Upon landing in Ohrid yesterday, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Miguel Martinez, told the press his stay in Macedonia is a normal visit to a country close to admission to the Council. Macedonia is developing as a democratic country, Martinez said; it is governed by law and reports of Parliamentary Assembly's rapporteurs have been positive; therefore, there is really no obstacle for Macedonia to be granted full membership by the end of this year. Martinez was received yesterday by Macedonian Parliament President Stojan Andov. They conferred on current democratic processes in Europe and the possibilities for Macedonia to become fully involved in the European integration process as quickly as possible. The visit by Martinez is one of the most important events for Macedonia after obtaining a seat in the UN, Anodv said.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski met yesterday with his Japanese counterpart Yohei Kono in Tokyo. They discussed bilateral issues, economic support of Japan for Macedonia, UN peacekeeping operations in Macedonia and cultural exchange between the two countries. The Government of Japan donated $5.5 million of aid to help Macedonia regulate its payment obligations.
Crvenkovski later met with the Japanese minister of finance for talks about the program agreed upon by Macedonia and the World Bank.
"I think the policy of the United States toward Macedonia is somewhat schizophrenic. We sent our soldiers on the field, and then refused to appoint an ambassador there, due to domestic political problems," said former Secretary of State James Baker in a television interview for ABC, as cited by Nova Makedonija.
Baker supported the Clinton administration's decision not to deploy US troops in the risky Bosnia, since the conflict there is not a wider Balkan or European war. "Yet, if the conflict does spread to, for instance, Macedonia, the chances are Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Greece and even Turkey will get involved. America, like it or not, will return there, because history shows that America cannot tolerate an overall instability in Europe," Baker said.
Asked whether, if the war in Bosnia continues, it will unavoidably spill over to Macedonia, and then to Greece, Turkey and wider, Baker said it was not necessary, but warned it was possible.
According to him, this is quite likely, because the situation in Kosovo and Albanians in Macedonia are only awaiting the smallest signal to explode.
Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski met yesterday with representatives of the Association of Workers From Insolvent Companies accompanied by Minister of Labor and Social Policy Iliaz Sabriu and Zhivko Tolevski, President of the Macedonian Trade Union Association. They discussed the material situation of workers and reviewed activities undertaken so far by the government and relevant ministries. It was said that nearly 900 workers from insolvent companies have been re- employed, but there are municipalities where agreed re- employment is still not executed, despite concrete financial intervention by the government.
The Macedonian Government held a conference for the press yesterday, at which Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski said the Law on Courts will soon be submitted to Parliament for voting, adding that the procedural and material crime legislation is also undergoing changes. This, he said, is needed in order to adapt the judiciary to the current reforms in the country. Magistrate and economic crime courts, being parallel state and court organs, will be abolished by the new legal concept. There will be a total of 24 basic courts in the country (only one of them being in Skopje), along with 3 appellate courts and the Supreme Court. A new concept will be the introduction of a police court with authority equal to the regular police forces; the latter shall not have access to court houses, except in cases of natural disasters and greater threats to court security, and even then only upon a court request. During their mandate, judges with no accommodation of their own in the places of work shall be granted the use of social apartments. Asked about the latest accusations by Greece of Macedonia producing heroin, government's spokesman Djuner Ismail invited the Greek Foreign Minister Papoulias to visit Krivolak and Kumanovo and try to find the alleged drug- producing laboratories there.
The Macedonian Parliament will hold its 20th session today. At the opening, MP's will be addressed by the President of Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly Miguel Martinez. The agenda includes debates on draft-laws on a military academy, national defense, profit tax and provision of funds for helping earthquake-struck areas such as Bitola, Demir Hisar, Ohrid and Resen.
A delegation from the Chamber of Commerce of Poland, led by Stanislav Malahovski, arrived yesterday on a three-day visit to Macedonia. Macedonia's economic exchange with Poland had been at a high level over previous years, but fell to $12.6 million in 1994, with a $5.7 million deficit of exports to Poland. This is primarily due to interrupted transportation and traffic communication after the introduction of UN sanctions against Yugoslavia. Officials of the two chambers agreed to a need for bilateral agreement at the government level to regulate the economy and to assist cooperation. The Polish delegation will discuss this today with senior officials of the ministry of economy, managers of large companies and the management of the Skopje Fair.
At a meeting yesterday between representatives of Macedonian companies with business relations with Turkey and the Director of the Turkish Standardization Bureau, the latter said goods from Macedonia shall not be allowed entry in Turkey without proper standardization labels. Such licenses can be obtained at the Turkish Standardization Bureau with a validity of one year.
At a session yesterday, the parliamentarian Commission for working regulations and immunity issues determined the text of working regulations for the Macedonian Parliament, recommending that MP's vote on it at one of the next sessions. The following 5 of the 6 members of the commission signed the text: Panco Minov, commission chairman and Liberal Party deputy to Parliament; Kiril Spasovski and Mirko Ivanov of SDSM; Mirko Petsov of the Socialist Party; and Lazar Dimov, independent deputy. PDP deputy Mevljan Tahiri refused to sign the text, walking out of the session before its end. This enables the text to be introduced to a parliament procedure of adoption. Tahiri reiterated his party dissatisfaction with the draft-text, as it does not consider the use of minority languages from the parliament floor. The act of erasing this provision from the existing working regulations, Tahiri said, is not a good example of wise politics; on the contrary, he warned, this will start a long-lasting political crisis in Macedonia. Especially because, as Tahiri explained, the demand is more symbolic than absolute and endangers the official status of the Macedonian language in no way. His proposal to include a provision securing the use of minority languages at parliament was put to vote, but failed to obtain support. The next step is to submit the draft-text to the parliament president, who will decide whether it will be discussed by committee members before initiating a parliament debate or if it will be directly presented at a parliament session.
Yesterday the Democratic Party of Turks in Macedonia held a press-conference to protest the Government's practice of ignoring the party and attempts to exclude ethnic Turks entirely from the social life. The party's main dissatisfaction comes from the government's refusal to sign a protocol on the educational problems of ethnic Turks, despite the agreement with Gert Arens, representative for minority issues of the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia. Reporters were also told that the party is withdrawing its two representatives in the Ethnic Relations Council on grounds of their acting upon their own beliefs and neglecting party interests. Parliament President Andov was also criticized and called upon to publicly apologize to ethnic Turks for his recent "far from serious statements" upon his return from a visit to Turkey. Party leader Erdogan Sarac attacked Andov for using the word "minority", despite being a parliament president who "had himself voted in favor of the term nationality." Andov should also make it clear to the public what he meant when he spoke of loyal and disloyal Turks, particularly when he went so far as to name those classified in the second group, Sarac said.
The 45th International Fair of consumer goods, raw materials and machinery was opened in Skopje yesterday to present some 20,000 products of 195 companies from home and abroad. The fair was opened by Chamber of Commerce President Dushan Petrevski.
The Macedonian air company "Avioimpeks" will introduce a Skopje-Tirana flight starting from June 20. The DC-9 plane will fly to Albania on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
National soccer teams of Macedonia and Belgium will play a European Cup qualifying match at 8 p.m. in Skopje today. The match will be played before an empty stadium, as Macedonia has been punished for misbehavior of fans by the UEFA. The junior teams will meet in Kavadarci, at 4 p.m.