MAK-NEWS 04/08/95 (M.I.L.S.)

From: MILS - Skopje <mils@ITL.MK>

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 4 August 1995

[01] TUPURKOVSKI LASHES TOP MACEDONIAN LEADERS

A1 Television and Skopje daily Vecer cite Vasil Tupurkovski as saying the following in an interview with the magazine Svet:

'In the past 5 years of democratic development of Macedonia, the political factors unfortunately failed to realize the need for a general consensus when it comes to vital interests of the state. This, on the other hand, negatively affected Macedonia's overall international position. Concretely, this weakens our position in the negotiating process with Greece... It is unacceptable that we, as citizens, be witnessing inner political tensions and discord when it comes to the platform and standpoints in the negotiations, as it directly concerns the most primary national interests and even the very survival of the Macedonian state.'

The democratic moment in Macedonia has been reduced. There is less and less motivation for debate and mutual assurance, accompanied by increasing will to radicalize relations in the political sphere. This brings about anxiety among citizens, whose life is already burdened by many troubles... The feeling of no perspective seems to be supported by the inefficiency of the state apparatus, corruption and introduction of wide social gaps among groups of population. The latter cannot be explained by results in the working, but is a consequence of the speculative nature of significant elements of the economic activity in the country', he concludes.

[02] GREECE RETAINS ITS POSITION ON NAME ISSUE

Commenting on a recent statement of Macedonian Defense Minister Handziski on the struggle for the name being already won, Greek government's spokesman Evangelos Venizelos told reporters at a press-conference that Greece will not recognize Skopje under the name of 'Macedonia'.

Asked why US Special Envoy Matthew Nimitz did not come to Athens following his visit to Skopje, Venizelos said the international community, and particularly the UN factors, have realized the intransigent attitude of the authorities in Skopje and were only concerned with putting pressure on Skopje. Therefore, he said, there was no need for a visit to Athens.

[03] PRODUCTION TO FALL BY 1-3 PER CENT, IMF SAYS

A1 Television informs the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that production in Macedonia in 1995 will fall by 1-3 per cent against the expected small rise at the beginning of the year. This was stated in a report to the Paris Club, submitted recently by the IMF representative in Macedonia, Paul Tomsen.

The Macedonian government projected a 0.8 rise in production at the beginning of 1995, whereas the IMF was somewhat more pessimistic.

Last year, the gross national product fell by nearly 7 per cent, and results show an accumulated fall of as much as 50 per cent over the last 5 years.

In his report, Tomsen concludes that inflation in Macedonia is in a constant decrease, the exchange rate of the Denar stable for a longer period, and foreign currency reserves in an increase and expected to amount to a total sum of two- month's imports by the end of 1995. Exports, the report says, are in a small rise, but imports are also increasing.

Meantime, at a 17 July session, the Paris Club reprogrammed Macedonia's debt of $ 22 million to be repaid over a period of 15 years after a six-year grace period, and another $ 70 million debt to be settled over 6 years and after a two-year grace period.

The Payment Operations Bureau, on the other hand, informs that companies in Macedonia had half-emptied accounts at the end of June and uncollected claims amounted to 3.5 billion Denars. 725 court initiatives for receivership have been submitted in June alone, whereas the number of initiated bankruptcy proceedings in the January-June 1995 period totaled to 3,645, affecting a total of 32,550 employees.

[04] ILIEVSKI'S ACTIVITIES IN HELSINKI

During the OSCE 'Stability and Changes' seminar in Helsinki, Macedonian ambassador to Sweden Tihomir Ilievski met the Finish president, prime minister and foreign minister, Macedonian Radio reports. They exchanged ideas on further development of bilateral relations.

Ilievski later met with US Assistant Secretary of State StrobTalbot to discuss reasons for the shaken credibility of the OSCE, mentioning the absurdity of the fact that Macedonia has still not been admitted to the organization as an equal member.

[05] MALESKI ON US INTERESTS IN THE BALKANS

In an interview with the weekly Puls, the Chief of the Macedonian Mission to the UN, Denko Maleski said, 'If one analyzed the US behavior concerning the war in former Yugoslavia, one will conclude that America is trying to stay away from the conflict as much as possible, as it is a crisis that does not affect their national interest directly. Yet, if the conflict escalates to endanger the vital interests of America, which is presently trying to model the world in accordance with its own vision, the United States will, like it or not, be forced to intervene. And America's national interests would be endangered if the war spread over to the south of the Balkans to involve the two NATO member countries, Greece and Turkey. Such a development of events could divide and even destroy NATO, an alliance dominated by the US. In this case, it is simply unpredictable what could happen with Europe and the entire world. This is the basic reason for America's interest in stability of the entire southern Balkans, including Macedonia. Nevertheless, we must not believe that such a development of events would be followed by a quick outside intervention to save Macedonia from an armed conflict. A historic parallel is illuminating enough: Hitler conquered Europe and bombed Britain for an entire year before Franklin Roosevelt gained public support for a military intervention.'

[06] EMINI AND AGUSHI PARDONED, AFTER ALL

President Gligorov's cabinet yesterday confirmed the news (reported by the Prishtina daily Bujku) on Mithat Emini and Hasan Agushi, the two remaining convicts in the 'paramilitary case', having been released from prison. As they could not have been released on parole on the same basis as the other 8 prisoners, the Pardoning Committee pardoned them at a regular session and they have been set free before August 2.

[07] (UN)EMPLOYMENT IN SKOPJE CONSTANT

The Employment Bureau in Skopje received announcements on a total of 16,539 job vacancies in 1995 by the month of June, inclusive. The figure is constant when compared to the same period last year. 13,100 posts were filled out, 9,300 of which for an indefinite and 3,800 for a definite period of time. The number of unemployed in Skopje has been largely increased as a result of the 25 companies being declared loss-producing, as half of the total number of 16,000 employees in them are registered in the city of Skopje.

[08] TEXTILE PRODUCTS TO LEAVE OPEN MARKETS

Today is the last day of the dead line for removing textile products from green markets throughout Macedonia, as the Trade Act comes into effect tomorrow, to ban sales on non- agricultural products at such markets.

Expectations are the law will be strictly implemented.

[09] CUSTOM AUTHORITIES CONFISCATES 37.4 KG HEROIN

Recently, custom officers at Deve Bair, border-crossing between Macedonia and Bulgaria, revealed and confiscated 37.4 kilos of heroin, this being the largest quantity discovered at this border-crossing, worth a total of DM 10 million.

The drugs were found in a bus with Turkish license plates.

[10] MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: HOLES IN THE BUDGET - PART II

The promotion of the so-called 'Branko's program' (i.e., one of Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski) for a struggle against corruption in the state administration, announces a new model of working: if there are no results, measures will be undertaken. Although the matter can be analyzed from at least two angles. On one hand, Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski said, 'The very fact that the state cannot seem to gather the prescribed taxes leads to the need of calling the top official of the competent ministry to responsibility.

The replacement of Mr. Sonevski may have been only a sample, as he was perhaps the man who could not be directly blamed for the situation, but the gesture was to serve as a sign to all other administration officers that any mistakes will be accordingly punished.' On the other hand, Angel Nikolov, replaced from his position of a market inspector, says, 'The cigarettes, for instance, arrive at the markets directly from the tobacco producers' storehouses. How is this possible? The ex-finance minister Dzevdet Hairedini once sent me a letter asking from the inspection to deal with the problem. I answered him in another letter, asking him how it was possible for the cigarettes to appear at the illegal markets in Skopje only one day after the cargo had been loaded in presence of a financial inspector, sealed right there and then and accompanied by the police to the very border.' This leads to a conclusion that it is indeed impossible to say that this or that ministry alone is responsible for something, as their work is too much intermingled in the practice. This, of course, only adds to the already strong public suspicion of a high degree of corruption in the administration.

The Crvenkovski administration is to continue the session interrupted last Monday. According to the masters plan, the discussion is again to focus on personnel issues. Certain government members of the Social Democratic Alliance say a bull's eye was hit by replacing Dimitar Belcev from the position of an under-secretary for economic issues in the foreign ministry. All other cases, the same source explains, are here only to secure the necessary media explosiveness of the action. Belcev is now replaced for the same thing (i.e., export contingents) which was described last year as 'abuse of position on lowest instances' by the prime minister himself. Besides, Prime Minister Crvenkovski showed lack of determination following the elections, when he failed to establish a separate ministry for foreign trade, despite the obvious fact that the foreign minister, mildly said, was not able to control the matter. Circumstances are similar in the case of the replaced Sonevski. Despite previously having been a high official of the Payment Operations Bureau which was publicly and bitterly criticized for inefficiency, he was still appointed the highest position in the newly created Public Income Administration. And now, he is the one to blame for the state's failure to make tax-payers fulfill their duty. Why, Sonevski did not come from nowhere; he was appointed to the position by someone. As early as towards the end of last year, the replacements of Belcev and Stamenkovski (under-secretary in the defense ministry) were announced, to be followed by a prediction that the days of Sonevski are also coming to an end. Yet, this was officially denied. It is even now, when the budget is empty, that the cabinet shows courage to make concrete moves. But, is the timing right?

Mr. Miljovski also announces that all local ministry units will be subjected to a thorough analyses of their work. Files are to be open on every single state inspector and their results are to be registered, as their remaining on the position will depend solely on this. This seems to be aimed at claiming that the Crvenkovski administration is all right, but it is the operational officers who fail to implement the regulations in practice. In short, the problem is only in the technique.

'If you have a technique which allows for tax evasion to happen frequently, it will,' the finance minister says. 'That is why we are trying to deal away with all possibilities the laws leave for this to happen.' July results (still not officialized, which is somewhat strange for this period of the year) already show a more fruitful 'tax harvest'.

'Yet, a series of new measures can still be expected. Two of them are especially important. First of all, we must introduce a so-called 'treasury system' of working. This, in the long run, is supposed to secure transparency in the informative communication in the entire financial system. And, secondly, we also have to introduce a value added tax. The latter is very appealing to us, as it inherently provides inner control over collection of taxes,' Miljovski underlines.

The very VAT system provides a much more efficient and more economic control, enabling an inspection based on concrete evidence for tax evasion attempts. What is even more, the announced close cooperation between the ministry of finance and the customs department, as well as bigger authority for the ministry in future, make a recent statement of Miljovski ('We are pleased with the collected income from customs tariffs') no longer accurate.

In any case, the cabinet is in no position to dwell on the matter too long - the budget is empty and this endangers the very functioning of the state. At the time being, this is apparently fought against with no excuse.

(end)

mils-news 4 August '95