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Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 13:52:57 +1030
Reply-To:     Paul Hellander <phelland@ADAM.ADELAIDE.EDU.AU>
From:         Paul Hellander <phelland@ADAM.ADELAIDE.EDU.AU>
Subject:      TENSION HEIGHTENS BETWEEN GREECE, MACEDONIA (fwd)
Comments: To: Hellenic Discussion group <hellas@brownvm.brown.edu>

Forwarded message:
From 100036.607@compuserve.com Wed Jan  6 15:34:44 1993
Date: 05 Jan 93 23:56:19 EST
From: Demetres Dounas <100036.607@CompuServe.COM>
To: Paul Hellander <phelland@adam.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject: TENSION HEIGHTENS BETWEEN GREECE, MACEDONIA
Message-Id: <930106045619_100036.607_DHM50-2@CompuServe.COM>



--------------- Forwarded Story ---------------

Headline: TENSION HEIGHTENS BETWEEN GREECE, MACEDONIA
Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report)
Date:   06 I 1993

    By Dina Kyriakidou
    ATHENS, Jan 5, Reuter - Tension between Greece and the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia heightened on Tuesday after Greek cargo trucks were
stopped at the border and Skopje said the credentials of Greek diplomats had
expired.
    The Greek Foreign ministry said customs officers turned back several of
the trucks on Monday, saying they lacked proper transport documents.
    It advised all Greek truckers to avoid the frontier with the republic
until the situation was clarified.
    In the Macedonian capital Skopje, officials said the turning back of Greek
trucks was in retaliation for identical action on Monday by Greek customs
officers, Macedonian radio reported. The Greek foreign ministry denied trucks
were being turned back.
    Macedonian foreign minister Risto Nikovski also stated that the
credentials of Greek diplomats at their consulate in Skopje, submitted to
former Yugoslav authorities in Belgrade before the break up of Yugoslavia, had
expired.
    "We have asked the Greek authorities to extend the credentials with our
authorities but Athens has not responded as yet," he said.
    The long-running dispute between Athens and Skopje centres on the
breakaway Yugoslav republic's wish to retain the name Macedonia. Athens
objects to this because it is also the name of a northern region in Greece.
    Macedonia is the only one of the four breakaway Yugoslav republics which
has failed to gain widespread international recognition, largely due to Greek
opposition.
    The Greek foreign ministry noted transit permits from the former state of
Yugoslavia had expired on December 31, 1992.
    Macedonia was honouring the old permits but now seemed to be adopting a
new tactic in a long-running dispute with Greece.
    The ministry said the republic has issued no permits for its territory and
said the situation at the border -- Greece's main land route to Europe -- was
confused.
    "The inconsiderate behaviour of the (Macedonian) customs authorities,
especially at this hour, anything but contributes to the effort for a calm
climate in the area," foreign ministry spokesman Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
    "We point out such actions clearly do not damage Greece," he added. He
apparently meant Greece could use alternative routes via Bulgaria but the
fledgling republic had few options to sending its goods through Greece to the
port at Salonika.
    Before Yugoslavia began breaking apart, and Greece became embroiled in a
dispute with Macedonia, about 40 per cent of all Greek exports went overland
through Macedonia to central and western Europe.
    The Greek transport ministry said that following Monday's incidents truck
drivers had been advised to take other routes -- through Bulgaria, Serbia and
Hungary -- if problems appeared at the Greek-Macedonian border.
    Greece blocked oil exports to Macedonia and other former Yugoslav
republics in August to dispel accusations that it was breaking U.N. sanctions
against Serbia and Montenegro.
    The United Nations imposed the sanctions in May to force the two
republics, the only ones left in the remnant Yugoslav state, to abandon
support for rebel Serbs in the neighbouring breakaway states.
    Greece eventually bowed to pressure and resumed oil supplies to Macedonia,
saying they were being sent to the poor republic of two million Slavs and
Albanians for humanitarian reasons.
 REUTER DRK JMK CD

Copyright 1993 Reuters Information Services, Inc.  All rights reserved.


Distribution:
  Paul Hellander >Internet:phelland@adam.adelaide.edu.au.



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