Global Policy Forum

Their village is just a dot on the map, but the people here consider it a country in its own right: a self- proclaimed Balkan state that has been defying authority for more than a decade. There is a lot of whimsy in applying the term "republic" to Vevcani, a mountain hamlet tucked in the southwestern corner of Macedonia just over the border from Albania.

But nationhood is a state of mind for the 2,500 villagers, who say their independent spirit helped them preserve the peace when much of the rest of the Balkans disintegrated into warfare in the 1990's. "We may seem radical in our ways, but we were determined not to let anyone manipulate us," one villager, Nenad Batkovski, said over coffee in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, where he is Vevcani's self-styled consul.

Vevcani is a Christian village surrounded by Muslim neighbors. That is often a recipe for disaster in the ethnically tense Balkans, but the village lives peacefully with its neighbors. When Yugoslavia began breaking up in 1991, the village held a referendum and 99 percent of the voters backed the creation of a "Republic of Vevcani." Residents reportedly stashed guns and ammunition, muttering warnings that they were to be left alone - or else.

Macedonia, freshly independent from the former six-state Yugoslav federation, ignored the village's claims. Ten years later, outsiders still do not know quite what to make of Vevcani. "They must be a bit touched in the head up in that village," said Vlade Nikolovski, a law student from the nearby town of Struga. "But they haven't harmed anyone, and if they want to do things their own way, why not?"

The village has created its own coat of arms - two harlequins dancing over a magic cauldron. It also issues red Vevcani passports and prints a currency, the licnik, to hand out as a souvenir. But villagers do not use the bills as legal tender, imprinting them with the word "specimen" to avoid breaking Macedonia's currency laws.

Every Jan. 14, on St. Vasilij Day, outsiders flock to Vevcani for the village carnival, a 1,300-year tradition with pagan roots. Its highlight is political satire, with masked villagers acting out current events.

Vevcani first aroused attention in 1987, when the Communist authorities at that time wanted to pipe water from the village's springs to Struga. When villagers set up barricades, the government sent a special police force to beat them, including women and children. The rebellion dragged on for weeks until the authorities finally backed off.

"They branded us as traitors to hide their own failure," said Mayor Vasil Radinovski, adding that the obstinacy of the village's Christian Slavs commanded respect even from surrounding Slavic Muslim and ethnic Albanian villages. "We launched a cultural revolution," Mr. Radinovski said. "Our Muslim neighbors come in peace, to trade and sample our springs' healing waters."

Throughout the fighting last year between Macedonian government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels seeking greater rights, there was no trouble between Vevcani and the neighboring ethnic Albanian villages.

In fact, Vevcani is thriving. Its steep cobblestone streets and neat, tightly packed houses, from ancient red-brick tile buildings to brightly painted Western-style houses, are a stark contrast to the impoverished villages that dot so much of Macedonia.

Nada Kocovska, 35, married a man from Vevcani 14 years ago, and they now have two children. She said she never regretted coming from the outside because the "people are hardworking and determined to stay."

Like his father before him and the rest of the village's men, Ivica Sekurkovski, 38, will teach his sons the traditional village craft - masonry. It has made Vevcani men valued seasonal workers in places as far away as Belgium and has contributed to the village's strong economy. "They can be what they want once they grow up, but to mix cement and build a good facade, this my sons must know," Mr. Sekurkovski said.

The mayor said the village was an example for the rest of the country. "Macedonian leaders can learn a lot from us," Mr. Radinovski said. "True democracy and a civic society is based on people being able to work and pay taxes, not on ethnicity."

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