Saturday, May 9th marks 11 years since the armed shootout in the Kumanovo sentiment “Divo naselje”, one of the most serious security incidents in the recent history of Macedonia. On 9 and 10 May 2015, eight members of the security forces lost their lives in the 28-hour clashes, while 37 were injured.
During the 28-hour clashes, eight members of the security forces were killed, including Ljubisha Arangjelovikj, Boban Ivanovikj, Goran Ilijevski, Zharko Kuzmanovski, Isamedin Osmani, Sasho Samojlovski, Nenad Serafimovski and Goran Stojmenovikj. They were posthumously awarded with medals for bravery. An additional 37 members of the security forces were injured in the shootouts
The incident occurred four months after the then-opposition leader Zoran Zaev began releasing the so-called “bombs” wiretapped conversations. The opposition at the time accused the attack of being an attempt to divert public attention from the “bombs”, while the VMRO-DPMNE-led Government accused the attackers from Kosovo of wanting to destabilize the country.
Two years after the violent incident, 33 people involved in the attack who were accused of terrorism received prison sentences: seven were sentenced to life imprisonment, 13 to 40 years in prison, six to 20 years, one to 18, two to 14, two to 13 and two to 12 years in prison.
