What happened: A photo emerged on the social media of a graffiti sprayed on a building in Bitola
reading “Death to Shqiptars!”, in Macedonian and Albanian and an ironic remark “Such is the law” which
is the latest expression of hate speech on grounds of ethnicity, “embellishing” the walls of this street in
Bitola as of today.
This comes after the adoption of the Law on the Use of Languages and it is not a rare occurrence in
Bitola, according to the observers of CIVIL. At the anniversary of the Albanian alphabet, two years ago, the
windows of the Museum of the Albanian Alphabet got broken, and in March last year, four Molotov cocktails
were thrown at the same object.
Date, time and location of the incident: 18 January, unspecified, on the wall of a building in Bitola.
Source of information: social media, electronic media outlet civilmedia.mk
Victim(s) involved: none.
Type of crime(s): Damage of Objects of Others (Article 243, CC), Inciting Hatred, Discord or Intolerance on
National, Racial, Religious and other Discriminatory Grounds (Article 319, CC)
Perpetrator(s): two perpetrators identified, one of whom is a minor (17).
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity, while the
bias indicators are:
1. Pattern of previous incidents – Graffiti spreading hate speech on grounds of ethnicity had been written
on previous occasions as well.
Status of the case: Unknown
Response of the local authorities: On 30.01.2018, MoI pressed criminal charges against two perpetrators
for the crime of Racial and other discrimination.
Impact on the victims and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic co-existence of
the two major ethnic communities in the country.
