Roundup: Attack on police station reveals weak security spots on Macedonia-Kosovo border

Macedonian state authorities met late Tuesday night to analyze the security threats in the country after an attack on a police station near Macedonia's border with Kosovo.

The meeting shared information about the alleged attack in which 40 masked gunmen forcefully took over the police station in Goshince, northern Macedonia.

Some of the attackers came into the country as a group from neighboring Kosovo, the Macedonian police said. They disarmed the four police officers on duty and made them to leave the station, declaring that they want "their own independent state" on the border territory.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov called the meeting with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, President of the Macedonian Assembly Trajko Veljanoski, Defense Minister Zoran Jolevski and Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska, as well as leading officials in the national security agencies.

Security experts and political analysts agreed that the incident revealed some weak spots in the security of the country's border with Kosovo.

"There is the question how this group succeeded to take over a police station," political analyst Vladimir Bozinovski said. "We have to examine the degree of security there and we must fortify it. An incident like this can't be neglected."

"This is a region where we need strong police presence and not only four people," Bozinovski said.

"This is just a criminal gang acting in Goshince and it doesn't have support from official structures in Kosovo," security expert Blagoja Markovski said.

"Their only goal is to increase the inter-ethnic divide between Macedonians and Albanians and to intimidate the local population," Markovski said.

The attackers presented themselves as members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. They recorded the whole attack with a camera, according to the testimony of the Macedonian police officers on duty.

The Macedonian Ministry of the Interior is considering this attack as a "serious terrorist act" and did not allow journalists to go to the police station in Goshince due to an immediate security risk.

Since the Tuesday attack, the border region of Goshince between Macedonia and Kosovo has been guarded by Macedonian Special Forces, who are there to secure the investigation of the incident and to help search for the attackers.

The Macedonian Ministry of the Interior will also discuss the incident with the authorities from Belgrade and Pristina.

The Kosovo Ministry Foreign Affairs (MFA) has condemned the police station attack, stressing that the attackers do not enjoy support from the Kosovo authorities.

"The MFA condemns any act of violence against law enforcement authorities in Macedonia, and simultaneously calls for professional and impartial investigation and expresses willingness to help the Macedonian authorities to find the perpetrators of this act," the ministry said in a written statement. Endi