SUN, 05 MAY 2002 18:31:50 GMT
Struggle for Survival
Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski is tightening the noose around
President Boris Trajkovski. After a tour of the towns in Macedonia where
he lay down corner stones for sports halls, Minister of internal affairs
Ljube Boskovski is organizing rallies of support to himself and a
campaign of collecting signatures with the motto: "We will not give
brother Ljube up to The Hague". VMRO-DPMNE is receiving sisterly help
from Democratic Party of the Albanians. Prime Minister's party has begun
a comprehensive election campaign, although there are at least 5 months
until the elections.
AIM SKOPJE, April 30, 2002
While he was in an official visit to China, President Boris Trajkovski
experienced a new episode in the evidently well orchestrated attacks
against him that originate from the party he was once a candidate of!
President Trajkovski was accused of unauthorized treating of the
Agreement he has signed on the borders with FR Yugoslavia as an
agreement on the change of borders.
TV Sitel accused him of treason, and Zum weekly published a story based
on a letter UNMIK had addressed to Macedonian government in which
"concerning the issue that results from the Agreement between Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on
border changes" reminds of the agreement reached by President Trajkovski
and Kosovo administrator Michael Steiner on the establishment of a body
charged with resolving "practical problems that arise from border
changes". What is problematic at first sight is the use of the term
"border changes", because the agreement officially signed by Boris
Trajkovski and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica in the beginning of
February last year is just an agreement on demarcation of the border.
Until just a few days ago, this agreement was the object of powerful
support by the Macedonian public and condemnation of the declarations of
new Kosovar authorities and certain representatives of KFOR that
relativized the importance of the agreement. A considerable number of
the Macedonians believe that last year in February the war in Macedonia
started because it was "exported" from Kosovo due to the discontent
there caused by signing of the contract on the border between FRY and
Macedonia, which is actually mostly the border with Kosovo, and the
Kosovars or UNMIK had not been consulted at all. That is the reason why
the recent Michael Steiner's visit to Skopje was estimated as the final
overcoming of the problem because the Kosovo administrator repeated the
well-known stands of the OUN and the international public (UN Security
Council welcomed the signing of the agreement in March last year, and so
did the USA, and all that was in a way repeated this year after the
unfortunate declaration of an American general who is a member of KFOR
that the UN did not recognize Yugoslav-Macedonian agreement on border).
Steiner declared at the time that practical problems that arise in the
implementation of the agreement had to be resolved and that he had
informed Macedonian President about it. There are about 2,500 hectares
of Macedonia’s land that belongs to the Kosovars and that they cannot
cultivate after Macedonia had become an independent state. That is why
back in 1996, immediately after the establishment of relations between
Macedonia and FRY, a mixed inter-state commission was formed and
entrusted to protect the interests of the people who live in the border
zone during determination of the borders.
TV Sitel and Zum were obviously too hasty when they proclaimed
Trajkovski a traitor certain that by having listened out to Steiner and
agreed that a solution should be found he in fact consented to the
possibility of changing the border based on land register documents of
the Kosovars. All that is considered to be yet another concession in
favour of the Albanians. Prime Minister Georgievski recently accused him
of "pardoning terrorists", and at the same time he is lobbying in the
international public for disbanding the "lions" - the controversial
police special units EU Commissariat considers para-police and, together
with the USA, insists that it be disbanded.
Prime Minister Georgievski rejected this letter of UNMIK with
indignation and the blame was lain on President Trajkovski. The office
of President Trajkovski who was in an official visit to China at the
time, rejected the accusations as part of "a general climate of
destruction that prevails in the Republic of Macedonia and diverts the
attention and energy of the public from real problems".
The phrase "general climate of destruction" hides an almost open war
against President Trajkovski, which is not dying down especially after
his address to the members of the Balkan political forum where he spoke
about organized crime and its close connections with the highest
authorities in the region, Macedonia inclusive. After having received
American public support, Trajkovski was the object of aimed activity of
a government commission for corruptedness of officials headed by
minister of internal affairs Ljube Boskovski that requested a detailed
report from Trajkovski on the received aid and its distribution at the
time of the crisis of refugees from Kosovo. That was the time when, in
the capacity of deputy foreign minister, Trajkovski was the government
coordinator in charge of this job. The scandal continued thanks to the
current foreign minister Slobodan Casule by who announced that
documentation on the received and distributed aid during the crisis in
Kosovo had disappeared, and then noted at the first session of the
mentioned commission the disappearance of frozen chicken meat that ended
up nobody knows where!
Trajkovski is in fact part of a new broad front the ruling VMRO-DPMNE
has initiated in order to save itself from defeat at the forthcoming
parliamentary elections which, based on the document signed by four
biggest parliamentary parties are scheduled to take place on September
15. All public opinion polls speak of practically catastrophic defeat
of VMRO-DPMNE. Although there is at least five months until the
elections, the party has obviously gone into action.
Minister of internal affairs Ljube Boskovski, who was for a long time
the most popular politician for the Macedonians thanks to the support of
the hard-core ethnic Macedonians, was elected to be the person to
personify this party. He got as much time and space in the media
controlled by the government, like MTV, as he saw fit. His activities
which are not even part of his ministerial duties, like participation in
various cultural, entertaining and other social events, but also his
almost daily laying cornerstones for sports halls built by government
Agency for Sports and Youth, are getting unusually long time in central
news shows of MTV. With unconcealed support of these media, but also
private TV Sitel, a campaign of support is going on to the "citizens'
initiative" of collecting signatures under the motto "We shall not give
up brother Ljube to The Hague". The way this campaign of support has
started, it will be no wonder if in this campaign more signatures are
collected than there are citizens of Macedonia. Besides, nobody wonders
who the signatories are opposing, because despite Boskovski's
involvement in the case of Ljuboten (police intervention Boskovski
witnessed in August last year when according to the report of Human
Rights Watch, ten innocent civilians were killed), the Hague Tribunal
still has not completed the investigation about this case, nor raised
charges against Boskovski, least of all requested his extradition.
The Prime Minister and his most powerful minister (of finance) Nikola
Gruevski have also re-opened the TAT scandal, the case of pyramidal
savings from the time of Branko Crvenkovski's government, when about 100
million German marks were taken away from the citizens, and the
government has promised the damaged depositors with deposits below 1000
euros compensation in cash and the others in state foreign currency
bonds.
Within the current Albanian political conflict, Democratic Party of the
Albanians (DPA) explained the events by the intention of their opponents
to break the present and prevent the future coalition with VMRO-DPMNE.
The fear of the possible defeat in the elections is obviously the motive
for early pre-election activities of the major, but also of the other
minor parties in power. One of the spread explanations is that
VMRO-DPMNE and DPA are not afraid of the loss of power as much as of a
possible (criminal) responsibility for what they have done in practising
power. In the months before the elections many new surprises should be
expected.
ISO RUSI
(AIM)
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