MILS: News from the FYROM, 96-12-06

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From: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT GLIGOROV: `EUROPE SHOULD NOT ABANDON THE IDEA OF ONE HOME FOR EVERYONE'

[02] BBC: `THE WEST CANNOT GRASP BULGARIAN AND GREEK POLICY TOWARDS MACEDONIA'

[03] ELIZABETH WREN IN MACEDONIA IN JANUARY

[04] SFRY SUCCESSION NEGOTIATIONS BLOCKED

[05] DIVERGENT OPINIONS ON CORRECTED PASSPORTS OF AEGEAN MACEDONIANS

[06] ON MACRO-ECONOMIC AGRICULTURAL POLICY

[07] CHANGE OF DEADLINE ON DECLARING OR RETURNING TEMPORARILY IMPORTED VEHICLES

[08] SKOPJE AIRPORT OPENS TODAY

[09] LATEST ELECTION RESULTS AND RULINGS ON COMPLAINTS

[10] MTV: `INCREASED QUALITY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT'

[11] `SDSM CONFIRMING ITS POSITION AS A LEADER'

[12] ALBANIAN STUDENTS CONTINUE BOYCOTTING INSTRUCTION AT THE PEDAGOGICAL FACULTY

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] `Organized Convoys for Illegal Border Crossings'

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 06 December, 1996

[01] PRESIDENT GLIGOROV: `EUROPE SHOULD NOT ABANDON THE IDEA OF ONE HOME FOR EVERYONE'

President Gligorov continued by underlining the importance of meetings with his counterparts of Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the Greek PM Costas Simitis and NATO Secretary-General Xavier Solana.

Regarding his encounter with the Greek PM President Gligorov said that Simitis advocated a mutual compromise in order to settle existing divergences, and the fact that Greece is willing to establish large-scale cooperation in all fields with Macedonia. Gligorov assessed that this informal meeting generated incentives to increase trust and respect between both neighbouring countries.

Relations between Albania and Macedonia cannot be reduced to the `Tetovo University' issue - neither can the latter be prerequisite to the development of cooperation in other respects, claimed President Gligorov upon evaluating his meeting with Albanian President Sali Berisha. In this context the Macedonian Head of state stressed that in response to this question raised by his Albanian counterpart, he said that both countries needed to open up their borders to a greater extent - as well as that there are 12 unratified agreements of considerable significance for the evolution of bilateral relations. Thus President Gligorov had proposed the signing of a free trade zone agreement.

Commenting on the statement of Bulgarian President Zhelju Zhelev given for the Sofia press that talks with the Macedonian President had been conducted in pure Bulgarian, Gligorov said that he was unpleasantly surprised as this (provided it is true) represents another indicator to the lack of goodwill to overcome existing differences. In addition to this the Macedonian President revealed that a stagnation in bilateral relations had been registered by both sides, which is primarily due to the Macedonian language issue. To this purpose Gligorov pointed out the fact that the exhibited Bulgarian attitude regarding the latter was merely a component of Balkan anachronisms.

Upon reflecting on the meeting with NATO Secretary-General Xavier Solana, the Macedonian Head of state announced the visit of the NATO official - scheduled for the second half of January `97 or the beginning of February.

[02] BBC: `THE WEST CANNOT GRASP BULGARIAN AND GREEK POLICY TOWARDS MACEDONIA'

[03] ELIZABETH WREN IN MACEDONIA IN JANUARY

[04] SFRY SUCCESSION NEGOTIATIONS BLOCKED

[05] DIVERGENT OPINIONS ON CORRECTED PASSPORTS OF AEGEAN MACEDONIANS

Such an option has been welcomed by the `Organization of Macedonians - Descendants of the Aegean Part of Macedonia', with its seat in Bitola, with the argument that in the end the most important thing was the possibility for Macedonians born in this area to visit their homesteads and relatives. This opinion on a rather relevant issue is entirely contrary to the viewpoint of the `Association of Macedonians from the Aegean Part of Macedonia' which is also located in Bitola - but has its offices throughout the country, as `Dnevnik' reports. This Association stresses that they will never consent to bearing Greece as their place of birth in their passport, as well as the assessment of such an agreement reached by Greek and Macedonian authorities as a humiliating distortion of Macedonians born in the Aegean region of Macedonia. They propose the use of toponyms in both Greek and Macedonian.

[06] ON MACRO-ECONOMIC AGRICULTURAL POLICY

The planned rationalization of produce stock in the country - according to the above mentioned - increases the complexity of the purchase of certain agricultural produce.

Agriculture Minister Nikola Parakeov denoted these changes as indispensable in order to reorientate current agriculture policy on behalf of decreased financial support within the `97 Budget. According to him conditions prerequisite to the implementation of development projects can be created by procuring foreign loans on favourable terms.

[07] CHANGE OF DEADLINE ON DECLARING OR RETURNING TEMPORARILY IMPORTED VEHICLES

Its task is to motivate all foreign citizens who missed out on the deadline (codified previously) to declare their vehicles or to return them abroad.

[08] SKOPJE AIRPORT OPENS TODAY

[09] LATEST ELECTION RESULTS AND RULINGS ON COMPLAINTS

Official results announced by the Sveti Nikole Election Commission reveal that the local mayor election was won by triple coalition candidate Ljupcho Panevski with 3 817 votes.

With respect to objections lodged by all parties nominating mayor candidates throughout round 2 of local elections, the Municipal Election Commission of Ohrid decided to annul elections at 4 polling stations - where the second round will probably be repeated on 15th December.

A similar ruling has been made regarding the early closing of polling station No. 6 at the newly-formed Izvor municipality, as the appeal submitted by the SDSM has been sustained.

At 2 polling stations in Tetovo and the new municipality of Boginje, round 1 .i.e. round 2 of the elections have not been brought to a close yet, which is why they are most likely to be repeated on 8th December.

[10] MTV: `INCREASED QUALITY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT'

In Skopje the new mayor is a member of the DP which has 3 seats in the council, followed by the SDSM with 8, the IMRO-DPMNE with 6 and the LP with 3. The Skopje municipality Kisela Voda will be led by an IMRO-DPMNE mayor and 7 counsellors of this party, and 8 SDSM counsellors. The Gjorche Petrov municipality has a DP mayor and only 2 DP counsellors, compared to 7 SDSM seats.

The new mayor of Kumanovo belongs to the SDSM, who is to be supported by 5 counsellors of his own party - whereas the Socialists have 7. The SP mayor of Ohrid will have 5 party-members in his council, and 7 of IMRO-DPMNE and SDSM respectively. Prilep has an IMRO-DPMNE mayor and 9 counsellors of the same party and of the SDSM...

The MTV comment is rounded off by the assessment that voters were prone to elect certain parties during counsellor elections, whereas personal belief appears to have been decisive regarding their choice for mayor.

Another impression imposing itself is the fact that the candidate's rating was of key relevance in the fierce competition created during elections, besides the fact that the versatile and high-quality structure of councils will hardly ever let any of the city fathers remain sitting on their hands as it had been the case so far.

[11] `SDSM CONFIRMING ITS POSITION AS A LEADER'

On yesterday's press conference the SDSM Secretary-General Ljubomir Popovski contested the legitimacy of objections that his party manipulated elections by advocating the annulment of the latter at certain polling stations. As an illustration he mentioned Ohrid where elections had been annulled at 4 polling stations, upon request of the IMRO- DPMNE and the SP. He continued by denying any possibility to tamper with the votes of ARM servicemen, as they were decisive for the SDSM defeat in Radovish, and for the increase of the opposition lead in Prilep. On opposition accusations regarding the Serbianization of Macedonia Popovski stressed that this thesis could not be upheld as the opposition in Serbia is fighting for victory in Belgrade - whereas `opposition supremacy' has been established in Skopje. In the end he added that regardless of the victory of an opposition candidate in Skopje, his party would like to express its gratitude towards the public and the PDPA for its support, as well as its congratulations to the new mayor upon his election - in expectation of their future cooperation.

[12] ALBANIAN STUDENTS CONTINUE BOYCOTTING INSTRUCTION AT THE PEDAGOGICAL FACULTY

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] `Organized Convoys for Illegal Border Crossings'

(`Nova Makedonija' - 01 December 1996)

Entire bus-loads of Bulgarian and other foreign citizens who are looking to make a living in neighbouring Greece illegally disembark on our territory and continue their tour on foot. This network of illegal immigration involves Bulgarian, Greek - and also Macedonian - citizens.

Recent tragic occurrences in the border region between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, which are unfortunately not the only instances of this kind, turned the issue of illegal transit by foreigners through our country with neighbouring Greece as the final destination a burning one. Each and every day, especially during the weekend, our customs and police forces return entire groups of `outlaws' who home in on the border by bus or train and then take a demarcated route across the border on foot. This route keeps changing permanently, as our police has succeeded in cutting off numerous channels through which these illegal crossings were organized.

The majority of these immigrants are of Bulgarian, Romanian or Albanian origin who - as they are not permitted to seek employment in Greece legally, attempt to enter the country on these `by-ways'. The recent rush is being definitely attributed to the deportation of Albanians - who comprised the `legions' of `illegal labour force' working on orange or olive plantations, on construction sites, city dumps, etc. The created vacuum is quickly being filled in by a huge number of Bulgarians and Romanians who accept any kind of work offered in their quest for any kind of living. Greek plantation owners, employers and proprietors do hardly ever refuse the services of such cheap labour - in spite of strict legal regulations - as they are saving them loads of national tax due otherwise. In many cases they even work hand in hand with inspection authorities by reporting the `illegal' work force once harvest - or the job - is over.

Until that time these workers are housed in some sort of barracks or deserted plants.

What we are being confronted with is a well-organized network of hiring and illegally transporting `unregistered' labour across the border, mainly from Bulgaria but recently, however, there has been an increased input from Romania as well. Once the passengers have reached the vicinity of Gevgelija by bus, they continue their journey on foot led by individuals (most often Macedonians) who are hired to scout them through the area. Up to now the main corridor has been the one past Bogdanci, along the long-distance electricity line and the arable land along the border, whereas the latter is being crossed at night time exclusively.

The larger convoys of illegals are being met by the `men- in-waiting' (predominantly Greek citizens) at the other side of the border who are in charge of the subsequent transportation to their place of work. Those convoys discovered and apprehended on transiting through our country so far have only confirmed the organizational quality of these international networks. Due to increased border patrolling, some of these `illegal' workers remain on the train even after the passage of the Suva Reka bridge - immediately before the border itself - before they jump off it in order to cross the border on foot.

Thus only in this section of the route several accidents occurred, and one Romanian citizen lost his life. Our police forces have apprehended some of the organizers of these illegal convoys, most of them Bulgarian and Greek citizens - though there have been Macedonians too, who were mainly in charge of transporting and guiding passengers. In spite of all this, all channels for the illegal transport of `blind' passengers across the border have not been discovered. To achieve such a complete destruction of this organised international network, intensified cooperation with appropriate authorities in neighbouring states would become prerequisite, particularly with those of Greece as the `ordering' and the `reception' of illegal labour (only available by illegally entering the country) is taking place there.

All contacts, however, regarding this issue in an era following the signing of the Interim Agreement by both countries - boil down to mutual border agreements on accommodation of apprehended illegal immigrants. Up to the present all initiatives made by our side in order to facilitate the joint and better organised discovery of those smuggling routes, have not obtained acceptance.

(end)

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