Is Interior Minister Dimovska Withdrawing?

Dosta Dimovska, which is considered the second person in the ruling VMRO-DPMNE and the shadow Prime Minister, yielded under the public pressure that has been provoked by the "Macedonian Watergate" and offered her resignation. Whether she will go or stay in the Cabinet is now up to the Prime Minister. If she goes, that will pose a serious problem for Georgievski, but if she stays the opposition will demand even more vigorously the resignation of Georgievski himself.

AIM Skopje, February 19, 2001

Early this weekend, the Interior Minister, Dosta Dimovska, announced her resignation. In her explanation she denied being involved in the tapping of more than 100 politicians and public figures: "I want "Concerning the "tapping scandal" of public and political figures, which the SDSM leaders have orchestrated and presented to the public, particularly on account of accusations addressed against me, I want to point out that my work so far, my decisions, actions and running of the Interior Ministry were based solely on the Constitution and laws in force in the Republic of Macedonia, and that I have never ordered the tapping of persons mentioned in the scandal for ideological and political reasons".

She also pointed out that "immediately after the scandal broke out and in accordance with my competences, I took care that all legal measures were undertaken to elucidate the case. To that end full cooperation was established with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the investigating agencies and, at the political level, with the competent parliamentary committee in charge of supervising the activities of State Security Service (DBK) and the Intelligence Agency Macedonia (ARM) which established that there were no circumstances, facts and evidence to prove that the Ministry of Interior (MUP), through the abuse of office in the line of duty, tapped the conversations of civil servants, journalists and citizens of the Republic of Macedonia". But, after "a month of media attacks against me" which inflicted grave personal and political damage and following "demands of certain intellectuals and journalists for my culpability, that came as a voice that touched my conscience", Dimovska decided to tender her resignation to Prime Minister Georgievski.

It is now up to the Prime Minister to decide whether he will accept her resignation or not. Although there are those that think that act of tendering the resignation rather than offering to do so does not leave any space for that. Only a few days before she tendered her resignation, the Committee for the Supervision of the State Security Service and the Intelligence Agency, decided by votes of the Government's majority deputies not to bring Dimovska to account for her role in the "Macedonian Watergate" scandal or the so called "Big Ear" as this discovery of tapes of tapped conversation of numerous politicians (the former and current head of state, 15 parliamentarians, 5 Cabinet members, seven political party leaders, twenty journalists, etc.) is called.

But, this doesn't mean that the authorities have carried the day in Parliament, because a Parliament session has been scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the Committee's report and the speaker of RM Parliament, Stojan Andov, has already announced that it would be "hot".

The opposition political parties, for the most part, described Dimovska's resignation as belated. "We expected Ms. Dosta Dimovska to take this move already on the first day after the tapping scandal was disclosed", said Vice-President and Spokesman for the leading opposition party SDSM Vlado Buckovski adding: "Now, that perpetrator of this gross violation of human rights has tendered her resignation, we expect the same to be also done by the one who ordered the tapping, i.e. Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski". "It turned out that the opposition was right and that someone also had to be the victim of the authorities. This proves that in this state there is both a Government and a Parliamentary crisis", stated Vice-President of VMRO-DPMNE Boris Zmejkovski, according to whom Dimovska's resignation would not essentially change relations in the state. He was of the opinion that a series of resignation should follow.

PDP Secretary General Muhamed Halili was of the opinion that Dimovska should also be indicted. Liberal Democrats said that Dimovska's resignation "proves that Government institutions were also tapped".

The Government coalition parties had an opposite opinion. VMRO-DPMNE, one of whose founders Dosta Dimovska was, thought that her resignation was unacceptable, but showed understanding for her personal stand. "In the past period, the opposition organised a harangue against Minister Dimovska although she is not politically responsible for any of the charges mentioned in the accusations. We do not accept her resignation, but it is not up to us to decide", said Spokesman for the ruling party Igor Gievski.

The Albanian coalition partner adopted the same stand. The leader of the Albanian Democratic Party, Arben Xhaferi, stated: "Dosta Dimovska's resignation speaks about her morality. This resignation is based on an extensive examination of the current situation. I believe that we are here facing a very destructive phenomenon, namely dislocation of different structures relative to the system which indicates that political phalanxes are in the making. Some structures within the institutions of the system now openly show their loyalty to the SDSM and put up unprecedented resistance against the normal functioning of the system, which essentially is the starting point for the establishment of the phalanxes in Macedonia. Her resignation is an act of sound morality which warns both us and the public at large that the disintegration of the system should be halted. We, as a political party shall stand up in her defence and in the defence of her mission to protect the institutions of the system".

It is precisely this statement by Xhaferi that seems typical. For, during that same last week, the Deputy Interior Minister, Refet Elmazi, from the DPA, also stated in public that he too was considering tendering his resignation mentioning as one of the reasons the fact that "Chetnik structures" still existed and were strongly opposing the current authorities. The thesis on "old structures" in the institutions of the system, in other words those that still see themselves as part of the one-time Yugoslav federation or, to put it mildly, are close in stands to the SDSM, has now been radicalised by claims that "Chetniks are undermining" the institutions of the system, even the most sensitive ones like DBK or the Intelligence Agency.

These developments have certainly been affected by the events following the shelling of the police station at the village of Tearce, the police actions launched in that connection in mostly Albanian populated Polog villages, as well as the most recent "Tanusevce" case which started with the arrest of the Skopje TV A-1 crew by unidentified "Kalshnikov" armed group wearing KLA emblems and the border incident 24 hours later, which only showed that, at least in that village, it was impossible to control the northern border.

According to some interpretations, this multitude of serious actions, primarily in the field of internal affairs - cleansing all the structures of "Chetniks", elucidation of sensitive events, etc. - does not leave any space for the acceptance of Dimovska's resignation, but requires that full support be given to her in putting the house in order.

Consequently, it is believed that the Prime Minister, with the support of his entire Cabinet, will refuse Dimovska's resignation which could, strengthen her resolve to clear up the mess she has inherited.

The possibility of Dimovska leaving the Government also leaves open another much more important question of her leaving or remaining in party structures. Dimovska is believed to be very powerful in VMRO-DPMNE. She is not only one of its founding members, but is with Georgievski one of the five people that shaped the image of the party. Dimovska came out victorious from her conflict with Boris Zmejkovski, who was a long-standing Secretary General of that party and one of its pillars. Dimovska also easily defeated Boris Stojmenov, who was the first Minister of Finance in Georgievski's Government, Vice-President of the party and the man who paid even the party leadership out of his own profits for years. Rumour has it that Dimovska is the only person able to calm down Georgievski in certain situations when he runs out of control, which is allegedly attributable to his health problems. Therefore, Dimovska's withdrawal from the Government, as insiders claim, after all wouldn't be much of tragedy, but her possible withdrawal from the party would be a disaster both for her and Georgievski personally.

AIM Skopje

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