Syndicate: agression from Kosovo continues

[Melentie Pandilovski <mpandil@soros.org.mk>]

Hi All,
I am back in Skopje so that I will continue with the live coverage of
the aggression from Kosovo as much as possible.

The situation in Macedonia is still alarming.
The fight in Tetovo is continuing and the people are leaving
town. 
Yesterday and the day before there were massive demonstrations
of Tetovo citizens infront of the government and the parliament.
However, the government is urging the refugees which are at least 10,000
in Skopje, to return to Tetovo, and some have responded positively to
the appeal. 
The Government will not negotiate with the terrorists since it does not
recognize political representatives chosen by terrorists for negotiations.
"Political representatives may be and have been elected at the parliamentary elections," 
spokesman Milososki said in regard to certain speculations that the
terrorists elected Ali Ahmeti as their political representative for
negotiations.

At least one good thing that happened in Macedonia is that all of the
Parliamentary political parties (Macedonian and Albanian) have come up
with a joint declaration on Sunday morning. 
Namely, at the end of the closed session, the Parliament of Macedonia 
adopted several conclusions concerning the security situation in
Macedonia which were supported by all parliamentary groups. The
conclusions were adopted with a vote by 97 MPs while 6 MPs abstained
from voting. 
The conclusions point out that the security situation in Macedonia is deteriorating as the 
result of the armed activities of armed groups of extremists. This
brings into question the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the
Republic of Macedonia. 
The Parliament appealed to the international organizations to continue with their unreserved
support and to continue to give Macedonia assistance, however without
the presence of soldiers from Macedonia? neighbors. 
Macedonia requests an increased presence and a strong engagement of KFOR along the
entire northern border of Macedonia. 
The Parliament of Macedonia will immediately intensify the wide political dialog within the
institutions of the system in order to find common ground on resolving
the open issues. 
The formation of a wide coalition Government, in which all political parties participating in the
Parliament would take part, was not accepted. 

Yesterday PM Georgievski addressed the nation quite determined that
Macedonia will utilize all resources in order to deal with the terrorism
and the aggression.

He offered the foreign diplomats and the media to hand them evidence
that the current situation is the result of a well planned aggression from Kosovo.
These are not, as they say "rebelling domestic ethnic Albanians".

"For more than one month now the Republic of Macedonia has been exposed to
an aggression from the province Kosovo located to our north. The aggression
is coming from two directions - from Tanushevci up to the point where the
borders of Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia meet and along the slopes of the
mountain 'Sar Planina'. This aggression is no secret to us. It was prepared,
planned and implemented with maximum logistical support from the political
structures in Kosovo.
He called on the foreign media to inform themselves about the facts from
the KFOR soldiers at Macedonia's northern border. Georgievski pointed out
the example of the BBC which in one day first broadcasted that terrorist
are entering Macedonia through its northern border, only to later that same
day broadcast that ethnic Albanian rebels are fighting Macedonian forces in
Tetovo. The reason for the use of this kind of terminology by the
international community is simple: "If they admit that this is an
aggression from Kosovo, then its entire policy towards this province will
fall into the water. In that case NATO's intervention in Kosovo will
acquire a new dimension. However, we can not escape from the fact that the
foreign democrats of Europe are today creating new Talibans. No longer does
anyone in Macedonia believe that the American and German Government don't
know the names of leaders of these gangs. Everyone believes that if they
implement a more radical policy those aggressors will be stopped", pointed
out Georgievski.
He reminded the citizens and the political parties of Kosovo that they have
quickly forgotten what Macedonia did for them just several months ago and
today they are responding with weapons. In this kind of a situation, said
the Prime Minister, they are playing with all human, humane and god's
laws."They are throwing a rock at the one who gave them bread".
As far as the Macedonians who left Tetovo and its surroundings are
concerned, Georgievski promised that he would fulfill all the requests they
made.

"Macedonia will use all resources that are at the disposal of the police
and the army to deal with terrorism and aggression. We will not hand over
not even one centimeter of our territory to the enemy. All conscientious
citizens should massively support our policemen and soldiers. The response
to the provocations of the enemy are maximum in strength, within the allowed
rules of the game. We are encouraged by the fact that our security forces
are victorious in all frontal battles. The only casualties suffered by
Macedonia are from sniper fire or by the wicked planting of land-mines",
pointed out Georgievski.

He pointed out that at the moment when Macedonia emerges victorious, "we
will all come out of this victorious". Exactly because of this we would
like to encourage all political parties of the Albanians and the
Macedonians to be careful of extremism in their ranks. We must all be well
aware that in the future we will all have to live together in Macedonia. We
are requesting moral support for those that are doing the most fighting",
pointed out Georgievski and added "we will emerge victorious from this
difficult battle, just like many others in the past 10 years".

"Besides the strength and weapons of the ARM, this time with us is God
who will not allow for the violation of the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Macedonia" said Georgievski at the end of his address to the
nation this evening.


Best regards,

Melentie



-------------------------------------------------------
Melentie Pandilovski
Director
Contemporary Arts Center  - Skopje
Orce Nikolov 109, 1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax: +389.2.133.541
Tel/Fax: +389.2.214.495
Mobile: +389.70.217.075
http://www.scca.org.mk
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