According to information from Los Angeles, the American film academy has yielded to demands of the Greek-American lobby, in the face of tomorrow's Oscar awards ceremony, and there is a possibility that the film "Before the rain" by the Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski might be announced by the host of the program Jeremy Irons as a film from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, instead of the Republic of Macedonia. At least, according to the scenario of the event.
This utterly unpleasant situation was produced yesterday on the formal presentation of the nomination certificates, when the director Manchevski found out that his written confirmation for the nomination stated the name FYROM, whereby he immediately reacted strongly before all the guests and press present at this official and usually peaceful pre-Oscar meeting.
He said that in view of that, he would not be able to see everyone again on Monday, expressing regret that his country's name was changed due to the imposition of, as he said, someone's primitive lobby. At the first moment, that caused consternation and an unpleasant silence in the hall of the Academy, which was followed by strong applause among the people present, including the pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
In view of this situation, the Macedonian representative in Washington Ljubica Acevska sent a demarche to the president of the Academy Arthur Hiller, as well as the Macedonian co-producer of the film "Vardar film."
The renewal of the one-sidedly broken off Macedonian- Greek dialogue, scheduled for April 6 in New York, according to some assessments in Athens, remains totally uncertain for now, the "Nova Makedonija" correspondent from Athens reports. Although the Greek Government already responded positively, calling upon information from New York, the UN mediator Cyrus Vance, and the special envoy of the White House Matthew Nimetz, to not rule out the possibility of getting a negative response from the Republic of Macedonia.
The new UN initiative, on which very few details are known thanks to the consistency of Vance for nothing to be revealed to the public during the negotiations, and it is not even known if official invitations have been sent to the two countries, for Athens, however, was reason enough to use that to the maximum for political marketing, which least benefits the negotiations, "Nova Makedonija" comments from Athens.
And not only that, the official authorities and the press are insisting on proving and showing that exactly Macedonia is the one refusing dialogue. The absurdity of this is not very important at this moment, because although Macedonia constantly insisted on dialogue, now Athens is trying to toss the blame entirely on the other side.
On Sunday, the newspaper "Vecer" comments: "What would it mean if our side accepts the invitation to direct negotiations, and Greece remains with the ramp down at the border point. The least problem is that then, someone would have to withdraw all the statements about the inequality of the dialogue under an embargo, and convince the public that what it has been hearing over the past 13 months does not stand anymore. Or, even worse, accepting negotiations under the shadow of an embargo would practically turn the water to the Greek mill, which is 'milling' that the embargo was brought on by political reasons.
If it is so, then there will be no need for the European Court in Luxembourg to deal with the Greek trial over the embargo on Macedonia, and the European Commission can drop its charges. And finally, the worst - if the negotiations start with an embargo, knowing the style of the Greek foreign policy, they'll sit us down in their lap and be able to blackmail us forever," "Vecer" comments.
The Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski yesterday called on the prisoners from the penitentiary "Idrizovo" to call of the uprising by 12.00h today, which has been lasting uninterruptedly from Thursday afternoon. "Otherwise," the minister stated, "the competent ministries will undertake measures to reestablish control in the prison."
Minister Popovski appealed to all convicts who are foreign citizens (82 people) to end the uprising, as they would face exactly the same measures as the domestic prisoners. He reiterated that the uprising was organized by a group of prisoners, of which even four are sentenced for murder, serving at least 12 years, three of them are sentenced to the maximum prison term of 20 years, and only one is in prison for heavy robbery.
Regarding speculation that the organization of the uprising also consisted of convicts in the affair "Albania paramilitary," Popovski said that was absolutely ruled out, but that only Redzep Sinasi was seen on the roof of the prison. It was also said that the prisoners were demanding contacts with the parties IMRO-DPMNU, PDP, PDA and PFER and some others. The minister also said that the leaders of the uprising would also face charges for the criminal acts they committed during the uprising.
During the press conference, Popovski informed the press that the prisoners had established their own form of power, condemning all those who do not wish to join the rebels. Enormous damage has been caused inside the prison, and the prisoners have adapted the metal objects as cold weapons.
In the meeting of the foreign trade ministers of the member-states of the Central European Initiative (CEI), which was held in Skopje last weekend, a Declaration was adopted with which the ministers pointed out the rudiments on which the member-states of the CEI foresee the development of the economic cooperation, with a special accent on trade, the development of the small and middle- sized companies, in which they made an assessment of the European agreements and trade perspectives, in the context of the processes of integration, and underlined the economic importance of the border and inter-regional cooperation.
In welcoming the participants in the meeting, Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski emphasized that Macedonia was very satisfied to see the successful process of strengthening of relations and coming together between the Central European countries and the European Union. He also said that in these years of transformation, Macedonia was facing difficulties caused by the sanctions and the trade embargo imposed by Greece.
Otherwise, the foreign trade ministers and the representatives of the member-states discussed the situation in their countries and their views on the problems they are facing. In the press conference held on this occasion, it was said that "the CEI members have common goals in a number of fields - the development of the small and middle-sized companies, the adoption of the legal exemptions in the trade, finding one's place in the processes of integration with the European Union much more quickly, and the development of mutual trade."
Out of 240 workers on the list for dismissal from the company FAM, which works as part of the Metal works "Tito" from Skopje, and which is also on the list of "losers," 121 workers have left, while the rest are regarded as disputable.
The Worker's Union declared this list as illegitimate, under the explanation that it was drawn up without any criteria, whatsoever.
Seeing that the workers that left did so voluntarily, the rest of the list is being disputed now. It is believed that there are workers on this list who are not supposed to be on it, including self-supporting parents, people who are the only persons employed in their family, or two employees from the same family, both working in the company.
Nevertheless, it is believed that in the end, the number of those unsatisfied who will have to leave should be small, while the number of 240 layoffs is not final, and could undergo further reductions.
According to Zvonimir Stojkovski, director of the Sector for construction of new tracks with the Macedonian railways, the construction companies "Beton," "Granit," and "Mavrovo" which are working on the construction of the railroad track toward Bulgaria have made main projects for 4 km of their sections, while the construction company "Pelagonija" has made main projects for 8 km.
Simultaneously, geo-mechanical research of the terrain is being made, and the process for expropriation of the land is underway. Already next week it is expected to receive the traffic and construction permit, so from April, the construction operative will be able to take part in the construction of certain objects on the route of the track.
The construction companies have also received instructions to draw up main projects for five bridges and projects for geo-mechanical research in the locations where the bridges will be built.
Otherwise, the bigger construction work on the track was supposed to start by March 15, however, this lateness is expected to be made up for by speeding up the activities.
The plant for track repairs with the Macedonian railways, are working on preparations for reconstruction of the first 10 km of the existing by somewhat worn out track from Kumanovo to the village Beljakovce, in the direction toward the Bulgarian border.
In addition, work is also being done on the selection of the best offer for the supply of 10,000 tones of tracks, which is how much will be laid, overall. 11 firms, both from Eastern and Western Europe have made offers for that purpose.
Otherwise, the projects for half the track, the part from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka, 40 km long, are in a final phase, and the part 12.5 km long, from Kriva Palanka to the Bulgarian border, is still causing the most problems.
Following a conclusion from the Government, the maximum speed for this part of the track will be 80 km/h. The Macedonian railways had projects for speeds of 100 km/h, so now new project documentation has to be prepared, in accordance with the demands of the Government.
According to some estimates, the construction of the railroad will cost Macedonia some US$ 200 million, which is much more than the US$ 120 million initially planned. These estimates are based on the costs for construction of the tunnels which will cost US$ 55 million, and according to the construction companies, the bridges will also cost the same amount, which means that US$ 110 million will have to be set aside for these parts of the track. In addition, funds will also be necessary for construction of the rails, the upper and lower layer, the embankments, the ties, signalization, etc.
Of the planned US$ 120 million, US$ 80 million were planned to be provided from the state budget, from two budget years, while US$ 40 million were to come from a credit from the EBRD.