What happened: An unknown perpetrator damaged the facade of the Museum of Albanian Alphabet,
owned by the Ministry of Culture, where the marble and the plastic panel from the front door of the
museum were sprayed with black color, and a swastika was drawn on the wall next to the front door.
Date, time and location of the incident: 13 November, at 11:00, Museum of Albanian Alphabet, Bitola.
Source of information: Electronic medium MKD.mk.
Victim(s) involved: Aside from the material damage, there were no victims of this incident.
Type of the crime(s): Damage to objects of others (Article 243, CC), Causing hatred, discord or
intolerance on national, racial, religious and other discriminatory ground (Article 319, CC).
Perpetrator(s): Unknown.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity and
the bias indicators are:
1. Target location – the target location is the Museum of Albanian Alphabet.
Status of the case: Under investigation.
Response of Local Authorities: In MOI’s response to the Committee’s request for public information regarding this incident, it is stated that after the reporting of the event and under the Public
Prosecutor’s authorization in Bitola, an investigation was conducted by SIA Bitola. At SIA Bitola,
the incident was registered as a criminal act of “Damage to objects of others” which in accordance
with Article 243, paragraph 1 of CC is prosecuted as a private lawsuit. Additionally, the response also
stated that measures were being taken for resolving the incident and identifying the perpetrators.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic coexistence
between the two largest communities in the country.
