Republic Public Prosecutor, Ljubomir Joveski, informed journalists that the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office is leading a pre-trial procedure for the telephone exchange in its building, for recording all incoming or outgoing telephone calls.

“All the telephone conversations of September 30, 2016 to date, have been found on the two hard drives in the telephone exchange, which have been made inside the Prosecutor’s Office as well as incoming and outgoing calls from landline phones. The pre-trial procedure should determine if someone from outside had been using the data, if the telephone conversations have been taken outside, and who still has access”, said Joveski.

The equipment was installed in 2013, and the Public Prosecutor announced that there will be an investigation as to whether the equipment had been procured with an option for recording, or if that had been additionally installed.

Spokesperson Mile Boshnjakovski today announced that he found out about the two-year wiretapping of prosecutors from the statement of Republic Public Prosecutor Joveski.

Boshnjakovski at a press conference sharply condemned the recording of the telephone conversations of the prosecutor’s and pointed out that the Ministry of Interior is fully involved in the pre-trial procedure for the recorded conversations from the landline telephones of the prosecutors in the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“We find such incidents a remainder of the past and a practice of the previous governing undemocratic structures. The Government expects that the institutions will devote maximum capacities in the investigation, that the event will be clarified and that the public will be immediately and fully informed”, said the spokesperson who announced that the Government is putting all of its available capacities at the disposal of the Prosecutor’s Office, if they are to be requested and needed.

Zaev claims that the opposition also supports the need of building a Clinical Center

Following the informative meeting where with Minister of Health, Venko Filipche, they shared with the MPs the initiative for determining the location for construction of a new University Clinical Center, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stated:

“The Government is maximally open, the opposition is giving support to the need to build a Clinical Center, and it is important to bring the decisions together. Only in this way, with the opposition watching and observing, we will know that the best decision has been made in regards to the location. Certainly, the opposition will continue to closely monitor the entire process, but this is an important decision that needs to be made”, stated Zaev.

According to Zaev, the project worth 450 million euros is of crucial, national significance for the citizens, because the Clinical Center “Mother Teresa” has serious problems with the difficult access for patients and citizens to specialists and subspecialists.

Locations in Gjorce Petrov, Petrovec, Ilinden and Gazi Baba have been considered for the construction of a new Clinical Center.

According to Minister Filipche, a new center will be built “that will serve all citizens from Skopje, the entire state, one building that has not been made in any of the republics of former Yugoslavia, for which I think that we will seriously be in advantage in the quality of the health protection that we will be able to provide, to seriously strengthen the capacity of our health care system, especially in this highest tertiary level, and for the most modern and contemporary medical services to be accessible to everyone”.

Parties blame each other, citizens – victims of the pollution

VMRO-DPMNE claims that the citizens are paying the price for the polluted air every day: “While in the Parliament this problem is being discussed, Shilegov and Makraduli seem to think that it is better to play games on their cell phone or to take a nap, because for them the health of the citizens is not important. They promised urgent measures for cleaner air, and we have not seen a single measure in two years. That is exactly why VMRO-DPMNE has come out with recommendations for improving the situation. The hospitals are filled with patients who are having cardiovascular problems every day and problems with respiratory organs, therefore, VMRO-DPMNE is proposing entirely free protection for all citizens where it has been concluded that the reason is pollution, with special attention to children and the chronically ill”.

SDSM with counterarguments that the longstanding and decade-long negligence for the environment and the ignoring of the problem with the pollution by VMRO-DPMNE has contributed for Skopje to become one of the most polluted cities in Europe.

“In addition to the measures that the state institutions are taking, the City of Skopje is also taking continuous measures for reducing the pollution. The greenery that is being planted is part of the autumn action of the City of Skopje, where 3.500 seedlings will be planted. On the most frequent street in Skopje, at Bit Pazar, 40 new high-quality ash tree seedlings have been planted, with which this space, once known for its traffic chaos, is now being equipped with greenery and a pedestrian area. The river-bed of the Serava River is being cleaned from the mud, sand, garbage and communal waste, with which the action for cleaning the river-beds and the canals in Skopje continues. In this past period, more than 350 illegal landfills have been cleaned, manual washing of the city boulevards and streets has been introduced, and air purifiers are being installed in schools. At the same time, funds have been provided for procuring 40 new environmentally friendly busses that are to replace part of the old and not eco-friendly busses of the Public Transportation Enterprise”, is written in SDSM’s statement.

“Open Day”: “USJE” respects regulations

The Executive Director of the Cement Factory “Usje”, Boris Hrisafov, at the Open day for citizens, stressed that the emissions that the cement factory is emitting in the air are controlled through a 24-hour monitoring system, independent from the company and controlled by accredited companies.

“We brought a decision, in this period when there is a higher concern from citizens, to publish the results of the measuring on a weekly basis on our website”, said Hrisafov.

According to him, “Usje” is working according to the legal regulations and respects the Macedonian and European regulations.

Memorandum of Cooperation for Prevention of Violent Extremism signed between CIVIL and the Municipality of Veles

The Municipality of Veles and CIVIL – Center for Freedom today signed a Memorandum of Cooperation for Prevention of Violent Extremism.

“I hope that by signing the Memorandum for partnership and cooperation, we are doing a good thing and that the results will show this in the following period. I believe that together we will succeed in cooperating with representatives of all institutions that are here to counter the dangers and threats that violent extremism brings with itself”, stated the Mayor of the Municipality of Veles, Ace Kocevski.

“The Memorandum of Cooperation that we are signing at the local level with the mayors, yesterday with the Mayor of Kumanovo, today with the Mayor of Veles, and the ones we will sign with the Mayors of Gazi Baba, Cair and Tetovo, sketch a joint multi-disciplinary activity of civil society organizations in cooperation with the local authorities, police, education representatives and many other institutions at the local level. The goal is early detecting of violent extremism and improving the situation in the area of safety and security”, stated the President of CIVIL, Xhabir Deralla.

A working meeting was held after the ceremony, at which representatives of the police, local and national institutions, civil society organizations and the media were present, and a calendar of activities for the implementation of the project was determined.

К. S.