Macedonia erupts after young man beaten to death by special police in public square

A reader writes:

22 year-old Martin Neshkovski was beaten to death early Monday morning on Skopje's Macedonia Square by a member of the Macedonian special police force 'Tigres.' After Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, celebrations went on Macedonia Square in the center of Skopje. Witnesses reported that they saw a 'young man being beaten to death by a member of the [special police force] "Alfa".' Only a few local media reported of the witnesses' statements without much importance. The spokesperson of the MOI said 'there is no such reported case.'
However, the social media expressly organized themselves to protest against the silence and mysticism surrounding this case. As it was believed that the murdered man's name was Daniel, on Twitter the hashtag #daniel was and is still being used to coordinate protests. In today's press conference of the MOI it was revealed that the special police force member did in fact take action on the young man but 'was unaware of killing him.' It is believed that after hearing about the alleged murder, the 'Tigre' reported himself to the special police force chief and is currently giving a statement.
Protests are currently ongoing in Macedonia Square with the hopes of raising awareness of police brutality. Several international and national NGOs have accused the Macedonian government of brutality and not respecting human rights.

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Deidzoeb

May you live in interesting times, protected by special police.

Once again, the more stories about cops I read on BB, the more reasonable anarchism sounds.
Anonymous

Protester here!

There have been numerous reports of police brutality and misconduct in Macedonia over the last two decades but in this case we have taken to the streets because we’re especially appalled by both the savage bear-handed killing carried out by a on-duty cop and the fact that it happened in front of about a hundred eye-witnesses on the main city square!

Also, the past two days the Police Department has been trying to cover up both the evidence (autopsy reports, police logs etc..) and even denying that the event even took place

the protests continue… hopefully they will end with the dismemberment of the “special police forces” mentioned above and the prosecution of the perpetrator

(btw, these special police forces are not some sort of paramilitary… think SWATs or something, they are very much under the direct control of the Police Department)

take care and remember… A.C.A.B!
Anonymous

TO CLARIFY :

1st. The young man(Martin Neshkovski) was a sympatiser of the party that won the elections.That night he and his friends went to the city square to celebrate the election victory.THAT IS WHY HE WAS THERE
At the time of the murder Martin was happy and a bit drunk. (by his brothers words at 1:50min on http://bit.ly/iRYs76 ).That,along with the brutal beating contributed to his death.

2nd. Martin was killed by a member of Macedonian special police force ‘Tigres.’ AND NOT the special police force “Alfa” .
“Alfa`s” are the most famous police force and handle the toughest criminals in Macedonia.THAT IS WHY the eyewitness to the murder mixed them up.

3d. Some criminals (naturally) dont want the special police force “Alfa” to exist. THAT IS WHY they,along with an opposition media company who was raided(http://bit.ly/e2x531 few monts ago for tax evasion on a massive scale),are ABUSING THE DEATH of a young man to DEMAND THE DISMANTLEING OF THE UNIT.

The “Alfa” unit is not without flaws,and should be improved futher.(there was a similar incident in 2006 http://bit.ly/lpdYDN)

If the goal was justice,then the guy (who is a part of another unit)should be held responcible,along with his superiors and the ones which trained and gave him the job.
- Anonymous
  
  The opposition isnt abusing anything, there are over 15 cases(registered, and god knows how much more unregistered) in which the so called “Alfa” unit abused human rights by severely beating up citizens.So ur opinion is pure brainwashed fail.
Anonymous

Media reporting:

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonians-protest-after-police-murders-youngster
Anonymous

“Mysticism surrounding this case”? or is it mutism?
Anonymous

Here’s a video of the protest currently ongoing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6zq8mHF4k0
Anonymous

Sorry for the off-topic, but…

There is an ongoing international dispute between Greece and the country called “Macedonia” in the article. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute

Basically, Greece argues that the only real Macedonia (of Alexander the Great fame) is a historic greek province, and the country in the article is a slavic former region of Yugoslavia that appropiated that name for prestige and expansionist reasons under Tito’s dictatorship.

tl;dr : It’s better to call that country “FYROM” (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) or something else that adresses the difference, just for clarity (and keeping angry nationalists away). That said, good luck to these people fighting against police brutality, it’s a good thing to see common citizens trying to make changes for the better.
- Anonymous
  
  Really? Here? You bring it up here? I swear to G-d. We can talk about toenails and worms and some nationalist asshole will bring THAT up. Jesus fucking christ.
Anonymous

Anon #6 here:

I’m not Greek, and that wasn’t my “personal interpretation”, as I have none to offer. I was just pointing to the country’s name issue. However, you can bet almost all of them will tell you something similar. Call me pedantic if you wish :P

Anyway, my best wishes to the macedonians (fyromians?) fighting against corrupt police forces. It’s shameful to see public servants paid by taxpayers act like criminal thugs.

Here in Barcelona, 2 weeks ago, the police tried violently to bust one of the main protests movements at the city center. Beating non-violent protesters sitting on the ground and taking by force their computers and documents. Fortunately it was well covered by local media, and the mounting pressure upon the shocking images made the politicians in charge to stop it for the time being.

So I think the best weapon macedonians have is media exposure: put the actions of those corrupt policement under the media attention until somebody in the goverment is forced to act to avoid public hate the next election cycle.
trent1492

I think it should be pointed out that the country of Macedonia calls itself Macedonia officially the Republic of Macedonia. I think Greece needs to butt out of what another nation calls itself.
Anonymous

Classic mediums in Macedonia are controlled by government or other political parties. Because their interest is to gain more money or points in cases like this, we (Macedonians) are left with social networks only.

We can’t trust TV media, no matter if it is government controlled or other non-government political organization, or whatever.
So mostly twitter and facebook is what we got (even with the fact that some groups and pages on facebook are being deleted at this time…)

Also, most of Macedonians are idling and ignoring cases like this, so I personally don’t believe that this is going to make any difference.

Anyway, maybe the good thing in this tragedy is that more people here will start *thinking* with their own head and criticism will raise. Maybe in few generations we’ll have smart people and fix this place once for all.
Anonymous

A protester from from the Republic of Macedonia!

Yesterday, the protests were numerous. The police needed 2 days to admit the crime that was made. The crowd is furious and asks for justice and explanation why 2 days had to pass for this brutal murder to be published. The policeman who killed the innocent boy has surrendered. The police brutality remains an issue in Macedonia. Many of the protesters are young intellectuals, we are put up with police brutality. We protest peacefully in a big mass to show them that we are not violent as the police. We send them kisses in the air, ask them do they have children and how can they sleep at night from now on. Let the world know about this brutal crime by an authority and let never happen again in Macedonia and anywhere in the world!
Anonymous

Sorry “Anon” but this:

“Basically, Greece argues that the only real Macedonia (of Alexander the Great fame) is a historic greek province, and the country in the article is a slavic former region of Yugoslavia that appropiated that name for prestige and expansionist reasons under Tito’s dictatorship.”

is your personal interpretation, directed at distracting this very important event for Macedonia and the social media in general. Please spare us your frustration with a name, we are free people just as much as you are – unless beaten to death by police! Therefore – please FOCUS on what is going on here, you have similar brutality in Greece (not calling it “your country”), maybe you could share some more support instead, tell us how you dealt with it.
- Anonymous
  
  For the record, the abbreviated name left me confused about where this was happening for a few moments – though I’m not Greek, I’ve always seen the country mentioned as FYRO Macedonia. Reading Skopje cleared up any confusion about who is responsible pretty fast, though, and reminds us that there is much worse in these countries than pettiness over names and borders.
Anonymous

Great citizen-journalism coverage of the latest developments of this event are available on this blog http://vnukot.blogspot.com

It is not over yet… Some things have to be changed in Macedonia
dnafrequency

Good that they take some sort of action. We are so used to seeing that kind of violence put upon us by American police that we barely flinch anymore. It’s sad.
martinskis

Protests are ongoing from 4pm GMT+1, now 7:23pm just came back. A facebook event was created and it gathered a little less than 7000 attending. A march through the city center, a lot of the streets were closed. People booing, shouting out “killers” and “police state”. Allegedly the person who killed the boy was a member of the special unit “Tigers”. The “Alfa” unit are well known to harass young people and a lot of hatred towards them has accumulated over the years since the formation of the unit a few years ago.

Allegedly the government tried to hush things up by telling the family of the boy not to say anything after they found out about their son’s death.

Twitter hashtag #daniel