Left picture: Mr. Boskovski, Deputy Secretary Armitage, Dr. Babamov, and Mr. Stameski Right picture: Ms. Magdeska, Mrs. Dandusevski, Mr. Boskovski, Mr. Stameski, Deputy Secretary Armitage, Rajcevski, Dr. Babamov, Mr.  Atanasoski, and Mr. Oginar 

Minutes of the meeting of Representatives of the Macedonian-American Community in the US with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Lee Armitage

A meeting of Representatives of the Macedonian American Community in the US with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Lee Armitage was held at the US Department of State on August 9, 2001. The meeting was scheduled at the request of Senator Levin of Michigan in order to provide representatives of the Macedonian American Community in the US an opportunity to express their concerns about the terrorism in Macedonia, to request action by the Department of State, and to find the most constructive role for the Macedonian American community in resolving the crisis. The arrangements for the Meeting were coordinated by the American Macedonian Association, Detroit, MI, and the Macedonian American Friendship Association, Columbus, OH and Washington DC.

The meeting was attended by the following:

Department of State

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Lee Armitage
Mr. Philip Reeker, Department of State Deputy Spokesman
Ms. Janet Bogue, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs
Mr. Jeremy Hekhius, Legislative Aide to Senator Levin for International Affairs
Dept. of State Staff

Macedonian American Community

Mr. George Atanasoski,
Executive Vice President and co-founder, Microflex Inc, Ormond Beach, FL
Dr. Vasil Babamov,
President, Macedonian American Friendship Assn., Columbus, OH and Washington, DC
Ms. Violeta Dandusevski,
President, National Business Machines, Towaco, NJ
Ms. Sonja Magdevski,
Graduate Student, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
Mr. Nestor Oginar,
Professor of English, New York, NY
Mr. Bosko Rajcovksi,
Secretary, American Macedonian Association, Detroit, MI
Mr. Svetozar Stameski,
Real Estate Developer, Sterling Heights, MI

Mr. Armitage started the meeting by informing the delegation about the latest news from Macedonia and expressed his condolences for the death of the ten Macedonian soldiers in Tetovo.

Ms. Magdeski introduced the delegation and explained the peaceful and supportive nature of the demonstrations of the Macedonian Americans in front of the Department of State.

Mr. Oginar gave an account of the situation in around his hometown, Tetovo, including the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Macedonians, and of the atrocities committed by the NLA. He also offered a quote from the NLA leader Ali Ahmeti who stated:

"Our aim is solely to remove Slav forces from territory which is historically Albanian."

Dr. Babamov expressed the gratitude of the Macedonian American community in the US for the numerous expressions of support that President Bush and Secretary Powell have made with regard to Macedonia and for the concrete measures our government has undertaken to help Macedonia in its struggle for survival.

He also stated that the measures undertaken so far by our government in support of Macedonia fall short of what is needed to resolve the crisis and urged the Deputy Secretary to do more to help the Macedonian government. He reminded the Deputy Secretary of the sacrifices Macedonia had made to support NATO during the Kosovo crisis and the tacit obligation to repay the debt. To underscore this point, Dr. Babamov offered a quote from the testimony of General Wesley Clark at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on June 13, 2001. General Clark, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied NATO forces during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, stated in his testimony:

"Without the support of the Macedonian government, the NATO action in Kosovo would likely have failed. The US and the NATO allies are truly in debt to the courage and skills of the people and Government of Macedonia. We owe them more than we have thus far repaid"

A cordial, but frank, exchange of opinions between Deputy Secretary Armitage, Mr. Atanasoski, Dr. Babamov, Ms. Dandusevski, Ms. Magdevski, and Mr. Oginar on the crisis in Macedonia ensued. The discussion was followed by a recount of Mr. Stameski of his contacts with high level administration officials with regards to the crisis in Macedonia. Finally, Mr. Rajcovski who acted as the principal coordinator of the group, expressed his appreciation to Deputy Secretary Armitage for his willingness to hear the Macedonian American point of view.

The meeting, which stretched well beyond the scheduled time, concluded with an open invitation from Deputy Secretary Armitage to the representatives of the Macedonian American community to confer on a regular basis with a high level Department of State official that he designated.

In the discussion, the representatives of the Macedonian American community pointed out that:

• The instability in Macedonia was not caused by human rights violations in Macedonia but is a consequence of the presence of a large number of idle, trained fighters and sophisticated weapons in Kosovo. The situation in Kosovo is a direct result of the NATO invasion of Kosovo and the support NATO provided to the KLA by supplying it with weapons and by training its fighters;
• Ethnic Macedonians in Macedonia are victims of a large-scale deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign by the NLA;
• The NLA is a group of terrorists with criminal and extreme nationalist roots whose aim is the formation of a Greater Albania and expansion of the Kosovo criminal gang empire;
• The war in Macedonia is about territory, not human rights. The NLA leaders have stated publicly that they want to ethnically cleanse part of Macedonia and have used every opportunity they have had to do so. The criminal element in the NLA wants to broaden their territorial base for trafficking in arms, humans, and narcotics;
• The minority rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are already very good by the standards of any Balkan country, and in many cases, by the standards of the US and the European community.

They requested that our country:

• Help end the violence and bloodshed in Macedonia;
• Provide humanitarian assistance to Macedonian refugees who are victims of ethnic cleansing by the KLA;
• Stop pressuring the Macedonian government to negotiate with terrorists that hold parts of its territory - such negotiations are likely to lead to capitulation to terrorist demands;
• Stop pressuring the Macedonian government to grant concessions disguised as minority rights that foster segregation rather than integration and are likely to divide the country further and eventually split it;
• Develop a transparent and realistic regional policy in the Balkans that applies uniformly across the region, and stop the current practice of applying different standards for different parts of the region.

Questions posed by representatives of the Macedonian American community include:

• What military and financial assistance can Macedonia expect from the US?
• What is the US doing to combat terrorism in Macedonia?
• Why is the US not helping Macedonia militarily and why is it preventing Macedonia from defending itself by pressuring Ukraine not to deliver the military equipment already purchased and paid for?
• Why is the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Macedonians by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia not receiving the kind of attention and reaction from the US that the perceived ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians by ethnic Serbs in Kosovo received?
• How will the disarmament of the NLA be conducted and what is being done to assure its transparency and completeness, especially in light of numerous statements of the KLA leaders that they will never fully disarm?

Deputy Secretary of State Armitage made the following promises:

• Financial aid: $17 million in economic aid from the US to Macedonia had been confirmed the previous day;
• Military aid: Substantial military aid is forthcoming. In addition 8,800 weapons being smuggled from Kosovo to Macedonia have been intercepted by NATO to date;
• Humanitarian aid: A substantial amount of humanitarian aid will be provided to Macedonia;
• Transparent disarmament of the terrorists: It is being planned - Great Britain is supposed to prepare the detailed disarmament plan. The process is slow because there are many actors in the political decision-making and a need to consult the European Union members;
• Unconditional support for the territorial integrity of Macedonia.

A large and loud, but peaceful and orderly, demonstration of over a thousand Macedonian Americans waving US and Macedonian flags was held in front of the State Department for the duration of the meeting. The participants had come from all across North America to show their strength, unity, and determination as well as to show their support for the dialogue with Deputy Secretary Armitage.

The demonstration provided an impressive show of strength of the Macedonian American community in the US that is estimated to number half a million. After the meeting, the crowd marched to the White House and held a rally there that received heavy press coverage.

For further information contact the offices of the Macedonian American Friendship Association in Columbus, Ohio, (Tel. 614.228-0095, Fax 614-228-0661, e-mail: info@macedonianamerican.org or in Washington DC (Tel.202.746.0095, e-mail: wdc@macedonianamerican.org, or visit our web page at www.macedonianamerican.org

Background information of the participants in the meeting and the organizations that coordinated the meeting

Mr. George Atanasoski
Mr. Atanasoski is Executive Vice-President of Microflex, a multi-million dollar manufacturing corporation of flexible metal products, which he co-founded in 1975. He is also president of MAK AM, an international trading company, which he co-founded in 1996. He has served as Secretary of the Macedonian Society of New York (1974-1980); President of the Macedonian World Congress (1993-); and President of the Macedonian Alliance (1996-). In 1994, Mr. Atanasoski co-founded the independent Macedonian weekly newspaper, Makedonsko Sonce.

Dr. Vasil Babamov
Dr. Babamov is President of the Macedonian American Friendship Association. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Skopje, Macedonia and a Ph. D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Illinois in Urbana. He received post-doctoral training and served on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He taught at a Graduate Studies Center in Mexico and at the California State University in Long Beach. Presently, he is a Senior Scientific Analyst at Chemical Abstracts Service in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Babamov is also President of the International Visitors Council of Columbus, Ohio and President of the Association for Property Restitution in Macedonia. He is a Board member and past President of the Macedonian Orthodox Church St. Mary in Columbus. He also served on the Ohio Governor's Overseas Medical Mission task force in 1993.

Ms. Violeta Dandusevski
Violeta Dandusevski has a Bachelors Degree in Marketing and Management from New York University. For the past ten years she has been managing her own firm, National Business Machines in Hackensack, N.J. She also serves as a Marketing Consultant for various Direct Mail Research companies in New Jersey and New York on an individual project basis. She has been an active member of the Macedonian community in New Jersey and currently serves as President of the Controlling Committee at the Macedonian Orthodox Church of St. Kiril and Metodij in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

Ms. Sonja Magdevski
Ms. Magdevski graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1994 with a degree in political science. She spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in the cities of Tetovo and Skopje in Macedonia (1998-1999), where she worked closely with the Public Affairs Office at the American Embassy and conducted journalism research interviewing Macedonian youth of different ethnic backgrounds. Later in 1999 she served as an election monitor with OSCE as a part of the US Embassy faction. She is currently completing her Master's degree at the Graduate School of Journalism at Michigan State University with a thesis entitled, Macedonian Youth: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, based on her research in Macedonia.

Mr. Nestor Oginar
Mr. Oginar holds BA and MA degrees from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and a M. Phil. Degree from New York University. He is a Doctoral Candidate at New York University and is teaching English Language and Literature in New York City. Mr. Oginar was the representative of the World Macedonian Congress at the UN (1996-1999), the representative of the IMRO-DPMNE party among the Macedonian Diaspora in USA and Canada (l996-1999), and a member of the Council of Intellectuals of VMRO-DPMNE. He is a freelance correspondent for the Macedonian daily, Makedonija Denes.

Mr. Bosko Rajcovski
Mr. Rajcovski was employed at the Chrysler Corporation in various positions from 1966 until 1999, when he retired. He has been active in the Macedonian Orthodox Church of St. Mary in Sterling Heights, Michigan for 26 years. He was also the host of the Macedonian radio program in Detroit "Oro Makedonsko" from 1970 to 2000. Mr. Rajcovski was the principal coordinator for the meeting between the representatives of the Macedonian Communities in the US and the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Lee Armitage.

Mr. Svetozar Stameski
After a carrier in restaurant management Mr. Stameski has turned his attention to Real Estate Development. He owns and manages 300,000 square feet of Shopping Centers in several states and is engaged in several development projects including a residential subdivision. Mr. Stameski is very active in the Republican Party and was a major donor to President George W. Bush's Election Campaign. Presently he has become a team leader in the Republican Party campaign that has the aim to promote President Bush's policies.

American Macedonian Association
43133 Ryan Road, Sterling Heights, MI 48314, Tel. (810) 335-5552

The American Macedonian Association is an association of Macedonian immigrants from the Metropolitan Detroit area and the vicinity. Most of the Macedonian immigrants in the Detroit area come from the northwestern part of Macedonia (Tetovo and the surrounding area). A large part of the ancestral land of these people has been take over by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army and their relatives have been expelled from their ancestral homes in the recent ethnic cleansing campaign of the NLA. The efforts of the international community to return these ethnic Macedonian, many of them close relatives to members of the Detroit Macedonian community, to their homes have been unsuccessful.

The American Macedonian Association is striving to preserve the multiethnic character of northwestern Macedonia where ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians have lived in harmony for centuries. It is calling for increased efforts by the Macedonian police and military to expel the armed insurgent from Kosovo and to restore the order where all the inhabitants would have equal rights and responsibilities, regardless of ethnic origin.

Macedonian American Friendship Association
Columbus office: Tel. (614) 228-0095; Fax (614) 228-0661
E mail:info@macedonianamerican.org
57 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215
Washington, DC office Tel. (202) 746-0095
E-Mail: wdc@macedonianamerican.org
http://www.macedonianamerican.org,

The Macedonian American Friendship Association is a voluntary nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the peace in the Republic of Macedonia.
The Association compiles and disseminates information about the situation in Macedonia to the Government, Congressional representatives, through the Internet, and the in order to increase public awareness about the problems in the Republic of Macedonia. It encourages and helps Macedonian Americans to get involved in the political process in the US and to have their views represented by the Government.

The Association recognizes that the policy of appeasement of armed insurgents and the imminent division of Macedonia among ethnic lines would destabilize not only the Balkans but many parts of Europe that have ethnic balance similar to that of Macedonia.
The Association stands for restoration of a multiethnic civil society in Macedonia based on equal individual rights of all citizens. Such society is modeled on and closely parallel to that in the US where Native Americans, Caucasian of Anglo-Saxon, Western European, and Eastern European origin, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans live together with equal rights and responsibilities.

The Association condemns and opposes the pressure of the US and EU on the Macedonian Government to:

• negotiate with and legitimize armed insurgents with criminal roots that are terrorizing its population, conducting ethnic cleansing of large areas, taking hostages, and attacking civilians and ambulances
• make changes to the legal systems that weaken the individual rights of all citizens, including the ethnic Albanians, and deepen the divisions between its ethnic groups

The Association calls on the US and international community to help the Macedonian government establish full control over its territory and strengthen its authority by:

• providing military, financial, intelligence, and logistical support to the Macedonian government
• establishing law and order in Kosovo and sealing the Yugoslav-Macedonian border by either controlling it effectively by the NATO forces or ceding the responsibility for the border and the adjoining area to the Yugoslav government and military
• stopping the funding of the insurgents in Macedonia from Europe and the US by all available means and prosecuting the violators of this policy
• providing full diplomatic recognition of Macedonia under its name to strengthen its authority