MAK-NEWS 15/02/95 (M.I.C.) [**]

Ta nea ths hmeras, opws ta eide to MIC:

  1. ** STEVO CRVENKOVSKI HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE
  2. . GOVERNMENT REQUESTING SUPPORT FROM PARLIAMENT
  3. . VISAS NO LONGER BE NEEDED FOR SLOVENIA
  4. * GENERAL YUHA ENGSTROM - NEW COMMANDER OF UNPROFOR IN R.M.
  5. ** WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE CONGRESS IN SALONIKA?
  6. * WHAT DID THE ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO THE OSCE SAY?

    MONEY - Economy, Business, Finances and Market

  7. * *** VISITS - MACEDONIAN ECONOMIC DELEGATION IN BELGRADE
  8. . *** PRIVATIZATION - EIGHT FIRMS BEING PRIVATIZED
  9. . *** "LOSERS" - PROBLEMS WITH LAYOFFS IN THE STEELWORKS

SKOPJE, 15 FEBRUARY, 1995 (MIC)

  1. STEVO CRVENKOVSKI HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE

    Macedonia's Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski stated in his press conference, following his return from the U.S.A. that he met the Secretary of State Warren Christopher, the Under- Secretary for Europe and Canada Richard Holbruk, the Under- Secretary for Security Matters Lynn Davis, President Clinton's advisor for European issues Alexander Vershbrow, as well as a large number of congressmen and senators. He also met with the former secretaries of state James Baker and Lawrence Igleberger.

    According to Crvenkovski, his American host assessed the UN mission in Macedonia as successful. As for the economy, the talks concentrated on the succeeded debt to the Paris club for which a solution was requested and several alternative solutions were offered. Several concrete projects were also made by the American side, first off all the participation of American firms in the realization of a part of the East-West project.

    Crvenkovski also mentioned the meeting with the mediator in the Greek-Macedonian dispute, Cyrus Vance, in regards to which he said "was short and without any specific new ideas". However, according to Crvenkovski, Vance expressed determination to continue the mediating mission, while Macedonia expressed readiness to continue the dialogue, and even the direct negotiations, within the frame of the mediating mission.

    The Minister also gave his comments to the State Department's report on the human rights in Macedonia. He said that this years report had a series of inaccuracies, that mainly originated from the field reports. He characterized the general picture of the report as quite positive, while he pointed out as an important omission the allegations that it is compulsory to ask the police for permission to hold public gatherings, which is incorrect.

    As far as the remark that the right to religious freedom was threatened, because the Serbian Orthodox Church was not allowed to hold mass on the territory of Macedonia, he said that the church had tried to register as a citizens' association and not as a religious community.

    In response to the remark that the Albanians were discriminated against upon the implementation of the Law for citizenship, Crvenkovski said that this was unfounded. And, as an argument, he said that it was enough to see how many Albanians had received citizenship up till now and the speed with which this was done.

    He also said that the allegations about police violations of criminal procedure, more specifically, holding suspects for more than 24 hours, like in the case with the Albanian paramilitary, were also imprecise.

    As for overstepping police authority, he pointed out that the State Department's report claims that there were only 4 cases of administrative measures taken against police employees. However, in fact in 1994 alone, there were 50 cases when proceedings were initiated, while 32 policemen were fired for overstepping their authorities.

  2. GOVERNMENT REQUESTING SUPPORT FROM PARLIAMENT

    The Government of the Republic of Macedonia has decided to ask Parliament to hold a special session in which, in the presence of the President of the R.M., representatives of the National Bank of Macedonia, the Chamber of Commerce, the Union and the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister would inform the MPs about the course of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the World bank. What the Government is asking Parliament, said the minister spokesman Gjuner Ismail, is support and assistance in meeting the deadlines determined for the adoption of certain laws that refer to the economic reforms.

    Namely these are the Laws for trade associations, for firms, for denationalization, as well as several economic- monetary projects.

  3. VISAS NO LONGER BE NEEDED FOR SLOVENIA

    The parliamentary commission for foreign affairs supported the proposal for adopting a law which ratifies the Agreement to abolish visas between Macedonia and Slovenia.

    The commission also gave a green light to the proposal to adopt a law for ratification of the Agreement for cooperation in the battle against terrorism, drug traficking and organized crime between the Governments of the two states.

    The agreements for trade and economic cooperation with the Republic of Turkey and for scientific and technical cooperation with the governments of the Republic of Albania and Slovenia were also ratified.

  4. GENERAL YUHA ENGSTROM - NEW COMMANDER OF UNPROFOR IN

    R.M. Brig. Gen. Yuha Engstrom from Finland, who arrived in Skopje on February 4, this year, today officially took over the post commander of the UNPROFOR forces in Macedonia, from Brig. Gen. Tryggve Tellefsen.

    In his interview for MAKPRESS, prior to his departure from Macedonia, the former commander of UNPROFOR in Macedonia, Gen. Tryggve Tellefsen stated that tension along the Macedonian- Serbian border increased in June last year after the incident on Cupino brdo.

    In relation to his contacts with the representatives of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, he said that "they don't have any demands or plans for any kind of aggressive activities toward Macedonia" and that "they see Macedonia as a very close and friendly neighboring country, and that they both need each other". General Tellefsen believes that it is necessary to "establish normal mutual relations, foremost, for economic cooperation, trade, and another very important step - the formation of a commission for delineation of the border line".

    Speaking on the situation inside Macedonia, especially relations between Macedonians and Albanians, General Tellefsen said "it is very important to understand that your country is a multi-ethnic state". He expressed his conviction that "the Albanian part of the population wants to be a part of this country and to participate in the democratic processes that are in progress".

  5. WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE CONGRESS IN SALONIKA?

    During the congress being held in Salonika yesterday and today, concerning economic cooperation on the Balkans, according to assessments in Athens, new American-British pressure was exerted on Greece to lift the embargo against the Republic of Macedonia. The U.S. ambassador Thomas Niles and the ambassador of Great Britain Oliver Miles, among other things, warned that the Greek embargo against Macedonia, as well as the crisis in the relations with Albania and Turkey presented obstacles to investment activities of their countries through Greece, and therefore, they should be resolved as soon as possible.

    The Greek politicians Vaso Papandreou, Kostas Simitis and Kostas Karamanlis criticized the Government about its policy towards its northern neighbors Macedonia and Albania. The Government was requested to immediately undertake an initiative to settle the problems with the neighboring Balkan countries. Vaso Papandreou suggested that Greece initiates the formation of a Council of Balkan states, in which he pointed out that Macedonia would also have to be included in the future. Kostas Karamanlis interceded for a review of the Greek stances towards Macedonia and raised the question what Greece had gained on year after the implementation of the embargo.

  6. WHAT DID THE ALBANIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO THE OSCE SAY?

    According to Radio Tirana, the Albanian representative to the OSCE Zef Mazi, while addressing the General Council of the Organization in Vienna, also placed an emphasis on the position of the Albanians in Macedonia.

    Mazi paid special attention to the education of the Albanians in Macedonia, stressing the issue of the University in Tetovo. At the same time, he pointed out that high politicians in Skopje were against the idea of the University, under the excuse that the initiative was in contradiction with the Macedonian Constitution.

    MONEY - Economy, Business, Finances and Market

  7. *** VISITS - MACEDONIAN ECONOMIC DELEGATION IN BELGRADE:

    Yesterday, two groups of Macedonian businessmen arrived in Belgrade. One group will participate in the work of the Association of Commerce Chambers from the Balkan, as part of which the possibilities of organizing a common Balkan fair will be reviewed. The second group, led by the president of the Chamber of Commerce Dushan Petreski, is expected to start negotiations today with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

    According to unofficial sources, the meeting between the Serbian and Macedonian businessmen will last two days and will be held behind closed doors. Unofficial sources also mention the possibility of a meeting being held between Dushan Petreski and the Prime Minister of Serbia Mirko Marjanovich.

    It is expected that the topic of discussions with the Serbian businessmen will be the cooperation between the Macedonian and Serbian economies and the establishment of better economic relations between the former Yugoslav republics.

  8. *** PRIVATIZATION - EIGHT FIRMS BEING PRIVATIZED:

    The Agency for transformation started collecting offers, through a public call, for 8 firms that received permission to start their ownership transformation from the Government Commission for privatization. These are firms that received authorization for two types of privatization - one group through the sale of an ideal part of the firm; and the other group is made up of firms that chose the model of manager purchase, that is, the sale of the company to the team that will run it.

    The first group of firms that are selling an ideal part of the firm will decide by themselves how many shares they will put up on the market. For instance, the textile combine "Teteks", out of the entire number of 53,990 shares, is offering 92 shares on public sale at a price of 1,815 DEM each, or more precisely all of them are worth 167,495 DEM which presents only 0.17% of all of the shares in this firm. On the other hand "Skopski Lozar" will place on the market 85% of the entire capital of the firm, at a price of 609,458 DEM.

    The group of firms that will be bought by the team of managers will be sold in such a way that those that want to run the company must buy at least 10 % (for the large firms) or 20% (for medium firms) of the estimated value of the firm. Within five years they will have to buy 51% of the shares of this firm. The Skopje brewery "Skopska pivarnica" is offering the largest number of shares valued at 10.28 million DEM with each share having a starting price of 283 DEM.

  9. *** "LOSERS" - PROBLEMS WITH LAYOFFS IN THE STEELWORKS:

    After the beginning of the layoffs in the Skopje Steelworks, in compliance with the Law for "losers," out of the 1,100 employees that will be laid off, 400 have already withdrawn their layoff premiums, while 200 have been registered in the Employment Bureau.

    The workers claim that there are very few volunteers among these 1,100 who want to leave the firm. Some claim that the lists were made without any criteria and that some people among those who are dismissed have spouses who are also without jobs.

    A large part of the workers are also reacting to the fact that privileged working period is not recorded, which is important for those who have more than 25 years of service and who have the right to compensation from the Bureau of Employment till the time they retire or till they find other jobs.

    According to officials, problems are expected to arise also upon the clarification of the situation with the disabled workers, who number around 400 in the Steelworks.

    The Government has provided 120,000,000 denars (US$ 3 million) for taking care of these 1,100 workers, while another US$ 3 million have been provided for a deal with Ukraine, which will enable the production process to be revived.