May 4, 2002: Macedonian Gov’t Kills Poor Migrants, Falsely Accused Them of Planning to Attack U.S. Embassy

English: Location of Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW DELHI: An unlucky Indian was in all probability among the seven illegal immigrants from South Asia who were shot dead by the Macedonian police two years ago in a fake encounter staged to impress the United States.

Last week, the authorities in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia came clean about the terrible incident which occurred outside the capital city of Skopje on March 4, 2002 and accused former interior minister Ljube Boskovski of personally masterminding the cold-blooded killing to demonstrate that his government was also in the frontline of the so-called international `war against terror’.

The seven were officially described at the time as “mujahideen” who had once fought in Bosnia and had entered Macedonia from Kosovo on a mission to attack the US embassy in Skopje.

In reality, they were illegal migrants who had sold land and property back home to find employment in Europe. Each had made his own way to Turkey and had then teamed up, presumably with the help of an agent in Istanbul, for the final journey westward.

They crossed Bulgaria and had barely entered Macedonia when the police who had been told to find an itinerant group that could be passed off as “jihadi terrorists” abducted and killed them.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-05-04/india/28332307_1_fake-encounter-skopje-macedonian

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