, 16:48 GMT 17:48 UK

Macedonia faked 'militant' raid

Macedonian officials have admitted that seven alleged Pakistani militants
killed in March 2002 were in fact illegal immigrants shot in cold blood.

They said four officers in the security services had been charged
with their murder, while former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski
may also face charges.

At the time, the interior ministry said they had been killed after
trying to ambush police in the capital, Skopje.

But a police spokeswoman said they had in fact been shot in a
"staged murder".

Questions asked

When the incident was reported more than two years ago, it was
claimed that a new front had opened up in the war on terror.

The Macedonian interior ministry said the seven men of Pakistani origin
were killed after opening fire on a police patrol with machine guns.

Mr Boskovski said the dead men had been planning attacks on vital
installations and embassies.

But questions soon began to be asked about the authorities' version
of events.

Now the public prosecutor's office has brought charges against officers
involved in the case and has asked parliament to waive Mr Boskovski's
immunity from prosecution.

The former interior minister denies any wrongdoing.

Gunned down

Police spokeswoman Mirjana Konteska told the Associated Press news
agency that the victims were illegal immigrants who had been lured
into Macedonia by promises that they would be taken to western Europe.

She said they were transported to the Rastanski Lozja area, about
5km north of Skopje, where they were surrounded and gunned down
by police.

"They lost their lives in a staged murder," she said.

Ms Konteska told AP the investigation was continuing and more
suspects could be charged.

If convicted, they face between 10 years and life in prison.
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