History Of Macedonia – Ο Μποσκόσκι “αδειάζει” τον Γκρούεφσκι – Σοβαρές καταγγελίες για παρακολουθήσεις τηλεφώνων στα Σκόπια

Ο Μποσκόσκι “αδειάζει” τον Γκρούεφσκι – Σοβαρές καταγγελίες για παρακολουθήσεις τηλεφώνων στα Σκόπια

in FYROM news / by Admin / on June 18, 2009 at 9:04 am /

Χείμαρρος ο γνωστός Σκοπιανός, πρώην υπουργός Boskoski στην συνέντευξη του στον Darko Duridanski. “Άδειασε” τον Γκρούεφσκι και την πολιτική του, ενώ προέβησε σε άκρως ενδιαφέρουσες αποκαλύψεις για παρακολουθήσεις τηλεφώνων, συμβόλαια πολιτικών για…να μην αποχωρήσουν απο το νυν κυβερνών κόμμα και άλλα πολλά.

Ακολουθεί η Συνέντευξη.

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Sarajevo BalkanInsight.com in English 18 Jun 09

Interview with former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski by Darko Duridanski;

“‘Old-Style Nationalism Has No Future in FYROM’” —

Former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, making his comeback after four years in jail, explains how he can restore politics’ image, why VMRO [-DPMNE — Internal “Macedonian” Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for “Macedonian” National Unity] “hasn’t got what it takes” and why romantic nationalism has no future.

Q: According to you, Macedonian citizens have lost faith in politicians. How will you recover their confidence?

A: Faith and confidence in politicians can be restored. But only if politicians are sincere and only if they understand that power doesn’t make a politician… [ellipsis as received throughout] I think that I have shown and proved that I’m sincere and that I’m doing all I can to fulfill my promises. I’m ready again to get back into politics and to put myself in the service of the citizens of FYROM.

Q: There are three more years until the next elections. What are your plans?

A: United for FYROM is political force that is going to change the practice of politics. We are building a team and are open to people with a vision of how to solve problems. If we see that the government is making good moves, we are going to support them. Unfortunately, right now we don’t see any good moves coming from the government. We have solutions to problems and are offering them to the people, not in a programme that no one will understand, but a programme based on everyday life and needs. FYROM has an opportunity; its problems can be solved without delay. They shouldn’t be transferred to some other generation of politicians.

Q: How can you explain your own change from “hard-line nationalist” to political moderate, urging a solution to the “name” row with Greece and speedy membership of the EU and NATO?

A: Unfortunately, that was an incorrect perception of me, a perception formed by the media. Of course, there was a time when romantic nationalism was often expressed. That’s the same spirit that has now infected the ruling VMRO-DPMNE… I’m talking of the period of the early 1990s. We haven’t abandoned that concept, but in real politics you have to be aware that the time of romantic nationalism is past.

Our prime minister is now trying to show that he is awakening our national consciousness, which for me is very funny… I think that trying to impose theories, opening up historical themes, defying the international community, and actually defying ourselves, is unproductive for FYROM. I have never made any hate-filled speeches, as I proved in a very tough trial (before The Hague war crimes tribunal)…

I was minister in very hard times, in a war for the fatherland, and I was surely not expected to perform ballet pirouettes, but to defend the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Macedonia, which I did according to my mandate under the law and constitution. Unfortunately, my relations with a few ambassadors then working in FYROM were not good, and they painted that portrait of me. But I think that they’ve understood they were wrong and today we are moving on with realistic politics, which is the only way for FYROM if it is to continue developing.

Q: How much did your stay in prison help you to mature politically?

A: I divide my life into pre-Scheveningen and post Scheveningen. I spent four years in The Hague in prison. The process of maturing in politics is normal. I believe that these youngsters from VMRO-DPMNE, who are acting as politicians now, will be much more experienced in 10 years’ time. Now they don’t have what it takes. They don’t have the political experience they need; they don’t have vision; they don’t have the solutions to problems. In that context, we can speak about political maturity. They often launch stories that I have made a deal with the international community in order to work against (Prime Minister) Nikola Gruevski, which is very funny. In fact, I pray for Nikola to wake up and make a good move, a move that can bring us into NATO and the EU. I would be the first to applaud him. I don’t have any ambition to replace Gruevski, I don’t concentrate on personalities, I stick to principles.

Q: The Rastanski Lozja case, relating to the killing of six Pakistanis and an Indian when you were interior minister and for which you were charged, is still open in Croatia. What’s going on with this case?

A: Everything depends on the authorities. If they want to close this case, they need only 4 or 5 minutes to take the case from Croatia and close it here in FYROM. The public prosecutor only has to open a new case here in FYROM and inform his Croatian counterpart. But I’m ready as a man of the law to prove the truth one more time; to prove again my already proven innocence… it is because I’m not ready to bend and because I’m proud and will not back down that I’m in the position that I’m now.

Q: How disappointed are you in VMRO-DPMNE?

A: On June 17 VMRO celebrated 19 years since it was founded. I was there from the first day, even a day before that! But the leadership has abandoned the ideological matrix and given up the basics of VMRO. They gave up those people who were ready and willing to give up everything and make sacrifices for politics and for that ideology. For sure it was not easy to leave the party, but the ideology of VMRO is in me, VMRO is in me, and we are going on with the ideas and ideals of VMRO: the struggle for FYROM as a modern European state, internationally recognized and a member of NATO and the EU; a state in which the rule of law is imposed and which depends on a free economy; a state whose citizens are proud to be Macedonians and Macedonian citizens. We’re fighting that kind of battle for that kind of Macedonia. Of course, it is very hard for a new political party, but we are not going to be only an ornament, but a political force that will last and unite; a political force that will naturally include most of the membership of VMRO.

Q: There was an announcement that some members of parliament from the ranks of VMRO will join United for Macedonia. Is this so?

A: A few deputies from the left-wing parties are ready to talk and so are a few members of parliament from VMRO, not only two but more of them. Two have already talked to Gruevski and told him that they are not satisfied with his politics. But because they have signed contracts that they won’t leave the party they can’t come into our party in a simple move… I’m not a man who much supports this kind of “taking” members of parliament, though I don’t want to obstruct them and I’m willing to talk to them because their dissatisfaction is very obvious.

My wish is that at the next election United for FYROM, in a democratic fashion, with good political views and opinions, wins its own members of parliament. This kind of taking (existing) members is for me a little bit dishonest.

Q: You said that you have been followed and that your phone was tapped. Do you feel free to work politically in Macedonia?

A: I don’t really care if they are following me and tapping my phones because all I do is transparent and open, so they’re spending money for nothing. I haven’t made any move that was not open to all citizens. I think that this fear is more on the part of the ordinary citizens, who are putting their mobile phones in aluminium bags because of the fear that they have been tapped. The paranoia that is being created in this situation is very dangerous and I think this practice should stop and citizens should feel free and safe and not to be worried that they are being listened to. I’m talking about the common people who live with this fear, even you, journalists are pressured in this way… Tapping citizens is a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen in FYROM since the one-party regime, which I often say was a time when the politics of Yosif Vissarionovich (Stalin) reigned in FYROM.