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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 44, 97-03-04
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 44, 4 March 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJAN OF PREPARING FOR WAR . . .
[02] . . . WHILE BAKU DENOUNCES YEREVAN'S HOSTILE INTENTIONS.
[03] GEORGIAN DEPUTIES STAGE HUNGER STRIKE.
[04] ABKHAZ FORCES BLOCK ALLEGED EVACUATION OF RUSSIAN BORDER-GUARD
EQUIPMENT.
[05] KAZAKSTANI UPDATE.
[06] INTER-TAJIK TALKS SUSPENDED.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] CHAOS REIGNS THROUGHOUT ALBANIA.
[08] BERISHA RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT, FIRES ARMY CHIEF.
[09] SERB MOB ATTACKS MUSLIM HOMES, RUSSIAN TROOPS WATCH.
[10] NEW RIFT BETWEEN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO OVER MEDIA.
[11] CROATIA TO OPEN CONSULATE IN BANJA LUKA.
[12] CONSTANTINESCU ON TREATY WITH UKRAINE.
[13] TURMOIL IN ROMANIAN NATIONALIST PARTY.
[14] OPPOSITION OFFENSIVE IN ROMANIA.
[15] BULGARIA'S BREAD CRISIS.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJAN OF PREPARING FOR WAR . . .
The Armenian Foreign Ministry on 1 March released a statement accusing
Azerbaijan of undertaking a large-scale military build-up in order to
prepare for a "forceful solution" to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
international agencies reported. The statement said that Azerbaijan has
exceeded the weapons limit stipulated in the 1990 Conventional Forces in
Europe (CFE) treaty and thus violated the "letter and spirit" of the May
1994 cease-fire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the ministry,
Azerbaijan purchased some 150 tanks and 10 warplanes from Ukraine between
1993 and 1995. It currently has 285 tanks, while only 220 are allowed under
the CFE treaty. The ministry also voiced concern over the "concentration of
the Azerbaijani military" in areas near the border with Armenia. -- Emil
Danielyan
[02] . . . WHILE BAKU DENOUNCES YEREVAN'S HOSTILE INTENTIONS.
An official statement released by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused
Yerevan of building up its military potential and preparing what it called
"new aggression" against Azerbaijan, Russian and Western media reported on
3 March. Baku said that Yerevan possesses missile complexes capable of
launching nuclear attacks on targets up to 300 km away, claiming 20
Armenian servicemen have been trained in Russia to operate these missile
systems. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Security Minister Namig Abbasov has accused
Armenia of holding more than 800 Azerbaijani hostages, Russian media
reported the same day. -- Lowell Bezanis
[03] GEORGIAN DEPUTIES STAGE HUNGER STRIKE.
Ten deputies of the parliament, including deputy speaker Vakhtang Kolbaya,
have gone on hunger strike to demand the withdrawal of Russian peace-
keeping forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, ITAR-TASS reported on 2
March. The hunger strikers are members of the Abkhazeti caucus, which
represents the 250,000 or so mainly ethnic Georgian refugees who fled
Abkhazia in 1993 after Abkhaz forces took control of the whole region.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said he sympathizes with the
deputies but warned against attempts "to exploit their sacred feelings" for
political purposes, according to a 3 March Iprinda report monitored by the
BBC. -- Emil Danielyan
[04] ABKHAZ FORCES BLOCK ALLEGED EVACUATION OF RUSSIAN BORDER-GUARD
EQUIPMENT.
Abkhaz speedboats on 28 February blocked a Russian border-guard naval base
in the Ochamchira district to prevent the "theft of valuable equipment and
ransacking of the base," AFP reported. Col.-Gen. Vladimir Ruzlyaev,
commander of Russia's Caucasus Special Border District denied the Abkhaz
allegations saying his troops were conducting a "routine action" aimed at
the "replacement of personnel." According to a 1 March RIA-Novosti report
monitored by the BBC, a spokesman for the district said the two sides "seem
satisfied" with the results of talks between Ruzlyaev and Abkhaz leaders. --
Emil Danielyan
[05] KAZAKSTANI UPDATE.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 3 March sacked seven of his 21 ministers,
AFP reported. He said his government needs to be streamlined, adding that
"there are 1 million officials out of a population of 16 million". In other
news, Nazarbayev signed a presidential decree pledging state support for
foreign investment in Kazakhstan, ITAR-TASS reported on 1 March. Under the
law, foreign entrepreneurs and businessmen will be partly or completely
exempt from taxes for the first five years they operate in Kazakstan. In
addition, their taxes will remain low for the next five years. -- Lowell
Bezanis
[06] INTER-TAJIK TALKS SUSPENDED.
The latest round of inter-Tajik talks came to a halt in Moscow on 3 March,
Russian and Western media reported. The unexpected recess is believed to be
linked to the detention last month of six Tajik opposition partisans
charged with involvement in a recent spate of killings of Russian
servicemen in Tajikistan. One of the six, a member of the Kasim Ismatov
group, was reportedly killed in detention earlier this week. -- Lowell
Bezanis
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] CHAOS REIGNS THROUGHOUT ALBANIA.
Army tanks entered the southern Albanian city of Gjirokaster on 4 March,
according to Western agencies, citing ATA. Civilians armed with automatic
weapons burned down Gjirokaster's police station on 3 March. In Vlora,
earlier decimated by rioting, an Italian helicopter rescued 35 foreigners,
flying them to Brindisi. Gunshots were heard overnight in Tirana, where a
dusk-to-dawn curfew is in effect and police have instructions to shoot
armed civilians without warning. The general prosecutor in Tirana warned
that those convicted of fomenting armed insurrection will face capital
punishment or life in jail, while looters and those erecting barricades
will receive sentences of 15-25 years. Albania's ambassador to the U.K.,
Pavli Mihal Qesku, admitted that Vlora, Sarande, and a stretch along the
coast were now in rebel hands but added "in the rest of the country the
government is in control of everything," Reuters reported. -- Michael Wyzan
[08] BERISHA RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT, FIRES ARMY CHIEF.
Albanian President Sali Berisha on 3 March was re-elected by parliament,
which is dominated by his Democratic Party (PD), Western media reported.
Berisha fired army chief of staff Sheme Kosova the next day, blaming him
for failing to defend military bases from rioters. Kosova was replaced by
General Adem Copani, Berisha's defense advisor. Meanwhile, under new rules
requiring newspapers to submit stories to the government for approval and
allowing them only to run the government version of the disturbances, only
one newspaper, the PD's Rilindja Demokratike, appeared on 4 March. U.S.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns issued a statement "strongly
regretting" the 2 March declaration of a state of emergency and
introduction of press censorship. He also criticized Berisha's re-election
as "likely to increase polarization," according to AFP. Dutch Foreign
Minister Hans van Mierlo offered the EU's assistance in re-establishing
order and arbitrating the conflict. -- Michael Wyzan
[09] SERB MOB ATTACKS MUSLIM HOMES, RUSSIAN TROOPS WATCH.
Some 150 Serbs armed with sticks and clubs on 2 March burned down nine of
11 prefabricated houses built for Muslim returnees to the village of Gajevi,
while the Russian soldiers stationed there watched the attack but did not
intervene, international agencies reported. Gajevi is on the Serb-
controlled side of a demilitarized separation zone in northeastern Bosnia
that is patrolled by the Russian SFOR troops. Next day the SFOR troops set
up roadblocks around the village. SFOR says that policing is the job of
local police, and says the incident represents a failure of the Bosnian
Serb police to maintain order in the separation zone. But Sead
Jamakosmanovic, a Bosnian Federation government official, said Russian
peacekeepers were to blame for failing to prevent the incident. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[10] NEW RIFT BETWEEN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO OVER MEDIA.
Montenegrin media accused the pro-government daily Borba and the state
news agency Tanjug of being politically biased in favor of Serbia, although
the two federal units within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should have
equal treatment in media founded by the federation, Nasa Borba reported.
Borba and Tanjug were singled out for their recent attacks on Montenegrin
Premier Milo Djukanovic following his criticism of Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic. Meanwhile, the Serbian Renewal Movement, led by Vuk
Draskovic, accused the state media of becoming increasingly aggressive in
spreading false information on the state of affairs in the country. On the
other side, the state-run daily Politika on 4 March accused the
"opposition media"of being tendetious, one-sided and aggressive. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[11] CROATIA TO OPEN CONSULATE IN BANJA LUKA.
Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on 3 March met with Banja Luka
Catholic Bishop Franjo Komarica and announced that Croatia will soon open a
consulate in that Bosnian Serb stronghold, Hina reported. Komarica said the
remaining Banja Luka Croats were looking forward to the opening of the
consulate, and that it would help improve their current situation. Komarica
mentioned the unsolved issue of the two Banja Luka parish priests who had
disappeared and whose fate was still unknown. In other news, Catholic
authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina said on 28 February that churches and
monasteries were being targeted for attack in the weeks leading up to the
visit of Pope John Paul II to Sarajevo, scheduled for 12-13 April, AFP
reported. A day earlier, an anonymous caller threatened to kill the Pope
during the Sarajevo visit. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[12] CONSTANTINESCU ON TREATY WITH UKRAINE.
At a meeting with potential foreign investors on 3 March, President Emil
Constantinescu said Romania has "assumed a great risk" by deciding to give
up any territorial claim on Ukraine in the pending basic treaty between the
two countries, the daily Ziua reported. In a related development, several
dailies report that leaflets denouncing the government's position on the
treaty were found in Bucharest, Suceava and Turnu Severin. The leaflets
also attacked the government's decision to allow foreign investors to buy
land in Romania and called for military rule of the country. A spokesman
for the Bucharest police said the views expressed in the leaflets "are
reminiscent of the position of some political parties," the daily
Cotidianul reports. The extremist Greater Romania Party has often called
for military rule in the past, and opposes any concessions to Ukraine. The
latter position is shared by the Party of Romanian National Unity and
several semi-political organizations. -- Michael Shafir
[13] TURMOIL IN ROMANIAN NATIONALIST PARTY.
The leadership of the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) will discuss
the expulsion of former party Chairman Gheorghe Funar from the party,
several dailies report. Although the move was allegedly prompted by Funar's
private use of faxes and phones of the Cluj mayoralty he heads, the real
reason is to be sought in the turmoil now affecting the PUNR. The Cluj
branch of PUNR on 28 February decided to expel Ioan Gavra, the PUNR
secretary general. The branch is dominated by Funar, who refuses to
recognize the legality of his own dismissal as PUNR chairman on 22
February. Observers viewed this as an attempt by Funar to tackle his
critics. Romanian media speculate that the party may be on the verge of
splitting up. -- Michael Shafir
[14] OPPOSITION OFFENSIVE IN ROMANIA.
Former President Ion Iliescu told well-wishers congratulating him on his
67th birthday that the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) will
start monitoring the implementation of "Contract with Romania," the
electoral program of the ruling Democratic Convention of Romania. He
accused the government of failing to implement its electoral promises and
of leading the country into an economic dead-end, Radio Bucharest and
Romanian television reported on 3 March. In a related development, the PDSR
announced it will launch a motion in the Chamber of Deputies demanding a
debate on the government's agricultural policies. The Senate on 3 March was
the scene of loud protests of the leader of the Greater Romania Party,
Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who accused the government of intending to restore
the monarchy. Tudor and several PDSR senators walked out in protest after a
reply by a representative of the ruling coalition. -- Michael Shafir
[15] BULGARIA'S BREAD CRISIS.
Former Prime Minister Zhan Videnov caused the bread crisis with his
deliberate inaction and irresponsibility, claims today's Trud. The paper
went on saying that there were at least three very lucrative grain deals
that were not concluded due to a lack of response by the premier. Russian
Ambassador to Bulgaria Leonid Kerestezhiants, cited by Standart, said
that Videnov had asked Russia for 150,000 metric tons of grain but did not
even bother to do so in writing. According to Pari, Russia should soon
deliver the mentioned quantity of wheat to Bulgaria. The deal should be
finalized during the 9 March visit of Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Oleg
Lobov to Sofia. -- Maria Koinova
[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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