EX-INTERIOR MINISTER CALLS INCLUSION ON US BLACKLIST ATTACK ON MACEDONIA
MIA news agency - May 30, 2003

Skopje, 30 May: Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski accused the United States on Friday 30 May of a flagrant attack on legally elected institutions in Macedonia by including his name on a blacklist.

"I believe that is just another political game. An attack on Macedonia and legally elected authorities. I was named interior minister in a government that included both at the time opposition Social-Democrats and ethnic Albanians", Boskovski said.

Boskovski, interior minister during the ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, is known for his hawkish statements and was placed on US President George Bush's blacklist for "undermining stability in Macedonia", said State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher.

At the same time, two former top leaders of the so-called National Liberation Army NLA - UCK in Albanian , Ali Ahmeti and Gezim Ostreni, were removed from the list, as their Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) made it to the Macedonian Assembly in last September's elections.

"They want to make terrorists such as Ahmeti and Ostreni into victims, and real victims - Macedonian people -into criminals", Boskovski said. "This is a move without a precedent in recent history."

Last night, Bush issued an executive order against 172 persons who are said to obstruct peace and security in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro.

Source: MIA news agency, Skopje, in English 1557 gmt 30 May 03

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