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MIA

Macedonian Defense Minister Vlado Popovski in his interview for the Macedonian Radio assessing the security situation said that the tensions and the risks have declined.

According to him, as MIA reports, there are no indications for escalation of the crisis so "big explosion" is not expected. "There are no large scale attacks on the Macedonian security forces by the Albanians terrorists, as was the case in the past months," Popovski said, adding that joint political-legislative platform has been reached, which is implemented in the Macedonian Constitution.

According to Minister Popovski, there is no different platform among the political forces that set or founded systematic reasons for the crisis in the previous period. "That foretext does not exist. On contrary there is consensus as the constitutional amendments were passed with vast majority," Popovski said.

He also stressed the importance of the Plan for redeployment of the security forces in the areas that were not controlled by the authorized Macedonian institutions as well as the return of the displaced persons, the restoration of the damaged houses and the infrastructure.

He expressed his concern for the incidents, which are one segment of the degraded individuals or structures that appear as outlaws and bandits. "No one can support this kind of incidents, neither in this country nor in the international community," Popovski said.

Minister Popovski believes that there are incidents of political extremism in Macedonia, which try to instrumentalize the armed groups that did not disarm voluntarily and did not accept the reintegration process. "Their number will decline with the successful implementation of the constitutional amendments," Popovski said.

As Popovski stressed there is increased cooperation between the Army and the police, but they will operate in their domain of constitutional authorizations.

The quick response forces within the Army and the police should coordinate their function in the struggle against terrorism. "There are incidents that now after the disband of NLA, the adoption of the Constitution, the adoption and the implementation of the amnesty and the implementation of Ohrid agreement can be characterized only as bandit-terrorist incidents, Minister Popovski said.

He announced that soon new definition and setup of the Army's structure will be announced as it was realized that the existing model is inert and bulky and is appropriate for another type of risk such as the attack of foreign army on our country.

He pointed out that the corpus model of organization would be left and the brigade's one will be accepted. "Two big brigades will be established one for quick response and another one for antiterrorist operations or East and West brigades, which will have similar number of members," Popovski said. He added that these combat units will carry their personal armament, but the armored vehicles and segments from the airforces will be also available in order to meet NATO standards.

Popovski announced that on January 21 the Macedonian delegation would elaborate the model of army formations before NATO in order to prove the necessity and the reality of its functioning.

He also pointed out the fact that there are plenty of illegal weapons on the Balkans. "The main problem about the peace on the Balkan is the satiety with formation and other types of heavy weaponry. That is the key problem and we should find ways for its resolution," Popovski said, explaining that he rose that question on many meetings with the representatives from the international community, stressing that the Balkan countries cannot collect that weaponry on their own.

According to him only the international community can collect the weaponry with political agreement between EU and UN Security Council and with NATO activity.

Macedonian Defense Minister stressed that USA and EU are obliged to support Macedonia in terms when it has implemented Framework Agreement and successfully faced all security threats and risks.