VZCZCXRO2363
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSQ #0399/01 1701329
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181329Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY SKOPJE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7450
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 0347
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUESEN/SKOPJE BETA
RUEHSQ/USDAO SKOPJE MK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2298
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SKOPJE 000399 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SCE; STATE FOR G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM OSCE PGOV KDEM PREL MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: INPUT FOR OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION 
IMPLEMENTATION MEETING 
 
REF: SECSTATE 60838 
 
¶1. (SBU)  In response to the request for information on 
Macedonia's commitment to human rights and fundamental 
freedoms for the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation 
Meeting (reftel), Post offers the following summary of 
progress in areas of democratic development, human rights, 
religious freedom and trafficking in persons.  End Summary. 
 
Democratic Development 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Although Macedonia's 2006 parliamentary elections 
were judged to have met international standards, this year's 
early parliamentary elections on June 1 were marred by fraud 
and violence.  Commendably, the State Electoral Commission 
(SEC) decided to broadly re-run elections in polling stations 
that were closed or in which fair voting did not take place 
due to violence, intimidation and/or credible complaints of 
serious irregularities.  The SEC review of political parties' 
appeals, though time-constrained by law, was positively 
viewed as allowing for a wide range of re-voting in polling 
stations that experienced serious electoral fraud.  The 
Supreme Court, however, overturned the SEC's decision to 
re-run 11 polling stations. The Court offered no 
justification for its findings, even in cases in which voter 
turnout at some polling stations exceeded 95%, and in which 
international observers noted serious irregularities. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  The June 15 re-runs of the parliamentary elections 
were conducted in a substantially improved security 
environment, and professional and effective conduct of law 
enforcement authorities prevented serious incidents of 
violence.  The re-runs also were marked, however, by serious 
irregularities in a number of polling stations, including 
ballot stuffing and organized group, family, and proxy 
voting. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The GoM must continue to investigate vigorously, 
prosecute and appropriately sanction those found to have 
perpetrated election fraud.  The GoM also must work to 
extract and apply lessons learned from these flawed elections 
in order to prevent similar occurrences during next year's 
presidential and local elections.  Among those lessons is 
that partisan staffing of institutions (e.g. MoI, local 
election boards) is a systemic flaw requiring rapid 
unwavering systemic remedy. 
 
 
Human Rights 
------------ 
¶5.  (SBU)  Macedonia has made progress with respect to the 
protection of human rights in recent years.  Tensions between 
ethnic Macedonian and ethic Albanian populations have 
steadily decreased over the past several years.  Incidents of 
inter-ethnic disputes in schools decreased for the third 
consecutive year.  In 2007, the Government upgraded the 
"sector" for the implementation of the Ohrid Framework 
Agreement to a "secretariat" with greater authority and more 
personnel, and markedly increased its budget.  This was 
symbolically positive even thought most jobs were assigned 
for party patronage reasons and funding similarly allocated. 
To meet the criteria for NATO membership outlined in the 
Membership Action Plan, Macedonia quickly passed a number of 
laws related to easing of inter-ethnic tensions in late 2007, 
but made only limited progress towards ensuring equitable 
representation of ethnic minorities in state authorities. 
The new government, likely to be formed by the end of July 
2008, must redouble efforts to increase ethnic minority 
representation in the public administration.  A key element 
will be not just numbers but that such efforts conform to 
impartial professional recruitment standards and are 
conducted transparently as to advertising positions and 
selecting successful candidates. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Police abuse of suspects continued to be a problem 
and there were allegations of police harassment of ethnic 
minorities.  The most widely noted incident involved the 
"Mountain Storm" police operation in the village of Brodec, 
which resulted in several arrests of suspected criminals. 
Brodec residents claimed that those arrested were innocent, 
 
SKOPJE 00000399  002 OF 003 
 
 
and were in fact victims of ethnic discrimination.  Video 
footage of Brodec detainees showed evidence of serious 
injuries sustained by a suspect during the arrest and/or 
investigation process, prompting a formal exchange between 
the Embassy and the Ministry of Interior (MoI).  The MoI's 
Sector for Internal Control and Professional Standards 
undertook an immediate investigation and suspended officers 
involved in the incident. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Societal discrimination against ethnic minorities, 
particularly Roma, continues to be a problem.  Roma NGOs 
report that instances of direct attacks against Roma have 
diminished significantly, but discrimination and serious 
imbalances in access to education and governmental services 
persist.  The GoM has done very little to implement its 
commitments under the "Decade of the Roma" program. 
 
 
Religious Freedom 
----------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The GoM is in the process of implementing a new 
Law on Religious Groups and Communities (Law on the Legal 
Status of Churches, Religious Communities, and Religious 
Groups, passed in September 2007 and entered into force in 
May 2008).  The new law strengthens religious freedom 
provisions and eliminates previous legal restrictions on the 
registration of religious communities and organizations.  The 
law's registration requirements are in line with 
international standards, a departure from the previous law 
which prohibited the registration of more than one 
organization from each religious confession. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  While the new law liberalizes the process of 
registration of religious groups and communities, the GoM 
must ensure that the implementation of the law does not 
result in bias or preferential treatment for any religious 
group or community.  Bias in implementation of the law (which 
is unclear in its use of the terms "community" and "group") 
could allow for unequal treatment of leaders and members of 
the "Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid," a Serbian Orthodox 
Christian group which clashes with the Macedonian Orthodox 
Church over issues of autocephaly, as well as the Bektashi 
community, a Muslim sect which faces challenges, including 
difficulties in having its property disputes with the Islamic 
Community of Macedonia heard in court. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Additionally, recent GoM actions raise questions 
about its willingness to uphold the constitutional separation 
of church and state.  The GoM, in a closed-door session in 
January 2008, decided to fund the construction of an Orthodox 
church on the main city square in Skopje.  Following protests 
by Islamic civic associations and NGOs, the decision was 
broadened to include the reconstruction of a mosque in the 
nearby city of Tetovo.   Still others opposed any 
state-sponsored construction of religious facilities 
irrespective of the faith involved, citing church/state 
separation.   A clear separation between church and state 
also comes into question in the Government's plans to bring 
religious education to the public schools for the 2008-2008 
academic year.  Amendments to the Law on Education, which 
would allow for optional single-faith religious education, 
are under review by the Constitutional Court. 
 
 
Trafficking in Persons 
---------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Macedonia has made notable progress in recent 
years in combating trafficking in persons, evidenced in its 
ranking as a "Tier 1" country by G/TIP  in the 2008 
Trafficking in Persons Report.  Macedonia made marked 
progress toward eliminating trafficking with commendable 
efforts in identifying and protecting victims of trafficking, 
prosecuting traffickers, and preventing trafficking. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  The GoM aggressively prosecuted trafficking 
cases, increasing the number of traffickers convicted, and 
introduced new TIP-related criminal categories with stricter 
penalties.  The GoM considerably increased its efforts to 
identify trafficking victims and identified 249 victims in 
 
SKOPJE 00000399  003 OF 003 
 
 
2007, up from 17 in 2006.  Government-provided assistance 
included shelter, legal and medical assistance, witness 
protection, psychological assistance and vocational training. 
 The Macedonian Government also implemented an 
anti-trafficking plan, providing financial support for NGOs 
conducting anti-trafficking prevention and awareness-raising, 
including efforts to educate clients on the health and legal 
risks of commercial sex.  Macedonian officials at all levels 
of government participated in anti-trafficking awareness 
campaigns. The GoM must continue to build on its strong and 
effective inter-agency network and vigorous efforts in areas 
of prevention, protection, and prosecution in order to 
maintain its Tier 1 status for 2009. 
Milovanovic