Vejce ambush

The Vejce ambush or Vejce Massacre occurred when ethnic Albanian rebels[1] of the NLA, which then-NATO Secretary General George Robertson referred to as "a bunch of murderous thugs,"[2] killed eight soldiers of the ARM, on the late afternoon of 28 April 2001 near Vejce, a village in the Šar Mountains, Macedonia. It represents the heaviest death toll for the government forces in a single incident during the Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia.[3]

Vejce Ambush
Part of Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia
Date28 April 2001
Location
Between Selce and Vejce in the Šar Mountains
Belligerents

 Macedonia

 UÇK
Commanders and leaders
Boris Trajkovski
Pande Petrovski
Robert Petkovski †
Mile Janevski †
Igor Kosteski †
Boban Trajkovski †		 Ali Ahmeti
Ismaili Shinasi-Komandant Hoxha
Ceka Iljas-Kjori
Ceka Bilal-Brada
Strength
16 special forces 25–50 soldiers
Casualties and losses
8 killed 1 wounded

Aftermath

Reactions

Anthropologist Vasiliki P. Neofotistos writes of "the gruesome event that came to be known as the Vejce massacre" and its aftermath:

On 28 April NLA insurgents killed eight Macedonian male commandos in the Macedonian Army Special Forces, also known as "Wolves" (Volci), in an ambush near the village of Vejce, nine miles north of Tetovo. According to the eyewitness account of the only Macedonian soldier who managed to escape the ambush, the assailants were bearded men. The killing shocked public opinion because the reportedly bearded assailants used knives to dig out the eyes and cut off the ears and genitals of the Macedonian soldiers while the soldiers were still alive, and raised once again haunting questions concerning the origin of the people who committed these atrocious acts. The mutilation of the commandos' bodies, together with rumors about mujahideen groups operating in Macedonia, motivated people to action: in the city of Bitola (home of four of the commandos), Macedonians formed community self-defense groups; in Skopje, gunmen in a passing car opened fire on the Albanian Embassy and on an Albanian-owned pizzeria, killing an Albanian man; businesses and stores of Albanians and other Muslims in both cities were looted or burned.[4]

According to the Guardian:

"They were hit by everything," said Nikola Dimitrov, then-security adviser to President Boris Trajkovski, current Macedonian foreign minister. "They used hand grenades, rocket launchers and machine guns." "He said the guerrilla's had gone out of their way to disfigure the corpses. "It's unbelievable, and it's going to damage the political process. Now it will be so difficult to proceed."[5]

References
  1. "CNN.com - Macedonia backs away from war - May 7, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  2. "CNN.com - Macedonia backs away from war - May 7, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  3. "8 soldiers slain in ambush near Albanian region". Chicago Tribune. 29 April 2001. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  4. Vasiliki P. Neofotistos, The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), pp. 54-55.
  5. Wood, Nicholas (2001-04-30). "Skopje peace talks in peril after massacre of patrol". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
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