Macedonia’s most powerful woman…
DESPERATELY SEEKING SEKERINSKA – who is the real Radmila? A woman of many faces, identities…
by Sasha Uzunov
Skopje, Macedonia
Now that the 30 September referendum on the Prespa Agreement has failed (link here), it is time to take a look in the mirror – is it possible that Radmila Sekerinska’s unpopularity among Macedonians would have something to do with the referendum’s failure?
While TEAM UZUNOV has asked the question about Prespa’s authorship to Minister of Justice Renata Deskoska and US Ambassador Jess Baily, we had never until that moment addressed this key question to Sekerinska. Her infuriated and out of protocol remarks indicated that Macedonia’s ‘golden girl’ may be becoming a giant liability.
But though this family background would be enough to enter politics (firstly, as protégé of Branko Crvenkovski, SDSM founder and heir to the communist legacy). Indeed at the tender age of 26, she became Branko’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Coordination of Foreign Assistance, serving until the SDSM was booted out of power by VMRO-DPMNE in 2006.
It’s therefore not puzzling in the slightest that Sekerinska was specifically chosen as an American pet- a role she has held for well over a decade. This is clearly obvious from her key position when SDSM was in opposition both before and after the political crisis that started in 2015, coinciding with the arrival of the highly unpopular American ambassador, Jess Baily. In fact some of the clearest indications of this come from the American official documents themselves as revealed in leaked Wikileaks cables.
In 2010 during a heated and emotional debate between Sekerinska and Serbian nationalist politician Ivan Stoiljkovic, a Macedonian MP, Stoijlkovic accused Sekerinska of being anti Serb. In reaction to the accusation, Sekerinska, a social democrat who publicly criticises nationalism, deliberately played the Serb nationalist card on Stoijlkovic by emphasising her Serb background and gave a pledge not to harm the interests of the local Serb community.
In over 20 years of political life she has never held a protest against Serbian nationalism outside the Serbian Embassy in Skopje, not even when the US Embassy in Macedonia was set a light in 1999 by Serb extremists linked to the Milosevic regime.
In protests dubbed the Colour Revolution two years ago, Sekerinska was photographed hurling an object at a Macedonian statue in the capital.
You could argue her behaviour is racist towards ethnic Macedonians. see link here
US PLAYING OFF ETHNIC HATREDS AS A STRATEGY?
One of the questions that TEAM UZUNOV posed to US Ambassador to Macedonia, Mr Jess Baily, was the US deliberately using ethnic hatreds as a political weapon to attack native ethnic Macedonian identity. It was a question the Ambassador declined to answer. see link here
The West’s “Good Serb, Bad Serb” routine:
Then Serb Prime Minister and now President Alexander Vucic was pelted with rocks and bottles at Srebrenica during the massacre remembrance ceremony. Angry Bosnians were not labelled as “nationalist.”
On 27 April 2017, Sekerinska who has attacked native Macedonian statues is attacked in Macedonian Parliament by angry native ethnic Macedonians. Macedonians are labelled “nationalist.”
Strange paradox. in fact hypocrisy. The man who attacked her was justifiably jailed for assault.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate violence and both incidents of violence are wrong. But note the selectivity by the West.
FRENCH DUPLICITY – Thimionier’s Timing !
The French have also invested heavily in Radmila Sekerinska, so much so they have decorated her with a high state award amongst deliberate fanfare.
But you’ll note in the story below from earlier this year how the French Ambassador to Macedonia Mr Charles Thimonier waited many weeks until he had decorated Sekerinska first before responding to questions about her and then declined to comment. see link here
THE WOMAN OF MANY FACES: one minute she is the consummate “internationalist,” next playing the Serb nationalist card, now a firm supporter of the controversial and so called “Good Neighbourly Agreement” between Bulgaria and Macedonia, which in effect means the end of a separate Macedonian identity as a the price for Bulgarian support for Macedonia to join NATO and the EU. (link to Good Neighbourly Agreement story here). She is pictured below with Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Kressmir Karakachanov (left), a right wing nationalist who denies the existence of a separate Macedonian identity, and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose coalition government includes neo Nazi leader Volen Siderov of the notorious ATAKA party.
And not to mention her support of the outrageous Prespa Agreement…(link to Prespa Agreement story here) which turns Macedonia into a de facto Greek Hellenic Hong Kong.
From: Sasha Uzunov
Sent: Thursday, 4 January 2018 9:30 AM
To: kabinetMO@morm.gov.mk
Subject: Media query – Defence Minister Sekerinska
Subject: media questions for Macedonia’s Defence Minister Ms Radmila Sekerinska
Dear Minister Sekerinska
My name is Sasha Uzunov, an Australian journalist who was recently in Macedonia. I have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am also a former Australian soldier.
See link here:
https://www.google.com.au/amp/ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/afghanistan-outside-the-wire-end-game-a-new-documentary-about-canada-in-afghanistan-to-air-on-cpac-this-week/amp
I wanted to ask you some questions:
1. In 2010 you made a bizarre statement during a heated debate with Serb Nationalist MP Ivan Stoijlkovic where you declared your Serbian background. Isn’t this strange or contradictory for someone who claims to be a social democratic and who campaigns against “nationalism?” Why was it important for you to boast of your Serbianess if you as a politician criticise so called Macedonian nationalism?
Link:
http://vecer.mk/makedonija/rada-pogolema-srbinka-od-srbite
2. On your official Defence Ministry website, your biography makes no mention of your Serbian background. Why is that?
Link:
http://morm.gov.mk/?page_id=48
3. There is a public perception amongst many Macedonians you are a Serb chauvinist who attacks native Macedonian statues and who is culturally insensitive. What is your response to this? You have never protested against Serb nationalism outside the Serb Embassy in Skopje yet you throw paint at Macedonian statues? Do you have a conflict of interest?
4. In South Africa white politicians are very carefully or sensitive in their criticisms of native Black African identity for fear of being branded a racist. Bearing in mind that Serbia was the former brutal colonial ruler in Macedonia (1912-41) and played a hegemonistic role in Tito’s Yugoslavia, should you being of Serb background refrain from attacking Macedonian statues in case you are accused of racism, chauvinism against native ethnic Macedonians ?
Link: https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1541843/full-helen-zille-apologises-colonialism-tweets/
5. The German Deputy Ambassador Mr Marco Acquaticci has responded to concerns over controversial Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in western Macedonia. You have remained silent instead attacking Macedonian statues. Why is that?
Link:
http://teamuzunovmedia.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/germany-responds-to-albanian-nazi.html?m=1
Yours sincerely
Sasha Uzunov
Journalist / filmmaker
Australia