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MILS NEWS 09/05/96From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@MILS.SPIC.ORG.MK>Macedonian Information Liaison Service DirectoryCONTENTS[01] FRENCH - MACEDONIAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION - A PRIORITY[02] BAYAR - 'MACEDONIA COULD BE THE CENTRE OF BALKANS'[03] BETTER CREDIT CONDITIONS FOR MACEDONIAN RAILWAYS[04] MACEDONIAN-SLOVENIAN TALKS ABOUT THE FORMER SFRY DEBTS[05] ONLY GOLD RESERVES WILL BE DIVIDED[06] FOUR DISPUTABLE POINTS AT MACEDONIA-FRY BORDER[07] CARL BILDT - PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY FOR KOSOVO[08] 'STRANGE' COINCIDENCE[09] 'VECERNJE NOVOSTI' JOINED THE CAMPAIGN[10] DRAFT LAW ON TRADE COMPANIES ADOPTED[11] REACTION OF MACEDONIAN RADIO TO THE STATEMENT OF MINISTER CHOKREVSKI[12] MACEDONIAN TV - JOURNALISM IS JUDGED DAILY BY THE PUBLIC[13] DEMOCRATIC PARTY - 'CHOKREVSKI'S STATEMENTS SCANDALOUS'MILS NEWSSkopje, 09 May 1996[01] FRENCH - MACEDONIAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION - A PRIORITYMacedonian President Kiro Gligorov, Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski and Parliamentary Foreign Policy Commission President Ilinka Mitreva arrived in Paris, yesterday. Macedonian delegation will attend the ceremony of joining Macedonia the 'Paris Charter'.The aspects of the bilateral cooperation will be discussed in Paris with the French President Jacque Chirac and Foreign Minister Herve de Charette, resulting in concrete agreements, reported Macedonian media. It is expected that the visit will strengthen Macedonia's position in reaching agreement with the EU. [02] BAYAR - 'MACEDONIA COULD BE THE CENTRE OF BALKANS''Macedonia is the heart of the Balkans and could become a centre of a political, economic and military organisation, that would be eventually formed in the Balkans in future. I think that what Belgium is for the western Europe, Macedonia is for the Balkans,' said the Turkish Ground Forces Commander, General Hikmet Bayar yesterday, after his talks with Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Hanjiski and Macedonian Army Chief of Staff Trajche Krstevski. General Bayar stated that Turkey paid a great attention to the independence and sovereignty of Macedonia. He said that Macedonia, having a powerful economy and powerful armed forces to support the economy, would greatly contribute to the peace in the region, and Turkey would like to develop the bilateral relations in that direction.According to Macedonian media, the subject of the talks was the improvement of the already fruitful cooperation between the two countries' military forces. General Bayar also visited several Army units and institutions in Macedonia. [03] BETTER CREDIT CONDITIONS FOR MACEDONIAN RAILWAYSMacedonian Government an the European finance institution 'Eurofima', specialized for financing the purchase of rail- transport equipment, agreed that the remaining Macedonia's debt to this organisation is paid under beneficiary conditions and in acceptable terms.The activities for the membership in the institution were also agreed on, by which Macedonian Railways will be able to use credits under much better conditions. [04] MACEDONIAN-SLOVENIAN TALKS ABOUT THE FORMER SFRY DEBTSMacedonian delegation, led by Vice Prime Minister Ljube Trpevski, met yesterday in Ljubljana with the Slovenian Finance Minister Mitja Kaspari to exchange the experiences of the two countries in the negotiations with the international finance institutions on the issue of the former SFRY debts. Slovenia had completed the negotiations with the London Club, and Macedonia should start them soon.Both countries had completed the global negotiations with the Paris Club, and the agreements with separate Banks and countries should be concretized. The subjects discussed were also the regulations in the trade with securities and the banks rehabilitation processes. Macedonian delegation visited the Slovenian Banks Rehabilitation Agency, the Securities Agency, the Stock Exchange of Ljubljana, etc. Macedonian delegation is expected to visit Croatia today to discuss the same issue with the Croatian counterpart. [05] ONLY GOLD RESERVES WILL BE DIVIDEDHead of the Croatian Commission on Succession Issues Bozo Marendic had stated that Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, for the time being, will have to be satisfied with the dividing of the former SFRY gold reserves, that are currently in Switzerland, because the dispute on the foreign currency reserves lasts for several years already. According to the Ljubljana agency 'Morel', Marendic also said that Belgrade claims these foreign currency reserves are about $ 44 million, and the gold ones about $ 780 million. He added that the military property of SFRY was about $ 70 billion, but it had been devaluated substantially till now, as part of the weapons were taken by Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the greatest part is still in Serbia.[06] FOUR DISPUTABLE POINTS AT MACEDONIA-FRY BORDERBelgrade daily 'Politika Express' informed that the Macedonian Parliamentary Foreign Policy Commission and the Macedonian media has questioned the issue of four points at the Macedonia-FRY border. Those points are the locations near the border crossing in the vicinity of 'General Jankovic', near the 'Prohor Pcinski' Monastery, near the village of Kopiljaca at the Skopska Crna Gora Mountain, all of them in the Serbian territory, and the location Cupino Brdo near Kriva Palanka.Today's issue of 'Nova Makedonija' reminds that, although it was set in the bilateral Agreement that a joint Commission would be formed within 30 days to settle the border issues, Belgrade had not fulfilled that obligation. It means that the problem is blocked at the moment. [07] CARL BILDT - PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY FOR KOSOVOUN Special Envoy on Civil Issues in Bosnia Carl Bildt, in his interview for 'Nova Makedonija' stated that any de- stabilization of Kosovo could seriously affect the whole region, 'which includes the countries in the south of it, i.e. Macedonia.' He said it was 'important at the moment to turn to the preventive diplomacy', and pointed out the UN troops in Macedonia as 'an attempt to contribute to the stability in the whole region'. Bildt stressed that 'the independence and integrity of Macedonia were very important factors for the southern region in general, with which all the neighbouring countries and the international community agreed.'[08] 'STRANGE' COINCIDENCE'Albanians in Macedonia almost put themselves in the role of puppets to those whose aim is to disturb the democratic processes and the integrity of the state,' was a part of the comment of the Macedonian Radio, provoked by the reactions of the Albanian political parties to the statement of President Gligorov on the 'Tetovo university' given in his interview for the German paper 'Frankfurter Algemaine Zeitung'.The question whether the participation of the parties of Albanians in the Macedonian government is 'a hypocrisy or tactics' was also asked in the comment. The Radio also pointed the 'strange' coincidence of the development of the situation in Kosovo with the actualization of the alleged endangered position of Albanians in Macedonia. [09] 'VECERNJE NOVOSTI' JOINED THE CAMPAIGNA-1 Television reported that, after the comment in the Belgrade paper 'Borba' that 'Nova Makedonija' supports and justifies the terrorism of Shiptars in Kosovo, the other pro-governmental daily 'Vecernje Novosti' also reacted. It read that 'what is a classic terrorism in the whole world, 'Nova Makedonija' considers forced moves of the Shiptars to get free from the firm Serbian political hands'.'By expressing such a high level of understanding for the Shiptar terrorism in Kosovo, 'Nova Makedonija' seems to forget the price of it, i.e. the human sacrifices, as well as the facts that enlighten the Kosovo issue,' read the article. According to the paper, 'Nova Makedonija' does not do this by chance, 'because its aim is to convince the world that the Shiptar issue in Macedonia does not exist and that everything is settled between the Shiptars and the Macedonians'. It is, according to 'Vecernje Novosti', also 'an attempt to convince everybody that a small number of Macedonians can not rule thousands of Albanians in Kichevo, and that the illegal university in Tetovo was not closed by the Macedonian police'. The paper concludes that 'Nova Makedonija' had mostly encouraged the terrorist organisation 'Liberation Army of Kosovo', that took the responsibility for the latest incidents, but that by defending the Shiptar terrorism, 'Nova Makedonija' might open the doors for it to enter Macedonia. [10] DRAFT LAW ON TRADE COMPANIES ADOPTEDMacedonian Government passed the Draft Law on Trade Companies on its session yesterday. The Draft Law offers possibilities for establishing public trade companies, limited-liability ones, limited responsibility companies, share holding companies, etc. The act also regulates the establishing and working procedures of foreign trade companies and foreign individual trade businessmen.The Government also adopted the Proposal for passing the Law on Territorial Dividing of Republic of Macedonia. In accordance with the Law on Self-Governing, Macedonia would have 111 municipalities in future. [11] REACTION OF MACEDONIAN RADIO TO THE STATEMENT OF MINISTER CHOKREVSKIMacedonian Radio yesterday reacted to the recently given statements of the Internal Affairs Minister, Tomislav Chokrevski, on the alleged attacks of the Macedonian media agains the police and about the 'unprofessional and non- objective informing', as well as to his announced 'offensive' of the police against the media.'Referring to the recent comment of the Macedonian Radio about the investigation of the assassination attempt on President Gligorov, Minister Chokrevski accused the journalists of assassinating the country. He announced that he would start a permanent offensive with the most powerful weapons: truth and frankness. He seems to have forgotten that the truth and frankness are what every journalist tends to, and threatened to make counter attacks, to purge the sources of information in the Internal Affairs Ministry and to check the journalistic texts. One could hardly believe that all this was said by a Professor of Public Opinion and Theory of Communication and Information, and by a person who came to the position of a Minister directly from the Forum on Human Rights. Macedonia does not feel that it should defend itself. Our best defense is the trust our listeners have in us. We think the truth is the public, which is the basic and sacred measure for the publicly presented information.' [12] MACEDONIAN TV - JOURNALISM IS JUDGED DAILY BY THE PUBLICMacedonian Television also reacted to the statements of Minister Chokrevski. Their comment said: 'the journalism is a profession which can be judged every day by the public, which has the right to be informed about everything. That is why everybody could differently see it, as citizens have the right to evaluate not only the journalism, but all the public services in the country and abroad. The most powerful weapons Minister Chokrevski announced he would use are, in fact, the principles of journalism: truth and openness. And the journalistic research for the facts is often stopped by the walls of the 'openness' of the sources. And now the journalism is threatened by having its constitutionally guaranteed freedom jeopardized.'[13] DEMOCRATIC PARTY - 'CHOKREVSKI'S STATEMENTS SCANDALOUS''Democratic Party finds the statements of Minister Chokrevski scandalous. His opened threats to the small freedom of press in Macedonia, which understand forming political black lists of journalists because of articles they wrote, his open announcing a police censuring and similar repulsive things he said, simply have to worry the Macedonian public. It is high time for Minister Chokrevski, his government and his party SDSM to understand that the police is a public service of the citizens as any other public service, and not a service of their party, and that it is susceptible to a public criticism. The fact that Minister Chokrevski has put himself in such a role is especially disappointing. He, the same as his predecessor Frchkovski, both so-called fighters for human rights, finally showed their true faces - faces of executors of the weak democratic values and achievements. Not to mention how worrying it is that the statement was given in the presence of Prime Minister Crvenkovski, which is another proof of the governmental support of Chokrevski's threats. Minister Chokrevski and his Government should realize that they should bear the blame for the catastrophic results of the investigation of the assassination attempt and for the insecurity among the people, and not the journalists.'There were many other reactions to Minister Chokrevski's statements by journalists and media means, as well as by the Forum on Freedom of Informing, which even asked to have the Minister released from duty. (end)mils news 09 May, 1996 |
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