MILS NEWS 08/05/96

From: "M.I.L.S." <[email protected]>

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 08 May 1996

[01] MODALITIES FOR SPREADING THE ALLIANCE DISCUSSED

Gligorov and Anthony Craig both positively estimated the fact that Macedonia had joined the 'Partnership for Peace' Programme and expressed their belief that the cooperation between Macedonia and NATO will develop further.

During the talks with Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, Vice Secretary General of NATO said he was satisfied with the level reached in the development of the democratic processes in Macedonia. He stressed that the dialogue about the program which would improve the Macedonia-NATO cooperation was starting.

Mr. Craig told the Macedonian officials that the goal of his visit was to discuss the NATO study on its spreading and the modalities it anticipates. He said it was too early to talk about the future status of Macedonia within the Alliance, and stressed that the issue of the eventual spreading of NATO would not be discussed before the end of this year.

He also informed that there was a resistance from Russia to have the Alliance widened. According to Mr. Craig, NATO considered that its spreading would not be used to create an influence sphere in the Central and Eastern Europe, but as a way to develop the security in the Euro-Atlantic area. That is why it was considered that spreading of NATO would be a positive step, and, according to Mr. Craig, NATO was making efforts to convince Russia in that and to maintain good cooperative relations with that country, based on a mutual respect.

[02] KIRO GLIGOROV IN PARIS TODAY

President Gligorov will be joined by Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski.

[03] AGREEMENT WITH HUNGARY ON TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION

[04] TURKISH LAND FORCES COMMANDER IN MACEDONIA

The guest will also visit 'Ilinden' barracks, Macedonian Army Military Academy, as well as the towns of Bitola and Ohrid.

[05] 'BORBA' ACCUSES SKOPJE OF SUPPORTING THE TERRORISM IN KOSOVO

The paper reminded that the Skopje media 'seem to forget that Macedonia does not respect the human rights, as the last year UN reports on Human Rights said'. The paper supports that with the stand that there are about 250,000 Serbs in Macedonia, who are not mentioned in the Constitution, as well as with the claim that Macedonian public keeps in secret that Macedonians and members of the other nationalities are being mistreated by the Albanians.

According to 'Borba', this is especially the case with western Macedonia, where 'an open Albanisation is taking place'.

[06] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT IS SORRY FOR MACEDONIA

[07] DEEPENING THE MACEDONIAN-ITALIAN RELATIONS

The meeting is intended for deepening the cooperation between the two people, and it was initiated by the Macedonian-Italian Friendship Association from Bitola.

Besides informing about the meeting, Italian Ambassador to Macedonia Faustino Troni said the new visas regulations for Macedonian citizens were brought against the will of Italy and under the pressure of the EU decisions. He pointed out that Macedonian citizens were, however, treated much better that the others.

[08] DISPUTE ABOUT THE SCHOOL RECORDS

The Albanian deputies estimated this was a step back, saying that nothing would be achieved by restrictions, and that all this was leading towards the assimilation of the Albanians in Macedonia. They also called the Macedonian Constitution 'a generator of tensions', and the Constitutional Court 'a daily-politics court'. The stand of Sali Ramadani was the most radical, as he said that these changes would not be carried out by any teacher in Albanian.

The stand of the Liberals was that the new regulations gave too big authorizations to the minister of education. Present Education Minister Sofia Todorova disagreed with that and said that much more important matters than this could be solved by acts lower than the Laws.

Macedonian MPs also ratified some bilateral agreements with Slovenia, and decided the number of the judges in the Appellate courts.

[09] CRVENKOVSKI - 'MACEDONIAN POLICE BEFORE THE NEIGHBOURING ONES'

Internal Affairs Minister Tomislav Chokrevski stated that the Ministry was not satisfied with the attitude of some local media and of certain political structures towards this Ministry, and that a better communication was necessary. He said there were certain acts (articles and speculations) against the Ministry, which are 'an assassination of the Macedonian society and of this Administration that should take care of the people'. He announced that the Ministry would fight against that by openly presenting the truth.

Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov also sent his greetings for the holiday to the Ministry, and stressed that many efforts are still left to be made to increase the security and peace of the Macedonian citizens.

[10] NEWS ABOUT THE 'KOMERCIJALNA BANK CASE'

A delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the second largest shareholder of Komercijalna Bank, should arrive for a two-days visit to Skopje today.

Meanwhile, Macedonian Television informed on a written protest of this Bank's Union. The protest reads that the releasing from duty of the Bank's General Manager Alexandar Manevski is against the Constitution and the Laws, and without any basis. The employees support the conclusion and decision of their Executive Board that the General Manager had always worked strictly in accordance with the legislations, which was also the conclusion of the shareholders. The Union, therefore, asks from the Governor to withdraw his decision, and in case this does not happen, they will use all the legal means to obtain their rights.

[11] INTERNATIONAL BOOKS FAIR OPENED

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[12] 'Why Didn't Macedonia Ratify the Convention on Human Rights of CoE?'

('Dnevnik', 08 May 1996)

As the MPs Nikola Popovski (SDSM) and Mevljan Tahiri (PDP) told us, the Convention will be ratified till then. It means that Prof. Gjorgji Marjanovic was wrong when he said for 'Dnevnik' that we were late in this matter.

'The terms to fulfill this and the other obligations were agreed on with the CoE together. As the dead line is November this year, one could say that we are late only after that term,' said Popovski.

The Convention is one of the basic, if not the most basic CoE document that refers to the individual and collective human rights. It was passed in 1950s and has been changed 11 times since then, i.e. there are 11 Protocols as separate documents.

'Macedonia has realized some of the obligations it has as a CoE member by having them implemented in its Constitution and Laws,' said Popovski. 'The ratification will take place when the Government submits them to the Parliament, after which we will inform the CoE that it is completed.'

Mevljan Tahiri from PDP claimed that there were no specific reason for not having these documents ratified.

'I hope it will be done, since the Convention on Minorities' Rights and some other documents that refer to the protection of languages and to the local governing will be a basis for positive changes in the minorities' rights in Macedonia to happen,' he said.

Prof. Zvonimir Jankulovski, who teaches at the Faculty of Security and is an expert in the human rights issues, thinks the ratification process has been unnecessary prolonged. He finds the possible reasons for that in the long term process of developing the conscience in the field of human rights in Macedonia, which is a huge process that requires deep changes in almost all spheres of the political and legal system.

'By ratifying the Convention, Macedonia will have to adopt all the clear and precise international legal obligations referring to the protection of rights. The document enables every individual to address the international organisations in case some of their rights cited in it have been violated. This might be the basic reason for the prolonging of the ratification, said Jankulovski.

'The long and systematically built traditional understanding that the relations between the state and the individuals, regarding the human rights, are exclusively internal problems of the country will have to be forgotten. This traditional concept will be abandoned by the ratification of the CoE Convention, and the protection of human rights will be transferred from a national to an international terrain,' presented Jankulovski his opinion.

(end)

mils news 08 May, 1996