On the occasion of the 4th of July - U.S. Independence day, the President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov sent a message to his counterpart U.S. President Bill Clinton, with the following contents: "Dear Mr. President, on behalf of all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia and in my own name, I would like to extend to you cordial congratulations and sincere wishes for the prosperity of the U.S. nation and to wish you personally much success in executing your responsible functions, on the occasion of the Fourth of July - Independence Day of the United States of America.
I avail myself of this opportunity to express our appreciation for the interest and support the U.S.A. offers our independent country, in particular embodied in the presence of your soldiers in the UN peace forces, thus contributing to the maintenance of peace and security in the region.
I hope you share my opinion that the cooperation the Republic of Macedonia and the United States of America have had thus far, is being carried out in all fields at the mutual satisfaction. At that, I am convinced that the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries would constitute a significant encouragement for further and more dynamic development of overall relations and cooperation.
In expectation of this event, I would like to reiterate that the Republic of Macedonia remains firmly committed to the principles of democracy for the purpose of providing a better future for all its citizens."
A message wish similar contents was also sent by minister Stevo Crvenkovski to his colleague Warren Christopher.
Due to the remarks of the Commission for legal issues and human rights, Greek opposition as well as the large bureaucratic machine, the procedure for accession of Macedonia as an equal member of the Council of Europe will start in January, next year, instead of September.
At yesterday's press conference, the head of the Macedonian delegation, which attended the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Nikola Popovski, pointed out the remarks of the members of various commissions with whom he met. Namely, the remarks applied before all, to certain procedures and attitude in Macedonia which are believed to violate the human rights. For instance, it is noted that some top-ranking officials in Macedonia have not given interviews for any of the oppositional newspapers, that there is no sole TV and radio signal on the territory of Macedonia, except for that of the state TV, there is no daily newspaper that is not subsidized by the state, etc.
The Government of the largest Australian state Western Australia has officially recognized the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name, the Minister of Ethic Issues of Western Australia Paul Omodey informed during the official meeting on Monday with the Macedonian council, Makpress reports.
This act was done in contradiction with the international norms, according to which only the Federal Australian Government has the right to recognize foreign states. The Australian media assesses that the decision of the Government of Western Australia came as a blow to Paul Keating's Federal Government.
Estimates say that this act has pushed the Federal Government into a stalemate over the separately adopted policy for the Republic of Macedonia by its biggest federal member, after last year's decision to recognize Macedonia under its temporary name at the UN - FYROM.
The representatives of the Macedonian Government and the three Albanian parties will depart for Geneva today afternoon, to attend talks as part of the International Conference on former Yugoslavia, the newspaper in Albanian language "Flaka e vellazerimit" reports. These negotiations are a part of the series of negotiations connected with the Albanian question in Macedonia. Participating in the negotiations on behalf of the Government will be Interior Minister Ljubomir Frckovski, Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski and the Minister of Education Emilija Simoska. The Albanian side is represented by Mevljan Tahiri (PDP), Arben Dzaferi (PDPA) and Bedredin Ibrahimi (NDP).
Alongside Gerd Arens, another member of the OSCE Mission in Macedonia is also expected to take part. The focal issues will be high education in the language of the nationalities, the law on local self-management and the use of the languages of the nationalities. This round of negotiations, which will start today, will last until July 7, "Flaka e vellazerimit" informs.
At the suggestion of the Interior Minister, the Government appointed Dobri Velichkovski director of the Office for security and counter-intelligence, at its session held Monday.
As minister Ljubomir Frckovski emphasized at yesterday's press conference, Velichkovski is a former employee of the state security, one of a few impeccable professionals who know their job well. He retired two years ago, and has been working as head of the security service of the air company "Palair Macedonia" since.
Speaking of the contribution to the general rationalization of the state administration, Frckovski explained that the total number of employees, from 12,094, has been reduced for some 273 working places, and some 100 employees in the Interior Ministry will also find themselves on the employment lists, as technological surplus. A further obligation of the Government is to adopt the systematization of the Intelligence Agency, which will be done in cooperation with the President of the Republic, in view of its authorization surrounding the election of its top man.
Macedonia's Defence Minister Dr. Blagoy Handziski said in the interview for MIC that Macedonia is constantly raising its defence capability for protection of its territorial integrity and keeping its independence. It produces its own military means which satisfy the needs of the land army. In that sense, it is lacking some complex fighting systems. Macedonia is equipping its army according to the NATO standards for accession to this pact, which, according to Handziski "will be realized when Macedonia's political problems with Greece are settled." Minister Handziski explained that the initiative for lifting the embargo on the import of arms was reiterated in front of the Security Council, under the explanation that "Macedonia has not contributed in any way to the war in former Yugoslavian regions."
The Macedonian minister said that if it is jointly assessed that the war might spread to Macedonia, the mandate of UNPREDEP will change, as well as its contents and numbers.
Dismissing speculation that the Krivolak plateau might serve as a U.S. military base in case of a military escalation to the south of the Balkans, Handziski explains: "it's about something else. If it is estimated that Macedonia's stability is jeopardized, we are convinced that NATO and the U.S.A., without a chance of predicting whether that will be under the UN flag, with the expansion of the mandate of UNPREDEP, the forces of NATO and the U.S.A. will be increased in Macedonia to the extent that it is considered necessary to deter the expansion of the destabilization of the whole region. The peace and stability of this state coincides with the interests of the EU, the U.S.A., and NATO, due to its members Greece and Turkey. It is our joint assessment that an eventual destabilization or conflict in Macedonia could not be of a local character, which could almost certainly grow into a Balkan war. In that sense, we have a coordinated action for monitoring the situation to the north of Macedonia and providing conditions to prevent its destabilization and the deterring of the spreading of the war.
According to the minister "Macedonia is relying on the collective systems of defence such as NATO and the 'Partnership for peace' initiative."
"We have a distinct and concrete cooperation with the U.S., foremost with the U.S. command in Europe, which is in charge of implementing the program within 'Partnership for peace,' which is called 'Bridge toward America,' and a special liaisons team has been deployed in Macedonia from March 1. Thanks to the interests of the U.S.A. at this moment to keep the peace as well as the guarantees for the territorial integrity of Macedonia, which was publicly expressed by the presidents Bush and Clinton, the whole program is already being implemented in Macedonia, which is also being implemented in the member-states of the 'Partnership for peace.' Thus, we have the same treatment as an equal member, although we are still not that legally, because of the Greek veto. In that sense, the American budget for 1996 also foresees funds for Macedonia."
Minister Handziski explained that in this context, it is foreseen to improve and institutionalize the military cooperation with Albania. Macedonia is also expecting a visit by the Albanian Defence Minister Safet Zulali. "This will regulate Macedonia's participation in the military exercises in Albania, as part of the 'Partnership for peace' program," Handziski said.
The Macedonian Defence Minister explained that Macedonia is training its army in line with the NATO standards, foremost in the education of its personnel. Also, Macedonia is manufacturing enough military means in its factories to satisfy its own needs.
"Our factories are working will very reduced capacity because they were dimensioned in the production chain of the former Yugoslav Army. We are able to triple production in some factories, to export ammunition and arms, but the embargo is preventing that. That is the reason why we can not provide a closed system of means, in order to provide progress in these factories. Now, they are working exclusively for our army... Immediately after the adoption of the Law on national defence, we constituted the two branches of our Army. The land army and the military air force and antiaircraft defence. We established the branches and services. In all the branches and services, we provide the necessary, foreseen part of material and technical military means from our domestic production and every year, we renew that part and it is enough to fill all necessary reserves for any eventual military action."
Minister Handziski explained that the peace forces contain 0.7% of the overall part of the population, which also includes recruits from the nationalities. The military forces number some 7% of the overall population, some 130,000 people. "We have a worked-out system of constant exercises also of these reserve forces which are trained with our permanent military units, and in this respect, we are keeping up with the world standards."
Starting from the next academic year 1995/96, Macedonia will start with the education of its officer personnel at the Military academy. The highest-ranking officers who will be promoted to the rank of generals will be educated at the national Military academies in some countries.
"At present, we have three high-ranking officers at their highest school for national defence. Now, we have made sure that such personnel will be able to attend such schools in the U.S.A., while we have also made such arrangements with Germany and Great Britain."
"We feel that international cooperation plays a very important role for building trust for peace and stability and strengthening our military readiness also by providing a possibility to train our officers according to NATO standards. We have signed agreements with Turkey for cooperation in the field of production of arms between ours and their factories, for the development of means to appear on joint markets. All of that is in a phase of preparation at the moment, so that we are ready to specify this cooperation after the embargo is lifted, and to be able to appear on third markets."