A recent article in The New York Times (9 Apr 1995) called "
In Macedonia, New
Fears of a Wider Balkan War" included some comments by
Vladimir Milchin, who
is described as both a theatre director and the present executive director
for Macedonia of the
Soros Foundation, an organisation characterised as
supporting "democratic institutions in former Communist countries".
Coincidentally, Vladimir Milchin also features prominently in Branka Magash's
new text "The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-up 1980-92"
(Verso, London, 1993); an analysis of events from the Albanian perspective.
However our concern is to review the relationship between Milchin and the
happenings in the village of Vevchani (commune of Struga) during Aug 1987.
The latter events are important to a realistic understanding of the
Macedonian intelligentsia's role in today's Republic of Macedonia.
A dispute arose when the Struga authorities decided to use the Vevchani water
system, built by the villagers through their own labour and finances. The
reason? To supply a nearby group of newly built "dachas" owned by eminent
Macedonian Republican functionaries. The villagers, fearful of the impact on
their irrigation needs, started a program of civil resistance to prevent
pipes being laid across their land. Branka Magash poignantly describes what
next occurred (pg 107)
THE AUTHORITIES RESPONDED BY SENDING IN A SQUAD OF SPECIALLY
TRAINED RIOT POLICE: ARMED WITH DOGS AND ELECTRIC PRODS, THEY
ATTACKED THE INHABITANTS, INCLUDING SMALL CHILDREN IN THEIR
MOTHERS' ARMS. SEVERAL ENDED UP IN HOSPITAL. WHILE THE PIPES WERE
BEING LAID, THE YOUTH OF VEVCHANI ORGANIZED A HUNGER STRIKE.
It emerges the police action was only stopped by its public exposure in the
press of the OTHER republics and through the intervention of the SLOVENE
delegate to the Federal Assembly. Furthermore Slovene writers attending the
yearly poetry festival at Struga strongly and openly condemned the police
brutality, even receiving support from their Serbian counterparts. From
within Macedonia, however, there was
total silence. This allowed the
Macedonian bureaucracy to dismiss the Slovenian protests as reflecting
"intolerance towards the Macedonian Nation".
Vladimir Milchin's statement on the Vevchani incident is enlightening, not
for the fact that something new is learned, but for the fact that he actually
chose to oppose the Macedonian intelligentsia's conspiracy of
elitist
indifference towards its fellow Macedonians.
FOR US IN MACEDONIA, THE PRESENT MOMENT OPENS A PERSPECTIVE OF
DECLINE INTO BARBARISM ... WE ARE GATHERING THE FRUIT OF A
SITUATION IN WHICH PART OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA HAS BEEN RICHLY
REWARDED FOR ITS SILENCE AND FOR ITS APPLAUSE ...
THE INTELLIGENTSIA BELIEVES THAT THE REPRESSION IS DIRECTED
AGAINST CONCRETE INDIVIDUALS AND THAT IT WILL STOP THERE. BUT IN
FACT REPRESSION NEVER STOPS THERE, IT IS INCREASING BOTH IN THE
TERMS OF THE NUMBERS AFFECTED BY IT AND IN TERMS OF THE RANGES
EMPLOYED. THE MORE SILENCE AND COLLABORATION THERE IS, THE MORE
IT GATHERS MOMENTUM. THE SILENCE OF THE MACEDONIAN INTELLECTUALS
IN THE CASE OF VEVCHANI GIVES THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT, THE
BUREAUCRACY, THE RIGHT TO USE EQUALLY DRASTIC MEASURES AGAINST
ALL PROTESTS, IN ALL PARTS OF YUGOSLAVIA ... THINGS WENT SO FAR
THAT PEOPLE MADE STATEMENTS SAYING NOBODY HAD BEEN INJURED THERE,
THAT WOMEN HAD GONE INTO HOSPITAL JUST TO HAVE A GOOD TIME.
MACEDONIAN PARTICIPANTS AT THE STRUGA POETRY FESTIVAL NEVER
CONTEMPLATED BOYCOTTING IT. THEY ALL AGREED TO OFFICIAL
BLASPHEMY. THE MACEDONIAN INTELLIGENTSIA AGREED TO APPLAUD THOSE
WHO LIE, PERSISTING IN THE HOPE IT WOULD ALL END THERE, THAT THEY
THEMSELVES WOULD NOT FALL VICTIM ... SOMETHING TERRIBLY IMPORTANT
HAPPENED THERE. IT SHOWED ABOVE ALL THAT THE MACEDONIAN
BUREAUCRACY CAN WITH IMPUNITY RAISE A TRUNCHEON AGAINST THE
MACEDONIAN PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE OF VEVCHANI HAVE TAKEN AWAY FROM IT
THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE MACEDONIAN NATION ... WE ARE
IN A SITUATION IN WHICH EVERYONE IS TRYING TO SAVE THEIR SOUL ...
I MEAN, ALL OF US HAVE TO FIND INDIVIDUAL ANSWERS, THOUGH THE
SPACE FOR SUCH EXPRESSION IS NARROW. SO WE ARE LEFT WITH THE
NECESSITY OF TAKING RISKS AS INDIVIDUALS, REACTING AS INDIVIDUALS
- WHICH IS MORE DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS THAN SPEAKING THROUGH A
COLLECTIVE. BUT IT SEEMS THAT THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.
V Milchin, interview published in the Zagreb
daily Danas 22 Sep 1987
It is therefore disappointing to read that Milchin and the "Soros Foundation"
have sought to bring so-called democracy to the Republic of Macedonia, by
unconditionally supporting the Gligorov government. Moreover in an article
by Connie Bruck published in the
New Yorker, she describes Milchin as
having a
"DEMAGOGIC PASSION .. ON THE QUESTION OF MACEDONIAN ETHNIC IDENTITY."
This begs the important question concerning the
morality
of intellectuals and attempts to reconcile 1987 Milchin with his 1995
nemesis. Gligorov and company were one and the same as those who sent the police to
Vevchani. And now Milchin chooses to align himself with the very same
(to quote his own words above) "political establishment" and "bureaucracy"?
Perhaps now we sense why Magash queries Milchin's silence in 1987 towards the
public protests of Albanian intellectuals on the erosion of educational
opportunities for the Albanian population within Macedonia.
The Macedonian intelligentsia, nurtured throughout their lives on the
privileges and rewards that accrue to the powerful elite, are understandably
reluctant to lose their unique status and position simply for democracy.
After all they already enjoy "social" democracy. Therefore although the
Republic of Macedonia is governed by a totalitarian regime which denies
full human rights to its very own citizens, maintains de facto censorship
over the media, suppresses popular mass movements with a brutal police force,
indulges in proven election manipulation etc the intelligentsia only raise
their voice to support the government, not the people. These facts are known to
all who care to know.
As so often in the past, the silence of the servile intelligentsia allowed
the Gligorov government to dismiss or downplay any attempts to highlight the
graft and corruption, as mere concoctions of a neonationalistic or anarchist
fringe element. Nothing could be further from the truth. Western governments
interested only in their own geopolitical agenda not only pay "lip service"
to all these complaints, but actively sustain the illusion of democracy in
Vardar Macedonia and promote the so-called effective leadership of Kiro Gligorov, who undoubtedly
supported, ordered and implemented the slaughter of 10,000's of Macedonians.
Is this the type of regime that Vladimir Milchin in all sincerity expects us to openly embrace as representing
the ONLY road to democracy? An unrepentant despicable regime which bathed in the blood of our Macedonian people.
Is Milchin still trying to save his soul or is he and all his colleagues well past that?