wfn.org | WCC - Cikle and Fatmir: living inter-ethnic cooperation

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

in Macedonia

World Council of Churches
Press Feature, Feat-01-12
For Immediate Use
30 August 2001

Cikle and Fatmir: living inter-ethnic cooperation in Macedonia

Antony Mahony

Everyone knows Aleksandar Krzalovski as "Cikle", a nickname he
acquired as a student at the Korchagin high school for promising
young mathematicians in Skopje.  He went on to study computer
science and seemed destined for a career in technology, but the
path he took led him instead to the interreligious Macedonian
Centre for International Cooperation (MCIC), where he is managing
the current emergency programme.  MCIC was founded by the World
Council of Churches (WCC) in 1993 with the support of Dutch
InterChurch Aid in an effort to improve inter-ethnic relations
and bring about peace through development.  

Like all his contemporaries, Cikle has seen many changes in his
country in the ten years since it became independent from the
former Yugoslavia.  For once in their history, he says,
Macedonians had an opportunity to manage their own affairs rather
than be subject to a government in Belgrade or to the Ottomans
before that.  The era of brotherhood and unity of communist
Yugoslavia had held many different ethnic groups together in a
single multi-ethnic society.  But when this ended, says Cikle, a
much sharper sense of individual identity began to emerge.  In
the new Macedonia, people's ethnic self-awareness became
stronger, whether they were Macedonians or Albanians or members
of one of the other minorities, such as Vlach, Roma or Turk.  

Cikle can recall only one Albanian in his class of 35 pupils,
and had little contact with Albanians until he joined MCIC.  He
admits that his attitudes have changed:  "My level of tolerance
is much higher after five years at MCIC than before and for all
the staff, it's been the same experience."  In contrast, he has
noticed that some of his contemporaries have attitudes and
opinions they did not have before: signs of racial prejudice and
xenophobia have come to the surface.  Even more alarming, he
feels, is the peer pressure felt by people of moderate views to
adopt an intolerant attitude in the country's present crisis. 
According to Cikle, it has become a new orthodoxy to blame others
for precipitating the crisis: the Macedonians blame the
Albanians, who in turn blame the Macedonians.  He feels that the
space for dialogue and interaction between the country's ethnic
groups has steadily eroded, especially since the outbreak of
violence this year.  

Over the past eight years, MCIC has worked on many occasions
with Albanian communities, including projects to supply water to
minority villages in the north and west of the country and other
community development and income-generating initiatives.  This
experience was important when the decision was taken to work in
Kosovo in 1999 after the end of the NATO bombing campaign.  MCIC
was keen for a Macedonian agency to be operational in Kosovo as a
sign of the commitment of the neighbouring country to the needs
of the people there.  With a new office in Djakovica, MCIC began
to build up trust with the local people by providing them with
items they really needed, such as building materials and food. 
The organization learned that it had the capacity to grow to meet
the demands of a major humanitarian programme, and that its staff
were able to develop new roles.  

Cikle was transferred to the new Kosovo programme, where he
found himself working long hours in the office.  "Cikle, you melt
into the environment!", as one of his colleagues put it.  This
was not a task for the faint-hearted: in the early days of the
operation, the office received threatening telephone calls
following the lay-off of some members of staff and the mediation
of the mayor was required.  Cikle had to take precautions for his
own safety: even though he was well-known and respected through
all of Djakovica, he could not speak his own language in public
for fear of being mistaken for a Serb, and was always accompanied
by one of his local staff.  "However, I did feel special as I was
aware I was the only Macedonian working freely in Djakovica," he
recalls.  

Fatmir Bitiki came to MCIC along a quite different path.  He
grew up in a Skopje neighbourhood that was 90 percent Macedonian,
but his family was on good terms with all its neighbours.  He was
an excellent student at the Zef Lush Marku Albanian-language high
school in Skopje, but he always dreamed of going to the military
academy of Yugoslavia.  Normally his record would have merited a
place at the academy, but strangely, this opportunity never came.
 When he completed school in 1993, he decided to study management
at university.  But when he applied to the University of Skopje,
there were no places left.  What could he do?  There was still a
chance of enrolling in a similar course at the Faculty of
Economic Management at Tirana University, but he would not be
eligible for any support from the Macedonian government if he
went there.  Fortunately, his older brother agreed to sponsor him
for the next four years.  

But Fatmir's heart was still set on the military career that
other members of his family had followed before him.  He thought
his chance would come in 1997 when he was due to do his military
service in the Macedonian armed forces.  But the new Macedonia
did not have a military academy; this remained in Serbia at the
break-up of the former Yugoslavia, and Fatmir joined the ranks. 
This proved to be a learning experience for him:  " I discovered
how hard it is to be an Albanian and serve in the army.  In my
class, I was the only one who had studied, but this didn't help
me to get promoted.  Maybe I wasn't suited to the army after
all."  Again, his dream was unfulfilled.  

By 1999, Fatmir was looking for a way to start his career.  It
was not a good time to be looking for a job in Macedonia,
especially as his higher qualifications were not recognized by
local employers.  He admits he was not very optimistic.  Yet it
was at that point that his luck changed.  A friend recommended
him to apply to MCIC.  "My interview was an eye-opener for what
was going on in the NGO sector in this country.  I found there
were still good people working here," he says.  

He was taken on with MCIC's NGO development programme as a
training officer.  Before long, he found himself on a "training
of trainers" course in The Netherlands.  But no sooner had this
new career path opened up than the Kosovo crisis exploded.  In
October, Fatmir began to work on MCIC's programme in Kosovo,
where he was particularly well qualified to work as a liaison
between the organization and local partner NGOs.  "It was a
challenge for me.  I knew the people and the culture, I thought
it would be easy."  But things had changed for the people who had
been first displaced, then returned to their homes in Kosovo.  A
new, harsher and more intolerant attitude had surfaced:  "It used
to be normal to hear Macedonian or Serbian spoken there, but no
longer."   

The political situation in Macedonia this year has brought a
special challenge to MCIC.  It was sometimes painful for Fatmir
when his colleagues discussed the inter-ethnic troubles and
strong words were exchanged by people who normally had the best
of working relationships.  He had different views about what was
going on but didn't initially wish to voice these publicly for
fear of what his colleagues might say.  The director, Saso
Klekovski, feels that he and the staff had to take responsibility
for keeping the peace inside the organization.  "Peace is based
on relations between people, not on political elites.  I wanted
to promote the idea that we can speak out, even when we are
angry.  People have to be aware how we are feeling, even if we
express opposing views.  That is the meaning of tolerance. 
Silence makes the gap between us larger."  Thus they agreed to
hold regular information meetings where staff are encouraged to
discuss the current political issues openly.  This has preserved
the shared sense of belonging and mutual trust between the staff
during these crucial times.  

Colleagues have had to help each other in practical ways.  Some
Macedonian staff have been unwilling to travel to majority
Albanian areas, for reasons of safety.  For his part, Fatmir has
not ventured to Bitola, where Albanian shops and properties were
attacked and torched by an angry crowd at the end of April.  On
the other hand, he did visit Probistip, an ethnic Macedonian town
in the east of the country, accompanied by a Macedonian
colleague, for a monitoring visit to a local NGO.  He is sure
about the strength of his relationships with the people and
organizations with which he works, whatever their ethnicity.  But
in the current situation, everyone is more wary than before. 
"You never know who might stop you on the road," he says.  

In these troubled times when communities are being driven apart
by destructive forces, any sign of cooperation and understanding
needs to be cherished as a sign of hope.  "It's not the same as
before the war," says Cikle, "but with our experience in
Macedonia and our ethnically mixed composition, we can set an
example of cooperation between different people."  Working for
the benefit of the community in the service of peace, Cikle and
Fatmir are doing what the international mediators and local
politicians can only talk about: they are holding the centre in
Macedonia.  
______________
Antony Mahony has been working as interim consultant for the
South-East Europe Ecumenical Partnership (SEEEP) - a WCC
programme established in 2000. The programme aims at promoting
cooperation between churches, related organizations and other
partners to foster peace, justice and economic development
throughout the region. MCIC is the WCC's key partner in the
Republic of Macedonia, and involves all religious and ethnic
communities of the country in its work. The terms "Macedonia" and
"Macedonian" refer to the state and people of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia and do not imply any official position of
the WCC.

For photos to accompany this Feature, please contact  Catherine
Alt, 
E-Mail: crd@wcc-coe.org   Tel:  (+41.22) 791.62.95

For further information, please contact Karin Achtelstetter,
Media Relations Officer,  Tel:  (+41.22) 791.61.53   	Mobile: 
(+41) 79.284.52.12

**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
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highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
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