MAK-NEWS 14/11/95 (M.I.C.)

From: "M.I.C." <[email protected]>

Macedonian Information Centre Directory

CONTENTS

SKOPJE, NOVEMBER 14, 1995 (MIC)

[01] RM OFFICIALLY IN "PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE"

Tomorrow, the Republic of Macedonia will officially become the 27th country, signatory of the "Partnership for peace" program, the Radio Skopje correspondent reports from Brussels, calling upon sources from the Alliance.

On behalf of NATO, the document will be signed by the acting Secretary-General, the Italian ambassador Balanzino. Late last night, it was supposed to be decided who will sign the document on Macedonia's behalf. This will be known after all the details are worked out and after the Macedonian ambassador is received in NATO headquarters.

As Radio Skopje reports, a brief courtesy reception of the Macedonian official by the ambassadors of the 16 member- states of the Northern Atlantic Alliance is planned for after the formal act of signing.

The news about Macedonia's acceptance to the "Partnership for peace" program was broadcast by the official Italian agency ANSA yesterday, Makpress reports. The Italian press assesses this news positively, although there are no broader comments. The information stresses that Macedonia has had an agreement for military cooperation with the U.S.A. since 1994 and that U.S. soldiers took part in a military exercise for the first time last Thursday.

That is regarded as an introduction to bigger Macedonian-American military maneuvers, which, according to the program, are scheduled for March, 1996.

The Commissioner for foreign politics of the European Commission Hans Van Den Broek will ask for a mandate to prepare the agreement on trade and cooperation between the EU and Macedonia at today's meeting of the Commission in Strasbourg.

As the Radio Skopje correspondent from Brussels reports, calling upon diplomatic sources, there are no obstacles to approving Van Den Broek's request.

[02] TRAJAN GOCEVSKI: "A FINALE TO AN OLD IDEA"

Trajan Gocevski, dean at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje and former Macedonian Defence Minister, talks to today's "Vecer" about the significance of the acceptance of Macedonia to the "Partnership for peace" program.

"The acceptance of Macedonia to the program presents the finalization of an idea which was announced by our state back in the Spring of 1992, when the Yugoslav National Army finished moving out of the Republic and when the model of our defence system was defined, which, beside the armed forces and civil defence, also promotes association in the collective security systems. That was done with the letter to NATO about Macedonia's good intentions for cooperating with this military alliance which takes care of the security and defence of its member-states," prof. Trajan Gocevski says.

According to this top military analyst, following the break up of the Eastern block, a large number of countries wanted to become NATO members in order to be able to get under the protective umbrella of the Western military alliance. However, seeing such membership is based on very strict criteria and high interests of the member-states, association became a very complex question. Therefore, the U.S.A., as a leading power in the alliance, promoted the idea about the "Partnership for peace" as a anteroom to NATO. All the members accepted to the initiative acquire certain privileges, but many obligations as well. According to Gocevski, the obligations are even greater than the privileges.

"By entering the program, the member-states are enabled to plan joint exercise activities, to draw certain experiences from the structure and organization of the NATO pact, and to take care of an adequate personnel policy. Beside these privileges, the member-states will also have to take over a part of the obligations that all the NATO members have. For instance, they are obliged to coordinate their defence systems and functions of every defence ministry with the NATO standards. The military budget of every member-state is subject to NATO control, while the armament and military equipment in the defence system must be coordinated with the standards of the NATO pact. Furthermore, the connections system must become compatible with the NATO system, and the military organization and formation itself should be subordinated to the military alliance," prof. Gocevski says.

[03] CONFERENCE ON NATO AND BALKANS

A conference on the theme "The politics of NATO and the stability in the Balkan region," organized by the Northern Atlantic Albanian Association and the NATO Information and Press Office, is scheduled to be held in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, from November 17th through 19th. The problems within the "Partnership for peace" initiative and the current NATO politics in Europe and the Balkans will be reviewed at the conference.

[04] SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Yesterday, the Macedonian Government reviewed and determined the text of the Draft-law on telecommunications which arranges the conditions and ways of realizing the activities in the field of telecommunications and the construction, maintenance and the use of telecommunication networks.

The new draft decisions in the law suggest special attention to be paid to this field, since it offers a large number of new solutions such as giving telecommunication services by way of concession, the right to the use of radio frequencies and radio stations, the use of terminal equipment, measures of protection, as well as the acceptance of international services, the Information Secretariat announces.

[05] REFINERY WORKING AGAIN

After a several-month work stoppage, production was successfully resumed in the Skopje refinery yesterday, whereby the first quantities of quality oil derivatives were produced and immediately marketed. Apart from that, the Refinery has also provided a tanker of 60,000 tones of crude oil, which is on its way from the Salonika port. This will enable continuity in the work of the Refinery and delivery to the consumers by the end of the year and the start of next year.

MACEDONIAN PRESS REVIEW:

[06] "NOVA MAKEDONIJA": IDEOLOGICAL PREJUDICE IN COURT AGAIN" - INTERVIEW WITH PROF. VLADO KAMBOVSKI

In expectation of the "triumphant return of justice" and the rectification of the mistakes from the past, the eyes of the public, especially the part that had its estate confiscated or nationalized over the past 50 years, are turned toward the new provisions of the Law on denationalization. This legal project is back in Parliament after quite some time. After the first "reading" of the working version, which got several remarks, among the rest, also because it places citizens who have had their estate nationalized and confiscated in an unequal position (to the benefit of the former) a couple of changes were made. We discussed the changes as well as the possibilities of renewing the court proceedings with which the estates were taken away, with prof. Vlado Kambovski from the Faculty of Law.

"The initial version of the Law on denationalization, more specifically, article 4, contained a provision that applied to the return of the confiscated estate of ideological character. However, that formulation was not only unacceptable to the Government, but Parliament as well. The reason for this is that the term "acts of ideological character" is not only theoretically ambiguous, but can also cause a number of practical dilemmas, because we can determine it from both an objective and subjective sense. In the first instance, it is an act that was directed against the political and economic system, including counter-revolutionary attacks on the state order, enemy propaganda, etc, Kambovski says. He explains that if it is determined in a subject sence, "ideological character" could also mean some common punishable acts, for instance, thefts that are given ideological colors, as if the money was intended for some ideological goals....

"Therefore, an expert group was formed at the Faculty of Law, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, which proposed a different formulation, which was then built in the latest version of the law. We used a negative definition and the method of elimination to determine which acts can not be returned, because we will agree much easier on the issue for which acts we can not return confiscated estate, than to go with general clauses, which everyone can interpret differently. We assessed that genocide and war crimes must be excluded from that the acts for which deconfiscation is foreseen, which receive the heaviest sentences, and even the death sentence would not cause any abolitionist objections. Even more so that a UN Convention on the non-subjection of the acts of the war criminals to the statute of limitations, was adopted in 1968," Kambovski says.

He explains that the list of acts for which deconfiscation is not foreseen is expanded with acts which caused the death of a number of persons, medical experiments on people, mutilation, terrorist acts, thefts, robberies for which the just sentence remains, regardless of the reasons for which they were carried out, since no ideological inspirations can justify heavy violence or murder, Vlado Kambovski explained in the broader interview.

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