| Conflict: | Vejce ambush |
| Partof: | the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia |
| Date: | 28 April 2001 at about 5:45 p.m |
| Place: | Between Selce and Vejce |
| Result: | NLA victory
|
| Combatant2: | National Liberation Army |
| Units1: | Wolves Bitola Unit |
| Units2: | 112th Brigade "Mujdin Aliu" |
| Commander1: | Robert Petkovski Boban Trajkovski Igor Kosteski Mile Janevski |
| Commander2: | Unknown |
| Strength1: | 8 soldiers 8 police officers |
| Strength2: | Unknown |
| Casualties1: | 4 soldiers killed 1 Humvee destroyed 1 Humvee damaged 4 officers killed 1 Lada Niva destroyed 1 Lada Niva damaged |
| Casualties2: | None |
The Vejce ambush, also known by Macedonians as the Vejce massacre, was an ambush carried out by the National Liberation Army against a Special Operations Regiment convoy near the village of Vejce during the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia. During the attack, eight soldiers were killed.[1]
On 28 April 2001, 16 Macedonian soldiers and police officers were carrying out a routine patrol.[2] At approximately 5:45 p.m., ethnic Albanian militants carried out an ambush on the convoy positioned between the villages Selce and Vejce.[3] [4] [5] Out of the 16 soldiers, 8 were killed, half of the total.
The killed officers Marjan Božinovski, Kire Kostadinovski, Boško Najdovski and Ilče Stojanovski were members of the special police unit from Bitola. The killed soldiers Robert Petkovski, Boban Trajkovski, Igor Kosteski and Mile Janevski were sergeants. A Humvee and a Lada Niva were destroyed, and other two vehicles sustained damage. According to Macedonian news sources and the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the soldiers were mutilated and burned alive.[6] [7] [8]
According to Amnesty International, the Macedonian government labeled the Vejce ambush as a crime against humanity.[9] Per Macedonian news sources, autopsies were carried out in a military morgue. Subsequently, news of the deaths fueled local unrest, sparking riots against ethnic Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia. These disturbances encompassed the burning and vandalizing of shops and mosques.[10] [11] A war crime inquiry regarding the ambush was launched by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on November 2001.[12] [13] [14] The ICTY returned the case to the local Macedonian courts on 2007.[15]
The Secretary General of NATO at the time, George Robertson, condemned the ambush, stating: "I condemn the cowardly acts of the extremists and my message is simple: the violence must end and their tactics will not be successful."[16] The attack was also condemned by the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana.[17] Anthropologist Vasiliki Neofotistos wrote of "the gruesome event that came to be known as the Vejce massacre" and its aftermath:[18]
According to Nikola Dimitrov in an interview with The Guardian:[19]
The leader of the NLA at the time, Ali Ahmeti, claimed that the ethnic Albanian fighters had not attacked the Macedonians, stating they were acting in self-defense and were fired on first by the Macedonian patrol. The claim was not independently confirmed. The United Nations Security Council condemned the ambush, calling it "cowardly" and "brutal".[20]