Asked about the talks with his counterpart William Perry, Handziski said they both agreed that there is no need for an additional increase of the US troops deployed in Macedonia. In the mean time Athens News Agency reports that NATO Secretary General, Willy Claes said in Athens NATO is determined to strengthen its southeastern flank, which he said is becoming more and more important". He added that "in the following years Greece, whether willing or not, will play much more important strategic role in the region. But in order to strengthen this southeastern flank, we need to create another framework permitting a more positive atmosphere and more confidence".
Refuting all accusations as notorious lies, Miljovski claimed no political party has received a single Denar more than was decided by the Election Commission. Asked why only the Liberal and the Socialist parties have not been compensated, Miljovski said the delay is a result of a shortage of budget finances. The fact that SDSM was the first party to be paid out was explained by Miljovski with the fact that "they have pressed for the money ever since January 1." Still, he said, the party was paid out the exact determined sum and it was by no means out of the fund set aside for the Liberal Party.
The minister asked for a public apology, adding he would otherwise insist on a court case and evidence from the Liberal Party for its accusations. Asked whether this is not a cabinet crisis, he said every such step can do only harm to relationships between the coalition partners.
The stance of the Liberals is expected today. Officials of the Socialist Party, on the other hand, said they would ask for an explanation through their deputy in parliament.
The party describes the recent statement of Djuner Ismail that the law, in fact, only needs to be completed, as not serious and hardly competent as the operation of electronic media needs fundamental changes. Some party members criticized the Association of Journalists for not reacting to the decision to shut down private radio and TV stations. Meantime, the Ministry for Transportation and Communications continued yesterday with its activity of closing down private radio and TV stations which do not have proper work permits. Thus, RTA and MS were ordered yesterday to cease broadcasting with the threat of sealing off their premises. The premises of the TV station ERA have already been sealed because it continued broadcasting and ignored the government decision. The equipment of television stations AMAZON and SHUTEL has been confiscated because they broke the ministry seal. The last two also face criminal prosecution.
The Standard, although a paper with a short tradition, seems to have fitted into the scheme very quickly and to have learnt the lesson on speculative journalism by severely attacking without even stopping to think of presenting any proof. The author of the article, in fact, struggles to find anything in the wider journalist production of the attacked colleague of Nova Makedonija, which would prove the belief that he is assigned with - to prove that "Serbian protigis are poisoning the souls of the people in Macedonia," and that "the authorities in Skopje are financing an anti- Bulgarian campaign in the country."
The article in question presents only clips and short quotes of certain columns by Nova Makedonija's correspondent from Sofia. The embittered reaction seems to have been caused by the fact that the Macedonian reporter had openly, and with solid arguments, reported on the work undertaken by the Macedonian organization in Bulgaria OMO "Ilinden", on the prosecution and discrediting of its activists, on the characteristics of the anti-Macedonian campaign in Bulgaria and on the official position of not recognizing the Macedonian nation, language and so on.
It was exactly this weak point in the Bulgarian national- chauvinist factor that prompted this attack on the Macedonian media and which clearly speaks of its unwillingness to face its defeat in this area. Even Bulgarian analysts are arriving at the clear conclusion, now that the borders are more open and historic deceptions can be seen through, that not only do the Macedonians exist as an autonomous nation, but that they also have a minority in Bulgaria.
In any case, this was not the first time that the media in Bulgaria has reacted in a primitive and typically Zhivkovist-like manner and, without presenting evidence, has referred to certain Macedonians as "pro-Serbian oriented" and "Titoists". All this is done with only one purpose in mind - to cover up the reality which cannot be denied since it is happening in front of the eyes of the entire public. It is interesting to mention here, that during the communist times of Bulgaria under Todor Zhivkov, the correspondents of Nova Makedonija in Sofia were regularly summoned to the ministry of foreign affairs and criticized for poisoning mutual relations by writing bad things about Bulgaria. Afterwards, the same correspondents were publicly disqualified and campaigned against - this type of behavior was unknown and unprecedented in civilized and democratic societies. Several years ago, in another similar attack on a correspondent of Nova Makedonija, the Bulgarian colleagues even recommended that "Nova Makedonija ought to help re- establish the interrupted links between the brotherly nations on both sides of the border, instead of having its journalists weep for the reign of people like Tito, Stalin and Dimitrov." The reaction was aimed at a previously published article in Nova Makedonija, in which the process of assimilation of Macedonians in the Pirin part of Bulgaria was unpretentiously explained and supported with exact data taken from Bulgarian archives. The text told of how the 200,000 Macedonians registered in the 1946 census of population simply and inexplicably disappeared in the two following census surveys.
There are numerous examples of pressure on Nova Makedonija's reporters from Sofia, imposed only because they have been unable to keep silent about the anti-Macedonian moves of official Bulgaria. What the Bulgarian authorities would like the Macedonian reporters to do, is to avoid writing about the existence of a Macedonian minority there, to ignore OMO "Ilinden" as an organization of Macedonians which is struggling before the eyes of the entire international community to ensure respect for basic human rights for its numerous membership, to not reveal the undoing of promoters of the Greater-Bulgaria cause, to consider the Bulgarian fascist occupiers in the Second World War as liberators of Macedonia, to overlook the frequent provocation of the Bulgarian national-chauvinist propaganda and to go along with the launched thesis of how all Macedonians in fact feel as Bulgarians but the regime of Gligorov, being pro- Serbian, suppresses their real national affiliation. They would be "good" reporters if they agreed with claims such as the one in the last edition of The Standard, which says that "one per cent of the population [in Macedonia] violently determines the feelings of the remaining 99 per cent." This is exactly what Bulgarian propaganda would like Nova Makedonija to publish, in order not to "poison the souls of the people in Macedonia." True independent and objective journalism, obviously still not imaginable among certain circles in Bulgaria, would try and gather original data from the field instead of analyzing newspaper articles. Should The Standard send its reporters on a relaxed walk throughout Macedonia, it would most probably be ashamed of its pretentious claims of a Bulgarian character in its western neighbor and would cease slandering its colleagues. Unfortunately, the times of fascism and Zhivkovism seems to have left hard to erase traces in all spheres of life in Bulgaria, not only by confirming the Bulgarian court's policy on Macedonia, but also by fabricating new generations who are still not able to relieve themselves of the Macedonian syndrome after all this time.