SITUATION IN CRISIS REGIONS.
MIA
No movements of armed persons have been registered during Thursday night in Kumanovo - Lipkovo region although violation of the public order and peace continues, MIA's correspondent reports.
Army sources say gunfire has been registered 14 times in the period of 11:00 to 22:00 hours from the villages of Vaksince, Slupcane, Glaznja, Nikustak and Ropaljce. Shootouts have not been aimed at direct targets.
No shootouts are heard Friday morning in Tetovo crisis region, MIA's correspondent reports.
Police and army sources say volleys of fire and sporadic shootouts have been heard overnight from Rasadiste locality, near Tetovo - Popova Sapka, the kindergarten "Mladost," industrial part of the town, the reservoirs of the water works, the SEE University, "SS. Cyril and Methodius" and "Bratstvo Migjeni" elementary schools, "Goce Stojcevski" textile high school, Ciglana, Drenovec 2, Vonvardarska, Kupenik and Gorna Carsija settlements.
Shootouts have been also registered from the villages of Otusiste, Prsovce, Odri, Dobroste, Prvce, Mala Recica, Palatica, Trebos, Strimnica and Gajre.
The situation in the Tetovo crisis area Thursday was relatively peaceful, though the peace was frequently violated with gunfire from infantry weaponry, coming from the suburbs and several villages near the town, MIA's correspondent reported.
Planes of the Macedonian airforce flied above Tetovo on several occasions.
Army spokesman Blagoja Markovski said that they were performing training flights. Several NATO helicopters were also present in the area.
A team of the Tetovo police department carried out investigation on the location at the Tetovo-Gostivar highway where gunfire was opened on a police patrol from a runaway vehicle early morning Thursday. Attackers also attacked a cargo vehicle.
POLICE REDEPLOYMENT PLAN IS COMPLETED.
MIA
The plan for reintegration of Macedonia's territory is completed, Macedonian Minister of Interior Affairs Ljube Boskovski and Police General Aleksandar Doncev said Thursday.
The plan has been realized in coordination with the Ministries of Defence, Interior, Transport and Communications, the Army and representatives of NATO, OSCE, EU, UNCHR and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Prime Minister and Chairman of the Crisis Management Body Ljubco Georgievski welcomed the realization of the plan, Boskovski said, pointing out that tomorrow's establishing of a 24-hour police patrol in the crisis regions would mean restoring of the rule of law in the entire country.
On this occasion, domestic and international officials will travel with a peace train on Saturday noon from Kumanovo to Kicevo. The regular railroad transportation from Kumanovo to Skopje will be set into operation on Sunday.
General Doncev briefed about the new police methodology in the crisis regions, which will be applied in the next week.
He said that the plan, which included the police redeployment, demining, reconstruction of the damaged houses and returning of the displaced persons, was realized in 140 villages. The demining process of about 1,800 square meters, 504 houses and 453 other buildings was carried out in cooperation with three international teams, Doncev said. So far, a total of 6,132 houses have been reconstructed out of the 8,049 damaged houses.
Doncev said that 86,954 displaced persons were registered, of which over 22,000 Macedonians left the country, mostly heading to Kosovo. Over 4,500 persons are still in Kosovo, while some 100 persons are in Serbia. There are 13.404 internally displaced persons, i.e. 11.134 are accommodated with families and 2,207 in collective centers.
Doncev also briefed on ongoing preparations for setting of police stations in the villages Matejce, Tearce, Radusa and Zerovjane.
"There is also a police station in the village of Aracinovo, " Doncev said.
Minister Boskovski emphasized that Macedonia did nothing at all to provoke such brutal aggression by Kosovo protectorate, which was assisted by certain groups, and the country has suffered losses in order to defend its sovereignty and integrity. However, the peaceful reintegration has been completed and the "rule of law will be applied in every Macedonian village and town," Boskovski said. He also thanked to NATO, OSCE and EU representatives and everyone else that actively contributed for restoring the peace. Boskovski also expressed his satisfaction as "USA has denounced the extremism in Macedonia and especially those who still dream of 'Great Albania' and new demarcation line," referring to Haxhirexha's condemnation. Emphasizing the support by the international community, Boskovski also spoke of the donor's conference.
He said that some of the former terrorists have become politicians because of their own personal interests after the peace was restored. However, he stressed that all those who have committed crimes not related to NLA, would be brought to justice.
Boskovski reiterated that during the first composition of the Coordinate Crisis Management Body headed by Ilija Filipovski, the body was not focused on implementation of the peace in Macedonia.
Triggered by a journalist question whether OSCE would monitor the special police forces "Lions" during the elections, the Interior Minister urged the media not to use the police and its special forces for political purposes.
Boskovski regretted as "those persons that have only attended the training courses would have equal status as those that have completed four-year school."
He also informed that the draft-law on disarming was in parliamentary procedure and its implementation was expected within the international projects of South East European countries for collection of small and light weapons.
Upon the governmental decision, the Crisis Management Center will become a governmental body and will operate in peacetime focused mainly on prevention of natural disasters.
FIRST SESSION OF THE ECONOMIC FORUM 2002.
MIA
In organization of the Open Society Institute "Macedonia," the first session of the so-called "Economic Forum 2002" took place in Skopje on Thursday.
Moderator of the session was Natalija Nikolovska, professor at the Faculty of Economy, who gave the main guidelines for the forum. As she said, these guidelines include analysis of the economic indicators, aimed to provide conclusion on certain situations in this field of work and to provide "qualitative analysis of the economic movements in the country."
Macedonian minister of finance Nikola Gruevski referred to the economic movements in the country based on relevant economic indicators.
Regarding the accusations delivered by Hari Kostov, director of the Commercial Bank, that the data published in the media in the period of April 30-May 3 were paid for with money from the budget, Gruevski said that most of those information were published on the web-site of the Ministry.
Regarding the unemployment, Gruevski said that "it was wrongly copied from the Ministry of Finance." He explained that the statistical data show unemployment rate of 32,2%, which is valid for 2000, while according to a survey carried out in October of 2001, the unemployment rate has decreased on 30.5%. This figure, as Gruevski said, was verified by the IMF.
"The claim that the GDP in 2001 has dropped under the level of 1994 is incorrect," Gruevski said, adding that in 1994 the GDP per capita was $1,740, in 2000 - $1,936 and in 2001 - $1,853.
Regarding the claim that "the data from Crevenkovski's government are definite, and those from Georgievski's government were preliminary," Gruevski said that only the data for last year's GDP was preliminary and all other indicators were definite. In that context, he pointed out that according to the assessments of both the government and the IMF, the GDP in 2002 will increase for 2,5 to 3%.
Gruevski also denied the comments made by Taki Fiti, who said that the countries in transition have marked negative ratings in 1994 and in 1995. As Gruevski said, according to the Vienna Institute for International Studies, in 1995 all countries in transition have realized high GDP rates, except for Macedonia which was the only transitional country that had negative GDP rate.
"The new government continued with the price stability in 1998. In 1999 the economic growth was 4.3 and in 2000 - 4.6%," he said.
Gruevski made a comparison for the average rate of the real economic growth during the government of Crvenkovski and the government of Georgievski.
"In the period of 1993-1998, the average rate of real economic growth had negative trend of 0.8%, while in Georgievski's time, from 1999 to 2002 we achieved real growth of 1.9%," he said.
"Without the year when we were in situation of war, in three years we had real growth of about 4%."
While the shock from the transition in all countries lasted two to three years, except the former Soviet republics, "the shock in Macedonia lasted for five years, which is unacceptable." As he said, "in 1995 Macedonia was the only country in transition without the Soviet republics that had negative GDP growth.
According to Gruevski, Macedonia controlled the inflation rate only in 1994.
"There were no such measures in 1993 and the inflation rate of 1,500% in 1994 was cut to 350% in 1995 only because of introducing of the Macedonian currency in 1992," Gruevski said.
He accused Crvenkovski's government for having no policy in 1993 for control of salaries and public expenditures.
"It resulted in budget deficit of 11,4% of the GDP in 1993, according to the World Bank data," Gruevski said.
He considers that the embargo, imposed on the FR Yugoslavia, was catastrophic for Macedonia's industry, but only for a short period. "It was the best that could have happened to the policy of Crvenkovski's government, because lifting of the sanctions in 1995 cut the export rate for 5%, despite the expectations for its raising."
"The average inflation rate in the period of Crvenkovski's rule was 52,9%. Now, we are achieving better results, despite the raising of oil prices at the world markets, the fact that we have been forced to raise the prices of electricity due to obligations of our predecessors, and to introduce the value-added tax-something that the former ministers did not want to think about," Gruevski said.
He also referred to the agreement of the Macedonian Electric Power Supply Company with the World Bank for a credit of US$ 65 million, signed by Crvenkovski's government in 1998. This agreement included a condition for raising of the electricity price, which was rather hypocritical, Gruevski said.
Georgievski's Government managed to raise the foreign currency reserves from US$ 334 to 714 million before the Telecom's sale. In Crvenkovski's period, the foreign currency reserves were raised from 60 to 334 million, Gruevski said.
"The policy of Crvenkovski's government for restricting of foreign investments, which enabled privatization of companies by their managers in that period, brought Macedonia at the bottom of the list for foreign investments in the transition countries," Gruevski said.
On the contrary, the active policy on withdrawing foreign direct investments of Georgievski's Government gave results even in the 2001. When the fierce war was underway, the foreign direct investments without Telecom amounted to $ 120 million, what was more in comparison to the most successful year of Crvenkovski's rule."
"The deficit in the current account of the balance of payments during Crvenkovski's rule was 6,2 percent of the GDP, and after the embargo was lifted at the end of 1995 there was a fall of the import and export." This is illustrated with the fall of the export from $ 1,240 million to $ 1,147 and fall of the import from $ 1,719 billion to $ 1,627 billion.
"This is one of the numerous arguments that can be said about the embargo imposed to Yugoslavia, which in fact was in favour of the illegal business of the persons close to the ruling structures at that time," Gruevski emphasized.
"In the first year of Georgievski's rule the deficit in the current account of the balance of payments has decreased from 8,6 percent in 1997 to 3,1 percent in 1999," Gruevski said comparing the economic situation.
"In 2000 the deficit was reduced to 3 percent of GDP. However, with the spill over crisis from Kosovo in 2001, the export agreements were cancelled and the private transfers were reduced and it was necessary to equip the security forces, so therefore the deficit in 2001 rose to 10,1 percent, but will be drastically reduced in 2002. Even in the wartime this Government had lower average deficit than the Government headed by Crvenkovski," Gruevski said.
Regarding the foreign debts, the Finance Minister said that the previous Government has increased the debts for $ 318 million in 1998, while since then this Government has reduced the deficit for $3 million.
Gruevski also spoke of the rise of the overall deposits, which according to him have been increased for 410 percent in the period 31 December 1998 - 31 December 2001.
"If we subtract the effect of the currency conversion into Euros and we compare the overall deposits from 31 December 2000 with those at the end of 1998, we will see an increase of 67 percent, what means that the confidence in the banking system has improved significantly. The theory that the savings deposits were increased due to the currency conversion into euros is not founded, because only 30 percent of the population withdrew its deposits, while the deposits of the other 70 percent remained in the banks. It confirms that the population has confidence in the economy implemented by the current authorities," Gruevski explained.
EDUCATION MINISTRY AND WORLD BANK SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT.
MIA
Macedonian Minister of Education Nenad Novkovski and Marie-Helene Bricknell, the World Bank Resident Representative, signed Thursday a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Sciences and the World Bank.
"The Cooperation Memorandum initiates a realization of the Project on modernisation of the education sector, making it one of its priorities in this sphere for the next year," Novkovski said, adding that the project includes a number of Macedonian and foreign experts.
The project is aimed at improving the efficiency of schools in the country and the quality of teaching process, while the main emphasise will be put on the reforms in administration sector.
Novkovski said that the education reform has been carried out through the governmental bodies in collaboration with donors.
The Macedonian Education and Science Ministry and the World Bank agreed on establishing a Donation Fund for improving the teaching process at some schools in the country as well as continuing the work of the Grading Department. The Fund will be operational in the period between September 2002 and June 2003.
Marie-Helene Bricknell underlined that this Project would assist in modernization of the education system in Macedonia. The Dutch Government also agreed to grant financial support to the Project as a partner to the Macedonian Government, she added.
The Project will cost about US $ 20 million, i.e. WB grants a credit of US$ 10 million, while the Dutch Government donates the other 10 million.
Foreign Mercenaries - Who Commanded At Arachinovo?
FORUM
By Borjan Jovanovski
One year after the battle for Arachinovo, the issue about the probable foreign mercenary participation among the mutinous Albanians remains open.
I conclude: the situation is controversial, because the direct participants in the battles and the mediation regarding Arachinovo present controversial accounts on the events and people involved. I even think that some of them attempt to perform a kind of taxidermy of the events.
Albanian side and NATO ambassador Peter Faith admit that there were (at least) three commanders who prepared the extremist operation and lead the defense of the village. These do not include the Commander Hodzha [Hoxha], who the [Macedonian] public considers the main cadre in Arachinovo. No one wants to reveal the identity of the three suspects.
One of the three [warlords] got wounded during the fighting. The official photographs of the Ministry of Interior were denied the right to take his photo during the extraction procedure organized by NATO. He left with the NATO convoy towards Gazela complex [former shoe factory transformed into a NATO base, located in Skopje].
Theres also a certain person named Kushtrim, also. Nobody wants to offer any additional information about him, although hes considered important, and he might as well be the key person of the operation (by the way, he was Fates first contact). Currently, this character resides somewhere abroad.
On the Macedonian side, [Interior] Minister Boshkovski claims that he knows the names of the foreigners involved in Arachinovo, and that he intends to publish their identities in his memoirs. On the other hand, former Defense Minister considers the whole issue bedtime stories for little children.
Its a fact [sic] that NATO gave complete photo documentation, made by drones, on the positions and number of the Albanian extremists in Arachinovo, to the Macedonian security structures. Macedonian Security Forces used this documentation to prepare the plan for entry into the village, which supposedly had to take 4 hours.
According to numerous military and police experts I spoke to, and according to other analysts, the organization and the conduct of defense at Arachinovo was clearly work done by professionals. My personal impression is that there were no foreign mercenaries in Arachinovo, but highly trained Albanian professionals, who left without a trace. Their contacts remain unexposed.
Whether that implicates the Wests [additional clandestine] involvement in the mess of Arachinovo remains an open question.
By the way, Ali Ahmeti currently claims that the occupation of Arachinovo was his response to the proposal by the Macedonian Academy for Sciences and Arts for territorial division of Macedonia. In spite of this, the analyses show that NLA used its action in Arachinovo to obtrude itself as a participant in the political negotiations at the time when President Trajkovski and the leaders of the four political parties tried to achieve a political solution without international involvement. But, that issue should be addressed in a separate analysis.
American Chamber of Commerce in Macedonia Against CNN.
MIA
The American Chamber of Commerce in Macedonia Thursday has issued press release to a recent CNN International television report that equated the security situation in the Republic of Georgia with than in Albania and Macedonia.
The CNN report, which was broadcast on June 29th, dealt with the June 18th kidnapping of a European banker in Tbilisi, Georgia. The reporter noted that this incident would further damage the ability of Georgia to attract Western investment. Near the conclusion of the segment, the reporter draw parallels between Georgia, Albania and Macedonia, implying that foreign investors in Macedonia and Albania face security threats.
The letter issued to CNN by AmCham Macedonia states explicitly that we are aware of no reported or unreported instances of kidnapping or any other acts of violence directed against foreign businesspersons in the Republic of Macedonia.
The letter further notes that even during the period of instability the country faced last year, foreign businesspersons were not directly targeted, and personal security is not currently a priority concern for AmCham Macedonia members.
AmCham Macedonia has asked CNN International to retract the statement concerning Macedonia, and advise its viewers that the stated parallels between Macedonia and other countries mentioned was unfounded.
