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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 116, 96-06-14
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 116, 14 June 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] AZERBAIJAN PROTESTS U.S. AID BILL.
[02] ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK CREDIT TO KAZAKHSTAN.
[03] LAST STATE-OWNED BANK IN KYRGYZSTAN TO BE LIQUIDATED.
[04] TAJIK GOVERNMENT DENIES BOMBING TAVIL-DARA.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] IMBROGLIO OVER BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
[06] OPPOSITION PARTIES JOIN FORCES FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
[07] TRAVNIK CROATS GO HOME.
[08] OPPOSITION GIVES UP NEGOTIATIONS WITH HDZ.
[09] RUMP YUGOSLAV PREMIER ANNOUNCES CABINET SHUFFLE.
[10] SERBIAN RADICAL CASTS LOT WITH KARADZIC.
[11] PARTY OF SERBIAN UNITY VICE LEADER CONDEMNS SEPARATIST PROPOSAL.
[12] OPPOSITION TO HAVE JOINT CANDIDATE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS?
[13] DEFENSE MINISTER URGES NATO TO ADMIT ROMANIA.
[14] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE UPDATE.
[15] REACTION TO FAILED NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE IN BULGARIA.
[16] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS CONDEMN OSCE REPORT...
[17] ...BUT CALLS FOR NEW BALLOT GET LOUDER.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] AZERBAIJAN PROTESTS U.S. AID BILL.
Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev met with the U.S. ambassador to Baku on 13
June to protest a congressional bar on U.S. aid to Baku, Reuters reported the
same day. Aliev said relations between the two countries would be "seriously
damaged" if Congress approved a foreign aid bill that envisages only a slight
easing of the ban on aid to Azerbaijan with separate aid treatment for Nagorno-
Karabakh. Aliev said that in treating Nagorno-Karabakh separately from
Azerbaijan, the amendment infringes on Azerbaijan's sovereignty. -- Lowell
Bezanis
[02] ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK CREDIT TO KAZAKHSTAN.
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will offer a $298,000 credit line to
Kazakhstan for the construction of a Karaganda-Akmola highway, ITAR-TASS
reported on 14 June. The IDB credit offer follows a memorandum of
understanding on Kazakhstan's membership in the IDB signed by Prime Minister
Akezhan Kazhegeldin and IDB President Ahmed Muhammed Ali. -- Bhavna
Dave
[03] LAST STATE-OWNED BANK IN KYRGYZSTAN TO BE LIQUIDATED.
The Kyrgyz Supreme Court of Arbitration on 30 May declared the state-owned
Kyrgyzelbank insolvent, and appointed a liquidator, the BBC reported. The bank
was in a financial crisis due to what the court described as the "management's
poorly thought out" policy on attracting deposits and crediting, and the
Kyrgyz government's failure to return 29.8 million som (about $2.7 million) to
the bank. The Kyrgyz court ordered the government to take measures to repay
Kyrgyzelbank's investors as soon as possible -- Bruce Pannier
[04] TAJIK GOVERNMENT DENIES BOMBING TAVIL-DARA.
Tajik presidential press spokesman Zafar Saidov on 13 June described
opposition reports that the town of Tavil-Dara has been almost totally
destroyed as "outright fabrication," according to ITAR-TASS. The opposition
claims that Russian bombers leveled the town in a series of raids on 11 June.
Saidov stated that Russian planes are used only to guard the Tajik-Afghan
border and lately have flown to areas in eastern Tajikistan in order to
deliver humanitarian aid but do not fly missions in support of Tajik military
operations. Saidov also admitted that the Tajik army has its own warplanes but
added that they have not been used because of the fear of inflicting civilian
casualties. These claims cannot be independently confirmed as journalists and
UN observers have been kept away from the scene of the fighting. -- Bruce
Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] IMBROGLIO OVER BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
An international conference on Bosnia opened in Florence on 13 June, and
differences about when to hold elections soon became evident. The U.S., France,
and most other powers want them to be held by 14 September in keeping with the
Dayton agreement. The Clinton administration is particularly anxious to have
the vote out of the way before it faces its own ballot in November, and the
international community's high representative in Bosnia, Carl Bildt, said that
"any delay would increase the risk of partition into separate ethnic states."
Bildt said the elections should go ahead even if Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic and his military counterpart Gen. Ratko Mladic have not been arrested,
the BBC reported on 14 June. The Bosnian government, however, opposes
elections as long as war criminals are on the loose and basic preconditions
for a fair vote are not met, Reuters and Onasa noted. -- Patrick Moore
[06] OPPOSITION PARTIES JOIN FORCES FOR BOSNIAN ELECTIONS.
Five opposition parties--the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), the Union of
Bosnian-Herzegovinian Social-Democrats (UBSD), the Muslim-Bosniak Organization
(MBO), the Croat Peasant Party (HSS), and the Republican Party (RS)--on 12
June signed an agreement to run together in the upcoming general elections
under the name Joint List For Bosnia, Onasa reported. The OSCE rejected the
opposition bloc's candidate list for the Mostar elections because the deadline
for submissions had passed. Stjepan Kljuic, president of the Republican Party,
said that none of the parties had been properly informed of the final date for
submitting lists of candidates, Onasa reported. East Mostar Mayor Safet
Orucevic appealed to the EU administration in Mostar to enable the Joint List
to run. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[07] TRAVNIK CROATS GO HOME.
Ethnic Croats expelled for a second time after returning to their homes near
Travnik have apparently gone home again, Reuters and Onasa reported on 12
June. Official spokesmen and various media offer conflicting accounts of how
many individuals were involved and exactly what happened. UNHCR spokesman Kris
Janowski put the figure at 11 families comprising 25 people and said his
office is trying to find out whether the expulsions were carried out by
competent officials or by rogue elements. The Bosnian authorities said that
the Croats were "asked" to leave when they could not produce valid
registration papers, while Croatian officials charged that the families,
including children, were ordered out of their homes on short notice. --
Patrick Moore
[08] OPPOSITION GIVES UP NEGOTIATIONS WITH HDZ.
The Great Council of the leading opposition Croatian Social-Liberal Party
(HSLS) on 12 June decided to end negotiations with the ruling Croatian
Democratic Community (HDZ), Hina reported the next day. Drazen Budisa, the
council's president, resigned. The Great Council decided to support in the
next election the candidacy of party Chairman Vlado Gotovac for the
presidency. Gotovac said he was surprised by the public's strong negative
reactions to the talks with HDZ, and added "if it's a sin to negotiate, then
we are finished and we are in a psychological war," Hina reported. Gotovac
said that the talks with HDZ did not threaten relations between the HSLS and
the opposition coalition. Meanwhile, the HDZ presidency expressed regret over
the HSLS decision to end further negotiations. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] RUMP YUGOSLAV PREMIER ANNOUNCES CABINET SHUFFLE.
Radoje Kontic on 12 June formally announced the members of his new cabinet,
including the appointment of three new ministers of finance, economics, and
justice--portfolios formerly held by deputy premiers who are now charged with
"special responsibilities." A new Ministry of Agriculture has also been
created at the federal level, Tanjug reported on 12 June. The daily Nasa
Borba reported already on 4 June that the federal government had been
restructured and that a shuffle was imminent (see ). -- Stan Markotich
[10] SERBIAN RADICAL CASTS LOT WITH KARADZIC.
Ultranationalist leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and accused war
criminal Vojislav Seselj said his party in the Republika Srpska plans to
cooperate with the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDS) of Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic. Seselj said that joining forces following elections is
certain and that SRS representatives will meet SDS counterparts soon to
discuss "an accord on joint presidential and parliamentary candidates," SRNA
reported on 12 June. The following day Nasa Borba quoted Seselj predicting
that the electoral fortunes of Bosnian Serb parties controlled by Serbian
President Milosevic and his wife and head of the United Yugoslav Left (JUL),
Mirjana Markovic, are bleak. "JUL and the SPS have nothing to look for in the
RS," said Seselj. "Nowhere do the Serbian people in the RS feel close
[kinship] with the regime of Slobodan Milosevic," he added. -- Stan
Markotich
[11] PARTY OF SERBIAN UNITY VICE LEADER CONDEMNS SEPARATIST PROPOSAL.
Borislav Pelevic condemned an initiative by the Serbian Academy of Arts and
Sciences [SANU] head Aleksandar Despic as "anti-Serb and anti-Yugoslav,"
according to Nasa Borba on 14 May. Despic had suggested the previous week
that Kosovo separate from rump-Yugoslavia, warning of a population explosion
among the Kosovo Albanians and saying that otherwise, in a couple of decades,
Serbia will become a bilingual country. He added that the Serbs will be
confronted with a "grave dilemma ... when and if the Albanians decide to join
in the political life of Serbia on a large scale." Despic warned that "ethnic
duality [may] contain insoluble problems." -- Fabian Schmidt
[12] OPPOSITION TO HAVE JOINT CANDIDATE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS?
Adrian Vilau, a member of the Steering Committee of the Democratic Party-
National Salvation Front (PD-FSN), said that the opposition may agree on a
single candidate to run against incumbent President Ion Iliescu, Reuters
reported on 13 June. A similar proposal was made one day earlier by the
chairman of the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR), Emil Constantinescu.
The CDR and the PD-FSN have reached an agreement on jointly governing
Bucharest, where the CDR candidate, Victor Ciorbea, is ahead of the main
governmental party candidate, Ilie Nastase, in the runoff scheduled for 16
June. PD-FSN leader Petre Roman said that the agreement might serve as an
example for the next general elections. It is unlikely that either
Constantinescu or Roman will agree to withdraw from the race. But an agreement
is possible to support whichever candidate is best placed in a likely runoff
against the president. -- Michael Shafir
[13] DEFENSE MINISTER URGES NATO TO ADMIT ROMANIA.
Gheorghe Tinca on 13 June urged NATO not to leave Romania out of the countries
admitted to the organization, Reuters reported. He said such a decision would
jeopardize Romania's political, military, and economic reforms and threaten
regional stability. He added that the move would lead to tension over
"extremist" claims made by members of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania.
Tinca also said the country would have to pursue entirely different strategies
if it were left uncertain about its chances. -- Michael Shafir
[14] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE UPDATE.
Parliament Chairman Petru Lucinschi on 13 June said he has not yet made up his
mind whether to run in the presidential election scheduled for November,
Infotag reported. Lucinschi said he was sure that more than 85% of the members
of the Social Progress Party Steering Committee as well as other parties and
organizations would back his candidacy. But the leader of the ruling Agrarian
Democratic Party of Moldova (PDAM), Dumitru Motpan, said the same day that his
party will certainly back a PDAM member. Meanwhile, Valentin Krylov, a leader
of the Moldovan Socialist Party (PSM), told Infotag that his party's leading
bodies have a different opinion than the majority of party members on whom to
nominate. The PSM on 5 June named Veronica Abramciuc as the formation's
candidate in the November contest. -- Michael Shafir
[15] REACTION TO FAILED NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE IN BULGARIA.
Most dailies and many politicians are speculating about which opposition
deputies on 13 June backed the Socialist government in a nonconfidence vote
that all opposition parties officially supported. Some 135 deputies had voted
against the motion, but the Socialists and their partners hold only 125 seats.
One Socialist deputy abstained. Observers believe that most or all deputies
from the Bulgarian Business Bloc and some from the ethnic-Turkish Movement for
Rights and Freedom supported the government. But between three and six votes
are still unaccounted for and might have come from the main opposition Union
of Democratic Forces or the People's Union, despite statements by their
leaders to the contrary. -- Stefan Krause
[16] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS CONDEMN OSCE REPORT...
The Democratic Party on 13 June dismissed an OSCE report published the
previous day, Reuters reported. The report condemned irregularities during the
26 May elections. Democratic Party leader Tritan Shehu said "I cannot accept
the [OSCE] criticism ... because a large part of it is baseless." Shehu said
the problems arose after the opposition pulled its monitors out of polling
stations hours before they closed. He added that many OSCE observers were
biased. Earlier, government media published reports saying that nine Norwegian
OSCE monitors had been invited by the Socialist Party and came into the OSCE
delegation through the back door. An OSCE official, however, told OMRI that
the report speaks for itself and such allegations are irrelevant. -- Fabian
Schmidt
[17] ...BUT CALLS FOR NEW BALLOT GET LOUDER.
The Organization of Social Democratic Parties of Europe called for a rerun of
the 26 May parliamentary elections. Austrian Social Democrat Heinz Fischer,
who chaired a meeting in Brussels on 13 June, said Berisha's decision to re-
run polls in 17 constituencies on 16 June was a step in the right direction,
but he added that "the goal must remain to hold free, democratic and
internationally observed elections in all Albanian regions." Meanwhile, the
Center Pole coalition said that the OSCE report confirms that their boycott of
the ballot re-run and of parliament was right. They proposed a round-table
meeting of all parties--the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the EU, and the U.S.--
to prepare an election re-run in 17 constituencies as a test. Should the re-
run show grave differences from the previous elections, they demand new ones. -
- Fabian Schmidt
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Susan Caskie
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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