The German Minister for Economic Cooperation Carl- Dieter Spranger is due to arrive in Macedonia today. During his visit, the federal minister will hold talks with President Kiro Gligorov and have a joint meeting with Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and the ministers for development, finance, transport and traffic, economy, and agriculture.
Macedonia's Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski met in New York with the UN Under Secretary for peacekeeping operations Kofi Annan.
According to the announcement of the Foreign Ministry, Crvenkovski and Annan positively assessed the to-date and future mission of the peacekeeping forces in Macedonia.
Minister Crvenkovski also held a meeting with the Assistant for European issues in the State Department Richard Holbruk, which concentrated on the situation in the Balkan region, as well as the bilateral relations between Washington and Skopje.
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry announced that Stevo Crvenkovski also had a meeting in New York with the U.S. mediator in the dispute between Athens and Skopje, Matthew Nimetz.
The 17th session of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia will be held today, starting at 10.00 hours. This session will focus, among the rest, on the legal proposals for trade, measurement units and measures, and the law for the catering and tourist business.
Also on the daily agenda will be the legal proposals that regulate the rights of the war invalids, persons persecuted or imprisoned over their ideas about the originality of the Macedonian people and their statehood and the members of their families, then, the law for the marking, maintenance and arrangement of the cemeteries and graves of the fighters buried on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia and abroad, as well as those of members of foreign armies from the former wars, as well as the changes to the Law for financial provisions for the participants in the National Liberation war.
The newspaper of the Greek opposition "Elefteros tipos" said yesterday that the Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Georgos Aleksandros Mangakis had "left open the possibility of lifting the embargo without a previous withdrawal" by Skopje.
The oppositional newspaper, without specifying where exactly the Greek diplomat gave this statement, quotes Mangakis' words that the embargo would be lifted "as soon as Skopje sits down at a negotiating table." Commenting this statement, "Elefteros tipos" says that "the new yielding of the Government is the effort, in line with the instructions of Richard Holbruk, to close the controversial question over the so-called 'small package' with a compromise, as soon as possible."
Prime Minister Papandreou chose this solution in the belief that it would relax the tension in the internal-political problems - "Elefteros tipos" writes.
Calling upon well-informed sources, the newspaper claims that the oppositional New Democracy and its leader Miltijadis Evert are against the so-called "small package," as it leads toward the "de facto recognition of Macedonia."
The acceptance of the "small package" is a "criminal act," the newspaper contends, adding that the stance of New Democracy is that it leaves aside the question of the name and infinitely postpones the "legal Greek pretensions to the name Macedonia" which will be left in the future "for Skopje to use."
In Gevgelija, these days, a group of 93 Bulgarian citizens were prevented from illegally crossing into neighboring Greece through the border point Bogorodica.
Namely, the Bulgarian citizens arrived in Gevgelija with two Bulgarian busses, from where they were supposed to cross the border on foot. The magistrate from Gevgelija is holding the organizer of the illegal attempt to cross the border - Dobri Dobrev in custody for a month, and has brought criminal charges against him. The other Bulgarian citizens have been sent back.
The main public trial of Fadil Sulejmani and Milaim Fejziu has been scheduled for the 26th of this month, starting at 9.00 hours. That is the decision of the Criminal council of the Tetovo Municipal court.
This decision is based on the charges brought by the district public prosecutor in Tetovo against Fadil Sulejmani, the self-proclaimed rector of the so-called Tetovo University in Albanian language, for the criminal act of inciting resistance, according to article 206, item 2 from the Criminal law of the Republic of Macedonia, and against Milaim Fejziu, for the criminal act of participating in a mob preventing an official person from carrying out his official duties.
In the presence of the police, yesterday, the building inspection tore down the illegally built part of the Islamic religious object in Kumanovo. The entire event took place in the presence of a greater crowd of Albanians from this region.
Apart from that, last year, the Islamic religious community bought an individual house in Kumanovo, with the purpose of building a mosque in it place. In the meantime, the Islamic religious community illegally adapted the house for carrying out religious ceremonies.
Next Friday, on the 28th of April, under the organization of the Association of independent unions, at 12.00 hours, the general strike of the socially unsatisfied workers and citizens of Macedonia is scheduled to start. According to the announcement, the strike will start at the square "Makedonija" in Skopje, and then it will spread throughout the Republic. The organizers expect some 100,000 people throughout the Republic of take part.
The strike will carry the motto "The voice of the hungry" and will last until the full fulfillment of 16 demands, that date one year back and to which the Government has still not responded. In yesterday's press conference, it was said that the future of this strike will depend of the response of the Government, which was also submitted the same demands this time. According to the organizers, the highest state leadership has also been informed about their contents.
The attempts of Greece to use the ministerial conference of the Organization for cooperation of the countries from the Black Sea region to procure support for the lifting of the embargo against FRY and to change the route of the Balkan oil pipeline, in our country, among many others, also raises a formal question: Why isn't Macedonia also a member of this Organization or present in its meetings in some other way, when practically all our neighbors, including Albania, Bulgaria and Romania are also over there? The impression is that without the participation of this Republic, and behind its back, some economic and political initiatives are made which affect it only too well, even more so as this is one of the rare organizations in which we have the indisputable to participate and around which, over the past three years, a great number of countries even further away from the Black Sea region gathered.
According to what can be gathered, the only reason for Macedonia's absence from this forum is Greece, again, and it refusal to give consent to the acceptance of our country, although such interest has already been expressed and an initiative in that effect has been made.
At one of the meetings of the Black Sea forum, Macedonia was even invited to take part as a guest, but seeing that the last meeting was held in Greece - such an invitation was not even expected. The chances, however, are not lost, as there is a possibility of getting involved in some internal organizational structures that don't require consensus, but which also offer considerable possibilities for cooperation - with a perspective of receiving a more equal status in the future.
As for the effects from the work of the Black Sea organization, it is believed that they haven't been so great so far, yet there is a clear perspective, and not so far away, that the outlined forms of cooperation will be realized, and that it will gain greater regional importance, which is also witnessed by the formation of a regional bank. Actually, from the beginning, the Organization for cooperation of the Black Sea countries is envisioned mainly as an economic forum that will intensify and coordinate common trade, that will undertake joint investments, that will provide the free flow of goods, capital and services, and in general, take advantage of all possibilities that are given by one such regional organization - following the example of the EU, NAFTA, EFTA, APEC, etc. So far, this aspect was the one with the most support, although in the last year, also some political initiatives were initiated which did not thrill all the member-states, not even Greece, regardless of the fact that it is disputing Macedonia's membership out of the exact same motives.
When we asked Eshtref Aliu, Minister of Culture in the Macedonian Government, member of the presidency of PDP, to interpret the request of his party to resign from the function of member of the highest party leadership, his answer was short (and unclear): "no comment."
At the session of the PDP presidency Monday, Eshref Aliu was asked to resign due to his stand concerning the Albanian "university" in Tetovo, expressed in the interview for the newspaper "Rilindija." In an effort to find out more specifically, what kind of differences are in question here, that is, what Aliu's "sin" is, we addressed the highest leadership of this party. We couldn't get the president of PDP Abdurahman Aliti, so we are conveying the comment of Naser Ziberi, with whom we spoke yesterday in the deputy group of PDP in the Macedonian Parliament.
According to Ziberi, it is a question of differences concerning the modalities in the education of the Albanians in Macedonia. However, he refused to say whether in the interview that Eshtref Aliu gave for the newspaper "Rilindija," which practically initiated the conflict, he said he was against the opening of the Tetovo "university." "I can't tell you exactly what Aliu said, as I haven't read the text," Ziberi said.
Somewhat of an odd statement, seeing that the requested resignation from the PDP presidency was based exactly on the interview published in "Rilindija."
As the Minister of Culture Eshtref Aliu did not want to comment the developed situation, many questions are left open, and foremost, exactly what he said about the Tetovo "university." Also without answer are the questions as to what, more specifically, this request for resignation from the party leadership means, i.e. whether it is not a "domino action," and whether PDP's next move will not be the request for Eshtref Aliu to resign from his ministerial function, seeing he became a member of the Government as a candidate of the coalition partner - PDP.
The Macedonian Government has accepted the agreement for a loan from the International bank for reconstruction and development, to the value of US$ 24 million, with a pay back period of 15 years and a 5 year grace period. The Government also guarantees that these funds will be spent properly, for the construction of some road directions in Macedonia, the minister-spokesman Gjuner Ismail said at yesterday's press conference.
Out of the total sum, US$ 19 million will be spent on the construction of the road Tetovo-Gostivar, which also includes the US$ 10 million spent on the construction of this road route last year. A part of the funds will be used for reconstruction of the road Kichevo-Botun, as well as for speeding up the activities surrounding the corridor East-West for connecting the border points Deve Bair-Kjafasan. Some US$ 800,000 will be spent on computerizing the border points.
Today, agreements will be signed in the Agency for transformation of state-owned capital for the sale of three large enterprises. Namely, those are the stock companies Brewery "Skopje," "Fershped," and "Makedonijaturist." All three companies are being privatized according to the system management buy-out, according to which the company managements take over the running of the enterprise, and in order to realize that right, they have to purchase 10% of the value of the company. That will not be a problem seeing these companies are already partially privatized according to the old laws of the government of the last Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Markovich.
Specifically, the Skopje brewery is estimated by the appraising house "Star" from Ljubljana, Slovenia, at 39,730,963 DEM and according to the old federal laws, it is 69.06% privatized.
According to that, another 12 million DEM are left for transformation, or if those 15% are subtracted, that go to the Fund for pension and invalid insurance, the state-owned capital left to go on sale is to the amount of 10,287,311 DEM.
Otherwise, the management team is supposed to buy a total of 51% of the value of the company within 5 years, in order to be able to run the company permanently.
The same appraisers from Ljubljana estimated "Fershped" from Skopje at 21,779,000 DEM, and according to the old laws, it is 56.02% privatized.
"Makedonija turist," on the other hand, otherwise, owner of a chain of hotels in Macedonia is estimated, also by the Ljubljana appraisers, at 23,295,000 DEM, and so far, 62.78% has been privatized.
According to the official data of the Privatization Agency, by 31 March, inclusive, the Agency has received subjects for privatization from 313 companies, or expressed in the value of the state-owned capital, a total of 627,878,197 DEM. The share capital of these companies is 385,441,904 DEM, and those companies employ 54,535 people.
So far, the Agency has expressed its opinion on 177 privatization decisions, while the government Commission for privatization has issued positive decisions on 155 privatizations, to the totally estimated value of the capital of 486,784,344 DEM.