MAK-NEWS 04/07/95 (M.I.L.S.)

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 4 July 1995

[01] DEMIREL TO VISIT MACEDONIA

Turkish President Suleiman Demirel will pay an official visit to Macedonia towards the middle of the month. He is to address Macedonian parliamentarians on July 14 and have separate meetings with President Gligorov and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski.

To prepare for the visit, Demirel yesterday received the Macedonian ambassador to Ankara Trajan Petrovski. They exchanged ideas on bilateral relations and cooperation, as well as the current situation in Macedonia and the wider region, pointing out the importance of the visit for the deepening of mutual relations.

[02] SWITZERLAND PROMISES SUPPORT FOR MACEDONIA

For a third time, the Republic of Macedonia participated in the summit of European politicians in Krans Montana, represented by Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski. Upon returning home, Miljovski said Taiwan was in the focus as a potential economic partner, but talks also included problems in the former Yugoslavia, problems in privatization processes in countries in transition and cooperation with the European Union. An especially important contact, Miljovski said, was the one made with Swiss representatives, who promised to do all in their power to positively influence this Fall's session of the Paris Club, at which member countries will decide on the amount of aid to be granted to Macedonia. Promises also included a certain amount of financial support - in the form of technical aid - to be expected to arrive in Macedonia as soon as within the next couple of weeks, Miljovski reported.

[03] GLIGOROV RECEIVES VICE-PRESIDENT OF SERBIAN SOCIALISTS

Macedonian President Gligorov yesterday received Goran Percevic, vice-president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, in a protocol visit. Percevic led the party delegation to the congress of the Socialist Party of Macedonia, the president's cabinet reports.

[04] PHARE FUNDS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT OF MACEDONIA

Nova Makedonija writes that a distribution plan for PHARE funds sets a portion to be used for aid in the restructuring of the 25 largest loss-producing companies in Macedonia. The European Union has already principally approved the financing of several projects with European funds. The projects have been submitted for analysis to the European Commission and include aid for the construction of the railroad to Bulgaria, imports of oil, industrial raw materials and agricultural machinery.

[05] CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS PROTECTED AT SEMINAR IN POLAND

In an association of Poland's SEIM and the Central European Initiative, a parliamentary seminar started in Warsaw yesterday, officially entitled 'Independence and Limitations of Democratic Institutions Aimed at Protection of Constitutional Rights'. Participants are discussing constitutional judiciary, the role of ombudsman in transition periods and management of and control over radio and television stations.

A Macedonian delegation, led by Parliament member Ilinka Mitreva and secretary Igor Spirovski, is also attending the seminar.

[06] MACEDONIA HAS $ 1,000 PER CAPITA

New economic trends in the newly emerged states from the former Yugoslavia, are most successfully carried out in Slovenia and Macedonia, the Skopje daily Vecer cites the latest edition of Monthly Analyses and Prognosis, a bulletin of the Belgrade Institute of Economics. According to findings of the Institute, Slovenia has a gross national product of $ 6-8,000 per capita, against Croatia with only $ 3,000. The figure amounts to $ 1,000 in Macedonia and rump Yugoslavia. Compared to the other former Yugoslav republics, Macedonia has the lowest unemployment raise of 6.3 per cent, whereas it goes as high as 18 per cent in Croatia and 14.3 per cent in Slovenia. Industrial production has gone up only in Slovenia (by 8 index points), falling in all the remaining former Yugoslav republics.

[07] ROTARY CLUB IN SKOPJE

Royal International representatives recently promoted a Rotary Club in Macedonia. Royal International is a humanitarian, cultural, educational and most of all cosmopolitan organization with nearly 27,000 member clubs in 152 countries throughout the world, with a current membership of some 1.200,000 people of various vocations.

The club in Skopje was open two years ago and has 30 members. The club's program includes scholarships for talented students, organizing trips and public debates, and humanitarian projects.

[08] TRADITIONAL GALICNIK WEDDING

The 35th traditional manifestation known as Galicnik Wedding will take place in Galicnik, July 7-9. The manifestation is sponsored by the Macedonia Parliament, and will be attended by Parliament President Stojan Andov, the diplomatic corps in the country and foreign journalists and tourists.

MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:

[09] BLOCKADES IN INFORMING

(Nova Makedonija, July 1, 1995)

Is the Macedonian society entering a period of informative blockade? Many indicators warn that one of the basic human rights and liberties - the right to acute and objective informing - is being largely endangered in Macedonia. Latest trends seem to intent to suspend the Constitution and its provisions safe-guarding 'a free access to information, and freedom in obtaining and delivering information' (article 16 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia).

This important constitutional provision is an integral part of all democratic states, but seems to be still not implementable at the moment. Even reporters of Nova Makedonija with the longest working experience say they cannot recall a period when information sources have been so closed and inaccessible as they are today.

The entire administration, all the ministries, administrative agencies, specialized institutions at all levels, township leaderships and people at the most responsible positions in the informative system in the country are avoiding to face the public and provide information on any issue connected to any of the numerous affairs and negative and unfavorable occurrences in the state. Readiness to communicate is only met when it comes to the affirmation of party views and personal interests.

Information is most easily obtained whenever a political party tries to discredit other parties or from a parliament argument. Everything else is left in the hands of a government's spokesman who gives away selected informative enigmas, aimed by definition at promoting the work of the cabinet. All other issues are apparently veiled by secrecy and belong to a forbidden zone.

And so, the Macedonian public has no means of learning who has imported hundreds and hundreds of tones of tomatoes, rice, corn, flour, coffee, oil, textile, cigarettes, alcohol, spare parts for cars... Whose are the hundreds of trucks entering Macedonia on a daily basis and losing track somewhere in the country, as if it were the Bermuda triangle. Where do these goods of suspicious quality go, who buys them and at what prices, who covers for the customs fees and other taxes, what is the damage imposed by these trading deals on the Macedonian economy - these are matters carefully hidden away from the eyes of the public.

Citizens have no idea how the customs and tax system in the country functions. Who are these people who easily import and export goods without even having to pay customs tariffs or taxes. No one knows how permissions for profitable deals are given away. The public in Macedonia must not know why the state treasury is empty and how come the state is unable to make tax-payers settle their debts toward the state.

The public in Macedonia is denied the right to know whether and what kind of control tax-payers are subjected to and if the disobeying are sanctioned. Tax-payers, on the other hand, must not know their rights and who to complain with in cases of unjust taxation.

The Macedonian public is not to know how it is that certain people become rich overnight, without investing their own capital and without any risk whatsoever. No one is to know where do all those millions come from or whether taxes have been paid on them.

The public must know any precise data on the damage imposed by uncontrolled and untaxed production and sales, or the real dimensions of the organized crime in the country. The public is still confused about who and why puts a stop to court proceedings.

The public must not find out how the privatization of social capital is progressing or what may and what may not be privatized, let alone why this is so.

The public must not know anything about laws drafted in cabinet offices before they are submitted to parliament for adoption. Nor may the public know anything of the new laws before they are already issued, so that no one comes up with an idea to initiate a public debate or to state an expert explanation and point out to weak parts in laws prepared overnight. Draft-laws can only be seen and discussed by the 120 parliamentarians.

The public must neither know the course of ongoing negotiations on the country's future and the development of relations with Greece. Citizens usually learn all they want to know about the matter from statements issued by the Greek ministries and cited by the media in Macedonia. The Macedonian ministries apparently find it easier to keep denying Greek statements than to issue relevant information for their own public.

The public in Macedonia is not to know anything about the alarming situation in the economy, education, health, culture...

Employees in the ministries, various institutions, and even health centers are strictly forbidden to give any statements for the public. Intimidated experts and intellectuals helplessly shrug their shoulders, the somewhat more courageous insist on a absolute secrecy before releasing an unpleasant information the government might not like, but in most cases they are 'not in'.

Many segments in the everyday life increasingly resemble the atmosphere characteristic for the previous regime, when everything was declared top state secret. The basic supporting poles of democracy seem to have been broken.

Ministers (the translation of the term is 'servants of the people') have become untouchable. The post-election euphoria has still not calmed down. The arrogance of those on higher positions is just too obvious, along with their complete lack of sense of responsibility towards their electorate.

Only to succeed in making a contact with any ministry (there are honest exceptions) is the event of the day, while a ten- minute conversation a major privilege. For the Macedonian citizen, the new slogan that he will be in the focus of attention in the new system remains just another pre- election empty promise.

Such a situation understandably creates an atmosphere of distrust, disappointment, helplessness and anger among the public. Citizens are unable to secure even the smallest of their rights through regular procedures.

The media, torn apart between the inability to gain access to precise information and the pressure of the public, frequently tend to release unconfirmed and incomplete information.

An atmosphere promising nothing good to the young democracy in Macedonia.

(end)

mils-news 4 July '95