Macedonia's Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski met yesterday with the Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbruk, in Washington.
The talks focused on the bilateral cooperation between RM and U.S.A., the peacekeeping forces in RM and the change in the mandate of these UN forces in Macedonia, which will be further discussed at the UN in New York, whereby the Macedonian position in relation to this question will be seriously reviewed. The American side expressed support of the position of RM for separation of the mandate of UNPROFOR in Macedonia. Of the other topics in the discussion, a dominant one was the issue of the crisis in the region and the situation in Croatia and Bosnia, whereby both sides supported efforts for finding a peaceful solution to the problems.
Yesterday's meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna reviewed the question of acceptance of RM to this organization. The discussion was prompted by the letter from minister Stevo Crvenkovski addressed to the ministerial "trio" of the OSCE, in which the ministers of the former chairman Italy, the current chairman Hungary and the future chairman Switzerland are called to make political efforts for resolution of the long lasting veto on the acceptance of RM to the OSCE, at their meeting scheduled for March 17 in Budapest.
In the discussion at this meeting, Greece underlined that there were no changes in its position, however, the representatives of 25 member states of the OSCE re-asserted the need for urgent acceptance of RM to the OSCE and expressed support of Macedonia, as a country which entirely meets the conditions for full membership in this European integration.
The Macedonian representative reminded that it was high time to solve this question and that it was impermissible to connect the membership in an organization with certain bilateral problems some of the members might have.
It was concluded in the meeting to discuss this question again in light of the special report of the ministerial "trio" of the OSCE, which will be prepared for the next meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
"The Skopje question is moving," the newspaper of the moderate left-wing "Elefterotipia" is assessing, adding that following Crvenkovski's meeting in New York, it is not ruled out that joint meetings of representatives of Greece and Macedonia might be scheduled, together with the UN mediator Cyrus Vance.
"Elefterotipia" conveys yesterday's statement of the Greek minister Karolos Papoulias: "I'm certain that in the coming days and weeks it will come to an activation of the Skopje question, and little by little, we will be able to overcome the problems that have been piling up." Calling upon reliable sources, "Elefterotipia," as Makfaks reports, writes that Greece intends to come out, yet again, with the proposal for Athens and Skopje not to discuss the name at present, but the other open questions.
The pro-government "Ta nea" writes that "a new round of negotiations over the Skopje question is expected to start soon at the UN headquarters in New York." The newspaper points out that this has been made possible "thanks to the consent of the Skopje leadership to discuss all the questions with Greece." Under the title "Skopje is accepting negotiations on everything now," "Ta nea" points out that the American side is still putting pressure on Athens and Skopje to find a solution by means of direct dialogue. The Greek side, "Ta nea" concludes, does not exclude such an assessment, "but requires some kind of guarantee from the 'Skopje side' in relation to the Constitution and flag."
Although one week late, "Elefterotipia" "revealed" yesterday that the note of congratulations that President Gligorov sent to Kostas Stefanopoulos, on the occasion of his election of President of Greece, was allegedly returned to Skopje, because it had the name "Republic of Macedonia" written on it.
Yesterday, the Macedonian Minister of Defense received, at his request, the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Skopje Mr. Suha Nojan. The meeting was also attended by the Chief of the General Staff of the Macedonian Army General Colonel Dragoljub Bocinov, as well as the Turkish military attache in RM Lieutenant Colonel Mehmed Tas.
The talks concentrated on the upcoming visit of the Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces to the Republic of Macedonia. It was also announced that a Macedonia military attache to Ankara would soon be appointed.
During the meeting, both sides agreed that relations between Macedonia and Greece have been developing very well, and that they would continue to develop and strengthen. It was emphasized that the agreements for cooperation in the field of defense that have been signed so far, which have been ratified by the Macedonian Parliament, are being realized and that there is a possibility of further specifying them in the future.
The Kumanovo police has found the persons responsible for the vandal act of desecration of the Christian graves in Kumanovo, carried out in the night between March 10 and 11, whereby the chapels and a large number of gravestones were damaged and destroyed.
The culprits are three juveniles aged between 16 and 17 years, students at the specialized agricultural secondary school "Kiro Burnaz" and the technical secondary school "Nace Bugjoni" from Kumanovo.
Characteristic for the attitude of the culprits was the consumption of larger quantities of alcohol and emphasized aggressive behavior. As a symbol, they used a cross turned upside down or a five-pointed star also turned upside down. When they were questioned, it was determined that they committed the act on their way home from a number of cafes in the town, while they were passing by the town cemetery.
Criminal charges will be filed with the municipal public prosecutor's office for the criminal act - damaging of a grave, which is punishable according to the Macedonian Criminal Law.
"PULS": "GETTING RID OF THE YUGOSLAV LUGGAGE" Today's issue of the weekly "PULS" publishes an analysis of the events taking place on the regions of the former Yugoslavia, following the decision of the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the Security Council, for changing the mandate of UNPROFOR in Croatia. Macedonia's request for a separate command of UNPROFOR on its territory is also analyzed in that context.
Among the rest, the newspaper comments: "Macedonia asked for separation from the joint command of the UNPROFOR forces stationed in the country, for the first time, at the Human Rights Conference in Vienna. As it is known, back then, in the discussion with the Macedonian President, Boutros Ghali heard the request and arguments, he didn't object, but still, he didn't do anything specific in relation to the Macedonian standpoint. Now, Stevo Crvenkovski made the same request official, after Gligorov previously announced that to the Secretary-General in Copenhagen and informed all the members of the permanent composition of the Security Council, in a written form. Among the rest, it says that RM asked the UN Secretary-General to change the mandate of the UNPROFOR forces in our country. That is considered to be a necessary step both in view of the developments in the region, and in view of the preventive function of UNPROFOR in Macedonia. The changing of the mandate, is said in the request, is owed, from a political aspect, to the fact that the situation in which Macedonia is treated as a joint problem with the war in former Yugoslavia can not go on any longer, even more so seeing that Macedonia does not have any common points with that conflict and its consequences, or territorial or border disputes with any of its neighbors.
We were informed from the talks between the Macedonian Foreign Minister and William Perry - U.S. Secretary of Defense, that the American side is not thinking of increasing the U.S. contingent, for the time being, however, the statement made earlier, that it would be increased if the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes more complicated, still stands. As for the Macedonian request for separation of the peacekeeping mission from some kind of joint command for former Yugoslavia, it has received full support from the American side, however, our sources say that we have been warned by Boutros Ghali that we should expect resistance from certain countries, which were not pointed out.
The Macedonian request for a separate command, due to the different character of "our" mission than the one in Bosnia, and particularly in Croatia, implies a separate resolution of the Security Council. The Macedonian side, as we found out, does not intend to accept a document in which it will be treated together with Bosnia, which means that it wants a separate Resolution for itself, which will separate it from former Yugoslavia. But, what if it doesn't succeed in that by the end of March, when this document is prepared to be passed. It seems nothing else remains but for the Macedonian Parliament to make a decision to end its hospitality to the permanent mission, which, as we heard, is already being contemplated. Skepticism and the situation nevertheless compel us to ask ourselves if something like that mightn't come back to Macedonia, as a boomerang, and, lets say, the UNPROFOR forces leave from here, without satisfying the Macedonian demand. The facts that come from the analyses nevertheless speak in favor of the adoption of such a decision. Namely, in that case, the entire southern region of the Balkan would be left "bare" with all possible political and military implications, that neither the big forces, nor Europe, can allow.
The EU veterinary service will be informed that now, the cattle farms in Macedonia are equipping the capacities in full. They are building appropriate areas for fattening the cattle within 90 days, and practicing the quarantine period of 30 days for complete veterinary check ups of the cattle for export.
The Macedonian construction workers have a chance of getting 50% from the construction of the metallurgy combine in Stari Ashal (Russian federation) which is valued totally at US$ 100 million. According to the Minister of Urbanization and Construction Yorgo Sundovski, who visited Russia, all the details surrounding this work will be known by the end of April. The Macedonian consortium, made up of the companies "Beton," "Mavrovo," "Granit," "Emo" and "Iskra" has prepared a study of the project, it has asked for guarantees from firms and banks from Austria. According to minister Sundovski, in a way, a part of the state reserves will be deposited, of course, it they get the job.