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"It is incumbent on us to provide absolutely precise, objective and complete information to citizens concerning the destruction of the missiles. The missile elimination issue must be resolved on time, but safety should be the principal consideration," said President Georgi Parvanov at the meeting of the Consultative Council on National Security yesterday. Though being invited, Minister of Justice Anton Stankov and Minister of Environment and Water Dolores Arsenova did not attend the sitting. Photo Kiril Konstantinov
 Varna - Early Christian mosaics. A Bulgarian-French project is now underway to preserve and relocate the floor mosaics of a 4th century Christian church discovered here in 1972. The floor plan of the church measures 40 m by 20 m. Experts from Toulouse are in charge of the restoration work. The project is led by Christiane Land, director of the Museum of Archaeology in the southern French town of Lattes, which has provided financial support. Pressphoto BTA photo: Krassimir Krustev
SITUATION IN CRISIS REGIONS.
MIA
Occasional gunshots were heard in the Tetovo region Thursday evening, MIA's correspondent reported.
The police department said that this evening fire was opened from the locality Arabati Baba Teke.
From the afternoon till 21.30 hour, gunshots were coming from the residential complexes Sipad and Blok 82, the boulevard "Vidoe Smilevski-Bato", the schools "Goce Stojcevski" and "SS. Kiril & Metodij, and the military barracks "Kuzman Josifovski Pitu".
Gunshots were also coming from the locality Rasadiste and the villages Selce, Tenovo, Miletino, Dobroste, Odri, Prsovce, Tearce, Ozmoriste, Miletino, Celopek and Zerovjane.
Gunshots were registered in the Tetovo region from the morning till 15.00 hour on Thursday, coming from the villages Dolna Lesnica, Strmnica, Miletino, Odri and Dobroste, the city police department reports.
In the same period, fire was also opened from areas near the school "SS. Kiril & Metodij", "Goce Stojcevski" and the para-university in the village Mala Recica.
Shootings from several types of infantry weapons were heard overnight in Tetovo area. The shots ceased in the morning hours, MIA's correspondent reports.
The police department informed that the gunfire was not aimed towards specific targets.
Bursts of fire were registered from the Juvenile Reformatory School, Tetovo Teke, SEE University, Residential Complex 82, Zicara, Kupenik, Gorna Carsija, Ciglana, Vonvardarska and Sipad settlements as well as the military barracks "Kuzman Josifovski Pitu."
According to police and army sources, shootings were also registered from Mala Recica, Lisec, Gajre, Selce, Vejce, Zerovjane, Slatino, Tearce, Prsovce, Trebos, Palatica, Odri, Dobroste, and Rasadiste locality.
Twenty-eight violations of the public peace and order were registered overnight in Kumanovo - Lipkovo region, MIA's correspondent reports.
According to police sources, the shootings came from Slupcane, Vaksince, Matejce, Ropaljce, Opae and Nikustak villages and were not targeted.
CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF "ILINDEN"
MIA
The manifestation "Ten Days of the Krusevo Republic" was formally opened Thursday evening on the plateau outside the Ilinden Monument.
Chairman of the manifestation Council Zoran Todorovski declared the manifestation for opened, while Mayor of the Krusevo Municipality Vancu Naumoski welcomed the present guests.
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgeivski, Culture Minister Ganka Samoilova - Cvetanovska and Minister of Transport and Communications Ljupco Balkovski also attended the ceremony.
Actor Tome Vitanov read the "Manifestation Charter" and the "Krusevo Manifest". Afterwards, Vitanov and his colleague Sofia Gogova-Vrcakovska took part in a recital, followed by performances of the Women's Choir "Menada" from Tetovo and the group "Sintesis".
Festive program was organized Thursday morning in Sliva locality, near Krusevo on the occasion of the 99th anniversary since Ilinden Uprising and Krusevo Republic.
Several delegations laid flowers in front of the memorial in Sliva, where fourteen fighters lost their lives while defending the Krusevo Republic.
On behalf of the Council of the scientific-cultural meetings "Ten Days of Krusevo Republic," three-mamber delegation, led by Council's President Zoran Todorovski, laid flowers.
Flowers were also laid by Krusevo Mayor Vancu Naumoski, the delegation of the District Committee of VMRO-DPMNE, delegation of the Association of citizens prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned about the ideas for independence of the Macedonian antion and its statehood, delegation of the Krusevo Fighters' Association and the delegation of the participants in "Ilinden Horse March."
The students from the State Secondary Schoold "Naum Naumoski - Borce" recited revolutionary poetry afterwards.
At the evening, Prime Minister Georgievski formally opened the renovated sport hall "Voivode Gjorgi Stojanov" with 1,000 seats in Krusevo.
The Macedonian Government, in cooperation with the public company in charge of sport facilities, managed to renovate this hall and put it into effect for a very short time.
"There will be no more ceremonies for cornerstones laying. We shall only mark the completion of projects that may be used by citizens, " Georgievski said.
Earlier, he formally opened the new road between the villages Gradesnica and Staravina.
Regarding the Macedonian National Holiday-August 2, Minister of Culture Ganka Samoilovska - Cvetanova opened Thursday a new summer stage in Krusevo.
At the ceremony, Samoilovska-Cvetanova said that the stage would be used for various cultural events, planned for the manifestation "Ten Days of the Krusevo Republic". An amount of Denar one million was invested in the construction of the stage and auditorium with 450 seats.
Zoran Todorovski, chairman of the manifestation council, said that the summer stage could be used for various musical and drama performances.
The ten-day traditional scientific and cultural meetings, "Ten Days of the Krusevo Republic" will abound in cultural and artistic contents such as folk ensemble performances, poetry and music recitals, concerts, exhibitions and theatre plays. Right after the formal opening, the Agency for Youth and Sport is to organize a concert with famous musicians.
The central celebrations as a tribute to the Ilinden Uprising and Krusevo Republic will be held on Friday on Meckin Kamen, where Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubcho Georgievski will deliver a speech at the traditional national gathering.
PM GEORGIEVSKI FORMALLY OPENED THE NEW ROAD GRADESNICA-STARAVINA.
MIA
Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski formally opened Thursday the new road between the villages Gradesnica and Staravina.
Minister of Transport and Communications Ljupco Balkovski also attended the ceremony.
Regarding the Macedonian National Holiday-August 2, a 3-kilometer road, connecting the village Rates and the locality Jasikite, was also opened. The Macedonian Government invested Denar 16 million for the construction of this road.
"The region of Mariovo was neglected. However, great efforts have been made in the recent period for its development, because this part of Mariovo has a potential to produce healthy food. The new road will open possibilities for development of this area and improve the communication with cities," Georgievski said.
Citizens of this region would be soon connected with the main telephone network, while the villages Brnek and Bruniste-with the electric power system, Georgievski said.
Yesterday, Georgievski laid a cornerstone for construction of a water supply system for the settlements Gazi Baba-Petrovec-Ilinden and the villages Skopski Pole, Jurumleri, Kolonija, Idrizovo, Drma, Mralino, Petrovec, R'zenicino and Ognenci.
"I regret that today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we still have settlements, located only 10 kilometers from Skopje, without a water supply system," Georgievski said.
The water supply project was part of the Macedonian Government plan for improving of living conditions of villagers, he said, adding that an amount of 1,1 million for the construction is provided by the "Telecom" sale.
Georgievski, accompanied by Ministers of Finance - Nikola Gruevski, Cuture - Ganka Samoilovska-Cvetanova, Transport and Communications - Ljupco Balkovski, Environment and Urban Planning - Marjan Dodevski and Internal Affairs - Ljube Boskovski, attended Wednesday in Stip a formal setting into work of 400kW long-distance power line Dubrovo-Stip.
The officials also attended a ceremony for handing over of 34 property denationalization certificates to the owners from Stip, Radovis, Strumica, Vinica, Probistip and Sveti Nikole.
"The Electric Power Supply Company (ESM) has invested over US $ 6 million in this long-distance line, aimed to provide efficient power supply and to cut the energy transmitting losses to minimum. This line marks a start of the project for connecting of the electric power system of Macedonia with those of the neighboring countries. " Georgievski said.
ESM Director Lambe Arnaudov also delivered a speech at the ceremony.
Answering to journalist questions, Georgievski said that his party VMRO-DPMNE defined its lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections.
Georgievski said he would be the list carrier at the election district no. 5 - the Ohrid-Bitola region; Gruevski -at the election district no.1; Gjorcev at no.4.
These candidates would bring victory to VMRO-DPMNE at the forthcoming elections, Georgievski said.
Georgievski explained that he could not attend a meeting of SEE Heads of Government in Salzburg, saying that those meetings were useful, but "more important developments are taking place in Macedonia now, above all - the parliamentary elections."
Today, Georgievski and Finance Minister Nikola Gruevski attended Wednesday a formal handing over of property denationalization certificates in Stip to 34 families from Stip, Vinica, Probistip, Strumica and Radovis.
According to the Finance Ministry press release, a total of 955,841 sq.m. of cultivated land was returned to the former owners from Stip, Vinica and Probistip, and a total amount of Denar 478,612 is returned as securities.
At today's ceremony in Stip, a total of 153,996 sq.m. of cultivated land was also returned to 12 families from Strumica and Radovis. Two certificates referred to returning of 258 sq.m. of construction sites and 147 sq.m. of business premises.
This is another example that the activities of the Macedonian Government and the Finance Ministry, intensified after changing of the Law on Denationalization, are giving results, the press release reads.
The Pettifogger Procurators.
Central Europe Review
By Sam Vaknin
Recently, the most unusual event has gone unnoticed in the international press. A former minister of finance has accused the more prominent members of the diplomatic corps in his country of corruption. He insisted that these paragons of indignant righteousness and hectoring morality have tried to blackmail him into paying them hefty commissions from money allotted to exigent humanitarian aid. This was immediately and from afar - and, therefore, without proper investigation - denied by their superiors in no uncertain terms.
The facts are these: most (though by no means all) Western diplomats in the nightmarish wasteland that is East Europe and the Balkan, the unctuously fulsome and the frowzily wizened alike, are ageing and sybaritic basket cases. They have often failed miserably in their bootless previous posts - or have insufficiently submerged in the Byzantine culture of their employers. Thus emotionally injured and cast into the frigorific outer darkness of a ravaged continent, they adopt the imperial patina of Roman procurators in narcissistic compensation. Their long suffering wives - bored to distraction in the impassibly catatonic societies of post communism - impose upon a reluctant and flummoxed population the nescient folderol of their distaff voluntary urges or exiguous artistic talents. Ever more crapulous, they aestivate and hibernate, the queens of tatty courts and shabby courtiers.
The cold war having ebbed, these emissaries of questionable provenance engage in the promotion of the narrow interests of specific industries or companies. They lobby the local administration, deploying bare threats and obloquies where veiled charm fails. They exert subtle or brutal pressure through the press. They co-opt name-dropping bureaucrats and bribe pivotal politicians. They get fired those who won't collaborate or threaten to expose their less defensible misdeeds. They are glorified delivery boys, carrying apocryphal messages to and fro. They are bloviating PR campaigners, seeking to aggrandize their meagre role and, incidentally, that of their country. They wine and dine and banter endlessly with the provincial somnolent variety of public figures, members of the venal and pinchbeck elites that now rule these tortured territories. In short - forced to deal with the bedizened miscreants that pass for businessmen and politicians in this nether world - they are transformed, assuming in the process the identity of their obdurately corrupted hosts.
Thus, they help to sway elections and hasten to endorse their results, however disputed and patently fraudulent. They intimidate the opposition, negotiate with businessmen, prod favoured politicians, spread roorbacks and perambulate their fiefdom to gather intelligence. More often than not, they cross the limpid lines between promotion and extortion, lagniappe and pelf, friendship and collusion, diplomacy and protectorate, the kosher and the criminal.
They are the target and the address of a legion of pressures and demands. Their government may ask them to help depose one coalition and help install another. Their secret services - disguised as intrusive NGOs or workers at the embassy - often get them involved in shady acts and unscrupulous practices. Real NGOs ask for their assiduous assistance and protection. Their hosts - and centuries old protocol - expect them to surreptitiously provide support while openly refrain from intervening, maintaining equipoise. Other countries protest, compete, or leak damaging reports to an often hostile media. The torpid common folk resent them for their colonial ways and hypocritical demarches. Lacking compunction, they are nobody's favourites and everybody's scapegoats at one time or another.
And they are ill-equipped to deal with these subtleties. Not of intelligence, they end where they now are and wish they weren't. Ignorant of business and entrepreneurship, they occupy the dead end, otiose and pension-orientated jobs they do. Devoid of the charm, negotiating skills and human relations required by the intricacies of their profession - they are relegated to the Augean outskirts of civilization. Dishonest and mountebank, they persist in their mortifying positions, inured to the conniving they require.
This blatantly discernible ineptitude provokes the "natives" into a wholesale rejection of the West, its values and its culture. The envoys are perceived as the cormorant reification of their remote controllers. Their voluptuary decadence is a distant echo of the West's decay, their nonage greed - a shadow of its avarice, their effrontery and hidebound peremptory nature - its mien. They are in no position to preach or teach.
The diplomats of the West are not evil. Some of them mean well. To the best of their oft limited abilities, they cadge and beg and press and convince their governments to show goodwill and to contribute to their hosts. But soon their mettle is desiccated by the vexatious realities of their new habitation. Reduced to susurrous cynicism and sardonic contempt, they perfunctorily perform their functions, a distant look in their now empty eyes. They have been assimilated, rendered useless to their dispatchers and to their hosts alike.
MISSILES - DESTRUCTION - DEFENCE MINISTER.
BTA
Trial Destruction of 10 Missile Components May Begin Next Week.
Sofia, August 1 (BTA) - The experimental destruction of ten missile components may begin next week, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov told a news conference Thursday.
"The ten components have been selected in full compliance with the provisions of the Bulgaria-US Memorandum and the Defence Ministry's agreement with the contractor CDI," Svinarov said.
"The method of destruction of the engines of the SS-23 missiles will be determined after completion of the environmental impact assessment. Experts have assured us that this will be done within a week," he said.
Environment and Waters Minister Dolores Arsenova said that "if the chosen method raises even the slightest doubt about possible environmental damage, the Environment Ministry will not approve it."
According to Svinarov, the elimination of selected components of Bulgaria's SS-23 and Scud missiles and FROG rockets would not be enough for the country to meet its commitment.
"Bulgaria will have no problems about meeting the October 30 deadline," Svinarov said. "I have no doubt that the safest method will be chosen."
GREECE - ECONOMIC AID - BULGARIA.
BTA
Sofia, August 1 (BTA) - The Greek Government will provide 54,290,000 euros to Bulgaria in an aid package under the Greek Plan for Economic Reconstruction of the Balkans, the Council of Ministers PR Directorate wrote in a press release Thursday.
To this end, the Bulgarian Government approved a draft agreement on cooperation between Bulgaria and Greece under a development programme for 2002-2006.
The money will be used for infrastructure upgrading, particularly in the energy and transport sectors, for industrial investment, public administration development and local government initiatives. Eighty per cent of the package will go for government projects and the rest will be allocated to privately-run production businesses.
The programme will be administrated by a joint committee. Government projects will apply for funding through the mediation of national coordinators.
IMPORT DUTY ON VEGETABLES INCREASED.
BTA
Government Raises Temporarily Import Duty on Vegetables.
Sofia, August 1 (BTA) - By decision of the Government, the customs duties on the imports of some sensitive vegetables or those which are traditionally grown in Bulgaria will be increased temporarily, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Mehmed Dikme told the media after the Government's meeting on Thursday.
The vegetables concerned are tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, cabbage and sweet peppers.
The customs duty charged on tomato imports is raised from 25 per cent to 60 per cent, and on sweet pepper imports from 64 to 75 per cent.
The import duty charged on tomatoes is a combined one: from July 1 to August 1 it was 30 per cent plus 147 euros per tonne, now it is set at 40 per cent plus 200 euros per tonne; from September 1 to October 31 the customs duty on imported tomatoes will be 60 per cent plus 298 euros per tonne.
The import duty on cabbage is increased from 40 per cent plus 24 euros per tonne to 80 per cent; the import duty on cucumbers and gherkins rises from 10 per cent plus 120 euros per tonne to 80 per cent plus 378 euros per tonne.
This is the maximum increase Bulgaria can afford, Dikme said. In his view, the measure meets local market gardeners' demand to protect the production of Bulgarian vegetables. "Such a measure is applied for the first time in this country," Dikme said. The customs duty is set by taking into account the percentage ceiling prescribed by the World Trade Organization and Bulgaria's Europe Agreement with the European Union.
The bulk of imports of these vegetables comes mainly from Turkey and Macedonia, as well as from some Arab countries and the EU, according to Dikme. He does not think that the rise in import duties will boost vegetable prices on the domestic market because the domestic competition is stiff enough; on the other hand, it is expected to fully discourage imports.
Additional protectionist import duty was imposed on hothouse vegetables about two months ago, Dikme recalled.
The new customs duties will start to be levied as from next week, after their promulgation in the Official Gazette. They will be in force until the end of 2002.
Commenting on grain producers' protests, Dikme said that he had informed the Prime Minister accordingly, and that in his view their demands have reason, but he described the protests as political ones.
In his words, on Wednesday he saw the protesters' leaders to come out of the parliamentary premises of the United Democratic Forces.
On Thursday, over 100 market gardeners staged a protest near the wholesale market in the village of Kurnalovo, Petrich district (Southwestern Bulgaria) and blocked the E-79 international highway connecting Bulgaria and Greece for about ten minutes. They protested against the low purchase prices of their produce and what they described as "the inadequate agrarian policy" of the Government.
Their major demands include suspension of vegetable imports, introduction of quotas, subsidizing agriculture, introduction of protectionist minimum purchase prices, and putting an end to the dictate of middlemen who are racketeering agricultural producers.
GSM Bills Abated.
Standartnews
We are late with the data processing, the customers shouldn't suffer losses, the company admits.
About 33,000 subscriber of the largest GSM operator in Bulgaria, M-Tel, will pay less for calls made in June and May, informed the company yesterday. Part of the sums due for services during these two months will be abated because the GSM operator was late with the computer processing of information about the calls. The reason are the charged beyond capacity long-distance lines, explained company's employees. The information about calls placed at that time came too late and the sums were entered into the next bill. Customers noticed that their bills were soaring in the beginning of July. To reimburse its customers the company's management decided to abate the belated bills. It's the first time that the GSM operator confronts a problem with the processing. The lucky 33,000 subscribers will receive letters of explanation as well as detailed printouts of all calls that are not payable.
DIRTY GAMES.
Team of "Standart"
Bulgartabak and Iceland Connection.
Who will get hold of Mr. X first, Prosecutor General or Finance Minister? This person owes $5.2 million in taxes to the fisc.
Continued...
God forbid you, dear readers, to assume that these 35 millions were invested into Balkanpharma. Last year the same people applied to EBRD and got a 20-million dollar loan. Against this money they pawned the three pharmaceutical plants. Thus, the money was pocketed, the plants, mortgaged. If the loan is not returned, the bank will sell out the assets and close down the plants. The shady Balkanpharma deal had a happy ending for some other Bulgarian boys, too. On July 19, 2002 Mr. X. (look up for the name and address in our Friday issue) sold out at Iceland stock exchange his shares in Pharmaco 71 times more expensive than their nominal value. Mr. X got 17,700,200,34 US dollars for them. Be as it may, but Mr. X had forgotten to declare the sum of almost 18 million to the tax authorities in Bulgaria. "Standart" daily has always been supporting Finance Minister Milen Veltchev. That's why we would like to inform Mr. Veltchev that from Mr. X. only he can collect over 4 million levs in taxes. More details we shall give later on. You've got to hurry up, Mr. Veltchev, because it's very important who's going to get hold of this person first, you or the Prosecutor General. For this reason we are asking if the fate of Balkanpharma is in store for Bulgartabak?
Every Fourth Bulgarian Debt-Laden.
Standartnews
Stephan Kioutchukov
83 percent of Bulgarians do not believe in the opportunity to buy a car.
Every forth Bulgarian is debt-ridden, shows a study made by the National Statistics Institute released yesterday. 29.7 of the pollees admit that their financial situation worsened dramatically in the last year. Other 26.9 maintain that they were also impoverished. Only 5 percent of the Bulgarians think that they have more money as compared with the summer of 2001. Most of the people are in despair and pessimistic about the future, no matter of their incomes. 81 percent of the pollees think that the situation will not improve or will even worsen in a year. One third are expecting that the rates of unemployment will get higher and higher and 50 percent are sure that the economy is slowing down. 83.3 percent of the households can't even think of buying a car in the next two years and 91.7 rule out the possibility to obtain lodgings. More than two thirds are explicit that they will not be able to save money in the next year. Half of the pollees admit that they will save on furniture to make both ends meet. It is the general opinion that the situation now is extremely unfavourable to save money.
Kamberov's Murder Triggered off War in Church.
INTERVIEW Standartnews: Christo Matanov
Konstantin Sabtchev
Maxim was tipped for ousting already under Zhivkov's rule, claims Prof. Christo Matanov.
Professor Hristo Matanov was born in 1952. He graduated from the Historical Faculty of the 'St. Kliment of Ohrid' university. He specialized in Medieval Balkan History in Greece, Germany and the USA. From April 1, 1993 to October 15, 1996 he's director of the Department of Ecclesiastical Matters.
- Prof. Matanov, will the murder of Father Stefan Kamberov help sect the Gordian knot in which the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been entangled during the recent decade?
- On the contrary. This tragic incident has proved that the schism in our church has been smoldering for a very long time. There is official Orthodox church, Holy Synod, Patriarch, etc. However, there is a parallel structure, the Synod headed by Metropolitan Pimen, and yet another, even more important, the so-called "old-style believers", those who stick to the Julian calendar. They are very powerful and influential. This is actually the true canonical schism - between the official church and the old-style believers. For now they are not creating problems, but they may become a headache if someone adjudges that after all there must be only one Orthodox church in this country. Despite the fact that in none of the Orthodox countries there's a church fitting into the type we used to suppose it should be. Neither in Russia nor in Greece, to say nothing of Ukraine. If the state can't keep under control the war within the church it's better to stay away from it. Because the state doesn't do anything. Why Maxim hasn't been registered as a patriarch of Bulgaria yet? The church is a special institution. Once it is discomfited or some kind of precedent appears, it is very difficult to put it straight and restore order.
- What in Father Maxim's behavior displeased Todor Zhivkov?
- The fact is that Maxim remained impartial during the so-called "revival process".
(Abridged) |
