MILS: News from the FYROM, 97-06-13

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

CONTENTS

[01] CONFIRMATION OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE-MACEDONIAN FRIENDSHIP

[02] THE PRIORITY ISSUE - COMPILING A PERMANENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK

[03] IMRO-DPMNE: `NO REASON TO REPEAT VIEWS'

[04] LDP: `ATTEMPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER TO IMPROVE DEPLORABLE RATINGS'

[05] POLAND AND MACEDONIA ON A JOINT PRO-EUROPEAN COURSE

[06] PETAR STOYANOV OPTIMISTIC IN TERMS OF RESOLVING BILATERAL ISSUES

[07] DEMOKRATIJA: `THESES ON THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE AS A BULGARIAN DIALECT'

[08] THE `UNDERGOUND' PROBLEM AT TETOVO AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

[09] GREECE - SCHENGEN ENTRANCE CLEARANCES AS OF OCTOBER

[10] NBM: `NO ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY TO CONDUCT `TAT' SANATION'

[11] DENAR PLACEMENTS TO INCREASE OVER JUNE & JULY

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[12] `A Compromise on Sovereignty' (`Vecher' - 12th June 1997)

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 13 June, 1997

[01] CONFIRMATION OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE-MACEDONIAN FRIENDSHIP

There are no unaddressed issues between both sides, as they strive towards a policy encouraging the strategy that both major and minor countries alike may lead a policy which has a certain international impact... Gligorov said.

This visit embodies a political impulse and the confirmation of a traditional friendship, stressed Gligorov while adding that the extend to which China will be interested in joint ventures with Macedonia - and Macedonian businessmen as well - depended on a far more thorough and consistent cooperation. Over the past few years economic cooperation between both countries has been continually declining and limping along behind the political cooperation. This has to be overcome now by resuscitating the interest of Chinese businessmen in entering ventures such as the bus and fertilizer export deals - stressed Gligorov. In his opinion this will require a great deal of patience and persistence from Macedonian companies, since they are to undergo a lengthy and rather laborious procedure.

Besides this, President Gligorov and the Macedonian Delegation have been received by the Mayor of Shanghai, which has been followed by a visit to this city's largest industrial zone.

[02] THE PRIORITY ISSUE - COMPILING A PERMANENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK

According to MTV those attending the talks were also happy with the pace and manner of preparing these election laws, though some parties objected to the selective approach i.e. the opportunity for certain parties to meet the PM on an individual basis. Upon obtaining the views of each party on the form of election model to be implemented, it was quite obvious that each of them supported the approach most favourable for themselves. Thus most of them (DP, DPA, DPM, IMRO-DP, the Labour Party) opted for a purely correlational system, justifying their decision with the arguments that this model provided efficiency and minimized possibilities to manipulate elections. In this context the threshold securing parliamentary representation varied between 1 and 12%. Several parties (SPM, IMRO-The Fatherland Party, CPM) expressed their preference of the majority election model with 120 Members of Parliament within this body.

Another quite considerable faction advocated a combined approach (50 : 50). All parties nevertheless stated that should the correlation model be employed, the entire country should be considered one electoral unit. The Democratic Party of Turks in Macedonia came forward with a special quota proposal for the Turkish, Serbian, Romani and Vlach ethnicities which would be based on census results, regardless of the number of votes cast in their favour.

According to SDSM representative Ljubomir Popovski his party has decided to abstain from rendering an opinion on this subject-matter, since it is willing to accept the election model favoured by the majority of political parties. In this context the SDSM insisted on quality legislation in order to prevent the boycotting of elections and keep open the possibility to stage early elections - should this be the choice of most political parties.

The overall impression on this event - MTV reports - remains that the majority of those political parties present at the meeting insisted on the compiling of a high-quality and complete package of election laws, while leaving the possibility open to determine the date for early elections afterwards. The parties also stressed the necessity of respecting the legal obligation to conduct voter registration, whereas it has been assessed that legal provisions on election units and voters' registers needed to be updated. In the end of the meeting PM Crvenkovski announced one more round of discussions with those political parties obtaining most of the votes during the previous local elections.

[03] IMRO-DPMNE: `NO REASON TO REPEAT VIEWS'

[04] LDP: `ATTEMPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER TO IMPROVE DEPLORABLE RATINGS'

[05] POLAND AND MACEDONIA ON A JOINT PRO-EUROPEAN COURSE

According to Tito Petkovski talks revolved around expressing support of the Polish endeavour to obtain OSCE presidency in 1998 and the Macedonian candidacy for temporary UN Security Council membership. Through the ratification of the bilateral Agreement on Economic and Commercial Cooperation, the conditions for a more dynamic cooperation regime would improve considerably.

While stressing the importance of Macedonia to Poland as a political and parliamentary partner, Jorzef Zych added that Poland supported Macedonia's efforts to achieve EU and NATO membership - as it aspires towards achieving these very same goals.

During his two-day visit to Macedonia, the Polish Parliamentary Chairman has also been received by Macedonian PM Branko Crvenkovski, Foreign Secretary Blagoj Handzhiski, Minister of Economy Boris Rikalovski, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Ilinka Mitreva and the coordinators of the Macedonian parliamentary factions.

[06] PETAR STOYANOV OPTIMISTIC IN TERMS OF RESOLVING BILATERAL ISSUES

It would be ridiculous to falter in front of an issue of this sort', stated Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov in an interview for Kuwaiti paper `Al Ouatan.'

`Makpress' reports that in response to the question whether there were any novelties in the Bulgarian policy towards Macedonia - i.e. whether he was optimistic in terms of resolving the language-issue - Stoyanov had stressed that once it was clear that one dialogue was not yielding a consensus - a new one had to be established.

[07] DEMOKRATIJA: `THESES ON THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE AS A BULGARIAN DIALECT'

This, `Makpress' reports, is being complemented by the view present in this article that the main obstacle to the improvement of Bulgarian-Macedonian relations was the pro-Communist and pro-Serbian leadership of Macedonia, whereas the ascension to power by the IMRO-DPMNE would solve all problems. The text also expressed Bulgarian hopes that Macedonians would finally realize that they share a past and common descent.

[08] THE `UNDERGOUND' PROBLEM AT TETOVO AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

These days the above mentioned problem appears to have gained in acuteness at Tetovo, due to the increased number of illegal immigrants to work without any sort of permit in the Tetovo area. As of January Tetovo police authorities have discovered, registered and deported around 1 000 illegal immigrants from Albania, Bulgaria, FR Yugoslavia, Russia and the Ukraine - according to official sources.

[09] GREECE - SCHENGEN ENTRANCE CLEARANCES AS OF OCTOBER

[10] NBM: `NO ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY TO CONDUCT `TAT' SANATION'

[11] DENAR PLACEMENTS TO INCREASE OVER JUNE & JULY

Yesterday the NBM Board also decided to withdraw the current 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 denar banknotes until 1st October 1997. As of this date all old banknotes may be exchanged for new ones at the offices of the Payment Flow Institute, of the Postal Services and at all banks until 31st December 1997.

As of 1st January 1998 only the NBM would be authorized to conduct unlimited exchanges of old banknotes.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[12] `A Compromise on Sovereignty'

(`Vecher' - 12th June 1997)

Two days ago the Government of the Republic of Macedonia outlined the bill on the use of flags through which ethnicities in Macedonia express their identity and their national features. Concordant to this act of law ethnicities may adopt a flag their consider their own, but only at municipalities where they are the majority and these flags may only be exhibited on state holidays in front of municipal / local government institutions.

The Government has not handled this matter as one requiring delicacy and subtlety - but as a burning issue that needs to be addressed through enacting the bill and wrapping things up during one government session. The Parliament is to cast its vote on this Government proposal next week. This means that the bill could eventually be enacted as of the beginning of July.

This proposal is to handle the legal / political side of this issue, which has been upsetting the public for quite some time now with all its subsequent controversies and reactions. The tension was also built up through the involvement of the Constitutional Court of Macedonia, with its ruling to remove the flags of foreign states hoisted in front of the Gostivar Municipality building.

The Government has been requested to aid its implementation. The proverbial `icing on the cake' came in shape of the decisive attitude of Court Chairman Milan Netkov: `The municipality of Gostivar is not placed under joint governance of three states, nor are two foreign states entitled to do so. Their national flags, however, indicate a sort of alliance of three states as regards the governing of this municipality.'

Another member of the cast is the Justice Department (i.e. the Government) which announced the regulating of this issue in February, while including the codification of the use of minority flags differing from the national banner of any other state. Vlado Popovski (Justice Secretary at that time) even revealed the existence of a working text of such a bill.

Trends emerging at present are different, as it is no longer important that the minority flag is identical with the national flag of a foreign state. The option being advocated now is entirely opposite to the views of the Chairman of the Constitutional Court - without the even slightest trace of what the Government aired until yesterday. It is quite obvious that the compromise between the coalition partners within the Government has been `wrapped up' - in spite of the fact that this solution simply must and will generate new dilemmas and confrontations. This refers - above all - to the look of the flag itself and then also to the time and mode of its exhibition.

It is a fact that the use of flags in Macedonia has been a legislative loophole resulting in the lack of a legal framework for minorities to use any flag. Thus they have made their own choice, manifesting their desires and ambition by brandishing the (Greater-)Albanian flag. This void had been indicated by the Constitutional Court.

The latter has definitely nullified the Municipal Resolution which served as a ground for the exhibiting of the above mentioned flags. The justices have decided that there is no constitutional and legal basis regulate this issue via municipal resolutions. It has also been decided to suspend the temporary court order requesting the removal of all three flags. These decisions become legally binding on their day of publication in the `Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia'. The Constitutional Court has informed us that the temporary court order, i.e. the request addressed to the Government for its implementation, are thus still binding and pose an obligation to the Government. Once yesterday's decisions become legally binding, judiciary measures will be entailed by this - denoting the exhibiting of these flags as utterly illegal and anti-Constitutional.

From this point of view the Government attempt to complement legislation does not appear to be contentious at all. It remains questionable, however, whether this is to be achieved through the proposed draft-bill or by regulating this subject-matter through the bill on the use of national insignia. We will mention that there has never been a case of handling this issue in a manner even closely remote to the one advocated in Macedonia - not anywhere in the world.

`Such discrete bills do not exist in other countries. Due to the specific circumstances prevailing in Macedonia, however, we had to opt for this alternative. Its basic objective is to impede cases of abuse where situations may be created that seem to threaten the national and territorial integrity of the country. At the same time this bill makes provisions for the nurturing of national discreteness and the tradition of ethnicities. `This act of law indicates that Macedonia does not reject the Albanian flag and it represents an alternative to impose a flag with a predetermined design on our ethnicities', states Justice Secretary Gjorgji Spasov, while adding that the bill is based on the premise that the exhibiting of flags is an inherited right.

Concordant to the Government's proposal the use of minority flags would be limited to state holidays and in front of local government institutions. This implies a distinction between these symbols and the national insignia. Even in spite of this, the question remains whether the exhibiting of a foreign national flag can be legalized in Macedonia - even on the grounds of somebody's insisting on a `tradition' and `self- recognition' through such a symbol, hoisted during state holidays in front of local government seats. Does this not challenge the sovereignty of the country? Whether we like it or not, the exhibiting of foreign national flags inevitably implies joint governance of a certain municipal area. This supports the denotation uttered by the Constitutional Court - a `ternate condominium'.

The essence of the compromise strives towards the removal of all three flags exhibited on a daily basis, in order to neutralize any implications conducive to speculations of the aforesaid kind and replace this with `festive, ceremonial hoisting'... But the dilemma should not boil down to `how many days a year' and `where' (i.e. at municipal units with a majority population of one ethnicity) nationalities will be given the status of a constituent of a condominium. The core of the issue is rather the following: is it permissible to usurp the sovereignty of a country, even if it is only `during the holidays' i.e. throughout some ten days in the year?

`I have no comment with regards to the bill as all my knowledge on it has been extracted by monitoring media coverage. Its enactment does not depend on us. So far I have taken up this issue due to the fact that there was no legislative framework regulating the hoisting of these flags. Whether this subject-matter has been pushed into the spotlight by past events as a major story, remains to be answered by politicians', said Constitutional Court Chairman Milan Netkov yesterday, while adding that `the Court will render its opinion on the contents of this bill should it be questioned.'

Justice Secretary Gjorgji Spasov complemented this dichotomy between the Government proposal and the perspective of the Constitutional Court with the words that `the Constitutional Court will proclaim the bill anti-Constitutional should this indeed be the case.' As the rulings of this Court are `final and executive' the Government will be obliged to respect and enact them.

With respect to the implementation of the order to remove the flags from outside the Gostivar Municipality building, however, the Government will not become involved in its implementation. Secretary Spasov further explicated that the order did not contain a deadline as regards its enforcement. Thus foreign national flags may freely be exhibited at Gostivar, Tetovo, Debar, Srbinovo, etc. until corresponding legal provisions are passed.

This will then be followed by the announced `clean sweep' - i.e. the dissolving of municipal councils, the filing of criminal charges, etc. To cut a long story short: it will be everything the Constitutional Court always longed for!

(end)

mils news 13 June 1997

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