wfn.org | Macedonia's new president outlines vision of peace, healing

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 15, 1999	News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71BP{669}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist lay pastor recently elected as president of Macedonia
invoked the "healing words" of Abraham Lincoln at the end of his Dec. 15
inaugural address.

Boris Trajkovski noted that Lincoln "paid the ultimate price" to bring the
United States back together after its civil war. 

"He (Lincoln) said, `We hold no anger toward anyone. Instead, we offer
charity to all,'" Trajkovski said. "'As God gives us the ability to see what
is right, let us strive to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the
country's wounds and care for those among us. If we do this, we will achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all
countries.'"

Such challenges also face Trajkovski, 43, whose election was confirmed Dec.
8 after a partial rerun of the original balloting in November.

"Today represents the first time in the modern history of Macedonia that the
peaceful transition of power from one president to the next is taking
place," he declared during his address. "This occurrence is nothing less
than a miracle. Our country of Macedonia is taking its rightful place among
the family of democratic nations."

The week before his inauguration, Trajkovski presented a report and
participated in worship services during the charge conference of the
southern district of the United Methodist Annual Conference of Yugoslavia
and Macedonia. The meeting took place in Strumica, where he grew up.

He also joined United Methodist Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, who is based in
Zurich, Switzerland, for a visit to the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in
Macedonia. "We were telling the Orthodox leader there that we really want to
be in a good relationship and friendship," Bolleter reported.

Although United Methodists remain a tiny minority in Macedonia - which is
about 60 percent Orthodox and 30 percent Muslim -- the denomination
represents the largest and, historically, the oldest Protestant group in the
country. Macedonia has 11 active congregations, according to Bolleter, and
in a few small villages more than half the population calls itself
Methodist.

Past persecution against the denomination has made it difficult to get an
accurate membership count today. "In the communist period, they were really
under hard oppression of the regime," Bolleter explained. Pastors and
superintendents were imprisoned, and lay members lost their jobs and their
ability to attend university because of their church-related activities, he
said.

Trajkovski, a lawyer who grew up in a Methodist family, has always been
active in the church. He has served as president of the church's Council of
Finance and Administration since 1993 and has been a delegate to several
General Conferences, the denomination's top legislative body.

Last December, he was elected vice minister for foreign affairs in the
government of Kiro Gligorov, the president who led Macedonia after its break
from Yugoslavia seven years ago. Bolleter credits Gligorov with preventing
the country from entering a war with Serbia. "He (Trajkovski) has a
predecessor who really was laying the ground for peace in the future," the
bishop said.

The Rev. Philip Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in
Washington, became acquainted with Trajkovski during General Conference
sessions, particularly in Denver in 1996, and from Trajkovski's visits to
Washington to seek U.S. financial support for Macedonia's refugee operations
during the war in Kosovo.

Trajkovski was largely responsible for handling the refugee situation,
Wogaman said. "He became a pretty positive force in Macedonia. He was very
popular among the people for his even-handedness and his efforts to
encourage reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians."

An article in the Nov. 20 issue of The Economist stated that votes from
ethnic Albanians "won the election for Mr. Trajkovski." Although suspicion
was cast on some of the election results in western Macedonia, where most
Albanians live, the rerun election assured his victory.

In his inaugural address, the married father of two children pledged to
continue the tradition of peace set by Gligorov and to "extend my hand in
friendship to all of those throughout Macedonia who will join me in this
most noble cause." 

He cautioned that Macedonia "cannot and will not be an island, even though
we have been an island of stability in a sea of chaos, even when our
detractors said we could not survive." 

"Instead," he said, "we will reach out to our friends in Greece, Bulgaria,
Albania and Yugoslavia so that they will know that we will work with them,
hand in hand, for the betterment of our citizens and theirs as well. And we
will work together, knowing that friendly, democratic and free-market
societies never attack each other."  

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United Methodist News Service
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