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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 14, 97-01-21
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 14, 21 January 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA.
[02] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER IN SOUTH OSSETIA.
[03] AZERBAIJAN COMMEMORATES "BLACK JANUARY."
[04] STRIKE IN SOUTHERN KAZAKSTAN, NO HEAT IN NORTH.
[05] TURKMENISTAN UPDATE.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIAN SERBS FIRE ON CROATIAN TOWN.
[07] BOSNIAN OFFICIAL WANTS RUSSIAN TROOPS OUT.
[08] WAR CRIMES UPDATE.
[09] SERBIAN POLICE ATTACK DEMONSTRATORS.
[10] SERBIAN COURTS BACK THE REGIME.
[11] UN WANTS TO OPEN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE IN KOSOVO.
[12] 'SLOVENIAN SPRING' REJECTS PLAN TO FORM GOVERNMENT.
[13] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS MINERS' LEADER'S ARREST.
[14] BULGARIA'S FORMER COMMUNIST LEADER RELEASED.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA.
In his weekly interview on Georgian state radio, Eduard Shevardnadze
described the development of a "close strategic alliance" between Georgia
and Russia as "promising," ITAR-TASS reported on 20 January. Shevardnadze
thanked the Russian government for allowing Georgia to postpone repayment
of its $180 million debt to Russia until 2000. Shevardnadze said Russia
"can and should play the key role" in resolving the Abkhaz and South
Ossetian conflicts. Meanwhile, Georgian Parliament Speaker Zurab Zhvania
claimed that any special relationship with Russia will be "empty rhetoric"
as long as the Abkhaz conflict is not settled. -- Emil Danielyan
[02] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER IN SOUTH OSSETIA.
Zurab Zhvania met behind closed doors with the leaders of the self-
proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia on the first visit by a top Georgian
official to the breakaway region's capital, Tskhinvali, in five years, ITAR-
TASS reported on 20 January. The visit comes after President Eduard
Shevardnadze's prediction of an imminent breakthrough in the Georgian-South
Ossetian talks and South Ossetian Parliament Speaker Konstantin Dzugaev's
subsequent visit to Tbilisi (see OMRI Daily Digest, 16 January 1997). --
Emil Danielyan
[03] AZERBAIJAN COMMEMORATES "BLACK JANUARY."
Azerbaijan officially commemorated "Black January," when more than 130
people were killed and some 700 wounded in 1990, as thousands of Soviet
interior and security forces moved into Baku to defend Soviet power from
rising nationalist sentiment, Western and Russian media reported the same
day. The intervention helped Azerbaijan Popular Front leader Abulfaz
Elchibey come to power. The same day, Turan reported that 69 volumes of
documentation relating to the January events were illegally seized and
removed from Azerbaijan three years ago; the efforts of Azerbaijani law-
enforcement organs to resecure them has won no favor with the responsible
military court in Russia, according to the agency. -- Lowell Bezanis and
Emil Danielyan
[04] STRIKE IN SOUTHERN KAZAKSTAN, NO HEAT IN NORTH.
Workers at the Achisay Polymetal plant in Southern Kazakhstan have gone on
strike to demand the payment of their back wages, RFE/RL reported on 21
January. According to sources in the Kazakstani Federation of Trade Unions,
the strikers were joined by local transport system workers on 20 January.
In other news, the city of Kokshetau in North Kazakstan has been unable to
provide heat to some 15,000 apartments for two weeks. Temperatures in the
city have dropped to -30 C. -- Merhat Sharipzhan
[05] TURKMENISTAN UPDATE.
Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov on 18 January issued deeds to 80
farmers permitting them to use their lands in perpetuity, ITAR-TASS
reported the same day. Turkmenistan's new landowners are prohibited from
transferring or reselling their property. The ceremony was held to mark the
launch of Turkmenistan's efforts to reform its crisis-riden agricultural
sector by moving toward private land ownership. In other news, a total of
123 drug smugglers were executed in Turkmenistan in 1996, according to a 13
January Vechernii Bishkek report monitored by the BBC. -- Lowell Bezanis
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIAN SERBS FIRE ON CROATIAN TOWN.
Bosnian Serbs in Bosanski Brod fired automatic weapons across the Sava
River into Slavonski Brod, Croatia, late in the afternoon of 20 January,
Hina reported. The bullets hit the main street and shattered windows but
caused no casualties. This is the first such incident since the Dayton
peace treaty was signed in December 1995, AFP wrote. In Sarajevo, UN
spokesman Kris Janowski criticized the Bosnian Serbs for breaking a
"gentleman's agreement" and using UN funds to repair houses whose owners
had been "ethnically cleansed" from the region, AFP added. -- Patrick Moore
[07] BOSNIAN OFFICIAL WANTS RUSSIAN TROOPS OUT.
The new governor of the Tuzla area, Sead Jamakosmanovic, has called for
Russian SFOR troops in the area to be replaced. He accused them of
complicity in a Serb attack on a bridge on the sensitive Celic-Koraj route,
where Muslim refugees are trying to return to homes just inside Serbian
lines (see OMRI Daily Digest, 20 January 1997). Jamakosmanovic repeated a
frequent Muslim and Croat charge against the Russians, saying "they are not
neutral," Oslobodjenje reported on 21 January. He asked that U.S. forces
replace the Russians, adding: "We have confidence in the Americans."
Scandinavian and Turkish troops are also stationed in the tense area. --
Patrick Moore
[08] WAR CRIMES UPDATE.
The Bosnian state commission dealing with the 200,000 missing persons --
mainly Muslims and Croats -- from the conflict said that 31 mass graves
containing 1,462 bodies and 466 single graves were found and exhumed last
year. Forensic inspectors from abroad and from the region will resume their
work in the spring. In Zagreb, the Hague-based war crimes tribunal's chief
prosecutor, Louise Arbour, said that Croatia is not cooperating with the
court despite its promises to do so. She noted that mechanisms for the
extradition of indicted war criminals exist, but said that has not led to
concrete results, Onasa reported on 18 January. -- Patrick Moore
[09] SERBIAN POLICE ATTACK DEMONSTRATORS.
Police officers armed with clubs attacked peaceful demonstrators in
Belgrade on 20 January, reportedly injuring at least 12 people. According
to Radio B92, one person was seriously beaten. The incident occurred when
the well-armed police officers moved to disperse the crowd of peaceful
protesters from around the city center. Nasa Borba on 21 January reported
that Patriarch Pavle had blessed the thousands of students in Belgrade
waging an "endurance test" against riot police. The latest student action
began on the evening of 19 January, when a cordon of police officers
prevented students from continuing their march along Belgrade's main
streets. The students, in reply, refused to budge from the police
barricades. -- Stan Markotich
[10] SERBIAN COURTS BACK THE REGIME.
Serbia's judicial system dealt two blows to opposition demands on 20
January. First, a local Belgrade court asked the Supreme Court to rule on a
Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) appeal of an electoral commission ruling
recognizing opposition Zajedno wins in Belgrade. Since the Supreme Court is
under no time restriction to review the case, the municipal court action
may be merely the latest SPS ploy to stall for time. Meanwhile, the Supreme
Court overturned a decision recognizing opposition victory in the town of
Sabac, instead ruling the SPS had won 35 seats to Zajedno's 29 in that
municipal assembly. Nasa Borba reported on 21 January that the
ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, led by accused war criminal
Vojislav Seselj, has filed its own court challenges to Zajedno election
wins. -- Stan Markotich
[11] UN WANTS TO OPEN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE IN KOSOVO.
The UN's special reporter for human rights, Elizabeth Rehn, said she had
asked the Serbian authorities to "think about" her request to open an
office in Kosovo, in which over 90% of the population is ethnic Albanian.
She pointed to recent tensions and assassinations there as a reason for
establishing a UN presence now, AFP reported on 20 January. Currently her
staff based in Belgrade visit Kosovo once per month. Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic had earlier banned other international monitors from
working out of Pristina. Meanwhile, in Munich, the Bertellsmann foundation
opened two days of talks aimed at bringing Serbs and Kosovar Albanians
together to explore solutions to their political deadlock. A dozen
delegates from the region are taking part in drafting an agenda for
possible official talks, and are joined by experts from Germany and other
EU countries, an OMRI correspondent reported. -- Patrick Moore
[12] 'SLOVENIAN SPRING' REJECTS PLAN TO FORM GOVERNMENT.
Slovenia's three main conservative parties -- the People's Party, the
rightist Social Democrats, and the Christian Democrats -- have expressly
rejected an offer by Premier-designate Janez Drnovsek to form a working
coalition government, STA reported on 20 January. The three so-called
"Slovenian Spring" conservative parties allege that Drnovsek's proposal
gives his own Liberal Democratic Party too much influence and
representation in government, Reuters added. The "Slovenian Spring" parties
hold 44 of 90 parliamentary seats and have demanded that Drnovsek redraft
his proposal for "a government of unity." -- Stan Markotich
[13] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS MINERS' LEADER'S ARREST.
In an interview with Radio Bucharest on 20 January, Emil Constantinescu
defended the recent arrest of Miron Cozma, the controversial leader of the
Jiu Valley miners. Constantinescu said the event was part of a campaign
against corruption and organized crime and was aimed at "restoring state
authority." He described Cozma, who led thousands of miners in violent
marches on Bucharest in 1990 and 1991, as "the most flagrant case of a
person acting in defiance of law and state institutions." Meanwhile, Jiu
Valley union leaders announced they were looking for people to testify in
Cozma's favor and warned against more rallies in the area. They were joined
by leaders of five associations of participants in the December 1989
revolution. According to them, the arrest was "politically motivated, and
an act of revenge" on behalf of Petre Roman, Romania's prime minister in
1990-1991. -- Dan Ionescu
[14] BULGARIA'S FORMER COMMUNIST LEADER RELEASED.
Eighty-five-year-old Todor Zhivkov was released from house arrest on 21
January, owing to advanced age, national media and AFP reported. Zhivkov
headed the Bulgarian Communist Party for 35 years until he was dismissed by
the party's reformers on 10 November 1989. Arrested in January 1990, he
spent several months behind bars and has since been under house arrest in
his granddaughter's villa in a wealthy part of Sofia. In 1992, Zhivkov was
sentenced to seven years imprisonment for involvement in misappropriating
public funds for the benefit of relatives and friends. However, the Supreme
Court acquitted him in February 1996 on the grounds that as head of state
he could be held responsible only for high treason. Despite that, he
remained under house arrest and still faces a possible trial for
misappropriating funds earmarked for pro-communist groups in the Third
World. -- Maria Koinova
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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