MILS NEWS 04/06/96

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

CONTENTS

[01] USA - MACEDONIA DEFENSE COOPERATION ON A HIGHER LEVEL

[02] MACEDONIAN DELEGATION AT NATO MEETING

[03] 'HABITAT 2' CONFERENCE OPENED

[04] MACEDONIAN REPRESENTATIVES AT THE WEU PARLIAMENT SESSION

[05] MARKING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNESCO

[06] MACEDONIA AGAIN ACCUSED OF BEING UNYIELDING

[07] JANEZ DRNOVSHEK IN MACEDONIA TOMORROW

[08] CONFERENCE ON MACEDONIAN - ITALIAN RELATIONS

[09] SIX MORE SEATS IN THE PARLIAMENT FOR BERISHA

[10] POLITICAL SYSTEM COMMISSION ALSO AGAINST EARLY ELECTIONS

[11] MACEDONIA JOINED ESAS

[12] HUNGER STRIKE CALLED OFF

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] 'Who Is Breaking The Accord?' ('Nova Makedonija', 04 June 1996)

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 04 June 1996

[01] USA - MACEDONIA DEFENSE COOPERATION ON A HIGHER LEVEL

According to Victor Comras, Head of the US Embassy in Skopje, the Agreement includes the presence of the American military forces in Macedonia out of the UN mandate. These forces are composed of the military troops, the American experts included in the 'Partnership for Peace' Programme, the US helicopter troops that cooperate with UNPREDEP, and all other US personel assigned to Macedonia by other military bilateral programmes.

Macedonian Defense Minister Blagoj Hanjiski said yesterday that after the Agreement is ratified by the Macedonian Parliament, scheduled for today' session, and the instruments are deposited at the US State Department, the bilateral cooperation in the field of security and defense between the two countries will be raised on a significantly higher level.

Meanwhile, at its session yesterday, Macedonian Government urgently passed the Proposal for Ratification of the Agreement on Regulation of The Status of NATO and 'Partnership for Peace' Forces and suggested that it is included in today's Agenda of the Parliament session.

[02] MACEDONIAN DELEGATION AT NATO MEETING

[03] 'HABITAT 2' CONFERENCE OPENED

The Macedonian delegation attending the Conference is being led by Minister of Works and Ecology Jorgo Shundovski, who is going to present Macedonian views.

[04] MACEDONIAN REPRESENTATIVES AT THE WEU PARLIAMENT SESSION

[05] MARKING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNESCO

[06] MACEDONIA AGAIN ACCUSED OF BEING UNYIELDING

[07] JANEZ DRNOVSHEK IN MACEDONIA TOMORROW

[08] CONFERENCE ON MACEDONIAN - ITALIAN RELATIONS

The meeting is being realized cooperatively by the Universities of Skopje and Bologna.

[09] SIX MORE SEATS IN THE PARLIAMENT FOR BERISHA

[10] POLITICAL SYSTEM COMMISSION ALSO AGAINST EARLY ELECTIONS

A discussion preceded this, during which the initiators representatives, Gjorgji Naumov (VMRO - DPMNE) and Slavko Petrov (Democratic Party), repeated the already known stands, this time pointing out the question: Is scheduling early elections a separate issue, which the Parliament is in charge of in the context of Constitutional entries, or the Parliament is incompetent to decide about early elections issue?

Risto Masev said that the initiators had not offered any solutions for a better future of Macedonia, while Hisen Ramadani said the Initiative was not backed by a political programme.

The Commission adopted the report on the work of Macedonian Radio and Television in 1995, submitted by the General Manager Melpomeni Korneti. The report read that the work of MRTV was being burdened by the lack of regulations in the broadcasting and by the unpaid bils of the consumers since 1993. In her report, Ms. Kornetti recomended the Parliament to support introducing the principle of the West European countries, i.e. making the families tax-payers (which are about 500,000 in Macedonia) and putting the money in a separate fund. She also suggested a separate Law on the Macedonian Radio and Television to be passed.

[11] MACEDONIA JOINED ESAS

The information on the economic cooperation activities between Macedonian and Slovenia were also adopted, and the Agreement on Gradual Establishing of Free Trade Principle between these two countries till 2,000 was prepared.

[12] HUNGER STRIKE CALLED OFF

The strike was endorsed with requests for a moratorium on payments of electricity, water and TV bills for the socially endangered families, as well as with requests for a minimum social aid of 5,000 denars and minimum salary of 10,000 denars.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[13] 'Who Is Breaking The Accord?'

('Nova Makedonija', 04 June 1996)

New threats about imposing economic blockades are coming from the south. First, the government in Athens announced through their Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos that they would start 'discouraging' Greek entrepreneurs' intentions to invest in Macedonia. Now, Greek papers are zealously working out the subject: since Macedonia is refusing to change its name, Greece is going to punish it.

We have witnessed so many similar threats (and realizations) of blockades during the last few years, that nobody seems to be much disturbed now. One can almost certainly predict the moment when some Greek politician is going to talk about the 'Macedonian issue' and when the Greek press is going to pour out a string of hostile texts against our country. It happens regularly before each round of the Macedonian - Greek discussions about the name dispute, such as the forthcoming in New York; or, always when Greek politicians realize that they have lost the battle with the small country of Macedonia; or, whenever it is necessary to show 'firmness' in the defense of the Greek 'national interests' (such as before the forthcoming congress of PASOK).

The latest threats with a 'controlled straining of relations', as defined by Pangalos, or with 'a controlled blockade', as described by the press, however, deserve to be paid an attention to. Among other things, because they are the first explicit threats addressed to Macedonia after the Interim Accord signed last September. And because they are coming in a period of a successful improvement of the bilateral relations. The southern neighbour is justifying its threats again by accusing us with 'unyielding' in the name dispute, i.e. with an alleged breaking of the Accord.

Is the Accord really being broken and by whom?

Let's begin from Macedonia and its 'unyielding stand'. As a reminding, this issue is regulated in the Article 5 of the Interim Accord, where there is not a single word about the changing of the name. It reads that both parties involved 'will continue the negotiations under patronage of the UN Secretary General', in order to 'reach an agreement on the differences' about the name. The second paragraph of the Article obliges both parties to 'cooperate, despite their stands' on the issue. Republic of Macedonia is not making the insultive addressing as 'Skopje Republic' by Greece an obstacle in the relations. And it is regularly sending its Ambassador to New York, i.e. is participating in the efforts of the UN representative Cyrus Vance and of both countries to find a 'solution for the differences' about the name issue. On the contrary, Greece is breaking Article 5 of the Accord by asking the name to be changed and by threatening with 'straining' of the relations with Macedonia, although the Article obliges it to cooperate despite the differences.

With its insisting on having the name of the country changed, and, consequently, on making Macedonian people to give up their identity, Greece is breaking Article 3 of the Accord, which says that both parties 'are going to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence' of the other party.

Macedonian President Gligorov, answering a question in this context at a meeting in Paris, described the obligations stated in the Accord and the realistic acting of Greece as following: how can Greece claim that it is interested in the preserving of our integrity if it is asking from us to give up our identity?

Finally, the intended straining of the relations is directly opposite to the Article 8: 'The parties are going to restrain from any kind of preventing the flow of people and goods between their territories'.

How much are the threats realistic, and can Greece really live without the Interim Accord, as Pangalos stated recently?

Greek politicians had already showed a disrespect towards all the rules of civilized relations between countries, not only with Macedonia. Therefore, everything is possible, even a new blockade. In that case, our country would have nothing else to do than to prove that it can also live without the Interim Accord and the Greek businessmen. If that is the price of preserving the territorial integrity of the Republic of Macedonia and the national identity of the Macedonian people, which we managed to defend to date, we are going to pay it. But what will Greece have from that?

Nothing more than a shame in the eyes of the world and than leaving the Macedonian market, which is obviously interesting for Greek entrepreneurs, to some other foreign businessmen, less depending on the politics.

But the EU and the USA will face new problems if that happens, as they had offered their help to both sides to develop their relations. Therefore, it could be more practical both for Macedonia and Greece, as neighbours, and for the European Union and the USA, as guarantees, not to wait for the eventual realization of the Greek threats, but to realize the promised help.

(end)

mils news 04 June, 1996

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