Commission on missing persons to be formed in Macedonia

The Macedonian Security Council, meeting for the first time since the 15 September parliamentary elections, decided on 28 February to establish a joint parliamentary-governmental commission to investigate the fate of 18 people allegedly kidnapped during the 2001 conflict, RFE/RL's Macedonian broadcasters reported the same day (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 9 and 16 November 2001 and "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 June and 9 July 2002). However, hard-line Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, who was mentioned as a possible commission member, refused to participate. Boskovski was protesting the fact that former rebel commander Gezim Ostreni, now a lawmaker for the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), was also nominated. "I cannot sit at the same table with the people who forced a war upon Macedonia," Boskovski told RFE/RL's Macedonian broadcasters on 3 March, adding: "The same day that [U.S. President George W.] Bush and [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein sit at the same table, you will see Boskovski negotiate at this table." UB