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New brands of sausages, produced by Da company were shown for the first time on Friday at the Mesomania (Meat Mania) exhibition in Sofia. The company uses new and improved recipes, and German equipment for manufacturing the sausages. Da managers promised to start distributing the new products this week. Photo: Sofia Echo

Carps Day. The Sofia citizens queued in front of the street fish's stalls at the market places on Saint Nicholas Day yesterday. To follow the tradition, people were buying mainly carps at the price of 3.20 levs per kilogram on the so called 'Ladies Market' PHOTO Nikolay Donchev (SH)

MIA

Brussels, December 7 (MIA) - Italy opposed to the proposal of the European Union to adopt similar position as the U.S. and to put the terrorist organization ANA on the "black list."

As MIA finds out, Italy was against developing "joint arrest warrant" and was reserved in regard with this proposal.

The Union cannot adopt anything until this obstruction is removed, and only the Italian Government can make such decision.

MIA

Tetovo, December 7 (MIA) - Four Albanian terrorists Friday opened fire from automatic guns in Tetovo at a vehicle with four Macedonians from the village of Ratae, MIA's correspondent reports.

The attack happened in northern part of the town near the city stadium and gas station of Makpetrol. There are no injured men, and the vehicle type "Lada" is damaged.
The armed terrorists in civil cloths first tried to stop the vehicle with the four citizens of Ratae. After the driver did not stop they approach with blue "Ford Sierra" and opened fire.

The vehicle is in the Ministry of Interior Sector and the OSCE and the EU monitoring mission are informed regarding the event.

AP

By KATARINA KRATOVAC
.c The Associated Press

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's chances to secure badly needed foreign aid swiftly were in jeopardy Friday after legislators failed to pass a law clearing the way for a donors' conference later this month.

Thursday was the deadline for parliament to pass a law giving minority groups a measure of self-rule and ensure that the international conference could take place before Christmas.

Now the conference, due to take place in Brussels, Belgium, and intended to raise at least $173 million for the Balkan country's battered economy, is unlikely to be held before early next year.

``There is a definite link between the donors' conference and the adoption of the law, and since they have so far not adopted it, plans for the conference cannot proceed,'' said Rudi Lotz of the European Union's office in the capital, Skopje.

Lotz said there was a chance for a ``last-minute compromise'' if legislators acted quickly, but parliament did not reconvene Friday as expected.

The delay further stalled a slow-moving peace process and reflected persistent differences between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. Sporadic, low-level violence has continued despite a peace deal signed in August.

Police said Friday that five explosions shook the predominantly ethnic Albanian city of Tetovo and nearby villages in the tense northwest, including a grenade blast at a police checkpoint in Tetovo. No one was injured.

In another sign of persistent security concerns, the NATO alliance said Friday that it will keep its 1,000-member security force in Macedonia for another three months, until March 26, at the request of President Boris Trajkovski.

The German-led NATO force was ordered into Macedonia Sept. 26 for three months, essentially to provide security for the international monitors who are overseeing implementation of the peace deal signed in August by political leaders.

In Brussels, NATO chief Lord Robertson said that the ``primary responsibility for security of the international monitors'' rests with the Macedonian government, but that NATO would continue its mission as a demonstration of its ``continuing commitment'' to stabilizing the country.

The legislation being debated is part of the peace deal, which ended six months of clashes between government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels who launched an insurgency last February demanding greater rights for the ethnic Albanian minority.

The debate broke up an hour before midnight Thursday, with ethnic Albanian deputies storming out of the assembly to protest a flood of last-minute amendments proposed by Macedonian lawmakers.

The measure, supported by Europe and the United States, aims to give communities substantial autonomy in governing their day-to-day affairs independently from the central government in Skopje.

The European Union has urged Macedonia to pass the law and resolve disputed issues later.

Macedonian legislators claim the legislation is riddled with faults and would pave the way for ethnic Albanians, who make up a third of the country's population of 2 million, to secede.

Ethnic Albanian lawmakers contend the amendments proposed by Macedonians would violate the spirit of the peace accord.

``We won't return to the assembly unless all the amendments are withdrawn,'' ethnic Albanian deputy Ismet Ramadani said.

Reuters

By Mark Heinrich

SKOPJE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Macedonia's parliament on Friday put off a vote on devolving powers to municipalities after ethnic Albanian deputies refused to show up, jeopardising a donors' conference needed to help sustain a peace accord.

The peace process advanced on another front when President Boris Trajkovski announced he had pardoned 22 jailed ethnic Albanian guerrillas, bringing to 33 the number freed since an amnesty was launched on Wednesday.

Ethnic Albanians had sought more control over their affairs in regions where they form majorities as a price for ending a seven-month uprising in pursuit of better civil rights.

The Law on Local Self-Government, a key plank of the August peace accord, foundered in the assembly over angry ethnic Albanian allegations that several Macedonian-sponsored amendments had vitiated the legislation.

Marathon mediation by diplomats from the European Union, which co-authored the peace deal, failed to bridge differences and parliament speaker Stojan Andov scrapped the session after the ethnic Albanian boycott, saying he would reconvene it on Monday if "conditions permit."

"We should not overdramatise the situation," he told reporters. "The government could decide to withdraw the bill for reworking. (Whether or not that happens), we can resume on Monday if the Albanians return."

EU officials had said the bill would have to be enacted by Friday at the latest for the donors conference to be held by the end of the year, as the government had requested.

"The donors conference is now in doubt for this month. The condition that we put in place is still there -- no law, no conference," said one diplomat in the EU mission in Skopje.

Macedonian MPs feared the bill drafted by the local government minister, an ethnic Albanian, could spawn "cantonisation" or "federalisation" effectively slicing up the tiny Balkan republic along ethnic lines, as in post-war Bosnia.

RECIPE FOR SEPARATISM?

Amendments were inserted to restrain the right of municipalities to merge -- which Macedonians called a trojan horse for secessionism given large swathes of heavily ethnic Albanian territory in the rebel north and northwest.

Other amendments would preserve central jurisdiction over health care and education, on the grounds that both would otherwise collapse as no local financing was assured yet.

"There's no point taking part in this legislation until the changes that undermine its very goal, complete decentralisation of powers which was the point of this peace deal, are withdrawn," said Ismet Ramadani, deputy leader in parliament for the ethnic Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity.

Deputies from both mainstream Macedonian parties, the ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE and the moderate opposition SDSM, ruled out scrapping the amendments.

The SDSM said the government, in its haste to get a donors' meeting, rushed the bill to parliament without examining it.

"Joining municipalities could provoke the rest of the country by making impressions about autonomous groups that could lead into secession," said Radmila Sekerinska, a prominent SDSM deputy.

"This could ignite a new wave of fear and a new wave of conflict among different ethnic groups."

Devolution was to cover budgeting, municipal planning, public services, culture, education, health care and welfare.

The law, coupled with parliament's November 16 ratification of civil rights reforms, an amnesty for ex-rebels and a new IMF budget discipline programme approved on Thursday, would clear the way for donors to fund reforms and reconstruction.

Skopje is now finalising a plan to return Macedonian police and refugees to guerrilla zones in phases over a 50-day period, to start after all 88 jailed rebels are freed to ease tensions.

In August, the rebel National Liberation Army, which seized Macedonia's northern hills in seven months of conflict, agreed to disband. Around 10 percent of Macedonia remains under the sway of the edgy ex-insurgents.

(additional reporting by Ana Petruseva)

Reuters

By Mark Heinrich

MALA RECICA, Macedonia (Reuters) - Isak Sherifi wants to resume his job after a leave of absence. It's only 10 minutes downtown from his home but he doesn't go for fear of a run-in with police asking: ``What did you do during the war?''

Sherifi was a guerrilla in the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army before a peace deal with Macedonia in August. He and hundreds of comrades discarded their uniforms and turned in their weapons to NATO. They counted on returning to a society of equal rights.

They remain in limbo today. Pre-war jobs or studies in the main towns beckon. But many NLA veterans are laying low in the hills or in neighboring Kosovo, waiting for the government to implement a promised amnesty to ease their fear of arrest.

After prolonged inaction that spread suspicion through the NLA fraternity and may have bolstered an armed militant fringe, Skopje is to begin freeing jailed fighters later this week in what would be the first proof that the amnesty is being honored.

But Sherifi and his friends are not about to emerge from the safety of former strongholds just yet. These are areas where police have yet to return under a reintegration plan that is to follow the confidence-building release of prisoners.

Security police checkpoints that spring up on the main roads without warning remain a chilling deterrent to NLA men keen to return to town and cities, as is parliament's unwillingness to pass a formal amnesty law.

``If the prisoners are actually released, that is a good way to convince us that the approach to the amnesty will be changed, which will relax us somewhat. But fear will remain,'' said Xhemil Istrefi, who deserted the army to join the NLA.

The closest Sherifi, Istrefi and other NLA veterans venture to the unofficial boundary of state power is Mala Recica, a teeming hillside suburb of the northwestern city of Tetovo.

ENFORCED IDLENESS

They while away the days in Mala Recica's smoky ethnic Albanian cafes, debating an uncertain future or talking on cell phones that have become almost as common an item as Kalashnikov assault rifles in the personal armory of 21st-century guerrillas.

In interviews at the raucous Albena Cafe next to the unofficial Albanian-language university, ex-NLA men said they had no regrets about taking up arms to pursue their campaign for better civil rights, the core of the peace accord ratified by parliament.

But they described how their horizons had narrowed rather than broadened as they had anticipated after the peace accord.

Sherifi, 30, was working as chief of protocol for one of two ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia's uneasy ruling coalition when the guerrillas rose up in February. He quickly obtained a leave of absence and enlisted in the NLA. After handing over his weapon to NATO in September, he came down from the Sar Mountain to his home in Mala Recica. He found out that the party had kept his job open for him, but hesitated.

``The office is in downtown Tetovo, but the police are patrolling there again. There are also security units you can't pick out easily because they are in plainclothes. So I cannot go back to work,'' Sherifi said.

``Luckily I have a brother in Switzerland who helps me out financially in this difficult time.''

NLA veterans are among the countless ethnic Albanians in impoverished parts of old Yugoslavia who have survived at some point in their lives with the assistance of relatives in an affluent worldwide diaspora.

``I'm still waiting to return to the job and normal life I had before the war -- that should be a normal expectation with the rights we won,'' said Sherifi.

Ruzhdi Matoshi, a tall 31-year-old former NLA officer, is an agricultural engineer whose consultancy remains in mothballs because, he says, police hover near the routes to his farmer clients in the Tetovo area.

``I move only in areas that were dominated by our fighters, but those areas are so confined, such backwaters, that my life is impaired. I can't go to the city to shop. I can't go abroad. I smoke and drink a lot more coffee than I ever did before.''

BACKWATER BLUES

Hysen Xhemaili, 25, got a geography degree at Tirana University in Albania but could not get a job in his field back in Macedonia due to ``discrimination.'' He opened a furniture shop in Kosovo, then boarded it up to return to join the NLA.

``When the war ended, I wanted to reopen the furniture business. But if I try a regular border crossing, I can get arrested. Macedonians say we take dirt tracks over the mountains into and out of Kosovo with impunity, but if I do that, KFOR (NATO peacekeepers) will grab me,'' said Xhemaili.

He's back at home with his wife and infant boy in Brodec, a Sar Mountain hamlet with no utilities as winter freezes.

``It's very cold at home and the baby is ailing and needs injections. But I am afraid to take him to hospital because it is in central Tetovo. I have to rely on my dad to take my wife with the boy and I'm really frustrated because I should be the provider of the family but I'm stuck and helpless.''

Istrefi, 31, has a wife and eight-year-old son living at their flat in central Tetovo. He sneaks down back alleys to visit them by day but does not stay at night ``because in the dark, the police can be on you before you know it.''

Matoshi, Istrefi and Xhemaili said they spent some of their time counseling groups of comrades not to let frustrations over their status boil over into new violence.

The new ``peace'' remains a relative, tenuous concept in the Tetovo Valley. No night passes without volleys of automatic weapons fire lasting from minutes to hours, showing that a number of fighters withheld guns from NATO as a precaution.

The shooting has often been associated with events such as weddings in keeping with boisterous Albanian tradition, or with paramilitary Mafia-style crime which is rife in the western Balkans.

But it also mirrors tension over the time Skopje is taking to implement peace terms, and claims by Macedonian nationalists that more war looms because ``Albanian terrorists'' are plotting a new offensive, factors which may be boosting the appeal of a small minority who favor violent secession from Macedonia.

``The shooting is the work of a few irresponsible people but the government abuses it to tell their people the war is not over yet and perpetuate a crisis atmosphere,'' said Istrefi.

``There are extreme, desperate temperaments within our ranks who say if the Macedonian bloc does not deliver soon, we must go back to war,'' said Xhemaili. ``We try to advise them not to think so negatively. The rights we fought for are now the law.''

Sherifi added: ``We can count on the presence of the international factors (NATO, European Union peace overseers) to make sure the terms of this peace are upheld.''

Standartnews

3,000 state-owned plants costing 20 billion levs were sold out by the "Kostov" cabinet for 4 billion levs. The state assets were sold out for 20 percent of their value on the average. Excerpts from the White Paper.

It is a Miscalculation, It was Shares That Were Sold.

Vice-PM and Economy Minister in the Kostov's team.

I decline to comment on the total of 20 billion levs. But let us take it for granted, though it is doubtful. The point is, how much liabilities have been accumulated out of these assets, if the government did not sell assets, but stocks and shares? What were the amounts of the old liabilities that the buyers committed themselves to pay off? How much would the state have to pay to the unemployed if those jobs were downsized? It is only then to add the 4 billion thought to be direct revenues. And perhaps in such a case the calculation will look quite different. It is another thing, of course, that the key issue is the one of the policy. Because neither of the Bulgarian governments, including those in Central and Eastern Europe, wrote down in their programs that the privatization aims a maximum of revenues to be received. The privatization is a political process of changing the owners. And any such process has a certain cost. If the privatization had been carried out in 1990-93, the cost to be paid would have been lower. The very list of state-owned enterprises which are still accumulating losses, is the best evidence that it would have been difficult to negotiate higher prices for the enterprises sold out in 1997-2000. So, such equilibristic tricks are only a part of the data, and to completely forget the issue of privatization as a policy, is not a credit to the authors of the White Paper and sharply undercuts its value in the eyes of the society.

Alexander Bozhkov

(NL)

Standartnews

Bulgaria and Romania should not cherish any illusions to be admitted to the EU together with the frontrunners, said yesterday in Brussels Euroenlagrement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. He delivered a speech at the meeting of the European Parliament with deputies from the aspiring countries. Verheugen declined to commit himself with any particular data or figures, Kamelia Kassabova, Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly, elaborated from Brusseles.

(ML)

Standartnews

Vesselin Topalov fell off the 1/8 finale at the World Chess Championship in Moscow after a dramatic defeat 3-4 from Alexey Shirov (Spain). The two super-grossmasters didn't manage to resolve the argue at the tiebreak as well ( in the first two games 1-1) in accelerated chess and ended with reciprocal victories. New mini-match of 2 blitz-games followed, but winner was not determined anew. At the result of 3-3 the so called 'deadly' game proved necessary. The draw specified the white figures and 6 minutes for consideration to Topalov, while Shirov was to think in 5 minutes, but he was to qualify also even in case of a tie. This pressed the Bulgarian to risk and he lost. Shirov, who ranked 2nd at the previous World Championship, continued at the quarterfinal versus World champion Vishvanatan Anand (Ind).

(SH)

Standartnews

Gen. Vassil Vassilev ordered the special measures after paying a visit to the air-base.

Elena Dimitrova

The security measures to be tightened in the air-base in the Bourgas residential district of Sarafovo, used at present by the American Air Forces, ordered yesterday Gen. Vassil Vassilev, head of the National Police Service, who personally paid a visit to the base. 200 US Air Forces employees are accommodated there. Now the security is assigned to US squads assisted by employees from the Bourgas Regional Department of Interior. After meeting the US Commanding Officers at 3.00 p.m., the head of the National Police Service Directorate proposed the security to be considerably reinforced. From now on it will be carried out by mixed patrol squads comprising American military men and Bourgas police officers on rotation principle.

(ML)

Standartnews

Washington. Bulgaria was very helpful to us in keeping the stability in the Balkans and in suppressing the negative processes in Macedonia, said Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser to US President George W. Bush, at her meeting with Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. She thanked Bulgaria for helping NATO in compliance with art. 5 of the Statutes of the Treaty, without being a member of the Organization. Passy discussed with her a possible visit of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the USA. Yesterday, American congressmen and senators expressed to Passy their support Bulgaria to join NATO.

(ML)

INTERVIEW Standartnews: Milka Miteva

It is a sin to refuse support only because someone may see some danger in the masons, says Mrs Milka Miteva, principal of the 'L.Pipkov' National School of Music in Sofia.

- Mrs Miteva, many people claim that freemasonry is something very horrible and one should stay away from it. Aren't you afraid?

- I'm not a specialist in freemasonry. However, I don't see anything horrible and dangerous in that people who are united by an idea offer their aid for the music school at a time when the state is not in a position to provide an adequate support to it. The concert is being prepared by colleagues of ours - musicians Svilen Simeonov, Antonina Boneva and Prof. Yossif Radionov. Part of them are members of Masonic Lodge. They will mark the great date of the restoration of freemasonry in Bulgaria. The connection between the lodge and the concert is that our colleagues decided to make a donation for completing the extension of the 'Lyubomir Pipkov' National School of Music. I myself am not part of the ideas of masonry, and I don't see anything horrible and dangerous in what I've read about it. To refuse getting resources when people make a gesture to the talents of Bulgaria is a sin.

- For 11 years the school has been housed in the former building of Lyudmila Zhivkova's foundation 'Banner of Peace' in 'Oborishte' street. For several years now there were other people's appetites in the building. What are you building at the moment?

- The National School of Music 'Lyubomir Pipkov' is the first music education institution in Bulgaria, yet, it has never had its own home. The money from the concert will help us complete the extension to the school. It will meet all requirements for a music education establishment.

- The celebration of the centennial anniversary of the foundation of the school itself is forthcoming?

- We'll mark the 100th anniversary of the school by a cycle of concerts due to start as of next year. The school began functioning in December 1904. Taking part in the concerts will be as well present and former pupils of our school.

- The equipment of music halls is not cheap. How will you do it?

- It will be fully carried out by sponsors from among former pupils of ours and connoisseurs.

- Is it easy to find sponsors nowadays?

- It isn't easy at all, but they exist, nevertheless. There have been no sponsors for the new building as yet.

- Would you mention some of your major sponsors?

- 'MobilTel' always responds and supports young talents. We are also being helped by the 'Saints Cyril and Methodius' and 'Future for Bulgaria' foundations. We are also helped by a number of smaller firms. I hope we'll have more sponsors once the amendments to the financial laws for alleviations for sponsors have been effected.

(abridged)
SILVIA NIKOLOVA

(SB)

BTA

Sofia, December 7 (BTA) - Sofia is the capital of a country that has great importance in a neuralgic spot as the Balkans are, the new Foreign Minister of Macedonia, Slobodan Casule, said in an interview broadcast Friday by the Bulgarian National Radio. It has been Casule's first interview for a Bulgarian media.

Being a candidate for membership in the EU and NATO, Bulgaria has additional responsibilities, he said asked how he sees Sofia's role in solving the crisis in the Southern Balkans.

In his words, "if things continue to develop the way they do now, Bulgaria will accomplish its goals". "And what I say for my country, I also say for Bulgaria: the solution, the ball, as it were, is in our part of the field and we must do as best we can for our citizens."

Asked whether he sees any open problems between Bulgaria and Macedonia, Casule said he does - "both rational and irrational, the most irrational being the language dispute". "We, Macedonians and Bulgarians, are the closest brethren on this land, together with the Serbs, Croats and Montenegrins. I dont see why now that Macedonia and the Macedonian people need it, we can't expect solidarity and help from our brother the Bulgarian nation and from this country, so that all of us can stand strong on our feet and deal faster with our foes," the interviewee said.

BTA

News.bg

The NATO Supreme Commander for Europe Gen. Joseph Ralston has accepted the invitation of Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi given to him during their talk in Brussels to visit Bulgaria. They would discuss the details concerning the visit in Brussels next week. Handing over the Burgas base for the purposes of the Operation Enduring Freedom could serve as an example for cooperation for the whole anti-terrorist coalition, according to Gen. Joseph Ralston. He appreciated highly the role of Bulgaria on the Balkans and especially for preserving the peace in Macedonia. He also said that NATO was following closely the efforts of Bulgaria for building close relations with Yugoslavia towards its gradual integration in the international community. In a bilateral meeting, Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi and his Macedonian counterpart Slobodan Chashule discussed ways for settling the crisis in Macedonia, as well as measures for accelerated starting the Corridor 8 project and the railroad between Sofia and Skopje. Macedonian Foreign Minister confirmed his forthcoming visit to Sofia by the end of 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press-center reported.

News.bg

Electricity supply of half Sofia is at stake after an attempt at steeling the wires sending electricity to the Kazichene sub-station. The thieves had only managed to ruin the system, and had escaped without the wires. The supply for the whole eastern part of Sofia in this moment is without a reserve connection.

News.bg

Speaking to the USA Secretary of State Colin Powel during their meeting in Brussels, Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said that American soldiers in Burgas were pleased to see him, although their joy would be even greater to see Colin Powel there. Colin Powel thanked for the invitation and promised to include such a visit in his schedule. He expressed gratitude for the support of Bulgaria for the USA-led anti-terrorist campaign. Speaking to representatives of candidate countries for NATO membership, Powel told them that Moscow woud not have any veto on NATOs decisions, including decisions concerning its enlargement. He also said that the struggle against terrorism was a priority, but it could not replace the enlargement of the NATO. Solomon Pasi is in Brussels to take part in the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of EASP, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information and Public Relations Department reported.

News.bg

State forestry boards are ready to put on the market about one million Christmas trees. The campaign of cutting Christmas trees already started all over the country, mainly in the specially designed breeding plantations. The state forestry board are performing the control over cutting the Christmas trees, and the National Forestry Administration together with the National Police Administration are starting mass-scale check ups of vehicles and market places against poachers. Traditionally, except for the inner market, Bulgaria has been also exporting Christmas trees to Greece and to England.

Sofia Echo

First Investment Bank executive director Maya Georgieva has been awarded the 2001 Banker of the Year prize, the Banker weekly newspaper announced on Tuesday.

Georgieva was chosen due to her successful campaign to secure foreign financing in excess of $70 million. In 2001, she managed to inject $20 million in the Bulgarian economy and secure guarantees for domestic companies from U.S. institutions for another $20 million.

A second Banker of the Year Prize was awarded to Frank Bauer, chairman of the board of directors of the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank. He initiated the passage of the law on mortgage bonds and floated an issue of mortgage bonds through the bank.

Sofia Echo

Economy Minister Nikolai Vassilev and his Croatian counterpart Goranko Fizulic signed a free trade agreement between Bulgaria and Croatia on Tuesday in Sofia. It envisages the creation of a free trade area within the timeframe of a transitional period ending on January 1, 2003.

Energy, railway transport and tourism are the priority areas of cooperation between Bulgaria and Croatia. The Economy Ministry said that bilateral trade is unsatisfactory at the moment but there is a potential for increasing its volume.

Sofia Echo

Nineteen Bulgarian inventors have returned with honours from international invention shows in Germany and Belgium. The Bulgarian American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BACCI) awarded them on Tuesday. International inventions experts who were present at the ceremony proposed that a specialized high-technology show start in Bulgaria in the summer of 2002.

The worlds youngest inventor, 17-year-old Marga-rita Todorova, participated in the developing of a device for cooling the turbines of jet aircrafts. BACCI executive director Georgi Stefanov said that leading aircraft designer companies and military aircraft manufacturers showed interest in the device. A prototype is already being manufactured.

The BACCI also awarded the worlds smallest pistol, entered in the 1999 Guinness Book of Records and invented by Viktor Atanasov and Plamen Atanasov.