Worker for interethnic peace in Macedonia

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Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 11:35:56 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Worker for interethnic peace in Macedonia

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Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Worker for interethnic peace in Macedonia


Worker for interethnic peace frets as war touches Macedonia
By Michael J. Jordan
 
SKOPJE, Macedonia, April 27 (JTA) -- Eran Frankel has a lot invested
in the Balkans, and as the Kosovo conflict threatens to widen, he is
watching nervously.
 
The Jerusalem-born American works in Macedonia as head of the
nonprofit Search for Common Ground. For five years, the group has
worked to bring together Macedonians and their large ethnic Albanian
minority.
 
Among the group's projects are Macedonia's first three bilingual,
ethnically mixed preschools, modeled after Israel's Neve Shalom/Wahat
al-Salam school for Arab and Jewish children. But now, Frankel's work
is unraveling before his eyes.
 
Despite a month of NATO airstrikes, Serbia is continuing its campaign
of killings and forced deportations of Albanians from its southern
province of Kosovo. The tidal wave of 135,000 refugees that has hit
Macedonia since NATO began its air campaign now threatens that
country's own delicate ethnic balance.
 
"I've been very depressed and worried for weeks," Frankel said last
week in his Skopje office, which is adorned with Turkish-style carpets
and beaded crafts from across the Balkans. "Unfortunately, the power
to destroy and make things worse is now in the hands of those who can
do it in an instant. So I don't see the situation getting better any
time soon."
 
As the calls for NATO ground troops grow louder, many Macedonians
believe that it's only a matter of time before their own country is
engulfed in civil war.
 
Before the Kosovo crisis, Macedonia's Albanian minority was officially
counted as 23 percent of the population, but was said to be closer to
one-third. Yet few political forums exist for Macedonians and
Albanians to resolve their differences together, Frankel said. Since
Macedonia gained its independence in 1992 from Yugoslavia, the two
communities have lived almost entirely apart.
 
Macedonians and Albanians speak different languages, attend different
schools and live in segregated areas. While Macedonians are generally
Orthodox Christian, Albanians are mostly Muslim. Mixed marriages are
virtually unknown.
 
When conflict arises, political rhetoric usually degenerates into
nationalism and chauvinism.
 
That's where the SCG stepped in.
 
The objective of the Washington, D.C.-based organization is to foster
interethnic tolerance and gradually empower both communities. The SCG
targeted the primary sources of intolerance - the schools and media.
It juggles more than one dozen projects that bring together
Macedonians and Albanians, along with the smaller minorities of Turks
and Romani, or Gypsies.
 
The projects focus not on overcoming differences, but on stressing
what they have in common, such as preserving the environment.
 
"We try to show them that there are innumerable issues in one
community that also affect members of another community," Frankel
said. "It's not that you breathe Albanian air and I breathe Macedonian
air. Clean air and water are issues you can't divide by ethnicity. "If
these intercommunal interests don't take precedence through
collaborative efforts, there is no future for Macedonia," he said.
"Its only future is as a pluralistic, integrated society. In America
we learned that there's no such thing as 'separate but equal' because
it polarizes society into 'us' and 'them,' not 'we.' "
 
Much of Frankel's work has been with the Macedonian- and
Albanian-language media. They have been traditionally partisan, with
most media outlets linked financially with the various political
parties. He gives them mixed reviews in their coverage of the Kosovo
crisis.
 
"With a few exceptions, they've reported the events fairly and not
advocated of a certain point of view," he said. "But I'm disappointed
they haven't tried to engage the country as a whole in an interethnic
approach to resolving the crisis. On the other hand, the fact they
haven't inflamed the situation is a big change."
 
Meanwhile, the SCG projects are in limbo. Frankel says he is "just
facilitating" and trying to "act constructively." One activity has
been to work with a local Albanian newspaper, listing the names of
Kosovar Albanian children separated from their parents during the mass
deportations. But mostly, Frankel watches as SCG's modest gains
disintegrate.
 
"Even if bombing ends tomorrow, this means years of more work for us,"
he said. "This crisis has dramatically undermined the little
confidence Macedonians had that they were on a path of
self-determination.
 
"Macedonia's future is being determined by decisions made in Western
capitals and Washington."
 
(c Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.)

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