From: phssvb@emory.edu (Spiros V. Branis)
Newsgroups: alt.news.macedonia,soc.culture.greek
Subject: NEWS FROM  U.N.
Date: 26 Jan 93 15:30:54 GMT
Followup-To: alt.news.macedonia
Organization: Emory University, Atlanta, GA
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3


Compromise Likely to Take Macedonia into U.N. - New York Times, Tuesday, Jan 26, p. A8

By Paul Lewis - Special to the New York Times

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 25. - A yearlong international controversy over the name under which a former Yugoslav Republic should be admitted to the United Nations appears close to resolution on the basis of an awkward-looking compromise.

Foreign Minister Michalis Papaconstantinou of Greece said today that his Government was ready in principle to accept a plan drawn by France, Britain and Spain, the three European Community members of the Security Council, under which the Council would offer Macedonia membership in the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

At the same time as the United Nations accepts Macedonia under this name, the European Plan calls for the Security Council to instruct the Macedonian and greek Governments to negotiate a compromise to their dispute.

Greece has been blocking the admission of Macedonia to the United nations as a n independent nation as well as its diplomatic recognition by most of the world under that name, arguing that its use implies a territorial claim on the northeastern region of Greece, also known as Macedonia.

Greeks Demonstrate

Up to a million Greeks have demonstrated in the center of Athens against the former Yugosalv republic calling itself Macedonia.  

The conservative Greek government of Premier Constatine Mitsotakis has told other European governmaents it could be driven from office if the international community recognized an independent state of Macedonia. 

Mr. Papaconstantinou said in an interview that a compromise along the lines suggested by France, Britain and Spain, would be acceptable to Athens, pointing out that Macedonia has already been admitted to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and that this was the name also used by the European Community and at the Yugoslav peace conference in Geneva.

"If the Security Council agrees to that then we will agree to it too," the Foreign Minister said.

 Macedonia is expected to accept such a compromise, diplomats here say, since it has agreed to join other international organizations under that name.  But in the past the Macedonian President, Kiro Gligorov, has turned down any suggestion that Macedonia negotiate a compromise to its quarrel with Greece.

The Greek Foreign Minister asked the Security Council today to seek "confidence building measures" from Macedonia as aprt of any agreement on United nations membership, including deletion of clauses in its Constitution that Greece says imply claims on its territory, removal of Hellenic symbols from its flag and stamps and an end to what he termed "hostile propaganda."

After approval by the Security Council, Macedonia's application for the United Nations membership would be sent to the General Assembly, where approval appears a foregone conclusion.

Greece's successful campaign to block recognition of Macedonia has irritated other European countries who fear that without increased international legitimacy this tiny, desperately poor country of 2 million people that does not even have an army may soon be swallowed by its predatory neighbors, creating a new ethnic conflagration in the Balkans.

Last November, the Security Council dispatched an infantry battalion and a group of police observers to monitor Macedonia's borders and prevent any incursions that might lead to a widening of the Balkan conflict.

About a quarter of Macedonia's people are ethnic Albanian Muslims who live mainly in the west of the country.  Any attempt in the neighboring Serbian province of Kosovo to breal away and set up a greater Albania could lead to a separatist drive by Macedonia's Albanians as well.

Bulgaria, which once included present day Macedonia, has recognized the country frontiers but not the existence of a separate state within them.

As a result there are fears that any fresh outbreak of ethnic unrest among the regions Albanian minority might be seized as a pretext  by nationalists in Bulgaria to press for annexation of the rest of Macedonia to recreate a greater Bulgaria. 

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Spiros