Media in Greece say the US President Bill Clinton's special envoy in the Greek-Macedonian dispute, Matthew Nimitz, is to arrive in Athens this week. Nevertheless, Nimitz himself told a Nova Makedonija reporter that he was not coming to Greece to prepare for the resumption of Macedonian-Greek talks, but to spend his summer holiday on one of the Greek islands. At the moment, it is not known when the negotiations between Greece and Macedonia are to be resumed.
By the end of the year, Macedonian citizens will be able to obtain entry visas for travel to the United States in Skopje. Construction is underway to build a US embassy in the Macedonian capitol. This was announced last Friday by Victor Comras, Chief of the US Liaison Office in Skopje, during his visit to Struga for a meeting with local businessmen. Answering reporters' questions, he said Struga has the chance to grow into a second US cultural center, after Skopje, and would also serve the Republic of Albania. The main reason for this was, as he said, the great international reputation of the Struga Poetry Evenings.
Nearly 1,000 Albanians held a protest march yesterday in front of the Macedonian embassy in Vienna. They protested the last census of population in Macedonia, the government's attitude toward the university in Tetovo, the "discriminatory policy" against Albanians, and their demand for the status of a nation. The Austrian police did not allow the demonstrators to hand over a telegram for President Gligorov to the Macedonian embassy.
Macedonian Minister of Culture Eshtref Aliu met last Friday with Patrick Chrissmant, ambassador of France to Macedonia, to talk about possibilities of improving mutual cultural cooperation. The French Senate will organize an exhibition of paintings by contemporary Macedonian painters this Fall, while Comedy Francaise will visit Macedonia sometime in 1996.
Victor Gaber, Under Secretary in the Macedonian Foreign Ministry and Dime Djurev, Under Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, met last week in Poland with their counterparts, to discuss new bilateral economic agreements and cooperation in international forums. Djurev met with senior officials of the Polish Interior Ministry to talk about cooperation in preventing international crime and terrorism, arms and drug trading and illegal emigration. The Macedonian delegation was also received by the Polish Foreign Minister Bartoshevski and the State Secretary of the Polish Government, Viechorkevic.
The European Commission on Economy at the UN organized a working session on June 8 -9 in Geneva to discuss the restructuring of economies in countries in transition. A delegation from Macedonia, led by Minister of Economy Risto Ivanov, also attended the session. Addressing participants, Ivanov presented the economic situation in Macedonia, pointing out the need for financial and other aid for small and medium-sized companies in the country.
The Macedonian Government made a decision to correct incentives for exporters of agricultural products. The incentive for exporting lamb is thus raised to 30 per cent from the previous 4.2 per cent, grapes and wine will be exported at a 12 per cent incentive instead of at 4 per cent as before, and fruits and vegetables at 5 instead of at a 1.7 per cent incentive rate. The increase is introduced to obtain greater importance of Macedonia products at international markets.
After a long period of being closed down, the Skopje steel works shop for steel production is reopened again as a result of the plant's successful restructuring program. The factory management held a press-conference to announce their having concluded several profitable contracts with foreign business partners, and to also point out that the company will be facing problems as long as blockades to the north and south obstruct normal railway transportation routes.
In conjunction with the French Cultural Center in Skopje, the French Z.A.R. Trio will give a concert at 8.30 p.m., today, at the Daut Pasin Amam Gallery in Skopje. In association with the Skopje Art Gallery, the Center will also organize a concert of the French vocal ensemble Tavagna, at 8.30 p.m., on June 14, at the same gallery.
Dr. Ljupco Seramifov, director of the Orthopedic Clinic, professor at the Medical School and a member of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, suddenly died yesterday in Skopje. He was also a member of the international association for orthopedics and traumatology, of the British Orthopedic Association and of the European Association of Pediatric Orthopedists. He was known for being the first surgeon to implant a complete hip prosthesis.
(Nova Makedonija, 10 June 1995) The parliament group of deputies of the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) recently sent a letter to the Council of Europe, saying Macedonia should not be admitted to the Council as yet, as it fails to meet criteria for admission in this or any other international organization; it should be admitted, PDP says, only after "a true democratization process begins in Macedonia and after equal treatment of all citizens in it is provided." Once Macedonia gained independence from the former Yugoslav federation, the party reports, ethnic Albanians in the country were deprived of their rights previously guaranteed in the Yugoslav 1974 Constitution.
These basic rights are, they say, the right to the status of a constitutive nation and the right to use the Albanian language as a second official language in Macedonia. Furthermore, PDP informs the Council, the way in which Albanians were deprived of a right to an education in their mother tongue leaves no room whatsoever for a higher education in the Albanian language, quite contrary to the constitution. The law favors the Orthodox religion above all other religions in the country. The electoral laws prevent ethnic Albanians from being represented in parliament by a percentage adequate to their number in Macedonia. Judges are far from acting independently. The police, especially when dealing with ethnic Albanians, oversteps its authority and is quick to use force. The Macedonian Law on Citizenship, the letter says, deserves to be published in the Guinness Book of Records, since it deprived nearly 100,000 ethnic Albanians, despite their fulfilling the criteria of a 15- year stay in the country, from being granted a Macedonian citizenship...
Similar correspondence from various political parties in Macedonia with international organizations have been known before. Their common feature is their regularity in appearing immediately before Macedonia is to strengthen its international status. So, the letter from PDP is no exception. It practically coincided with the recent visit of Miguel Martinez, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to Macedonia, who stated that he saw "no obstacle whatsoever" to having Macedonia admitted to the Council as a full member, announcing this could happen as soon as this November. Yet, what makes the PDP letter "exceptional" is the fact that it is not a party from the opposition, but a coalition partner in the government That is the same government which is struggling to become integrated in all European and international institutions, as it believes that all problems in the country will be more easily resolved through this membership of Macedonia in the European Union. PDP is led by people who know what politics means and who surely need not be told that this letter will not contribute to raising Macedonia's reputation in the world. Nor will it confirm the expected loyalty of ethnic Albanians toward the state or their credibility among the Macedonian population. Therefore, it would be logical to conclude that the PDP leaders anticipated all consequences of such a step as a "calculated risk", necessary for the gain they aimed at. The only "gain" from this, however, can be just another delay in Macedonia's entry into the Council, which is bound to be harmful for both the country and all its citizens, including the ethnic Albanians as well. All this raises the question of the true reasons for PDP to send such a letter to Europe. In these situations in Macedonia, it is hard to believe that certain steps of one and the same political party follow each other by pure coincidence. Although without a visible connection, the letter to the Council was followed by an interpellation of PDP on the work of the Macedonian Radio and Television's general manager. Both "documents" appear at a time when the party, being a coalition partner in the government, has no real reason to be dissatisfied. The party's "weight" as a coalition party (at a time when Liberals and SDSM accuse each other constantly), has considerably grown and can only continue to grow. Ministers and deputies elected from the PDP membership can also boast of other achievements, such as the inclusion of 3 ethnic Albanians in the Supreme Court and having obtained 2 important positions in local ministries in western Macedonia. Yet, rushing out with the interpellation request (despite, as rumors say, the fact that PDP had an agreement to submit it together with SDSM at a favorable moment of the row of the latter with the Liberals), the party exhibited a strange nervousness. In this way it only helped the television director strengthen his position.
The way in which the interpellation was presented indicates that it is aimed more at the party's own electorate than at the entire public in Macedonia. But, what if the parliament does not go along with the PDP claim that the television's director "fulfills all conditions" to be replaced? People close to the PDP say this should by no means be interpreted as a "last warning" before ethnic Albanian ministers leave the government. "There is simply no power that could make us leave the administration," some of them say, laughing at such indications.
In the end, both the letter and the interpellation request could be interpreted only as ordinary political games, aimed at taking advantage of the current instability of the government in order to achieve its own goals. This is allowed in democracies throughout the world, but not if such games endanger the very survival of a state and its citizens. And this is exactly what PDP is doing, so the conclusion is that, if they decided to play such a dangerous game, their goal must be big. And that this is a last attempt to achieve something before Macedonia is accepted by Europe. Because, in spite of all obstacles, domestic or foreign, the Macedonian state persistently makes its way toward a complete international inauguration. In fact, it is running the last lap under promising circumstances: Kosovo has been definitely excluded from the bargaining negotiations between Serbian President Milosevic and the Contact Group; Macedonia is to enter the Council of Europe in November; relations with Greece are likely to be normalized in the near future, which will lift all Greek veto's on admission of Macedonia in various institutions in Europe. Macedonia's signature on international conventions on human and minority rights will put an end to all experiments by foreign missionaries, introduced to test Macedonia's endurance on the ethnic plan.