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Press Briefing held on 7 November 2001 at the NATO Press Centre in Skopje Yves Brodeur: Welcome and thank you for your patience, we will have a short press statement read by the NATO SG, it will be followed by few words from Minister Geoana and we will take a very few questions. Statement of NATO SG, Lord George Robertson: Minister Geoana and I came here today to help with the peace process initiated by President Trajkovski earlier this year. The Macedonian Parliament is moving towards its final votes on the Framework Agreement and we have encouraged today and called upon all of the political leadership of this country to unite and to support the Framework Agreement and to move on to a new, united, equitable Macedonia. The key areas that we have been talking about today involve first of all, a timetable towards the final votes, Speaker Andov has said that he hopes that the votes on the amendments will all be taken by Friday and we hope that this is in fact the case, and that the final declaratory votes will be on Monday of next week. And it would be very fitting if these votes were to take place and Macedonia was to start out on its new future, reinforced by the support from all of the parties in the Macedonian Parliament. The second issue we have talked about today has been the issue of amnesty. There has to be amnesty in order to heal the wounds in this divided country after this remarkable year. The President, as you know, wrote to me saying that there would be an amnesty for those who handed over their weapons, took off their uniforms, and disbanded as armed rebel organizations. In return for that offer of amnesty, the disarmament took place with the help of NATO troops and observers of the OSCE and the EUMM. That disarmament took place and was finished on 26 September. We had continuing discussions about how the amnesty will be put in place, and these discussions are still ongoing, and we hope will lead to a final exchange of letters taking place in the next few days. But, today, at a meeting that we held with Prime Minister Georgievski, Minister of Interior Boskovski, the Minister of Justice and the Chief Prosecutor, a number of elements of agreement were already reached, which, I think, should be made clear to the Public. The Chief Prosecutor has made it clear that he has not initiated any prosecutions related to incidents leading up to the disarmament on 26 September. No such prosecutions have been initiated since 26 September. The Minister of the Interior has declared that there will be no further arrests of people connected to the so-called NLA up to events that might have taken place up until 26 September. There will be no further local war crimes indictments, the issue of such crimes will be dealt by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and all information relating to such incidents or to such allegations will be sent to the ICTY at the Hague. The matter of the pardoning of those who have already been prosecuted or imprisoned is a matter for the President of the Republic, and, of course, the President was responsible for the letter to me in August in relation to that whole matter. One further element you might like to know, as you know Minister Boskovski has now incorporated the reserve units, known as the “Lions” and the “Tigers” into the formal police structures of Macedonia, at the moment they are all made up of ethnic Macedonian police officers, a number of Albanian citizens have applied to be members of these forces, and they will become multiethnic forces in due course. We remain optimistic, we remain hopeful that this country can now complete the last stages of this peace process, and move forward as a united country, and I pay a tribute to those who have been flexible and farsighted in dealing with the problems that the country has had to face this year. Statement of OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Mircea Geoana Just a few words. We also have tackled the issue of the return of the security forces together with the OSCE and EU monitors and the rest of the villages. We have made clear that this will be done when the whole political process will be completed. We remain optimistic that after the completion of those political dimensions and constitutional changes, we will all be able to complete this job in a careful and coordinated way. We also have made a point that for the OSCE it is very important to see some progress done on the political and the amnesty fronts in order for us to be able to prolong the mandate of our monitors here in Macedonia. This will also have an impact on our relationship with the EU monitors, but of course, it will impact directly on our security arrangements of the NATO operation going on today. Lord Robertson: One further point in relation to the allegations of there being a war grave, Minister Boskovski has made it clear that any attempt to open what might be a war grave will be done in close Association with the ICTY. It is absolutely essential that any evidence related to any war crimes in Macedonia should be protected and should be done under the auspices of the ICTY, which has responsibility for prosecuting those who have committed any war crimes or crimes against humanity. Questions: Question 1: Don’t you think that what you just said undermines the sovereignty of this country, especially the last part, i.e. on the legal authorities not being able to prosecute or to act without the ICTY? Lord Robertson: I have no intention; the international community has no intention of undermining the sovereignty of this country. Indeed, what we are doing is helping the Macedonians to regain full sovereignty over a county that was perilously close to a civil war and the bloodshed and the strife that that could have caused. There are plenty of precedents for amnesty after there has been violence in the country, because that is the message of making sure that would unite this country and making sure that people do not return to the use of violence instead of ordinary politics. For, all of the decisions, whether they were at Lake Ohrid or in this Parliament building itself, have been taken by the elected representatives of the people of Macedonia. The help of the international community has been invaluable in saving this country from civil war, but it has only been help, there has been no pressure, no intimidation. The people of this country have now got the opportunity of living in peace and harmony, and we are glad we have been able to give some help in allowing that to happen. Question 2: Lord Robertson, are you saying you see advantages in this process? Lord Robertson: I see progress taking place. This country has avoided the bloodshed that has affected so many other countries in the Balkans. It has done so because there was genuine wisdom, flexibility by different groups in the country. By doing that, Macedonia may well have provided an example for the rest of the world. The opportunity is now there to build a thriving multi-ethnic democracy based on equal rights in a unitary state. I hope that opportunity will be grasped by every one of the politicians who will be called upon to vote on Friday and Monday of next week. This is a historic moment, not just for Macedonia but indeed for Europe as a whole. Question 3: Is there some date for the return of the police forces? Lord Robertson: There is a plan that has been worked out with the observers and with the NATO forces that are here to back them up for a gradual re-entry of the security forces to all parts of Macedonia. Our ambition, our objective, our intention is to get all the displaced people back to the places that they call home and to allow them to leave in peace and security, but Mr. Geoana is the one whose organization is supplying the people who will allow it to happen. Mr. Geoana: As I said we are committed in assisting the security forces to return to these villages in a careful and progressive way, we would be much helped if the political dimension would come to a conclusion as soon as next Monday. This will enable us to move with more courage towards this goal, we are here to assist, we can do a good job together, but again I would also caution all the leaders of this country that as you know, winter is coming by, we need to see those people coming back to their homes and regaining a normal life. And also, I will have to say that if we see progress on these fronts, we’ll probably see the international community committed to more financial support for this country, which is very needed at this moment. Thank you very much.