Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-04-Speech-4-130"
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"en.20011004.5.4-130"2
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"Mr President, we want to start by pointing out that clashes in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are continuing even now, despite the fact that the rebels are supposed to have handed in their weapons and disbanded. As far as handing in weapons is concerned, the NATO "emergency harvest" operation involving 4,500 men only recouped 3,300 weapons, i.e. not even one gun per NATO soldier, while NATO sources are quoting a figure of tens of thousands of weapons. Thousands of refugees are still unable to return home and the de facto division of the country continues.
At the political level, the Slav Macedonian parties are under tremendous pressure to make constitutional changes, changes opposed by the majority of the people. The European Union representative, Mr Solana, is already in Skopje, together with the Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Patten, trying to speed up the process for the so-called "political dimension" of the agreement. To put it simply, this means that they are exerting pressure to get the fine points of the amendments to the constitution, such as a general amnesty for the rebels, voted through and, more importantly, to avoid a referendum at all costs. The future of the country appears to the intermediaries to be too important a matter to be left in the hands of its citizens.
The ΝΑΤΟ and European Union operation has not resolved any fundamental problems. The only thing that foreign intervention has done is to bring the rebels into contact with government officials. Apart from the NATO corps of 200 soldiers which is now stationed in the country, intolerable pressure is also being exerted by the so-called donor meeting. We again reiterate our fear that, unless various forms of foreign intervention stop, not only will the communities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia be unable to ever reach an agreement, they will face a new Kosovo."@en1
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