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MILS: News from the FYROM, 97-04-03Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 03 April, 1997[01] MACEDONIA DEMANDS EXCLUSION FROM ELISABETH REHN MANDATEThe Head of Macedonian Diplomacy Ljubomir Frchkovski addressed the UN Human Rights Commission yesterday, during its 53rd session in Geneva. On this occasion - MTV reports - he underlined the endeavours and achievements of Elisabeth Rehn, who has contributed largely to providing a realistic image of the human rights situation in the countries encompassed by her mandate. Her views as regards the entirely different status of this issue in the Republic of Macedonia in comparison to conditions in other states within the region are, in the opinion of Minister Frchkovski, entailing the recommendation to exclude Macedonia from her mandate as soon as possible. Upon discussing minority rights, the stability an democratic development of states, Frchkovski once again confirmed the necessity of a comparative approach in analysing the implementation of minority rights, and in this context he also mentioned the Macedonian initiative for a comparative study on the status of minorities in the Balkans.Macedonia has signed all essential UN Conventions on the protection of human rights, and on a regional level it has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. As a result of this - according to Minister Frchkovski - this issue is being regulated via a clear and all-inclusive legal foundation. Standards incorporated into Macedonian legislation in particular are entirely concordant to the minimum of international provisions on the protection of minority rights - and in certain domains (especially with respect to education and local self- government) these provisions are even transcended. Positive results of Government policy in this respect have also been achieved in the sectors of education, civil service, culture and the media so that Frchkovski stated the main objective to be achieved lay in a society with a strongly-expressed sense of integration and the affiliation of all its citizens on the one hand, and a developed sense of individuality, liberty and the respecting of all idiosyncrasies on the other'. The battle for the respecting of individualism and the strengthening of mutual trust, however, is a continuous process which should be upheld and to this purpose - as well as in order to overcome extremist tendencies - the Parliament of Macedonia has adopted the Declaration on Furthering Inter- Ethnic Relations in the Spirit of Tolerance, Dialogue and Mutual Trust and Respect. This paper confirms the basic postulates of the policy conducted by the Republic of Macedonia in terms of furthering inter-ethnic relations. What is even more valuable than the adopting of this Declaration is the fact that ethnic extremism is a marginal issue within our society - not encountering the support of the majority', stressed Minister Frchkovski at the 53rd Session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. [02] ELEPHTEROTYPIA: THE REFERENCE `REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA - SKOPJE' ON THE NEGOTIATION TABLE IN NEW YORKAt the UN seat in New York a new round of Greek-Macedonian negotiations on the name-issue under the auspices of Cyrus Vance, was supposed to take place. For now there are no information on the outcome of these negotiations, though Greek media (as `Makfax' reports) have produced contradictory information. According to pro-governmental `Ta Nea' this meeting should not entail particular surprises - whereas the measured left- wing paper `Elephterotypia' mentions that the reference `Republic of Macedonia - Skopje' is being considered. This - it is being reported - has been recently taken up by Macedonian media, following the meeting of Constandopoulos and Gligorov. According to `Makfax' the above mentioned Greek paper further stated that President Gligorov had made it quite clear during talks with Constandopoulos that he is willing to accept a solution suitable to both sides.[03] VISIT OF DANIEL TARCHISE TO MACEDONIA ANNOUNCEDMTV reports that the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Daniel Tarchise, is to visit Macedonia on 6th and 7th April. During his two-day stay he is to be received by President Kiro Gligorov, PM Branko Crvenkovski and several Government Ministers.[04] STABILITY AND GOOD NEIGHBOURLINESS IN SE EUROPE - THE TOPIC OF SKOPJE MEETINGOn 8th April the Macedonian Foreign Office is to stage a meeting on the stabilisation process and the developing of good neighbourliness in SE Europe - within the so-called EU `Royaume Initiative' - in Skopje.The meeting, which is to be chaired by current EU President the Netherlands, will also be attended by representatives of the 15 EU member-states and by delegates from Albania, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Bulgaria, SR Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia, the USA, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Croatia and several international organisations. MTV informs that the event is to focus on opinions and information on current issues affecting the region - and on the implementation of a series of concrete initiatives of the member-states, conducive to the strengthening of stability, good neighbourliness and cooperation in SE Europe. [05] UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT BY `SDSM' FOR PM BRANKO CRVENKOVSKIFollowing the SDSM Presidium session this Tuesday, the Information Office of this party has issued a press release in which it emphasises that certain concrete achievements have been made in terms of overcoming the consequences incurred by the `TAT' banking scandal and other similar affairs. This particularly refers to the assessment of the situation and the involvement of several sides in this financial affair. In this context the Presidium of the SDSM Central Council has once again repeated its unconditional support to PM Branko Crvenkovski, and to the corresponding state institutions in charge of the uncorrupted and statutory implementation of the views of the Parliament of Macedonia and the Government - especially with respect to client disbursement and determining the liability of all sides involved in this scandal.The Macedonian Radio informs that during debates it has been stated that there had been several attempts to obstruct more thorough investigations (by exerting pressure and imposing blockades). These attempts had been made by both collectives and individuals, at times even by political parties. The SDSM, however, has energetically opposed such occurrences, and committed itself to the complete examination of conditions via employing political means and within the institutions of the system. Offenders are therefore to be punished concordant to the law - regardless of their political (or any other different kind of) affiliation. Media report that the Minister of Civil Engineering, Urbanism and Ecology - Jorgo Shundovski - has officially submitted his resignation during the session of the party Presidium. This has been accepted by PM Branko Crvenkovski. Upon justifying his resignation, Shundovski states among other things that the irregular business practice of the `TAT' bank - and particularly the surfacing of his name in public in connection with this - have inflicted an incredible amount of damage upon his own repute, as well as that of his family. Even in spite of his decisive disavowals. Shundovski continued that this added complexity to his performing of professional duties, and even endangered the functioning of the dept. he had been heading. He further stated that `in a time when we have committed ourselves to the countering of crime, in order to provide a future for everybody - and in spite of the fact that there are no objections to my professional achievements, due to the fact that I have only the best intentions, I ask you to accept my resignation as the Minister of Civil Engineering, Urbanism and Ecology.' [06] GOVERNOUR STANOEVSKI: `THERE ARE NO ATTRACTIVE NAMES'Yesterday NBM Governour Borko Stanoevski submitted the entire corpus of documents on the `TAT' banking scandal to Bitola the Attorney-General of Macedonia Stefan Pavlevski...Macedonian media report. This means that Pavlevski is now in possession of all materials having any value as evidence for this case. The Macedonian Radio broadcast the statement by Pavlevski that he would brief in the public on investigation outcomes after having examined the material over the next couple of days. In the opinion of Governour Stanoevski the selection of files does not reveal anything unusual, i.e. they contain no other names of politicians or public personalities in addition to those already revealed.The Macedonian Ministry of the Interior however, informed the public yesterday that criminal charges were being pressed against: `TAT' Director Sonja Nikolovska; the Director of the Bitola offices of the Payment Flow Institute Julija Atanasovska; against her Senior Advisor Sofka Jonchevska and against Boris Mijalchev (in charge of finances at the nationally-owned facility for handling residential and business real estate at Bitola. Sonja Nikolovska is to be charged with forgery, the destruction of business records, the abuse of personal data, tax evasion, forging identification papers, inciting the abuse of official authority and fraud. Julija Atanasovska, Sofka Jonchevska and Boris Mijalchev are to be charged with the abuse of official authority and position. It is also being mentioned that such criminal practice had yielded 10 375 000 DM in profit for Sonja Nikolovska. According to the police press release charges are also being pressed against the lawyer of Sonja Nikolovska - Gjorgji Pili - for tax evasion resulting in the damage of app. 8 000 DM. [07] `MEDIPHARM' SELLS MEDICINE PAST TERM OF EXPIRYWith respect to the inquiry into the illegal importing and selling of medicines past their date of expiry, the Ministry of the Interior has filed charges (for producing and distributing harmful pharmaceuticals) against two employees of the Tetovo-based `Medipharm-Commerce' yesterday. The searching of the company storage facilities resulted in the discovering of a large amount of such pharmaceuticals, as well as of forged packaging. Thus other products supplied by this firm with a forged date of expiry have been withdrawn from several chemists'.The Commission for Drug Registration within the Ministry of Health, however, stated in a release issued yesterday that all control measures in this sector had been unanimously adopted by all Commission members. Officially there have been no instances of unwanted side-effects by the consuming of these drugs so far, but it is also being indicated that there are medicines on the Macedonian market, for which there is no evidence of registration, although their distribution had been permitted by the Ministry. This mostly applies to medicines not available on the domestic market, whose quality has been confirmed via certificate, as procurement had been of essential relevance. Should there be any suspicion as regards their quality - the Registration Commission claims while recommending speedy and rigorous counter-measures - this would fall within the jurisdiction of other ministries. [08] DUTY-FREE SHOPS AT BORDER CROSSINGS CLOSED DOWNYesterday the Macedonian Parliament adopted the alterations and amendments to the Bill on Customs and International Trade, after abridged procedures. This practically suspends the operating of all duty-free shops at border crossings - with exceptions of those at the Skopje and Ohrid airports. The remaining facilities will be permitted to sell duty-free goods for 30 more days, without being allowed to store or distribute and products and luxury goods through consignment storage facilities - as of the day of enactment of this new bill.In defence of the latter Finance Minister Taki Fiti stated that as a result of Government measures the legal purchase of cigarettes has been increased by 40%, which augmented Budget funds. Minister Fiti also stressed that the suspension of consignments would only apply to cigarettes, coffee and alcohol - while cars, repro-materials and resources would be exempted. The ultimate objective pursued by the Government - Fiti stated - was the reduction of smuggling (particularly that of cigarettes) to reasonable proportions. [09] MACEDONIA ADAPTS TIME MEASURING TO `EU'Members of the Macedonian Parliament have agreed to adopt changes as regards time measuring yesterday. Thus the latter is to be identical to the mode employed in the EU until the year 2001. This is to avert last year one month of divergence with the EU.[10] AROUND 20 000 COMPANIES GENERATE LOSSESAccording to the National Payment Flow Institute, throughout 1996 the economic sector in Macedonia has been characterised by the fact that 19 368 legal entities with app. 400 000 were in the red by the close of the year. The major share of losses (around 79%) fall off to 343 companies (average loss of each business: over 10 million denars). About 47% of the loss-generating businesses belong to the industrial sector, 16% fall off to agriculture, 16% to trade...A-1 TV is again quoting the Payment Flow Institute upon reporting that around 150 000 legal entities in Macedonia have generated the overall amount of 3.3 billion denars in profit during the past FY. The year of 1996 was also specific in that respect that the balances of already privatised businesses was far more positive in comparison to those companies still owned by the state. Thus privatised businesses generated app. 50% of all revenues - and 26.5% of all losses - in the economic sector. [11] LIVING EXPENSES DOWN BY 0.5% IN MARCHThe National Statistics Institute informed that this March consumer prices have gone down by 0.5% in comparison to the preceding month. The same applies to agricultural produce (by 4.5%) and to industrial food products (0.5%).With respect to beverages prices have been increased by 0.4% over this month. All this entailed a drop of living expenses by 0.5% in March. [12] DNEVNIK: `SMUGGLERS OF HIGHLY-RADIOACTIVE URANIUM ARRESTED'`Dnevnik' reports that police in Skopje has arrested three people in Skopje yesterday, on charges of uranium smuggling. The offenders intended to sell this highly- radioactive substance on the international market. Records reveal that 250 g of uranium had been detected at the abode of one of the arrested, in a closed container, including several photographs and reference literature on its characteristics. There are indications that this arrest is the result of a lengthy law enforcement action, including national security structures.[13] UFOs OVER STENJE, SHTIP...!?On Saturday morning several residents of the Stenje village in the Prespa region registered a UFO the size of a helicopter, in shape of a mushroom. The same phenomenon has also been witnessed by several citizens of Shtip in the evening hours that day. Several Macedonian media report that eyewitnesses described the UFO as brightly lit-up, clearly visible and flying low over their houses.This occurrence of a UFO appearing over Macedonia generated amazement and fear among the public. [14] FOOTBALL: MACEDONIA BEATS IRELAND BY 3:2The Senior National Football Team of Macedonia succeeded in winning the match against the National Team of the Republic of Ireland by 3:2. The match was part of the World Championships qualifications of Group 8, for France 1998. This victory puts Macedonia into second place within this group. Direct qualification for the World Championships is granted to the first two teams in each group.MILS SUPPLEMENT[15] `The Next Stop to Salonica Terminus...'(MILS / IC - 10th February 1997)In view of the imminent promotion (on Thursday, 3rd April at 20 30 h) of Fred Reed's latest book `Salonica Terminus - Travels Into the Balkan Nightmare' we have recently published an interview conducted with the author in Canada. Here is the sequel to this enlightening conversation... MILS: As Ms. Dimitriou mainly focused on how You `stumbled across' the Macedonian issue, we would like to know whether You have actually been to Macedonia before You learned of it... and do you think it predetermined your views once You found out, that it biased You (even in a for us positive way) upon actually travelling to Macedonia? REED: No, I had not been to Macedonia before beginning research on the book, except of course for brief forays into northern Greece, homeland of the `non-existent' Macedonian minority. What prejudiced my views and started me on my way was Greece's insistence on claiming that it had a monopoly on the Macedonian identity, which I found frankly, outrageous and ludicrous, even though understandable. MILS: Did You have a chance to delve a bit more in-depth into the Macedonian issue with `average Joe' in Skopje, Ohrid, etc. as views on reunion of territory and restitution of property by these people may differ in comparison to those of refugees in Bitola and the character from Skopje You have named `George'? Do You think that the Macedonian public is supportive enough? REED: I did not have much time on earlier visits for talks with `average Joes', since I cannot speak `Makedonski'. Obviously, if I am ever to probe the matter more deeply, I shall have to do this. In my defense, I add that there is much on-the-ground research that does not appear in the book, yet helps shape its conclusions. MILS: What I found to be lacking - for the sake of completeness - is the Government's input on all this? Did You attempt to get in touch with them, or not? This may be one of the most frequent objections You will hear... REED: You may have noticed that there is not really much government input in any of the chapters of my book. My feeling is that governments have enough power and money to represent themselves. The relaying of official opinions I leave to my `mainstream' colleagues. Remember, also, that `Salonica Terminus' is written for an uninformed and ignorant north- American readership, and must be read as such. MILS: Your attitude towards the EU as an economic alliance is more than provoking, do You think that their requests as regards minority rights are based on reciprocity - or are we merely `a Balkan training-ground'? REED: I view the EU as a once enlightened, now cynical undertaking subversive of minority rights and democracy as I understand them. `You' would be, in my opinion, a Balkan training ground, or battle ground, depending on the circumstances - providing we accept that the `competition' myth which drives the world these days does not exclude the ultimate form of competition, i.e. war. Still you might ask, what is the current alternative? The Americans? For the answer to that, see the Dayton Accords. MILS: In this context do You think that the initiative launched by Kiro Gligorov to compile a comparative study on minority rights in the Balkans makes sense? REED: I was not aware of Gligorov's proposal. But I heartily endorse it, and would love to see Athens' response, if in fact they respond at all. MILS: The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Ms. Elisabeth Rehn stated during her most recent press conference in Skopje that `minorities are the same all over the world with the same rights' which is a valid assumption - what however about the problems they are being confronted with? You've spoken to Vlachs and Albanians in Macedonia... to Albanians on Kosovo, to the people of Bosnia... to what extent can one generalise on their situations? REED: I cannot agree with the proposition that `minorities are the same all over the world'. Take, for instance, the English-speaking minority in Quebec, which is far from suffering oppression. No, the formulation is hopelessly simplistic. Some generalizations can be made: but nothing I have encountered in the region allows me to do so with anything but the deepest misgivings. Forces are at work here, and elsewhere, which our current analytical tools appear to be unable to grasp. MILS: Thank You very much for this interview. (end)mils news 03 April 1997Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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