MACEDONIA: YUGOSLAV AND MACEDONIAN LEADERS SIGN BORDER DEMARCATION AGREEMENT AT BALKAN'S SUMMIT IN SKOPJE

Record ID: 647053

  • Title: MACEDONIA: YUGOSLAV AND MACEDONIAN LEADERS SIGN BORDER DEMARCATION AGREEMENT AT BALKAN'S SUMMIT IN SKOPJE
  • Date: 23rd February 2001
  • Summary: SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (FEBRUARY 23, 2001) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. MV/CU/SV: YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA AND MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT BORIS TRAJKOVSKI SIGNING AN AGREEMENT ON BORDER DEMARCATION (3 SHOTS) 0.13 2. MV: PEOPLE CLAP 0.18 3. PAN SHOT FROM JOURNALISTS TO THE PRESIDENTS OF THE BALKAN COUNTRIES DRINKING CHAMPAGNE 0.24 4. VARIOUS: PHOTO OPPORTUNITY OF ALL BALKAN PRESIDENTS (3 SHOTS) 0.39 5. TRACK: EUROPEAN UNION EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER CHRIS PATTEN AND EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF JAVIER SOLANA GOING TO THE MEETING WITH YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA 0.44 6. VARIOUS OF KOSTUNICA/PATTEN/SOLANA MEETING (3 SHOTS) 0.54 7. SV: EU EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER, CHRIS PATTEN, APPROACHING REPORTERS 0.57 8. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) EU EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER, CHRIS PATTEN: "It is very worrying. It's appalling when busloads of women and children are blown up. This is the past in the Balkans. People want to turn their backs on the bloodshed and the violence and the mayhem. People want a better, more secure, more stable future. That's what people are saying at this conference and that's what we want to support so I hope that that is the message that is going out - that extremists have no part to play in the future building of the Balkans." / EU EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER, CHRIS PATTEN LEAVING 1.30 9. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Serbian) YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA: "We can expect some concrete measures to be undertaken on the meetings that will be initiated by the EU leaders in the next few days. An end must be put on terrorism, which is endangering the interests of all participants of this South-eastern Summit." 1.53 10. MV: BODO HOMBACH, STABILITY PACT COORDINATOR FOR EASTERN EUROPE WALKING TO CAMERA 1.59 11. SCU: SOUNDBITE (German) BODO HOMBACH, STABILITY PACT COORDINATOR FOR EASTERN EUROPE: "Of course this is dangerous and annoying. This is terrorism. This is crime and we have to fight it. But I am very optimistic that it remains an isolated phenomenon and it is the one we know from other region in the world and we have to fight it as decisively as everywhere else. On one hand I am annoyed because it brings bad news and we already have too many bad news from the Balkans. On the other hand I am very optimistic because the region itself can generate the strength to isolate it." 2.29 12. WIDE OF LEADERS AT PRESS CONFERENCE 2.36 13. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT BORIS TRAJKOVSKI: "We have confirmed our commitment to giving regional answers to regional problems based on commitments contained in the chapter on good neighbourly relations, stability, security cooperation in southeastern Europe." 2.58 14. VARIOUS OF THE FINAL NEWS CONFERENCE (3 SHOTS) 3.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SKOPJE, MACEDONIA
  • Country: Macedonia
  • Reuters ID: LVA5B9BLZD0USR7H28I5ZQZQZOHF
  • Story Text: Macedonia and Yugoslavia on Friday (February 23) signed
    an agreement on border demarcation, hailing the end to their
    ten-year dispute as proof that the people of the Balkans could
    solve their differences peacefully.



    The summit brought together leaders of Albania,
    Bulgaria, Bosnia, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey and
    Romania and top European Union officials including foreign
    policy chief Javier Solana and External Affairs Commissioner
    Chris Patten.

    On the agenda of the summit was discussion of the violence
    which has surged both in Kosovo and the Presevo Valley region
    just across the boundary in Serbia.

    The violence, blamed by other Balkan leaders firmly on
    ethnic Albanians, is a threat to Western hopes of a smooth
    transition to democracy in the region after the downfall of
    autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia last year.

    Patten said people in the Balkans wanted to turn their
    backs on the violence of the past. "People want a better, more
    secure, more stable future", he said.

    He stressed that delegates at the Skopje summit were
    sending out the message that "extremists have no part to play
    in the future building of the Balkans."
    Patten said borders would not be changed and told ethnic
    Albanian extremists of the southern Serbian area of Presevo
    who want the area to be part of Kosovo that they had to start
    a dialogue with Belgrade.

    The Balkan leaders did not specify what concrete action
    they wanted the West to take to halt the violence.

    But Yugoslavia's new reformist leadership has accused NATO
    peacekeepers in Kosovo of being too soft on ethnic Albanian
    hardliners, allowing them to export violence across borders.

    President Vojislav Kostunica said both the KFOR
    peacekeeping force and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo
    (UNMIK) needed to move from words to action.

    "An end must be put on terrorism, which is endangering the
    interests of all participants of this southeastern Summit",
    Kostunica said.

    Only Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta sidestepped a
    direct reference to ethnically motivated terrorism, saying
    that his country was in favour of peace and condemning the use
    of violence "from whoever it may be".

    Balkans Stability Pact Coordinator Bodo Hombach expressed
    optimism that acts of violence would be stamped out. He said
    "On one hand I am annoyed, because it brings bad news and we
    already have too many bad news from the Balkans. On the other
    hand I am very optimistic because the region itself can
    generate the strength to isolate it."


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