The War on Terror Ripple Effect: From the Absolutely F'ed Up Dept.

Gunned down to impress America
Pakistanis mourn young migrants murdered in Macedonia's quest to join war on terror
Greg Bearup in Punjab
Saturday May 8, 2004

The gaudy mansions of those who've "made it" look out of place in a sea of poverty, surrounded by dull, red-brick huts, wallowing buffalo and the stench of open sewers. Fatima Bibi is a sweeper in one of these houses, working not for money, but for a bowl of rice or some flour.
Her employers in this small Punjabi village were once poor too, just like her. Now they live in relative luxury, with a satellite dish and a new fridge, because their son went "to New York to drive taxis".

But Fatima's son wasn't so lucky. When 20-year-old Ijaz set off for Europe early in 2002 he carried the hopes of his family. Ijaz was the second youngest of the widow's nine children. He ended up "collateral damage" in the war on terror, gunned down by police in the Balkan state of Macedonia, who claimed that he and six others killed were terrorists.

Last week Macedonian officials admitted that this was a lie, and that the shooting was a staged murder, part of a clumsy plot to try to impress the US.

"My son, my beautiful son," wailed Fatima, clutching a photograph of Ijaz. "He was a good boy who just wanted to make things better for his family. How could they shoot him down, like a dog? He was a good Muslim, but he had no time for politics." This week in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, warrants were issued for the arrest of the former interior minister, Ljube Boskovski, in relation to the shooting of Ijaz and the six others.

Several senior police officers have been charged with murder. After a lengthy investigation, the Macedonian authorities have admitted that the six Pakistanis and one Indian were simply illegal immigrants, trying to get to Greece to find work on the Olympic sites, or anywhere else. "This was the act of a sick mind," Mirjana Konteska, a Macedonian official, said. "They lost their lives in a stage murder [so the police and officials] could present themselves as participants in the war against terror."

The seven were picked up as they entered Macedonia through Bulgaria. They were detained for several days before being driven to a spot en route to the US embassy. Then they were shot.

Mr Boskovski claimed that his forces had foiled a major terrorist attack on the US embassy, and that bags of guns and uniforms were found on the "mojahedin fighters".

There were inconsistencies in the story from the start. The police originally said they had been ambushed, but could not explain why seven heavily armed terrorists were killed, while the police received no injuries. They then changed their version of events to say that they had ambushed the terrorists to prevent them attacking the American embassy. But the inquiry found otherwise. The men were shot dead in cold blood. To cover their tracks, the police placed bags filled with guns and uniforms next to the bodies...


Macedonia's interior minister Ljube Boskovski listens to a question during a press-conference in Skopje in this October 3, 2001 file photo. Macedonia charged the former interior minister and six security force officers with murder on April 30, 2004 in connection with a 2002 ambush of what it said were innocent migrants set up to look like 'Mujahideen terrorists.' The victims, migrants passing through Macedonia and looking for work in Europe, were pin-pointed, kidnapped and killed in what security forces claimed was a coup against global terrorism. The dead men included six Pakistanis and an Indian. Their bodies were filmed with handguns stuck in their waistbands. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski/File

 

Salaam.