Dear Sir/Madame,

 

In respect to the BBC's coverage of events on the Macedonia -Kosovo border, I am signing the following protest:

 

- The continuing misinformation on the events in Macedonia by the BBC is giving significant support to the Albanian extremists' terrorist attacks on Macedonia.

 

- The frequently repeated BBC report in which an

Albanian woman living in the border area with Kosovo is quoted as saying,"the Macedonians are

even worse than the Serbs" is an example of propagandist and populist quasi-journalism in which

the stability and future of one whole nation (Macedonia) is put at risk.

 

-The BBC is constantly (intentionally!?) failing to give a complete, fair picture of events in Macedonia, and especially on the issue of the extent of human rights that the Albanian population in Macedonia already enjoys. The BBC has not bothered a single time to mention the already achieved human/minority rights of the Albanians in Macedonia.

 

- During the last 10 years of Macedonian independence it has become an inevitable practice that every government will have a coalition with the Albanian minority political parties. In the current

coalition government, the political party of the Macedonian Albanians holds four key minister offices and several deputy positions.  There are 28 Albanian MPs in the 120 seat Macedonian Parliament. Minority rights are extended to the maximum where education is concerned. The Albanian minority in the country has education in its mother tongue up  to and including

University level (a brand new Albanian language University is under-construction at the moment). 

 

Many TV and radio stations in Macedonia broadcast full programming in Albanian.

Macedonia had Albanian language TV programs much before even Albania had a TV station. There are numerous Albanian daily newspapers, magazines, and literature printed in Macedonia.

Albanians in Macedonia hold high-ranking executive positions in public enterprises, army, police, local government etc.  The Macedonian Army and Police have Albanian Generals and other high-ranking officers. In the Municipalities where Albanians are more than 20% of the population the Albanian language is an official language of communication.  This is just a small fragment of the list of rights that the Albanians in Macedonia have under the Macedonian constitution. Minority rights in Macedonia have been uplifted to a level much higher than what European conventions and juridical practice in EU countries prescribe. While there was war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo due to basic minority rights violations, Macedonian minority rights democracy was flourishing.

 

Dear staff of the BBC, is this what makes the Macedonians "worse than the Serbs"?!! Were Macedonians really "worse than Serbs" when they were the only ones who welcomed

400.000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo into Macedonia during the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia!?? Macedonia's stability in 1999 was sacrificed in the name of humanity and the readiness to accept 400.000 Albanian Kosovar refugees in the country while none of

the NATO countries was willing to take no more than few hundreds of refugees. Is

this the way you are saying THANK YOU for the political, strategic and logistic help which Macedonia gave to NATO during the Kosovo crisis!? Furthermore, your portrayal of ethnic Macedonians as "slavs", and not Macedonians, is insulting. When you write about Poles,

Czechs, Serbs, Russians, Croats, etc., BBC does not certainly label them as "slavs".

 

This letter appeals to your sense of responsibility, fairness and logic reasoning to prevail in the BBC reporter's coverage on the events in Macedonia. Macedonia and its 10 years of successful

democratic practice are endangered by the radical, unreasonable, barbaric acts of Albanian guerrillas. Macedonia is the last country in Europe that deserves this type of

irresponsible treatment by BBC!

 

STOP the quasi-reporting from Macedonia! Give Macedonia fair treatment!

 

Sincerely Yours,

Very Rev. Mitko Poposki