ANOTHER PARTY SUMMIT AT GLIGOROV'S

AIM Skopje, 13 April, 1998

President of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, gathered leaders of the most relevant political parties on the Macedonian political scene at the third in a row summit where interethnic relations were discussed. This was the first public meeting in the past seven or eight years which had for the topic something that hovered in the air all the time and was one of the most serious threats to the stability of the Republic of Macedonia. Before that, back in 1991, the state leadership had a series of meetings with leaders and deputies of the then Albanian parties - Party of Democratic Prosperity and the National Democratic Party - about the demands of Macedonian Albanians that rights which they had enjoyed in the last years of the rule of communism and which have been abolished in the past few years be given back to them (secondary and university education in mother tongue, increase of the number of programs in Albanian on Macedonian Radio-Television, improvement of the representation of the Albanians in the authorities...). As far as the well-informed know, after these meetings - the conclusions of which took a long time to be translated - relations between the Macedonians and the Albanians were the leitmotif of a few parliamentary sessions in the old and the new composition, but never a particular topic. These issues were always considered as part of the problems which had something to do with interethnic relations - from adoption of the constitution of the newly established state in the very beginning, to the discussion about the report of the parliamentary inquiry commission which investigated for months acting of the police during the intervention on 9 July, 1997.

Macedonian-Albanian relations were, as a rule, discussed at various forms of "secret meetings" mostly by the Macedonians and the Albanians gathered in the ruling coalition (meetings of leaders of the Party of Democratic Prosperity, its leadership, Albanian ministers with the president of the state, the prime minister, and similar). In the meantime, various incidents occured ranging from "arrests of children-sellers of smuggled cigarettes" in Skopje Bit Pazar, siege of the village of Radoliste in Struga district aimed at search for illegal weapons held by the Albanians, the known scandal about alleged Albanian para-military units which was first politically created and then politically resolved first by court convictions and then pardon of ten odd people, the beginning of work of the university in Albanian in Mala Recica near Tetovo, when the police brutally intervened, and some Albanians after that spent a few months in prison, all the way to last year's riots in Gostivar in connection with hoisting of the flag of Albanian nationality on the municipal building and trial of mayors of Tetovo and Gostivar. By the way, the latter decided on his own free will to start serving his 7-year sentence in prison a few days ago. In the past period there were victims, and the Macedonian-Albanian relations occasionally became explosive.

That is the reason why the very announcement of the gathering of party leaders at president Gligorov's could not provoke a negative reception in the public. The problem simply exists, everybody knows how severe it is, and everybody fears it.

After the summit which was held behind closed doors and at which it was agreed that the participants would not give statements about its course, but after which a curt statement was issued from the president's office, it became clear that the meeting could bring nothing new but repetition of the well known party stands and clear differences. In the statement from Kiro Gligorov's office about the two-day meeting on the highest level, it was said that it had "passed in an open conversation, in the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect, with corroborated approaches and readiness to face the differences which objectively exist in political stands". Further on, it is stated that the talks of the leaders were successful, and that "political will was established for an active contribution to harmonization of interethnic relations, not stirring up intolerance and hatred, all that with an appeal for restraint from abuse of the issues from this sphere in political propaganda, especially at the time of the elections".

Obviously, even the attempt to adopt any document that would be signed by all failed. In other words, although the impression was created that it was possible to talk "with a cool head" about relations the quality of which conditions much in Macedonia and in the region, it was impossible to go further than the statement that it was good to talk about interethnic relations and the conclusion that such talks should be continued. It was possible to learn more about the course of the meeting from newspapers which managed to get hold of some information. On the one hand, from the circles close to the president it was denied that that his office had prepared any draft document which the participants were expected to sign. On the other hand, rumour goes that the draft document was met with hostility by everybody, even by the ruling Social Democratic Alliance, and even Gligorov himself disassociated himself from it reproaching his own advisory team for the poor quality of the document. Then it leaked that the VMRO-DPMNE, party with an emphasized Macedonian prefix, offered its own draft declaration which was then published in extenso by Skopje weekly Fokus. Apart from general statements about interethnic relations as an important factor of Macedonian reality which could (un)favourably affect the Macedonian society, expressions of profound respect for ethnic identity of every citizen of the Republic of Macedonia, understanding of differences in this respect, disassociation from all forms of interethnic intolerance, the stand that ethnic entities were civilization values cherishing, preservation and development of which was a permanent commitment of the Macedonian state and society, special responsibilities were also mentioned in the draft made by VMRO-DPMNE: "By saying special responsibilities we mean, first, obeying of the Constitution and the laws of the state; second, restraining oneself from activities aimed against territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of the state". Draft declaration of VMRO-DPMNE which was not even discussed at the meeting in Gligorov's office, advocates "establishing balance with a double objective: protection of their ethnic and cultural identity and provision of conditions for their continuation and development, on the one hand, and protection of integrity of the state, on the other. This prospect for the future can be fitted within the framework outlined by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Macedonia as well as international conventions and declaration on protection of members of ethnic minorities".

Leader of the minor, but "strictly" Albanophobic Democratic Party of Macedonia, Tomislav Stojanovski-alias Bombay, declared that at the meeting masks had fallen and that he himself was satisfied because the leader of the Democratic Party of the Albanians, Arben Xhaferi was unmasked! It is evident that the meeting got stuck concerning the difference between the Albanian demand for recognition of the Albanians as the constituent nation in Macedonia and everything that this implies and interpretation that the demands for amendment of the Constitution in the sense that Macedonia be organized as a bi-national state, that consensus be introduced, that the Albanian language be proclaimed the second official language, and that education in Albanian be provided on all levels - in fact means change of the civic concept of the state, and ultimately leads to its disappearance. Practically the old incompatibilities were just confirmed, that differences were such that they excluded each other and that they could hardly be coordinated by a compromise, because the Macedonian and the Albanian stands were quite contrary. There were many speculations in Macedonian media with repeated absence of the president of the Party of Democratic Prosperity Abdurrahman Aliti from the summit. His absence is linked to his alleged personal stand that there is no use talking to Gligorov, because he always agrees with what his party says, which is part of the ruling coalition, but does nothing to implement what was mutually acceptable and agreed.

It therefore, turned out that president Gligorov held just one in a row of ceremonial summits, something like a plenum of the former communist central committee which usually used to sit for two days but with no tangible effects. And life goes on as before. In the past few months shy information appeared in public about not at all small number of fights on ethnic grounds, either at traditional school excursions, in schools or in places where young people gather. There are beaten up persons on both sides. Skopje Dnevnik has recently published news about another form of interethnic "tolerance". Due to inadequate equipment of the ministry of transportation and communication (read: due to its incapability to control the air) somebody is for days jamming broadcasting of Skopje radio station called Vat whose programs are in Albanian. The program of this radio station, which by the way has a very powerful transmitter (500 Watt) is "veiled" with the slogan "No freedom to the Shqipetars!" and by Macedonian nationalistic songs. Experts believe that something like that is possible only if those who are disturbing Vat's program have a slightly more powerful trannsmitter - which again means that it can be done by another radio station or that an expensive transmitter was bought just for the purpose. In any case, it is a sign that the war in the media has begun. The cherry on top of the affair is the decision of the Democratic Party of the Albanians, on the occasion of the departure of Gostivar mayor Rufi Osmani to serve his seven-year long sentence in prison, to withdraw from the institutions of the system. Seven of its members of parliament, nine mayors and 240 municipal councilmen are demissioning, and citizens' protests are announced. Cheers, Mister Gligorov!

AIM Skopje

ISO RUSI