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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 141, 96-07-23

Open Media Research Institute: Daily Digest Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>

Vol. 2, No. 141, 23 July 1996


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] COMPROMISE REACHED ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS IN ABKHAZIA.
  • [02] FIFTH ROUND OF INTER-TAJIK TALKS ENDS.
  • [03] ELECTRICITY NO LONGER FREE IN TURKMENISTAN.

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [04] U.S. TO KEEP UP PRESSURE ON KARADZIC.
  • [05] BOSNIAN SERB ARMY WOULD NOT REACT TO KARADZIC'S ARREST?
  • [06] INVESTIGATION BEGINS AT LARGEST MASS GRAVE.
  • [07] BOSNIAN SERBS USE AID TO BLACKMAIL VOTERS.
  • [08] BOSNIAN CROATS BOYCOTT FIRST SESSION OF MOSTAR CITY COUNCIL.
  • [09] RUMP YUGOSLAV OFFICER SENTENCED FOR SPYING.
  • [10] ROMANIAN ELECTORAL UPDATE.
  • [11] ROMANIA SEEKS TO MODERNIZE ITS ARMY.
  • [12] CHISINAU-TIRASPOL TALKS POSTPONED.
  • [13] MOLDOVAN OPPOSITION FORMATIONS CONCLUDE ALLIANCE.
  • [14] BULGARIA GETS ARMS FROM RUSSIA.
  • [15] PIRINSKI OUT OF BULGARIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE?
  • [16] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS PROTEST AGAINST ARREST OF UNIVERSITY LEADERS.
  • [17] ALBANIAN COMMUNIST ERA OFFICIALS SENTENCED FOR 1991 SHOOTING.

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] COMPROMISE REACHED ON RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS IN ABKHAZIA.

    At the ongoing quadripartite talks in Moscow on a political settlement of the Abkhaz conflict, agreement was reached on 22 July on broadening the mandate (which expired on 19 July) of the Russian peacekeeping forces now deployed there, ITAR-TASS reported. Russian troops stationed in Gali raion, to which tens of thousands of ethnic Georgian refugees aspire to return, will be granted police powers to enable them to protect Georgian repatriants against possible reprisals by Abkhaz militants. In his traditional Monday radio interview Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze proposed that future relations between the Georgian government in Tbilisi and the Abkhaz leadership in Sukhumi should be modeled on the draft agreement on relations between Moscow and Chechnya, Western agencies reported. ITAR-TASS reported on 22 July that three people have been killed in the past few days in a series of bomb explosions in Abkhazia's Ochamchire raion. -- Liz Fuller

    [02] FIFTH ROUND OF INTER-TAJIK TALKS ENDS.

    The fifth round of negotiations in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan between the Tajik government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) has adjourned, ITAR-TASS and ORT reported on 22 July. The two sides agreed on an exchange of prisoners at the border city of Khorog sometime before 20 August. Opposition leader Ali Akbar Turajonzoda, however, said the UTO plans to hand over all remaining prisoners from the government forces shortly after the official exchange in Khorog. The agreement on a cessation of hostilities in the Tavil-Dara area receives its first test on 23 July. Under the accord, a team of UN observers is to be permitted access to the Tavil-Dara in order to fix the positions of each side at the time the ceasefire was signed. No outsiders have had access to the region for months and the opposition is already charging that government forces launched an offensive to capture the area's regional center after the agreement was in effect. -- Bruce Pannier

    [03] ELECTRICITY NO LONGER FREE IN TURKMENISTAN.

    Turkmen residents are now required to pay for electricity used above a certain limit, according to a 12 July article in Turkmenistan, monitored by the BBC on 23 July. Since independence in 1991, President Saparmurat Niyazov has declared electricity to be free to domestic consumers. They will now be charged for using electricity above the free limit at the rate used in industry. -- Bhavna Dave

    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [04] U.S. TO KEEP UP PRESSURE ON KARADZIC.

    Assistant Secretary of State John Kornblum will return to Belgrade this weekend, he told the BBC on 22 July. Kornblum's aim will be to convince Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that Bosnian Serb civilian leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic must be clearly "out of power, out of influence." The diplomat added that Karadzic will have to leave Bosnia and eventually wind up in The Hague, and that the new nominal Bosnian Serb leaders must be more cooperative with the international community than Karadzic was. While in keeping with the Dayton agreement, this goes well beyond the deal U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke clinched the previous week. Washington may well be lucky to get Serbian cooperation in carrying out Holbrooke's package, let alone getting Karadzic to The Hague. -- Patrick Moore

    [05] BOSNIAN SERB ARMY WOULD NOT REACT TO KARADZIC'S ARREST?

    Gen. Zdravko Tolimir, deputy to Serb army chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, told NATO Commander Michael Walker that the army has been indifferent to Radovan Karadzic's replacement as the Republika Srpska (RS) president, and it would not react by force if NATO attempts to arrest Karadzic, Nasa Borba reported on 23 July citing the London-based Times. The RS army delegation underscored the fear that the Serb military would seek revenge for its former president's capture has not been justified. -- Daria Sito Sucic

    [06] INVESTIGATION BEGINS AT LARGEST MASS GRAVE.

    UN forensics and archeological experts began exhuming a huge burial site at the Nova Kasaba soccer field near Srebrenica on 22 July, Onasa stated. U.S. spy satellite photos had shown large amounts of disturbed earth in the area where survivors had reported mass executions a year ago. American diplomats said that as many as 2,500 Muslim males might be buried there, Nasa Borba noted, but the UN was reluctant to discuss figures at such an early stage. The experts nonetheless discovered bodies at the site almost immediately, the BBC reported. The soccer field could prove to be the largest mass grave in eastern Bosnia. -- Patrick Moore

    [07] BOSNIAN SERBS USE AID TO BLACKMAIL VOTERS.

    UNHCR spokesman in Republika Srpska (RS) reported the Serb authorities are using humanitarian aid to blackmail voters to register in certain areas, Onasa reported on 22 July. Mans Nyberg warned that refugees from the Bosnian federation in the RS will be deprived of their right to relief aid if they register to vote as residents of their former towns. An unnamed UN official said documents seen by UN workers indicated instructions for the policy had come from the ruling Serb nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (SDS). The SDS policy is to create RS as a Serb-only state, and votes cast in the places of refugees' former residency would be wasted votes for the party. Nyberg said this abuse of aid for political reasons was "scandalous and unacceptable," and if the practice was not halted, "alternative means of distributing humanitarian assistance would be adopted." -- Daria Sito Sucic

    [08] BOSNIAN CROATS BOYCOTT FIRST SESSION OF MOSTAR CITY COUNCIL.

    Deputies from the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) did not participate in the constituent session of the Mostar city council on 23 July, Reuters reported. West Mostar Mayor Mile Puljic earlier warned that the Croats would "not accept the final election results because they were not published by the local electoral commission." The EU declared the elections valid after a continuing Croat blockade in the electoral commission following minor voting irregularities. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic criticized the HDZ's boycott and appealed to Dick Spring, the chairman of the EU Council of Ministers, to intervene, saying that it "blocks the entire process of the democratic settlement of the crisis in Mostar." -- Fabian Schmidt

    [09] RUMP YUGOSLAV OFFICER SENTENCED FOR SPYING.

    Lt. Col. Nedeljko Varicak has been sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment for allegedly spying for an unspecified but "newly-formed neighboring state," Politika Ekspres reported on 22 July. The daily described Varicek as a high- ranking security officer operating near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the town of Uzice. AFP reported, however, that officials in Belgrade have yet to confirm the story. -- Stan Markotich

    [10] ROMANIAN ELECTORAL UPDATE.

    The Socialist Labor Party (PSM) on 22 July announced that it has gathered the 100,000 signatures in support of Senator Adrian Paunescu, its candidate in the November presidential elections, Radio Bucharest announced on the same day. Paunescu, a former Ceausescu "court-poet," is the first candidate to have fulfilled this legal requirement. In other developments, on 19 July the chairman of the Agrarian Democratic Party (PDAR), Victor Surdu, told a press conference that his party's alliance with the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) has "practically ceased to exist" because the PUNR has decided to run alone in the parliamentary elections, also scheduled for November. In turn, PUNR chairman Gheorghe Funar said in an interview published in the daily Cronica romana on 23 July that the alliance known as the National Unity Bloc ended because the PUNR had proposed the merging of its members (PUNR, PDAR and the Ecological Movement), but the PDAR "prefers a perpetual affiance to a marriage." -- Michael Shafir

    [11] ROMANIA SEEKS TO MODERNIZE ITS ARMY.

    Romania is seeking up to $ 400 million in loans to buy military technology needed to boost its NATO admission chances, Reuters reported on 22 July, quoting a Defense Ministry press release. The government has allowed the ministry to "prospect international markets" for credits in order to finance projects ranging from weapon acquisition to restructuring of its own arms industry. The statement said the loans would be guaranteed by the Romanian government. -- Michael Shafir

    [12] CHISINAU-TIRASPOL TALKS POSTPONED.

    The new round of talks between Chisinau and Tiraspol, scheduled to take place on 23 July, has been indefinitely postponed, according to a press release of the Moldovan presidency cited by BASA-Press on 22 July. The statement said the postponement was due to the vacation of "certain Moldovan and Transdniestrian officials" and to the need to address unresolved social and economic problems. The postponement, however, appears to fall in line with President Mircea Snegur's new tactics of delaying the signing of the memorandum between the two conflicting sides. Presidential advisor Victor Josu was quoted by Infotag on the same day as saying that the idea of signing the memorandum on normalizing relations "has lost its immediacy." Josu said the memorandum, as drafted, has many faults, among them failure to mention the preservation of Moldovan territorial integrity and was of "too general a character." -- Michael Shafir

    [13] MOLDOVAN OPPOSITION FORMATIONS CONCLUDE ALLIANCE.

    The opposition Christian Democratic Popular Front, the main pro-Romanian political formation, and the Alliance of Democratic Forces, an umbrella organization uniting six political organizations, on 22 July signed an agreement on a political alliance, Moldovan press agencies reported on the same day. The signatories said the alliance reflected the groups' similar political platforms and their rejection of the "anti-national, anti-social and anti-democratic policy" of the Agrarian-Democratic Party of Moldova and its allies. -- Michael Shafir

    [14] BULGARIA GETS ARMS FROM RUSSIA.

    The first shipment of a total of 100 tanks and 100 armored vehicles that Russia agreed to give to Bulgaria in June 1995 arrived on 22 July, Reuters reported. Some 25 T-72 battle tanks and 50 BMP-1 combat vehicles were delivered to Varna, and Bulgaria in turn will decommission an equal amount of older hardware. Under the CFE treaty, Russia must either destroy the arms or give them away. Observers say the hardware is a reward for the Bulgarian government's reluctance to apply for full NATO membership. Under another agreement, Russia will also provide spare military parts to repay part of its $100 million debt to Bulgaria. In other news, two Interior Ministry officials and two policemen were arrested for illegal arms trade. It is the first case in which Interior Ministry officials have been charged with illegal trade of machine guns. -- Stefan Krause

    [15] PIRINSKI OUT OF BULGARIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

    The Constitutional Court on 23 July will decide whether the presidential candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski, fulfills the constitutional requirement that the president must be Bulgarian by birth, Bulgarian newspapers reported. Many dailies reported that the court will prevent Pirinski from running. According to Kontinent, nine of the 12 judges maintain that Pirinski does not fulfill the requirement because he was not a Bulgarian citizen when he was born in New York in 1948 to a Bulgarian emigre. Some 54 opposition deputies had asked the court to clarify what the term "Bulgarian by birth" means. A simple majority of the Constitutional Court judges in need to rule on the case. -- Stefan Krause

    [16] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS PROTEST AGAINST ARREST OF UNIVERSITY LEADERS.

    Macedonian police on 22 July broke up a demonstration of some 2,000 ethnic Albanians protesting against the jailing of Tetovo University Dean Fadil Sulejmani and four other university activists, Reuters reported. According to local radio, one police car was wrecked during clashes that broke out near Tetovo prison but no injuries were reported. Sulejmani began serving his 18- month jail sentence the same day. Other, unconfirmed reports, suggest the clashes erupted while police arrested Sulejmani, however. AFP reports that the demonstrators dispersed after an appeal by Sulejmani, but vowed to take their protest further to the U.S. embassy in Skopje, the OSCE and the UN. -- Fabian Schmidt

    [17] ALBANIAN COMMUNIST ERA OFFICIALS SENTENCED FOR 1991 SHOOTING.

    Communist-era Defense Minister Kico Mustaqi was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of inciting cadets at the military academy to open fire on demonstrators in 1991. Five people were killed and 37 wounded. The Tirana court, led by Shyqyri Dylgjeri, also sentenced Ksenofon Ceni and Arseni Stroka, two directors of the academy, to three and four years, respectively, on 19 July. All three fled Albania five years ago and were sentenced in absence, Reuters reported. -- Fabian Schmidt

    Compiled by Steve Kettle 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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