MAK-NEWS 14/08/95 (M.I.L.S.)

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

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 14 August 1995

[01] HANDZISKI ON POSSIBLE ESCALATION OF CONFLICTS

In an interview with the daily Nova Makedonija, Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Handziski commented on the security situation in the former Yugoslavia, following the latest Croatian military operations in Kraina. Among other things, he said, 'Should Croatia and Federal Yugoslavia enter into a direct conflict in Eastern Slavonia, it is quite clear that it would escalate to such a large extent that the final outcome would indeed be unpredictable. The West is concerned with the euphoria among the Croatian leadership and especially President Tudjman, because of their potential military action in Eastern Slavonia, which Yugoslavia will surely not give up so easily... What is most important for Macedonia is that the latest events in Kraina brought about significant changes in the demographic structure of the entire Balkans; refugees fleeing the Kraina region are settling in Serbia in large numbers. A considerable portion of them is headed south, while another, more numerous group is on its way to Kosovo. The latter is a region already characterized by high ethnic tension and this wave of Serb refugees will only add to it. From a strategic point of view, the changes in Kraina put a stop to Serbia's chances of gaining an exit to sea in these parts, automatically increasing Belgrade's interest for the Greek port of Salonika and the north-south communication. We believe this endangers our state, as it adds to Macedonia's strategic significance. Hopefully, the Greek government will finally become aware that a stable Macedonia is much more in its interest than a Greater Serbia.

The changes to the north of Macedonia also indicate a need for a re-examination of the mandate and number of UN peace- keeping troops here in terms of enabling the latter to act in a preventive and timely manner to help avoid destabilization of the southern parts of the Balkans in any way. The international community itself is fully aware that any destabilization in Macedonia could lead to disastrous consequences for the entire region.'

[02] TUPURKOVSKI CRITICIZES POLICY OF EQUIDISTANCE

Vasil Tupurkovski - the last Macedonian member of the presidency of former Yugoslavia and President Gligorov's special envoy to the US until March 1992, in an interview for Macedonian TV said: 'If you ask me, the policy of equidistance is a conservative approach, a concept of a defensive nature and such that demands defensive behavior toward Macedonia's neighbors at these complex times,'

Therefore, active cooperation with all neighboring countries would be a much more adequate approach. If one closely analyzes relations that Macedonia has developed with its neighbors, one can see that the results are not so positive after all.'

He also said that the Greek-Macedonian dispute is unjustifiably left out from the group of problems treated as vital national interests. 'The public in Macedonia knows very little about this and is disabled from participating in the creation of atmosphere that would direct and inspire the country's foreign policy. On the other hand, due to a lack of consensus - not only in the political relations in the country - Macedonia is handicapped in the negotiations.'

Speaking of the degree of development of democracy in Macedonia, Tupurkovski said that 'there is no alibi for the state's failure to complete the political system by now.

Responsibility should be undertaken by the leading structures for such a situation. When a political system does not function in its integrity, changes cannot be carried out, as political relations are not regulated and the rules of the game are not determined. This incompleteness of the system is the reason for the current deviations in Macedonia.'

He also spoke of the Albanian question: 'The issue will not be resolved isolated or outside Macedonia. In this case, Macedonia has to openly say, or at least to know where it stands and to approach the problem much more seriously.'

[03] JAPANESE AMBASSADOR MEETS GLIGOROV AND CRVENKOVSKI

The ambassador of Japan to Macedonia Tsuyoshi Kurokawa met in Ohrid with President Gligorov and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, in the attendance of Japan's honorary consul Kosta Balabanov.

Kurokawa and Gligorov expressed mutual satisfaction with the development of Japanese-Macedonian relations. The Japanese ambassador asked that he be briefed on the current Macedonia's views on the security situation in the region. Kurokawa and Crvenkovski discussed issues concerning the social and economic life in the country.

[04] MACEDONIAN-BULGARIAN POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS

A delegation of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry, led by under secretary Victor Gaber, visited last week the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of a series of regular political consultations. The meetings were also attended by the Macedonian ambassador to Sofia Gjorgi Spasov. The two sides exchanged ideas on the latest events in the region, on bilateral issues and the cooperation of the two ministries at international organizations.

[05] MACEDONIAN-TURKISH MEETING ON CURRENT BALKAN SITUATION

A Macedonian delegation, led by under secretary Victor Gaber met in Ankara with Onur Oymen, under secretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, in attendance of Macedonia's ambassador in Turkey Trajan Petrovski. They conferred on the current situation in the region and ways to further develop bilateral relations between Macedonia and Turkey.

[06] FIRST TEXTBOOK ON MACEDONIAN FOR FOREIGNERS

As part of the 28th International Seminar on Macedonian Language, Literature and Culture currently held in Ohrid, the Skopje University of 'St. Ciryl and Methodius' promoted the first basic-level textbook on Macedonian language for foreigners.

[07] KURDS BUY MACEDONIAN PASSPORTS AT $500-1300

Skopje Vecer writes that Bulgarian thieves are selling Macedonian passports at a price between $500 and $1300, mainly to Kurds.

Macedonian ambassador to Sofia Gjorgi Spasov delivered an official protest to the authorities in Bulgaria on the increasingly frequent robberies of Macedonian citizens traveling to and through Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior told Spasov concrete actions against thefts have already been undertaken, adding that the number of street robberies is already showing signs of decrease.

[08] MACEDONIAN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR KRAINA REFUGEES

The Macedonian Red Cross initiated a campaign to gather humanitarian aid for Kraina refugees sheltered in Yugoslavia. So far, it has provided aid in humanitarian packages for babies, such as hygiene products, food, clothing and shoes. Donations can be turned to local Red Cross offices throughout Macedonia until Wednesday, to be handed over to the Yugoslav Red Cross at the end of the week.

[09] MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: HOW WE SURVIVE - PART II

But the economy has produced winners as well as losers. One who has surmounted difficult barriers to succeed is Necmiye Arif, a Turkish businesswoman who has gained renown as the only female car dealer in all of Macedonia and the only female Opel car dealer in the world, according to the German firm.

Government statistics from May 1, 1995 show that 79,497 new companies have opened. The breakdown is 62.6% commercial businesses, 9.4% industrial firms and 9.4% financial services, with varied others.

Most of those are small businesses but some large private firms have also arisen to replace the obsolete state dinosaurs. Chemal Zhupani of Gostivar owns one such firm.

For 15 years he worked for the furniture company Nebojsha Jerkovich, learning everything about the furniture business.

In 1991 he started his own furniture manufacturing and retail business in his hometown of Gostivar with 100,00 DM capital gathered with the help of his three sons, who work with him. His company Fatina now employs 70 workers of Albanian, Macedonian and Turkish nationalities and has retail stores in most Macedonian cities. Zhupani says he would expand his business tomorrow and hire another 60 workers if he could get a low-interest loan from the Macedonian government, but that is not forthcoming.

But even Zhupani has been hurt by the political and economic difficulties of recent years.

'Prior to the blockade with Serbia, I had 500,000 DM in annual sales to Serbia but for 1994095, I expect only 100,000 DM,' a loss of four-fifths of his business, Zhupani says.

Interview with many people in Macedonia show that the economic crisis of domestic restructuring, blockades and the Bosnian war has especially hurt families, unskilled or semi- skilled workers, poor villagers and older people who are unable to adapt to the changing environment.

At least some of the young people have possibilities to learn new skills in high demand today such as working with computers, languages and repairing high-tech equipment. Those with money or family connections often are able to open small private businesses.

'The way young people survive here is to get financial help from their parents or do something illegal,' says Kokan Sofroniev, 26, who recently opened a bar in Skopje using capital from friends and family. 'People who can't do this can't survive today. We can't talk about a normal life, that's outside of Macedonia.'

But the war and blockades have been a boon for smugglers and those plying the black market. A visit to the Serb- Macedonian border reveals cars outfitted with extra-large or double gas tanks loading up with petrol crossing from Macedonia into Serbia. People buy the petrol for 1 DM per liter and sell it for 1.5 DM. Butane bought here for 15 DM sells for double in Serbia. Once there, they buy cartons of Marlboros for 45 DM per carton which they smuggle back into Macedonia for sale at 50 DM per carton.

The people explain to a reporter that with this business, they can make up to 60 DM per day - another way to survive.

But these are only the small fish. The big fish smuggle entire truckloads of fuel and goods. Many of the new wealthy class in Macedonia today are reluctant to give interviews and talk about money and profits or say how they import goods. Others complain about smugglers who import goods using falsified documents to avoid paying high duties.

This hurts the entire economy and creates a disadvantage for those operating within the law, says Zhivko Golubovski, a businessman who manufactures plastic products at his factory on the outside of Strumica.

Drug dealing is also booming. Heroin which formerly only passed through Macedonia in transit to Western Europe is now stuck here by the war but finds eager new markets among the bored Albanian and Macedonian youth. Statistics tell the story: in 1969 there were 11 junkies in all Macedonia.

Doctors who work with heroin addicts say there are 2,000 registered addicts today and perhaps 20,000 potential addicts.

Despite these changes, the people of Macedonia, a tough people who have survived countless wars, invasions and hardship, struggle on with in their daily lives. What else can they do?

Perhaps Xhelal Veliu, 49, from the village of Gjepchisti near Tetovo, sums up their situation best. Like Zlatan Dimitrievski, Xhelal Veliu is an attorney who cannot find a job. So he works as a waiter and hopes things will get better. For now, he survives. Barely.

'Plato says a good state is one that can find a way to feed its citizens. I do not want anything else except to be able to feed my wife and two children and work in my profession.'

BUSINESS WITH A STEP OF SEVEN MILES

Those who succeed in business often start with a very simple idea. For Zhivko Golubovski of Strumica, who last year was named one of the 10 most successful businessmen in all Macedonia, the idea was the plastic shopping bag.

In 1989, Golubovski learned that Macedonia was importing up to 12 million shopping bags each month from Turkey. Why, he wondered, couldn't they be manufactured more cheaply in Macedonia instead?

So Golubovski took 1,200 DM he had saved working as a private truck driver and bought a small, hand-crank machine that would process nylon sheets into plastic bags. Because the machine was defective, Golubovski had to fix it before he could begin working in the bedroom of his apartment. But that is how Technoplast, Strumica, a business that is expected to have 7 million DM in sales this year, was born.

From the comfort of his high-tech factory on the outskirts of Strumica that was opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by none other than Macedonia's president Kiro Gligorov, Golubovski, 48, recalled his first year in business. 'One [worker] was feeding the roll of plastic, another was cutting the bags, another was sewing the bags and I was putting on handles. I was working all the time.'

By 1991, demand for Golubovski's plastic bags was booming so he hired more workers and bought a second machine for 20,000 DM, using profits earned from his business and a loan from Stopanska Banka Strumica.

Golubovski was not satisfied to just make plastic bags. He wanted to make all the plastic products Macedonia was then importing, such as the eight-meter plastic sheets from Bulgaria used for temporary greenhouses throughout the fields of Eastern Macedonia.

'There's nothing in this area that Technoplast can't produce,' Golubovski thought.

In addition to plastic shopping bags and plastic greenhouse covers, Technoplast now produces plastic bags for fertilizer and cellophane to wrap food products. The machines at the new 3.5 million DM factory never cease working - they are tended by 20 workers during four shifts.

'Each machine supplies plastic products for one local factory,' Golubovski says, showing visitors elaborate machines that melt down polyethylene and polypropylene pellets he imports from Bulgaria. Once melted, the raw materials can be molded into various shapes depending on what his customers require.

Technoplast imports 50 tons a month of nylon polypropylene and polyethylene to keep up with demand, Golubovski says, and sells many of its products directly to factories and consumers to bypass distributors and middlemen and retain more profit.

Recently Golubovski bought another machine to recycle the scrap plastic that is discarded during his operations, which will save more money. There are no environmental regulations in Macedonia to affect his business, but Golubovski says if there were, he would meet them without a problem.

This Strumica businessman has always believed in taking risks. That's why 11 years ago he left his well-paying job as a mining technician at Ograzhden Mine, spending all his savings to buy a four-ton Zastava truck which he used to haul vegetables all over former Yugoslavia.

During his long, lonely hours on the road, Golubovski thought and planned how he would improve his life. 'I knew I was more capable than just being a truck driver. I was continually pressed by the thought - how to earn my own capital producing something that one could not find in Macedonia. I believed in myself, I could predict the time 10 years into the future, I was walking with steps of seven miles before the others,' he said.

But running a business today in Macedonia is no fairly tale. Golubovski complains that due to the lax enforcement of Macedonian customs regulations, he often has to pay very high duties to import his raw materials while smugglers who bring in finished bags from Bulgaria with falsified documents pay very little.

That threatens to destroy any profit Golubovski might make by producing the bags in Macedonia and it makes him angry. 'I am interested in stopping black market smuggling of bags. It's absurd to have the raw materials cost more than the finished products because people falsify documents to avoid paying taxes. The state should do a better job of regulation at the border because otherwise all Macedonian business suffer.'

And Golubovski has a lot at stake. He reinvests all his profits in the business. Despite his success, Golubovski still lives in a 60-square-meter apartment and his wife still works at a kindergarten. Only recently did he trade his 20-year-old, beat-up Mercedes for a new Renault 19.

'There are not many people crazy enough to invest in Macedonia in these crazy economic times,' he says. 'But I will fight until the end to create legal order in the society and the state. His motto: Politicians should look after politics and leave business to businessmen.'

(to be continued)

(end)

mils-news 14 August '95