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MILS NEWS 96-09-25Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 25 September, 1996[01] MACEDONIAN CANDIDACY FOR SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP SUPPORTEDMacedonian Television reported that during the talks of Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov and Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski with foreign officials within the framework of the 51st session of UN Security Council, Macedonian candidacy for the UN Security Council membership had been positively estimated. Chinese Vice Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister Chien Chi Chen, Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Halem Brutland, Foreign Ministers of Croatia Mate Granic and of Bulgaria Gjorgji Pirinski all expressed their support for this matter.During the talks with Turkish Head of Diplomacy Tansu Chiller, support was given to the efforts of Macedonia to join EU and NATO, besides to the candidacy for UN Security Council membership. Chiller informed Macedonian representatives that Turkish Government had already prepared a financial construction for the East-West corridor and notified other moves in the direction of improving bilateral relations, which would be discussed in more details during her visit to Macedonia, which would take place soon. Minister Frchkovski and his Croatian counterpart Mate Granic had agreed on signing an agreement soon on establishing a free trade zone between the two countries. Both Frchkovski and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Gjorgji Pirinski had evaluated their talks as positive, notifying a possibility for the holdup of Skopje-Sofia relations to be overcome, by solving the language issue. The situation is expected to improve especially after the expected meeting between the Macedonian and Bulgarian Prime Minister, Branko Crvenkovski and Zhan Videnov. Macedonian Television also reported that yesterday's issue of 'New York Times' had published a special supplement about Macedonia, which contained articles written by President Gligorov, titled 'Macedonian Message of Peace', and by Prime Minister Crvenkovski, titled 'Macedonian Dream Is Coming True'. [02] ACTIVITIES OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARIAN UNION CONFERENCEThe Republic of Macedonia became a full member of the cooperation and security process of Mediterranean countries at the 96th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentarian Union in Peking from 16 to 21 September, 1996. Macedonian delegates Ratka Kuljan Zografska, Vladimir Sokolovski and Ismet Ramadani had presented the efforts of Macedonia to Europeanize itself, and to overcome the problems of transition, for which a political and economic help had been asked. Ismet Ramadani has spoken about the relations between nationalities in Macedonia and required for Albanians to be more present in governmental institutions and the status of the Albanian language to be improved within the framework of the current political system. Ramadani had also interceded for an internationalization and solving of the crisis in Kosovo.According to Macedonian Radio, Macedonian delegation had had bilateral meetings with those of Bulgaria and Italy during their stay in Peking. [03] MINISTER BEDZETI ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION IN MACEDONIAMacedonian Development Minister Abdulmenaf Bedzeti yesterday presented the activities of the Development Ministry and Industrial Property Protection Institute at the plenary session of the General Assembly of the World Organization for Intellectual Property Protection in Geneva. Local media reported that Bedzeti had informed those present of the 42,000 applications for industrial property protection submitted, 10,000 of which were submitted to the national Institute, and 32,000 through the Madrid Agreement on International Registration. He also presented the activities of the Culture Ministry, underlying the recently passed Law on Copyright.Minister Bedzeti had a meeting with the General Director of the World Organization on Intellectual Property Protection Arpad Bogsh, during which the activities in Macedonia referring to the intellectual property protection had been positively estimated. [04] HOLY SEE STATE SECRETARY WILL SOON VISIT MACEDONIACardinal Angello Dodano, the Secretary of State of the Holy See, yesterday in Vatican received Macedonian Ambassador to the Holy See Dimitar Mirchev. They concluded that Macedonia and Vatican had similar stands about the situation in the region and wider. According to Macedonian Television, the bilateral relations were evaluated as positively developing ones, and Ambassador Mirchev had handed to Cardinal Dodano a message from Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and an invitation to pay a visit to Macedonia. The invitation was, as alleged, accepted with pleasure and might be realized very soon.[05] BUSINESS RELATIONS BETWEEN BRITISH AND MACEDONIAN COMPANIESA Commercial Department was opened yesterday at the British Embassy in Skopje, which main task will be to develop the business relations between British and Macedonian companies, Macedonian media reported. The reason for this Department to be opened was the low level of bilateral trade exchange. According to British Ambassador to Macedonia Tony Millson, Great Britain had exported 10 million pounds worth goods to Macedonia in the first half of 1996, while Macedonian export was half worth.At a press conference of the British Embassy in Skopje yesterday it was said that the Department would connect companies of the two countries, provide consultative services, inform about the possible investments of British companies in Macedonia and help British firms to choose their eventual Macedonian representatives. It was also notified that the first group of British businessmen would pay a visit to Macedonia in November. [06] DISCUSSION ON THE BROADCASTING STATUS IN MACEDONIAThe Seminary on Mass Media Regulations, organized by the Council of Europe and Macedonian Secretariat for Information began yesterday with discussions regarding the status of broadcasting in Macedonia and in western countries. According to the media, Christoph Foarel from the Council of Europe Media Department underlined that public broadcasting should be understood as a service not only of the majority but of minorities also, i.e. that it should be in the interest of the public in general, and not of certain subjects, politicians, groups or companies. The participants agreed that programmes of a public interest should be financed by public income, and not by public organizations.In the discussions referring to the work of the Broadcasting Council, an independent institution existing in all developed democracies and proposed to be established in Macedonia as well, it was said that it should not decide in favour of or be a consultative organ of the competent Ministry or the Government. According to A-1 Television, the participants had also agreed that the Council should be in charge of transmitters, which must not be anybody's monopoly. The items of today's agenda will be the rights and obligations of journalists, the laws on media, ownership and concentration of media. [07] 'DEMOKRATIJA': ONLY SERBIA GAINS FROM THE HOLDUP IN MACEDONIAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONSYesterday's issue of Bulgarian paper 'Demokratija' read that only Serbia is the one who gains from the current holdup in the relations between Macedonia and Bulgaria, citing the opinion of Mihail Ognjanov, President of the Macedonian- Bulgarian friendship movement, close to VMRO-SMD. According to 'Makfax' agency, Ognjanov had suggested a national council to be formed, consisting of politicians, scientists and culture workers, so that Bulgaria develops a unique national strategy on the relations with Macedonia.[08] KOSOVO WILL ASK FOR THE SAME STATUS AS THAT OF SERBIAN REPUBLIC'The biggest political party of the Albanians in Kosovo, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, had formed a working group in order to prepare a project for connecting of Kosovo with Serbia and a platform for the negotiations with Belgrade. The aim of the programme will be Kosovo to be given the status equal to that of Serbian Republic (Republika Srpska),' Belgrade paper 'Dnevni Telegraf' read yesterday.As 'Dnevnik' daily cited the article, Mehmed Sadiku, a working group member and professor at the 'Tetovo university', had stated that Serbian-Albanian negotiations would begin immediately after the elections in November, and the main goal would be putting Kosovo under UN protectorate for 10 years. According to Sadiku, Kosovo citizens would thus be given the chance to declare themselves in the year of 2006 whether they would like to remain in Serbia or they would prefer to be independent. [09] ADMISSION EXAMS FOR 'TETOVO UNIVERSITY' PREPARED IN DEBAROn 28 September in Debar, admission exams will take place for future students of the faculty of physical culture, which would work within the framework of the 'Tetovo University', agency 'Makpress' reported. The information was that this faculty was established this academic year, and reminded that authorities in Debar openly supported the 'university' stated in the village of Mala Rechica, and that they had wished for one of the faculties to work in Debar.[10] PRESENTATION OF POPULATION NUMBER IN NEW MUNICIPALITIES'According to the most recent data and the new territorial dividing of the Republic of Macedonia, the city of Skopje has 444,760 inhabitants and will have 25 Council members, plus another 14 - two representatives of each of the seven municipalities of Skopje. The biggest municipality in Macedonia is Kisela Voda (Skopje) with 118,079 inhabitants, and the smallest one is Staravina, with 456 inhabitants,' Macedonian Minister for Justice Vlado Popovski informed the press yesterday. He presented in detail the number of all council members and of the City of Skopje Council, which the citizens would elect at the forthcoming local elections.The Article 27 of the Law on Local Self Government reads that municipalities with population of up to 10,000 should have councils with 13 members, of up to 30,000 - with 17 members, of up to 50,000 - with 19 members, of up to 100,000 - 23 members and of more than 100,000 - 25 members. Popovski said the Government did not intend to introduce any changes in the Law on Local Elections, despite the recent demands of the Liberal Party. According to him, only certain corrections will be made due to technical reasons. [11] A-1 TV: COMBINATIONS REGARDING NOMINEES FOR MAYORSA-1 Television yesterday reported information of unofficial sources regarding the combinations made by political parties for nominations of mayors of Skopje and some of its municipalities. As alleged, VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Party had almost agreed on the way of dividing their candidates, although some municipalities were still disputable. Namely, Democratic Party would have its nominees for a mayor of the City of Skopje and for the municipalities Centre, Karposh and Gjorche Petrov, while VMRO-DPMNE would have candidates in the municipalities Kisela Voda, Chair, Gazi Baba and Ilinden. Unofficially, the Skopje mayor candidate will be Risto Penov, a Democratic Party Secretary. Among the candidates for the other municipalities, the names of Slobodan Chashule and Mihail Garevski from the Earthquake Engineering Institute are mentioned.The possible candidate of the Liberal Party, Dimitar Jurukovski, is also from the same institute. Another possible candidate of this party is, allegedly, the caricaturist Darko Markovic. According to A-1 Television, SDSM would nominate the current Minister for Culture Slobodan Unkovski for a mayor of Skopje, and possible candidates for the other municipalities are the caricaturist Ane Vasilevski and Milan Popovski, the leader of SDSM branch in Kisela Voda municipality. [12] DIGGERS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WEALTH REVEALEDMacedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, at a press conference yesterday, announced that the police had found an organized group of 'wild' diggers and re-sellers, with whom about 2-3 thousand objects from archaeological locations were found. The objects confiscated are about $5 million worth, and one of them is a helmet from the time of Alexander the Great.According to A-1 Television, the chief Macedonian conservationist had said that a similar helmet had been found in Vergina. He informed that most of the objects dug out were originating from the period between the eighth century BC and the sixth century of our era, and a smaller number of them from the medieval centuries. It was said that most of the objects had been dug out at the archaeological location of Isar near the village of Marvinci and at other locations between Valandovo and Gevgelija. The police had arrested three individuals, and the objects had been found in several towns in Macedonia. It is assumed that a great number of such objects had already been carried out of the country. MILS SUPPLEMENT[13] 'Greek Parties on Macedonian Issue' - Part 2('Nova Makedonija', 23 September, 1996)Petros Moliviadis, a New Democracy member stated at one occasion that the name issue has come to a 'holdup' after the PASOK Government had decided to agree on the 'small package' and had signed the Interim Accord. He pointed out that his party disagreed with that, since Macedonia thus 'won what it wanted' and then refused to revoke its 'firm stand'. Greek government agreed to start the New York negotiations immediately after signing the Interim Accord, but than it changed its mind and froze the dialogue. According to Moliviadis, that was a mistake, since while the signatures were still 'fresh' the Americans were greatly interested in the matter. Meanwhile, Macedonian stands became even more firm and today Greece is in a much worse position. He stressed that New Democracy would, nevertheless, immediately continue the talks in New York and try to find a solution by using all possible means, adding that his party's stand would be the one decided at the meeting of political leaders with President Karamanlis in 1992, i.e. it would not accept the term 'Macedonia' to be included in the name of the northern neighbour. Therefore, he concluded, 'we would wait for Skopje to reveal its intentions'. The issue would be reexamined after an eventual new meeting of political leaders, if necessary. Probably the most realistic answer is given by the left wing coalition representative Bistis, who finds the issue a 'Greek foreign policy Waterloo'. He stated that the problem might be solved by the 'Pineiro package', since the Vance- Owen's plan had been better than the Interim Accord, which now both parties must respect. He stressed that during the economic embargo and the nationalistic fever, his party had proposed a final solution which would accept a complex name that would include the term 'Macedonia'. Since the establishing of the Political Spring party, its leader Samaras (who used to be a Foreign Affairs Minister) had been warning that any kind of compromise would affect the Greek national interests and make Gligorov 'even more impudent'. Stefanos Stefanopoulos, a member of this party, said that American government, after the first such move of Greece, had encouraged 'new pretensions of Skopje, which required the Macedonian minority in Greece to be recognized and their properties to be returned'. He said he could not understand how could such a thing happen at a situation when 'the survival of 'Skopje' as an independent country' mostly depended on the recognition by Greece, which could solve the economic problems of Macedonia. Excluding any possibility to discuss a name which would include the term 'Macedonia', Stefanopoulos stressed that Greece had not a single reason to speed up the process, although the Interim Accord had been signed. (end)mils news 25 September, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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