MAK-NEWS 08/12/95 (M.I.L.S)

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

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 08 December 1995

[01] ALEXANDROS MALLIAS WILL BE CHIEF OF THE GREEK LIAISON OFFICE IN SKOPJE

Alexandros Mallias was appointed for a chief of the Greek Liaison Office in Macedonia. As Macedonian Radio reports, this was announced by the representative of the Greek Foreign Ministry, Kostas Bikas who stated that Foreign Minister Karolos Papullias has informed Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski about the decision as well as that the Greek delegation will arrive in Skopje in the beginning of January. According to Bikas, it is not yet known when will Macedonia appoint its representative for its Liaison Office in Athens.

Greek officials have not received any information from the mediator Cyrus Vance about the beginning of negotiations on the name issue between Greece and Macedonia. This was stated by the daily 'Ta Nea' which commented the announcement of the Macedonian Radio which stated that negotiations will start in the middle of this month. 'Makfaks' reports that diplomatic sources in Athens expect that the dialogue will begin next year, although, they say, there may be certain preliminary talks this month. Many deputies of PASOK commented the information on the soon resuming of negotiations, saying dialogue should be postponed until the situation with President Papandreou has cleared up.

[02] CRVENKOVSKI MEETS WARREN CHRISTOPHER

Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski a few days ago met with the US Secretary of State, Warren Christopher. Christopher greeted the Macedonian attendance in the North-Atlantic Alliance for Cooperation which, he said, becomes a traditional form of dialogue concerning present political and security issues. Christopher also underlined the important and historic role of the joint participation in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement in Bosnia, as well as the firm position of NATO on the further expansion of the 'Partnership for Peace' initiative.

[03] FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MACEDONIAN-US RELATIONS

Macedonian Ambassador in Washington, Ljubica Achevska, was received few days ago by the US Vice Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff. They both reviewed further development of relations between the two countries. Ambassador Achevska expressed gratitude for the US support to the newest UN resolution on the status of UNPREDEP in Macedonia. American official expressed satisfaction on the positive outcome of the Macedonian-Greek problem and the signing of the Interim Accord. Tarnoff also expressed wishes for recovery of President Gligorov.

[04] VATICAN SENDS NUNCIO TO SKOPJE

In the framework of the OSCE meeting in Budapest which is held on the occasion of the implementation of the Dayton agreement, Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski met with Mon Signor Jean Luis Toiran, Foreign Secretary of the Holy See. Toaran expressed satisfaction on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Macedonia and stated that Vatican Nuncio will soon hand over the credentials to Skopje.

[05] FRENCH FINANCIAL AID FOR MACEDONIA

Governments of Macedonia and France signed a protocol the day before yesterday in Paris, which grants Macedonia 11.900.000 FF. aimed for the realization of the drinking water facility in Kochani. The protocol was signed by the Macedonian Ambassador in Paris, Luan Starova and the Director of the French Vault, Jean Mounier.

[06] SWEDEN WILL SUPPORT THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND THE EU

A governmental delegation of the Swedish Kingdom led by Development and Cooperation with East and Central Countries Minister, Pierre Shuri, had talks with Macedonian Development Minister Bekhir Zhuta who introduced the present economic situation in Macedonia as well as the possibilities of the future development of the country. Swedish delegation stated Swedish Government was interested for the preparations of international agreement on cooperation between the two countries. The delegation also had talks with the Deputy Minister of Economy, Tome Cemerski, and agreed that there is a need of mutual information of businessmen of both countries on the further cooperation. It was also stressed that Sweden will support the trade cooperation agreement between Macedonia and the EU. During the visit, the Swedish delegation had a meeting with Under-Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Victor Gabber and the Finances Minister, Jane Miljovski and Traffic Minister Dimitar Buzleski, as well as talks with representatives of PDP and the director of the Macedonian TV.

[07] TALKS BETWEEN YUGOSLAVIA AND MACEDONIA

A Government delegation and representatives of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce had a meeting with representatives of the Yugoslav and Serbian Government and the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce. Both delegations talked on the new foreign policy regime of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia toward Macedonia and agreed to realize all contracts signed before November 26 according to the former policy. The new policy will be valid by the end of the year, while another new policy for trading of Yugoslavia in 1996 is already in preparation. Macedonian Radio says, referring to some infomation, Yugoslavia was forced to change its foreign trade policy in order to be accepted in GATT. The former trading between Macedonia and Yugoslavia was based on the principles of custom union, and it will be resumed if the World Trade Organization agrees with it. However, Serbian authorities, Macedonian Radio reports, believe that trade between Macedonia and Yugoslavia will be bilaterally arranged, and such bilateral negotiations have already started.

[08] CREDIT FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE AIRPORT

Yesterday on its 33 session Macedonian Parliament brought the Law on fulfilling the terms by the Republic of Macedonia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and for the realization of the project for reconstruction of Skopje airport. The deal about the credit should be signed in the middle of this month and it's worth 17 million and 800 thousand DM. Its main purpose is to finance the construction works on the runway as well as installing the light and electronic equipment. Works are expected to start in March next year and are estimated to finish by the end of the next year. In the debate answering the question Macedonian Minister of Finance Mr. Jane Miljoski said that the credit is absolutely necessary and it's important to get to a higher security level on the airport, because the airport may be shot down from international traffic. The money from this credit (as well as the finances from the previous one used for navigational equipment - around 15 milliondollars)shall soon be returned, because they can be paid off from the taxes that foreign planes are paying for crossing the Macedonian air space, stresed Miljovski. These taxes are estimated around 20 million dollars per year.

In that context, A-1 television yesterday informed that the three Macedonia air-companies got a deadline to pay off their debts towards the 'Airport Service Company Macedonia'. In the contrary the Company is going to cut down their services on 15 December. As A-1 finds out a part of the debt that the air-companies are supposed to pay by the 15 is around 4 million DM. The whole debt is estmated around 10 million DM. Till now the only company who has reacted to this is"Avioimpeks" which by the end of next week is going to fulfill the obligation. A-1 also informs that the initiative for forming only one national air company is being reinforced again. With that purpose Minister Buzlevski held a meeting with the directors of the companies. The directors were obliged to make elaborates of their view on the project.

[09] A PROMOTION OF THE THIRD PART FROM " HISTORY OF MACEDONIA"

"Titan" -publishing house, yesterday held a press conference on which the third part of the project " History of Macedonia" by Ph.D. Vasil Tupurkovski was introduced. Speaking about the work which is mainly dedicated to

Philip the Second, one of the greatest man of ancient Macedonia, Mr. Tuporkovski stressed out that the goal was to fulfill the gap in the historiography of this distinguished person. The second goal of this book is to make clearer the appearance of Macedonia as one stable state in the classical period, at the time of reign of Philip the Second.

[10] GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE ATHLETIC CLUB " RABOTNICKI"

On the occasion for the fiftieth anniversary of the athletic club " Rabotnicki" an honorary academy was held yesterday in the Army House. This anniversary was attended by eminent public-sports workers from the Republic, former and present members of the club. Ph.D. Mr. Slavko Matovski spoke about the beginnings of the club and the beginnings of the athletic sport in Macedonian. In these past fifty years as dr. Matovski stressed this club has given to the Macedonian athletics the best of the sport starting with Slavko Matovski, Lazo Milosevki, Dragi Koccevar, Ccedo Ssarevski and the present hundreds of young boys and girls. This club was formed in 1945 four years before the Athletic Association of Macedonia was founded.

[11] MILS SUPPLEMENT: Russian Winds

(Nova Makedonija, 08 December, 1995)

It is obvious that the United Nations do not want to comment, even less to dramatize the Russian attempt to close down the mission of UNPREDEP in Macedonia. Probably because it was just an attempt and because the UN resolution 1027 was unanimously adopted.

We should now accept the explanation which says long-term UN missions are too expensive and the resuming of UNPREDEP for 12 months will be a precedent. We should ask ourselves how come the UN Secretary General did not know of such a precedent and financial difficulties of the organization he leads, having in mind that the proposed mandate was accepted by most of the member states and the host country of UNPREDEP.

In any way, everything would have remained as internal disputes within the organization if the Macedonia Ambassador, Denko Malseki had not given an interview for the Macedonian TV on the issue, and if the news had not been reported by German 'Reuter'. According to present information, the aforementioned position is explained with the present situation in Macedonia and the stabilization in the region. That refers to the agreement between Macedonia and Greece and the recently initialed Dayton agreement on Bosnia. The Russian initiative was not supported, and it was obvious that the UN had no need to debate on the issue. Parties reached a compromise, i.e. peace keepers in Macedonia will remain for the next six months.

After the adoption of the resolution, the Russian officials remained silent which means that differences are even larger than they first appeared. The representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Demurii, was certain that UN troops in Macedonia should be step by step withdrawn. The official position of Moscow explains such an attitude by the following: the mission of UNPREDEP has completed successfully, no one threats the territorial integrity of Macedonia and that UN Secretary General should decide what to do with UNPREDEP by the end of January, which is in fact a free interpretation of one of the stipulations of the resolution 1027. While the UN and the Security Council believe that Macedonian independence and sovereignty may be threatened, Russia believe such a threat does not exist. Western analysts see such a threat in the forces that organized the attempt on President's life, and in the present situation in Kosovo. No one can be certain that Serbia will not start another ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The crisis in Kosovo may easily influence Macedonia, however Russians insist that such a threat doe not exist. There is no explanation of such certainty, however Moscow probably has information that Serbia will soon recognize Macedonia and believes that the uncertainty will be gone.

It is not clear whether Russian position on UNPREDEP in Macedonia is aimed to announce its new position of the official Russian policy on the Balkans, and in that respect on Macedonia. That policy is a result of the internal Russian political scene, and the more present opinion in Russia that it is a world force and it cannot remain as a shadow of the US.

This was practically announced when Moscow categorically stated that Russia will cooperate with the West on the European security, however it will not tolerate NATO on its borders. The Russian 'niet' was announced by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Kozirev in Brussels a few days ago when asked whether Russia would agree with the expansion of NATO in the former Warsaw Treaty countries. Defense Minister Grachov stated that if NATO expands in Eastern Europe, Russia would form an Alliance contra NATO. Such Russian attitude was first noticed when it decided to stand behind Serbia in the conflict when the US hesitated whether to involve in the conflict and when the EU did not know what to do.

Russia stated its motive was to help in resolving the conflict. Its attempt was unsuccessful and then it began to express the Orthodoxy and the Pan-Slavism which were firmly supported by a huge block of nationalists, former communists. It is fact that official Russia tried to avoid this dangerous political forces. Russian officials continue to express the position that Russia wants to work together with the West on the unification of Europe which was divided 50 years with an 'iron curtain'. Yet it is also fact that it helped the various meetings in the Balkans and Eastern Europe based upon the Orthodoxy and the Pan-Slavism supporting initiatives on alliances and regional treaties with the help of the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia succeeded in connecting its Church with the Bulgarian and the Romanian one which all stood against the Macedonian Orthodox Church when it asked for recognition of its autonomy. All that added to the strength of the Russian ultra-nationalists, such as Zirinovski who have new plans for the division of Europe and new zones of influence, a result of the schemes of Russian officials and kings a century ago.

The US attempt to resolve the Bosnian war and Serbo- Croatian crisis, which ended successfully with the initialization of the Dayton agreement worried Moscow. Simply, Moscow fears of the possible Serbian turn to the US and the EU, who withdrew the sanctions after the agreement was signed. Some Russian positions now become more clear, especially lately, when Russia lobbies for the Serbia's attempt to be recognized as a successor of the former federation. Official Russia announced it accepts the legal continuity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the former federation, and asks for a support from international forums without mentioning the issue of succession.

Simultaneously, some US officials stated that the Department of State agrees with the legal continuity of the federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the former state, yet the succession is to be divided to all newly created states of former Yugoslavia.

If all of the aforementioned is as it is, it seems like the Europe and the Balkans are again prepared to be divided. Such aims are not publicly commented in Russia, and the West says such a division is not possible since there is no new Stalin in the East. In this context, the little episode in New York on UNPREDEP has a different dimension since Russia cannot deal with the American influence in Macedonia. Some Russian sources imply that the UN is only an excuse of the UNPREDEP in Macedonia, so Belgrade supported by Moscow does not want to have NATO troops deployed on its eastern and southern border.

(end)

mils news 08 December '95