ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
Yugoslavia and Macedonia established diplomatic ties Monday, a long-awaited announcement that means Yugoslavia - now consisting only of Serbia and tiny Montenegro - has abandoned all territorial claims on its southern neighbor.
By agreeing to establish diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors, ``the final obstacle'' has been removed for European Union recognition of Yugoslavia, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said.
``With this agreement, Yugoslavia has made an important step toward integration into the international community,'' Kinkel said in Bonn.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frckovski signed the accord in Belgrade with his Yugoslav counterpart, Milan Milutinovic.
The ministers toasted their agreement with champagne, then met Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic at his retreat in Karadjordjevo, north of Belgrade. A statement from Milosevic's office stressed the ``great mutual interest'' in speedily developing good ties.
The agreement contained trade-offs that could prove significant for both parties.
Apparently in deference to Serbia's good relations with Greece, the agreement sealed all the arrangements normally associated with mutual recognition, but stopped short of calling it that.
Greece still criticized the agreement, however, because - in a Yugoslav concession to the Macedonians - it referred to the country as the ``Republic of Macedonia.''
Greece has awkward relations with Macedonia, which it says has claims to Greece's northern province of the same name. Under U.S. pressure, the Greeks last fall dropped a damaging trade embargo against their northern neighbor, and Macedonia abandoned state symbols the Greeks insisted were theirs. But the two sides have failed to agree on a name for the former Yugoslav republic.
Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Costantinos Bikas said including the name ``Republic of Macedonia'' in the agreement ``can't be considered an act friendly to Greece.''
Yugoslavia also won a key concession from Macedonia. The agreement specifically recognized the new, shrunken Yugoslavia as a continuation of the much bigger federation that began its violent disintegration when Slovenia and Croatia seceded in June 1991.
Milosevic has been insisting that the current Yugoslavia be seen as a continuation of the old one, because this means it does not have to ask to join international bodies, but can simply continue previous memberships.
Macedonia's concession will anger authorities in Croatia and Bosnia, where fighting ended only last fall with the Dayton accord. The Bosnians and Croats have insisted the current Yugoslavia be seen as a new creation.
Macedonia, the only republic to leave the old Yugoslav federation peacefully, seceded in November 1991, and the Serb-led Yugoslav army withdrew from the republic the following spring.
Friction between Serbia and Macedonia led in 1993 to the deployment of some 1,000 U.N. troops, including about 500 Americans.
While tensions have at times been sharp over Macedonia's tiny ethnic Serb community and Serbia's friendly ties with Greece, still Macedonia and Serbia share a challenge: getting along with large ethnic Albanian communities living on their territories in areas adjacent to Albania itself.
Serbia's relations with its ethnic Albanian community in the province of Kosovo are especially strained. They are 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.9 million people yet have won little outright mention in any recent agreements.
Macedonia's government has so far proven more skilled in defusing tensions with ethnic Albanians, who make up about 22 percent of its population of almost 2 million.
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