HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

On normative basis, the process of building up (finalization) of the legislative regulations for the human rights and freedom, which was in a progressive line in the period of joining of the Republic of Macedonia to the European Council, has been obviously stopped. The decreased interest of the country to protect and improve the rights and freedom proclaimed with the Constitution, has been also seen in practice, where very often there does not exist any efficient legal means and mechanisms with which the rights would be protected in justly proceedings in front of independent and objective authorities. The protection of the rights in court has been still the key-point, however it is slow and incomplete. The institution State attorney (ombudsman) has been improved compared with the previous years although he hasnt proved yet as an important defender of the rights from violations and abuses by the state authorities.

The principle for division of the government by mutual control of the executive, legislative and judicial power has been endangered by the stressed predominance of the executive authorities. We can note open pressures towards the independence of the judicial system and the public prosecutor. This process is becoming even more and more worrisome as it is accompanied by a stressed further political parties atmosphere within the government administration, which not only openly employs according to membership of a certain party, but also more openly and very often acts as influenced by the party leaderships of the governing coalition.

Presidential elections

On October 31 and November 14, 1999 the second president elections were conducted in the Republic of Macedonia. More than one million voters had the right to vote, out of the total number of 1,6 million who were on the voting lists, within the two election circles in the 85 election units. While the first election circle was correctly conducted, the second election circle was characterized with a great number of irregularities. That was the reason that the State Election Board and especially the Supreme Court canceled the voting at 230 election spots in 24 election units where about 160.000 citizens had the right to vote, mainly in the western part of the country where the Albanian population dominates.

Following the reports of the domestic and the foreign monitoring services, as well as the media reports, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights received credible knowledge that many of these irregularities represent a direct and severe break of the rights of the citizens who voted. Because of that, the Helsinki Committee issued a public protest. It was noticed that at many voting spots voting leaflets were thrown into the voting boxes by groups of unauthorized persons, and the political party SDSM (Socialist Democratic Assembly of Macedonia) considers them racketeers of the political party the Democratic Party of the Albanians. There were also registered cases when one person voted for several other persons, and there were cases when some people voted without any ID documents. SDSM claimed that the members of the local election organs who are representatives of that party as well as its president candidate were subdued to threats and violence. One part of these remarks was supported with indisputable testimonies.

After the renewed voting that was conducted on 5 December, because of the tensions which were caused by the irregularities in the second election circle as well as the sharp reactions of the political parties, serious incidents happened in several places. In three cases, in the village Labunishta near Struga and the village Vaksince near Kumanovo, fights between the party activists of SDSM and DPA were caused and several activists of SDSM were injured, among them also a representative of that party. All the incidents were denounced at the police, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced quick clear up of these cases. On the day of the elections, SDSM withdrew all its members in the local election organs, proclaiming that the executive government is not able to carry out regular elections on the whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia.

In the stem of the present post-election tensions, there is the hidden fear, of part of the Macedonian population, that the new president of the Republic of Macedonia was elected with the crucial support from the ethnic Albanians. Many consider this a confirmation that the governing political party, VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolution Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) has a secret agreement with the DPA for federalization, i.e. split of the Macedonai state. Because of that, the anti-Albanian attitude of the many people gathered on the protests of the opposing party between the two election circles was expressed by abusive posters, slogans and chants on account of the Albanians and particularly on account of the pretended collaborationist attitude of the governing party with them. Many monitoring services evaluated that this attitude leads the mutually ethnical relations to get cooler.

On November 14, on the voting day of the second circle, the TV broadcast of the local private TV from Skopje "Sitel" was cut off for a few hours, supposedly due to electric installation defect. Also, on December 5, the day of the renewed voting, the broadcast of the private TV programs "Sitel" and "A1" was cut off for several hours in the surrounding area of Kumanovo. The police investigated the second case because the electricity charge of a local transmitter was cut off by force.

The "Sitel" TV, which stands up for the attitudes of the opposition party, showed public suspicion that, in the first case, their program was cut off by force.

Indicative is the fact that on December 5, the headquarter of VMRO-DPMNE issued the information in which the two TV stations were accused due to break of the pre-election silence by broadcasting the "lies" of the local headquarters of SDSM. In reference to this, as well as the violations of the individual rights to vote, the Helsinki Committee issued a public announcement. In it, the Helsinki Committee condemned the disabling of the means of public information in their activities for objective and complete information about the flow of the elections, pointing out that it represented violation of the freedom of thought.

Simultaneously, in one part of the country, there were registered a great number of misuses and irregularities, so the State Election Committee, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs didn't work on the level of their legal authorizations for carrying out of honorable democratic elections. However, it turned out well, because the Supreme Court of Macedonia, as a third power election organ, successfully resisted the political pressures and by revoking the voting at 10% of the electorate, in a regular legal procedure, removed the suspicions of the elections to be illegitimate. Unfortunately, on December 5, in the third voting circle, also appeared many irregularities, a great number of fights and abuses on the election spots, as well as an unexplained theft of 120.000 voting IDs from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And this was again mainly in the areas where most of the population are of Albanian nationality, because of which the opposition submitted a lot of claims which afterwards were cancelled considering that the correction of the election process in the given circumstances was impossible. The political tensions caused by the election irregularities and the fact that the biggest opposition party (SDSM) considers the election of the new president as illegitimate, will have unfavorable influence on the political stability in the country for a long time. It is even possible to cause crisis on the mutual ethnical relations.

Unfortunately, the Helsinki Committee was not in the position to join the direct monitoring of the elections, due to which it didnt have the possibility to react more directly and more completely.

Media freedom of speech and approach to information

During 1999 there hadnt been noticed any relevant changes of the conditions in which the electronic media exist. Nothing has been undertaken yet for elimination of the not loyal competition and the pirate radio and TV stations. Even those with concession have been broadcasting without paying the rights for such activities.

With the printing media, noticeable is the appearance of new newspapers and editing houses which are privately owned, thus the process for overtaking the monopoly from NIP "Nova Makedonija" is still going further on. However, NIP "Nova Makedonija" is still left with the distribution monopoly. The private newspaper editions have been sold in a great number by street sellers.

During the current year there still havent been established the criteria for division of budget finances for support of the printing media. 75% from these finances end up in NIP "Nova Makedonija" where the Government has its shares.

The Constitution from 1999, The Law of the Authorities of the Government Administration, The Law for Public Information, The Law for Broadcasting and The Criminal Law guarantee the freedom of speech. Certain act of violating the freedom of speech was the fax message sent by the Broadcasting Council to the "A 1" TV. They stated that "A 1" TV sending critics about the work of the Council, had switched their role from a concession owner to a monitoring service to the work of the Council which, according to the Council, is not permitted. In the same message, the Council, in an open manner, intimidated announcing that they will revise the decision for issuing the concession to "A 1" TV.

The approach to any information data is legally guaranteed, but it is practically impeded with the bureaucratic obstacles. To get any information, one needs approval from his superiors. The Government doesnt have their spokesman.

The cover of the refugee crisis by the media, generally speaking, was characterized with balance and objectiveness, although, simultaneously, the intensity of the campaign was different. When the war was over and new refugees from Kosovo came to Macedonia, who were now Gypsies and Serbs, the intensity of the media reactions was noticeably weaker.

The cover of the second president elections in Macedonia by the media in 1999, according to all the evaluations, was not different from the parliament elections conducted last year at all. This was particularly obvious with the printed media that are mainly financed from the state budget and the public broadcasting enterprise MRTV (Macedonian National Radio and TV). MRTV, as a public broadcast enterprise, has a special responsibility for a neutral and justly cover of the election campaigns. What was going on in 1998 happened again this year - the state media gave an open and biased support of the candidates of the government coalition. However, it can be said that the electronic and the printing media mainly provided the general public a detailed cover of the campaigns of all the president candidates.

After overtaking the government (by the end of 1998), the three coalition partners conducted an urgent change of the editorial offices at the national public radio and TV broadcast of the national editing house "Nova Makedonija", "Vecer" (in Macedonian language), "Flaka" (in Albanian language) and "Birlik" (in Turkish language). Also obvious was the partial influence of the national TV. In fact, when in February of the current year, the Helsinki Committee started a media campaign for the mutual ethnic tolerance which was accepted by all the media with no exception, the national TV was not willing to show our cartoon even as a paid advertisement. Namely, after that change, nothing could have been expected but an open support of the government policy by these media. The same atmosphere was felt when they covered the campaign of the six president candidates. It was noticeable that in the central information program, the Macedonian TV stressfully reported about the activities of the president candidate of the governing party, VMRO-DPMNE. During the campaign, this candidate had also worked as the Deputy Minister of External Affairs. However, it was not even the slightest obstacle for him to open chicken farms and to give statements, for which the MTV, of course, was informing in details (on October 12, in the central information program at 7:30 p.m.). After the first election circle, when there remained only two candidates in the race for the position of the chief of the state, the unequal temporal covering of the candidate campaigns was obvious. This means that the reports for the campaign of the candidate of the party of the government coalition, VMRO-DPMNE, were always much longer (the time was measured in minutes).

The same was in "Nova Makedonija" and "Flaka". Before the campaign started, the editing house "Nova Makedonija" decided not to allow any advertising in its edition to the candidates of the parties who were debtors since the last year elections. The Broadcast Council issued recommendations for the electronic media for covering the elections. But, the main defect there was not having the instruments of punishment in cases when the rules were not obeyed.

Police conduct

The incomplete legal system of the police authorizations (to stop people, to check them up, to investigate, to hold suspects, to use physical power and firearms, etc), represents a serious problem. Of a particular anxiety are the uneven standards in the treatment of suspects in the police stations, the provision of their rights, as well as the unsatisfactory legal mechanisms, i.e. the means for disputing the justification of the police treatment and the rights for compensation of loses in cases when the police authorizations are exceeded. The Committee conducted a poll among the lawyers. This pointed out several illegalities of police actions, such as: arresting people by police own initiative, i.e. not respecting the legal preference for arresting people against a previously issued warrant, holding people more than the maximum of 24 hours which is prescribed with the Constitution Act, not reading the rights to the suspects, their inability to be advised, either alone or in general, by lawyers, application of force or pressure to sign a statement or a confession, not issuing any confirmation of the reasons and the time for being arrested. Yet, it must be admitted and pointed out that the number of exceeding actions of the police authorizations by application of force during 1999 is obviously decreased.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Internal Affairs spurs hysteria against the "organized" crime so that certain actions would be justified, which serves as a catalyst for erosion of the constitutional guarantees. The "organized" crime has been very often used as an excuse for implication of the State Security Services (the Agency of State Security Police and the counter-intelligence), in something which is a simple economic crime. There followed their raids in commercial organizations where managers are people who are representatives of the opposing parties, for which we were witnesses of their arrests that were carried out needlessly spectacularly.

Considering the fact that the organized crime, used as an excuse for certain actions, has not been proved by any verdicts in court, the Government of Macedonia and The Ministry of Internal Affairs have been making open pressure to the Public Prosecutor's Office and the jurisdiction, accusing them for obstructions in the fight against this kind of crime. This is inadmissible for any legal state. The erosion of the freedom and the human rights has been supported by the media tendencies to make things spectacular. In most of the cases, not respecting the presumption of innocence, the police and the media immediately finds the suspects guilty. The erosion of the principles of the legal country has been shown in the interests of the most powerful criminals because it allows them to be free and to corrupt and frighten the government clerks and the legal authorities.

A great part of the problems arise from not coordinating the management structures in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Namely, one part of the management structures have been under open pressure of the political parties, which is inadmissible in a legal state.

Independence of the jurisdiction and justified legal proceedings

Independence of the jurisdiction has been seriously in question by open pressures of the executive authorities. The two bigger incidents that have to be distinguished are the following: the raid of the police and the security organs in the court in the town of Kratovo due to extortion of warrants and interrogation of judges in reference with the proceeding subjects the town of Gevgelija.

Namely, a couple of judges were called for a so-called questioning in UVR (The Administration for Internal Affairs) in Gevgelija. They were interrogated by inspectors who came there especially from Skopje, because of the cancellation of the arrest of a certain manager per certain criminal charges in front of the court in Gevgelija. By this act, it was directly acted against several articles of the Court Laws (Art.211, 14, 15, and especially Art.65 Par.2). The announced judges didn't have any legal obligations to arrive in the offices in UVR Gevgeija and to give any comments upon the cancellation of the arrest regarding the subject criminal charges. Moreover, being appointed as judges, they should not comment in public the subjects they work on, and especially not in front of the officials who imprisoned the accused person, and by which they suffered influences when bringing their decisions.

In practice, the problems with the jurisdiction are permanent and important, the actions have been unnecessarily complicated, sometimes in the court actions there have been breaks of the Law, and in some cases the civilians face huge problems in realizing their own rights under judicial protection. The inefficiency of the courts to protect the rights and interests of the citizens and the legal entities still remains a problem. The long-term proceedings, especially with the citizens' subjects, the great number of delayed actions deserve special attention.

A particular problem is submitting the documents, invitations and other written papers to the parties, so that this problem has got its negative implications both in the criminal and the citizens' proceedings. In a great number of cases, with no legal justification, if the accused witness or person who suffered damages from the criminal act, does not show up on the given date although they have not been properly invited to come, i.e. if there does not exist any proof in the register that they had been properly invited, then the judge of inquiry or the President of the Committee issues an order that they will be brought in by force. In practice, this has been done in a way that the authorized officials of MVR go to the residence of that person very early in the morning and bring that person to the police station. The person has to wait till the beginning of the court hearings, sometimes even 7-8 hours, and afterwards is being brought by police wagon as some big criminal.

In the civilian procedures some subjects have been prolonged for several years. The only reason for this is the inability to hand over the invitation for trial to the other party or to some other person, witness or expert. This leads to indignation and mistrust in the legal system by the civilians because they had applied to the court for their protection or gaining the rights, but it cannot be realized within a period of several years.

In the criminal procedures, of particular worry are the easiness and the mechanical passing a sentence for detention. Detention is still conducted even in cases when it is sufficient to pay a guarantee or to apply some other milder measure as to obtain presence of the person accused, and the reasons for the detention have not been sufficiently explained instead the legal conditions for custody are being only paraphrased. In practice, in most cases the Court accepts the offered guarantee only as a cash payment, refusing the suggestions for guarantees in real estate or other means of guarantee according to the Law. This leads to the effect that the accused persons who do not have cash have to stay in custody needlessly and for a long period of time. Apart from this, the Constitutional Amendment for detention has been illegally applied directly at the expense of the person in custody. Namely, the decree only bans the custody to be longer than 180 days till the day of bringing charges against. This means that the duration of the detention can be also fixed at a shorter period which has been always done for the detention for criminal offence, shortened proceedings, extradition, etc.

The position of the prisoners in "KPD Idrizovo"

The conditions in KPD Idrizovo are so bad that they reach inhuman and humiliating treatment and punishment. The bad conditions in the prison are not only due to the objective circumstances caused by the poor economy in the Republic of Macedonia as a state.

Heating in this prison is so mild, it is on only from temporarily, and in some rooms there does not even exist any heating devices so the temperature in these rooms gets lower under the tolerable limits.

The regiment for serving a sentence is almost so repressive and one can hardly speak of some process of re-education and re-socialization.

The food is prepared badly, it is always the same and it is served very badly.

The conditions for keeping the hygiene are very bad. There is no hot water, and prisoners take showers very seldom in bigger groups and there are only a small number of showers. There aren't any conditions for laundry and drying of clothes. There are no adequate prisoners' uniforms, shoes and bed clothes.

Physical power has been used as a punishment to "bring prisoners to their senses". Prisoners are also inadequately disciplinary punished by sending to solitary cell.

The conditions in the solitary cell are terrible. The room is too small, there is no heating, and the prisoners relieve themselves in a can.

The conditions for applying and the manner of executing the so-called "solitary confinement" are also disputable. The prisoners are kept without any written decision, without any contacts, no heating, no walks, etc.

There are no adequate rooms for free activities. There is no regular medical aid. The prisoners complain for the medical services, for not having the needed medications, etc. An exceptional problem is that there are no doctors during the afternoons and during the nights. There is no suitable treatment for the prisoners who are addicted to heavy drugs.

A complete picture of the conditions in the prisons in Macedonia would be gained by publishing the Report of the Commission for Protection from Tortures at the European Council sent to the Government of the Republic of Macedonia yet within last year. The Helsinki Committee has already reacted with the Government, but this attempt didnt prove successful. However, these reports have been already published by the governments of all of the neighboring countries.

The refugee crisis in Macedonia

In the first half of 1999 Macedonia was faced with a huge wave of refugees from Kosovo, mainly Albanians from Kosovo. This was resulted from the massive break of the human rights in this Yugoslav province as well as the war activities conducted by NATO. Macedonia received on its territory more than 300.000 refugees who were put in several specially built camps and in families. The Macedonian government determined the Kosovo refugees a contemporary humanitarian status.

The problems that the Macedonian government came across were in taking care and control over this enormous number of refugees. The Blace events, which threw shadow on the efforts of the government for taking care of the refugees, resulted from the fact that the Government was not resourceful. Also the International Community was slow in giving aid for providing the refugees as well as the economic and safety risks generated by the refugees for the Republic of Macedonia. During the refugee crisis, evident were misuses of children-refugees for political targets. The several riots in the camps were caused by the misuses shown by the international humanitarian organizations when making the transfer lists of refugee for third countries and the slow pace of this operation. When the war activities in the province stopped, then started the voluntary repatriation of the Kosovo refugees, so at this moment in the Republic of Macedonia there remained about 20.000 registered refugees and about 20.000 more who have not been registered, mainly situated in the remaining camps and in families. After the Albanian refugees went away, there was a reverse refugee wave of mainly Gypsy nationality and Serbs. The treatment of the International Community as well as of the Macedonian government and the general public with the Gypsy refugees is drastically and obviously different from the one with the Albanian refugees, regarding their transfer to third countries as well as giving humanitarian aid, especially the food aid.

At the present time, the main problem that the refugees have been facing in the Republic of Macedonia is their accommodation in solid houses as to pass the winter period safely. Evident is the opposing of the citizens in the areas in Macedonia where their accommodation is planned. So, the citizens in Dojran rejected to agree for accommodation of 1.000 Gypsy refugees giving the explanation that their presence would make negative influence over the tourism, the increasing of the criminal actions as well as the demographic and ecology balance in the region. The same is the case with the citizens in Mavrovo who rejected to put the refugees in the children camp Bunec.

The Republic of Macedonia has taken the responsibility for the refugees till 31/03/2000 when the Kosovo refugees are to leave the territory of Macedonia.

The Government excludes the possibility for these refugees to get asylum or refugee status.

Women rights

During 1999 there has not been noticed any crucial changes in terms of resolving the continuous problems regarding the situation of women in the Republic of Macedonia.

Still present is the problem of early marriage (especially of the women population of Gypsy and Albanian nationality). 27% from all the women in Macedonia got married at the age from 15 to 19. 75,1% from the total number of illiterate people in Macedonia refers to the women, which is also the result that girls leave the eight-year legally prescribed education to early.

The political map has still kept the dominance of the men. Out of the 120 members of the Parliament in the Republic of Macedonia, only 8 (eight) are women. In the new coalition Government of Lubcho Georgievski, out of 27 ministers, 4 (four) are women. Neither the state (through legal regulations), nor the political parties (through their program attitudes or concrete activities) do not promote the need of bigger involvement of women in the leading positions and the government structures.

We would like to remind of the fact that out of 123 municipalities on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, no woman is a mayor, whereas out of the total number of councilors in the municipality assemblies (1.615), only 6% (105 councilor positions) belong to women.

There are direct indicators for increased violence to women (according to the data from the SOS phone and the non-governmental women organizations). However, there still does not exist a system to register the cases of violence towards women, neither the services who are in contact with the victims (the police, medical organizations, social workers), nor the courts, where the epilog of the crime is to be expected. Due to absence of a certain network of special units that would intervene in the cases of home violence, and because of the traditionally patriarchal relations, only in very small number of cases women decide to denounce the act of home violence.

The position of the nationalities

The Republic of Macedonia has started the new 1999 with the new coalition government in which the dominant party of the Albanians in Macedonia (PDPA - Party for Democratic Psrosperity in Macedonia) also takes part. By coming to power of the new coalition, the manifestation of the mutual ethnical relations is obviously decreased. The proclaimed relaxation of these multi ethnic relations had influence over the decrease of open conflicts between the nationalities (particularly of the Albanian nationality) and the authorities. As a result of the achieved political agreement, two Albanian city mayors (of Gostivar and Tetovo) were set free from imprisonment who had been convicted according to Art.319 (producing national, race and religious hatred and intolerance), and Art.387 (resist against arresting), from the Criminal Law of the Republic of Macedonia.

During 1999, the Helsinki Committee identified a number of retroactive proceedings regarding the problems of the minorities, as follows:

* The absence of consistent and systematic educational policy directed towards the respect of the differences and mutual ethnical tolerance, resulted in various physical and violent conflicts among the young Macedonian population and the Albanian ethnical group. Within the first three months of 1999 there were registered 14 such conflicts in which students from the secondary schools in Skopje and Kumanovo participated.

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* The usage of the languages of the minorities in the communication with the administrative and legal authorities was restricted. The resolutions of the Constitutional Court regarding the usage of the languages in the units of the local self-management restrict this usage only in the Municipality Councils. By resolution of the Constitutional Court dd 21/06/1999 there was a repealing of the articles from the Laws for Criminal and Civilian Actions, in which the possibility to communicate with the party in the language of the nationality in court is regulated.

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* In practice, the decrees for bilingual usage of the toponims in the municipalities where live members of the national minorities are not applied.

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* The problem of using the language of the nationalities in the high education system has not been resolved yet.

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* By decree of the Constitutional Court dd 09/12/1998, the Law for usage of flags of the nationalities was repealed.

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* The Government has not made any serious changes in the direction of respect and protection of the right of the Gypsies. During 1999, in the Gypsy riots, the police intervened with particular violent actions. During this period, the number of separate complaints by the members of the Gypsy nationality increased because of the discrimination attitude. (It was done in the education process by the side of the teachers in certain schools, in Vinica, Prilep, Bitola. Also by the municipality authorities and the public services which did not allow them use of their services at same conditions), or exceeding the official duties of the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (as in the case of Dzhevat Elmazov).

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* During the past period, there still remained the opened question for usage of the Vlach language in the religious services of the Vlach believers: in the primary schools, the additional classes in Vlach language were restricted, and the edition of a new student's book for studying the Vlach language was stopped.

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As a separate problem is still the problem with citizenship. High percentage of the members of the Gypsy nationality and even of the other nationalities (although they have been living on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia for more than 20 years, or were born in the Republic of Macedonia), still cannot take Macedonian citizenship. This is because of the Decree in which it is stated that the applicant needs to receive a permanent salary or be permanently employed.

Freedom of belief and religion

The freedom of belief and religion has been still facing formal legal and factual restrictions in the Republic of Macedonia.

The religious organizations have been treated more restrictively than any other kind of organizing of civilians. (Special conditions are issued for establishment and registration of religious groups. They do not subdue any special exemptions from taxes as the other civilian organizations; foreigners are not allowed to establish a religious group; it is difficult for foreigners to participate or join the work of the religious groups, etc.).

In the jurisdiction as well as in the practice the discrimination attitude is evident, especially with the Vlachs and the Serbs with Orthodox belief. Their languages are not recognized for the religious rituals as it is the case with the Turks and the Macedonian Moslems in the Islamic Religious Assembly.

In 1999 the "officialization / support" of the MPC (Macedonian Orthodox Church) was particularly evident. The MPC representatives have been present to all of the more important events of the government. The priests from the MPC gave religious rituals on the first school day in the primary and the secondary schools. The Government initiated introduction of a new separate subject "catechism" in the educational program in the primary and secondary schools. The events connected with the MPC have been completely covered by the media (they are the cover page news), and the MPC hasn't had any bigger obstacles whilst establishing the real estate rights and the rights for denationalization. On the other hand, the religious groups during their whole working period have been facing obstacles and restrictions by the Committee for Religious Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. In the media they are mentioned only in a negative connotation (as sects which spread out lies among the young population and who are extremely dangerous with their doctrines). They cannot establish their real estate rights, and it is very difficult for them to get the document and to invite foreigners who are connected with their activities. MPC has been indirectly involved in organizing hostile actions of its own believers against the believers from the other religious assemblies. (In Prilep, the building of a hall for meetings and religious rituals for the Jehovah witnesses was stopped for several times, and they were also physically attacked), while the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs didn't intervene at all. By the initiative of one part of the religious groups and the initiative of the Helsinki Committee in the Republic of Macedonia, the Constitutional Court repealed several articles of the present Law for Religious Assemblies and Religious Groups who were evaluated as anti-constitutional and discriminatory.

Objection of the conscience

During 1999, in the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Macedonia, there were registered two cases of objection of the conscience. Those were the cases of Muharem Saliev from Skopje and Sasho Nezirov from Kriva Palanka, members of the religious assembly Jehovah witnesses. According to their belief, even the unarmed army service is unacceptable.

In reference with Art.341 paragraph 1 from the Criminal Law of the Republic of Macedonia, the Court finned them, i.e. passed them a sentence for imprisonment because they did a criminal act "not accepting an invitation for army service and refusal of serving in the army".

The motif for passing the sentence is that it has been expected that it will have educational effects for these persons as to change their attitude about the army service, to serve in the army because, on the contrary, they might face the possibility to receive a more rigorous punishment.

The problem of the prisoners of the conscious can be resolved only if the present Law suffers changes. The Helsinki Committee is in the phase of starting an initiative in the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia.

Social rights

In conditions of extremely difficult economical situation, a great number of unemployed persons have been actualizing the question for establishment of their social rights, as a consequence of bankrupted enterprises, unproportionally small number of newly opened working positions, as well as the persons who are already employed but do not receive any salaries. The number of families who use the right for social protection is getting bigger and bigger.

As a compensation for the users of permanent money aid, which is too low and insufficient for obtaining the basic living needs, is their release not to pay the bills for water, they receive aid from the Red Crossin in the form of humanitarion assistance, etc.

A special problem is with the persons who are permanently employed but have not received salaries for months, and whose health, pension and disabled people's insurance has not been paid, and because of that they are not in the position to use these rights.

Due to insufficient financial support, The Fund for Health Insurance conducts irregular supplies of the medicaments from the positive list and which are necessary for keeping a regular therapy of the people insured. Those ill people who can afford supplies of additional quantities of medicaments, sometimes come towards serious difficulties when they want to get refunds for the money they had already paid.

The insured persons who were farmers and who were obliged to pay the insurance fee according to Art.19 Par.2 and Art.39 from the Law of Farmer Pension Insurance also face certain difficulties when they are to achieve the right for farmer pension. The Pension Fund does not admit their insured work in service for the period when they were paying the insurance fee according to this Law because they hadn't been insured for health, whereas, while being insured, they had received certain property.

The problem of the military pensioners of the JNA (Yugoslav National Army) who didn't fulfil the conditions under Art.2 of the Government Decree of the Republic of Macedonia ("Official Gazette" no. 33/92), who, although they are citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, and have permanent residence in Macedonia, and also fulfilled the conditions for old age ( disabled persons) pension, is still present. This is because of the unsettled relations with the Social Security Fund and the SR of Yugoslavia, so they cannot achieve any rights regarding their social security for years.

Rights in the labor relations

The new coalition Government came to power after the elections conducted in autumn of 1998. In January 1999, the Helsinki Committee registered more than 160 cases for persons who received redundancy notices or were appointed to lower ranked working positions in the various ministries, which was against the conditions stated in the Law of Labor Relations and the Collective Agreement. According to our unconfirmed information, the number of such disabled persons is manifold.

These workers were put on lower ranked working positions although there were no remarks on their work, i.e. there was not carried out any proceedings for establishing abuse of the working obligations. There are cases when the workers were assigned on already engaged working positions, although the Systematization Decree states that the number of needed working position is not enlarged.

In many cases, principals were given redundancy notices without stating the reasons for such an action. And, there was no issue of an opinion from the Pedagogical Institute of the Republic of Macedonia or the School Committee.

On the other side, there are cases when on the advertisements for post, there were acknowledged candidates who didn't fulfil the requested conditions, and those candidates who did, were rejected.

All this led to the great number of people who applied to the Republic Inspector for Labor and the National Solicitor to resolve the present irregularities. It also led to enlarged number of labor conflicts that were notarized in the authorized courts. In all these cases, actually the members of the governmental political parties were employed.

Skopje, December 1999.