OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO HEAD OF

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 040176

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM OSCE MK
SUBJECT: OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO HEAD OF
MISSION IN SKOPJE AMBASSADOR RADICATI


1. Post is authorized to make the following statement at
the April 17th, 2008 meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in
Vienna:

Begin Text:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ambassador Radicati, welcome back to the Permanent Council.

Often when we discuss countries that have experienced a
conflict in the last decade, our focus is on helping to
consolidate security and stability in a transitional
democracy. So it is with great pleasure that today we
instead can discuss a country that since the signing of the
Ohrid Framework Agreement seven years ago has made tremendous
strides in developing its multiethnic democratic institutions
on its path to full Euro-Atlantic integration. Although the
pace of reform in Macedonia has varied, its progress has been
steady and certain. Its political leadership has remained
dedicated to their country,s social, economic, and
democratic development and committed to fulfilling
Macedonia,s international commitments.

The United States regrets that NATO at the Bucharest summit
did not issue a membership invitation to Macedonia. We are
pleased, however, that Allies at the Bucharest summit agreed
that Macedonia has met the performance-based standards for
membership, and that they decided to issue an invitation as
soon as the name issue is resolved, without tying such a
decision to future ministerial or summit meetings. The
United States hopes a solution can be found through the UN
process within weeks, not months.

We understand the disappointment that Macedonia,s leadership
has expressed with regard to the decision at Bucharest and
welcome its commitment to continue its engagement toward a
solution to the name issue and to redouble its efforts on the
reform track.

The OSCE Spillover Monitoring Mission to Skopje has played an
integral role supporting the Government in its reform
process. We applaud the OSCE,s continued contributions to
international community coordination and cooperation in
Skopje in regular, close consultation with our Embassy, NATO
representatives, and the EU Special Representative. We also
appreciate that Ambassador Radicati and his mission have kept
the Secretariat and delegations briefed on the political
situation in the country and the mission,s activities.

In this vein, the U.S. places strong weight on the mission,s
rule of law programs, which should be continued as a priority
for the mission this year. We are pleased with the progress
made in judicial and police reform and encourage sustained
efforts in this regard. We also welcome the willingness of
the mission to monitor any legal proceedings that could
result from the return of four files from the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to Macedonian
jurisdiction. We also place great store in the mission,s
continued confidence-building work to deepen cooperation and
mutual understanding between different political and ethnic
communities in Macedonia, in the spirit of the Framework
Agreement.

It is commendable that Ambassador Radicati has been able to
actively pursue the mission,s programmatic goals in rule of
law, police reform, public administration reform, and the
important confidence building measures noted before, while
simultaneously downsizing the mission and reducing its
budget. This is rare among missions, and we appreciate the
efficiency of the mission,s activities and the transparency
of its decisions.

We encourage the mission,s continued attention to
rightsizing to reflect progress made by the country. In our
view, Macedonia has made excellent progress in the field of
media freedom, we believe that now is the time to start
wrapping up some of the media development programs and start
handing over program management and funding to government
bodies. We do see utility in keeping the field mission in
Tetovo open for now, as its engagement in confidence building
activities and monitoring remain productive and useful, but
note that the phase-out of that field office should begin by
the end of the year.

In closing, the United States takes note of the decision by
the Government to hold early parliamentary elections on June

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1st. We encourage the Government and political party leaders
not to delay reform implementation during the election period
and to work together to ensure that the elections reflect
Macedonia,s democratic maturity. We urge ODIHR to begin
planning for a monitoring mission. As domestic election
monitoring NGOs have not budgeted for early elections, we
also hope that the mission can help host a donors meeting to
afford local NGOs an opportunity to appeal for funding.

Thank you very much for joining us today, Ambassador Radicati.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
RICE