MILS NEWS 07/06/96

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

CONTENTS

[01] FRCHKOVSKI: 'REGIONAL PEACE INITIATIVES ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT SITUATIONS IN THE BALKAN COUNTRIES'

[02] LEAVING OF UNPREDEP - ONLY SPECULATIONS

[03] SATISFIED WITH THE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIAN- SWEDISH RELATIONS

[04] IMPRESSIONS FROM 'HABITAT 2'

[05] CONVERTING BOSNIAN AND MACEDONIAN DEBTS

[06] WILLIAM PERRY AT MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON 12 JUNE

[07] DM 50 MILLION FROM THE BUDGET FOR MACEDONIAN PENSIONERS

[08] RUGOVA: 'INDEPENDENT KOSOVO - BUFFER STATE BETWEEN SERBIA AND ALBANIA'

[09] PROTEST MEETING IN TETOVO

[10] 'DIGNITY': 'FIRMER DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL NAME'

[11] VMRO-DPMNE & DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 'NO ARGUMENTS FOR REJECTING THE INITIATIVE'

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[12] 'Closer to NATO' ('Puls', 07 June 1996)

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 07 June 1996

[01] FRCHKOVSKI: 'REGIONAL PEACE INITIATIVES ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT SITUATIONS IN THE BALKAN COUNTRIES'

During his stay in Vienna, Frchkovski had met with his Bulgarian counterpart Gjorgji Pirinski to talk about the planned Balkan ministerial conference in Sofia, and they agreed that the presence of all countries in the region should be obtained. The problem of the name of Macedonia which would be used at the conference was also discussed and it was decided to organize a meeting of both countries' experts to try to find solutions both for the name and for the language dispute between Bulgaria and Macedonia.

Minister Frchkovski reported that, at the meeting he had had with the Italian Foreign Minister Alberto Dini, the news about the 'evolution clause' and 'regional approach' regarding the Macedonia-EU Agreement had been examined. They also talked about the bilateral cooperation and Dini accepted the invitation to visit Macedonia very soon.

Frchkovski said the main characteristics of the Berlin Conference had been the softer attitude of Russia towards the extending of NATO, which was presented by Russian Foreign Minister Evgenij Primakov. Namely, he offered a political extension of NATO instead of a military one. The aspect of the Alliance European identity and strengthening of the 'Partnership for Peace' Programme role were also talked about.

Minister said that, besides the meeting with German Foreign Minister Claus Kinkel, he had shortly met with Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, with whom he had exchanged only a few courtesy sentences.

[02] LEAVING OF UNPREDEP - ONLY SPECULATIONS

Meanwhile, 'Vecer' reported that it was still uncertain whether the OSCE Mission in Macedonia, which mandate is ending on June 31 this year, would remain in Macedonia in the same or in a different form, if it would at all.

Unofficial information suggest to make the OSCE Mission a Mission on Human Rights, says the paper.

[03] SATISFIED WITH THE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF MACEDONIAN- SWEDISH RELATIONS

Prime Minister of Macedonia Branko Crvenkovski also sent his greetings to the Swedish Premier Joran Person, and Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski to his counterpart Lena Jelm Valen.

[04] IMPRESSIONS FROM 'HABITAT 2'

[05] CONVERTING BOSNIAN AND MACEDONIAN DEBTS

The biggest part of former Yugoslavia's debt of $4,4 billion is included in the finance arrangement made before the dissolving of SFRY.

[06] WILLIAM PERRY AT MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON 12 JUNE

It was also announced that a French delegation, led by National Assembly President Philip Segan, will pay an official visit to Macedonia on 8 and 9 June 1996, following the invitation of Macedonian Parliament President Tito Petkovski. French delegation is planned to be received by President Kiro Gligorov, as well.

[07] DM 50 MILLION FROM THE BUDGET FOR MACEDONIAN PENSIONERS

Pensioners complained about the expensive health insurance and about the need for a more regular payment of their foreign currency savings.

[08] RUGOVA: 'INDEPENDENT KOSOVO - BUFFER STATE BETWEEN SERBIA AND ALBANIA'

As 'Sitel' Television reported, Rugova stated that, as there had always been hostilities between Albanians and Serbs in the Balkans, establishing an independent state of Kosovo would neutralize the danger from a clash between these two entities.

Promoting the thesis for an independent Kosovo as a buffer state, Rugova said Kosovo Albanians were at the moment preventing any clashes by peaceful resistance, because any other kind of resistance would be a catastrophe. Rugova asked for a help of the international community to realize this idea , stressing that Greek help would be especially useful.

Meanwhile, Belgrade media reported that Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevich, has refused the UN Special Reporter on Human Right, Elisabeth Rehn, to mediate in this issue.

[09] PROTEST MEETING IN TETOVO

The demonstrators required the doers of the criminal act to be revealed, the analyses to be made in specialized West European centres and security conditions to be created for Albanians in Macedonia. Remarks could be heard for the decision of the Macedonian government to have the blood analyses done in Novi Sad, and UNPREDEP, OSCE and other international missions and organisations were accused of being not interested in solving of this case and of supporting the 'anti-Albanian policy of the Macedonian state'. PDP party and Vice Minister of Health Ilir Ljuma were attacked of being traitors. Menduh Tachi from PDPA, reminding of the 'bitter experience of Kosovo', said 'the poisoning had obviously been artificially provoked, and what is most important, intended against the Albanian pupils'.

[10] 'DIGNITY': 'FIRMER DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL NAME'

The journalists were presented numerous data about graphites written by Greek extremists which denied the identity of the Macedonian nation and showed hatred. It was stressed that, unofficially, around 300 Macedonian citizens born in the Aegean part of Macedonia were not allowed to cross the border since the Interim Accord was signed. Unions 'Dignity' and 'Rainbow' said they would renew the petition for protection of human, property and status rights, violated by Greece, which would be sent to the Council of Europe.

[11] VMRO-DPMNE & DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 'NO ARGUMENTS FOR REJECTING THE INITIATIVE'

The discussion in the Parliament, stated the leaders Georgievski and Goshev, proved that there had been not a single serious argument to reject the Initiative, and especially not those of Rufi Osmanli and Stojan Andov.

They said they were not surprised by the attitude of the government, as violating the Constitution had, according to them, become normal, which was supported by numerous insults addressed to the citizens who signed the Initiative and to these two parties.

According to Georgievski and Goshev, the Parliament opposed the political right to the truth, which resulted in putting the politics above the law. It was stressed that one of the main Constitutional entries had been suspended: Article 2, which reads that the citizens can decide about the matters of the country by a referendum and other forms of declaring.

VMRO - DPMNE and Democratic Party leaders said that most of the MPs had forgotten the main principle of the Law, that whenever there is a doubt, the decision is in favour of the citizens.

Georgievski and Goshev said that further moves about the initiative would be to end the institutional fight first, and then to ask from the Constitutional Court to discuss it.

It was also said that international institutions would soon be animated, and that there were chances to organize a mass meeting following the requests of many citizens. As for the incidents in front of the Parliament Hall, when a journalist had been attacked, the two leaders said they were against such events and expressed their regret.

MILS SUPPLEMENT

[12] 'Closer to NATO'

('Puls', 07 June 1996)

Macedonian Minister of Defense Blagoj Hanjiski made the following statement exclusively for the weekly 'Puls':

'The very first system Law of independent Macedonia was simultaneously the basis of the civil defense model in the country, a compatible one to those of countries-members of the collective security and defense systems, and mostly to NATO.

Following this Law and the rights guaranteed by Article 52 of the UN Charter, The Republic of Macedonia is developing the system of defense, i.e. how to protect its borders, territorial integrity and sovereignty. We decided to have small, effective and well-trained army, contemporary equipped and capable of defending from the eventual first attack of the enemy, to provide conditions for mobilization, functioning of the governmental institutions and leading a long-term war on the whole territory. Additionally, Macedonia is leaning on the collective defense and security systems. In that way we joined the contemporary conceptions of overcoming the isolated security and defense systems. We will take advantage of the new Euro-Atlantic defense structure, based on the multilateral cooperation and on the integral defense character, avoiding the new dividing and delineation.

All the institutions of the country were included in the realisation of this concept of our defense. The constructive foreign policy, prepared for open cooperation with all neighbours and wider, our European orientation, democracy development, economic reforms, regulated relations with neighbours, development of the civil defense model (by which we kept the stability and peace in our country and contributed to their preserving in the region), are all things highly estimated by the international community. They made us a respectable and wished for cooperation factor in the field of security and defense.

Those were the reasons that helped us establish an extraordinary good cooperation in the defense area with some of our neighbours and other countries, such as: Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and mostly with the USA.

Those were also the reasons that enabled us to join the 'Partnership for Peace' Programme in less than half a year after the normalization of the relations with Greece, and to become one of the most active partners in it.

Our most successful individual programme (as it was unanimously evaluated by NATO), permanent membership in the North-Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), joining the Process of Auditing and Planning (PARP), training our military units for participation in the peace operations under patronage of the UN and OSCE, meant that we have fulfilled all the obligations we took by signing the Partnership agreement and that we have created conditions to reach the necessary level of inter-operativeness of our military forces.

We have began the negotiations with the Alliance about its spreading and are one of the countries that are considered capable of obtaining the collective defense benefits, as well as of contributing to the high level of keeping the peace and stability to a wider territory.

Our opinion is that we had prepared a good document for the Study on Spreading of NATO, which would also be a good basis for our active participation in making decisions about the future structures of NATO, OSCE and EU, that are compatible systems on which the future Euro-Atlantic security structure is based.

We have made a big step forward to the realization of our country's security by joining the Agreement between the NATO members and other 'Partnership for Peace' members on the status of their forces, and even more by the bilateral Agreement with the USA. We have created a legal basis for the presence of US forces in Macedonia to create a collective defense approach, which guarantees a full membership in NATO. It also offers possibility to deepen the bilateral cooperation in the field of defense with the USA.'

(end)

mils news 07 June, 1996

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