Home

Wednesday.

Enter content here

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov (C) signs autographs on a visit to the town of Stara Zagora, November 14, 2001. As Bulgaria's presidential campaign enters its final stretch, incumbent Stoyanov and Socialist leader Georgi Parvanov are poised to fight a close battle. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

Dogan and Parvanov forgave each other for the so-called revival process and pledged to work for a victory in the elections. The MRF leadership invited the candidate for president to a 'hearing' at the 'Princess' hotel yesterday in the afternoon Photo Marina Angelova

Reality Macedonia

Dnevnik cites government sources claiming that James Perdew, the special American envoy to Macedonia, without any authorization or mandate, thwarted the Macedonian Polices plan to secure the location of indicated mass grave of kidnapped and killed Macedonians. After he failed to block the plan in the negotiations with the Macedonian leadership, Pardew decided to obtain lack of [NATO's] logistic support for the action, and warned the "landlords" of the occupied territory to prepare an appropriate welcome for the police.

Perdew's entanglement became evident during the evening meeting on Saturday in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, when he arrived uninvited without even greeting the host, Minister of Interior Ljube Boshkovski. Perdew insisted that the preparations for the exhumation must take place on two levels: at the meeting of experts in the Center for Crisis Management and at the Coordinate Body. After stating that, the U.S. envoy frustratingly waved the papers containing IM's map of the target location, claiming that it is insufficient basis for the begging of the operation.

The same evening, around 23:00 hours, representatives of the relevant Macedonian institutions held a meeting with President Trajkovski. Another meeting took place Sunday morning, where Trajkovski suggested that the police start immediate action to secure the location, and start the exhumation on Monday. Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered a plan of the action to the international envoys and organizations, translated into English. The plan contained all relevant data, including the number of policemen involved, number and types of vehicles, and the plan for arrangement of police units on the ground.

Le Roy stated that he respects the President's opinion and announced that, according to his authorization, he'll inform the members of the disbanded NLA in the region, as well as the local government, that the police have a strictly limited goal, that they would not pass through villages and that they would secure only one, precisely determined, location. EU's special envoy proposed that EU, OSCE monitors, as well as "Amber Fox" soldiers, accompany the police officers on the spot.

But, right after the meeting with Trajkovski, special envoy Perdew organized his meeting with Le Roy and their assistants. The American envoy made his final decision at this meeting: "No logistics will be sent. We'll leave [the Macedonians] alone, so they can learn their lesson." Perdew ordered his assistants to instantly inform those in the "crisis terrain" about the coming of the police, with an added suggestion to prepare a "welcome." The epilogue: a black day ending with three killed policemen, two wounded policemen, and about a hundred kidnapped civilians.

After that turn of events, Le Roy committed himself to aiding the release of the kidnapped civilians, earning special gratitude from President Trajkovski, while Perdew hastily left to the U.S.A. Interior Minister Boshkovski sent a protest letter to the media yesterday, stating that he is "shocked by the nebulous claims that President Trajkovski's cabinet presented to the public," regarding the entrance of the police forces into Neproshteno.

Members of the President's cabinet denied comment on the Boshkovski's letter to Trajkovski.

MIA

Macedonian and Bulgarian ministers of education and science Nenad Novkovski and Vladimir Atanasov signed Wednesday in Skopje Program on cooperation between the governments in the field of education and science for 2001 - 2003.

"The cooperation with Bulgaria in the field of education and science is very successful and is being constantly promoted," Minister Novkovski said.

He pointed out that the new science program encompasses enhanced cooperation among all scientific institutions, exchange of scientific and research staff, project cooperation as well as assisting projects where scientists from both countries participate.

In the field of education the cooperation will focus on sharing information on the educational system, exchange of University professors, teachers and students as well as realization of joint projects.

"We signed an extremely important document that would specify the cooperation in the education and science in the next three years. In this manner we legitimize the scientific and educational tradition that has been especially intensified after 1992," Bulgarian Minister Atanasov said.

According to Novkovski, the Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science has no information about the number of Macedonian students who study abroad, adding that this Program includes exchange of such information.

Minister Atanasov stated that over 2,000 Macedonian students study in Bulgaria at this moment, who "have tax relieves and are entitled to all rights as the Bulgarian students."

Atanasov is not informed whether the Macedonian students in Bulgaria can study without paying the fees if they declare themselves as Bulgarian citizens.

"I believe that this is a propaganda spread by the Macedonians but also by the Bulgarians," Minister Atanasov said, adding that there is an article in the signed Program according to which the students are relived from paying taxes in both countries.

He stressed that all foreign students that attend courses on the Bulgarian Universities have equal rights for obtaining scholarships.

Macedonian Radio

Text of report by Macedonian radio on 14 November.

[Announcer] Despite the free trade agreement between Macedonia and Bulgaria, trade volume is at an unsatisfactory level, said Dusan Petreski, president of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, at a meeting today between the Macedonian and Bulgarian Chambers of Commerce. Zoja Fundi reports:

[Fundi] The overall trade between Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria in 2000 was estimated at 134.5m dollars, which is far below the initially projected 200m dollars trade level, despite the signing of the free trade agreement, said Dusan Petreski, president of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce.

Macedonia cannot be satisfied with trade with Bulgaria, because our export figures are extremely low. The fact that Macedonian exports to Bulgaria in 2000 reached a mere 26.9m dollars, while imports were worth 97.3m dollars, clearly indicates a trade disproportion, although trade between the two countries noted a general increase of 5.8 per cent.

The free trade agreement between the two countries paves the way for developing trade, but there is great lack of coordination and non-tariff administrative obstacles, indicating that there is an absence of full trade liberalization, primarily on account of the lack of inter-bank cooperation between the two countries, which is a precondition for successful trade, said Petreski.

The trade deficit also registered an 8.1 per cent increase in the year following the signing of the trade cooperation agreement. The low participation of industrial products in overall trade suggests that both economies are struggling with recession, Petrevski said, adding that Macedonia registered the highest exports in the chemical, machine and ferrous metallurgy industries.

The two sides concluded that efforts should be made to stimulate companies through tax laws and unified border crossings of greater cooperation [sentence as heard].

Standartnews

Ivaila Bakalova was proclaimed 'Model of the Universe' at the competition that ended yesterday in Istanbul. 42 participants from all over the world took part in it. Ivaila impressed with beauty, manners and intellect. She received a contract for work in Turkey for $25,000. Photo 'Megatalant'

Ivaila Bakalova was chosen among 42 girls at a competition in Istanbul.

Ivaila Bakalova - 'Miss Bulgaria 2001' is the new 'Model of the Universe', the 'Megatalent' agency announced. The competition is part of the 'Miss Tourism World' chain. The jury has awarded our girl the prize 'Model with the Most Beautiful Hair'. She is the winner in the competition for professional models in Istanbul. Miss Bakalova won a one-year contract for work in Turkey for $25,000. Her first runner-up is from Slovenia and a girl from the Czech Republic won the third place. 42 participants from 35 countries, at age between 16 and 27 years and height more than 170 cm, defiled in three rounds. Miss Bakalova was born in 1981 in Varna. She is 175 cm tall and her measures are 90-61-88 cm. After she had been singled out as 'Miss Bulgaria' she took place in the competition 'Miss Universe' in May in Puerto Rico. There she took the ninth place in the classification of web-sites for beauty competitions and took the sixth place in the competition for a national costume. Since this year Ivaila is a student in marketing and advertisement at the University of Economy.

(PY)

Standartnews

The Prime-Minister will deliver a speech before the 56th session of the UN. The social situation in Bulgaria will be the major accent, became clear yesterday from the Premier's statement at the Sofia airport. An hour before the flight to New York he delivered a detailed interview for the media. Simeon arrived at the airport at 7.30 a.m. Yet, the Austrian Airlines flight was fixed at 8.30 a.m. Four body guards escorted the PM. Obviously, he was in a good mood. Simeon explained that his visit's program wouldn't be changed, despite the air crash of the U.S. 'Airbus' at 'Kennedy airport. To him, more then 100 heads of state will attend the UN session. 'I have provided four lectures, may be I'll give TV interviews, as well. Although one can hardly make a big stir, I hope that what I'm going to say will draw the attention to the reality in Bulgaria,' Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha elaborated. 'I will stress on the social situation, rather than on some kind of political concepts, which are hackneyed enough,' he added.

Evgeni Genov
(SH)

Standartnews

Vera Moutafchieva
Writer

The presidential election is not over yet, to minutely analyze it. Non the less, the intermediate results give us the grounds to draw two conclusions. The vote in favour of Georgi Parvanov was sooner a majority, rather than a party one. There are two possible reasons for him overweighting Petar Stoyanov. The first reason is in that Stoyanov gave up the UDF, which he declared on the eve of the general election of June 17. And the second one is in the sharp drop in the credit rating of Simeon II, who backed up Stoyanov in quite ambiguous terms. We can bring to the fore as a plus in Georgi Parvanov's performance that he electioneered balancedly and well-manneredly. It was to be witnessed especially at the post-election night when he paid tribute to the memory of Nikolay Dobrev. Impartially, Parvanov's role eased us off Bogomil Bonev's ambitions, for the latter emerged as a fundamentalist. Another major advantage of Parvanov is that he is a staunch republican.

Standartnews

In their view Stoyanov got what he deserved because he didn't support the government of the majority even a single time. Varna and Rousse MPs from the NMS - Associate Professor Nikolai Kozovski and Nikolai Choukanov openly declared in support of Parvanov. In the opinion of Mr Kozovski Parvanov is the worthier candidate because he upholds a cause and doesn't change his stand as the incumbent head of state. Around 20 or so NMS MPs voiced themselves against a second declaration in support of Stoyanov. Despite that it was officially circulated. Before the sitting of the NMS group its chief - Associate Professor Plamen Panayotov stressed that the decision for the declaration was taken by the Coalition Council last Monday. According to him leader Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha personally signed the document the day before yesterday. Before noon yesterday however, the declaration was still being compiled. Therefore Panayotov said later that Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha had actually put his signature under a document with summed up messages and concepts. However, the declaration had been later circulated with his signature. In the meantime the premier had been on his way to the USA.

Nadelina Aneva
Irena Tsekova
Tsvetelina Doncheva
(SB)

Standartnews

The Bulgarian immigrants in Turkey insist that the governments of Sofia and Ankara sign an agreement on social insurance, Turhan Genchoglu, chief of the Balkan Immigration Federation 'Balgoch', said in a special declaration voiced in Bursa yesterday. The agreement envisages the recognition and gathering of the labour length service in one of the two countries. Without it the immigrants can't demand pensions. The Social Ministers of Bulgaria and Turkey - Yashar Okuyan and Lidia Shuleva, recently in Brussels, discussed the content of the document, drafted several years ago. But the term for its signing has not been agreed upon yet. If that doesn't happen soon, we'll recourse to the international courts, Genchoglu said.

Nihal Yozergan
(PY)

Standartnews

The report on Bulgaria recommends making greater efforts in combatting corruption and improving the plight of the Romany minority. It marks progress in privatization, in tightening the rules of banks' activities and the corporate legislation. The EC insist Sofia to keep its pledge to close down reactors I, II, III and IV of the Kozloduy NPP, AP says, quoting the report. The Euro Commission notes that by the end of next year, the shortlisted countries, successfully completing the negotiations on accession, will be known. The EU has sufficient funds to allow for the accession of up to 10 members in 2004.

(ML)

INTERVIEW Standartnews: Simeon Saxecoburggothski

Everyone should stay where he belongs, everyone should bear his responsibility, said premier Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha before his departure for New York.

- Mr Premier, are you surprised with the results after the first round of the presidential election?

- Yes, I am.

- What is your explanation?

- People believed that president Stoyanov would perhaps win as early as the first round and they stayed at their homes. It is something normal. It exists in France, Italy, Portugal and in other countries. It is different from the parliamentary elections.

- Analysts have arrived at the conclusion that the NMS electorate hadn't been mobilized enough to support Stoyanov?

- Well, there will always be someone to blame.

- The UDF reproached you that you hadn't got involved well enough in the campaign. Is it true that you won't canvass for Peter Stoyanov?

- Everyone should stay where he belongs. Everyone should bear his own responsibility. As for certain UDF circles they are ready to level criticisms at any time. So that we shouldn't worry too much, we should look to the reality as it is.

- Do you believe that Stoyanov will win at the runoff?

- I think, it would be normal.

- And does anyone of the NMS leading functionaries intend to address an appeal to the nation in connection with the election?

- It isn't necessary.

- How do you interpret the fact that a big part of the NMS electorate supported Parvanov?

- If you supported him, it is something different.

- This is what sociologists claim.

- I see, this is what sociologists say. My respects to them. Every citizen is free to vote. As for us, we are rather disciplined people, people of ideals too.

- Will you manage to vote at the runoff?

- I hope I'll manage to arrive on time. I hope I'll be able to vote.

- How would you work with a possible socialist president?

- Look, this is a matter of statehood. Mr Parvanov and I know one another. I just don't know why things should be taken out of the context, and why should there be such ploys, I would say. Let's wait till Sunday and we'll see then. I don't know why should people be divided into colors and parties. I think that it's high time that we in Bulgaria become a bit more normal. And look at who is worthhile and to what extent and what he can do for the country's good.

Evgeni Genov
(SB)