What happened: Two teenagers took the big national flag down set up at the fountain in front of
former hotel “Crystal” in Kumanovo, and put an Albanian flag at half mast in its place. According to
the sources from the Ministry of Internal Affairs which were reported by the media, these are two
young people who were immediately detained, in the meantime stronger police security was put in
place, and in the attempt to remove the flag some clashes with the police occurred whereby two
officers of MoI Kumanovo were injured. According to the portal “Kumanovski muabeti” two people of Albanian nationality, from the village of Slupchane, took down the national flag and tried to put up
the Albanian flag on the mast in the city center. The media outlet reported that there were at least
four other people on the spot, but the rest of them fled, whereby two people were detained, and
several witnesses were taken in for questioning.
Date, time and location of the incident: 31 March, 16:00, Kumanovo.
Source of information: Electronic media outlet Kumanovski muabeti, electronic media outlet
Pravdiko.
Victim(s) involved: Apart from material damage, there were no victims in this incident.
Type of crime(s): Bodily injury (Article 131, CC, Inciting Hatred, Discord or Intolerance on National,
Racial, Religious and other Discriminatory Grounds (Article 319, CC)
Perpetrator(s): Four people
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. The target object in the incident – the national flag was removed and replaced with the Albanian flag;
Status of the case: Criminal charges were brought against two persons from the village of Slupcane
and two other unknown persons, on the basis of a reasonable suspicion that the alleged persons
committed the criminal act “Inciting Hatred, Discord or Intolerance on National, Racial, Religious
and other Discriminatory Grounds” (Article 319, CC), as well as for committing the criminal act
“Assaulting an official while performing security duties” according to Article 383 paragraph 1 of the
Criminal Code.
Response of the local authorities: The MoI’s response to the MHC request for public information
regarding this incident states that there are indications that this incident was committed due to the
ethnicity of the people involved, and that on 01.04.2017 SIA Kumanovo submitted criminal charges
against two people from the village of Slupchane, and two more unknown persons to the Basic Public
Prosecution in Kumanovo for committing the crime of Inciting Hatred, Discord or Intolerance on
National, Racial, Religious and other Discriminatory Grounds” (Article 319, CC), and for committing
the criminal act “Assaulting an official while performing security duties” according to Article 383
paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code.
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.
