The Macedonian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Boris Trackovki, said yesterday his government felt "no sense of pressure" from public opinion in Macedonia concerning NATO's presence in the country. He was speaking at a Holocaust Day ceremony in the medical centre operated by Israeli medical personnel at the Brazda refugee camp.
A press conference scheduled to be held by the Vice-President of Macedonia, Ms Radmila Kipri Janova-Radovonovik, in Skopje, was cancelled without explanation yesterday.
A notice in the government's Ministry of Information building tells journalists that such press conferences are to take place daily at 1 p.m., to keep the media up to date on developments. None had taken place since last Thursday. Up to yesterday, it was explained, this was due to the Orthodox Easter holiday.
Mr Trackovki also said that there was no limit on how long the Kosovan refugees could stay in Macedonia, adding that that "depends on their will". Macedonia was ready to help them and was prepared to look after any more who came across the border, he said. He had no wish to accuse the international community for failing to share responsibility for the refugees, he said, as "things take time".
Regarding reports that refugees had been mistreated by Macedonian police he protested he did not know what that meant. His government had decided to rescue these people and was ready to meet their needs, he said.
At the same ceremony, Ambassador William Walker, head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission for Kosovo, said he felt German proposals that the OSCE should lead a peacekeeping force into Kosovo were vague.
"I know nothing more about it than I read in the papers," he said, but pointed out that the OSCE was not a military force.
He was attending the Holocaust Day commemoration in the Brazda refugee camp where he extended an invitation to Mr Trackovski to a "getting-to-know-you" dinner with himself and the head of NATO forces in Macedonia, Lieut Gen Sir Mike Jackson. Mr Trackovski responded positively.
Mr Walker said the OSCE was planning for the day when it returned to Kosovo and meanwhile was helping the UNHCR in Macedonia with refugee registration and such matters.
The Holocaust Day ceremony took place at 10 a.m. local time to coincide with the traditional two-minute silence across Israel at that moment. It was a short 15-minute ceremony of singing and prayers during which the Israeli flag was lowered to half-mast and a contingent of Israeli soldiers stood to attention.
The Israeli ambassador to Greece and Macedonia, Mr Ron Curiel, spoke briefly about the appropriateness of the Israelis being present as helpers in such a camp.
The commander of the medical centre, Col Heizi Levi, said that the centre had been set up over a 20-hour period before opening last Wednesday and since then had treated over 800 people, 67 of whom were admitted to the hospital. It was run by a staff of 71, including 14 doctors.
To date nine babies have been born at the hospital, the last at 4 a.m. yesterday morning. The first baby, born to a Muslim mother, was called Sarah after a member of the medical team which delivered her.
Shortly after the Holocaust Day ceremonies ended a mosque was opened a short distance away to cater for the spiritual needs of the large Muslim population in the camp. It is one of the largest tents in the camp, organised by Italian NATO troops, and is inlaid with carpet tiles.
Prayers were said and sung by three Kosovan refugee men outside the mosque in a brief ceremony which concluded when the leader of Macedonia's Muslim community, Dr Sulejman Efendi Redjepi, cut a tape across the entrance. Also at the ceremony were many members of the Italian Brigata Garibaldi contingent in the camp. They are based in Naples.
Dr Redjepi led the refugees inside for prayers at the tent wall, facing east.
