| Å |
PRESS RELEASES
MACEDONIAN
INFORMATION AND LIASON SERVICE
(MILS) on
MACEDONIA
FIREWORKS AND FIGHTS
AT THE OPENING CONFERENCE OF THE OHRID SOCIETY "RADKO''
30/10/2000
|
Å |
|
| MILS
NEWS |
Main
Office:
Skopje, Macedonia
tel/fax: +389 91 223 - 319
bank acc.: 70810 2-00049-4
Investbanka AD Skopje, s.w.i.f.t. code INSBMK22
ACCOUNT CORESPONDENTS
|
MILS
International:
Representative Offices:
Europe: London tel/fax: + 44 181-760 5037
North America: Toronto tel/fax: +1 416 - 291 6424
Australia: Adelaide tel/fax: +61 8 -8234 0954
+61 8 -8336 5326
|
30/10/2000
CONFERENCE OF A
SOCIETY OF BULGARIANS IN MACEDONIA
FIREWORKS AND FIGHTS AT THE OPENING CONFERENCE OF
THE OHRID SOCIETY "RADKO''
|
|
Several smoke bombs caused anxiety and fights
during the
opening conference of the controversial society `Radko' in
the Holiday Inn Hotel in Skopje.
The beginning of the conference of the society named after
Vancho Mihajlov's nickname, Radko, did not anticipate any
incidents. The atmosphere of the conference, also attended
by the Bulgarian ambassador, Angel Dimitrov, warmed up
after the hymn of Todor Aleksandrov `Rise Up the Sun of
Liberty' was played in Bulgarian and after the president of
the society, Vladimir Paunkovski began his speech in a
mixed Macedonian and Bulgarian language. Two smoke bombs
were flung in the hall and about 70 participants at the
meeting rushed to the exit. Outside the hotel another smoke
bomb exploded, which caused additional chaos. The two boys
who threw the bombs were caught by the security and were
brutally beaten up. They, as well as the other two boys who
set off a smoke bomb at the entrance of the conference
hall, managed to escape. Journalist Spase Shuplinovski was
attacked by supporters of the society and, as he said, by
members of VMRO-DPMNE present at the meeting. The police
came after everything settled down. No information so far
has been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
When the smoke cleared, the meeting went on in the presence
of the police. Paunkovski talked about the life and the
work of Vancho Mihajlov and about the program of the
society.
"The society is named `Radko' because Vancho Mihajlov, his
life, his revolutionary activities, especially his cultural
and publishing activity are inextricably interwoven in the
Macedonian history. The principal goal of the society is
to establish the cultural and the historical identity of
the Slav population of Macedonia, which has always declared
its Bulgarian descent down the centuries," Paunkovski said.
In his estimation , "the Serbian and the communist doctrine
to subdue the idea of the Bulgarian ethnic origin
continues to be the official politics of the Republic of
Macedonia, which represents slavery to Serbia for the
Bulgarians in Macedonia. According to Paunkovski, the
society will attain its goals by way of publishing books, a
newspaper, by means of the electronic media and by opening
libraries. The opening conference was also attended by
members of the Bulgarian political party VMRO, by members
of the Macedonian patriotic organization from Canada
(Gjorgji Mladenov), by the descendants of Vancho Mihajlov's
closest associates, by the Bulgarian ambassador to
Macedonia, Angel Dimitrov, by a historian from Sofia,
Grigor Velev, who is the author of "The Bulgarian National
Doctrine" in which he writes that Bulgaria is the only
state in the world whose borders divide Bulgaria from
Bulgaria.
Numerous disputes appeared in the public when the society
`Radko' was registered June 19 this year. The League for
Democracy and lawyer Jagnula Kunovska, initiated a
procedure for the annulment of the society from the court's
register book. According to them, this society is openly
trying to spread the Bulgarian idea in Macedonia and to
establish the ideas of Vancho Mihajlov who dedicated his
life to working against the Macedonian sovereignty and
insisted that Macedonia should be conjoined to Bulgaria.
Many Macedonian parties such as VMRO-VMRO, SDSM, DA, DPM
and the League for Democracy estimated the society as an
open provocation directed towards negation of the
Macedonian nation and towards Bulgarization of Macedonia.
They also demanded that the Bulgarian ambassador, Angel
Dimitrov, should be declared `persona non grata'. VMRO-
DPMNE denied any relation between this party and the
society `Radko'. They accused SDSM of using the society to
score political points and to inflict political damage to
VMRO-DPMNE. The announcement of the Helsinki Committee
condemns the attack and the obstruction of the conference,
which, according to them, represents a breach of the basic
human rights. In their opinion, the attack on the
journalist Shuplinovski represents violation of the freedom
of speech. Therefore, they requested of the state to take
measures to protect media and journalists, while
intimidators should be caught and punished.
|
|
