Civil Society Organization and the territorial organization

Common attitude for support of the democratic transformation

The organizations - members of the Committee of the Civic Platform of Macedonia held a public debate with the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski on 23 July 2004, discussing the process of decentralization of the country, that is the proposal - law on the local government territorial organization. Participant at the debate were 50 civil society organizations. The panel discussion followed after the non-transparent conducting of the negotiation process for the new territorial organization, due to the lack of information the civil society organizations found it difficult to assume a certain attitude regarding this issue. The dialogue with the president Crvenkovski should have made the civil society organizations clarify their dilemmas that the proposal-law had imposed on them. Addressing the Framework Agreement, Crvenkovski emphasized that the process of decentralization is not a road towards federalization, but a mechanism to eliminate the tendencies towards federalization or cantonization and that at the same time, the decentralization presents a guarantee of the unitary character and the territorial integrity of RM.

The civil society organizations' representatives asked president Crvenkovski how the opinion that there is an ethnic criterion in the territorial organization and that there are no territorial solutions for the ethnic questions would be reconciled, and whether any political subject would explain to the citizens that the territorial organization does not mean territorial division, how the Kosovo question would reflect on the process of decentralization and territorial organization, etc.

At the press conference that took place a day after the debate a group of eight civil society organizations announced their common statement regarding the process of preparation and the resolutions of the proposal - law on the local government territorial organization, and later, that statement was supported by other organizations.       

 

Starting from the universal principles of respecting the differences, non-violence and participative democracy and starting from the basic principles of the Framework Agreement (abandoning the use of violence for accomplishing political goals; maintaining the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the unitary character of Macedonia, as well as the multiethnic character of the Macedonian society; meeting the needs of all its citizens and development of the local government), with the belief that the answers to the problems must always be seek through an open and continuous dialogue, based on full mutual respect and trust, we, the civil society organizations' representatives send the following

 

Common statement
 

We support the development of the decentralised government
We support the framework agreement as the only possible alternative for democratic transformation of the Macedonian society and integration of Macedonia in the European Union. The decentralized government is not only an essential part of the Framework Agreement, but it is of vital importance for respecting and cherishing the identity of the communities and the development of the immediate local democracy.

Inappropriate process
The process that led to the proposal of the territorial organization of Republic of Macedonia was conducted in a non-transparent way, without taking into account the principle of participation, publicity, openness and honesty before the citizens, which is necessary for creating such fundamental changes.

Behind the ethnic problems there are hidden party interests
Behind part of the discussion related to the territorial organization there are hidden party, group and personal interests.

Escalation of the mistrust
In the previous phase of the proposal for territorial organization, the opposition, as well as the other political parties, responded to the obvious majorisation of the government with local referendums. Now, the conditions are such that certain political structures prepare for a national referendum that can push us into the risk of ethnic majorisations, by which we would enter the endless spiral of ethnically marked referendums.

Termination of the escalation of the party and ethnic polarization
We are determined in our demands to stop the escalation of the party and ethnic polarization.
We want the political parties, individuals and all participants in the public debate to refrain from the use of violence and the vocabulary of threat and hatred.

Common solution for the territorial organization
Regarding this question, we ask from the President of the country to open a process of requesting a common solution for the territorial organization, that would include active and sincere participation of the political parties that signed the Framework Agreement and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Support for the use of the languages of the communities
We support the use of languages of the communities, since it, by no means, threatens the use of the Macedonian language. 

The Macedonian multiethnic character includes the small communities, too
The Turkish, Serbian, Vlach, Roma and Bosnian ethnic communities are left on the margins of the process of political negotiations for the territorial organization of Macedonia, which harms to a great extent not only the democracy, but also the multiethnic character of the country.
For that reason, and in order to preserve the multicultural character of the Macedonian society, we request that the principle of non-discrimination and fair participation of the small ethnic communities, as well as the right to use their language even when they do not represent 20% of the local government is applied consistently

The territorial organization and the multiethnic relations
It is quite clear that in several solutions proposed by the government, the ethnic criterion was taken into account. On this occasion, we would like to express our dilemmas whether the application of that criterion is in accordance with the basic principles and the spirit of the Framework Agreement.
We also consider that the Government has to explain in a clear manner if the application of the ethnic criteria in the territorial organization would mean providing quality mechanisms that would exclude the risks of opening any process of cantonization or federalization on ethnic basis, or the risk of encouraging any form of ethnic cleansing. 

Decentralization of the Framework Agreement
In order to build trust in the future local governments and cherish the climate of trust, we request application of the Framework Agreement principles and their full implementation from national to local level in the cases when Macedonians are the minority on local level.
It should include non-discrimination and fair participation, as well as special procedures for voting at the local government councils - the Badinter rule.

Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation - MCIC, First Children Embassy of the World "Medjashi", Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia, Polio Plus, Union of Macedonian Women Organizations, CSID, "FORUM", Association for Democratic Initiatives, Centre for Institutional Development - CIRA, Humanitarian Roma Organization in Macedonia "Mesecina" - Gostivar, Nansen Dialogue Centre, Roma Community Centre "Drom" - Kumanovo, Macedonian Roma Women Organization "Daja"- Kumanovo, Youth Cultural Centre - Bitola, NGO Support Centre - Kicevo, OHO, Roma Association "Cerenja" - Stip, Macedonian Ecologists' Movement (MEM), Crisis Centre "Nadez", Youth Council - Prilep, GAMA - Berovo, Youth Alliance - Tetovo, Centre for Civic Initiative - Prilep, Humanitarian Organization "El Hilal", Parents' Association for Healthy Children - Veles,, Association for Democratic Values - Veles, Association of the Roma Intelligence "Angulipe" - Tetovo, Macedonian European Federalists of Macedonia