French President Jacques Chirac condemned on Tuesday the Greek stance toward the Republic of Macedonia, in an unusually sincere speech about the internal misunderstandings in the EU, Reuters reports.
He used his position as host of the half-year EU summit to say at the closing news conference in Canes that Greece is alone in its refusal to lift the embargo on Macedonia, contrary to the opinions of 14 members, over what Chirac described as "dispute over flags."
"Fourteen countries have approved my stance," he said, "we did not manage to convince the Greeks to lift the embargo."
Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou assessed the request of all fourteen member-states of the EU - for Greece to lift the blockade on Macedonia as a well thought-out plan and pressure of the great European states. In the statement after the summit in Canes, which is being broadcast by Greek radio and TV stations since Tuesday, Papandreou characterized the proposal of the French President Jacques Chirac to lift the embargo as a provocation directed against him personally, and Greece.
Reacting nervously to the raising of the question about the embargo and the suggestion for Turkey to take part in the next summit as an observer, Papandreou accused France, Spain and Germany of pressuring, and the rest of the member-states of lacking solidarity with Greece.
Emphasizing that Greece does not tolerate pressure related to national issues, Papandreou, as Makfaks reports, called on all the nations and political parties to be united in the difficult struggle to protect their national interests.
The President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel announced he would be paying a visit to Macedonia soon, at the invitation of President Kiro Gligorov.
In the interview for the Macedonian Radio, the Czech President said that the relations between the two countries were in an initial phase, however, he was optimistic that they would be developing well.
"The bilateral relations are of particular importance for the future development, since they would achieve stable and normal diplomatic relations between the two democratic countries," President Havel concluded in the interview for the Macedonian Radio.
Macedonia's Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski will be staying on an official visit in Strasbourg today and tomorrow, at the invitation of the Presidential Committee of the Council of Europe, and on the occasion of the formal opening of the new building of the European Human Rights Court.
During his stay, minister Crvenkovski is scheduled to have a number of bilateral meetings with high-ranking representatives of the member-states of the Council of Europe.
Macedonia and Azerbaijan established diplomatic relations yesterday, at the level of ambassadors.
The protocol was signed by the ambassadors Trajan Petrevski and Mehmed Aliev, at the formal reception in the embassy of Azerbaijan in Ankara.
Towards the end of last week, NATO summoned the ambassadors, i.e. the highest U.S. diplomatic representatives to six Balkan states for an urgent and secret conference in Naples, which focused on the dangers from the expansion of the war in Bosnia, as well as alleged concern over the strategic U.S. interests in the Balkans, a number of Bulgarian newspapers write.
Admiral Smith, commander of the armies from NATO's south wing summoned in Naples the U.S. ambassadors to Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
The U.S. ambassadors to Turkey, Greece and Romania were not invited, since, according to the formal explanation, those countries do not border directly with the zone of the YU- conflict.
In relation to the case in the Skopje discotheque "Hard Rock," owned by Aleksandar Manchevski from Skopje, when on November 26, last year, a group of 40 people destroyed most of the inventory in the discotheque, using iron bars, thereby disturbing the public peace and order, the Interior Ministry has discovered the leaders and some of the participants in this act. The Ministry has brought charges against Roli Jakupovich, Luan Chavoli, Aco Bocevski and Ljupcho Kopcharovski, as organizers - leaders of the group, for being suspected of committing the criminal act participation in a mob that will commit a criminal act, according to article 219, item 2 from the Criminal law of Macedonia. Nestor Pavlovski, Zoran Arsovski, Arslani Redzepi, Gjorgji Veljanovski and Toni Ristevski, as participants in the mob, were reported for the same act, according to article 219, item 1.
On the basis of these charges, the investigative judge with the Municipal court in Skopje has ordered that Roli Jakupovich and Luan Chavoli be held in custody.
Since the Municipal Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje dismissed these charges, in June, this year, the Interior Ministry submitted a request to the Municipal Violations Court - Skopje, to bring charges against 13 persons, participants in the "Hard Rock" events, for violating the public peace and order according to article 7 of the Criminal law of Macedonia.
The Law on expropriation, which determines expropriation conditions and compensation up to the level of market value of expropriated real estate, was adopted in the Macedonian Parliament yesterday. Two other laws were also passed, whose authors are MPs - on communal taxes and amendments to the law on profits tax, while the proposal for the adoption of a law on decorations also gained support. The only debate in yesterday's session was opened on the issue of the activities of the Agency for transformation of companies with state-owned capital in the period from 1994 and up to March 31, 1995.
"Vecer" quotes sources in Parliament as saying that the local elections will probably be held in April, next year.
Such announcements are owed to expectations that the law on local self-management will be adopted some time this fall.
After more than four months of absence from Parliament, the members of the NDP (People's Democratic Party) attended yesterday's parliamentary session. Zekir Kadriu stated on this occasion that a part of the foreseen effects have been fulfilled, including the release on bail of the creators of the "university" in Albanian language in Tetovo.
As this deadline approaches (August 17), according to unofficial rumors in Parliament, the return of the other abstinents - the Tachists, is also expected.
Otherwise, the former members of NDP Mersel Biljali and Abduladi Vejseli, who went independent in the meantime, became members and representatives of PDP in Parliament from this Saturday. Together with them, this party will have 11 representatives in Parliament.
"MACEDONIAN RADIO"
Recently, in the Skopje village of Batinci, a "close encounter" took place near the illegally built village mosque, between villagers from Batinci and other neighboring villages, including a large number of refugees from Bosnia and Sandzak on one side - and the authorities, on the other. In this duel, for the moment, the state gave in.
For now, the score is 1:0 for the villagers. The state organs, in this case, represented by the Ministry of Urbanization and alongside, the Interior Ministry, showed they are incapable of implementing the law and demolishing an unlicensed object. The responsibility is even greater in consideration of the fact that the same organs, specifically, the building inspection reacted inefficiently even during the course of the building of the mosque, and now, instead of just the foundations, they have to tear down a nearly built object.
The problem in Batinci, that is, Ljubos, is becoming extremely serious, especially in view of its complexity. The police, which assisted the building inspection, was intercepted by a barricade of heavy agricultural mechanization and some 2000 villagers from Batinci and the surrounding villages. Many of them are Bosnian refugees, Muslims according to religious affiliation, who, now that they have found refuge in Macedonia, are starting to violate the laws and openly oppose the authorities. They explained that they only protected the mosque in which the services should be held in a certain Bosnian language, and they also announced the organization of elementary schools also in the same "Bosnian language." Namely, Batinci and the surrounding villages are inhabited also by persons who, some years ago, or recently, emigrated from Bosnia, fleeing from the war, or who came from Kosovo and Sandzak, fleeing the systems there.
And while in all organized countries, the problems with the refugees and immigrants are solved systematically, in most cases, with full control, due to their actual physical, material and mostly psychological state, in our country, everything was left to chance, and therefore this incident in Batinci should not come as a surprise at all.
And, there are many more examples. For instance, in the elementary school "Sts. Cyril and Methodius," which has a 60- year tradition, the classes are seriously disrupted because a group of unlicensed taxi-drivers have given themselves the right to locate an unlicensed taxi station at which things are loaded, unloaded, smuggled. The requests of the school management, the parents and finally, the laws of the traffic police, don't seem to be enough to get anything done, specifically, in the police station "Prolet." Will it have to come to the parents of the children, the unlicensed taxi-drivers, among which there are many refugees from Bosnia, taking things up between themselves, probably with fists. This case, as well as the one of Batinci, where some kind of para-organs are already being promoted in the face of some kind of committee for "leading the people" for opposing the authorities and holding on to the unlicensed object, is only a continuation of the self-proclaimed and self-allowed principles to tune this from a multi-ethnical and multi-cultural into some kind of international gathering center and field for inter-political encounters and experiments of the former Yugoslav type. Will the present bearers of public functions still be in a dilemma whether the state can, but doesn't always necessarily have to function, is an absurd question to even ask, but which the Government and Parliament obviously have to think about more seriously, and to do something about it. Or maybe both the political parties in power and the ministers in the cabinets don't have any information and don't want to see these mini- imported political strategies.
Village watches are functioning in the village Batinci, while the watch implies that whatever is guarded with something, will also be defended. The matter is very serious to them. The mentioned village watches are also serious, as well as the aggressiveness of the people who gather around unknown visitors in the village and media crews, the barricaded yard of the village mosque is also a serious matter, as well as the deliberate warnings that someone might fire a shot from the masses at any moment. So, weapons are also included in the combination. The only unserious and unprofessional organs are the state authorities.
Beside "Citi-West Bank" and "Makbanka," "Uniprokom Banka" has also failed to meet the limit of 3 million DM. This bank has been given another month's time to meet the limit, and if it fails again, then it intends to re-register as a savings bank, for which the limit is 150,000 DM, which does not present a problem for this bank.
Some 12,000 craftsmen from Skopje are laden with enormous several-fold taxations, inappropriate customs tariffs and many other state imposed taxes, which only destimulate the craftsmen and their independent businesses.
The state doesn't support the craftsmen, was said at yesterday's news conference.
The craftsmen are also protesting over the inappropriate educational system which does not produce quality personnel.