The "Harvest" Over, but Macedonia Has Yet to Deliver

With is clear warning addressed to the Prime Minister and the media, the US President's Envoy, Pardew has cleared the way for NATO Secretary General, who came to remind the Macedonian state leadership that it has not yet fulfilled all its obligations undertaken under the Framework Agreement.

AIM Skopje, September 28, 2001

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson came to Skopje in order to explain to his hosts the new Alliance's mission, most of whose elements his hosts thought unacceptable, especially regarding the duration of the mission (NATO offered 9 months, Skopje was willing to accept 3 months), troop strength, etc. On that same day, in his letter addressed to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski Major-General Gunar Lange, Commander of NATO forces "Essential Harvest", informed him that his soldiers had collected the arms handed over by the National Liberation Army (NLA). Thus, NATO soldiers have completed one mission just to start another one - "Amber Fox" will replace "Essential Harvest". This time, the 700-strong German-led force which will be the backbone of the new mission made up of 1,000 soldiers (evidently much more than the hosts were willing to accept - 350 at most), got the United Nations' support in a form of a Security Council Resolution. "The Fox" will take care of the safety of OSCE monitors who are in charge of overseeing the implementation of a new stage of the Framework Agreement of leaders of the major Macedonian political parties in which the most delicate task is the re-establishment of the control of Macedonian authorities over the entire state territory.

Robertson's visit came after a brief stay of President Bush's Special Envoy for Macedonia and mediator in negotiations between party leaders James Pardew. Pardew came to Skopje with two important Washington messages for the Macedonian state leadership. First, there would be no change in the official American policy towards Macedonia despite all the concern over the events in New York and Washington and the war that has been declared on terrorism, which meant that the USA would continue to carefully follow all the events in Macedonia and play an active role in them. Second, he conveyed the concern over the attempts to extend deadlines for the implementation of the Framework Agreement masked by various political tricks, such as the abuse of parliamentary procedure, proposed referendum on constitutional amendments, but also imparted the impression that the "American tragedy was being abused" for these purposes.

With these words Pardew was referring to a series of proposals forwarded by the Macedonian media which link the NLA with Osama Bin Laden, For the Americans this was just an attempt at manipulating the local public so as to prolong the fulfilment of obligations stemming from the Framework agreement, or even annul them. "When these allegations appeared after September 11 and events in the USA, and in view of the fact that no one has mentioned them before, I could not but think that this was the abuse of tragic events for internal political games", said a high Western diplomat.

According to Pardew, by violating and disregarding promises made in the Framework Agreement, some of its signatories were calling into question their credibility not so much before the international community, as before their own people. "The entire process is procrastinated and political manoeuvring used to postpone the constitutional reforms agreed in Ohrid," added this Western diplomat. The American message was amplified by Collin Powell's letter which was more reserved, but basically warned of the dangers that failure to implement the Agreement implied.

Frankly speaking, the tone of the American messages did not cause much concern of the Macedonian side, at least not of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, although they did not specifically mention VMRO-DPMNE it was clear it was considered to be behind all complications with the implementation of the Agreement. Immediately after his meeting with Pardew, Georgievski went to Sofia and Thessaloniki, where he repeated what the Americans disagreed with - that there was no difference between Bin Laden's and UCK's terrorism and that the Framework Agreement was a result of a shameful imposition of conditions on Macedonia to the terrorists' advantage. At the same time, the Parliament is discussing two proposed referenda – the first one on constitutional amendments and the second whether the term "Macedonian people" should be deleted from the Constitution.

VMRO-DPMNE deputies announced that they would vote for a referendum on constitutional amendments, while it is still uncertain how they would vote on constitutional amendments. It is therefore completely uncertain whether the Macedonian side will honour the assumed obligations - introduction of constitutional amendments, adoption of a new law on local self-government and granting amnesty to NLA members who voluntarily surrendered their arms and had not committed any war crimes (pledged by President Trajkovski personally). Also, leaders of the major parliamentary political parties were also asked to re-launch negotiations for the revision of the Framework Agreement. Information has already reached the Macedonian public that everyone is "washing hands of" amnesty, while Trajkovski is looking for a way to keep his promise. However, according to experts he has no legal grounds to do that as President.

During his visit George Robertson reminded of the obligation of keeping the given promises and undertaken obligations: "By concluding the 'Harvest' we have come to the end of the road, but the success should not distract us from what lies ahead, i.e. the uncompleted political process and unfulfilled Parliament's obligations. The question of constitutional amendments is the question of this country's integration into European-Atlantic structures. Failure on the Parliament's part might lead the country into civil war and it is therefore its task to turn people's hopes into reality". NATO Secretary-General stated that the alliance would no longer tolerate terrorism in Macedonia, but also definitely emphasised that "amnesty must be a part of the final agreement" pointing out that he asked President Trajkovski to keep his word.

For its part, the NLA is still coldly following the developments from the side and has announced its disbanding despite the fact that the state has not kept its side of the bargain. Thus, the Macedonian UCK will once more score with the international community for its cooperativeness, whereas the Macedonian state structures will continue to lose their credibility of a reliable partner in an extremely delicate situation for the country's peace.

ISO RUSI

(AIM)