MILS NEWS 30/05/96

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From: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>

CONTENTS

[01] GLIGOROV: 'OSCE PRINCIPLES INCLUDED IN THE GLOBAL POLICY OF MACEDONIA'

[02] QUALITATIVE ACCORDANCE OF EU-MACEDONIAN STANDS

[03] DIVIDING OF FORMER SFRY PROPERTY STILL UNCERTAIN

[04] EXTENSION OF UNPREDEP MANDATE VERY POSSIBLE

[05] ACCEPTING OF MACEDONIA IN THE EUROPEAN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION EXPECTED

[06] FINANCE ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND SWITZERLAND

[07] IRREGULARITIES IN THE ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA

[08] MINISTER FILIPCHE: 'NOT A USUAL FOOD POISONING'

[09] CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE LAW ON SIGNATURES IN PROCEDURE

[10] CONSUMERS OWE $50 MILLION TO ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY

[11] NEW IDENTITY CARDS FROM OCTOBER

[12] MACEDONIAN JOURNALISTS ABOUT THE LAW ON BROADCASTING

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] 'Hunger Strikers Are Rejecting The Suspicions' ('Dnevnik', 30 May 1996)

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 30 May 1996

[01] GLIGOROV: 'OSCE PRINCIPLES INCLUDED IN THE GLOBAL POLICY OF MACEDONIA'

Macedonian Television reported that Gligorov and Finnish President Marti Ahtisari had discussed the bilateral relations and the possibilities for their improvement, as well as the situation in Macedonia and its efforts to join EU and NATO. Finnish President emphasized the importance of the peaceful policy and democratic processes in Macedonia, pointing out the role of President Gligorov in that context.

He said the presence of UNPREDEP forces, which include Finnish soldiers, was of greatest importance for preserving the peace in Macedonia. President Ahtisari said he understood Macedonian stand that integrating in the EU should not be conditioned by the so-called regional approach.

President Gligorov also met with Finnish entrepreneurs and talked about the participation of Finnish companies in the construction of 'Kozjak' water power station, with about $40 million. The entrepreneurs required guarantees for the credit to be given by Macedonian and Finnish governments.

[02] QUALITATIVE ACCORDANCE OF EU-MACEDONIAN STANDS

Progress had been made in the evolution clause of the draft Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation between Macedonia and the EU, although no guarantees had been given for a joined membership of Macedonia. As Miljoski informed the press, the new formulation read that Macedonia will be allowed to associate in Europe if it fulfills certain conditions: improvement of democracy, protection of human and minorities' rights, and progress in the economic and political reforms. He said the Agreement was rather harmonized and could be offered to be signed in the same form.

Meanwhile, Macedonian Radio informed that agreements had been reached on giving Macedonia quotas for tobacco export on European markets, which used to belong to the former Yugoslav federation.

[03] DIVIDING OF FORMER SFRY PROPERTY STILL UNCERTAIN

Sir Arthur Wotts will today have talks with representatives of the Macedonian National Bank and of the Finance Ministry, after which he will continue his trip to Belgrade, Saraevo and Zagreb.

[04] EXTENSION OF UNPREDEP MANDATE VERY POSSIBLE

The extension is considered almost certain in New York and it should be signed at today's formal session of the Security Council, said for MTV, Macedonian representative in the UN, Denko Maleski. The possibility for the extension of mandate after November '96 was also discussed yesterday, and solutions for financing the mission were looked for, due to the complex finance situation of the UN, added Maleski.

[05] ACCEPTING OF MACEDONIA IN THE EUROPEAN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION EXPECTED

[06] FINANCE ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND SWITZERLAND

[07] IRREGULARITIES IN THE ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA

This was announced yesterday, according to 'Royter', by the OSCE monitoring report . The report reads that some decisions of the Electoral Commissions had been made under pressure of the government.

Meanwhile, agencies reported that demonstrations of the opposition parties members had continued in Tirana, and a member of the Socialist Party of Albania was murdered.

[08] MINISTER FILIPCHE: 'NOT A USUAL FOOD POISONING'

It was his answer to the question of the MP Hisen Ramadani, while the Education Minister Sofia Todorova said she had already visited the School Ambulance in Tetovo and that an official announcement would follow soon.

At yesterday's Parliament session, over 130 questions were asked by the deputies agenst the Government. Stevan Pavlevski was appointed a new Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Macedonia.

There are ten other items on the Agenda to be discussed today, including the proposed Laws on Territorial Dividing, Broadcasting and on Telecommunications. Macedonian Television reported that two initiatives of the Liberal Party to have Commissions formed will be again put on the Agenda, which had been withdrawn at the previous session.

[09] CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE LAW ON SIGNATURES IN PROCEDURE

[10] CONSUMERS OWE $50 MILLION TO ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY

[11] NEW IDENTITY CARDS FROM OCTOBER

[12] MACEDONIAN JOURNALISTS ABOUT THE LAW ON BROADCASTING

The Association required public and commercial broadcasting to be strictly separated, and the pre-payments of the citizens to be put in a separate fund, and not to be an income for the state budget. They also considered that a Broadcasting Council should be authorized to manage the broadcasting.

The announcement continued that as the Internal Affairs Minister did not explain his statements about journalists the Associatio considered it as harmful. The Presidency reported that the eight journalists of the daily 'Dnevnik' had not submitted a request to leave the Association and that they had been misinforming the public with their tendentious articles.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] 'Hunger Strikers Are Rejecting The Suspicions'

('Dnevnik', 30 May 1996)

Members of the Union of Independent and Autonomous Trade Unions, who are striking in front of the Macedonian government, were received yesterday by the Vice Prime Minister Ljube Trpeski, although not as independent trade union members, but as citizens.

'Government representatives said we were illegitimate and refused our requests to improve the conditions for the strike, saying that we had chosen the location by ourselves.

They suggested us to continue striking inside the Union premises, but we refused that. We spent the night under the bridge and next to the monument to hide from the rain. We are determined to continue the strike, and we want to discuss our requests with the Prime Minister,' said Blagoja Ivanovski, President of the Union.

Not a single citizen joined the strike till yesterday, and only about thirty had signed in the support book.

Simultaneously, the suspicions about the real motives of the strikers are appearing. A so-called periodical programme of the Union was revealed, which was, allegedly, supposed to be completed till the day after tomorrow. According to it, the Independent Trade Union members were planning something much more than a hunger strike.

Namely, the document read that they were going to 'enter by force' in the Town Assemblies and start hunger striking there. It was planned a 'forceful entering in the employment bureaus to take place till May 2, and in the social care centres till May 15'. The next step was supposed to be a 'strike of the railways and road transport system, ultimately conditioned by a resignation of the government', and all to end with a general strike.

The programme, which included support activities for the action of collecting 150,000 signatures, read that non- repayable loan was planned to be asked from the All- Macedonian Congress of George Atanasovski. There were some notifications that the Union had already borrowed DM 3,000 to organize a strike last year.

The strikers had rejected all the accusations and explained:

'The periodical programme, parts of which were presented to the public, was prepared by Stojan Nikolov and Atanas Lefterov. It was proposed, but we rejected it at the Union session. The programme was neither signed nor sealed. We adopted a 'cleared text' of it, which is not in accordance with the presented one. We are not backed by the loans from George Atanasovski, but by the people,' stressed Blagoja Ivanovski.

They described Stojan Nikolov as a 'national traitor' because he had, allegedly, joined their opponent Stavre Janev, President of the Trade Union of Individual Farmers, which seceded last year.

The strikers showed us a document which read that the Coordinate Board of the Union had dismissed Stojan Nikolov on April 27. It was interesting to read in it that Nikolov and Lefterov were obliged to submit a written report on the borrowed DM 3,000, and that they were threatened by a court procedure.

Whatever, all of that creates a new picture of the hunger strike. The periodical programme (according to the strikers, its first version) anticipated the following requests:

social aid of DM 350 until being employed or retired; the lowest salary of DM 800; revision of all bankrupt and privatized enterprises; payment of all the pensions that had not been paid, etc.

The requests of the hunger strikers now are more modest:

social aid of 5,000 denars and minimum salary of 10,000 denars. There are, however, some new requests: moratorium on the disconnecting of water and electricity, due to unpaid bills; reducing the electricity price for 10%; opening public free food centers, which would be financed by the government and managed by the Union, etc.

Nobody could predict at the moment how will the situation about the strike develop, whether the government will officially reject the requests or not. As we have found out from governmental sources, they have no space to start negotiations with the Trade Union members. The strikers said they had informed all the Embassies in Skopje and all the international institutions about their requests. They complained that the Red Cross did not give them blankets and beds, and that was why they called on the blood donators to boycott blood donating actions.

The only request of the strikers approved was to use the public toilet in the vicinity. The strike is continuing.

(end)

mils news 30 May, 1996

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