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MILS NEWS 96-08-22Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 22 August, 1996[01] YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT PASSED EIGHT AGREEMENTS ON COOPERATION WITH MACEDONIAAccording to A-1 Television, FR Yugoslav Government yesterday adopted eight Draft Agreements on normalization and improvement of the economic cooperation with the Republic of Macedonia. The documents refer to trade, customs, investment protection, road and air transport, and veterinary and plant protection. The official announcement of FRY Government said that negotiations on mutual cooperation with Macedonia had been developing positively, emphasizing that mutual cooperation was of a great importance for further development of relations. Most of the Agreements are expected to be accomplished at the beginning of September, when FRY Prime Minister Radoje Kontic will pay an official visit to Macedonia, said the announcement.[02] GOOD DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONSAt yesterday's meeting with US Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia Christopher Hill, Macedonian Parliament President Tito Petkovski expressed his satisfaction with the development of the bilateral relations, as well as with the mutual understanding, which offers possibilities for a more intensive cooperation especially in the field of economy and investments. He informed the Ambassador about the political and economic situation in Macedonia and about the work of the Parliament. Ambassador Hill yesterday also met with Macedonian Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski.[03] SPECIFICS OF MACEDONIA IN TRANSITION PERIODFrench Ambassador to Macedonia Jacques Huntzinger and Macedonia Vice Prime Minister Jane Miljoski yesterday discussed the specifics of Macedonia in the transition period, Macedonian Television reported. Miljoski underlined that Macedonia was developing a political system and legislation that would 'make each European citizen feel like home'. He also stressed that by conforming the Macedonian legislation with the European ones, Macedonia was hoping to build a European Union 'within us, without waiting for somebody else to bring it to us'.[04] MACEDONIAN-ROMANIAN COOPERATION DISCUSSEDPreparations regarding 14 Agreements on direct cooperation between Macedonia and Romania were the subject of yesterday's talks between Macedonian Minister Vladimir Naumovski and Romanian Ambassador to Macedonia Nikolae Nitzu. It was agreed the Agreements on economic cooperation improvement to be given the priority.[05] TRADE UNIONS - GOVERNMENT MEETINGMacedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and President of Macedonian Association of Trade Unions Zivko Tolevski yesterday talked on several issues raised by the unions and on attempts for their solving, announced Information Administration of the Trade Unions. Special attention was paid to the economic problems, especially to the situation with the factories 'FAS 11 Oktomvri' in Skopje, 'Porcelanka' in Titov Veles, 'Silika' in Gostivar, etc. Payment of pension and health care fees was one of the most important issues, and was agreed to organize a meeting of all competent subjects to look for a solution. The Initiative of Trade Unions Alliance to establish an Economic-Welfare Council was adopted by the Government and the Economic Chamber, and it is expected to be signed.[06] CANONICAL VISIT TO AMERICAN-CANADIAN-MACEDONIAN ORTHODOX EPARCHYHoly Synod of Macedonian Orthodox Church announced that Head of Macedonian Church, Archbishop Mihail, would pay a visit to the American-Canadian-Macedonian Eparchy. Archbishop Mihail will attend the people's gathering, which will take place in Rochester from August 30 to September 2, will dedicate the Macedonian orthodox church 'St. Clement of Ohrid' in Avon, Ohio, USA, as well as the churches 'St.George of Kratovo' in Detroit and 'St. Sunday' in Pickering, Canada. According to Macedonian Radio, Archbishop Mihail will bless the foundations of new churches in the eparchy, and will organize religious services. He is expected to have meetings with Macedonian emigrants on the American continent.[07] MACEDONIA WILL FACE AN EXPLOSION OF AIDSIn Macedonia, till the end of last year, 21 cases of people infected with AIDS were recorded, of which 19 have already died. Another 19 HIV-positive people were registered, of whom two have died, although it is not known whether the reason for their death was AIDS. During this year, there have been no new cases reported, but the information of WHO say that there are about 500 HIV-positive cases in the country, while Macedonian Commission on AIDS considers this number to be about 1,000.According to 'Nova Makedonija', Commission President and National Coordinator on AIDS, d-r Sotir Sotirovski said that Macedonia will be faced with an outburst of this disease. He said Macedonia had been included in the European chart with 0.6% diseased on 100,000 inhabitants at the beginning, but that number had meanwhile increased to 1.2%. Analyses had shown that there is a great reason to be worried, as the most numerous infected people are heterosexuals. The alarmingly raising number of drug addicts in Macedonia, 90% of which consume heroine, also must be taken into account. Meanwhile, Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs informed the press yesterday that three citizens, who were producing and dealing marijuana, had been arrested. [08] $46 MILLION NEEDED TO SAVE THE OHRID LAKE'Nova Makedonija' daily reported that a team of experts from Biological Institute in Ohrid was working on a project for protection and revitalization of Ohrid Lake, together with experts from Albania and Switzerland. The study involves a financial construction, which had been required by the World Bank, and according to which $46 million will be necessary to save the lake. The money should be divided between Macedonia and Albania, but the approval of World Bank Board is still waited for. The money would be used for finishing the construction of the main sewer, for modernization of the filter station near Struga, and for establishing a monitoring system, by which all changes would be permanently observed, as well as for construction of a filter station in Podgradec, Albania. Of the total 44 km of main sewer system in Macedonia, 22 km have been finished, and the study includes the construction of a smaller part of the remaining 22 km. It is expected, according to 'Nova Makedonija', Macedonian Government to participate in the construction of that system.[09] ALBANIAN PARTIES ARE CONSIDERING PARTICIPATION ON LOCAL ELECTIONS'The Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) has very serious objections to the proposed Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia, which joined with other problems might question the participation of the party on the forthcoming local elections,' PDP Secretary and Minister of Labour and Welfare Naser Ziberi stated for 'Dnevnik'. PDP might, however, accept to participate in the elections, as there are information that 'some doubts regarding the Law will be solved'. According to Ziberi, their doubts were a result of still not defined regulations regarding the elections and territorial dividing. He also said that his party will most probably appear individually on the elections. Daily 'Dnevnik' read that, although there were some doubts whether to appear on the elections in PDPA and NDP parties, their participation is more certain. PDPA leader Menduh Tachi, as 'Nova Makedonija' reported, had said for BBC news in Albanian the following: 'We will run the elections convinced in our victory, and if we win, we will start institutional and political actions against the political system of FYROM.'[10] STRUGA POETRY EVENINGS ARE BEGINNING TODAYStruga Poetry Evenings, on which over a hundred poets from about 40 countries and 70 from Macedonia are going to participate, will be opened today. The opening will be traditionally marked with the poem 'T'ga za jug' by Konstantin Miladinov. All poets will have a joint appearance at the 'Poet meridians'. This year's evening of modern poetry will be dedicated to the Albanian poetry. The work of Macedonian poets Radovan Pavlovski and Svetlana Hristova - Jocic will also be presented. This year's winner of the 'Golden Wreath' prize, Japanese poet Makoto Ooka, is going to present his work on Saturday evening. Macedonian Radio reported that the subject of this year's festival would be the subject 'The Eternal in Poetry and The Poetical in Eternity'. Traditionally, the patron of Struga Poetry Evenings is Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov.[11] MACEDONIAN BASKETBALL CADETS WILL PROBABLY FIGHT FOR A MEDALIn the qualifications for the European Cadet Championship in basketball, Macedonian national team had won two games. They won Hungary with 92:58 and Israel with 55:47. Thus, they have great chances to win one of the first three places, which would lead them to the final matches. The tournament of the A group, which is taking place in Skopje, was greeted yesterday by the President of Basketball Union of Macedonia Zore Temelkovski and by President of FIBA-European Zone, Ernesto Segura de Lunia.MILS SUPPLEMENT[12] 'Government Strikes Back To Smugglers'('Dnevnik', 22 August, 1996)The recent order for a strict control of goods brought in the country, which was issued by Macedonian Customs Administration, is only a beginning of a much wider action for stamping out of smuggling. It will include the Ministries of Internal Affairs and of Finances, as well as the market inspections. Customs Administration General Manager Ilija Iljoski stated for 'Dnevnik' that the action was planned to start at the beginning of September. The Government passed a Decree on Sale of Luxury Tax Goods on 13 August. 'This is our strike back to the smugglers who reduce the national budget for several million DM. We have realized that the figure is close to DM 200 million a year,' stated Macedonian Vice Prime Minister Ljube Trpevski for 'Nova Makedonija'. He denied the speculations that the order was given only to frighten the customs officers and make them do their work more properly. Only two days after the order was issued, the number of people who are crossing the border had reduced significantly. Duty free shops are selling almost nothing, while smugglers are adjusting to the new situation. 'We have enough cigarettes to work another month or two. Then, we will manage somehow. We have to feed our families,' told us the smugglers on Bit Pazar. We were convinced that one should not doubt their abilities to adjust after the very first round at Skopje bazaars. There is no more 'free sale' of cigarettes there. The procedure is different: a person approaches you and asks whether you want to buy cigarettes; if you are interested, you pay for it, and he goes to the first counter, under which the cigarettes are hidden, and brings them to you. It looks like there are no cigarettes, and both re-sellers and buyers are happy. The above mentioned Decree of the Government and order of the Customs Administration should reduce the quantity of cigarettes illegally brought in the country. But, are the re-sellers on the streets the only generator of the chaos in the sale of cigarettes? 'It is most important that things started to roll. Certainly, the customs can not put under control the smuggling of cigarettes and other luxury goods. That is why the Government is going to start a coordinate action in the fight against this. As you already know, each person is entitled to bring in ten cigarette packs, one liter of alcohol and a kilo of coffee. The term 'traveler' is understood by the Law as a person who had crossed the border, which is proved by a seal of the country which he_she had entered. Children are also travelers, which is why they have the same rights as the adults,' said Iljoski. This means that nobody should be surprised if, in case they have managed to smuggle a greater quantity than allowed, they are stopped by a team of Customs Administration and police officers to make another control of the luggage. 'In case more goods than allowed are found in the vehicle, they will be confiscated, and a customs officer will be reprimanded. In case quite big quantity is discovered, the customs officer will be considered responsible, too,' said Iljoski. The new point of the order was the regime for refrigerator trucks. 'Our controls had showed that the greatest part of cigarettes have been smuggled by these trucks. According to current regulations, they are given a special status, as they transport goods that can easily go bad. That is why they were passing the border quickly and without a detail control. Therefore, the order emphasized these trucks to be better controlled,' stressed Iljoski. 'The Government might reduce the VAT on these goods in order to prevent raise of prices of products submitted to luxury tax. That would be a preventive influence on reducing the interest in illegal actions. There have been discussions on introducing the so-called 'banderolas' (wrapping strips, o.r.). Each consignee would be given as much strips as he had paid for. The strips would be obligatory, which would make evidencing much easier,' said Iljoski. Those who have been involved in smuggling activities say that, however, the real smuggling was not made through official border crossings. In context of that, Iljoski stated that what was brought in illegally, but not through official border crossings was a competence of border police units. That was the reason to plan a coordinate action of more institutions. The order will be in force for at least three months, when the first results should be known. (end)mils news 21 August, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |