MACEDONIA: INPUT FOR OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION

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,

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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

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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