Macedonia: Albanian Rebel Leader Accused of Being Serbian Spy

A Macedonian daily has alleged that an ethnic Albanian, codenamed Ibar, worked a spy for the Serbian secret service in the 1980s and 1990s.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Details of the published article sent shock waves through Macedonia, where the public recognised the biographic details of Ali Ahmeti, the leader of the junior ruling party Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and a former rebel leader.

“A private person handed us the documents, with stamps and signatures. I expect the state to verify it. We have information that the file has been submitted to the Lustration Commission today,” the editor-in-chief of Dnevnik, Saso Kokalanov, told Balkan Insight on Wednesday.

Kokalanov urged the authorities to verify the file as soon as possible “because there has to be consequences, either for the person listed as “Ibar” or for the persons who forged this file”.

Kokalanov believes that the details in the dossier could trigger deep discord in the ethnic Albanian community in Macedonia.

Ali Ahmeti, a rebel turned politician, was the leader of the ethnic Albanian guerilla force which fought against Macedonian state security forces in an armed conflict in 2001. The six-month conflict ended with an internationally mediated peace deal which guaranteed greater rights for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia.

According to the daily, the Serbian spy Ibar, who also worked as an informant for the Albanian secret service, was present during the secret formation of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, in Zurich, Switzerland. The KLA, an ethnic Albanian force in Kosovo, fought against Serbian security forces in 1999.

In 2001, the National Liberation Army, NLA, a sister organisation of the KLA, launched the insurgency in Macedonia.

Meanwhile, DUI vice-president Abdulhakim Ademi dismissed the allegations against Ahmeti, saying that the story was created by somebody who had lost his mind or was working for other secret services in the region.

“This is an effort to discredit the deeds and personality of the founders of the KLA and NLA, the successes of these two armies, the bright history of the Albanian people and everything Ali Ahmeti acomplished," Ademi said.

Utrinski Vesnik daily wrote on Wednesday that the file “throws a different light on the motives and the character of the 2001 Macedonian armed conflict”.

The newly revealed documents, the paper says, “question the position of the DUI and the credibility of the Macedonian government”.