MACEDONIA IN VIEW OF NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Subject: skopje-ngo's in macedonia

AIM, Skopje, june 12, 1995 On Thursday, Miguel Angel Martinez from Spain, the first man of the Council of Europe ended his two-day visit to Macedonia. Besides his host, Chairman of the Macedonian parliament, Stojan Andov, Mr Martinez met and talked with Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and on such occasions the inevitable President of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, but he also addressed the deputies of the Assembly. On all these occasions, the Chairman of the parliament of the Council of Europe never failed to announce that he would soon propose admittance of Macedonia to this distinguished house of Europe.

The President of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, as cited in the statement issued after the meeting between Gligorov and Martinez, stressed that the Republic of Macedonia has no reserves in respect to adoption of European norms and conventions. Mr Martinez, on the other hand, speaking to Macedonian deputies, declared that the procedure for the admittance of this former Yugoslav republic in the Council of Europe is progressing, since the report of legal experts concerning compliance of the legal system of Macedonia with European norms was positive.

Contrary to such optimism expressed by Mr Martinez declaring, among other, that he hoped that Macedonia would be admitted to the Council of Europe while he was still in office, that is, in the course of this year, the Albanians opposed such a possibility claiming that the Macedonian state did not respect all human rights they were entitled to. If, at this point, it is permissible to interpret what the Albanians do not like in the behavior of the Macedonian state, it is primarily the fact that Macedonian authorities are refusing to permit opening of a university in Albanian language. On the other hand, the Albanians are trying to win the right to speak in their mother tongue, Albanian, in the parliament, which was opposed by the Macedonians again, who claim that the only official language is Macedonian. Should both parties remain irreconcilable, the result will be a continued opposition of Macedonian Albanians to admission of Macedonia to the Council of Europe. And not just that, but to its admission to other European and international institutions.

Despite these Macedonian-Albanian skirmishes which have become a constant of the Macedonian political scene, Macedonia is the only former Yugoslav republic which has so far managed to neutralize internal interethnic tensions and avoid their turning into open armed conflicts. This was achieved in two ways. On the one hand, by using good offices of international mediators who have in almost all critical moments managed to calm things down. On the other hand, by efforts of the Macedonian state leadership to make the impression that it obeys European norms mentioned by Mr Gligorov and Mr Martinez, although it all not rarely remained just promises which failed to be turned into corresponding laws in the parliament. Nor was it ever precisely stated when anything of the kind would take place.

Macedonia is one of the rare countries in the Balkans where various non-governmental organizations flourished unhindered and where opinions of international observers were to a certain extent respected. With full support of the media, they often played the role of catalysts which eased evident tensions. Although there are still no direct indictions that this might be changing on the level of state policy, unfavourable signals have started to arrive via the media which figure as journals close to the Macedonian government. Recently, for instance, the founder of the Soros Foundation, the American businessman George Soros, became the target of Macedonian journalists. This man who, on several occasions when Macedonia faced the worst crises, came to its rescue by granting favourable loans and gifts of money, and became a specific Macedonian benefactor, experienced a severe attack in the major Macedonian daily "Nova Makedonija". He was simply told not to interfere in "internal affairs" of a sovereign country, and the reason for this was that certain reflections of his about the burning Macedonian problems were not in tune with the official Macedonian policy.

Not long ago, we were also witnesses to a public polemic on the pages of the weekly "Puls" when the President of the Helsinki Committee for protection of human rights, Meto Jovanovski, clashed with a journalist of "Puls", Mirce Tomovski. In answer to what Mr Tomovski wrote, Meto Jovanovski, among other, observed that Tomovski's text "placed observers of the UN Secretary General special envoy Jugo Ansen, observers of Mr Mazowiecki, European monitors headed by Mr Borg, and Jovanovski's 'ethnic policemen'(people from the Helsinki Committee) on the bench for the accused". As Jovanovski added, everybody who does not belong to the current official system found itself among the ccused, allegedly, only because "various directives for resolving issues concerning violation of human rights arrived from various international institutions".

This polemic which conceals the increasing efforts of Macedonian journalists to deny the competence of complaints arriving from non-governmental organizations, is in any case a signal which shows that numerous international observers, but non-governmental organizations too, will not be able to operate completely undisturbed and, as circles close to the authorities believe, constantly "preach" how problems should be resolved. And yet, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to a direct conflict between the authorities and non-governmental organizations.