Juha Engstrom, Commanding Officer of UNPREDEP forces in Macedonia, paid a visit to Tirana for talks with the Albanian Defense Minister Safet Zhulali. Albanian News Agency ATA reports that they came to the conclusion that the situation on the Macedonian-Albanian border is peaceful and without problems. The visit was aimed at improving the relations between Albania, UNPREDEP and Macedonia, ATA says. Both Engstrom and Zhulali reportedly agreed that the presence of UNPREDEP in Macedonia and the close cooperation between the military establishments of Albania and the US are significant political and military factors for stability in the region. Engstrom asked for direct cooperation between UNPREDEP and the Albanian army which was welcomed by Agron Musaray, Albania's Minister of the Interior.
Nova Makedonija quotes the Bulgarian president's spokesman as denying the news released by Makpres on a meeting in Ohrid between the presidents of Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. Spokesman Valentin Stojanov said President Zhelev has not planned any such meeting. The talks were to focus on the East-West corridor.
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov received last Friday Ahmed Abu Al Geit Ali Ahmed, ambassador of Egypt to Macedonia, who handed over his credentials. At the ceremony, also attended by Foreign Ministry Under Secretary Victor Gaber, Gligorov and Ali Ahmed exchanged addresses.
Macedonian Parliament President Stojan Andov received Hans Lotar Stepan, German ambassador in Macedonia, to discuss parliamentary cooperation in the light of the coming visit to Macedonia of Mrs. Rita Siesmut, President of the German Parliament.
Romanian Minister of the Interior Yon Daru Tarachilo paid a one-day visit to Macedonia last Friday. At a meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Ljubomir Frckovski, they signed a Protocol for bilateral cooperation in the struggle against organized crime, money laundering and prevention of arms and drug smuggling. Tarachilo said the cooperation is to begin with the exchange of information and experts between the two ministries.
So-called 'shadow managers ' began arriving in Macedonia last week to become involved in the reconstruction of the 25 largest loss-producing enterprises in Macedonia. The first consultants have already been appointed by Delloit Touche and have been sent to several companies, such as the mines Toranica and Zletovo, and the companies Hemteks, Gazela and Treska. A total number of 25 experts (12 shadow managers and 13 financial experts) will be aiding the financial analyses and recovery of Macedonian companies.
In Bonn, last Friday, the Macedonian Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Iliaz Sabriu, and the German Secretary of the Ministry for Labor and Social Order, Verner Titmaer, signed an agreement for employing Macedonian workers on contract jobs in Germany. Titmaer gladly accepted Saliu's invitation to visit Macedonia.
The European Commission does not intend to withdraw charges brought against Greece on grounds of its trade embargo on Macedonia, the Greek pro-government daily Ta Nea writes. The Commission firmly retains its position that Greece has violated EU regulations. This was the reply given to the Greek deputy to the European parliament, Yanis Kranidiotis, to his question whether the Commission would drop charges against Greece after the report of the European Court's legal advisor, Jacobs, fovoured Greece.
Ljube Trpevski, Chairman of the Securities Committee, issued a public statement to say that the issue of long-term securities, published in the newspaper Vecher 21 June 1995, are against legal regulations as the bank neither meets established requirements nor has been granted a license to issue securities. Therefore, the Governor of the National Bank of Macedonia has taken away Makbank's working permit and has ceased the procedure for granting a license for a second issue of long-term securities.
As invited by the Macedonian Youth Council, a delegation of the Greek non-governmental organization Pan-Macedonian Union arrived on a two-day visit to Skopje last Friday. This return visit was paid by a delegation consisting of Greek physicians and reporters from the Greek TV stations such as 'TV Antenna', 'SKY' and 'ETZ', as well as from the newspapers Eleftherotipia, Thessaloniki and Kathimerini. The aim of the visit is to expand the already established communication.
The Greek delegates met Parliament Vice-president Tito Petkovski, Minister of Economy Risto Ivanov, the Dean of the School of Medicine Ljubomir Chaparovski and the Director General of Clinics of the School of Medicine Georgi Masin.
Albanians in Macedonia are interested in building a common state with Macedonia, Menduh Tachi, PDP vice-president at an assembly of the party branch in Skopje, said yesterday. Nevertheless, he added, should Gligorov's policy of repression continue, Albanians will lose their interest in this and this could lead to undesired consequences. He said Albanians in the country cannot be expected to be loyal to a constitution and law that discriminates against them and demanded a dialogue to reach a political and perhaps even historical agreement on the future of the common state.
A Lawyers' Bar was founded in Thessaloniki, Greece, consisting of lawyers from Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Romania and Cyprus. Turkey and Macedonia, also invited to the meeting, sent no representatives.
In attendance of 138 delegates from several cities in Macedonia and members of the associations in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, the Association of Serbs and Montenegrins in Macedonia yesterday held a third annual meeting in Kumanovo to adopt a report on the work and to plan future activities. Results achieved so far do not satisfy, it was said, as the position of Serbs and Montenegrins in Macedonia continues to be far from good. Authorities have met only one single demand out of the many - allowing schools with classes in the Serbian language to celebrate St. Sava Day as a school feast.
Future activities, it was concluded, will be aimed at regulating the constitutional position of Serbs and Montenegrins in Macedonia by demanding changes in the Macedonian Constitution, education in Serbian in areas dominated by a Serb population, solutions for problems in the free expression of religious affiliation, allowing Serbian priests to give services in these areas, as well as the freedom to inform, through state media, for Serbs and Montenegrins in their mother tongue.
The division of Macedonians into Muslim and Orthodox Macedonians is fatal for the state and quite unnecessary within party frames, said Branko Crvenkovski, speaking as a SDSM leader at the second election assembly last Saturday in Debar. A practice has existed, for a long time now, of the party's local assembly in Debar to make decisions beyond its constitutional and legal authorities, which is why local leaders have been frequently warned. The position and role of SDSM and parties of the Alliance for Macedonia, Crvenkovski said, has been strengthening in Debar and the entire western part of the country. The policy of mutual respect and tolerance which opens new perspectives for our state, he said, is a result of this stronger position of SDSM.
The coalition between PDP and VMRO-DPMNE is dangerous for western Macedonia, officials of MAAK Conservative Party said at a press-conference. The coalition introduces anxiety among the population in these parts, as both parties are known for extreme ideas. According to MAAK Conservative, VMRO-DPMNE should have asked for cooperation from any of the parties from the Macedonian block. Strasho Angelovski, vice-president of MAAK Conservative, said the party is a legal successor of the Movement for All- Macedonian Action, while all individuals or groups making accusations against the current leadership are informal and illegitimate MAAK members.
At yesterday's assembly of PDP leadership, held in Tetovo, it was said that the party is not entering a coalition with VMRO-DPMNE but only an agreement for cooperation, which PDP is ready to establish with other parties in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania. The assembly accepted Eshtref Aliu's resignation from the position of a presidency member, confirming that Sami Ibraimi is also no longer a member. The presidency supported the idea for a university in Albanian, Macedonian and English which is also supported by foreign associations.
(Nova Makedonija, 25 June 1995)
The following is an extract of the speech given by Stojan Andov, Macedonian Parliament President and leader of the Liberal Party of Macedonia (LP), at the latest assembly of the party.
'Today, we are witnessing the appearance of individuals with alleged ideas for reconciliation, but whose aim is in fact to create a new history. They are now digging out some other fighters for freedom, from the period of the anti-fascist and liberation war, but these people did not fight as part of the partisan forces because they have different ideas on how to liberate Macedonia. This invented, and thus launched, parallelism reveals the true goal of its today's creators; they are not concerned with burying past differences, but with reevaluation of events and protagonists in order to create new conflicts and perhaps achieve goals other than the already achieved ones. What is of concern in this entire matter is that such attempts can be seen in the activities of a Macedonian party, i.e., of VMRO-DPMNE.' Yet, regardless of such manipulations with history which usually do not last very long, the LP leader also spoke of another trend which spread in the years following the liberation.
'In this period,' he said, 'there were no concentration camps or any other forms of massive terror in Macedonia. Yet, large numbers of people were evidently executed right after the war, without any usual court procedures, which obviously were acts of flagrant violation of basic human rights. The form of executions and everything which followed clearly shows that this was sheer revolutionary terror, instead of, as it was claimed, carrying out justice. Also, a considerable number of people spent time in prison (some of them even dying there) between 1948-53, convicted without any hearing or right to legal protection. The present authorities cannot be blamed for something that happened in another and totally different system. They can only be, and ought to be, expected to introduce measures so that this is cleared out once and for all and never reoccurs. Among other things, the authorities are to grant access to court bodies to the complete documentation necessary to deal with such cases. With such honest and careful proceedings, the authorities can greatly contribute to persuading the Macedonian public that the basic human rights and their implementation are values of highest priority in this state.'
'We have to be honest,' Andov went on, 'and say that the great victory of the Alliance for Macedonia is also due to the fact that the parliamentary elections took place at the same time as the presidential ones, as well as the fact that Kiro Gligorov was the Aliance's presidential candidate. This victory, however, seems to have given the right to a small group of people from the Alliance to unjustifiably and unnecessarily feel triumphant. This intention, to 'show muscle' and create the impression that they are untouchable and above the law, was clearly demonstrated in the 'Hard Rock' -discotheque case (and they even succeeded in this), as well as in the following inspection and control. Another harmful trend is seen in the attempts by certain individuals to present themselves as the sole and great reformers and the intellectual force behind the transition, declaring all others as anti-reformers. And a third occurrence that undermines the reputation of the Alliance is the inclination of SDSM to win over all leading positions in almost all municipalities in the country. If this continues, it will inevitably bring about rows between the coalition partners at the cost of the functioning of the state administration, which is supposed to serve all citizens of Macedonia.'