MILS NEWS 06/06/96

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

CONTENTS

[01] MACEDONIA-SLOVENIA RELATIONS IN PROGRESS

[02] MACEDONIAN-GREEK TALKS IN NEW YORK POSTPONED

[03] FRCHKOVSKI: 'MACEDONIA IS AGAINST THE SO-CALLED 'FUNCTIONAL REGIONALISM'

[04] CONDITIONAL ABOLISHING THE VISAS REGIME WITH EU

[05] MACEDONIAN FIRMS TO COOPERATE WITH GERMAN-GREEK CHAMBER

[06] DIRECT MAIL EXCHANGE BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND GREECE

[07] IVANOV - SOKALSKI MEETING

[08] JOINT MEASURES AGAINST DRUGS AND ORGANIZED CRIME

[09] MODERNIZING THE MACEDONIAN CUSTOMS

[10] US CULTURE CENTRE OPENED IN PRISTINE

[11] MRT REPORT REJECTED BY THE PARLIAMENT

[12] EARLY ELECTIONS INITIATIVE AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

[13] DPM:' DZAFERI'S STATEMENT DANGEROUS AND PROVOCATIVE'

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[14] 'Tetovo Pupils Claim: We Were Poisoned by Gas, Not Through Food and Drinks'

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 06 June 1996

[01] MACEDONIA-SLOVENIA RELATIONS IN PROGRESS

Slovenian Prime Minister was received by Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, and both of them expressed a mutual satisfaction with the development of the bilateral relations and with the close stands about international relations.

During the meeting Drnovshek had with the Macedonian Parliament President Tito Petkovski, the traditionally good relations between the two countries in the economy and trade exchange were stressed, as well as the identical views about the succession of former Yugoslavia.

At the press conference, before Drnovshek left Skopje, Macedonian Prime Minister said the Agreement on Free Trade is going to be signed next month. Slovenian Prime Minister emphasized the highly harmonized cooperation between the two countries internationally, especially within European associations and about former Yugoslavia succession.

Drnovshek stated for A-1 Television that reducing the negative effects of the Macedonian deficit in the exchange with Slovenia was talked about, and that, according to him, the best way for that would be to enlarge the total exchange, which would be gradually realized through the Agreement on Free Trade.

[02] MACEDONIAN-GREEK TALKS IN NEW YORK POSTPONED

Athens paper 'Katimerini' read yesterday that Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos had refused to meet with his Macedonian counterpart Ljubomir Frchkovski during the ministerial meeting of NATO in Berlin. He said the reason had been the 'stubbornness of the neighbouring country in the name dispute'. According to 'Katimerini', Frchkovski asked for a meeting with Pangalos through the Macedonian Ambassador in Brussels.

[03] FRCHKOVSKI: 'MACEDONIA IS AGAINST THE SO-CALLED 'FUNCTIONAL REGIONALISM'

[04] CONDITIONAL ABOLISHING THE VISAS REGIME WITH EU

Macedonian Television reported that this will be told to Macedonian authorities during the visit of Jacque Santeur, European Commission President, and Lamberto Dini, Italian Foreign Minister, to Skopje on June 8.

Santeur and Dini will discuss the so-called 'regional approach' with the Macedonian leadership. Again according to Macedonian Television, they will explain that as Macedonia did not participate in the war, the regional approach would not be a condition for the improvement of Skopje-Brussels relations, but that normalization of relations with neighbours would be important.

Regarding Macedonia's requests for a macro-economic aid from the EU, information from Brussels are that the European diplomats will bring good news, and that details will be made precise in Skopje.

Santeur and Dini will also visit Belgrade, Zagreb, Saraevo and Ljubljana, while they had postponed the going to Tirana due to the worsened situation in the country after the recent elections.

[05] MACEDONIAN FIRMS TO COOPERATE WITH GERMAN-GREEK CHAMBER

The greatest advantage was said to be the possibility for exporting products to be finalized in Greece or other Union member country, and which would have the code of the importer or of the country where they would be marketed.

German Embassy in Skopje announced that a great business perspective is expected with this cooperation and that many Macedonian enterprises are expected to join it.

[06] DIRECT MAIL EXCHANGE BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND GREECE

[07] IVANOV - SOKALSKI MEETING

[08] JOINT MEASURES AGAINST DRUGS AND ORGANIZED CRIME

[09] MODERNIZING THE MACEDONIAN CUSTOMS

[10] US CULTURE CENTRE OPENED IN PRISTINE

[11] MRT REPORT REJECTED BY THE PARLIAMENT

Proposal to change the Law on Customs Duties, submitted by Liberal Party member Zvonko Karov, was also rejected.

Karov's proposal to have the quotas established by the government at the beginning of the year, was estimated by Finance Minister Taki Fiti as one which would disturb the basic concept of quotas. Karov himself withdraw the draft Law on Changing the Law on Customs Administration after the government promised to bring the new Law in October, which would include the codex of behaviour of customs workers.

The Parliament passed the Proposal to bring a Law on Privatization of State Capital in The Enterprises, by which the evidence, managing and privatization procedure are regulated.

Ljubomir Chadikovski read the public protest of the reporters for the physical attack on their colleague by the citizens who were protesting in front of the Parliament. The journalists expressed their dissatisfaction with those who solved their political frustrations with violence.

[12] EARLY ELECTIONS INITIATIVE AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

According to unofficial information published in today's 'Dnevnik', there is a possibility for the Constitutional Court to proclaim itself incompetent for this issue.

[13] DPM:' DZAFERI'S STATEMENT DANGEROUS AND PROVOCATIVE'

The Party also expressed his great dissatisfaction with the fact that the Parliament has still not dismissed Arben Dzaferi as an MP, although he had not attended the sessions for 11 months already. According to DPM, Macedonian Parliament is encouraging Dzaferi's extremely harmful and dangerous acting in that way.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[14] 'Tetovo Pupils Claim: We Were Poisoned by Gas, Not Through Food and Drinks'

('Dnevnik', 06 June 1996)

Pupils of the secondary medical school 'Nikola Stein' in Tetovo are categorically claiming that they were poisoned by gas which had been put in their rooms. According to a 17 years old Valjdete Jashari, who was in the Tetovo hospital for five days, that could be proved by the fact that only pupils in certain rooms had been poisoned. Pupils in the other rooms had not felt any symptoms. Her friend, Nazmie Neziri, who was also hospitalized for five days, said: 'I could smell a strange scent in the room. I thought it was nothing. Later I started vomiting, my knees were trembling and I had spasmodic pains in my stomach.'

The strange smell in the rooms had been felt by some other pupils, as Valjdete told us, and Valjmir Arifi claimed that only those pupils who had been resting in their rooms after the lunch had been poisoned. Pupils said that nobody who had not been inside the hotel at that time was poisoned.

Professor Dzemafir Dzemaili, who had been at the hotel with the pupils and who had also had the symptoms, confirmed his pupils' theory that they had been poisoned by gas: 'I am convinced that the children were poisoned by gas that was let into the rooms. The results of the governmental Commission are maybe valid for them, but not for me.'

The pupils complained about the attitude of some doctors and nurses at the Tetovo Medical Centre, who were telling them not to pretend: 'Some of them told us that we had been poisoned by our teachers with political aims.'

They pointed out d-r Marija Spirovska, Head of the Communicable-Disease Clinic in Tetovo, where the children were initially hospitalized, as the most decent doctor.

'I received the children as patients and they were given the necessary medical help. Specialists made a neuralgic examination, and excluded the possibility of brain damages,' told us d-r Spirovska. She said that neither the parents nor the children had complained about the attitude of the staff.

Substances - phenazon and aminophenazon, that were found in the blood of the children, have not been used for over 20 years. They have an anti-pyretic effect, i.e. they reduce the body temperature. When an overdose is used (which is more than 2g), their effect is negative. They could be lethal if more than 8g are taken. The medicine used to be produced by all bigger pharmaceutical producers in SFRY:

'Galenika', 'Alkaloid', 'Krka', 'Lek-Ljubljana' and 'Hemofarm'. It is best dissolved in alcohol in 1:2 ratio (1 part of phenazon to 2 parts of alcohol).

Branko Stojanovski, a pharmacist in the pharmacy near the Tetovo Medical Centre, informed us that the medicines containing those substances could not be bought in pharmacies. Still, there must be some way to supply them.

'Dnevnik' reporters visited the hotel 'Galeb' in Struga where the poisoned pupils were staying. Hotel Manager Nikola Ristevski categorically claimed that the poisoning could not had taken place in the hotel, neither by food nor by drinks, and definitely not by gas: 'The food is prepared equally for everybody. Everybody ate the same food that night, and there were about fifty other guests at the hotel,' said Ristevski.

He also excluded the possibility of drink-poisoning as no draft nor one-liter-package drinks are served. Analyses, made by the sanitary inspection immediately after the poisoning was reported, confirmed that there had been no possibility for food-poisoning. 'I think there are also no bases for the gas-poisoning accusations as noone, except for the guest and the hostess, can enter the room,' the Hotel Manager denied pupils' claims.

Three days after the event, after the rooms had already been cleaned, the Internal Affairs Ministry experts had arrived, told us the hotel workers. They informed us that the police had collected a lot of objects from the containers and the park near-by, such as a lot of syringes, which had probably been used by the doctors who gave the first aid to children.

(end)

mils news 06 June, 1996

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