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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 138, 96-07-18
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 138, 18 July 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] IMF OFFERS $446 MILLION CREDIT TO KAZAKHSTAN.
[02] KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA ASKED TO EXPLAIN VIEWS ON SOLZHENITSYN.
[03] NEW CABINET APPOINTMENT IN UZBEKISTAN.
[04] TAJIKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT.
[05] TAJIKS CLOSE BORDER WITH AFGHANISTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] HOLBROOKE IN BELGRADE.
[07] BOSNIAN FEDERATION TO RECEIVE $400 MILLION IN U.S. MILITARY AID.
[08] MUSLIMS HARASS SARAJEVO SERBS.
[09] BOSNIAN SHORTS.
[10] MACEDONIAN BORDER POLICE CONFISCATE ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE HUMAN RIGHTS LITERATURE.
[11] SLOVENIA WANTS NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
[12] ROMANIA RECEIVES MOST-FAVORED-NATION STATUS.
[13] ROMANIAN PARTY ATTACKS HUNGARY, HUNGARIAN MINORITY PARTY.
[14] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT EVACUATED AFTER BOMB THREAT.
[15] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS THREATEN TO BOYCOTT LOCAL ELECTIONS.
[16] GREEKS PREVENT MACEDONIAN PLANE FROM TAKING OFF.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] IMF OFFERS $446 MILLION CREDIT TO KAZAKHSTAN.
The IMF announced that it will extend a $446 million credit to Kazakhstan to
support its three-year economic reform program, AFP reported on 17 July. The
first $54 million installment is expected to be released later this year. The
government's economic plan aims to reduce inflation from 60% in 1995 to 26%
this year and less than 10% in 1998. The credit is also aimed at completing
the privatization of government-owned industry and reforming the country's
financial sector. -- Bhavna Dave
[02] KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA ASKED TO EXPLAIN VIEWS ON SOLZHENITSYN.
An Almaty court has asked Komsomolskaya pravda to issue a public statement within a week to explain its views on the controversial article "Conversations with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn" published in the newspaper's 23 April issue, ITAR-TASS reported on 17 July. The court's decision is seen as an attempt to steer a middle ground between the procurator-general and Kazakh writers who want the newspaper to be banned and the newspaper's editors who maintain that the publication of Solzhenitsyn's views on Kazakhstan (see ) does not imply an endorsement of his position. -- Bhavna Dave
[03] NEW CABINET APPOINTMENT IN UZBEKISTAN.
President Islam Karimov on 17 July appointed Tahir Rakhimov to the post of
foreign trade minister, Reuters reported. Rakhimov, who previously held the
post of communications minister, takes over the position vacated last December
when Utkur Sultanov left to become prime minister. -- Roger Kangas
[04] TAJIKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT.
Representatives from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on 17 July signed a natural gas
agreement that could resolve a major bilateral problem, ITAR-TASS reported.
Tajikistan is heavily dependent on Uzbekistan for natural gas supplies,
something Uzbekistan has used to its advantage in bilateral relations. In the
winter of 1995, Uzbekistan cut back supplies of natural gas to Tajikistan
forcing Dushanbe to implement drastic rationing measures. Uzbekistan claimed
it had received only 3% of what it was owed for gas deliveries over a two-year
period. The new agreement confirms Uzbek shipments of natural gas to
Tajikistan in exchange for the right to ship goods through Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan also promised to consider lowering gas prices. -- Bruce
Pannier
[05] TAJIKS CLOSE BORDER WITH AFGHANISTAN.
Citing intelligence reports of an opposition build-up along the Tajik-Afghan
border, the Tajik government on 17 July announced that all trading posts along
its southern border are closed, Reuters reported. Presidential spokesman Zafar
Saidov added that the government is "reviewing its relations with all
countries that provide support for the armed opposition," although Saidov
stopped short of naming any particular countries. It is unclear whether the
move will affect the repatriation of Tajik refugees from Afghanistan. -- Bruce
Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] HOLBROOKE IN BELGRADE.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke emerged from a four-hour meeting with Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic on 17 July saying their talks were "inconclusive"
but giving no other details. The talks had focused on Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic and Milosevic's role in removing him from public life.
Reuters quoted the U.S. envoy as saying "I cannot tell you we made any
progress today, and I will not characterize the talks except to say they were
inconclusive." Holbrooke, who later traveled to Zagreb, is to return to
Belgrade on 18 July before returning to Washington. -- Stan Markotich
[07] BOSNIAN FEDERATION TO RECEIVE $400 MILLION IN U.S. MILITARY AID.
The Bosnian Federation signed an agreement for $400 million in U.S. military
aid to ensure a military balance between the Muslim-Croatian federation and
the Republika Srpska, Reuters reported on 16 July. The "Equip and Train"
program was scheduled to start after the Muslims and Croats agreed on a
controversial defense law merging their armies. It will run for 13 months with
the option of a one-year extension. All equipment is to be delivered before
the mandate of the NATO-led force in Bosnia expires in December 1996. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[08] MUSLIMS HARASS SARAJEVO SERBS.
Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for the UN's International Police Task Force, said
that violence against Serbs in the Sarajevo suburbs is getting worse, Onasa
reported on 16 July. He stressed that the Bosnian government is doing nothing
about it, although it has the means to do so and claims that it still believes
in a multi-ethnic state. There are 8,000-10,000 Serbs left; they resisted
intimidation from other Serbs to force them to leave at the beginning of the
year, when the suburbs passed from Serbian to government control. The
governing Muslim Party of Democratic Action has been accused by the opposition
of trying to populate the suburbs with Muslim refugees from eastern Bosnia and
other Serb-held areas, thereby consolidating ethnic cleansing and the division
of Bosnia into three nationalist states. -- Patrick Moore
[09] BOSNIAN SHORTS.
International forensic experts have to date exhumed 86 bodies of Muslim males
from a site near Srebrenica, while 13 bodies have been removed from another
mass grave near Sarajevo, news agencies reported on 17 July. The international
community's High Representative Carl Bildt noted that 68 war criminals remain
free: 50 in the Republika Srpska, 15 in the Croat-Muslim federation, and three
in rump Yugoslavia. Following a series of incidents in which peacekeepers have
caught Serbs and Muslims moving heavy weapons out of assigned areas, a
diplomat in Vienna told AFP that the Serbs are "abusing" a clause in the
Dayton treaty by claiming that some 300 tanks, 150 armored vehicles, and 800
pieces of artillery are awaiting export. -- Patrick Moore
[10] MACEDONIAN BORDER POLICE CONFISCATE ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE HUMAN RIGHTS LITERATURE.
Macedonian border police have confiscated 225 Albanian-language texts on human
rights, international agencies reported. The Albanian Helsinki Human Rights
Committee was trying to bring the material into the country. The group said
the confiscated texts included documents issued by the OSCE and the Council of
Europe as well as the constitutions of West European countries. They were
bound for ethnic Albanian educational and cultural institutions in Macedonia.
Police said they confiscated the material suspecting it to be "illegal
literature." The Helsinki Committee called on the Macedonian authorities to
ensure freedom of information. -- Fabian Schmidt
[11] SLOVENIA WANTS NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH RUMP YUGOSLAVIA.
Milan Kucan on 17 July met in Ljubljana with Dusan Mihailovic, leader of the
New Democracy party, which is a de facto wing of Milosevic's Socialist Party
of Serbia in the Serbian legislature. Nasa Borba quoted Kucan as stressing
that the normalization of bilateral relations with Belgrade was among
Ljubljana's priorities. Mihailovic noted that this was also a priority for his
party. When asked whether his visit could be somehow linked to his earlier
talks with Milosevic, Mihailovic said that was not the case and that an
earlier visit to Belgrade had the "nature of a fact-finding" mission. -- Stan
Markotich
[12] ROMANIA RECEIVES MOST-FAVORED-NATION STATUS.
The House of Representatives on 17 July voted to grant Romania permanent most-
favored-nation status, Romanian media reported. The Senate must also vote on
the issue before President Bill Clinton signs the bill. Until now, Romania's
status was subject to yearly revision. Former US Ambassador to Romania David
Funderburk, who was opposed to Romania's status being upgraded, had argued
that the voted should be postponed until after the Romanian elections to avoid
its being exploited by the ruling coalition. He added that President Ion
Iliescu's regime "does not have a democratic bone in its whole body." Visiting
Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu met the same day with his American
counterpart, Warren Christopher, to discuss Romania's application to join
NATO. Christopher said Bucharest has "done a great deal" to qualify for
membership but stressed that no final decision had been made on which
countries would be accepted. -- Michael Shafir
[13] ROMANIAN PARTY ATTACKS HUNGARY, HUNGARIAN MINORITY PARTY.
The Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PSDR), the major partner in the ruling coalition, has attacked the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania's (UDMR) decision to include in its presidential election program the declaration recently issued in Budapest in support of autonomy for Hungarian ethnic minorities abroad (see ). Romanian and international agencies quoted the PSDR as saying the UDMR's presidential campaign will be "financed by a foreign state, thus infringing on Romanian legal norms." It demanded that the UDMR renounce its decision and also protested the Budapest declaration, which, it said, aimed at "transforming national minority organizations into instruments of Hungary's policies." -- Michael Shafir
[14] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT EVACUATED AFTER BOMB THREAT.
The parliament building on 17 July was evacuated following a bomb threat,
Pari reported. No bomb was found in the parliament building. An anonymous
phone caller made the threat just hours after a bomb exploded in an underpass
at the Palace of Culture causing damage estimated at 10-15 million leva ($52,
000-79,000). Nobody was injured, although several hundred people were in a
nearby club at the time. Police said it was the "first major terrorist attack
in Bulgaria in a decade." So far nobody has claimed responsibility. -- Stefan
Krause
[15] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS THREATEN TO BOYCOTT LOCAL ELECTIONS.
The Socialist Party on 17 July said it will not participate in local elections
unless the electoral law is changed, the disputed "genocide law" abolished,
and sufficient international observation during the ballot ensured,
international agencies reported. One day earlier, President Sali Berisha had
proposed holding multi-party talks to discuss the date of the ballot and the
creation of a central election commission. The opposition described Berisha's
proposal as "hasty and dubious" and called for a political dialogue among all
parties in order to reach a consensus on measures ensuring fair and free
elections. The opposition considers the local elections a test of the
government's credibility after alleged manipulations in the 26 May
parliamentary elections. -- Fabian Schmidt
[16] GREEKS PREVENT MACEDONIAN PLANE FROM TAKING OFF.
Authorities on the island of Corfu on 17 July prevented a Macedonian plane
from leaving the island because it carried the inscription "Palair Makedonija,
" international media reported. Palair Makedonija's chief executive Vanja
Bitoljanu said the Greeks insisted that the name of the carrier be removed
from the plane. The airport authorities allowed it to take off only after the
inscription had been painted over. It was the first Palair flight to a Greek
island since the signing of the bilateral interim accord in September 1995. --
Stefan Krause
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Jan Cleave
News and information as of 1200 CET
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in
Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz.
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