Tinko Eftimov , George Mladenoff - "Open letter"
To the Ambassadors
in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
and other relevant representatives of the
International Human Rights organizations
April 16, 2001
Dear sirs,
The banning of the Citizen Association, "Radko", in Ohrid by the
Constitutional Court in Skopje (21 Mar 2001), on the grounds
that its activities promoted "racial and religious hate and
intolerance"
and "violated the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia",
surely warranted some attention by the International media.
Instead the silence was absolute. Accordingly, and from the numerous
similar previous occurrences, one may only conclude, that so-called
human rights' organizations are quite selective and judgemental in such matters.
This is precisely why in the past, individuals like James Pettifer, have
questioned whether organizations like the Helsinki Human Rights
Group's reports on Balkan issues are politically
subjective, rather than objective. So what was "Radko's" hideous
crime?
Simply this, its members hold the view that they are Macedonians of
Bulgarian ancestry. You see, within the Republic of Macedonia (RoM), it
remains a crime to question the ethno-specificity of Macedonians
(Macedonian Honour Act), while laws prohibiting the possession of Bulgarian
books were only repealed in July 1999, despite strong protests from
communist politicians and academics. The communist old-guard
(nomenklatura) and it's servile intelligentsia, who established their
current privileged lifestyle during the totalitarian era, share a
common trepidation about true democracy and any form of
Macedonian-Bulgarian rapprochement. Little wonder the Serbian
constructed anti-Bulgarian policies of the Yugoslavian era not only endure,
but are actively encouraged at each and every possible opportunity. While
the Western media continually recount how RoM was the only federated
republic to peacefully gain its independence, not one report has ever
bothered to explain exactly why. If we were to visit Croatia or Slovenia,
one would see few, if any, reminders of the Tito era, or support for
it's return. No so in RoM. Tito's pictures still hang conspicuously,
and sites/towns bearing his name (renamed post-1944) still maintain that
label. And
there is no doubt, whatsoever, that neither Croatia or Slovenia voted
for independence, with a rejoinder that allowed reunification with
Yugoslavia at some future date! Even more damning is that celebrated
leaders from the communist past (?), responsible for countless atrocities
against the Macedonian people, which certainly more than qualify as crimes
against humanity, continue to live an open luxurious lifestyle, immune from
accountability, let alone justice. Unbelievably, attempts in the
pro-1991 era, for even a token concession that such atrocities took place,
were steadfastly resisted by the communist government, on the grounds they
nurtured "pro-Bulgarian" sentiment. The communists however, neglected
to
reveal that some present members of its own party were clearly implicated
in those very same crimes. The grotesque hypocrisy of the communist
position was plainly exposed by the Skopje newspaper "Delo", when it
stated that "the executioners cannot rehabilitate their own victims".
However bringing the latter individuals to justice is evidently of
negligible
concern to the likes of attorney, Professor Georgi Marianovich, who
would rather expend his resources and efforts to see "Radko" banned.
After all, Macedonians who say they are Bulgarian, isn't that the very reason
why individuals, associated with past abhorrent atrocities, still exist
and evade justice in RoM?
Sincerely,
Tinko Eftimov, Ph.D.
President of the National Capital Region Bulgarian Community,
Ottawa-Hull, Canada
http://www.ncf.ca/bg-ottawa/
bg-ottawa@ncf.ca
George Mladenoff
Chairman, MPO "Luben Dimitroff"
Toronto, Canada
http://www3.sympatico.ca/george.mladenoff/
http://classica.art.bg/vardar.htm
http://web.orbitel.bg/classica/index.html
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