US STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLC OF MACEDONIA

[FYROM] is a parliamentary democracy with a population of approximately 2.1 million. Legislative authority is vested in the unicameral Sobranie (parliament). The president, Branko Crvenkovski, was elected to a five-year term in April 2004 in elections that were generally consistent with international standards, although there were election-day irregularities in some areas. Vlado Buckovski, prime minister since December 2004, presided over a multiethnic governing coalition. The civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.
The government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas. The following human rights abuses were reported:

• police abuse of suspects, particularly during initial arrest and detention;


• police harassment of ethnic minorities, particularly Roma;


• impunity and corruption in the police force;


• political pressure on the judiciary;


• societal violence and discrimination against women, children and ethnic minorities, particularly Roma;


• trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation;


• government interference with union activity;

In December 2004 the PSU found the use of force justified in the police killing of a 21-year-old male student earlier that month during an attempt to arrest an armed fugitive in the student's apartment.
On April 22, a Skopje district court acquitted four persons--three former police officers and a businessman--implicated in the Rastanski Lozja case involving the 2002 police killing of seven South Asian illegal immigrants. Two other persons implicated in the case testified against their former coworkers in exchange for reduced sentences. The prosecution had charged that former interior minister Ljube Boskovski ordered the killings, ostensibly because the seven immigrants were terrorists who threatened foreign embassies in Skopje. The prosecution appealed the innocent verdict, but the appellate court had taken no action by year's end. The government applied for Boskovski's extradition from Croatia but was unable to secure extradition before Croatian authorities transferred Boskovski to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to stand trial on unrelated charges.
During the year the working group established in 2004 by the interior ministry and the international community to review unresolved human rights cases completed its investigation into all nine cases under its consideration. Although the identities of some officers responsible for reported abuses could not be determined, the working group supplied additional information to prosecutors in a majority of the cases under investigation.
At year's end an appeals court was reviewing the 2004 conviction of six of seven ethnic Albanians on terrorism charges for planting explosives in the center of Kumanovo and on railway tracks near that city that killed one person and injured several others in 2003. The appeals court rejected the appeal of the seventh defendant.

There were credible reports that police used violence or harassed persons, particularly members of ethnic minorities. A coalition of NGOs recorded 100 allegations of police abuse involving 122 victims in the first 10 months of the year. The victims included 47 ethnic Albanians, 52 ethnic Macedonians, and 18 Roma. The PSU reported receiving 54 complaints in 2004 that police used excessive force in the conduct of their duties; the PSU found that 22 of the complaints were justified. The interior ministry took a total of 331 disciplinary actions against police officers for misconduct.
In September the ombudsman announced that he had referred five cases against interior ministry employees to prosecutors for the mistreatment of civilians and other unspecified abuses. By year’s end prosecutors had agreed to investigate one case and rejected another; the other three were still under review. The ombudsman also alleged that the interior ministry had failed to cooperate with his office's investigation, refusing to disclose the identities of officers involved in certain operations.
On June 30, according to one NGO, a Romani man was called into the Kicevo police station for questioning after persons under interrogation there accused him of participating in an altercation. The man alleged that the police then beat him, a Romani friend who came to his assistance, and a third Romani man who was also being questioned. The men filed charges on July 6, but the public prosecutor had not acted on them by year's end.
There were no developments reported on the European Roma Rights Center's (ERRC) filing of a criminal complaint in connection with the July 2004 police beating of two Romani men, Trajan Ibrahimov and Bergiun Ibrahimovic, in Skopje.
The ombudsman and public prosecutor continued to review the cases of two ethnic Albanians arrested and allegedly beaten by police near Stenkovec in October 2004. The suspects were charged with attempted murder of a taxi driver and illegal possession of firearms. The PSU investigation, conducted in cooperation with the European Union's (EU) Proxima police mission and completed in 2004, did not confirm the abuse allegations. The officers involved received additional training on the appropriate use of force.
In September border police fired several shots at persons illegally crossing the border from Greece and severely wounded an Albanian woman. A PSU investigation that month determined that the shooting was justified.
In April Ministry of Interior officials and international observers completed an investigation of allegation that security and counterintelligence officers in Kumanovo unlawfully detained and severely mistreated Avni Ajeti, who was convicted of mining the Skopje-Belgrade railroad and placing a bomb in the Kumanovo central square. The observers noted serious irregularities in authorities' handling of the case, including officers' failure to record Ajeti's detention or to obtain legal authority for detaining him longer than twenty-four hours. The observers further noted that these administrative failures prevented them from confirming or refuting the allegations against the counterintelligence officers.
An interior ministry investigation monitored by international observers into allegations that Selam Selami was illegally detained and abused by counterintelligence officers in 2002 ended in April without determining the exact circumstances of his detention. International monitors noted that the counterintelligence agency's inability to produce records relative to the case made it impossible to establish the cause of severe medical problems experienced by Selami while being held by the officers. Selami had been detained in connection with the shooting of two police officers; charges against him were dropped the following year.

PRISON CONDITIONS:

Prison conditions generally met international standards, and prisons met basic diet, hygiene, and medical care requirements. In July the director of Skopje's Idrizovo prison was dismissed after one detainee was killed in an armed altercation between prisoners. Juvenile prisoners were supposed to be physically separated from adults; however, in one prison, juvenile and adult detention facilities were colocated.
The government generally routinely granted permission for visits to convicted prisoners by independent humanitarian organizations such as the ICRC and by the human rights ombudsman. The law allows access to pretrial detainees for family members, physicians, chiefs of diplomatic missions, and representatives from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the ICRC with the approval of the investigative judge. However, the ICRC was denied permission to visit two Albanian journalists detained for allegedly planning terrorist acts with an armed ethnic Albanian group of criminals in the Skopje suburb of Kondovo.
In November a delegation affiliated with the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control conducted a visit of prisons. At the visit’s conclusion, the delegation's chief publicly criticized the hygienic conditions and small cell sizes in the prison system.

POLICE PROCESS:

There were reports that police continued to call suspects and witnesses to police stations for "informative talks" without informing them of their rights. At year's end the ombudsman was investigating allegations that two ethnic Albanian suspects in a July 15 bomb attack on a Skopje police station were detained without proper legal authority; a PSU investigation determined there were no irregularities involved in the arrest and detention of the two men.

DENIAL OF FAIR PUBLIC TRIAL:

The law provides for an independent judiciary, and the government generally respected this provision in practice; however, the judiciary was generally weak, at times inefficient, and occasionally influenced by political pressure, intimidation, and corruption. Programs for witness protection did not operate effectively.
The court system is three-tiered and composed of basic courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court is not considered part of the judicial branch and deals with matters of constitutional interpretation and certain human rights protection issues.
In December parliament adopted constitutional amendments that envisage a series of administrative reforms to improve the independence and effectiveness of the justice system, including a new procedure for the selection of judges and establishment of a separate court system for minor offenses. The amendments are part of the government's judicial reform strategy, which entails an increase in salaries for prosecutors and judges, as well as the recruitment of approximately 140 new law clerks to help the judiciary reduce the backlog of 1.2 million cases.
The chief public prosecutor accused some lower courts of being inefficient or influenced by political factors, which he said resulted in prolonged trials and an inability to reach final judgments in high-profile corruption or other sensitive cases. In particular he criticized a series of delays in the Rastanski Lozja trial, which involved suspects linked to former interior minister Boskovski. He also publicly complained that his position did not grant him sufficient independence to fully exercise his powers.
The state anticorruption commission reviewed cases of alleged corruption, conflict of interest, and nepotism. It issued several opinions, which frequently included recommendations that the prosecutor initiate criminal actions against judges where there was sufficient evidence of corruption. During the year the republic judicial council (RJC) proposed to the parliament that 10 judges be dismissed on grounds of unprofessional or unethical behavior; 6 were removed, including the president of the largest court of first instance in the country. In one case a former judge from Kocani was sentenced to nine months in prison for abuse of official position. The new special prosecutor's Unit Against Organized Crime brought bribery charges against the former public prosecutor of Stip, and the Kocani basic court sentenced him to one year in prison.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION:

The law provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice; however, the law places some limits on religious practice by restricting the establishment of places of worship.
The law requires religious groups to register with the State Committee on Relations with Religious Communities. A number of specific requirements for the registration of religious groups were struck down by the Constitutional Court in 1998 and 1999. Consequently there was confusion over which registration procedures still applied.
At year's end the appeal of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, an affiliate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, of a November 2004 state committee decision to deny it registration was pending before the Supreme Court. The committee's decision was based on a law that allows only one religious community to be registered for each confession; the Macedonian Orthodox Church had been registered as a religious community since Macedonia's independence.
The law requires a group to have a government "opinion" in order to obtain a permit to build a religious facility. However, Constitutional Court rulings in 1998 and 1999 struck down sections of the law that authorized the government to provide an opinion, thereby effectively blocking religious groups from obtaining construction permits for worship facilities. In practice the government generally did not take action against religious buildings lacking permits.
The law somewhat restricts the establishment of places of worship, for example, by requiring that a permit be obtained at least 15 days in advance for services in places not specified in the law. The law also states that religious activities "shall not violate the public peace and order, and shall not disrespect the religious feelings and other freedoms and rights" of persons who are not members of that particular religion. The government did not actively enforce most of these provisions but acted upon complaints when they were received.
Although a permit or permission is not required to perform religious rites in a private home, members of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid reported that police interrupted an April 30 religious service in a private apartment in Dracevo and asked the worshipers to produce their identification documents.
On July 26, the Orthodox Archbishopric's Zoran Vraniskovski, whom the Serbian Orthodox Church recognizes as archbishop of Ohrid, began serving an 18-month prison sentence for inciting religious intolerance. The charges against Vraniskovski referred to private religious services held in union with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and his alleged responsibility for a religious calendar calling the Macedonian Orthodox Church "the last fortress of communism" and its believers heretics. An appeals court and the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. Vraniskovski admitted to writing the calendar's text but not to producing and distributing it. Vraniskovski was also ordered to serve a previously suspended 12-month sentence for illegally assuming religious authority by baptizing a relative in a Macedonian Orthodox church near Bitola in 2003. In addition Vraniskovski was found guilty of embezzlement by the Veles district court in September and sentenced to two additional years in prison; a trial on a separate embezzlement charge had not concluded by year's end.
The law requires that foreigners entering the country with the intent to carry out religious work or perform religious rites receive approval from the state commission on relations with religious communities. When applying for visas, persons planning to perform religious work must submit a letter of invitation from representatives of a registered religious group in the country to the commission, which then issues a letter of approval to be submitted with the visa request. Approvals were normally issued within one week.
A Polish-born nun associated with the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid claimed that, in September 2004, the interior ministry declined to extend her residency permit; the Archdiocese is not legally entitled to sponsor foreign religious workers because it has been denied registration under the law permitting only one group per confession.
At year's end the Jewish community reported that all outstanding property claims of the community involving the former Yugoslavia's nationalization of religious properties had been resolved. However, the community expressed some frustration regarding the restitution of property of heirless victims of the Holocaust as envisaged in a 2000 law. While enough land was returned to allow the Jewish community to begin construction of a Holocaust memorial center in September, only a small fraction of other restitution claims in the name of the Jewish and other religious communities had been adjudicated by the government.

SOCIETAL ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION:

There were isolated reports of vandalism of religious properties. The Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid reported that private apartments belonging to their members were broken into or vandalized at least five times. Members of the group alleged that on June 25 and July 11, police officers discouraged them from reporting future acts of violence or vandalism directed at the group.
At year's end the ownership dispute between the Bekteshi religious sect and the Islamic community over their religious facility at Tetevo remained unresolved. The Bekteshis filed suit against the government to reverse the former Yugoslavia's nationalization of the property and against the Islamic community, which seized the complex in 2002 and continued to hold services there, excluding Bekteshi community members.
The Jewish community estimated that approximately 600 Jewish persons live in the country. Unlike in the previous year, there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

REFUGEES:

While there were no reports that authorities abused or mistreated refugees, some female refugees were the victims of sexual abuse committed by nonofficials. There was no evidence to suggest the female refugees had been targeted because of their refugee status.
There was strong evidence to suggest that Romani refugees were discriminated against in the RSD process, a reflection of general societal discrimination against the Roma. However, Romani refugees in the predominantly Romani municipality of Suto Orizari were generally well tolerated.

GOVERNMENTAL TRANSPARENCY:

Corruption was a problem in the executive and legislative branches of the government. Instances of corruption in the police and judicial system were of particular concern (see sections 1.d. and 1.e.). The State Anticorruption Commission was responsible for investigating charges of corruption as well as complaints submitted by citizens. During 2004 the commission received 627 complaints concerning the work of state bodies, privatization procedures, judicial procedures, and other relevant cases. In response the commission initiated 23 investigations and recommended 33 initiatives to counter corruption.
The commission accused government institutions of lacking the political will to fight corruption. After the government significantly reduced the funds available to the commission in a rebalancing of the budget, the commission charged that the government was deliberately impeding its work.
During the year the courts resolved a number of long‑pending, high-profile corruption cases involving former government officials, largely as a result of criticism from both the public and the international community. In March a court convicted Ljupco Popovski, a former defense ministry official from the ruling Social-Democratic Union of Macedonia party, on bribery charges and sentenced him to more than two years in prison. The former mayor of the predominantly Roma municipality Suto Orizari was also among those sentenced in corruption trials.
In April Nikola Tasev, the former general manager of the Nova Makedonija publishing house charged with abuse of power for selling 70 percent of the company on the eve of 2002 parliamentary elections, was sentenced to 4 years in prison by Skopje Basic Court I. Besnik Fetai, who was minister of economy at the time of the privatization, was acquitted of similar charges. Nova Makedonija was the country's largest publishing house before its liquidation in 2003.
The country does not have a law guaranteeing citizens' access to government information.

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN:

The law provides for equal rights for all citizens regardless of their gender, race, disability, or social status; however, societal discrimination persisted against ethnic minorities, particularly Roma, and the protection of women's rights remained a problem.
Women
Domestic and other violence against women was a persistent and common problem; one survey found that one of four women claimed to have been a victim of physical or psychological domestic violence.
Cultural norms, including victims' concern over possible shame to the family, discouraged the reporting of violence against women, and victims of domestic violence filed criminal charges only rarely. Although the law specifically defines domestic violence as a crime and prescribes substantial punishments for violators, the government did not provide mandatory training for police, prosecutors, and judges, and the law was rarely applied. While the law provides for civil restraining orders to protect victims of domestic violence, there were reports that police officers were unaware of provisions of the law that allow them to act ex officio to protect victims of family violence, and police often did not respond to allegations of domestic violence.
The government operated six shelters with limited capacities and funded a national NGO-operated hotline for victims of domestic violence in Skopje. Local NGOs working against domestic violence relied to a large extent on international donor assistance. Public concern about violence against women was not generally evident in the media, although some women's groups worked to raise awareness of the issue.
While the law specifically prohibits rape, including spousal rape, conviction requires proof of both penetration and active resistance by the victim. These requirements are more stringent than for other violent crimes. The penalties for rape or forcible sexual assault range from 1 to 15 years' imprisonment. Some rape cases were tried during the year. As with domestic violence, police and judicial officials were reluctant to prosecute spousal rape, and many victims did not come forward due to social stigma.
Although prostitution is illegal, the law was not always enforced. Some foreign women accused of prostituting themselves were deported, and some men were prosecuted for "mediating" in prostitution.
Trafficking in women for sexual exploitation was a problem.

Sexual harassment of women in the workplace was a problem, particularly in the private sector. Although the law does not specifically address sexual harassment, it could be prosecuted as a criminal act under antidiscrimination legislation; however, this did not occur in practice. Although women remained underrepresented in the higher levels of the government and the private sector, there were several prominent professional women, including a female deputy prime minister, foreign minister, and justice minister.
Women from parts of the ethnic Albanian community did not have equal opportunities for employment and education due to traditional and religious restrictions on their schooling and participation in society. In some ethnic Albanian communities, women were disenfranchised by the practice of men voting on behalf of female family members (see section 3).
The Office of Gender Equality in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy was responsible for ensuring the legal rights of women, but did not have the legal authority to aggressively combat discrimination.
Although the law requires men and women to be paid equally for equivalent work, wage discrimination against women remained pervasive, particularly in the private sector. While the law prohibits dismissal of women on maternity leave, discrimination against pregnant women continued in practice.
Among other activities, women's advocacy groups worked to combat domestic violence through awareness-raising campaigns, increase women's political involvement by training female candidates for local elected office, improve women's access to legal services, and promote female establishment of small and medium enterprises.
Children
The government was committed to the rights and welfare of children; however, it was significantly limited by resource constraints. The ombudsman's office had a special unit for children, partially funded by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), that investigated complaints of violations of children's rights. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is responsible for children's welfare.
Education is mandatory through the eighth grade or to the age of 16; however, some children did not enter the educational system at all. The Ministry of Education reported that 95 percent of children were enrolled in school; no official data was available on school attendance or the number of children who did not have access to education. Primary and secondary education was free; however, students had to provide their own books and other materials.
Almost 90 percent of the children who finished primary school continued to secondary school; however, at both the primary and secondary levels, girls in some ethnic Albanian communities did not attend school. Approximately half of ethnic minority students did not go on to high school due to lack of classes in minority languages at the secondary level and to the conviction of many rural, ethnic Albanian families that girls should be withdrawn from school at age 14.
According to Romani community leaders, up to 10 percent of Romani children never enrolled in school. Of those who did enroll, 50 percent dropped out by the fifth grade and only 35 to 40 percent finished the eighth grade.
As in previous years, poor physical conditions of schools and insufficient classroom space were common complaints, particularly in the predominantly ethnic Albanian western parts of the country, and parents and students sometimes protested these conditions. Boys and girls generally had equal access to education except in ethnic Albanian areas.
Medical care for children was generally adequate, but was hampered by the generally difficult economic circumstances of the country and by the weak national health system.
Child abuse was a problem in some areas. According to interior ministry statistics, the number of reported cases of sexual abuse against children decreased; there were 37 reported cases during the year. The Centers for Social Work of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Department for Juvenile Delinquency of the Ministry of Interior are responsible for addressing child abuse. NGOs are also active in this area.
Child marriage occurred with some frequency in the Romani community and less frequently in the ethnic Albanian community. It was difficult to estimate the extent of underage marriage in the Romani community because such marriages frequently were not registered. A survey of 960 Romani women during the year by the NGO Daja found that 54 percent had given birth to their first child by the age of 18, while 3 percent had given birth between the ages of 12 and 14.
Girls were sometimes trafficked for sexual exploitation.

PEOPLE TRAFFICKING:

The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, there were reports that persons were trafficked to, through, and, to a lesser degree, from the country.
It is a criminal offense to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, forced labor or servitude, slavery, or a similar relationship. The law provides for a minimum sentence of four years for most trafficking crimes and a minimum of six months for the destruction of identification documents of trafficked persons. Persons convicted of organizing human trafficking receive a mandatory minimum prison term of 8 years and 1 to 10 years for complicity in the crime of human trafficking. The law provides for a minimum six-month sentence for persons who wittingly use, or enable another person to use, sexual services from a trafficked person. The mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking in children or for knowingly using trafficked children and juveniles for sexual exploitation is eight years.
During the year at least 32 trafficking-related cases were prosecuted, compared to 20 cases in 2004. During the year 83 persons were convicted and sentenced for trafficking. The country's most notorious convicted trafficker, Dilaver Bojku Leku, remained in a Skopje prison after being sentenced in 2004 for "mediation" in prostitution. Since he was in an "open regime" facility with liberal release policies, international observers were concerned that Bojku would be able to intimidate witnesses during his periods of authorized leave from prison.
The national commission for prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons coordinated government efforts to combat trafficking. The interior ministry was also involved in antitrafficking efforts and detailed several law enforcement personnel to work fulltime in its main trafficking unit in Skopje. It also deployed antiorganized crime police officers to combat human trafficking on a local level. The government routinely cooperated with neighboring countries' national organizations, most notably those in the Southeast European Cooperation Initiative.
In May parliament passed a law on witness protection to facilitate witness testimony in trafficking and other sensitive cases. In at least one case, a trafficking victim who had been repatriated to her home country was allowed to testify against her trafficker using a digital video conference link. In at least 12 cases, the interior ministry and the association of public prosecutors arranged for the travel of witnesses to the trial and provided for their protection.
While the country remained primarily a transit and destination point for trafficking, officials and others acknowledged that it was a point of origin for a small number of trafficking victims. Women from the country were trafficked throughout the former Yugoslavia. Interior ministry officials reported a downward trend in human trafficking during the year. However, NGOs and the international community reported that there were more cases of internal trafficking. Reliable statistics were not available, but specialists working in the field for the OSCE and other agencies estimated that between 200 and 400 women were trafficked to or through the country during the year, primarily for sexual exploitation. Moldova, Romania, Albania, and Bulgaria were the primary sources of trafficking victims, and victims trafficked through the country were most often en route to Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo), Albania, and western Europe.
There were four reported cases of trafficking involving girls during the year. There were reports that female minors were recruited by some massage parlor owners to perform sexual services for clients. In at least one case, authorities shut down a massage parlor operating in this way.
Trafficked women were forced to work in prostitution, often under the guise of dancers, hostesses, or waitresses in local clubs. Police raids and testimony by victims confirmed that trafficking victims were subjected to threats, violence, physical and psychological abuse, and seizure of documents to ensure compliance.
There were no developments in the 2004 case involving police complicity in trafficking in Gostivar, which resulted in the suspension from duty of an officer pending his trial on criminal charges for misuse of official position and trafficking in persons. While pretrial procedures had concluded, a hearing had not been scheduled by year's end. At year's end two police officers who testified on behalf of trafficker Dilaver Bojku Leku were under investigation for possible complicity in trafficking.
During the year the International Organization for Migration assisted two victims of trafficking at its local shelter, which it operated with support from the government and a local NGO.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION:

Ethnic minorities remained underrepresented at the university level, although there was progress in increasing the number of minority students. In July the government accredited the University of Tetovo, whose primary language of instruction is Albanian. More than six thousand students were enrolled in the university's four faculties.
Ethnic Turks also complained of governmental, societal, and cultural discrimination. Their main concerns centered on the slow progress in achieving equitable representation in government institutions, the absence of Turkish majority municipalities in the 2004 municipal redistricting, and a lack of Turkish language education and media.
Roma complained of widespread ethnic discrimination. NGOs and international experts reported that Roma were often denied job opportunities, access to public welfare funds, and entrance to establishments such as restaurants and cafes.
Roma had the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest personal and family incomes, were the least educated, and had the highest mortality rates of any ethnic group in the country. The government provided few social services to Roma despite the belief that unemployment among the Romani population was above 70 percent.