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Republican House representative Christopher Smith announced an
investigation in the activities of the US Embassy in Macedonia, and the
allegations that it has acted in an openly partisan way in the past
years, supporting the left wing SDSM party. The call comes after the
Embassy failed to respond to a letter signed by Smith and five other GOP
representatives, who demanded answers over meddling in domestic
politics, but also over Embassy funding for activities of the George
Soros led Foundation Open Society Macedonia.
“The US Ambassador should have
absolutely no role in forming a Government and taking sides in putting
together a coalition. That is not the place of the United States of
America or its representative in Skopje. I asked specific questions in
this letter. We asked, the group of members of the House of
Representatives whether or not there was any collaboration with the
center-left parties on when elections should take place. We should have
no role in that! We should be talking about free and fair elections,
unfettered access to the media, but in no way should we take sides. So,
if this Ambassador has taken sides, he should be fired! He should be
fired immediately!”, representative Smith told the Macedonian Television
correspondent in Washington D.C.
Representative
Smith reacts following numerous reports that the US Embassy has
extended significant funds to activities of NGO groups associated with
the Soros network. According to Smith, if the US Government gives
funding to NGO activities, they should go to non-partisan and neutral
groups, and not to the Soros led groups for whom there are long-standing
allegations that they are coordinating their actions with the
social-democratic SDSM party.
“I’m all for providing civil society
funding, especially for free and fair elections. But, I’m absolutely and
unalterably opposed to the United States Government taking sides in an
election and trying, potentially, if this is true, to put together a
coalition. How dare our Ambassador, if indeed he did, he should be in
now way part of it! The message should be that, if the United States
Government took sides, it made a grave mistake. Those who did it, need
to apologize, they need to cease immediately, because, again,
individuals who collude around the world need to be taken to account. It
would be an outrage if our Ambassador or any of our staff in US Embassy
Skopje took sides in this election or any election past, present or
future. That’s not their place. So, we want to get to the bottom of
this. We don’t have answers to these questions. I’m going to ask for an
Inspector General’s report, and frankly if they have broken the law,
they need be held to account”, adds Smith.
The letter was addressed to US
Ambassador in Macedonia Jess Baily, and was sent on January 17th. It is
signed by representatives Smith, Louie Gohmert, Randy Hultgren, Robert
Aderholt, Robert Pittenger and Jeff Fortenberry, all members of the
Republican Party, some of whom have strongly supported Macedonia in the
past. The letter contains a series of questions to Ambassador Baily over
the way he worked with the political parties in Macedonia, over
allegations that he promoted positions favorable to the SDSM party, his
funding of the George Soros led NGO groups and of media outlets who fall
on the left side of the political divide. The letter coincides with a
similar call from Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who sat on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Lee called Ambassador Baily
out via social media and asked him to provide clarity in his activities,
after The Daily Caller reported on US Embassy activities to fund Soros
groups in Macedonia.
“We sent a letter on January 17th to
Ambassador Baily. We have not got an answer, and now it’s been two
weeks. We expected an answer within days. I’m very disappointed in that.
And it does beg the question as to whether or not US taxpayer funding
that went to Soros, and was very much facilitated by the US Ambassador,
took sides. When we provide education for civil society, there is no
taking sides. It has to be about free media. I’m Chairman of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Commission in the
United States, I’m head of the delegation at Parliamentary assemblies.
We do wonderful work as a group on election monitoring, to make sure
elections are free, fair and that includes access to the media. But, if
it looks like it does, that the US Government has been funding
organizations that are taking sides, in this case the socialists’, that
is absolutely unacceptable. I believe that it is illegal and we are
going to get to the bottom of this. I’m asking tomorrow for an Inspector
General’s report and investigation. I’ve asked very specific questions
of Ambassador Baily that, again, have not gone answered. There should
be, again, no taking sides. We should be promoting democracy, not a
political party or coalition of political parties”, Christopher Smith
said in his comments on the matter.
The letter prepared by him and the five
other GOP representatives also contains strong language aimed at the
work of Ambassador Jess Baily. “We value the close relationship that has
been formed between the United States and Macedonia in the 25 years
since it achieved independence. That relationship has allowed the US to
contribute to Macedonia’s political and economic development – and
Macedonia to cooperate with the United States, contributing to many of
our country’s foreign policy priorities. It would obviously be
profoundly destructive for that relationship were our country were to be
perceived within Macedonia as interfering in its internal politics,
media, and civil society in such a way as to consistently favor one
group over another. We hope to receive from you accurate information in
response to our questions no later than two weeks from the date of this
letter. We also hope that you will be available to meet with us to
discuss these matters the next time you are in Washington DC”, is the
conclusion of the letter signed by the six representatives.
After the representatives failed to
receive a response, they are now announcing an investigation in the
allegations and say they will take the matter before the newly appointed
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “I’m going to be in touch with him.
I’ve already been in touch with transition people for the Trump
administration. There needs to be a top to bottom review of what the US
Government has been doing for these last eight years, because I’ve had
signs elsewhere in the world where there have been instances like this.
That creates a backlash against American public diplomacy and diplomacy
itself. Again, it does not conform with the law. It is outrageous and if
indeed these questions are not answered correctly and satisfactorily,
again, he should be fired. We are going to do a probe, we are going to
get to the bottom of this, because the damage could be an on-going
damage of US complicity and collusion through NGOs and our Embassy. I
want to know the answers. We are entitled to these answers! We have an
oversight responsibility as members of Congress to ask these tough
questions to keep this completely above board”, Smith told the
Macedonian Television.
The letter informs Ambassador Baily
that the representatives have heard “credible reports that, over the
past two years, the US Mission to Macedonia has actively intervened in
the party politics of Macedonia, as well as in the shaping of its media
environment and civil society, in a manner that consistently favors the
parties, media, and civil society groups of the center left over those
of the center right. These include disturbing reports that the actions
of the US Mission to Macedonia strongly favored the center-left parties
in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for
April 24, later postponed to June 5th, and then finally held on December
11th, and in the post election process by which the Macedonian parties
are now negotiating to form a new Government”.
Specific sets of questions addressed to the Ambassador include: “
– Has the US Mission to Macedonia
selected the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) as the major
implementer of USAID projects in Macedonia? Is FOSM perceived in
Macedonia as politically biased? Do the activities of FOSM show a
political bias? Do the NGOs, media entities, and projects funded by FOSM
have an agenda that corresponds to or favors that of the center-left
and / or left in Macedonia?
– How many media outlets received US
Government funds (through FOSM or otherwise) and what are their names?
How many media outlets in Macedonian language that have received US
Government funds are politically oriented to the center left? How many
to the center right? Has the US Mission in Macedonia promoted the
adoption by the Macedonian Government of a media regulation that would
limit free speech in a way inconsistent with the first amendment to the
United States Constitution?
– Have any NGOs that receive US
Government funds (including through FOSM or otherwise) taken sides in
teh election or in the formation of the next Macedonian Government? For
each NGO, what sides have they taken?
– Please describe the role that you and
other persons associated with the US Mission to Macedonia played in the
discussions that led to the scheduling of the parliamentary elections.
It is particularly relevant to know whether and how the position
represented by the US Mission to Macedonia corresponds or not to those
of the various Macedonian political parties.
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