MACEDONIA WILL NOT JOIN NEW STATE UNIONS
Interview with Dmitar Mircev, Macedonian Ambassador in Slovenia
AIM, LJUBLJANA, September 7, 1995 The American "package" of proposals for peace in the Balkans has not been publicized yet, although based on everyday details appearing on the political scene it can easily be deduced how comprehensive it is and what lies beneath the red tape it has been wrapped up with. News dating back a few days that the American negotiator Richard Holbrook, after talks with the Serb President Slobodan Milosevic, visited Skopje where he presented the idea about Macedonia's possible joining of a future (con)federation of Balkan states to President Kiro Gligorov, was not a surpise only for the Macedonian public, but for the public in all the newly established states in the territory of the Balkans. That the Macedonian state authorities take the proposal seriously is verified by the fact that the National Security Council of the Republic of Macedonia was in session until late at night which was made public, but what it concluded about the American-Serb proposal was not.
Prof. Dr Dmitar Mircev, the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia in Slovenia, when asked to comment on this idea and state the stance of his country, said as follows:
This is not the first attempt or initiative to try to form a new state creation out of the former republics which are now independent states. On several occasions, Serb President Milosevic has already offered the possibility of creation of a new federation or confederation, he has offered it to Romania and Greece even. A few years ago, Macedonia was ready to talk with all the republics about joint forms of life which included the possibility of a federation or confederation. After the war in Slovenia, though, the war in Croatia, and especially, after everything that is going on in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia considers all ideas referring to any sort of integration with suspicion.
There were even ideas about an Orthodox confederation which would gather Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and of course, Serbia, and even Russia.
Our strategic attitude was that no new political divisions were needed in the Balkan, that is, that first everything must be done to end the war, the shooting, to bring peace, and then to begin negotiations about renewal of economic, cultural and relations in other spheres which include normal inter-state relations. In other words, it means that Macedonia will not participate in any talks which suggest creation of any form of associative relations or creation of a new state or political forms of association. The American proposal is, of course, a "package" the parts of which are more or less coordinated and include proposals for settling relations between the states established on the territory of Yugoslavia and in the Balkans in general, but everything in it is not acceptible for everyone in the package. That is why we do not intend even to begin discussing talks about these ideas, confederations, federations etc. If some of these forms guarantee and provide or peace in B&H, which state leadership of B&H must reach a decision about on its own and if it assesses that the proposals provide for peace and cooperation among nations, it should be accepted. However, if these state forms should not secure peace, but contribute to new disintegration of this unfortunate country and its people, the ideas should of course be reexamined and carefully reconsidered.
Mr Ambassador, the Albanian issue is very important for Macedonia in this context. There were misunderstandings and conflicts, so would you, please, say something about the status of the Albanians in Macedonia and compare their situation with that of the Albanians in Kosovo.
We bring that issue down to the issue of minority rights of the Albanians and all the others in Macedonia, in parallel with achieving and safeguarding the rights of the Macedonians who live as a minority in neighbouring states. Concerning that, our constitutional solutions and practical political behavior contribute to resolving these issues in a European way and according to European standards. I must say that despite the pressure exerted by the Albanian political structures and from without, as well as extremist groups within Macedonia, these issues are to a certain extent cause of conflict between the majority and the minority group. One, should, however, say that the Albanian political parties in Macedonia participate in political life, they are represented in the parliament, they have five or six ministers in the government, and they cooperate with a great deal of responsibility with other political subjects in the country in resolving issues such as for example, education, employment, local self-management. One may well say that a process is going on in Macedonia in which the Albanian minority is actually acquiring all its constitutional rights. I must also add that, when speaking about the rights of man and especially those of the minorities, the Conference on Yugoslavia provides for mediation of the Western European Union in the talks and solutions which are being implemented in Macedonia. Mr Gerdt Arens, who is in charge of the issues of interethnic relations in Macedonia, has been very active so that the situation has become relaxed, the strain has been reduced after the incidents caused by the university and the use of language. It all creates an atmosphere of a more successful resolution of conflicts in the broad space of the Balkans. In order to complete this process even more successfully, we have asked the international institutions and the agencies of the Conference on Yugoslavia to supply us with an analysis of the manner in which other Balkan states have resolved the situation concerning protection of human rights and minorities, and we took the obligation to implement all resolutions which are better than the existing ones in Macedonia. Although quite some time has passed since then, we have not received a single proposal which would be better than the existing ones, so that our activities are gradually transferred from these to real problems - social, economic, which concern all our citizens, and not just the Albanian, Turkish or Serb minority in Macedonia.
Resolving of these conflicts is affected mostly by the situation in Macedonia, but not by it alone. To what extent does the international environment Macedonia is in affect these tensions?
It affects them greatly, of course, especially because there still exist romanticist national strategies in Serbia, but also in Bulgaria and Albania, to say nothing about Greece. Truly, the international community exerts pressure that these ideologies be abandoned. The war in Bosnia and Croatia proved that they are completely sterile and tragic. After the Bosnian and the Croatian experience, these ideologies are half-buried already. They are a product of historic circumstances and national immaturity of the young states which have emerged in the Balkans in the past hundred years. Due to delayed capitalism in them, civic structures are quite fragile and weak, but the space for national strategies is increasingly reduced due to their opening to Europe.
You have mentioned a few times the experience, perhaps it would be better to say suffering and killing of Bosnia and its people. What are the relations between the two countries?
I have already said that our relations are very good. According to its possibilities, Macedonia is offering economic assistance too, it is helping numerous refugees from B&H, there is over twenty thousand of them, children are going to school, standard of living of these families is almost the same as the standard of an average Macedonian family. However, the relations are still not as they should be between states which are so near and so akin to each other that they should be constantly in contact. Diplomatic relations have been established, but the ambassadors have not been exchanged yet. I presume that this will be one of the first next steps. The official visit of Minister Ljubljankic to Macedonia was already agreed, but it was prevented by his tragic death. Naturally, the invitation remained open for Minister Sacirbegovic. I am informed that Ministers Sacirbegovic and Crvenkovski have decided to meet in the course of this month in New York and agree about broadening cooperation and its concrete forms, opening of embasses being one of them, because there are a lot of practical, human, everyday issues which will be easier to resolve once embassies are opened. Political attitudes are almost identical, so I consider certain declarations which claim that the two states are distant (geographically) from each other and that establishing of closer relations should not be hurried are harmful.
ZORAN ODIC