Epilogh MAK-NEWS 10/02/95 (M.I.L.S.) [*]

Ta nea ths hmeras, opws ta eide to MILS:

  • * Apoxwrhsh twn Albanwn boyleytwn apo thn boylh ths pGDM.
  • * Paraithsh toy hgeth toy albanikoy PDP apo thn qesh toy ws antiproedroy thn boylhs ths pGDM.
  • . Na enwsoyn oi Albanoi tis dynameis toy me to VMRO proteinei o anejarthtos albanos boyleyths Ramadani.
  • * Kai oi Serboi zhtoyn twra didaskalia sthn glwssa toys.
  • . Kai oi fileleyqeroi Albanoi (Albanikh Dhmokratikh Symmaxia - Fileleyqero Komma) yposthrizoyn thn dhmioyrgia anwtaths paideias sta albanika.
  • * Ypografh symfwnias metajy ths pGDM kai toy DNT. Pistwsh 85 ekat USD gia thn pGDM.
  • . Allagh sthn hgesia ths UNPROFOR sthn pGDM.
  • * Mikrh h piqanothta metaforas ths dioikhshs ths UNPROFOR apo to Zagkremp sta Skopia. Epikratesterh h ekdoxh na metaferqei sthn Italia.
  • . Iapwnikh antiproswpeia elegxei ta ygeionomika programmata ths pGDM.
  • . O Yp Politismoy ths pGDM sthn Slobenia.
  • . Synanthsh toy Yp Metaforwn ths pGDM me to Roymano antiproswpo ths Roymanias sthn pGDM.
  • * H organwsh ths "Makedono-Toyrkikhs Filias" eortazei thn prwth toy epeteio.
  • . Synanthsh syndikalistwn ths pGDM me antiproswpoys ths OASE sta Skopia.
  • . Apergia apo aplhrwtoys ergaths ths pGDM.
  • . Toyristikh ekqesh sthn Sofia, me apostolh ths pGDM.
  • . Nea katoikia toy arxiepiskopoy ths ekklhsias ths pGDM.
  • * Arqro ths "Delo". Sto xeilos toy gkremoy h pGDM logw ths anergias.

    Dhmhtrhs Paneras

    Boston, MA

    MILS NEWS

    Skopje, 10 February, 1995

  • ALBANIAN DEPUTIES WALK OUT OF PARLIAMENT
    Yesterday, Albanian MP's refused to take part in the voting as the Macedonian Parliament passed laws on personal identification, birth registration and personal names, traffic regulations, and public gatherings. . The Law on personal Identification says an ID is a document proving identity, citizenship and residency of Macedonian citizens. Every citizen of age is obliged to possess an ID, which can be obtained by request from 15 years of age. For the time being, the national coat of arms will not be printed on the ID's until a new coat of arms is adopted. All data in the document will be written in Macedonian and Cyrillic script, and names of citizens of ethnic origin other than Macedonian will have their names written in their native language and alphabet, as well. Current ID's will be valid for only two more years, commencing from the day the law comes into effect. The adoption of the law was preceded by a long debate by several MP's. Socialist Kiro Popovski warned that the practice of heating up the atmosphere whenever discussing essential laws continues results in hasty and irrational decisions. NDP deputy Nevljan Teiri protested against the break during the session two days ago when deputy Sali Ramadani began speaking in Albanian with Macedonian translation. Parliament president Andov answered that intentions to speak in a language other than the Macedonian must be requested beforehand, so that a simultaneous translation can be provided. At present, Andov said, there are no such conditions and the Parliament Statute sets Macedonian as the only official language. Rami Tuda of NDP announced members of this party will no longer participate in the work of Parliament because of the violation of the Parliament Statute two days ago. Ismet Ramadani of PDP said absolute power is used in Parliament every time an issue concerning ethnic minorities is discussed. Where rational arguments are ignored, the role of minorities is turned into mere political decoration, and this is a role we refuse to accept, he said. Therefore, PDP refuses to take part in passing the package of laws, he announced. NDP and PDP members were joined by deputies of a PDP faction when leaving parliament hall. Kenan Hasipi of the Democratic Party of Turks said he foresaw this situation, adding it will remain so unless the use of languages is regulated by a law. Reminding the parliament of debates made by Albanian deputies, Veljo Tantarov of SDSM said he came from an electoral unit at the artificial Macedonian-Greek border, where the mixed population has no time for politics, but it is clear that Macedonia is defended only by Macedonians. President Andov interrupted to say the Macedonian borders are internationally recognized and that parliament makes no distinction of its members on a national basis. Interior Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski regretted he was unable to present the government's arguments for the adopted laws before the Albanian deputies. He refuted accusations of the government's violation of the constitution by bringing the laws, as it has only coordinated certain constitutional solutions with the intention to protect citizens' identity. The solution for ID's does not mean this model will be practiced in issuing all other official documents, he said. The session is to continue upon an announcement.

  • PARLIAMENT VICE-PRESIDENT HALITI RESIGNS
    Abdurahman Haliti, vice-president of the Macedonian Parliament and current president of PDP, resigned from his position in Parliament. Reasons stated for this are his dissatisfaction with government-proposed laws to regulate the status and rights of ethnic Albanians and other minorities in Macedonia, and the fact that MP's express their views only through voting, instead of through open dialogues and sincere discussions. His resignation, Haliti said, is a totally responsible act and a warning against the highly tense atmosphere in Macedonia. Haliti's resignation was announced two days ago by Naser Ziberi, NDP coordinator, in his interview with A1 Television.

  • RAMADANI SAYS ALBANIANS SHOULD JOIN FORCES WITH VMRO
    Reporting on the tenth session of the Macedonian Parliament, the newspaper Rilindia published today the discussion by independent deputy Sali Ramadani, who addressed Parliament in Albanian. Rilindia wrote Ramadani said false ethnic brotherhoods and friendly relations are gone and Albanian deputies ought to reconsider their further participation in the Macedonian Parliament. Ramadani reportedly added that the current leading Macedonian politicians are pro-Serbian and openly express anti-Albanian views. Therefore, Ramadani said, Albanians in Macedonia ought to join forces with VMRO, as it is the only Macedonian national party.

  • MACEDONIAN SERBS JUMP ON LANGUAGE EDUCATION BANDWAGON
    "Policies imported from abroad and international observers are creating splits and a complex political and security situation in Macedonia," members of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia said yesterday at a press conference. Macedonian authorities have no understanding of the Serbian question in the country. The authorities are acting in a completely disorganized fashion when compared to the perfectly organized actions of ethnic Albanians. Serbs have never demanded more than is their right, but Serbs will not be treated as second-class citizens and will demand their constitutional right to elementary and high-school education in their native language. Serbs can always enroll at the Belgrade and Skopje universities, but will use their right to establish a Serbian-language university in Macedonia, if that right is granted to ethnic Albanians.

  • ALBANIAN LIBERALS DISCUSS HIGHER EDUCATION
    The Albanian Democratic Alliance - Liberal Party (ADS-LP) publicly presented its views regarding Albanian-language higher education in Macedonia. The party believes ethnic Albanians ought to be able to attend higher education courses in the Albanian language as soon as possible, before the beginning of the 1995-96 school year, and that laws regulating the issue need to be urgently adopted. The period in between should be used to exchange ideas on possible legal solutions. Alternatives to legalizing higher education in Albanian will result in private institutions and disobedience by Albanians in Macedonia, the party said.

  • IMF AND MACEDONIA SIGN A STAND-BY ARRANGEMENT
    Macedonian government officials yesterday signed a financial stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The arrangement is to be presented to government on Monday, and Minister Ljube Trpevski says it is expected to be approved. He pointed to three policies as essential to a successful implementation of the agreement: fiscal, monetary and rate of exchange policies. Within the next 40 days, Macedonia is to obtain an $85 million credit, to be approved by the boards of the World Bank and IMF. IMF representative Paul Tomsen said most attention will be paid to the Wage Control Law, a continuing tight monetary policy, and reducing the public sector deficit. "We want to accelerate bank rehabilitation", he said. "We want to start restructuring the 25 largest loss-making enterprises. This will cost a lot of money, as some of these enterprises have excess labor and we need funds to be sure that the social cost of the process is not too great," Tomsen concluded. Half of the funds to be obtained through the arrangement will be for rescheduling old debts, and the other half will become a net income. According to Tomsen, the annual inflation rate in 1995 is not expected to exceed 18 per cent.

  • CHANGE IN MACEDONIAN UNPROFOR COMMAND
    Yesterday, Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Handzhiski received General Yuha Engstrom, newly appointed Commanding Officer of UNPROFOR for Macedonia, who replaced General Tryggve Tellefsen. Angstrom said he and Minister Handzhiski had an open discussion, expressing satisfaction with cooperation of authorities in Macedonia with the peacekeeping troops. Speaking of his previous duty in Belgrade, Angstrom said he is assured Yugoslavia is doing all it can to normalize relations with Macedonia. The UNPROFOR mission in Macedonia will continue, but there are no plans for increasing the number of troops at the moment. Handzhiski said this was the first protocol meeting to discuss results of the peacekeeping mission in Macedonia, which has been evaluated by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali as the most successful UN peacekeeping mission.

  • UNPROFOR COMMAND IN ZAGREB TO GO TO ITALY
    Yuri Chizik, spokesman for the UNPROFOR Information Service in Belgrade, said chances are small that the UNPROFOR headquarters will be transferred to Skopje after their withdrawal from Croatia. He said he has not been informed of such a possibility. Several foreign news agencies report the UNPROFOR headquarters will most probably be transferred to Italy.

  • JAPANESE EXAMINE MACEDONIAN PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS
    A six-member delegation of the Japanese government has arrived in Macedonia to determine priority needs of Macedonian public health. The delegation will meet top officials in the Ministry of Health and visit several health centers. The Japanese government decided to improve bilateral cooperation in several fields and provide technical aid for overcoming economic and social problems in Macedonia. Macedonia is the first country in transition to have been given such aid by Japan.

  • CULTURE MINISTER ALIU ARRIVES IN SLOVENIA
    The Macedonian Minister of Culture, Eshtref Aliu, has arrived in Slovenia to coordinate the mutual Program for Cultural Cooperation. Aliu, invited by his Slovenian counterpart, Sergei Pehan, will attend the premier of Milcho Manchevski's feature film Before the Rain.

  • TRAFFIC MINISTER MEETS ROMANIAN CHARGE D'AFFAIRS
    Macedonian Minister of Traffic and Communications, Dimitar Buzlevski, yesterday received Nikolae Maresh, Romanian charge d' affairs in Macedonia. They discussed cooperation in traffic and communications, agreeing on the need to open a direct air link between Skopje and Bucharest in the near future.

  • MACEDONIAN-TURKISH ASSOCIATION CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY
    The Macedonian-Turkish Friendship Association marked its first anniversary yesterday. The meeting at the National and University Library in Skopje was attended by Suha Noyan, Turkish ambassador to Macedonia. The association will be in Istanbul in April, giving numerous lectures and holding events.

  • TRADE UNION TO STRUGGLE FOR WORKER'S SOCIAL SECURITY
    Macedonian Trade Union Alliance president Zhivko Tolevski yesterday met with OSCE representatives in Skopje, who inquired about the economic and social situation in the country. Union officials stressed they will continue their struggle to provide material and social security for workers and contribute to development of the economy so that workers are enabled to live off their labor.

  • EMPLOYEES GO ON HUNGER STRIKE OVER UNCOLLECTED CLAIMS
    Mihajlo Sabakovski and Andrej Radinovski, both workers in the construction firm Pechalbar, of Vevchani, Macedonia, went on a hunger strike a few days ago, protesting against their Slovenian business partner not paying for their construction work in Russia. They are protesting on behalf of all 30 employees of Pechalbar, which is owed 235,000 German Marks by the Slovenians who say they are still owed money for work by their Turkish business partner. The Macedonian ambassador in Slovenia, Dimitar Mirchev visited the workers on strike, after sending a letter to Slovenian President Milan Kucan, expressing concern for the health of the workers.

  • TOURIST EXHIBITION OPENS IN SOFIA
    The Twelfth International Tourist Exhibition, Vakancija '95, opened yesterday in the Bulgarian capitol Sofia. A Macedonian delegation is one of the 100 delegations attending the exhibition. They represented all major hotels and tourist agencies in Macedonia. Bulgarian citizens showed a big interest in what Macedonia has to offer. Deputy Minister of Economy, Tome Chemerski, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce Toshe Kotevski, and the mayor of Ohrid, Blagoja Siljanovski, will hold a press-conference today, stating the prices of hotel services for this summer.

  • NEW RESIDENCY OF MACEDONIAN ARCHBISHOP
    Members of the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church yesterday consecrated a new residency for the Archbishop near the St. Gjorgi monastery in Skopje. The residency includes a chapel.

  • MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: ON THE EDGE OF DISASTER
    (Delo, 10 February, 1995) The black and pessimistic title of this article reflects the cruel reality in which facts, based on merciless figures, create the social map of the Republic of Macedonia. Yet, to avoid going to another extreme and lamenting over the difficult situation in the country, the article will simply present official figures issued by state institutions and let readers come to their own conclusion. The State Statistics Bureau said that 196,280 people were registered as unemployed last December. This number, however, will shortly increase dramatically as a result of several factors. First of all, there are the 5,000 new unemployed who come out of high-schools and universities each year (the number has been constant over the past few years). Then, there are another 5,000 to lose their jobs due to liquidation of small companies (this number has also been constant during the past few years). And there are the redundant workers to be thrown out of firms with losses, who will add to the pressure this year. According to the most optimistic expectations of the government, 9,000 redundant workers are to go in Skopje alone, and the total number in the entire country is expected to 18,000. Yet, the real number to be made redundant - if the Firms With Losses Act is fully implemented - will be closer to 30,000 in 1995; this will make around 250,000 unemployed in Macedonia. This is a third of the population - to say the least, disastrous. How will the government react to this? According to calculations by government experts, confirmed by the redrafting of the 1995 budget, the number of families on welfare is expected to rise to a monthly average of 60,000. The state determined the amount of the welfare for the January-March period. Depending on the number of family members, it will be 2,397 Denars for a single person; 3,595 Denars for a family of two; 4,394 for families with three members; 5,193 for those with four members; and 5,592 Denars for families with five or more members. The picture is somewhat different for those who have lost jobs during this ongoing period of transition. They are given a 2,872 Denars in monthly compensation. By December 1994, inclusive, the Employment Bureau registered 12, 826 unemployed from insolvent firms, 2,215 seasonal workers, 191 volunteers (this is the group of "privileged" physicians and lawyers who can at least work, although for no pay), and 1,542 workers from insolvent firms who have been sent to the Bureau for a second time. These unemployed (except those with 25 or more years of service) can receive compensation only for two years; they can then enter the category of citizens on welfare, if they meet the requirements, that is. Therefore, they have a choice. If they fail to find employment, they can always live on welfare, as this pays more (families with many members can thus "earn" up to 5,592 Denars per month) than to wait for the Bureau to find them employment. The problem with workers from insolvent firms is yet to explode, as the Firms With Losses Act is expected to produce a further 15,526 unemployed. The Bureau claims they are ready for this wave, as the government has already provided 800 million Denars to the Bureau to handle this. Yet, knowing how inefficient the Bureau is (they have still been unable to determine the real number of unemployed), problems are bound to appear and social unrest is to be expected. The newly produced unemployed coming from liquidated firms will be subjected to the same rule; those with 25 or more years of service will be granted compensation until retirement, whereas the rest will get compensation for only two years, depending on their years of service and if they decide to not take the welfare instead. Knowing the amount with which a third of the Macedonian population has to make ends meet, it is absurd to talk of any living standards, especially as the living costs regularly exceed the average wage in the country by 14 per cent. And the average wage, according to the latest data, is 8,125,000 Denars. Officials when talking about the subject always end by directing inquirers to the printed material and the Official Register. All that those people experiencing problems of a social nature need do is open the Official Register and calculate (if they can afford to buy a calculator) their rescue amount as determined by the state. The total welfare funds for 1995 amount to 2,824 million Denars, and 2,365 million has been set aside for those who will lose jobs due to the transition. The funds appear to be enormous. Yet, compared to other budget funds, they are ridiculously small. Around $5 million will be spent on technical equipment for the police and a million Denars are set aside for representation expenses of the ministries. (For homework, compare the number of ministries with the representation funds.) Knowing that the largest number of Macedonians earn their living by smuggling and other types of small crime, as well as that a job with the police is now the most alluring post, it seems that soon there will be only three categories of citizens in the country - those on welfare, smugglers, and policemen. Solutions are not numerous, so take your pick.