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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 23, 97-02-03
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 23, 3 February 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] OFFICIALS: PLOT TO ASSASSINATE SHEVARDNADZE FOILED.
[02] MOSCOW ON U.S. ROLE IN KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS.
[03] PIPELINE, CASPIAN UPDATE.
[04] DRUG PROBLEMS CONTINUE ON TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDER . . .
[05] . . . WHILE TASHKENT WARNS DUSHANBE.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] POLICE VIOLENCE IN BELGRADE.
[07] SERBIAN AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON OPPOSITION LEADERS.
[08] POLICE ARRESTS AFTER KOSOVO SHOOT-OUT.
[09] KARADZIC WARNS OF WAR OVER BRCKO . . .
[10] . . . AS DOES BOSNIAN ARMY GENERAL.
[11] INCIDENTS CONTINUE IN EASTERN SLAVONIA.
[12] FRANJO TUDJMAN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT?
[13] DEAN OF TETOVO UNIVERSITY RELEASED FROM PRISON.
[14] ROMANIA LAUNCHES DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE.
[15] CIUBUC ON MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES.
[16] MOLDOVAN MILITARY ASSETS TO BE SOLD.
[17] BULGARIAN POLITICAL DEADLOCK CONTINUES . . .
[18] . . . AS DO PROTESTS.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] OFFICIALS: PLOT TO ASSASSINATE SHEVARDNADZE FOILED.
A conspiracy to kill Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and other top
government officials last fall was thwarted, RFE/RL reported on 31 January.
According to sources in Georgia's Ministry of Interior, the conspirators
planned to assassinate Shevardnadze during the Tbilisi city festival last
October and were funded and directed by the country's former top security
official, Igor Georgadze. A dozen people have been arrested in connection
with the plot. -- Lowell Bezanis
[02] MOSCOW ON U.S. ROLE IN KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Pastukhov said Moscow is opposed to
U.S. efforts to secure the co-chairmanship of the OSCE-sponsored Minsk
Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL reported on 1 February.
Pastukhov said the American proposal is part of a wide-ranging Western
campaign to challenge Russian interests in the region and the OSCE has
already selected France for the position. Armenia welcomed the OSCE
decision, announced in early January, while Azerbaijan prefers the U.S. to
take up the post. Pastukhov alleged that Iran, Turkey, the U.S., and other
NATO countries were involved in a broader campaign to edge Russia out of
the region. -- Lowell Bezanis
[03] PIPELINE, CASPIAN UPDATE.
The victory of Aslan Maskhadov in Chechnya's presidential election was
widely interpreted as a positive sign Caspian Sea oil will flow
uninterrupted through Chechnya en route to Novorissisk and world markets,
Reuters reported on 31 January. The next day ITAR-TASS reported Maskhadov
has given promises the oil will flow and Chechen officials will begin talks
later this month with the Russian Energy Ministry on financing repairs to
the pipeline through Chechnya. In other news, Turkmen Deputy Foreign
Minister Yulbaz Kepbanov reiterated Ashgabat's view that the Azeri and
Chirag Caspian Sea fields were within its territorial waters and it would
be "incorrect" for Azerbaijan to forge ahead with drilling plans until the
Caspian's status was defined, RFE/RL reported on 1 February. -- Lowell
Bezanis
[04] DRUG PROBLEMS CONTINUE ON TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDER . . .
Russian border guards shot and killed one of four men attempting to cross
from Afghanistan into Tajikistan on 31 January, ITAR-TASS reported. The
other three fled back across the Pyanj River to Afghanistan. The same night
Russian border guards apprehended another man carrying 20.6 kilos of
narcotics. Radio Rossii reported on 2 February that in January Russian
border guards caught 58 people trying to cross into Tajikistan illegally
and confiscated more than 35 kilos of narcotics. -- Bruce Pannier
[05] . . . WHILE TASHKENT WARNS DUSHANBE.
Tashkent has officially expressed "serious concern" over what it terms the
increasing level of drug trafficking into Uzbekistan from Tajikistan,
RFE/RL reported on 1 February. According to unnamed sources in the Uzbek
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tashkent fears smugglers are turning
Uzbekistan into a transit country for drugs heading to other CIS countries
as well as to the West, and in some cases are involved in smuggling weapons
into Uzbekistan. Tashkent called on Dushanbe to make every effort to halt
these activities and said it would take whatever measures were necessary to
prevent future incidents. -- Lowell Bezanis
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] POLICE VIOLENCE IN BELGRADE.
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic confronted Belgrade demonstrators with
a massive show of police violence beginning 2 February, local independent
media reported. The demonstrators are demanding recognition of the
opposition wins from the 17 November municipal runoffs. Heavily armed riot
police resorted to beatings, tear gas, and dowsing protesters with water
cannons. Eyewitness reports, some describing the city as "a battleground,"
say it was the most serious display of state aggression since 1991, when
Milosevic deployed tanks to put down anti-government demonstrations.
According to sources in the opposition Democratic Party, hundreds of people-
-including foreign and local journalists singled out for attack--were
injured and scores arrested during the evening of 2-3 February. Throughout
the city, protesters hurled concrete slabs and lit fires in the streets in
an effort to halt police charges and water cannons. -- Stan Markotich
[07] SERBIAN AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON OPPOSITION LEADERS.
Leaders of the Zajedno opposition coalition were among those seemingly
targeted for an attack during the continuing demonstrations in the country.
Vesna Pesic, head of Serbian Civic Alliance, was reportedly beaten about
the hands, feet and ribs. Speaking to Radio Index, she commented "I was
lucky some of the protesters tried to protect me. I suffered bruises but
they saved me from worse injuries." Pesic is now in hiding. Meanwhile,
Serbian Renewal Movement head Vuk Draskovic said he was pursued by
plainclothes policemen, and his car was shot at, Radio B92 reported.
Draskovic also went into hiding. He did, however, vow that protests would
continue the afternoon of 3 February, adding the time for "Ghandi-style
resistance" had passed and urged demonstrators to bring with them whatever
they needed to defend themselves, CNN reported. -- Stan Markotich
[08] POLICE ARRESTS AFTER KOSOVO SHOOT-OUT.
Serbian police arrested over 100 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo over the past
week, according to the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). The arrests
reached a peak after three ethnic Albanians were killed in a 31 January
shoot-out with police near Vucitrn. Senior LDK officials held an emergency
meeting and called the situation "extremely serious." They charged Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic with stirring tensions in order to divert
attention from the Belgrade opposition protests. Police later claimed those
killed belonged to the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). They also said that
one of them, identified as Zahor Pajaziti, was a top UCK official and added
that during raids, a large number of weapons, explosives, and maps of
public buildings and military facilities were seized. -- Fabian Schmidt
[09] KARADZIC WARNS OF WAR OVER BRCKO . . .
Former Bosnian Serb civilian leader Radovan Karadzic told the Greek daily
ElevtherosTypos: "If the question of Brcko is not resolved, we will go to
war again," AFP reported on 2 February. In a rare interview, he also
taunted NATO troops for failing to arrest him for war crimes, saying he has
so far escaped detention "because I have 2,000 men who follow me everywhere,
and if [NATO tries to make an arrest], there will be at least 500 dead."
U.S. mediator Roberts Owen is slated to rule on the future of the strategic
town of Brcko on 15 February, which was the one territorial question not
settled in the Dayton agreement. Vice president of the mainly Croat and
Muslim federation Ejup Ganic is in Washington to lobby officials regarding
Brcko, and Republika Srpska Vice President Dragoljub Mirjanic is due to
arrive there shortly for the same purpose. -- Patrick Moore
[10] . . . AS DOES BOSNIAN ARMY GENERAL.
Gen. Sead Delic, commander of the Muslim-led Bosnian Army's Second Corps,
while visiting the disputed northern town of Brcko, warned Bosnian Serbs
that they faced more fighting unless they let refugees return home, AFP
reported on 1 February. Delic said the war was not finished as long as the
people cannot return home: that was not a threat but the only way to
achieve what they fought for. Meanwhile, a UN-supervised convoy of Muslim
refugees, who were supposed to return to their homes in Croat-held Stolac,
was blocked on 31 January by a group of about 300 to 400 Croat civilians. A
human wall of women and children blocked the way and Muslim refugees were
kept in the coach during a one-hour standoff. It is the second set-back for
UN efforts to help Muslim refugees to return to their homes. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[11] INCIDENTS CONTINUE IN EASTERN SLAVONIA.
An explosive device on 1 February damaged a track near the town of Vukovar
on the railroad recently reopened by the UN to connect Croatia's government-
controlled territory with the Serb-held region of eastern Slavonia,
international and local agencies reported. The same day a hand grenade was
thrown in front of a Croatian pension payment office in village of Jankovci,
injuring none and causing only slight damage, Hina reported. The agency
also reported a hand grenade was thrown at the house of a non-Serb in the
town of Negoslavci, but no one was injured. Explosions took place a day
after a Belgian corporal serving with the UN force in eastern Slavonia was
shot and killed by a young Serb. A Jordanian soldier and a civilian UN
official were also wounded, and a suspect detained. The incidents began
following the UN Security Council endorsement of a Croatian government
letter of intent for reintegration of eastern Slavonia on 31 January. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[12] FRANJO TUDJMAN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT?
The Croatian president said on 31 January in an interview with CNN that his
health was satisfactory enough to run for president in elections later this
year, and that he would step down if he lost. "But there is no chance that
I and the (ruling) Croatian Democratic Community could lose. We have the
support of the majority of the people," Tudjman said. He downplayed reports
that he was seriously ill with stomach cancer. Tudjman also dismissed the
possibility that war criminals wanted by the Hague-based tribunal were
hiding in Croatia. Commenting on evictions of Muslims from the Croat-held
part of the divided town of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tudjman blamed
"extremists on both sides," but that Muslims were more to blame. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[13] DEAN OF TETOVO UNIVERSITY RELEASED FROM PRISON.
Fadil Sulejmani, dean of the illegal Tetovo Albanian-language university,
was released on probation from prison on 1 February. Sulejmani was
sentenced last July to two and a half years in prison for stirring unrest
during the February 1995 riots surrounding the university. In an interview
with Deutsche Welle's Albanian-language service, Sulejmani said that Tetovo
university is a reality that the Macedonian authorities can no longer
ignore. -- Fabian Schmidt
[14] ROMANIA LAUNCHES DIPLOMATIC OFFENSIVE.
President Emil Constantinescu's visit to Brussels today is aimed at
promoting Romania's membership in the European Community and NATO.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said in Davos, Switzerland--where
Constantinescu had met with several heads of state before arriving in
Brussels--that Romania should not be allowed to join NATO before the
signing of a basic Ukrainian/Romanian treaty. Constantinescu confirmed that
NATO's position is the same and Romania was willing to accept that demand.
Ending a one-day visit to Romania, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John
Kornblum told Reuters on 1 February that the elections in Romania
demonstrated "political maturity," which "bodes well for relations with the
U.S., and for Romania's quest to join NATO and other Euro-Atlantic
structures." But he stopped short of backing the Romanian application. --
Zsolt Mato
[15] CIUBUC ON MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES.
At a press conference in Chisinau on 30 January, Premier Ion Ciubuc said he
intends to break the energy sector monopoly in order to overcome the
existing crisis, BASA-press reported on next day. He also said he would
reconsider Moldova's possible participation in the Cernavoda Romanian
nuclear power station project. Asked whether he would adopt a pro-Moscow
stance to get energy deliveries from Russia, Ciubuc replied that he was "a
pro-Moldovan official" who "will do his best to have good relations with
Romania, Ukraine, and Russia." He denied statements by a spokesman for
President Petru Lucinschi that a World Bank loan of $80 million would be
used exclusively to pay off salary and pension arrears and said the
government would first try to mobilize domestic resources and only
afterward to make use of foreign loans in order to lessen that debt. -- Dan
Ionescu
[16] MOLDOVAN MILITARY ASSETS TO BE SOLD.
Presidential spokesman Andrei Turcanu said Moldovan authorities intend to
sell off some of the country's military equipment to partly finance salary
and pension arrears. The Defense Ministry declined from commenting, but
BASA-press reported on 31 January that most likely, MiG-29 planes, which
cannot be used by the Moldovan air force, will be sold. The Moldovan
government already sold off such planes three years ago. -- Dan Ionescu
[17] BULGARIAN POLITICAL DEADLOCK CONTINUES . . .
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) looks set to announce a new Socialist
government on 3 February after its offer for talks on a coalition
government was rejected by the opposition the previous day, RFE/RL
reported. BSP Chairman Georgi Parvanov said that if no coalition government
is formed, the Socialists will name a new government on 3 February and
present it to the parliament for a vote of confidence the next day. The
Union of Democratic Forces demanded that the BSP give up the mandate to
form a government before talks begin. President Petar Stoyanov said he can
not broker talks as long as the Socialists hold the mandate. The BSP's
premier-designate, current Interior Minister Nikolay Dobrev, on 31 January
proposed that Stoyanov name a broad coalition government and said he was
willing to give up his mandate. On 2 February, the BSP leadership met to
discuss the formation of a new government. -- Stefan Krause
[18] . . . AS DO PROTESTS.
As the political deadlock ensued, protests continued throughout Bulgaria
over the weekend, reaching their 28th consecutive day on 2 February, RFE/RL
and Reuters reported. The blockade of the main road and rail link from
Sofia to Greece continued for a fifth day in Dupnitsa. Police reportedly
tried to break the blockade on 1 February. Opposition leaders said people
were beaten, while the police denied the use of violence. Duma on 3
February alleged that "40 Canadian businessmen" and Bulgarian tennis coach
Yuliya Berberyan paid the protesters a total of $20,000. Students blocked
the main roads leading into Sofia. Protesters also briefly blocked the exit
of Bulgaria's biggest oil refinery, Neftochim in Burgas. Thousands
demonstrated in Sofia and other towns. Public transport workers in Sofia
went on strike on 3 February. Dock workers in Burgas and Varna are expected
to go on strike the same day. -- Stefan Krause
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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