What happened: Four masked persons threw Molotov cocktails on the Museum of the Albanian
Alphabet in Bitola. The persons wanted to set the facility on fire, but failed to so, and then only broke
the glass. Some of the glass panes in the windows and doors of the museum were broken, and there
were visible traces of the Molotov cocktail in front of the entrance.
Date, time and location of the incident: 07 March, around 04:00, Museum of the Albanian Alphabet,
Bitola.
Source of information: Electronic media outlet Tera TV, electronic media outlet Reporter.
Victim(s) involved: Apart from material damage, there were no victims in this incident.
Type of crime(s): Damage of Objects of Others (Article 243, CC), Causing national, racial or religious
hate, discord and intolerance (Article 319, CC)
Perpetrator(s): Four persons
Brief description of the event with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is ethnicity,
nationality or language, while the bias indicators are:
1. Target location – the target location was the Museum of the Albanian Alphabet in Bitola;
2. Pattern of previous incidents – this was the fifth attack on the Museum of the Albanian Alphabet in
Bitola;
Status of the case: Criminal charges were brought against four people on reasonable grounds for
suspicion of committing the criminal act of “Creating General Danger” pursuant to Article 288 of
the CC.
Response of the local authorities: The MoI’s response to the MHC request for public information
regarding this incident stated that after taking adequate measures and activities SIA Bitola submitted
criminal charges against four people on grounds of reasonable suspicion that they have committed
the crime of “Creating General Danger” in accordance with Article 288 from CC. In addition, the
response also states that after conducting interviews with the suspects, SIA Bitola did not find any
indication that the crime was committed due to the ethnicity of the people, but that it was done
independently and without any influence.
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident calls into question the ethnic co-existence
of the two major ethnic communities in the country.
