UNHCR fYRoM
INFORMATION UPDATE
– Number 93
11th
December, 2001
1630 hrs
Political Situation
Late last week, debate
on a law for local government reached an impasse: PDP and DPA were against
further amendments, while SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE saw more amendments as the only
solution. As a result of the inability of the Parliament to agree on an
acceptable law, on Friday, 7th December the donors’ conference
that had been loosely scheduled for 20th December, was postponed
again. On Sunday, 9th December a meeting was held between President
Trajkovski and Mssrs Crvenkovski, Georgievski, Imeri, and Xhaferi – the
four signatories of August’s Ohrid Agreement – in an attempt to
facilitate progress on the stumbling block of local government; they agreed to
invite specialist help with the drafting of the law on local government. On the
same day, special EU envoy, Alain le Roy, stated that experts from the World
Bank, USAID, and the Council of Europe will assist in the revision of this
controversial legislation. All being well, Mr le Roy foresees a new
donors’ conference date for January.
Using his presidential
powers, another twenty-two former NLA members have been pardoned by Mr
Trajkovski on top of the first eleven, leaving 55 men of the original 88
imprisoned men ready for processing by the President’s office. Former NLA
leader, Ali Ahmeti, has called on Parliament to pass the proposed law on
amnesty.
Following an agreement
between the governmental Crisis Management Centre (CMC), OSCE, and EUMM the
re-entry of police to another 15 villages (the second phase of the plan to
re-deploy police to the former crisis areas in addition to the five pilot
villages) will proceed on Thursday, 13th December following a green
light from the 15 villages’ leaders/administrators. Ethnically mixed
police units will re-enter three villages in the Gostivar region, seven
villages in the Tetovo region, two villages in the Skopje region and three
villages in the Kumanovo region. Re-entry to the three villages Ropalce,
Nikuštak, and Vistica in Kumanovo region is conditioned on the dismantling
of three police checkpoints and two army checkpoints in this region; an army
checkpoint was dismantled on 10th December. The distribution of a
leaflet from the CMC informing people in the villages about the implementation
of the President’s ‘amnesty declaration’ began on 10th
December and will continue this week as well as meetings with local
administrators, and political and community leaders of the affected villages.
General
UNHCR continues to
monitor and implement the distribution of firewood in the crisis regions. With
the onset of winter, this issue is at the forefront of activities. With the
close of the year, more and more UNHCR-backed Shelter and Quick Impact Projects
are coming to a successful conclusion with a number of official hand-overs to
local municipalities scheduled. So far 24 QIPs and 1,680 homes are being
completed, including homes in the Bitola region.
Movements
No fresh movements have
been reported.
Freedom of Movement
Facilitation (Bus lines)
The UNHCR bus line
Skopje-Raduša continues to be suspended following events of 30th
November. The train service running Skopje-Raduša-Tetovo is scheduled to
commence commercially on 12th December, though no schedule has been
announced. Information on planned schedules has been made available today. It
is hoped that the train can replace the need for the UNHCR bus.
A further six bus lines
continue to operate in the Skopje, Tetovo, and Kumanovo areas, without
problems. A bus line to run Tetovo-Lisec, a
troubled village and scene of fierce fighting 4 km NW of Tetovo, has been
confirmed, and the service begins today.
A further request for a
Skopje-Tetovo bus line has been made for the purpose of conveying school
children and factory workers.
Shelter & QIPs
The Shelter Programme is
expected to be completed by 15th December. UNHCR mobile teams are
continuing to monitor progress.
The first round of QIPs
have been completed, and the rest are expected to be completed on time, by 31st
December. From this week onwards, five technical hand-overs to local
municipalities are to be concluded; the first being held on Monday, 10th
December which saw the inauguration of (15 km NE of Tetovo) Odri’s water pipe
– the completion of one of the QIP programmes as initiated by UNHCR.
UNHCR Field Team
Reports
Skopje Region
On 7th
December, UNHCR visited two minors (14 and 17 years of age) who were released
after receiving a pardoning in the recent list of those pardoned by
presidential decree. One of the two stated that his father was still under
detention while the younger one has two brothers who were allegedly killed
during the August incident. Unless effective counselling could be organised
within the CS framework, an IFRC (Albanian psychologist) would be contacted for
appropriate counselling.
On the same day, a
firewood distribution was conducted at the village of Ratae, and a list of IDPs
residing at Sinđelić has been received from
the hodža.
A needs assessment is to be conducted.
A visit was also made to
Ljuboten
(15 km N of Skopje central) where the situation is normal. Based on
confirmation of information received from Solidarité that the water tank has
to be kept dry for repair works, a UNHCR water tanker will make two daily
rounds to this village. Repair works are expected to be completed in 2-3 days.
Tetovo Region
On 7th
December, the firewood list for the Tetovo suburbs of Bratstvo and Edinstvo was
prepared and the continuation of firewood distribution monitoring duties at Nerašte (17 km NE from Tetovo).
UNHCR took 3 trucks to Šipkovica
on 10th
December with 200 chairs, 100 desks, and some different toys for the schools in
Šipkovica and Brodec.
Also on 10th
December, UNHCR had a meeting with OSCE Tetovo (in charge of the Municipality
of Jegunovce).
Briefly, in Šemševo there is a mixed police patrol in the village
operating without any problem. Currently, the ethnic Albanian police is
uniformed and the rest of the Macedonians are reservists. Daily patrolling of this force is from 0800-1400.
The check point is still not dismantled due to close proximity of the villages
of Žilče and Ratae (both Macedonian villages).
The JugoHrom factory
located at Jegunovce is due to close down by January 2002; this is of great
importance as many people in the locality are employed by this ailing metal
processing plant. Employees have not received their salaries since June 2001.
Also on 10th
December, 20 km SE of Tetovo, a visit was conducted to the village of Kopanica (120-30 Albanian
households/60 Macedonian households – total population of 1,200-300). The
Albanian population is mainly engaged in construction work and in agriculture,
though many work abroad.
After which, a visit to Preljubište (15 km NE of Tetovo)
was made. The population consists of 90 houses with approximately 410
habitants, 70 families. The village was not directly affected with the war
crises. The majority of the population is unemployed; rather, they cultivate
their land though less than a third of land is used for the cultivation of
beans, corn, potatoes, and peppers as the land is poor. A small percentage of
the population is working in the JugoHrom and Teteks factories with a low monthly
salary.
Schooling is provided by
an Elementary School located in the middle of the village. The children of the Macedonian inhabitants are
attending the school for the 1st to 4th grade. 8 children
attending grades 5 to 8 grade are continuing their schooling at
Šemševo. The events of this year had prompted children to move to
school in Jegunovce.
For the needs of the
health care and consultations the people from this village are going to the
Public Ambulanta
in the village of Šemševo.
Internal Displacement
The
re-validation/registration by the Macedonian Red Cross (MRC) is continuing and
final figures are to be announced officially during the course of the
week.
Refugees in Kosovo
and FRY, Returns
An estimated 12,000
refugees remain in Kosovo as the number of returns are minimal.
Up to 900 refugees
reportedly reside in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, mostly in the
Preševo Valley, southern Serbia.
Security Situation in
Brief
Over the weekend of 8th and 9th December, there
were reports of increased shootings in both the Tetovo and Kumanovo areas.
Tetovo also saw a number of incidents of the
weekend, including several explosions near the South-east Europe university and
Teteks factory checkpoint. There was a fire at the Church of Sv. Gjorgji on
Saturday evening, in the village of Mala Rečica, a couple of km SW of Tetovo.
This was followed by news of a mosque having been burned on Monday 10th
December in Bitola. According to the mayor of Bitola, there are only minor
damages. Causes for both fires remain merely speculative at this stage.
In the Kumanovo area over the weekend, a checkpoint at Alaševce
was attacked and exchanges of fire were reported.
Shots fired at vehicles on the Tetovo-Jažince road, near
Lešok, and along the Tetovo-Gostivar road were reported.
UNHCR Skopje