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President Georgi Purvanov toured Varna Free University, where he opened a new European Centre for Lifelong Learning. PRESSPHOTO BTA Photo: Krassimir Krustev
SITUATION IN CRISIS REGIONS.
MIA
It is relatively calm in Kumanovo - Lipkovo region early Monday, MIA's correspondent reports.
Police sources say occasional shootouts from infantry weapons have been registered overnight in Kumanovo crisis region.
Volleys of fire and sporadic shootouts have been registered fifteen times from the villages of Matejce, Vistica, Ropajce and Otlja.
It is relatively calm without any shootouts in the past several hours in Tetovo crisis region early Monday, MIA's corespondent reports.
Gunfire has been registered last night from several directions and surrounding villages.
Police sources say shootouts that came from Rasadiste locality, the centre of the town, Kupenik, Gorna Carsija, Ciglana and Vonvardardska settlements, the reformatory and the Teke have been registered overnight.
Also shootouts have been heard from the villages of Mala Recica, Ozormiste, Sipkovica, Dobroste, Odri, Prvce, Tearce, Gjermo, Sipkovica, Lisec and Gajre. Last night shootouts have not been aimed at direct targets.
The intensity of shootouts has been increased on Sunday, MIA's correspondent reports.
Interior Department from Tetovo says shootouts have been registered from "Stipska" street opposite to the Interior Department building and Gorna Carsija, Kupenik and Ciglana settlements from 15:00 until 21:00 hours.
Shootouts have been registered from Rasadiste locality and the villages of Odri, Dobroste, Tearce, Lisec, Gajre and Sipkovica.
Interior Ministry Spokesperson Voislav Zafirovski said that hand grenade was found at the gas station "Europe 92" near the village of Lesok, owned by Vojo Risteski.
Employees in the gas station found the bomb and informed the Anti-terrorism Unit whose experts removed unexploded bomb.
Employees of Anti-terrorism Unit Sunday removed the unexploded grenade from hand launcher, which was found in a field in Lesok. The grenade will be destroyed, Zafirovski said.
CHAIRMAN OF CROATIAN PARLIAMENT ZLATKO TOMCIC VISITS MACEDONIA.
MIA
Macedonia and Croatia have successful mutual cooperation, friendship and understanding, their strategic goal is long-term stability in the region and the two countries are determined with their economic and democratic development to be an example to the other countries in the region, Chairman of Croatian Parliament Zlatko Tomcic said Monday after the meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Stojan Andov.
Tomcic emphasized that the joint goal of Macedonia and Croatia was the admission in the European Union and NATO.
Andov thanked to Tomcic for the visit, which aimed to get to know the work of the Assembly and the political options within.
Tomcic assessed as "fruitful" the talks with Andov, with several parliamentarians and with Minister of Foreign Affairs Slobodan Casule, noting that with this visit the two countries have enhanced and promoted the good political and friendly bilateral relations.
During the talks, the issue on intensifying the economic cooperation between the two countries was also raised.
Tomcic emphasized that the two-day visit of the Croatian parliamentary delegation to Macedonia, third in the past decade, was "a guarantee that lasting peace and stability could be created in the region."
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski received a Croatian Parliament delegation headed by its Chairman Zlatko Tomcic.
At the meeting, President Trajkovski expressed its satisfaction from the high cooperation level between Macedonia and Croatia, following the long tradition of friendship and collaboration among the people of both states. The two officials noted the readiness for intensifying the successful cooperation in all spheres of common interest, especially the sphere of economy as well as the realization of strategic goals of the countries for their integration in the Euro - Atlantic structures.
According to the press - release from the President's cabinet, Chairman of the Croatian Parliament Zdravko Tomcic reiterated the firm determination of the Croatian Government to continue its successful bilateral cooperation with Macedonia by intensifying the relations in all spheres and regarding all questions of common interest for the states.
Chairman of the Croatian Parliament Zlatko Tomcic, who pays two-day visit to Macedonia upon the invitation of the Parliament's Speaker Stojan Andov, met Monday with the members of the Parliamentary group for cooperation with the Croatian Parliament, the members of the committees on economic policy and development and economy as well as with the coordinators of the larger parliamentary groups.
According to the press release from the Macedonian Parliament, the officials spoke of the options for further development of the inter-parliamentarian cooperation between the two friendly countries. It was noted that the chairmen of the Macedonian and Croatian Parliaments met three times in the past ten years. They emphasized the role of the parliamentary groups for the cooperation between the two parliaments and it was noted that although the relations between the two countries were excellent and their development was progressing, the trade and economic exchange is still lagging behind. The Macedonian and Croatian representatives have committed to find out solutions and ways to intensify and enhance the economic cooperation.
The Macedonian representatives also informed the guests about the current political-security situation in the country.
PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE BROADCASTING COUNCIL.
MIA
The Broadcasting Council decided to propose to the Macedonian Government to grant 27 new concessions, one on national level for radio program and 26 on local level, out of which 17 for radio and nine for TV broadcasting, President of the Broadcasting Council Ljubomir Jakimovski told Monday's press conference.
The Council will not grant new concession for TV broadcasting on national level, as according to Jakimovski, "not a single applicant offered a program significantly different than those of the TV stations, which currently broadcast on the Macedonian territory."
Jakimovski announced that in compliance with the new Law on election of Members of the Parliament, the Broadcasting Council would develop a book of procedures for equal media presentation, which should be adopted by the Parliament. The Council asked for assistance from the international experts and will also contact with the representatives of the parliamentary political groups.
The Book of procedures should be submitted to the Parliament at least 60 days prior to the elections.
The Broadcasting Council will carry out monitoring in order to obtain objective indicators for the intensity, the form and the contents of the media coverage of the elections, and would make analyses in order to provide opportunities for equal presentation of all political entities in the electronic media and opportunities for equal promotion of the election programs of all parties.
Jakimovski informed that the Council would monitor the violation of the legal provisions during the election silence and the commercial limits.
If some of the media violate the election silence, Jakimovski warned that the Broadcasting Council would notify the Telecommunication Bureau in order to seize their equipment.
N-PLANT-COMMENTS.
BTA
Kouneva: IAEA's Assessment of N-Plant's Units Is Cautious, Doesn't Concern 'Safety Design'
Sofia, July 1 (BTA) - The positive assessment of Kozlodoui N-plant'S units given by the International Atomic Energy Agency late last week is very cautious and does not concern the so called 'safety design' which is what the European Commission is concerned about, European Affairs Minister Meglena Kouneva told Monday the Bulgarian National Radio.
In her words, there is no information that the European Commission or any of the EU members has reconsidered its stand on the N-plant. "What happened recently was that Lithuania accepted the European Commission's terms. I think this example deserves to be studied thoroughly by the Energy working group and by the Cabinet, which has to form its position by the end of the year,"said Kouneva.
Asked to comment on the Cabinet's future steps and the findings of the IAEA mission, according to which the life of Units 3 and 4 can be extended, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said, "Everything which is done by experts and is well-grounded is positive for the country. The Cabinet has a clear policy since last year and we will stick to it. I have exchanged opinions with people who are usually sensitive to this issue."
Taking up a question whether Bulgaria should part with the illusions that it can get the better of the European Commission, Kouneva said that "we should think in concrete terms and see what we are losing when we are gaining and what we are gaining when we are losing".
In her opinion, the negotiations process is a process of mutual confidence-building, which means that Bulgaria should trust the 15 member states and the European Commission that it will be treated fairly in regards to the Kozlodoui N-plant.
"Our European partners, too, should trust us that when we make a promise we keep it," said Kouneva.
BULGARIA - FOREIGN MINISTRY - REVIEW.
BTA
Foreign Minister Passy Reviews Bulgaria's "Most Successful Foreign-Policy Year since WW II"
Bourgas, on the Black Sea, July 1 (BTA) - Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy described the outgone year as "probably Bulgaria's most successful foreign-policy year since World War II." In a lecture delivered before members of the Association of Urban Mayors for EU Accession, Passy reviewed the performance of his Ministry since he took office in June 2001.
The Foreign Minister stressed that the internal consensus achieved between Government, Parliament and President is one of the keys to the success of Bulgaria's foreign policy. "We received a fine foreign-policy legacy from the previous cabinet, and we spared no effort to maximize it in the best interest of Bulgaria," Passy observed. He specified that his Ministry has focused on ten principal areas. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US, Bulgaria acted as a de facto member of the Alliance. "Now Bulgaria is closer to NATO than at any time before, and relations with the US are at a very good level," the Foreign Minister said.
At a news briefing after the lecture, he added that the chances of membership at the NATO Summit in Prague in November are "very, very strong" but made the reservation that absolutely certain projections should not be made because such statements may have a demobilizing effect.
Passy declined to comment on the Cabinet's performance during its first year in office. "It was very important for us that we replaced competition with Romania by cooperation, and the regional interaction in the '2+2' format (Bulgaria and Romania plus Greece and Turkey) has transfigured the Balkans," the chief Bulgarian diplomat said.
He stressed the deideologization of relations with Macedonia and Yugoslavia as yet another success. "During that period, Bulgaria's visa policy was accurate and carefully weighed," Passy said, citing as evidence the 250,000 foreigners who visited the country in May 2002, a monthly record high for the last 20 years.
The Minister described the progress in state-to-state relations with Russia as a "remarkable success." Summing up, Passy argued that the outgone year was "probably the most successful foreign-policy year for Bulgaria since World War II." "Still, I will be really happy when the results of this policy make themselves felt to everybody," Passy said.
PRIME MINISTER - CRANS MONTANA FORUM.
BTA
Prime Minister: Crans Montana Forum Showed Great Interest in Bulgaria.
Sofia, July 1 (BTA) - At the 13th annual meeting of the Crans Montana Forum, international investors showed great interest and increased confidence in Bulgaria, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said Monday, back from the Swiss resort.
The Prime Minister said he had met with the Mongolian President to discuss, among other matters, a Bulgarian-Mongolian joint venture for gold mining.
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha expressed hope that the two commissions, one Bulgarian and one Mongolian, which are in charge of the project, will settle the related issues successfully.
The Prime Minister was asked to elaborate on the possibility to have Swiss visas waived for Bulgarians, which he had discussed with the Swiss Foreign Minister. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said: "The Swiss Parliament is expected to consider the issue after the summer, but I think that everything is perfectly clear."
RUSSIA-DEBT.
BTA
Russia Transfers $15 Mln to Finance Ministry Account.
Sofia, July 1 (BTA) - The Russian Federation Finance Ministry transferred Monday morning 15 million dollars to a Finance Ministry account in Bulbank, paying back part of Russia's debt to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Finance Ministry press centre told BTA.
Earlier this year two countries agreed that Moscow should pay off 15 million dollars of its debt by June 30, 2002.
The agreement stipulates that Bulgaria will write off 25 million dollars of the Russian debt on the date the transfer.
BULGARIA - EDUCATION - PRESIDENT.
BTA
President Purvanov Opens Bulgaria's First European Centre for Lifelong Learning in Varna.
Varna, on the Black Sea, July 1 (BTA) - President Georgi Purvanov Monday opened a European Centre for Lifelong Learning, the first of its kind, at the Chernorizets Hrabar Varna Free University.
"The establishment of the Centre is in the spirit of Bulgarian traditions which have preserved the proverb 'We are never too old to learn.' The project is also in the spirit of European and global tendencies, as well as of the tendencies of Bulgaria's structural reform, and will enable a large part of the citizens of Bulgaria to enrich and refresh their skills and experience," the President said.
The four-year project for the establishment of the Centre started under the EU SOCRATES Programme and 361,000 euros have been utilized under that programme over one year. Most of the equipment has been procured under another EU programme, TEMPUS.
Introduction of distance and on-line learning will help meet the challenges of modern social practice, surmounting the obstacles to access to education for people of different regions and for socially disadvantaged people.
Experienced and strong partners from university centres in Britain, France and Spain have been attracted for the establishment of the Centre, said the Rector of Varna Free University, Prof. Anna Nedyalkova.
The idea of the project is to implement the scheme of continuous education in Bulgaria, drawing extensively on the experience and the academic resources of the EU member states, to establish an international centre for continuous education within Varna Free Univerity which would develop and provide an educational product adequate to the demand of the labour market in Bulgaria and the Black Sea region.
Promotion Campaign for "Kozloduy" Launched.
INTERVIEW Standartnews: Vesselin Bliznakov
Belcho Tsanev
Transition period is over, its time for constructive action, says Vesselin Bliznakov.
Vesselin Bliznakov (59) is an MP in 39th National Assembly. He is the secretary of the NMS party, vice-chairman of the Energy and Energy Efficiency Commission to the parliament and former chairman of the Bulgarian Atomic Society. He graduated medicine and for over 26 years has been studying the effect of radiation over human organism in the National Center for Radiobiology and Radiation Protection.
- Mr. Bliznakov, July 5 is the "birthday" of the 39th National Assembly. What has the NMS and your commission in particular done within this period?
- We in the NMS definitely think that the transition period in Bulgaria is over and time has come for constructive action. We are working toward modernization of this country. Among other things we have considered the energy strategy. We adopted a new law on the safe use of atomic energy. In July, the atomic energy regulation agency is to be set up. A totally new energy law will be adopted, which will mean a more modern development framework for the entire sector.
- What about nuclear power engineering?
- Nuclear power is of particular importance to our society. Presently there's no doubt that Units 1 and 2 will be decommissioned before January 1, 2003. We would like to convince the West that Units 3 and 4 do meet all modern requirements for nuclear safety. We have spurred up all our diplomatic missions. The ministers of foreign affairs and Eurointegration have also made commitments to contribute. All MPs traveling to Europe who have contacts with the UN officials are instructed to spell out what had Bulgaria done in terms of ensuring nuclear safety. The parliament, government and President - all will defend the interests of Bulgaria in the field of nuclear power generation. Al-Qaeda's Links In The Balkans.
Insight Magazine
Posted July 1, 2002
By Jamie Dettmer
Since Sept. 11 the U.S. intelligence services have been working hard to uncover links between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network and other Islamic groups throughout the world. And the Bush administration has not been slow to advertise connections once discovered or to demand cooperation from local authorities in order to disrupt the links.
According to President George W. Bush, the war on terror should be seamless and Washington expects all countries to assist in fighting the scourge of terrorism. In return, Bush has promised the United States will "support and reward governments" that, in his words, "make the right choices."
But when it comes to Kosovo and Macedonia the seamless approach appears to be at risk of unraveling. The Balkans is one area where the United States apparently would prefer to step lightly for fear of upsetting the tenuous peace.
U.S. and NATO intervention was required to establish and now to enforce that peace in the republics of the former Yugoslavia.
Or so claim Macedonian officials, who argue they are not receiving the rewards they deserve. They maintain that the United States and the European Union (EU) were wrong to push for concessions to be granted last year to ethnic Albanians and their guerrilla army, which mainly is composed of fighters from the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The Macedonians say the Bush administration has shown little interest in pursuing links they have uncovered between al-Qaeda and groups allied with Albanian separatists, who continue to foment trouble in northern Macedonia with frequent incursions from neighboring Kosovo. Macedonian intelligence has been in regular contact with the CIA and the FBI. Both have been supplied with details of the al-Qaeda relationship with militant Albanian nationalist groups in neighboring Kosovo, which is under U.N. protection, and Macedonia, which was spared a civil war last year following NATO brokering a peace agreement between the majority Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians.
Intertwined Albanian groups in the region, most of them closely aligned with organized-crime syndicates, have as their objective the carving out of what they call "Greater Albania" an area that includes 90,000 square kilometers (36,000 square miles) of Kosovo, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro.
In the spring, Macedonian officials provided U.S. National Security Council (NSC) aides with a 79-page report on al-Qaeda activity in the area. The report, which was compiled by Macedonia's Ministry of the Interior, lists the names of al-Qaeda-linked fighters and outlines the roles of two units, one numbering 120 and the other 250, in northern Macedonia.
The Macedonians say the units are based in the Kumanovo-Lipkovo region of their country. As well as being composed of Macedonian and Kosovar Albanians, they say the units also number fighters from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan and Chechnya, some of whom were trained in al-Qaeda-run camps in Afghanistan. The Macedonians seized a video made by one of the so-called "mujahideen," a Turk named Ramzi Adem, showing the activities of the foreign fighters. The 120-man unit is led by Selimi Ferit, an Albanian born in the Macedonian capital of Skopje.
Macedonian sources say the presence of dozens of al-Qaeda fighters in the region should be viewed with alarm by Washington and the EU. Private security experts concur that they could pose a threat to U.S. and NATO forces stationed in Kosovo and Macedonia and even in Bosnia, where Afghan veterans are believed to have sought safe haven.
Copies of the Macedonian report, which was leaked to Insight, also were supplied to the FBI and the CIA. "Officials at the NSC and CIA were polite and received the information with thanks, but little else has happened," says a Macedonian official who requested anonymity. There also has been little action on terror-linked money-laundering schemes the Macedonians say they have monitored involving bank accounts in Switzerland and Germany.
U.S. government sources dispute the Macedonian characterization, arguing that indeed they have followed up any information supplied by Skopje, with the names being run through Immigration and Naturalization Service computers to see if any of the listed fighters ever had entered the United States. Some administration officials caution that Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, a former student revolutionary, and Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski are overplaying the al-Qaeda links with the aim of persuading the West to drop pressure on the Macedonians to implement political reforms agreed to in last year's NATO-brokered cease-fire.
They also worry that the Macedonian prime minister, who heads a coalition government made up of Macedonians and Albanians, risks losing a parliamentary election set for the autumn and is intent on inflaming nationalist sentiments on both sides. One fear is that Georgievski will stoke inter-Albanian rivalries there recently have been shoot-outs between rival Albanian groups in the town of Tetovo and use that feuding as a reason for postponing the vote.
Nonetheless, whatever the motives of the current Macedonian government for pushing the al-Qaeda ties now, U.S. and Western intelligence sources acknowledge privately that Albania and Kosovo attracted interest from bin Laden in the late 1990s and that Albania continues to serve as a money-raising center for al-Qaeda.
Apart from sending fighters to aid the KLA during the struggle in Kosovo with the Serbs, al-Qaeda is believed to have contributed funds to Albanian separatists and to have established strong links with Albanian Mafia leaders, who aid the formally disbanded but still existing KLA in schemes to raise money through narco-trafficking, prostitution and gun-running.
The Albanian Mafia controls the major Balkans narcotics-smuggling route that runs through Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. Although evidence remains sketchy of al-Qaeda involvement in narcotics, that isn't the case for the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan that profited from the heroin trade.
According to Fatos Klosi, the head of Albanian intelligence, a major network of bin Laden supporters was established in 1998 in Albania under the cover of various Muslim charities. The network served as a springboard for operations in Europe. Klosi claimed the network had "already infiltrated other parts of Europe from bases in Albania through traffic in illegal immigrants, who have been smuggled by speedboat across the Mediterranean to Italy in large numbers."
Yossef Bodansky, director of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, claimed in his book, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, that the Albanian network was headed by Muhammad al-Zawahiri, the engineer brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian who mentored bin Laden and, according to the United States, was the brains behind Sept. 11 and other attacks.
U.S. intelligence sources have confirmed to Insight that dozens of KLA fighters trained in bin Laden camps in Afghanistan and that some of them returned to fight with al-Qaeda and the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terror attacks against New York City and Washington.
So why the cautious approach in the Balkans? "The murky complexity of Balkan politics makes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict look simple," confides a private-sector security expert influential with the Bush administration. "We backed the KLA in the fight against Serbia and we have to take care not to open up a can of worms."
Macedonian officials maintain that Western governments, including the United States, appear determined to downplay the al-Qaeda links with Albanian separatists because to highlight the ties could provoke public disaffection with NATO's continued presence in Kosovo. It also might prompt questions about why the West isn't taking a harder line with militant Albanians.
James Phillips, a research fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, takes a more benign view. "Al-Qaeda has a modus operandi of helping Islamic groups such as the KLA and of infiltrating to become a major influence within them. The Bush administration may well not be ignoring the Macedonian information, but it is much more concerned about al-Qaeda threats in the U.S. than in the Balkans. In short, the White House may have opted for the tactical approach of laying off in the short term."
Jamie Dettmer is a senior editor for Insight.
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