MAK-NEWS 17/08/95 (M.I.L.S.)

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

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 17 August 1995

[01] TALKS ON DEFENSE COOPERATION WITH NORWAY

Norwegian Defense Minister Yorgen Cosmo received Tihomir Ilievski, Macedonian ambassador to Norway, for talks on bilateral cooperation in the field of defense. The Norwegian minister confirmed his country's readiness to remain actively engaged in the UN peace-keeping efforts in Macedonia as long as necessary, positively evaluating the communication and cooperation between the mission officers and authorities and people in Macedonia.

[02] SERECI TO VISIT MACEDONIA

On invitation of Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski, Albanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfred Sereci will arrive in a two-day official visit to Macedonia August 20, the Macedonian Foreign Ministry informs.

[03] MACEDONIAN ARMY DAY CELEBRATED

On the occasion of August 18, the Macedonian Army Day, Defense Minister Blagoj Handziski yesterday held a press- conference at the Army Center in Skopje. Thanking the media representatives for the cooperation with the army, Handziski reminded of several events and activities that were essential in 1995 as far as national defense is concerned. He stressed Macedonia's defense cooperation with foreign countries, announcing defense cooperation agreements with England and Germany to be signed shortly.

[04] SITUATION NORTH OF MACEDONIA

Yugoslavia continues to settle Kraina refugees in Kosovo and local authorities make efforts to accommodate and employ refugees in accordance with their vocation. Plans are to include children and youngsters in the education as soon as starting this school year. Men fit for military service are registered by local military authorities. The number of refugees already arrived or yet to arrive has not been precisely determined. Kosovo officials say the region is capable of sheltering 10,000 refugees for temporary settlement. So far no incidents have been registered, except when, three days ago, a family of Serbian refugees forcefully entered a home of an Albanian family and is reported to be still there.

In an interview with the Macedonian Radio yesterday, Kosovo Albanians leader Ibrahim Rugova said the arrival of Serbian refugees is just another provocation by the Serbian government that makes any negotiations impossible. All his efforts, he said, are now turned to the international community.

Mehmet Hajrizi, member of the presidency of the leading party of Albanians, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, is cited by Nova Makedonija as saying this exodus, although being a great tragedy for the Kraina Serbs, is a 'part of the projects to colonize Kosovo with Serbian population.'Apparently, the newspaper continues, Yugoslav government plans to settle 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo, starting from January 1995 and 5,000 have been settled so far. According to the 1991 census figures, 82.2 % of the population in Kosovo are Albanians, 10% Serbs and the rest are other nationalities. According to the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, however, Albanians comprise 91% and Serbs only 8% of the total population.

On the issue of colonization of Kosovo, newspaper Rilindija wrote that this can lead to another Balkan war. The newspaper also attacked Meritan Ceka, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, blaming him that he secretly cooperates with Belgrade. Ceka recently asked Kosovo to accept Kraina Serb refuges.

[05] MACEDONIA SENDS HUMANITARIAN AID FOR KRAINA REFUGEES

A Macedonian humanitarian convoy of aid for Kraina Serbs who fled to Kosovo will leave Skopje today. The aid was provided in organization of he Macedonian Red Cross, along with the help of several foreign humanitarian organizations with offices in Skopje. The aid will be handed over to the Yugoslav Red Cross.

The campaign of providing aid continues.

[06] ANTHOLOGY OF YIDDISH POETRY PUBLISHED IN MACEDONIAN

'The Wholly Country of the Word' is the title of the anthology of Yiddish poetry published in the Macedonian language and promoted in Skopje yesterday. The book is a capital work of the Macedonian translation. Ante Popovski made the selection of poems, translated them and wrote a preface to the anthology.

[07] MACEDONIAN BUS DEMOLISHED IN MONTENEGRO

Macedonian Radio reports a Macedonian bus, taking tourists back home from Ulcinj (Montenegro), was attacked and thrown stones at as it was leaving the capitol, Podgorica, three days ago. The bus belongs to the Radika hotel.

One passenger was injured.

[08] MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: HOW WE SURVIVE - PART V

Tobacco season has arrived in the village of Konce (pronounced Konche). Each morning, Abdurrahman Sait and his family - even the young children - wake at 3 a.m. and walk a kilometer to their field to pick the most tender leaves of the green plant that is one of Macedonia's biggest cash crops.

Tobacco is a harsh mistress - demanding 12 hours each day, 7 days a week for 11 months. First comes tilling the fields, then planting and hoeing, then picking the aromatic leaves, threading them, and drying and sorting them for market. For this backbreaking labor that has made him old before his time, Sait receives 73 denars ($2) per kilo.

In this mixed Turkish and Macedonian village of about 900 people, where growing tobacco is a tradition and an art that stretches back generations, a family of 8 must work year round in order to harvest a few tons of tobacco.

But after paying the expenses, the money is not enough to sustain the families. Twenty years ago, one kilo of tobacco bought one pair of opinci (traditional leather moccasins). Today farmers say they must grow more than five kilos of tobacco to buy the same moccasins.

'We work very hard, but I still have no money,' Sait says. 'We don't need social help. We want to work, we have the strength and the land is good. But we need a decent price for our product.'

Tobacco passes through many hands on its long chain from the farmers who plant it to the boys who sells cigarettes illegally at the Bit Pazar. For those whose livelihoods depend on it, tobacco has become a business of sweat and blood.

And yet, the Macedonian tobacco industry is still profitable. In fact, there are many Western firms interested in investing in the domestic tobacco factories once they are privatized. But a huge discrepancy exists between the farmers whose backbreaking labor produces the dried leaves and the cigarette factories that are such an attractive investment for the Westerners.

Today, the tobacco industry in Macedonia is at a crossroads. World prices of tobacco have fallen and the domestic industry must complete with Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, which also produce the aromatic, small-leaf tobacco that thrives in the hot, dry Balkan summer. (The large-leaf Virginia tobacco that fetches a higher price on the market requires a wet climate that can't be found here).

In the last ten years Macedonian tobacco has been losing its market (the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, etc.). This loss reached 40% with the collapse of Yugoslavia. Now the nation must look for new buyers as well as for ways to make the tobacco farmer's life more tolerable.

Production has fallen because factories failed to give the farmers their customary 20% advance to buy farm supplies and equipment in 1994, says Gorgi Angelovski, advisor to the Association of Tobacco Producers. Some factories have not yet paid their farmers at all. Last year, only the Jaka factory of Radovis and the Prilep tobacco kombinat gave its workers an advance that would enable them to plant new crops, he adds.

Only 10 years ago, about 50,000 families grew tobacco on 29,185 hectares and produced about 36,500 tons of dried tobacco annually. For 1995, even though experts predicted that only 17,487 hectares would be planted, they now say the production won't amount to half of that. 'This is as though Macedonia has lost half of its agriculture,' Angelovski stresses.

The tobacco crisis also threatens stability of the villages, where young Macedonians and Turks are leaving their farms because they cannot make a secure living on the 82 denars per kilo they receive for dried tobacco leaves. The tobacco companies pay the farmers 64 denars per kilo and the Macedonian government is supposed to pay an 18-denar per kilo subsidy. This, however, will not be decided until August 31, 1995.

Farmers are further dissatisfied because they receive some of their earnings in goods instead of cash. In 1994, the farmers of Konce say, they received only 70% of their pay in money. The other 30% was given in vouchers which could only be redeemed for goods at stores where the factories have arrangements.

'I have no money to buy books to send my children to school,' complains Blazho Todorov, 35, whose back was bent over his young tobacco plants. His wife Vaska, 29, works alongside her husband, bringing their two children with her to the field.

Blazho and other tobacco farmers have been so angry that in recent years they have gone on strike twice at Jaka in Radovis, a company that has been producing tobacco in eastern Macedonia for 75 years. If on the other hand a farmer decides to sell his tobacco to a factory other than the one with which he has signed a contract, he must pay a fine of 15% of the price per kilo. Even officials at Jaka admit that the producers are in a tough position and that prices are low.

'Ten years ago with income from a hectare of tobacco you could buy a tractor; today you can just about buy a tire for your tractor,' says Mile Kukutanov, the factory advisor and former director general.

Jaka-Radovis buys tobacco from the farmers, blends it and ferments it in hot, airless rooms for over a year. The tobacco is then packed for sale into 25-kilo bales. The approximately 4 million kilos produced each year are sold for prices from $1 to $5 per kilo, depending on the quality of the leaves.

About half is exported to Western Europe, America and Japan, where it is blended with Virginia large-leaf tobacco and made into cigarettes. The other half is sold domestically to big companies. According to official statistics of 1986, 8,000 people were employed in the tobacco-processing industries. But whereas that number has been decreasing steadily year by year, the number of people active on the tobacco black market has been rising. At the (Macedonian-Serbian) border crossing at Tabanovce, 15 kilometers from Kumanovo, Albanians and Macedonians cooperate effectively to smuggle. Recently, an Albanian youth and a Macedonian pensioner, 52, explained how they collaborate and earn money in this business. The Macedonian said he drives to Presevo in Serbia to buy Marlboro cigarettes for 15 Deutsche Marks per carton that he resells in Macedonia for 16 DM.

Selling these and other smuggled goods he can earn up to 50 DM per day. His colleague, the Albanian, is unemployed and lives with his family. He must make extra money because his father's pension is only 4,300 denars per month.

From the border, the smuggled cigarettes are reosold to smaller dealers and the tobacco trail finishes at markets like the Bit Pazar, where boys aged 10 to 18 - mainly Albanian - sell Marlboros, Boss, and Lord cigarettes for 30 to 50 denars per box. Some Macedonian boys sell cigarettes at the 'Green market'. Even little Albanian girls now sell cigarettes, such as N.D., age 10 from Batinci, whose father was laid off from the firm Gradinar. Now she must help support the family of nine. Most of these children come from welfare families. Other need extra money for their families. Young A.S., who works 14 hours a day selling cigarettes, has a father who earns 400 DM per month but has to support a 5-member family. He buys Marlboro cigarettes for 45 denars a pack and sells them for 50. His average daily earning is 620 denars.

'I started selling cigarettes in the 6th grade,' A.S. says. 'Until then I was an excellent student. Now I've dropped to being merely very good. We do this business to earn money for bread,' they say in one voice.

It is a dangerous way to make a living. Just ask B.J., 18. He's the only member of his 9-member family who works. He says he sells 50 boxes a day of Marlboro cigarettes smuggled in from Bulgaria. which he buys for 15 DM and sells for 16 DM. With this he can earn 50 DM per day. Ironically, this is much more than the farmers of Konce can earn from their hard labor in the fields.

And so the cycle of tobacco ends in the hands of the smallest tobacco merchants, the poor children of Macedonia.

B.J. says that despite his earnings, he would quit his black business in a minute if he could.

'When the police catch me I have to pay a 200 DM fine. Twice they beat me in the police station at Bit Pazaar. But I don't have another source of existence. That's why immediately after they release me from the police station, I go directly to the market again. I have no other choice.'

Elena and Vasil are postponing their marriage for several years because they don't have good jobs or enough money to rent an apartment .

Jeton and Vezire, a young married couple, cannot afford to have a second child because of financial insecurity. Maria T., 28, cannot even think about getting married and forming a family. Three years have passed since her graduation but she still hasn't found work as a doctor. And Burim, 34, knows that as a professor of geography he has no chance to teach in a school. He must sell home appliances in a shop at Skopje's old market.

While the economic and political difficulties in Macedonia today hurt almost all citizens, they are felt especially strong by the younger generation - who are the hope and future of this society in transition. Many young people have few choices and few hopes for a better future. Some live only for today; a fact reflected in the rise of alcohol and drug abuse among young people.

It often happens that parents are getting their drunk children out of coffeebars and discos. This year, the Bardovci Hospital for Diseases of Addiction in Skopje has treated 150 heroin addicts each day, including two who are only 12 years old. Doctors say there are 2,000 registered heroin addicts but that the true number may soon reach 20,000.

Whereas in former Yugoslavia there were many employment opportunities and most people could look forward to working at a good salary upon graduation, today unemployment looms ever larger. According to the most recent information from the state Employment Bureau, more than half (119,711) of those waiting for a job are young people under 30. The Employment Bureau lists 7,196 unemployed citizens with high education. Statistics indicate that in Macedonia there are 1,146 graduated lawyers, 914 doctors, 882 economists, 877 teachers who cannot find jobs. Also on the list of unemployed are 11 people with masters' degrees and three Phds. The state still lacks an exact number for the brain drain out of Macedonia but it is believed that a large number of young intellectuals are searching for the fruits of their academic labor outside the borders of Macedonia. This can be seen every day as young people line up in front of agencies that are negotiating emigration visas to New Zealand.

'The promised land' is wanted mainly by those who are pressed by poverty, but also those who their diplomas and professions will get many more points in New Zealand than in their homeland.

Vasko, a 30-year-old photographer, and Elena, his 26 year old unemployed girlfriend, are among them.

'We want to get married but we don't have enough money, we don't have an apartment and there is not enough room for living at our parents,' Vasko says. 'We applied for emigration visas to New Zealand but they rejected us. We''' try again. We want to go. That's our only chance for normal life,' say both of them.

The young married couple, Jeton and Vezire Starova, must put off having a second child because of the economic uncertainty. 'We would like to have more children, but that is impossible now since our jobs lack security.' The Starova family calculated that a second child would require 15% or their total income. This is too much for Jeton, a scientific assistant at Skopje's Veterinary Institute, and Vezire, a dental technician. But the Starova family say optimistically they expect to make it through this nightmarish phase.

'I'm happier that the others. I speak English and I work with computers, which means that I can get extra work. Sometimes I work until 2 a.m. because to go to the market you must have money. And today it's hard to find money,' says Jeton.

Life is harder for Maria T., 28, a physician who has been looking for a job more than three years. 'I live with my parents. I don't want to be a burden to them so I found work as a sales clerk in a boutique for 100 DM monthly salary without benefits. Now I don't even have that job anymore. Maybe I'll have luck finding a job in some of the newly opened private clinics.'

There are thousand of young people in Macedonia just like Maria. Although they have higher education, they are unable to exercise their intellectual capital due to the closing of factories and the shift to a private economy. Consider Metin Necip, a machine engineer who works 12 hours a day selling cars at Renault-Mak in Skopje. When the war started, he left his good job at Mak-Petrol and moved to Turkey because he feared fighting would spread to Skopje. When he returned several years later, factories all over Macedonia were laying off machine engineers and he had to settle for a job as a sales clerk.

'I am not very satisfied with my salary but if you consider how badly some other people live, it's not too bad for me,' says Metin.

(to be continued)

(end)

mils-news 17 August '95