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MILS NEWS 26/04/96From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@MILS.SPIC.ORG.MK>Macedonian Information Liaison Service DirectoryCONTENTS[01] GLIGOROV - 'COOPERATION THAT WILL LEAD TO EUROPE'[02] PIRINSKI'S VISIT POSTPONED BECAUSE OF ADDITIONAL CONTACTS[03] DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN HONDURAS AND MACEDONIA[04] ITALIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION IN MACEDONIA[05] GREEK-MACEDONIAN DISPUTE DISCUSSED IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE[06] US CONGRESS ON MINORITIES' RIGHTS IN GREECE[07] SERBIAN NATIONALISTS ACCUSED FOR THE INCIDENTS IN KOSOVO[08] ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO WILL CONTINUE[09] DRASHKOVIC ACCUSES MILOSHEVIC AND RUGOVA[10] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS CRITICIZED THE NORMALISATION OF THE RELATIONS WITH FRY[11] THERE WILL BE NO REFERENDUM FOR EARLY ELECTIONS[12] PRODUCTION INCREASED, EXPORT- IMPORT DECREASED[13] MANAGING TEAM OF KOMERCIJALNA BANK SUSPENDED[14] VOTING WILL BE REPEATED IN THE VILLAGES OF SEMENISHTE AND RASHCEMILS SUPPLEMENT[15] 'Caught in Their Own Trap' ('Nova Makedonija', 25 April 1996)MILS NEWSSkopje, 26 April 1996[01] GLIGOROV - 'COOPERATION THAT WILL LEAD TO EUROPE'Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, besides Boutros Ghali's envoy Mr. Berthold, the Romanian President Ion Iliesku and the President of 'Cran Montana' Forum Jean Paul Carteron, yesterday addressed the participants of the three-day session of the Forum in Bucharest, also organised by the Romanian Chamber of Trade and Industry, the Black Sea Region Cooperation Council and the World Trade Centre. Gligorov talked about the current situation in the region, stressing that this Forum should initiate the cooperation and contacts among the countries that were waging war or living in hate till recently. The new cooperation should be based on new principles that will lead to a Europeanisation of the whole region. Macedonian President also referred to the reconstruction of Bosnia and emphasized the efforts of the international community in that direction, including those of Macedonia.Gligorov had an official meeting with the Romanian President Ion Iliesku, and he will receive the 'Cran Montana' award today. [02] PIRINSKI'S VISIT POSTPONED BECAUSE OF ADDITIONAL CONTACTSBulgarian Foreign Affairs Minister Gjorgji Pirinski stated yesterday, regarding the postponing of his visit to Macedonia, that there is a need for improving the bilateral relations, which is why an additional time was allowed for high officials meetings of the two ministries to take place.As 'Makpress' agency informed, he was surprised by the interpretations of the Macedonian papers that Bulgarian side was responsible for the postponing. According to the Bulgarian 'BTA' agency, Pirinski rejected the assumptions that Bulgaria and Macedonia could not sign any Accords due to the language dispute. He said it was possible to be done in the both countries' official languages, and there was no need for an international arbitrage. [03] DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN HONDURAS AND MACEDONIARepublic of Honduras yesterday established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name. The document was signed by the Macedonian Ambassador to Great Britain Risto Nikovski and the Charge d' Affairs at the Embassy of Honduras, Hose Francisco Morales Cantor, at the Macedonian Embassy in London yesterday[04] ITALIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION IN MACEDONIAA group of Italian businessmen, representing more than 50 large Italian enterprises, arrived yesterday in Skopje to become more familiar with the conditions and possibilities for concrete cooperation between the two countries. The delegation will meet representatives of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, of Ministries of Transport and Economy, and a number of Macedonian companies.[05] GREEK-MACEDONIAN DISPUTE DISCUSSED IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPEMacedonian radio reported that, at the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the British deputy Lord Dunley asked the Chairman of the Ministers' Committee Helmek Peterson whether a final agreement was reached on the name of Macedonia, regarding the Council Resolution 23 from 1995. It is a Resolution by which Macedonia was invited to join the Council under the temporary name FYROM, due to the dispute with Greece.Chairman Peterson replied there was a very unusual and unique entry in that Resolution. He expressed his hope that the dispute between Macedonia and Greece will be solved in a reasonable period of time, which depended exclusively on the parties involved. He said there were some yielding signs in the relations between the two countries. According to Macedonian Radio, it was decided that in case the dispute was not soon resolved, the Parliamentary Assembly will decide on the name under which Macedonia will participate in the CoE. [06] US CONGRESS ON MINORITIES' RIGHTS IN GREECEThe American Congress should today start a debate on the position of the Turkish minority in northern Greece, based on the report of the American Helsinki Committee, in which a serious concern for the situation of the minorities in Greece was expressed. US Helsinki Committee representative informed yesterday that the situation was similarly estimated by the Amnesty International Organisation and by the State Department. According to 'Dnevnik' daily, these estimations provoked a great dissatisfaction in Athens, and the opposition severely criticized the Greek government's policy.Meanwhile, on a press conference yesterday, the Archbishop Nikodimos Carknjas informed that at the recent International Conference on Freedom of Religions in Warsaw, the delegation of the Macedonian minority in Greece objected to the breaking of the religious rights of Macedonians in Greece. 'They reply with threats and denying of the existence of the Macedonian people in Greece to all our requests to be allowed to have religious services in Macedonian language in the churches,' stressed Carknjas. [07] SERBIAN NATIONALISTS ACCUSED FOR THE INCIDENTS IN KOSOVOAlbanian President Sali Berisha appealed to the Albanians in Kosovo to restrain from any activities which could increase the tensions in the province after the recent incidents, reported 'Royter' agency from Tirana. Berisha appealed to the international community to bring urgent measures for solving the ethnic problems in Kosovo and southern Serbia.Albanian President, according to Albanian national Radio and Television, said the latest killings in Kosovo were elements of the strategy of Serbian extremist nationalistic circles, who were trying to change the situation in the province at any price. He added that the Serbian nationalism was trying to eliminate the option for peaceful solution of the Kosovo issue, for which all serious political forces in Albania and Kosovo are interceding. [08] ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO WILL CONTINUEEditor in Chief of the Pristine weekly 'Koha' Veton Suroi stated yesterday for 'Royter' that there would be more violent actions in Kosovo this year than ever before. He pointed out the repression of the police and the actions of individuals trying to gradually infiltrate in the political structure. Suroi said majority of the Albanians were against armed resistance, but added that the frustration was increasing because of the pacifist policy promoted by Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo. He said it was obviously an unsuccessful policy.The independent Belgrade daily 'Nasa Borba' in the meantime reported the denials of a member of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo Presidency of the accusations that his party had organised the terrorist attacks. He emphasised that the Alliance disapproves of violence as a kind of political means. The representatives of this party said yesterday, according to 'Nasa Borba', that about 80 Albanians had been arrested following the events . [09] DRASHKOVIC ACCUSES MILOSHEVIC AND RUGOVAWhile the official Yugoslav stands regarding the recent incidents in Kosovo are still reserved, reactions from opposition parties appeared in the Belgrade media yesterday.According to Macedonian Radio, the opposition required from the government to start a dialogue with the Albanians in Kosovo, and some of the parties used the incidents to attack the government. Namely, the leader of the opposition SPO party stated that the increasing of 'the fire in Kosovo' was suitable both for Slobodan Miloshevic and for Ibrahim Rugova. He said Miloshevic needed it to cover all his political failures before the forthcoming elections in December, in order to regain his 'national hero' image, which would help him defeat Karadzic on the elections in Bosnia. Drashkovic thinks Rugova was afraid both of the possibility that world is tired from the horrors in Bosnia and Croatia, but also that the Albanians in Kosovo are tired from his policy. [10] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS CRITICIZED THE NORMALISATION OF THE RELATIONS WITH FRYMacedonian Parliament ratified the Agreement on Normalisation of the Relations with FR Yugoslavia. Albanian MPs objected to the Agreement, viewing it as an official support of the Macedonian government to the Serbian anti- Albanian policy. They accused the government of not taking into account the will of the two million Albanians in Kosovo and of recognizing a state that occupies and terrorizes that province.The MP Ruffi Osmani said 'the southern Slavs governments were always singing the same tune regarding the rights of the Albanians and were leading the same policy with variations only in the methods and forms'. Abduraif Prusi from PDPA said the Agreement is in contradiction to the conclusions of Badinter's Commission. Marsal Beljeali stated that FRY was responsible for all the tragedies on the territory of former Yugoslavia and had not an international support, and that Macedonia would come out with a minimum portion of the $100 billion heritage in the succession process. Tomislav Stojanovski presented his opinion that the Macedonian Parliament was incompetent for the Kosovo issue, and that the politics must serve the economy. Stojan Andov said the Agreement is an exceptionally important act for Macedonia and for the peace and cooperation in the region. Ljubisav Ivanov sees the Agreement as a result of the constructive cooperation between the both countries' Socialist Parties and said the economy results it would bring were indisputable. [11] THERE WILL BE NO REFERENDUM FOR EARLY ELECTIONSMacedonian Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski, in his interview for 'Nova Makedonija' daily, said there were no chances at all for having early elections, simply because of legal reasons. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia the early elections could not be a matter of a referendum, said Popovski. He added that none of the Constitutions and Laws on Elections of the European countries, USA or Canada, allowed seizing of the Parliament mandate by a referendum. According to Popovski, the Parliament was not directly in charge of early elections issue, and the Constitution referred to a referendum on issues in which the Parliament is directly in charge of.Justice Minister also informed that the four Laws on local self-governing would be passed before the end of summer, and that the local elections would take place next autumn. [12] PRODUCTION INCREASED, EXPORT- IMPORT DECREASEDMacedonian Statistics Institute Director, Svetlana Antonovska, confirmed yesterday that the Macedonian industry production in the period January-March 1996 had increased for 5.4% in comparison to the same period last year. She said that export decreased for 40% and import for 13.5% compared to the same period last year. The export covering was of 67.5%, and the deficit was of $65 million. The export was mostly reduced to the eastern and central European countries, especially Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia, but also to some western countries, such as USA, Italy and Germany.The Institute also informed that there were 349,320 employed in Macedonia till the end of February this year, which is again 9.4% lower than in February 1995. The average salary in January and February was 8,566 denars, which was 2% more than in the same period last year, but was 3.3% lower compared to life expences. [13] MANAGING TEAM OF KOMERCIJALNA BANK SUSPENDEDMacedonian National Bank Governor Branko Stanoevski yesterday suspended the managing team of Komercijalna Bank.The explanation was, according to Macedonian Radio, that it was done due to the intended mistakes the team had made for some period of time. The Council of the National Bank had previously given a term of 30 days to the Administrative Board of Komercijalna Bank to change their General Manager. As the Board refused to do that by submitting a written explanation, the governor suspended the managing team. The Bank will be unable to operate until the case is solved. [14] VOTING WILL BE REPEATED IN THE VILLAGES OF SEMENISHTE AND RASHCEState Electoral Commission decided yesterday that the elections at the electoral unit 102, at 93 and 95 polling places in the villages of Semenishte and Rashce will be repeated. The elections will be supervised by electoral boards, and the voting will take place on Sunday, 28 April.MILS SUPPLEMENT[15] 'Caught in Their Own Trap'('Nova Makedonija', 25 April 1996)This foreign-politics confusion is made not as much because of the lost battle (nothing new for Greece), as because of their need to accept it themselves and to prepare the home public to accept it. At this period before the June Congress of PASOK, the ruling party members are clearly divided in two streams: the opinion of the first one is that the issue should be solved as soon as possible, or at least put aside, while the other one is the nationalistic stream that does not give up the name monopolizing ambitions. The clashes between the parties are increased even more by the statements of opposition leaders, for example of Militiadis Evert, who said that when his party New Democracy will rule the country, it will ask for a revision of the Interim Accord with Macedonia.Being severely criticized by the opposition because of the undetermined reply to the recent 'Turkish provocation' in the Aegean Sea, and under pressure of his insecure position, due to the improving health condition of Andreas Papandreou, Simitis seems to be losing his head. That is the only explanation for his request from Clinton to help him in the dispute with Macedonia, although he is in the middle of the electoral campaign and his foreign policy capital, based on the peace initiatives for the critical regions (the Near East and the Balkans), will be successfully sealed only by the normalisation of the Macedonian-Greek relations. Unofficially, sources close to the White House informed that Clinton and Simitis had talked very little about the Macedonian-Greek relations, which, in other words, means that the US President had not showed an interest to meet the Greek request. Why should Simitis than risk a failure by radicalising the expectations before the elections and by provoking the Greek lobby in the USA? That is why Frchkovski's visit to Athens and his talks to Pangalos are not convenient at the moment. As what else would politicians discuss if not the problems that burden both countries - in this case the name issue, and the Macedonian side clearly states that it would not yield. That is why Pangalos postponed the meeting, probably waiting for some better times. But they will not come just like that. Greek politicians will have to make a serious attempt, in their interest, to get out of the trap they had set themselves. The speculations of their local media that Athens is allegedly prepared to accept a complex name including the term 'Macedonia' are, unfortunately, not appropriate efforts. On the contrary, they are covering the truth - that Greece had accepted a complex name for Macedonia three years ago, when it had supported the UN Resolution on adopting the Republic of Macedonia in the World Organisation under the already known reference name. (end)mils news 26 April, 1996 |
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