MAK-NEWS 11/08/95 (M.I.L.S.)

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

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 11 August 1995

[01] US DELEGATIONS' ACTIVITIES IN MACEDONIA

Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov yesterday received the US Congress delegation led by congressman Harold Rogers, chairman of the Budget Committee, as well as by Under Secretary for Management Richard Moose. The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski and Victor Comras, Chief of the US Liaison Office in Skopje.

The American congressmen pointed out the significance their country is attaching to Macedonia, the latter being a key peace and stability factor in the region.

President Gligorov spoke of the importance of the UN preventive mission here and the positive effects from the US-Macedonian military cooperation. He said the international community ought to engage more power to help resolve the crisis in former Yugoslavia, suggesting that a mutual recognition of all former Yugoslav republics could considerably contribute to put an end to the war.

The other US delegation, led by Democrat representative to Congress Ike Skelton, met with UNPREDEP officials in Skopje and inspected the American contingent of the UN troops in Macedonia.

Steve Remaker and Frank Recorder of the Congress International Relations Committee met with Ilinka Mitreva, chairman of the Parliament Foreign Relations Committee, to exchange ideas on the economic and political situation in Macedonia and the wider region.

[02] MACEDONIA HAS NOT CONDEMNED CROATIA

Government's spokesman Djuner Ismail yesterday denied a report of Belgrade daily Politika saying that the Macedonian Government condemned the Croatian aggression on Knin and Kraina. The Belgrade news agency Beta said Politika cites its Skopje correspondent who attended a government meeting on the issue.

Ismail reiterated Macedonia's official stance that the war can be stopped only if all former Yugoslav republics mutually recognize each other within the post-war borders.

[03] KERIM APPOINTED AMBASSADOR IN LIECHTENSTEIN

Macedonian President Gligorov yesterday appointed Srdjan Kerim, currently ambassador to Germany, an ambassador to Liechtenstein as well.

[04] GOVERNMENT APPROVES PRIVATIZATION CRITERIA

The Government Privatization Committee approved at a session this week instructions for development of procedures for each legal privatization model separately and a draft- decision on the criteria for evaluation of companies sales offers to managerial teams and through emissions of shares to raise additional capital. The acts were prepared by the Privatization Agency in order to secure bigger transparency of the privatization process. The Privatization Committee suggested certain improvements of the Instructions and sent it back for a cabinet re-examination two weeks from now. The draft-decision on privatization criteria was approved without remarks and is to be passed by cabinet at its session on Monday.

[05] MACEDONIANS A SEPARATE NATION, BULGARIANS BELIEVE

Nova Makedonija says a public opinion poll, conducted by the Sofia agency Mediana, showed that 27 per cent of the polled Bulgarians believe that the Macedonians and Bulgarians were one and the same nation in the past, but the numerous changes in between differentiated them into two separate nations nowadays. 15 per cent said these two have always been separate nations, while 28 per cent had no opinion on the issue.

[06] STRUGA REVIEW OF NATIONAL COSTUMES

In organization of the Cultural Educational Organization, a review of national costumes will take part in Struga, April 12. Nearly 100 participants are expected, along with a dozen of domestic folk-dancing groups and singers. The manifestation will be held outdoors in an expected attendance of several thousands of visitors and tourists.

[07] MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: HOW WE SURVIVE - PART I

The feature series 'How We Survive' looks at how people of all ethnicities, religions and classes in Macedonia are faring in these uncertain economic times. The stories, told by people in their own words, is the culmination of a project by a multi-ethnic team of reporters who spent the month of June interviewing people and writing their stories. The team consisted of Julijana Kocovska of Nova Makedonija, Nasif Zejnullahu of Flaka e Vallazerimit, Seyhan Kain of Birlik and Biljana Bejkova of Radio NoMa. Denise Hamilton, a staff reporter with the Los Angeles Times, served as project editor and advisor. The journalism project was designed, organized and sponsored by Search for Common Ground in Macedonia. Search, directed by Dr. Eran Fraenkel, is a U.S. non-governmental organization working to resolve conflict by promoting interethnic dialogue and tolerance.

DAY I - HOW WE SURVIVE: AN OVERVIEW

Life in the Republic of Macedonia has become extremely difficult in recent years - almost 220,000 people are out of jobs or making very little money. While private businesses are booming, and the black market thrives, others can barely afford bread and salt. Meanwhile, the middle class finds itself squeezed to maintain standard of living.

Zlatan Dimitrievski, 38, works as a taxi driver in Skopje. In order to get this job, Zlatan paid 3,000 DM to the private firm Kompanija S. He works 12 hours each day, six days per week. Out of his 500 DM gross monthly salary, Zlatan must pay for his own gas and repair his old Zastava 101.

This isn't unusual except for the fact that Dimitrievski finished the faculty of law and has a solicitor's degree. In today's Macedonia however, he can't find a job in law so he works at unskilled labor.

"I want my dinner table to be full and not - God forbid - to have my eyes looking over garbage containers," Dimitrievski explains.

Dimitrievski's problem is not unique. Officials at the state Employment Bureau say that by April 30, 1995, there were 211,349 people in Macedonia out of work - or more than 25 per cent of the entire labor market. Only half of those people are unskilled. The rest have skills or schooling. A surprising 7,563 of the unemployed have university degrees, including 11 with master's degrees and 3 with Phds.

Skopje's employment bureau is near Vodno, a neighborhood of beautiful villas where the most affluent citizens live. They shop in fancy boutiques that sell Italian clothes, take safari vacations in Kenya and drive expensive new cars. The newly wealthy are not limited to the capital. In Strumica, where those who pick "red-gold" tomatoes earn only 8 denars per kilo, more than 100 new cars are sold each month.

But other people in Macedonia struggle to survive. They line up at company stores to receive part of their salaries in flour and sugar because their factories cannot afford to pay them in money. In Skopje's old town, gypsy children clean car windows for 10 denars and up to 200 children - including girls of 10 - sell cigarettes on the black market at Bit Pazaar.

Meanwhile, the middle class struggles to retain its standard of living and many are loosing the battle. Small merchants who owned sweet shops and bakeries in parts of former Yugoslavia now cut off by war have lost their livelihood. More young people cannot afford their own flats and are postponing marriage and children because of financial insecurity. Nobody seems to be able to say how people manage, but the answers vary with the individual:

Some receive financial help from relatives who live or work abroad. Some work two jobs - officially at their factory and unofficially for a private firm. Others collect their next month's salary early, or draw against it from their employer at a very low interest rate. Some turn to the government for social welfare, others to begging. Some bring in products from abroad which they sell for a small profit. Some grow extra food on land they own in their countryside. Others inherit a flat and sell it, which gives them money for a few years. Young people get money from their parents; a large number would like to emigrate. And many citizens make a living from the black market - a topic that is widely accepted but rarely discussed officially.

But a large number also face dire poverty. Humanitarian organizations say the number of families asking for aid has doubled in the last year. But many of those who accept the rice, flour and medicine from various Christian, Muslim and secular charities are too ashamed to admit it.

"There are many families accepting aid from us who are hiding it, they don't want to register with us," says Florim Adem, a volunteer worker at the humanitarian agency El Hilal, which helps 20,000 families, mainly Muslim but also 1,200 Macedonian Orthodox families. "Their houses look very nice from the outside, because they were built when the families had money years ago, but now they are very poor."

Many of these people are victims of the economic restructuring as state firms are liquidated or privatized. Hardest hit are employees at 23 giant companies such as Metalski Zavod Tito and Treska Furniture Factory which will be privatized by Parliamentary Law.

Almost 20,000 factory workers have already lost their jobs and now draw average unemployment benefits of about 2,900 denars per month, according to government statistics. One such worker is Hasan S., a 36-year-old Rom who lives in Shutka with his wife and five children in one room and a balcony. He used to work at Metalski Zavod but was laid off and now works part time as a manual laborer. He tried to go to Germany but was sent back. Now his wife is pregnant with their sixth child and he does not know how they will survive. His only hope is his children, whom he sends to school so they will get an education and have a better life than him.

Others continue to work at the big ailing combinats but collect part of their salary in denars and the rest in goods. Consider Hasiye Suleymani of Mala Rechitsa. Her husband works at Tetex factory in Tetovo and earns 6,000 denars per month to support a family of four children. For the past three years, they have received one-third of their salary in coupons that are only valid in Tetex stores, which charge high prices. A 50-kilo bag of flour at Tetex costs 1,400 denars, Hasiye said. Across the street at a private shop, a reporter discovered that the same bag costs only 800 denars.

One recent day, as she stood in a line to redeem her coupons, Hasiye Suleymani was so angry that she could barely speak.

"The goods in this shop are more expensive that in the other shops and we have no money for schoolbooks or shoes," she said, "And what I can buy here, only chocolate, biscuits, sugar and pork. And we can't eat pork. I am Muslim!" Hasiye says she feels especially betrayed because her husband worked for Tetex for 20 years. Now he has rheumatism and is too sick to look for private work. Hasiye said she used to knit sweaters and sell them but it doesn't bring enough money.

"It is very difficult to live like this, children always want something but we can't give it to them," she says. Stories like this abound in Macedonia today. The blockade with Greece is hurting - the country loses $60 million in trade annually because the borders are closed, according to Macedonian officials. About 12% of the entire population is dependent on social welfare, according to Iljaz Sabriu, the minister for labor and social politics. About 37% of the population will be unable to pay medical and hospital expenses this year, according to public health experts.

(to be continued)

(end)

mils-news 11 August '95