MAK-NEWS 01/09/95 (M.I.L.S.)

From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@ITL.MK>

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 1 September 1995

[01] PEACE IN MACEDONIA IMPORTANT FOR THE BALKANS AND WIDER

At a Council meeting of Inter Parliamentarian Union held yesterday in New York, President of Macedonian Parliament, Stojan Andov said: "Peace and stability in Macedonia and the southern Balkan region is important for the international community, not only because of its past but also because of the ongoing meaningless war in the nearby former Yugoslav parts. An expression of the interest of the international community is the preventive presence of UNPREDEP troops in Macedonia, deployed there to prevent destabilization and spilllover of the war. Macedonia, being a country in transition needs aid and support from the international community to carry out deep reforms and democratic changes.

The country rightfully expects the international community to realize the absurdity of the illegal Greek embargo and continuos threats and pressures on Macedonia. Although Greece tries to keep Macedonia under the blockade and far from certain regional organizations and security systems, this is not only a damage for Macedonia but much more than that. The behavior of Greece could provoke destabilization in the region, and any tolerance of such a behavior is pitiful and the acceptance of a self-granted right by a more powerful country to impose its interests over smaller countries, is harmful in its consequences. Andov stressed that, in spite of this Macedonia remains faithful to the principles of the UN Charter on cooperation between the countries.

[02] PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR INJUSTICE DONE IN PAST COMMUNIST TIMES

17 parliamentarians of the Liberal Party submitted a draft- declaration to the Macedonian Parliament saying: ''On behalf of the state, the Macedonian Parliament regrets and apologize to Macedonians citizens and their families, who from 1945 till the first parliamentarian elections in 1990 have been criminally prosecuted and repressed in other ways, convicted without base and evidence upon illegal procedures or misuse, or whose elementary rights have been violated. " The declaration states that legal bases should be established in order to determine cases of repression of citizens and rightful compensation for them. "Parliament should support the initiative and reveal records on citizens repressed in the past kept at the Interior Ministry and place them at disposal to such citizens and their legal representatives, Ministry of Justice, District Attorney, and the Courts. The Archives of the Communist Party and the League of Communists of Macedonia should also be made accessible to the above mentioned legal institutions, as they might find them necessary in resolving such cases,' draft-declaration says.

[03] MECHANISMS FOR NATIONAL DISCRIMINATION ?

The decisions in the draft-law for Local Self-Government are unacceptable for member of the Debar City Hall, they said at yesterday's session. "Using this as a device, the Macedonian Government is making a legal attack on the local authorities, legalizing a centralized system and depriving citizens of their elementary rights. This leaves the local government without a power. The proposed draft-law is full of mechanisms for national discrimination and demands absolute centralization. There can not be any progress in a multinational country aiming towards European integration; quite contrary, this leads towards its stagnation. The law is not only discriminating but pointless, as regulations for use of languages and control of all activities in the state cannot be interpreted any differently. The draft-law proposes regulations which can not be taken seriously, creating an opportunity for local city hall members to make their own decisions only when it comes to clean the city chimneys, is also said.

City hall members believe that education, culture, social security , health department, urbanism and such areas, should be under local authority, since they are the best- informed of the problems in their communities. They further suggest that a 5%, instead of 20% as set by the draft-law, of the total number of citizens be the limit for granting rights to use of a minority language. The city hall system is more agreeable then the proposed one with a mayor and city committee, they say.

The city halls members of SDSM and Liberal Party did not attend the session.

[04] MODERNIZATION OF MACEDONIAN PTT

PTT - Macedonia held yesterday a press conference to announce new investments of its own funds which, along with the credit of European Bank for Development, will be a base for modernization of PTT communications in Macedonia. The Board of Directors of this public enterprise approved contracts for installation of new main telephone exchanges, optical and copper cables and digital systems. Until the year 2000 , they plan to install 340,000 phones, 240,000 for new clients and 100,000 to replace currently used lines. The means will be used to finance an international network of optical cables and important systems in the Trans Balkans line which, despite the delay in development in the neighboring countries, Macedonia will put to work by the middle of next year. The financial situation of the enterprise shows that in the first six months of the year, the entire income increased by 0,4%, but the costs fell by 10%. Uncollected claims for the first half of the year amount $13 million. A transformation of the enterprise is planned to be carried out in two economical areas: to establish post office and telecommunication as separate corporations, starting from 1997.

[05] TUPURKOVSKI MET SAMARAN

A delegation of the Macedonian Olympic Committee, led by Chairman Vasil Tupurkovski, visited yesterday the International Committee in Lousane, Switzerland and met with President Huan Antonio Samaran. They discussed the position of small sport countries, the Summer Olympic Games to be held in Atlanta 1996, and international Olympic solidarity. Samaran agreed to pay a second visit to Macedonia.

[06] CHANGES IN DRIVING LICENSES AND LICENSES PLATES

Starting today, the Ministry of Interior will launch new registration and driving licenses and license plates in Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. The plates will be changed with plastic sticker with a 'RM' abbreviation. This is an implementation of a decision reached by the Constitutional Court regarding the licenses plates.

MILS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:

[07] SETTLING OF KRAINA SERBS IN KOSOVO, A NEW OPTION TO START SIXTH BALKAN WAR

(Belgrade weekly Telegraf, 30 August 1995) All parts of the mosaic are in their places and the sixth Balkan war may begin, told a Telegraf reporter one of the close associates of Ibrahim Rugova, leader of Kosovo Albanians. He insisted to remain anonymous at all costs, because, as he said, the moment he would reveal his identity he would be sent to prison and released who knows when. Moreover, he assured, he would be declared a traitor by his own people.

As a proof of this, this well-informed and influential Albanian politician, who is familiar with everything of importance in Kosovo and all international activities regarding the region, pull out from his pocket a 'Analysis of the US Strategic National Research Institute' that presents a scenario for a 'sixth Balkan war'. Among other things, the analysis says:

'Should a war [sixth Balkan one, that is] burst out, a large number of Kosovars, i.e., Albanians would be killed. Some 40,000 of them would flee Kosovo. Such a huge refugee wave would have serious consequences for Serbia's neighbors. While a large portion of Albanian refugees would flee to Albania, a majority of them just might head south towards Macedonia, where President Gligorov is unable to discuss refugee matters publicly. And yet, since Macedonia's capabilities are not so big, still a large number of refugees might head to the West via Greece. On the way to the West, a considerable number of them could arm themselves and go back in Kosovo to fight the Serbs. Under such circumstances, Serbia is likely to enter northern Macedonia to prevent Albanians to come back from south, whereas Greece might enter southern Macedonia to prevent Kosovo Albanians from crossing the Macedonian-Greek border. As Macedonia is not ready to answer to all this, Albania might send in volunteers and weapons to aid the Albanians in Macedonia. As soon as Greece would enter Macedonian territory, Turkey would undertake countermeasures against Greece either in Macedonia itself or on the Aegean islands. At the same time, Bulgaria could also intervene. And so it would happen that two NATO allies, Greece and Turkey, become engaged in a war on opposite sides...'

We reminded the anonymous Albanian politician that the analysis and the scenario for a 'sixth Balkan war' is old more than six months and that, when it was published, it predicted a 'quick realization' of the plan (which still did not happen). What has changed so significantly in the meantime that prevented the scenario to take place as predicted?

'A lot has changed after Tudjman, with a blessing of the great powers and perhaps even under a secret agreement with Milosevic, ethnically cleaned Croatia of Serbs. Although no one will admit to it, but the concessions that were thus granted to Tudjman could easily be also granted to Milosevic in his designs to deal with Albanians in Kosovo. I am saying this in spite the fact that all our friends in the world promise that this will not happen. Yet, it is now clear that ethnic cleansing is for them a mere game of chess in which they gain a great deal and everyone else loses everything.' Asked where he sees a relation between this and a potential sixth Balkan war, he rushed to add:

'Milosevic's option of settling as many Kraina Serbs in Kosovo as possible, knowing that half of them have been fighting for almost five years and cannot any longer do without war, is nothing else but preparations for this war. Naturally, because of the international image Milosevic is now trying to build for himself, he will not be the first to directly use arms in Kosovo, but with such a colonization of the region he clearly tells Kosovo Albanians that there is nothing for them there. In fact, he is telling them that they have only two options. The first is to move out (which has so far been done by 400,000 Albanians, mainly youngsters, who fled Kosovo under the excuse of trying to evade service in the Yugoslav Army), and the second is to take guns and fight against the colonization of Kosovo.' Asked which option he believes is more likely to happen, he says chances are small that any larger-scale conflicts will occur in the beginning (small incidents are always possible, he adds), but then again there is a 'well-planned option' coinciding with the analysis of the US Institute which speaks of potential large groups of Albanian refugees. Now, he says, that Serbia is silently colonizing Kosovo, Albanians have a motive enough to start fleeing the region in refugee processions, to animate the international community and, after the majority of them finds temporary shelter in Albania, to cause a chain of armed conflicts between certain southern Balkan countries, in the exact order as predicted by the Americans.

Asked whether he thinks the world will so easily accept colonization of Kosovo as the 'motive' of Albanians for massive refugee processions, despite the well-known fact that there are no more than 5,000 Kraina refugees in Kosovo and that Serbia does not seem able to bring even that much more in the region, he replies:

'In a situation when Albania is bound to react quickly (and all of its top politicians already said they would defend Kosovo Albanians with all means possible), that is when weapons begin to do the talking, not many people will be interested in what the real motive or reason behind the conflict is. What's more, if America gives Albania a blessing to do so, all this is much more easily carried out.'

Asked what Albanians would gain by fleeing Kosovo and starting a 'sixth Balkan war', he readily answers:

'Not all of the Albanians would leave Kosovo.'

This somewhat reminds of a statement of the Kosovar Prime Minister in exile Buyar Bukosi, who, immediately after the publishing of the same scenario for a 'sixth Balkan war', said that nearly 200,000 Albanians would remain in Kosovo to fight against Serbs with light weapons, but they will be very soon joined by those supposed by the American analysis to come back from refuge 'after they pick up weapons awaiting them very close to the Albanian-Yugoslav border on the Albanian side,' as well as by Albanians who had fled Kosovo earlier and underwent military training in special military camps in the West.' He adds that this 'liberation struggle would eventually bring Kosovars what they have been long yearning for - an independent and sovereign Kosovo to be united at a later stage with Albania.'

We also asked him whether this whole thing could be a simple political bluff or an attempt to take advantage of the current situation in Yugoslavia.

'This may look as a bluff to someone. But everyone must be fully aware that the Kosovo powder keg may easily be inflamed by the smallest sparkle. You are yourself witnessing how Milosevic is playing with fire by this colonization; if he continues in the same manner and brings the promised tens of thousands of refugees from Kraina, everything will blow up in the air! Kosovo, Serbia, the entire Balkans, and who knows what will happen to Europe!' As this war option of resolving the Kosovo knot - if possible at all - largely differs from the official policy of the Kosovo Albanians leader who stands for a peaceful way to 'the final goal' - independent and sovereign Kosovo, we asked whether this means that Rugova has abandoned this policy.

'By no means,' he says. 'Rugova, along with all of us behind him, is aimed at peacefully obtaining an international recognition of Kosovo's right to secession. After all that happened to the Serbian Republic in Kraina, however, as well as with the autonomy that is being offered to us, the radical forces in our movement have become convinced that nothing can be achieved by peaceful means and are now urging an armed option or something in between that and peaceful waiting. And this is exactly the option stated in the above mentioned scenario with large numbers of Albanian refugees which does not necessarily have to end by enormous bloodshed but could still bring us what we want.'

In a further casual conversation, he reminds that Albanian President Berisa recently passed a special law on reorganization in the Albanian army (which is currently armed intensively by America, Turkey and certain Islamic countries, whereas Albanian soldiers and officers are being trained by top American professionals). Albanians, he says, are also counting with the help of US troops now deployed in Macedonia, especially after Bob Dole wins over power in the United States, as the Albanian lobby in America is investing hundreds of millions of dollars, already turning the campaign into a political affair.

Without much publicity, almost secretly, Albania and the United States signed a military cooperation agreement at the end 1992. This was merely a concrete realization of earlier desires of Albanian leaders to be sheltered within NATO and by the US as quickly as possible. In this context, Albania officially announced its nomination for joining NATO, having succeeded in its persistence to become included in a so- called Council for Albanian Cooperation, which was the first step toward NATO membership.

The Albanian political and military leadership was however not satisfied with presence of only American experts in their country. According to sources close to the Italian defense ministry, Italy deployed several thousand special troops who are training Albanian soldiers, all under the cover of humanitarian aid in equipment and experts. All these forces potentially urge a transfer of the Bosnian conflict into Sandzak and Kosovo.

With the help of the Albanian lobby in the United States, Albania won over the State Department to provide military aid for the Albanian army. American experts arrived in Albania in accordance with the interests of the US administration and then went on to prepare a plan for training of the Albanian army, along with a draft-plan for modernization of Albanian airports, sea ports and roads. To start with, the American side approved of a $3 million aid for Albania that could also be used to modernize the airports in Elbasan and Tirana and the sea ports of Durus and Valona. A part of the aid was used to regulate issues regarding Albanian territorial waters to be given up to US military ship in the area.

Sometime in the middle of June this year, the Albanian Navy and the US Sixth Fleet held joint sea training, described as successful military cooperation between the two countries.

On request of the Albanian President Sail Berisa, two US armored brigades were also deployed in Albania due to alleged threats by Yugoslavia to occupy Albania in order to prevent Kosovo to declare itself an independent republic. Because of the high mountain range on the northern border with Yugoslavia (Sara, Prokletie, Korab), the brigades were deployed on more practical terrain: one was stationed in the valley of the river Drim, toward Macedonia, and the other near Skadar, towards Montenegro.

In this way, Albania's land forces were significantly enforced and the US plans to deploy an additional troops, as demanded by Albania. At the same time, airports in Elbasan and Tirana were modernized according to American criteria so that military planes can now use it day or night and under any meteorological conditions.

In the context of the Balkan crisis, the United States undertook to enforce the Macedonian army as well, upon agreement with Macedonia. The task was set under the excuse that Macedonia faced a direct threat from neighboring Yugoslavia.

The first thing to do in Macedonia was to modernize the Skopje airport Petrovec by expanding the runways so that fighter and heavy transportation planes can land and take off. The runway of the Ohrid airport was also enlarged to serve needs of all types of aircraft. Both airports were equipped by the most modern radar systems for giving directions for landing or taking off under all weather conditions, again day or night.

Krivolak (a former military field of the Yugoslav People's Army) was also modernized and is now used by American experts to train Macedonian soldiers in firing artillery of middle range and missiles.

Since US military experts strongly suggested that all Balkan countries should be kept under constant surveillance from the air, the US established complete control from above with planes such as 'Avaxes' and those flown by automatic pilots and able to go up to 30,000 meters and send pictures to NATO bases vie electronic equipment. And so, armored troops in both Albania and Macedonia are supported by 'Theodore Roosevelt' planes and helicopter carriers 'Ivo Jim', stationed in the waters of the Adriatic.

The following is a survey of US military forces deployed in Albania and Macedonia, respectively.

Albania

Troops............................................................10,000

M60A1 tanks.......................................................160

M113 Armored troop carriers............................120

Back up artillery (various caliber's)....................100

MLRS missile systems, 227 mm.........................10

120mm missile launching pads..............................6

Antiaircraft artillery (various caliber's)..................80

Macedonia

Troops...........................................................6,000

Military experts.............................................3,000

M60A1 tanks...................................................100

M113 Armored troop carriers..........................70

Back up artillery (various caliber's)..................80

MLRS missile systems, 227 mm.....................10

Antiaircraft artillery, 120 km range.....................4

(end)

mils news 1 september, 1995