MILS NEWS 20/05/96

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From: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <[email protected]>

CONTENTS

[01] GLIGOROV: INTERNATIONAL POSITION OF MACEDONIA IS MUCH CLEARER AND STRONGER

[02] WILLIAM PERRY IN MACEDONIA FOR THE THIRD TIME

[03] MACEDONIAN INTEREST IN BECOMING A NATO MEMBER STRESSED

[04] KINKEL: MACEDONIA CAN BECOME THE MOST PROSPEROUS COUNTRY IN THE REGION

[05] FREE TRADE BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND FRY FROM 1999

[06] WORLD BANK CREDITS FOR MACEDONIA

[07] SOON OPENING OF THE BRITISH INFORMATION CENTRE

[08] MACEDONIAN-ALBANIAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

[09] ADEM DEMAKJI: AUTONOMY OF KOSOVO WITHIN SERBIAN BORDERS LEADS TO BLOODSHED

[10] DZAFERI: POSSIBILITY TO ACTIVATE THE REFERENDUM FOR ILIRIDA

[11] DEMOCRATIC PARTY: THE PARLIAMENT SHOULD SCHEDULE A REFERENDUM IMMEDIATELY

[12] VMRO-DPMNE: CONSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS FOR A REFERENDUM FULFILLED

[13] POLITICAL CLASHES ON THE BASIS OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT GLIGOROV

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 20 May 1996

[01] GLIGOROV: INTERNATIONAL POSITION OF MACEDONIA IS MUCH CLEARER AND STRONGER

Responding to the question whether he expects normalisation of the relations with Greece, Gligorov stated that he did not know if that would take place soon, but that the bilateral Interim Accord offered good perspectives. 'The borders are now opened and the cooperation can develop,' said the President.

He also stated that the Agreement on mutual recognition between Macedonia and FR Yugoslavia was an opportunity for both countries to renew the previous economic relations. Gligorov evaluated the relations with Bulgaria and Albania basically good.

Macedonian President also expressed his concern for the situation in Kosovo as, according to him, radical Albanians are gaining points. He informed that he occasionally contacted with the leader of Kosovo Albanians Ibrahim Rugova, and always emphasized that starting a dialogue with Belgrade was the most important thing.

Gligorov's reply to the journalist's remark that Macedonian Albanians complain on being in a ghetto, was that they had a guaranteed primary and secondary education, and that effort were being made to improve their high education. 'The main problem is,' stressed the President, 'that their primary and secondary education is on a low level, which makes them feel disabled to enroll the University.'

In the interview for 'El Pais', Kiro Gligorov rejected the possibility for scheduling early presidential elections in Macedonia, saying that the presidential position was a bridge between the institutions, and that according to public surveys, he would again win the support of 80% of the voters.

[02] WILLIAM PERRY IN MACEDONIA FOR THE THIRD TIME

[03] MACEDONIAN INTEREST IN BECOMING A NATO MEMBER STRESSED

'Makpress' agency informed on the meeting of Macedonian representatives with the Chairman of the North Atlantic Assembly Kersten Vogt last Friday, when the plans for spreading of NATO and the interest of Macedonia to join it had been discussed. Vogt stated that he was carefully monitoring the internal and foreign policy of Macedonia and expressed his satisfaction with the political consensus in the country for the improving of the Macedonian cooperation with the Alliance. He also accepted the invitation to visit Macedonia soon.

[04] KINKEL: MACEDONIA CAN BECOME THE MOST PROSPEROUS COUNTRY IN THE REGION

Kinkel expressed his support to the Agreement on Cooperation and Trade between Macedonia and the EU. He said the signing of this Agreement should open the way for Macedonia to be completely incorporated in the West-European integration.

According to Macedonian Embassy in Bonn it is expected that Kinkel will soon visit Macedonia, giving a new impulse to the bilateral relations.

[05] FREE TRADE BETWEEN MACEDONIA AND FRY FROM 1999

[06] WORLD BANK CREDITS FOR MACEDONIA

The DM 18 million credit for the private enterprises development will be opened in all Macedonian commercial banks that fulfill the conditions of the World Bank. The $ 8 million for private farmers support will mostly be used to modernize the units of the Ministry of Agriculture and the veterinary stations in the country.

[07] SOON OPENING OF THE BRITISH INFORMATION CENTRE

[08] MACEDONIAN-ALBANIAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

It also read that the Macedonian delegation had attended the celebration event organized on the occasion of the end of the first school year of the education in Macedonian language, which was organized by the Language Faculty at the Tirana University.

[09] ADEM DEMAKJI: AUTONOMY OF KOSOVO WITHIN SERBIAN BORDERS LEADS TO BLOODSHED

'Makfax' reported the statement of Demakji that the Albanians would accept neither an autonomy nor 'life under Serbian ruling'. He said the mentioning of the autonomy proved that the essence of the Kosovo issue had not been understood, and that treating Kosovo as a human rights issue would not solve the problem, but would further complicate it.

'Makfax' reminds of the recent Demakji's mentioning of the 'inifada' (like those of Chechenia and Palestine) as possible way of fight of Kosovo Albanians. The agency points out that the latest statements are following those of the German Foreign Minister Claus Kinkel in Belgrade that Europe and the World could not accept any kind of solution for Kosovo which would be more than the autonomy status within the Yugoslav borders.

Today's edition of Macedonian daily 'Dnevnik' comments that the negotiations between the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians are possible only after the Serbian elections scheduled for December 1996 or January 1997. The paper speculates that the new Yugoslavia will include two republics (Serbia and Montenegro) and three provinces (Kosovo, Vojvodina and Sanjak), thus restoring the status of Kosovo as in 1974.

[10] DZAFERI: POSSIBILITY TO ACTIVATE THE REFERENDUM FOR ILIRIDA

Although Gligorov distinguishes him from the other, according to him, 'extremists', just as we were 'separatists', the truth is that all the Albanians in the region are for an independent Kosovo.'

Dzaferi also supposed that the other Albanians in the Macedonian Parliament would leave this institution, following his example. 'There is a great dissatisfaction among Albanians from their position in the system and we do not intend to continue this unproductive playing in the Parliament. We will want to exit from the 'Faust's mechanism', where we are serving to somebody's will and decisions brought out of the Parliament. That crisis in the Parliament will certainly take place when the Law on High Education will be passed.'

Dzaferi also announced the possibility to activate the referendum of Albanians in Macedonia for the so-called 'Ilirida', i.e. for an autonomy of the western part of Macedonia. He added that Albanians in Macedonia are more loyal to its ethnicity that to the state.

He said the activating of this issue would depend on the problems and the options were still opened. 'If we are entering a productive relations within the ethnic groups in Macedonia, and the proof is the Law on High Education, and we lose it, than we will either lose our credibility among people or we will have to do something else. We have to do something to get out of the present situation,' said Dzaferi.

According to him, in case the Albanians leave the Macedonian Parliament, the referendum on 'Ilirida' will be activated, for which the Macedonian government will be the generators, and the consequences will be carried by all of us together.

[11] DEMOCRATIC PARTY: THE PARLIAMENT SHOULD SCHEDULE A REFERENDUM IMMEDIATELY

According to the Democratic party, all the constitutional conditions are fulfilled, and the Government is now in a doubt whether to respect the Constitutions or not, as it happened in the past. 'The question is whether the Government will give the possibility to lead a political fight through the institutional parts of the system or it will risk a battle out of institutions, which would bring to a chaos and anarchy,' reads the announcement.

[12] VMRO-DPMNE: CONSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS FOR A REFERENDUM FULFILLED

[13] POLITICAL CLASHES ON THE BASIS OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT GLIGOROV

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party sent an open letter to the public, which was issued by the daily 'Dnevnik', by which they explained why they had initiated the issue of establishing the responsibility for the assassination attempt. The Liberals sated the greatest democratic right was to prevent somebody to come to power in a democratic party, as that right is a part of the essential civil rights. In the letter, the firm determination of this party to politically deal with those who oppose to the democratic will of the citizens was stressed. According to the Liberals, the citizens 'had certainly not voted for violence, terrorism and illegal changing of the government', which was exactly what had happened in Macedonia.

Liberals described the attitude of the current government in this issue in the following way: 'The suggested claim of the ruling Party (SDSM) that the assassination attempt must be used in any kind of political clash is simply another try to cover the so-far most tragic attempt to destroy the current political system in the country.'

The Liberals' letter continues that in Macedonia 'the government was not reconstructed, but was violently taken over, without making any consultations with the citizens'.

In the context of that, the Liberals ask: 'Is, however, at least the more important part of the assassins' aim achieved?' And they think the answer will remain unknown, no matter how much the current government tries to cover that, 'until a normal, legitimate, not manipulated and democratic parliamentary procedure is started, which would throw at least a little light to the assassination attempt.'

The weekly 'Fokus' also wrote about the assassination attempt on President Gligorov in its last issue, and presented the claims of the police officer Zlatko Boshnjakovski, bodyguard of the late Internal Affairs Minister Jordan Mijalkov. He stated that the car-bomb used had been a personal property of the Assistant Internal Affairs Minister Dijana Tachiovska, and that 12 people from the police had been involved. Boshnjakovski also stated, according to 'Fokus', that he was already convicted to death by his colleagues because of what he had found out.

All these reactions provoked former Internal Affairs and current Foreign Affairs Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski to respond. in his interview for 'Dnevnik' he said it was normal that the public was interested in the investigation, but that the political accusations that involve it were something completely different, such as the accusations presented the open letter of the Liberal Party that the government in Macedonia had been taken over by murders and terrorism.

'It is a political scandal and I think it can not be left without a reply for the sake of the political culture in this country. What does that mean? 'The government in Macedonia was taken over by murders and terrorism' - was literally stated. That means that a coup d',tat had taken place. Even more, it was done by some kind of a massacre, they said. What kind of a country is that which is led by such a government? What picture is that of Macedonia for outside? What is the motive to present Macedonia in that way? And only because, to put it that way, that Party was deprived of ruling. Is that a despair which is called a minimum political culture in the political fight? Will that hatred bring something to somebody? And what does that prove? Except for the scandal it provokes, it speaks of the author. It proves that the author is a small, non- influential party, which can allow itself the risk to speak about classic liberal principles one day, and to fall into a political extremism the other day. The statements of the non-parliamentary opposition are a joke compared to this of the Liberals. This is the toughest statement given since 1991. And only a small and non-influential party can allow that to itself, as it would be a political murder for any bigger and more responsible political subject. Only a party that has nothing to risk could allow itself such extremism, such acting of a political option,' said Minister Frchkovski in the interview for 'Dnevnik'.

(end)

mils news 20 May 1996

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