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Bilbao Bishop Ricardo Blazquez gestures as he visits a museum in Bilbao, in the northern Spanish Basque country, Sunday June 2, 2002. Blazquez, along with three other Basque Bishops, recently published a pastoral warning the government that outlawing the Batasuna party, widely viewed as the political arm of the Basque separatist group ETA. (AP Photo/EFE, Alfredo Aldai)
MARKOVSKI: BORDER SECURITY IS REALIZED THROUGH COOPERATION WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES.
MIA
"Everyone in Macedonia ought to approach seriously to the problem with the terrorism. The terrorism is not only at the border, but also inside the country.
This problem will remain present, but we, the soldiers, the policemen, the politicians, as well as the international community representatives are all here in order to overcome the crisis in the country," spokesman of the Macedonian Army - ARM headquarters, colonel Blagoja Markovski said Sunday.
Underlining that "hermetic" sealing is not possible for any border, Markovski said that every border is best protected through cooperation between the neighboring countries.
"From what we have on our disposal, i.e. from the information we exchange with the KFOR, it is obvious that they have taken their task for securing the border with Yugoslavia in the Kosovo section very seriously. In that context, lately we have no penetration of large terrorist groups from Kosovo to Macedonia and vice versa," Markovski said.
He underlines that "even in the zenith of the armed clashes we never lost the control over the borderline."
We control all possible trails and regions from where border trespassing is possible," Markovski said.
Regarding the Sar Mountain part of the border, ARM headquarters spokesman said that the configuration of the terrain causes certain problems for the border security, especially in winter conditions.
"The former monitoring camp Radusa placed by the UNPREDEP mission and now managed by the Army was never in the hands of the terrorists," he said.
"The hardest clashes took place in Radusa, especially in mid-august, when the terrorist groups bombarded the camp from Kosovo territory. He added that permanent watchtower was being constructed next to the Radusa camp. This watchtower, as he said, will provide strategic and tactical conditions for controlling the border.
Regarding the establishment of the border police unit by the Ministry of Interior, Markovski said that considering the situation in Macedonia that idea would not be soon realized. As he said, according to the constitutional provisions and the legal norms, the ARM will continue to secure the four Macedonian borders.
BOSKOVSKI: MINISTRY OF INTERIOR ACHIEVES EXCELLENT RESULTS IN COMBATING TERRORISM.
MIA
For the past two, three years, we have denied all attacks on the Interior Ministry for alleged lack of professionalism by the achieved results in the country's defense and the combat against organized crime, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said Sunday.
He says that the Macedonian Army, the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Bureaus exchange information, making daily analysis on situation at the border and in the country.
Positively evaluating the cooperation with the Intelligence Agency,Minister Boskovski reminded that "we have agreed to have common and analytical approach and to deal with the issues concerning the state top together."
The Interior Ministry has been achieving significant results in the combat against fundamentalism, particularly the Islamic one, as well as against global terrorism, Boskovski says, giving special credit to the Criminal Police successful work.
He said that there would be no staff changes in the Ministry of Interior, because, as he said, "this team functions well, although there are certain flaws."
He also added that there was certain spillover of people from the Ministry of Interior to the Intelligence Agency, done in order to improve the Agency's work.
PRESIDENT TRAJKOVSKI PARTICIPATES AT THE CENTRAL-EUROPEAN SUMMIT.
MIA
Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is participating at the Ninth Summit of the Head of States and Governments of the Central European Initiative (CEI) member countries.
The debate "Central Europe as a link to integrating with Europe - achievements of the transition process in Central Europe" was focused on the possible contribution of the regional cooperation in the processes for integration in the European and Atlantic structures. The participants expressed their commitments for better cooperation and mutual assistance between the aspirant countries as well as for opening dialogue with the citizens from all countries in order to inform them on the current efforts and activities.
Reaffirming Macedonia's commitment to integrate within EU and NATO, President Trajkovski underlined in his address the significance of increasing the communication of the citizens through liberalization of the visa regime. He stated the role of the young generation and the necessity to communicate freely in order to grow up into true creators of the European future.
Trajkovski had several bilateral meetings at the margins of the Summit.
At the meeting with Croatian President Stipe Mesic they expressed their anticipation that Convention on Cooperation will be signed soon within the Stabilization and Association Process. The necessity for intensifying the economic cooperation and increasing the trade exchange was also emphasized. They reaffirmed the readiness to cooperate within the Stability Pact and the other regional initiatives as well as on implementation of the Agreement on succession of former SFRY property.
At the meeting with Czech President Vaclav Havel, Trajkovski expressed the expectation that Czech Republic would support Macedonia for gaining NATO membership at the forthcoming Alliance's Summit, scheduled for November in Prague. He also requested support for Macedonia's integration in CEFTA and World Trade Organization. The interlocutors emphasized that it was necessary to intensify the cooperation in all areas of joint interest, especially in the field of economy.
Trajkovski also met with the host of the Summit, Slovenian President Milan Kucan. They exchanged their views on the current situation in the region and the options for promoting the bilateral cooperation. In that respect, they emphasized the interest for further development of the economic cooperation and especially the necessity for surpassing the existing trade deficit through establishing higher forms of cooperation, reads the announcement from the Presidential Cabinet.
RUSSIA-BULGARIAN PM.
BTA
PM Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Leaves on First Visit to Russia.
Sofia, June 2 (Ekaterina Kazassova of BTA) - Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha will be the first Bulgarian prime minister to be received by the Russian president in seven years. During his official visit to Moscow May 3 to 6 the Bulgarian prime minister is scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Kassyanov, State Duma Chairman Genadiy Seleznev, and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. This is the first official visit by a Bulgarian prime minister to the Russian capital since the early 1990s.
The last time a Bulgarian prime minister visited Russia was three years ago, June 6 to 8, 1999. Then prime minister Ivan Kostov was not invited to a meeting with then president Boris Yeltsin because of the working nature of his visit. Sofia Mayor Stefan Sofiyanski did not meet with the Russian president during his visit, either. The last Bulgarian prime minister to be received in Kremlin was Zhan Videnov, who met with Yeltsin in March 1995.
In the beginning of the year Foreign Minister Solomon Passy and Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolay Vassilev paid visits to Russia.
Bulgaria and Russia enjoy problem-free relations, Passy said in Moscow. His visit, which paved the way to that of the prime minister, was the first one by a Bulgarian foreign minister after Peter Mladenov. Passy commented that after years of stagnation, a breakthrough was finally made in bilateral political relations, and that they had warmed up "from zero degrees to room temperature". Perhaps this is one reason why there is only one expert in Bulgarian-Russian relations on the roster of the delegation, Svoboden Kalaidjiev, chief of the Russia and CIS directorate with the Economy Ministry.
Economic relations between Bulgaria and Russia are expected to top the agenda of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's meetings. The sides are expected to sign a supplement to the Agreement on Settlement of the Mutual Obligations between the Russian Federation and Bulgaria which was signed in Moscow on March 29, 1995, and a declaration on bilateral trade, economic and scientific cooperation.
The supplement to the agreement on the settlement of mutual obligations will end a decade-long dispute and will solve one of the knottiest problems between Sofia and Russia - on a 100 million dollar debt dating from the Soviet era which was to be repaid by equipment for Kremikovtsi steel maker and military supplies. Under a new agreement reached this year, Bulgaria will get 88.5 million dollars. In exchange for the reduction of the debt, the Russian side has pledged to repay it in less than four years.
During the visit the sides may sign a joint framework agreement on military technical cooperation and an agreement on special military production licences, Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolay Vassilev said recently.
This item, however, does not feature on the agenda of the visit. An agreement on the more than 670 licences granted before 1989 by the former Soviet Union would provide solution to another longstanding problem and would allow Bulgarian special production companies to export easily their products.
Bulgaria and Russia will sign a declaration on trade and economic cooperation which is expected to promote two-way trade and bring down Bulgaria's deficit. Last year Bulgarian export to Russia stood at 119.3 million dollars, against 1,441.4 million dollars of import.
This year Bulgarian export is expected to exceed 200 million dollars.
High import duties, however, remain a hurdle before Bulgarian Exporters.
During his visit to Russia in the beginning of the year, Vassilev said that efforts are being made to reduce these as, despite a 25 per cent reduction, they remain higher than Bulgarian the duties on imported Russian goods.
The sides may also discuss problems in the energy and nuclear energy in particular. Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Roumyantsev said Friday he expects that the talks that opened in Sofia Friday on the development of nuclear energy may continue during Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's visit.
Russian intellectuals, including film director Nikita Mihalkov, are eagerly anticipating a meeting with the Bulgarian Prime Minister in Moscow. A ballet troupe of Bolshoi Theatre has invited the Bulgarian prime minister to a meeting after a performance of "Giselle", chief of the Government's information directorate Tsvetelina Ouzounova told BTA.
US Army Brainwasher Indoctrinated In Kosovo.
By Reality Macedonia Research Team
Mike Dickenson (far right), a US psychological-operations sergeant from Michigan and recent convert to Islam, talks to Afghans in Rawanday.
The Christian Science Monitor published an interesting article (The US Army's men in black… turbans) about "a day in life" of US Army psychological operations personnel, featuring Sgt. Mike Dickinson. The article reveals that being recent convert to Islam helps the soldier in performing his duty of spreading propaganda, espionage and counter-intelligence among the impoverished Afghans.
An interesting detail among the cheesy spins that comprise most of the article (Afghans' joy to see US soldiers among them—because they provide them with beggar's rations—and how the US is happy because for "the first time in nearly three decades," the villagers "will have the opportunity to choose" their "own leaders, without someone choosing them for" them.) is the confession of the psy-ops operative who has been indoctrinated into Islam by Kosovar Albanians, who are presented as pro-western, secular democrats of the day by NATO compliant international media:
"I started reading about it from the age of 12, but there wasn't even a mosque for me to pray in there in Battle Creek," says the Michigan native. "I really started to get into Islam and dig deeper into the history with the help of the Albanian Muslims, who I met during my peacekeeping work in Kosovo." Afghans, he says, are just as keen as Albanians to keep him moving along the righteous path. "I've already been given five sets of prayer beads, several turbans and a whole bunch of prayer rugs since I arrived here," he says.
Of course, there's nothing objectionable to being a devout or secular Muslim, especially in Macedonia, where tradition of religious and ethnic tolerance has been integral part of the struggle for national liberation. But, its only a question of time of the West suffering the blowback due to intentional neglect of the Islamic terrorist component of the pan-Albanian movement.
The persons and organizations, such as CNN founder, Ted Turner who think that its ok for "The people of this country see the news that we think they oughta see" have been downplaying any aspect of the crisis which compromises the favorable image of the current "pet Balkan people" (phrase by Rebecca West). Reports on use a wide range of weapons, from slanting, creating associations with American elite, to outright lies, to diplomatic pressure over local media abound. Another ignored aspect is unintended consequence of inevitable Albanian influence over the American Imperialists, who are both masters and hostages in Kosovo, whose status as a Land of Jihad has been confirmed both by Wall Street Journal and pro-Al-Qaeda site Azzam.com.
The Christian Science Monitor ends on a happy note, with the US soldier stating that he loves their village while talking Afghan villagers who allegedly missed him during his absence, to which they shout back that the village loves him, too. Of course, this spontaneous outpouring of emotions has only superficial resemblance to an unrelated event long time ago, far away from there: during a rally, supporters of Slobodan Miloshevich shouted "We love you, Slobo!" to which he replied through clenched teeth "I love you, too." (Fun fact: Serbian rock-poet Bora Dzhordzhevich used the phrase to make an anti-regime song). Screen capture of Azzam.com page, which BBC pinpointed as genuine Jihad recruiting facility. |
