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MILS NEWS 96-10-28Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 28 October, 1996[01] MACEDONIA TO HOST SEMINAR ON SECURITY'Macedonia as a Stability Factor in the Region' is the provisional title of the seminar to be held throughout the next year in Macedonia, in organisation of the Macedonian Parliament and the North-Atlantic Council. It is to analyze security and conditions in the region. According to the media arrangements for this have been made during the visit of North-Atlantic Council head Carsten Fogt to Macedonia, i.e. during his talks with Tito Petkovski. Fogt mentioned that the seminar would be attended by NATO member-states representatives and delegates of the neighbouring countries - as well as of those states to join NATO 'in the first round'. But it would also be attended by states opposing the expansion of NATO, such as the Russian Federation.This seminar would also mark the beginning of a new era for the Macedonian delegation within the North-Atlantic Council where our country has enjoyed the status of an associate member for a year, since it would denote the readiness of Macedonia to present and execute amendments, recommendations and other documents and activities. On Saturday the head of the North-Atlantic Council had been received by President Kiro Gligorov, PM Branko Crvenkovski and Defense Secretary Blagoj Handzhiski. During his meeting with President Gligorov the Macedonian head of state - among other things - underlined the importance of Macedonia's principal strategic orientation towards European organisations and its commitment to join the collective security system within NATO. It was also important that a consensus regarding these orientations had been reached between parties within and outside current government structures. All this is manifested - according to Gligorov - in Macedonia's endeavours for European integration and the gradual establishment of our country within the NATO security system by joining the 'Partnership for Peace' programme. [02] 'SAVIOUR '96' MANOUVRES OVER'In terms of expertise we have enlarged our knowledge and exchanged experiences regarding the organisation and presentation of humanitarian actions in case of natural disasters - which represents one of the future cornerstones of the expanded Treaty Organisation. Since we have managed - through cooperation with its armed forces - to achieve a high level of inter-collaboration', emphasised Vice-CO of the ARM HQ Janakije Manasievski on Friday in his closing address of the 'Saviour '96' manouvres in Ohrid.The manouvres of a predominantly logistic character were attended by representatives of 9 NATO member-states, countries incl. in the 'Partnership for Peace' programme as well as by 3 countries functioning as observers. The follow- up to these manouvres is to take place at the Krivolak training facilities next year, and consists of practical manouvres in the field. The closing included addresses by Defense Secretary Blagoj Handzhiski and the coordinator of 'Saviour '96' - US Army Col. James Coohn. Minister Handzhiski expressed his content that the objectives of the manouvres had been accomplished, stressing within this framework that Macedonia has adopted a most serious approach to all obligations generated by the general outlines of the 'Partnership for Peace' programme from the very beginning. He furthermore mentioned that Macedonia succeeded in compiling an individual programme for its involvement within the 'Partnership for Peace' initiative until 1998 - as well as the fact that there is a contingency of troops held in readiness to participate in joint manouvres and operations. [03] CONSTRUCTION OF NATURAL GAS NETWORK IN MACEDONIA THROUGH STATE COMPANY 'GAMMA' - SKOPJEThe Mac. government has brought on the decision to establish a state company which would be in charge of the procurement, transportation and distribution of natural gas by the name of 'Gamma' in Skopje. It has also appointed Mihajlo Kostovski - so far in charge of the Dept. of Natural Gas Networks in 'Makpetrol' - as its General Manager. means for the establishing of 'Gamma' will be provided out of the National Budget, in the height of 960 million denars. It has to be mentioned that both the setting up of this company and the introduction of this energetic source should have been accomplished by the close of this year, but so far the main pipeline has been completed - but not the regional networks, and the units with future commercial users have not been readapted either. It will be one of the company's main tasks to increase the number of such commercial consumers within the industrial branches, since this would be conducive to reasonable pricing policy. The second stage would consist of expanding the network to cover households. To this purpose - according to 'Nova Makedonija' - the compilation of documentation and financial studies has already begun. One of the interested parties in this project is the EBRD among others.[04] EUROPE HAS STANDARDIZED ITS TIME WITH MACEDONIAAfter one month of 'temporal discordance' caused by the change of time a whole 30 days in advance before the rest of Europe followed suit, winter time has finally come to Europe today. As several sources reported today, this will be conducive towards the overcoming of difficulties which had emerged in several branches due to this difference in measuring time, particularly within the traffic and transportation sector - due to the rash decision of the Ministry of Economy.It should be mentioned that this year's regime is a first for EU countries as well, since they followed the US time frame which starts winter time measuring in the last week of October. [05] NEW HOMICIDES IN KOSOVOFour Serbs - incl. one police officer - have been ambushed in the village Surkis in Kosovo by unknown persons - according to reports by media in Belgrade two days ago. The weapons used in this incident were automatic and the killed police officer had already been attacked once prior to this when terrorists threw a Molotoff cocktail upon his house - reports the Yugoslav agency 'Tanjug'. The Belgrade 'Beta' agency claims that in order to determine the identity of the attackers, the Serbian police force apprehended approximately 30 individuals of Albanian nationality who are now being investigated.In connection to these events the Regional Council of the governing Socialist Party demanded energetic actions to be taken in order to stop violence in Kosovo. [06] NO GREAT INTEREST IN PUBLIC ACCESS TO VOTERS' REGISTERSLast Friday marked the expiry of the very last - additional deadline within which the public had access to the general register of voters for the local elections in Macedonia - which made it possible for citizens to check their personal data and ask for their correction if necessary. All such corrections will be entered into the register by 30th this month - and afterwards it will not be possible to make any alterations until the end of local elections - according to 'Nova Makedonija'.Based on data of the regional units of the Justice Dept. for the five municipalities of Skopje, the interest of the public has been insignificant even besides a prolongation of the initial deadline. Estimates reveal that less than 10% of the citizens entitled to vote in the country's capital took the opportunity to see their data in the general register of voters. [07] LP: FIGURES ON VOTERS NOT COMPATIBLE TO STATISTICSBased on data released by state authorities there are far more voters than what could be within the realm of statistic possibilities - i.e. the realm of possibilities founded on data obtained throughout the last census. According to Minister Popovski the figure of 16 929 unregistered voters is a number which could easily be manipulated in favour of one side or another. As 'Nova Makedonija' reports these were some of the remarks made by LP head Risto Ivanov on a press conference held on Saturday. A concrete example used by Ivanov in this context was the situation in the village Kosel where the number of voters is larger than the number of inhabitants - which is just another indicator to how current voters' registers are.Ivanov once again took the opportunity to air opposition viewpoints on this subject, as well as on the procedure to which citizens are being subjected should they choose to see the register - or should they wish to be included in this register. Concerning the meeting which opposition parties had requested with the National Election Committee, the National Voter Registration Committee and Justice Secretary Vlado Popovski - Ivanovski merely said that their request had been refused. [08] IMRO-DPMNE, DP AND MAAK-KP ELECTION RALLYIMRO-DPMNE, DP and MAAK-KP staged a joint election rally in Skopje this Saturday. Those present were welcomed by their joint mayor-candidate for Macedonia's capital Risto Penov who presented his campaign programme. The greatest amount of attention was nevertheless paid to the appearances of IMRO-DPMNE and DP party leaders Ljupcho Georgievski and Petar Goshev who - while outlining their agenda - addressed fierce criticism to the current government. The DP leader promised voters transparency in local government and a decisive measures to prevent its abuse. IMRO-DPMNE leader Ljupcho Georgievski expressed his belief that this coalition will assure certain victory during local elections - which would be a relevant omen for upcoming parliamentary elections.[09] 'DATA PRESS': CRVENKOVSKI AND GOSHEV MOST POPULAR PARTY LEADERSSDSM and DP leaders Branko Crvenkovski and Petar Goshev are those evoking predominantly positive reactions in public at the moment. This has been the result of a public opinion poll conducted by 'Data Press' - which is a branch of the 'Nova Makedonija' publishing house. This opinion poll has been conducted per telephone of 2 800 subjects - chosen at random - of several Macedonian cities. With respect to the positive i.e. negative rating of 13 political party leaders in Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski - the current PM of Macedonia and chair of the SDSM - appears to have fared best with 49.57% of the interviewees expressing a favourable opinion. The runner-up position is being held by DP leader Petar Goshev with 40.57%, followed by Stojan Andov (LP) with 34.43%, Tomislav Stojanovski (DPM) on place four with 34.14%, PCERM leader Faik Abdi on five with 31.43% and Ljubisha Ivanov-Singo (SP) on six with 29.14% ...According to 'Nova Makedonija' the negative list is being headed jointly by IMRO-DPMNE leader Ljupcho Georgievski and PDPA leader Arben Dzhaferi with 49.29%, followed by Vladimir Golubovski with 48.86%, Abduraham Aliti with 47.86%, Dragisha Miletikj with 42.57%, and then also Petar Goshev with a negative balance amounting to 38.41%, Faik Abdi with 37%, Stojan Andov with 36.71%, Erdogan Sharach with 35.86%... The negative votes on Branko Crvenkovski - according to 'Data Press' - amounted to 28.43%. [10] CONSTRUCTION OF NEW ORTHODOX CHURCH IN SARAJ HAS BEGUNTwo days ago the construction of the Orthodox church 'St. Zlata Megalenska' has officially been commenced in the suburb of Saraj. The blessing of the site and the setting of the first cornerstone was attended by many members of the congregation - as well as by the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Reverend Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia Mihail. The project's design represents a donation by the Architecture Dept. of the 'Mavrovo' Construction Company - while the construction is being carried out by the 'Pelagonija' Construction Company. Other donors include the population of Saraj, Matka, Shishevo, the Karposh Municipal Council, the Construction Material Company 'Skopje', the Concrete Production Company 'Karposh', the 'Goce Delchev' firm, the Karposh Municipal Council of IMRO-DPMNE, the 'Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia' and 'Orka Sport'.[11] ANATOLIY KARPOV IN MACEDONIAThe FIDE World Chess Champion A. Karpov has visited Macedonia for the fourth time. On Friday the chess legend has been received by Tito Petkovski, president of the Mac. parliament - and he also gave a joint press conference with Minister Dimitar Buzleski - who is also presiding over the Macedonian Chess Association. On Saturday, 25th October, Karpov played a party of chess against the members of the Chess Youth Club in Skopje - which was broadcast on TV.MILS SUPPLEMENT[12] 'European Council: Media in Macedonia Controlled by the State'('Dnevnik', 28th October 1996)In its last report the European Council gives an unfavourable assessment of the position of Macedonia's printed and electronic media. In the Republic of Macedonia the government controls printed media by controlling the network of printing and distributing facilities - and National radio-TV holds a monopoly over the radio diffusion sector, besides being influenced by state authorities ... this is part of a report compiled by the European Council, dating back to 4th October, on the Position of Media in Macedonia. This document also contains the responses of the Macedonian government on previous reports on this subject-matter. Within a framework on the general rights and liberties of media in European countries - the Council continues to provide a close-up of the position of printed and electronic media in Macedonia, by quoting the findings of NGOs, institutes and professional organisations (such as: the International Press Institute - IPI, the International Helsinki Federation - IHF, the European Fond for Expression Liberty - FEL, Balkan Media -. BKM, and the European Media Institute - EIM ), and others. According to the IPI 'the government assumes its dominant role over printed media by controlling the printing and distribution network. The observers stress the need for the destruction of such a monopoly. The dependence of a paper of government printing and distributing facilities - as well as from state subsidies - do bring about a kind of auto- censorship with part of the professional journalists', says a section of the report. 'The evaluation that media in Macedonia are under government influence is unsustainable', claims the government in one of its notes to the Council of Europe. 'There are over 320 printed media in Macedonia - of which 22 in Albanian, 4 in English, 2 in Turkish, 2 in the Vlach language and 5 of them are bilingual (English and Macedonian) ... It is more than obvious that controlling the media would be a rather difficult undertaking.' The note also emphasises that the government also subsidizes a number of papers (around 20 in 1996) out of the state budget. A key argument the government uses to its defense is the fact that the Laws on Radio Diffusion and on Public Media are still being debated by the parliament. Additional comments on the EC Report, however, contain the following reply to this: 'EIM experts have assessed the draft of the Law on Radio Diffusion submitted to the parliament in May 1996 as inconsistent since it does not provide an independent monitoring facility. The draft has also been studied by experts of the European Council in December 1995 - but so far there has been no information on the feedback to their opinion.' The overall evaluation in the report boils down to the conclusion that key problems concerning the freedom of the press are to be attributed to the lack of codification and to economic hardship. Concern is expressed regarding Criminal Law, i.e. the section on spreading false information, libel and other media-related crimes. It is also mentioned that Macedonia has still not signed the European Convention on International TV. The report also contains the opinion of the OSCE mission in Skopje that the suspending of MTV head Melpomeni Korneti has been politically motivated. The European Council also claims that the Macedonian government places restrictions on the circulation of foreign press. 'All foreign publications are eligible to obtain a permit of the Ministry of the Interior - but there have been documented cases of confiscations of books and the prohibition of some foreign publications (BKM, IHF, 'Albanian Daily News', 23rd February 1996). In its reply the Mac. government mentions that 'according to existing legal regulations it is a prerequisite to possess a permit by the Ministry of the Interior for the import of foreign publications - and this regulation applies to all countries, not just the neighbouring ones.' The chapter on 'hate speech' underlines the lack of pluralism of opinions and the implementation of hate speech - but nit to the extent this is being registered in other states of the region. 'Bearing in mind the difficult situation the country is in, it can be hardly surprising that ethnic tensions and xenophobic bias surface from time to time ... there are no reports of prosecution of extremist or other groups which generate intolerance' the EC report goes on. (end)mils news 28 October, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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