Don't let UMINK Play With Matches

I don't know anything about Soren Jessen-Petersen, but he is playing with fire. Why can't he wait for final talks between Kosovo and Serbia. Why is creating anxiety where none should exist. This is a manufactured issue ... I smell a plot!

RFE/RL Newsline, 05-06-06: "[41] UNMIK HEAD SAYS KOSOVAR-MACEDONIAN BORDER DEMARCATION TO BEGIN BEFORE STATUS TALKS

Soren Jessen-Petersen, who heads the UN civilian administration in Kosova (UNMIK), said after a meeting with Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski in Skopje on 2 June that the demarcation of the border between Kosova and Macedonia will begin before the future status of the province is decided, the private A1 TV reported. Buckovski said talks between Macedonia, UNMIK, and the elected Kosovar authorities on technical issues will start on 9 June (see 'RFE/RL Newsline,' 13, 16, and 17 May 2005). However, Enver Sopjani -- an adviser to Kosovar Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi -- said the Kosovar government has yet to decide whether it wants the border to be demarcated before or after the talks on the future status of the province, adding that the demarcation cannot be decided without the consent of the Kosovar authorities. UB"

Macedonia - Conquered - Not Divided

I don't remember the particulars, but it seems to me that someone from the Macedonian Academy produced a map with exchange of territories between Macedonia and Albania.. I don't have any proof, but I doubt that this academic produced this report on his own without consulting Georgievski. Exchange of territory is not the problem, the terms under which it is concluded it the issue.


balkanalysis.com - Georgievski: Xhaferi and I Had No Deal to Divide Macedonia

n response to sensational new testimony from former coalition partner Arben Xhaferi, Ljubco Georgievski denied the long-suspected conspiracy theory that states he and the DPA leader had plotted the 2001 war as a controlled conflict preliminary to dividing the country according to ethnicity. However, his answer is sufficiently vague as to leave unanswered the question of whether they had at least hoped for such a result.

Speaking in an interview for Kosovo media, Xhaferi alleged that ever since the VMRO-DPA coalition came to power in 1998, the plan for dividing the country along ethnic lines was being considered. According to him, an amicable divorce could have saved a lot of headaches: “…we could have avoided the possibility for violence. We could have separated in a peaceful way. The war stopped us.”

According to A1, Xhaferi also said that on the partition idea they even consulted functionaries from Belgrade such as the assassinated Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who agreed with this idea and also promoted the division of Kosovo.

However, the former prime minister fired back in a letter to the Macedonian media (he is currently out of the country, says A1), that the allegations are untrue. “…I didn’t have any conversation at all with Mr. Xhaferi about this idea until the beginning of the [2001] war,” claimed Georgievski. “Then, Xhaferi didn’t want to talk about this problem and the conversation finished.”

In this context, A1 reminds of the initiative by the Macedonian Academy of Arts & Sciences to make a territorial and population exchange in the middle of the 2001 conflict. Georgievski, then prime minister, had long been criticized for not condemning this proposal. It was the negative public reaction, however, that prevented Georgievski from promoting it actively.

What could be Xhaferi’s motive? The wily old politician who was during the war beloved by the West has become increasingly alienated from the internationals since the ascension to the throne of former Swiss mental patient Ali Ahmeti. The DPA, trounced during the March local elections, has seen its status imperiled at the national and now municipal levels. Many believe that Xhaferi was gravely disappointed at being supplanted by Ali Ahmeti as spokesman for the Albanian people. Since then, he seems to have lost the political will to make a meaningful challenge to Ahmeti’s DUI. As such, the DPA platform has become dependably nationalistic, criticizing throughout the DUI for allegedly slow and incomplete implementation of the Ohrid Agreement

Since his exit from power, Georgievski too has been relegated to the sidelines but still managed to convey his views on partition in newspaper columns. His breakaway party, VMRO-Narodna, was also shut out at the polls in March. The failure of their nationalistic politics in the elections indicated that they were, more or less, flogging a dead horse. On the other hand, neither Xhaferi nor Georgievski have anywhere to go but up. They have nothing to lose, no responsibilities to the people, and thus have room to experiment.

However, the key factor – demography – dictates that with every passing year, the bargaining power of the Macedonian side becomes weaker and weaker. This partly explains how the SDSM’s “compromises” with DUI over the Ohrid “reforms” have been so ridiculously one-sided. The latter knew, as did the Rolling Stones, that ‘time, time, time is on our side.’

A new report from the Institute for Strategic Investigations in the Macedonian Academy of Arts & Sciences, drawing on the 2002 census results and other data, states that the “ethnic balance” will be ruined by a high Albanian birth rate and the Macedonians’ aging population – in a nutshell, the exact problem EU countries now face with their own Muslim minorities.

Daily newspaper Dnevnik quotes Professor Elka Dimitrieva from the Institute for Economy, who claims that between the 1994 and 2002 censuses, “great quantitative differences” have occurred, which will have far-reaching results in the future.

“…The total population has a minimum increase of 3.9 percent,” Elkova says. “But for the Macedonians is registered an increase from 0.2 percent, and for the Albanians, 22.7 percent. Albanians are responsible for 89 percent of the total increase of the population.”

However, in the same article academic and former prime minister Nikola Klusev pointed out that “…the increase of Albanians has been made greater with migrations from Kosovo and South Serbia. In the census of 2002, instead of being a regular, statistical operation, it acquired political dimensions. That’s why we had irregular things – boycotts, writing [on the census form] for the people who are not in the country, and writing more than once for the same person. That makes a big difficulty for demographic analysis.”

There is no reason to believe that Ahmeti and his comrades were ever interested in a multi-ethnic Macedonia, much less a unitary one. But compared to today’s DPA, they seem practically angelic. Nevertheless, the current farce of the decentralization and other apparent “compromises” merely represent the temporary simulation of good faith. In a decade or so, when the Framework Agreement will have done its work and its planners and Western backers are retired or dead, the demographic and linguistic disparity will have become unavoidable. By this time too Western governments (and especially the US) fatigued by the fallout of expensive wars in the Middle East and beyond will take a different view.

By that time, the think-tanks and experts who from 2001 until now have been shrieking about how Macedonia could not be divided because my God, what would that imply about all of us as humans will hypocritically come to look at partition as not only a relief but as a sensible result – because by that time the geographical area dominated by Albanians will be large enough that the remaining chunk of Macedonian land will not be large enough to survive as an independent entity. It will become a question of efficiency, since after all Kosovo at its current size cannot survive either. At present, Macedonia remains just a little too large to be digested by its neighbors.

Of course, if the trends illustrated by the French and Dutch referendums are any indicators, by that time the EU and its self-appointed moral lawgivers may have a lot more to worry about than any amount of bloodshed or woe that could be caused by anything that happens in Macedonia and the Balkans.

Yes! Macedonia # 2, Greece # 3

If Macedonians had a "Rapid Response" team, we could respond to this report from the US. Ironic as it may seem, The US does produce some good reports on human rights around the world. The US State Department's report on Human Rights is better than "Freedom House, International Crisis Group, IWPR (International War and Peace Reporting.


CNN.com - U.S. lists levels�of human�trafficking - Jun 3, 2005

14px;">WASHINGTON (AP) -- The placement of countries in the State Department's annual report on trafficking in persons.

TIER ONE: Countries whose governments fully comply with U.S. minimum standards:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

TIER TWO: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Senegal, Serbia-Montenegro, Singapore, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia.

TIER TWO SPECIAL WATCH LIST: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance and meet one of the following conditions:

a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing.

b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year

c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belize, Benin, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Gambia, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, India, Mauritius, Mexico, Nicaragua, Niger, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Suriname, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe.

TIER THREE: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so:

Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, Myanmar, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela.

Forum 18 on OSCE Report

Open Letter to Felix Corley, Forum 18

I have noticed in the past that your organization has mentioned the plight of Albanians and Serbians in Macedonia but have not discussed the plight of Macedonians in Greece. I am not sure how large your group is so you may not have the resources to cover every issue. Macedonians in Greece have been discussed by Human Rights Watch, The Minority Rights Groups, Amnesty International and The US State Department Report on Human Rights. How can we help Forum 18 put this issue on your agenda?




Forum 18 Archive: "This article was published by F18News on: 1 June 2005

EASTERN EUROPE: OSCE Conference on Intolerance regional survey

By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service

...In Macedonia, members of the Serbian Orthodox Church have difficulty holding public worship and leaders have been prosecuted. In Russia and some other states, minority faiths are often denied permission to rent publicly-owned buildings available to other groups.

So Many Negative Stories so Little Time

I am not sure whether any Macedonian has responded to this story, but I will when I have time. If anyone else has, please post to Alt.News.Macedonia.

Christian Today > OSCE Conference to Tackle Religious Freedom Violations & Intolerance

Among the countries where it is almost impossible to register for members of not-favoured religious groups by the government or members of small faith groups are Belarus, Czech Republic, Austria, Moldova, Slovenia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Russia and Latvia. In these countries small religious groups and churches are being run with a lesser status and fewer rights.

MPO Does Good, How Much Bad Have They Done?

It is my understanding that the MPO does not recognize the Macedonian language or the Macedonian nation. I believe that it supports the policy of the Bulgarian government that Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian and that if only Macedonians would study that language course called "Hooked on Bulgarian Phonics" then everything would be OK. I can only imagine how much damage the MPO has done to the cause of Macedonian recognition when they promote the concept that Macedonianism is an invention of Communist Tito. Ouch!

Illinois Legislature Adopts Resolution Supporting Republic of Macedonia: "Macedonian Patriotic Organization

May 23, 2003

Virginia Nizamoff Surso

Illinois Legislature Adopts Resolution Supporting the
Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian People

Fort Wayne, Ind. - The Illinois State Senate today released a copy of Senate Resolution No. 0063 that supports the rights of the Macedonian people to speak their language, attend schools and churches offered in their language, practice their customs, call themselves Macedonians, and be granted all the civil and human rights required by international law.

'This historically significant resolution adopted by the Illinois State Senate reaffirms the sovereign rights of the Macedonian people in the Republic of Macedonia, many of which have come under attack from ethnic groups and other Balkan states,' said Chris Evanoff, president of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization (MPO), a nonprofit organization that supports the cultural and ethnic traditions of Macedonians throughout North America. Evanoff added that Illinois is home to thousands of Macedonian-Americans.

'Since the Republic of Macedonia peacefully gained its independence in 1991 from Yugoslavia, the Macedonian people have been under assault by its neighbors who have attempted to deny Macedonians their ethnic heritage, forbid them from using the Macedonian language, from practicing centuries-old customs and traditions and from flying the national flag as a symbol' Evanoff commented."

UN Report Slams Greece

This is a UN report on the status of minority rights in Greece. This is the road that we should pursue. Hold their feet to the fire regarding human rights violations. Nothing to negotiate. Forget history.

The BALKAN Human Rights Web Pages: "TOPIC: STRINGENT UN RECOMMENDATIONS TO GREECE ON DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS ROMA-MACEDONIANS-TURKS-RELIGIOUS MINORITIES-MUSLIM WOMEN-CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS-HOMOSEXUALS-UNACCOMPANIED MINORS, ON POLICE VIOLENCE, ON DETENTION CONDITIONS, ON TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE"

More on Serbian - Macedonian Church Fight

It is embarrassing for the Prime Minister of Macedonia to be appealing to the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew. He is working hand and glove with the Greek Church in Athens to deny the ethnicity of the Macedonian people. I still do not know why our people cannot open a dialogue with the Russian Church. Macedonians don’t want mediation, we just want recognition.

RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY: "MACEDONIAN CHURCH DISPUTE HEATS UP...
In an open letter, Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski has called on Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, who is the spiritual head of the Orthodox Churches, to support a dialogue between the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) and the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC), Makfax news agency reported on 30 May (see 'RFE/RL Newsline,' 27 May 2005 and 'RFE/RL Balkan Report,' 23 January and 6 August 2004). Buckovski said the SPC's latest decision to recognize only the pro-SPC Archbishopric of Ohrid as canonical not only fails to resolve the church question in Macedonia, but could also increase religious tensions. The MPC, which split from SPC in 1967 with the support of the communist authorities, is not recognized by any other Orthodox Church. UB

...AS THE FOREIGN MINISTRY SLAMS THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Macedonian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on 30 May that the decision of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) to recognize only the pro-SPC Archbishopric of Ohrid as canonical is an attempt to create parallel institutions aimed at undermining the autocephalous status of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC), RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported. The statement added that the SPC's latest move is a 'throwback to the past' that does not serve the interests of the Macedonian or Serbian nations and could hurt the development of relations between the two countries. The ministry called on the authorities of Serbia and Montenegro to do whatever they can to prevent 'moves aimed at denying [the identity of] the Macedonian people, state, and institutions,' regardless of where such threats may originate. PM
"

RFE's Analysis of the Partition Issue

Another discussion of the possible partition of Macedonia. I wonder why it has become such an issue at this time when the border between Kosovo and Macedonia is on the agenda. I wonder.

RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY: "Macedonia: Did Nationalist Leaders Plan To Divide Country Along Ethnic Lines?
Macedonia

Ever since fighting broke out between the ethnic Albanian insurgents of the National Liberation Army (UCK) and the Macedonian security forces in early 2001, there have been persistent but unconfirmed reports that some politicians in Macedonia had a hidden agenda to partition the country along ethnic lines in order to consolidate their own power.

The most prominent politicians widely suspected of working on such division plans were former Prime Minister and former Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO-DPMNE) Chairman Ljubco Georgievski, who governed the country from 1998 until 2002. The other main suspect was Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH) Chairman Arben Xhaferi.

When the VMRO-DPMNE and the PDSH formed a coalition in 1998, there was speculation about what prompted two rivals like the Macedonian Georgievski and the Albanian Xhaferi to collaborate. Both had a reputation of being nationalists, and analysts have repeatedly raised the question whether there was more to cement their good working relationship outside their shared conservative, strictly anticommunist ideologies.

At the height of the conflict, in May 2001, the Georgi Efremov, then-president of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU), proposed to cede the heavily Albanian-populated areas of western Macedonia around Debar and Tetovo to Albania, while Macedonian-populated areas on the western bank of Lake Ohrid in Albania were to be added to Macedonia. The scattered Albanian population living throughout Macedonia was to be 'resettled.'

At that time, there were widespread rumors that Efremov's plan was a trial balloon launched on Georgievski's behalf. Given the openly hostile public reaction to that plan, Georgievski subsequently denied that he considered any territorial swap or the division of Macedonia along ethnic lines.

But in late March 2003, Georgievski himself wrote in a column that changing the existing the borders in the Balkans might be a way to resolve interethnic problems. Shortly after that editorial, he followed with another, in which he discussed the question whether Albanians should be 'resettled' in order to 'save' the ethnically mixed cities of Skopje, Kicevo, Kumanovo, and Struga for the Macedonian nation.

Two years after these editorials appeared, in late June, Xhaferi told Kosovar television broadcasters that he and Georgievski repeatedly discussed the issue of dividing Macedonia along ethnic lines while they were in power. The interview was subsequently republished by two Kosovar dailies.

Xhaferi reportedly said that already in 1998, he and Georgievski started to talk about a plan to peacefully divide Macedonia. Both agreed that that a multiethnic society could not function and that such societies were 'fictions' of the international community.
Georgievski has denied that he and his colleague discussed the division of Macedonia before the 2001 conflict.


Xhaferi also said they discussed a possible division with politicians from neighboring countries, most notably with the late Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Xhaferi added, however, that he and Georgievski did not agree on concrete modalities, not least because of the war in neighboring Kosova in 1999. From Xhaferi's point of view, the peaceful division would have avoided bloodshed in Macedonia.

In a press release in response to Xhaferi's interview, Georgievski denied that he and his colleague discussed the division of Macedonia before the 2001 conflict. 'We talked about the issue for the first time when the daily 'Vecer' published a text on the 'Exchange of Territories and Populations between Macedonia and Albania' in May 2001,' Georgievski said. 'At that time, Mr. Xhaferi did not want to discuss this problem and the conversation was over.'

Georgievski's new party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization -- People's Party (VMRO-NP), said it does not support any division plans. For VMRO-NP acting Chairwoman Vesna Janevska, Xhaferi's interview was simply the beginning of the PDSH's campaign for the 2006 parliamentary elections. Janevska added that the VMRO-NP supports the 2001 Ohrid peace agreement as well as a multiethnic Macedonia. 'This is the party's one and absolute position,' she said. 'Multiethnic states are a reality, and we are convinced that radicalism does not have a place in Macedonia any longer.'

Xhaferi's interview seems to have taken even his own party by surprise. A PDSH spokesman said his party will wait for the video recordings to arrive from Prishtina to see whether the reports in the print media correspond with what Xhaferi said on TV or whether his interview could be interpreted in a different way.

Ermira Mehmeti of Macedonia's governing ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) said if Xhaferi now believes that a multiethnic Macedonia has no future, he must explain why he signed the Ohrid peace agreement -- which provides for the consolidation of a multiethnic society -- in the first place.

In the meantime, Public Prosecutor Stavre Zikov said his office will scan Xhaferi's interview to see whether there is any reason to take legal action against the PDSH leader."

Another Report, Another Greek Violation

When I have time, I will bring all these report together and publish it as "A Reporter's to Greek (and EU's) Human Rights Values. Macedonians reporters should go to Italy and take the ferry over to Greece. No passport controls between Greece and Italy.

Reality Macedonia : Greece Seriously Violates the International Media Freedom Standards: "Greece Seriously Violates the International Media Freedom Standards

By Goran Momirovski

Greece didn't allow A1 (the Macedonian TV station) to enter Greece and report on the Macedonian minority in Lerin (Florina). This doesn't come as a surprise to the Macedonians in Greece. For them, the medium embargo is a part of a wider Greek strategy to stop any information about the Macedonian minority in Greece. The Greek nationalism is behind this strategy.

The political party of the Macedonian minority in Greece, Rainbow, says that is asking for noting more than what is in Europe accepted as standard.

'What we are asking for, as a political body, is for Greece to implement all international standards and conventions, not just for the Macedonian minority, but also for every other minority in Greece today.' Says Pavle Voskopolos, a member of the collective leadership of Rainbow.

The fight for civil rights of the Macedonian in Greece is joined by the 'Macedonian children refugees' from the civil war in Greece, who are trying to get back the rights that they've lost after Greece brought into effect a couple of laws in the eighties.

Their goal is to, with help from the court for Human rights in Strasburg, return the Greeks citizenship to the 'children refugees' of the civil war.

'We ask that two discriminatory laws are eliminated, and that we are get equal rights to the Greek citizens, so we can return to our birth paces,' says Georgi Donevski, a general secretary of the association of the 'children refugees' from Egian Macedonia.

Greek's ban to A1 to film a report in Lerin is a serious violation of the international standards, says the association for the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).

'This is a serious violation of the freedom of media. In Monday morning this case will be officially protested and reported by SEEMO and IPI. We hope that this is a last time for the Greek government to treat the foreign media this way,' says Yorgos Papadakis, SEEMO executive board member.

Twenty days after A1 officially asked for a permission to visit Lerin, there has been no explanation from the Greece why A1 can't visit Florina (Lerin). It remains unclear why Greece a member of EU, doesn't allow Macedonian media to do any reporting from Greece.

Twenty days ago Albania allowed A1 to enter Albania and report on the political activity of the Macedonians in that country."