Macedonia's culturalheritage has been plundered to such an extent since independence in1991 that authorities say they believe they have lost more than amillion archaeological artefacts to Europe's black markets.

"Macedoniais a victim of organised crime," which has stolen archaeologicalobjects dating back to the 7th century BC, according to University ofMacedonia history professor Viktor Lilcic.

Since 1991,sometimes violent criminal gangs had "illegally taken from the countrymore than one million archaeological items such as jewellery, coins andold weapons," Lilcic told AFP.

"What has happened in the past 10 or so years is terrible," said Lilcic.

JovanRistov, who heads the government department for preserving Macedonia'scultural heritage, added: "About 80 percent of Macedonia'sarchaeological treasures have been destroyed or taken from shallowarchaeological sites."

He did not say how much had been taken from sites that lie deeper underground and are harder to reach.

"Wehave discovered that apart from the archaeological items, the maintarget of the criminals was old and valuable Byzantine icons" from themainly Orthodox Christian country, Ristov added.

There aremore than 5,000 officially registered archaeological sites in thesmall, landlocked country of two million people which separated fromYugoslavia in 1991.

A recent example of the traffickingoccurred just days ago when an unidentified group of criminals smuggledout a "funeral ritual chariot" including human remains and animalfigures from the 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Vreme newspaper saidthis week.

The Macedonian department responsible forpreserving the country's cultural heritage was "more than worried"about the situation, said its director, Jovan Ristov.

Thesmugglers were locals but the people paying for the objects and takingthem out of Macedonia were from other countries including Bulgaria,Greece and Serbia-Montenegro, Ristov told AFP.

"It is more andmore prevalent as the main aim (of those involved) is profit. Thesepeople are working on behalf of their own pockets and not for othervalues such as science, culture and history."

As the level ofsuch criminal activity increased in recent years, the groups involvedhave become more organised and split into several groups that haveturned on each other, Ristov said.

"This has at times led to actual fighting and clashes over the territories of the archaeological locations," he added.

Macedonian police say they have only been able to intercept 4,200 of the excavated objects.

"Theillegally obtained objects are kept behind closed doors at black marketauctions" in Macedonia before they are smuggled to mainly EU countrieswhere their prices are much higher, according to interior ministryspokesman Goran Pavlovski.

There was even a black market fortrading in ancient coins in the middle of Macedonia's capital, Skopje,said Nikola Seldarov, the president of local numismatic organisationPajanon.

"It is based near Skopje's new theatre, but if you gothere and ask about it, people will deny" it exists and try to tell youthe coins were inherited from their relatives, Seldarov told AFP.

Lilcic called on Skopje to introduce tougher measures in order punish the looters.

"These diggers are killing (Macedonia's) culture and civilisation," he said.

Copyright AFP, 2005