Each political establishment has its own criminal escort


The Public Prosecutor’s Office will act on the case of life threats to the president of the Association of Journalists, Naser Selmani. The case has been assigned to a public prosecutor, the Prosecution confirms. A respond is expected whether the threats that the Asani brothers made after Selmani’s conclusion that the rule of law kneeled before the thugs, alluding to the story of the policewoman and the tow truck in front of “Mavrovka” shopping center, have elements of crime. The government has shifted from its own responsibility, considering that it is a senior DUI official, explaining that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has completed its part of the task and that everything is now in the hands of the prosecution. Also, Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani told the institutions to freely carry out the task because no one was protected.

However, in the shadows of declarative statements and encouragement from party leaders, there is an indisputable truth that every political establishment has its own criminal escort, tasked with doing the dirty business inherent in every center of power. Characteristic for them is that they are protected even when the power is shifted, and the only danger is the rival groups, that is, the direct calculation with them, and not the reaction of the legal state.
“At the beginning of independence, such parallelism in the parties was not so widespread for two reasons: first, the newly formed parties did not even know how to behave, and second, the underworld was not so organized. But it took only two or three years of experience from Serbia and Bulgaria, so the situation changed drastically. In 1994, through the famous incident in the Hard Rock discotheque, we have the first case of political-criminal connection, which, by the way, has not been cleared to this day, and the chaos has continued in all the past years. You remember that not so long ago we had several situations in which the closest power providers caused traffic accidents with  tragic epilogues, and none of them went to jail. The latest illustrations of force coming from the so-called the party’s “Cair wing”, which is a coalition partner in the Government, is a picture and opportunity for the political scene when the thugs feel untouchable and manifest it most openly,” sources in the political and security structures in the country explain.

According to them, the rise of the underground to high political structures begins seemingly naive when parties hold rallies, tribunes, or other events in public, after which parties need security.
“These are mostly people with a criminal past or people that know the ‘streets’ well, and they do not necessarily have to be boxers or karate fighters. In this way, little by little, they begin to associate with the party leadership at the local and state level. Leaders are in the interest of having a large and powerful team besides themselves, so they also gain more power. The ‘Guards’ quickly integrate, first they receive minor tasks, for instance, to demand and take money on behalf of their new employers, such as ‘this is a greeting from the President’ etc. But the problem is that they started to get employment in the police, and that of high-ranking officials,” our interlocutors say.
By gaining tremendous power, they destroy the country’s security system, they have the opportunity to directly influence the processes, paramilitaries arise, racketeering becomes legal, and the state begins to work for the party.
“It is not such a dangerous structure, the state can easily deal with it if it wants, but the problem is that every new government keeps it for itself, because they do not know the ideology, only the interest. Rare are those who remain loyal to the party and they would never work for the ‘others’, political and security sources for “Nezavisen/Independent” say.
They emphasize that one of the reasons why politicians work on behalf of criminal structures is that they have not learned the “school on the street”, unlike, for instance, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who was a security guard and who knows how to deal with those similar to him.

Journalists warn: “The bastards will not be silenced”

Macedonian journalists yesterday protested outside the government’s headquarters to support the president of the AJM, Naser Selmani, but also expressed their dissatisfaction with the passivity of the institutions to respond to the insults and life threats of the DUI official, Bekir Asani, and his brother Bejtula. Journalists asked to be left to do their job in peace.
Selmani said that he was not scared even when Nikola Gruevski’s regime ruled in Macedonia, and he is not afraid even now when prominent members of DUI threaten him. It has been appealed not to allow the installation of a new regime.
“It is time to distinguish who is in favor of a free and democratic Macedonia, and who is in favor of the thugs. We do not accept good and bad guys in the government. You have an obligation to silence the thugs, otherwise you will become their accomplices. We have destroyed one regime, we will not allow for a new one to be established. I’m not afraid of the thugs. I was not afraid of Gruevski, I am not afraid of DUI’s thugs and those who are silent and sitting in the same government with them,” Selmani said.
The journalists carried banners which read: “The bastards will not be silenced”, “Free media cannot be silenced,” “’Spiders’ (Tow trucks) kill, don’t they?” etc.
“The spider’s (tow truck’s) hand is long, but I’m not afraid of spiders. The attack on Naser is an attack on all journalists. We demand police protection for Selmani and access to the prosecution, “said the president of SSNM, Tamara Chausidis. She added that the government should take measures regarding this case and that acts are needed, not reactions and announcements.
The Minister without portfolio in charge of communication, accountability and transparency, Robert Popovski addressed the journalists, who, on behalf of all coalition partners, strongly condemned this verbal assault, but also all the attacks on journalists, no matter which side they come from.
“This government has zero tolerance for any threats against journalists, and none of the thugs will be protected,” Popovski said.
He assessed the media’s situation in Macedonia as better than before, adding that there are incidents and individual cases, but that these things are kept to a minimum and completely prevented.

Goran Adamovski