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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 23, 97-05-02
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 23, 2 May 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ATTACK ON TAJIK PRESIDENT CONDEMNED
[02] KAZAKSTAN PRESIDENT DISSATISFIED WITH NATIONAL BANK
[03] NEW ROUND OF KARABAKH TALKS SCHEDULED
[04] ELCHIBEY, GAMBAR ELECTED CHAIRMEN OF AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION BLOC
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] ALBANIA'S FINO WANTS TOUGHER MANDATE FOR FOREIGN TROOPS
[06] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO RESIGN OVER VOTING LAW
[07] SERBIAN POLICE ARREST FIVE IN KOSOVO
[08] BILDT WANTS U.S. TROOPS REDEPLOYED TO BALKANS. . .
[09] ...AND LEAVES DOOR OPEN TO TALKS WITH KARADZIC
[10] SERBS STONE RETURNING REFUGEES IN BRCKO
[11] ROUNDUP FROM AROUND THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
[12] ROMANIAN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR REJECTS ACCUSATIONS
[13] ROMANIA APOLOGIZES TO GERMANY
[14] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT VISITS FRANCE
[15] BULGARIAN PATRIARCH FILES COMPLAINT WITH EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS
COMMISSION
[16] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS SOFIA
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ATTACK ON TAJIK PRESIDENT CONDEMNED
Many countries and Tajik political groups denounced the 30 April attempt on
the life of Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov in the northern Tajik city of
Khujand, international press reported. Russia, Iran, China, the U.S.,
Tajikistan's Central Asian neighbors and the United Tajik Opposition and
National Revival Movement made official statements condemning the
attack. The incident left two dead and more than 70 injured, including
Rakhmonov. Tajik authorities have taken 20-year- old Firdaws Dostoboyev
into custody but more arrests are promised soon. At a meeting of the Tajik
government and parliament yesterday, a statement "by many of the
participants" claimed "practically 40% of employees in the power structures
of Tajikistan" are criminals or have close connections with mafia groups,
ITAR-TASS reported.
[02] KAZAKSTAN PRESIDENT DISSATISFIED WITH NATIONAL BANK
Nursultan Nazarbayev says there is still room for improvement at the
National Bank, despite signs of progress, according to Interfax and ITAR-
TASS. The bank reports published on 28 April show net assets increased by
21.7% in 1996. International reserves rose by 30.8% and gold reserves
by 45.7%, compared with the beginning of 1996. Gold reserves now make up
49.95% of the country's hard currency reserves. Nazarbayev noted that the
National Bank is purchasing less gold from local producers and that gold
production dropped to 10.2 tons in 1996, far short of the government goal
of 60-70 tons annually. The bank blamed decreased production on the
drop in gold prices last year, but Nazarbayev recommended that more gold be
put into the country's reserves. He also said he is against selling gold
mines and processing facilities to foreign entrepreneurs.
[03] NEW ROUND OF KARABAKH TALKS SCHEDULED
Another round of OSCE-mediated talks on Nagorno-Karabakh will take
place in the U.S. later this month, Interfax reported yesterday. Russian
Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright met in Moscow yesterday with the three co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk group and expressed their shared concern at the recent ceasefire
violations and ongoing lack of progress toward a political settlement,
according to ITAR-TASS.
[04] ELCHIBEY, GAMBAR ELECTED CHAIRMEN OF AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION BLOC
Former Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey and Musavat Party chairman
Isa Gambar were elected co-chairmen of the Democratic Congress bloc on 30
April, Interfax and RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reported yesterday. The
bloc unites seven pro-Western right wing opposition parties.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] ALBANIA'S FINO WANTS TOUGHER MANDATE FOR FOREIGN TROOPS
Prime Minister Bashkim Fino said in Tirana yesterday that he has asked
Franz Vranitzky, the OSCE's special envoy, to extend Operation Alba's
mandate to include guarding borders and ammunition dumps. Fino argues that
the country's military cannot do it on its own. His request comes in
response to an April 30 explosion in Burrel that killed 27 people as they
were looting an underground ammunition depot for empty shell casings.
Defense Minister Shakir Vukaj has since fired two regional commanders
because of the incident. The army's inability to control the borders has
provided an incentive to looters, who then smuggle scrap metal and other
booty abroad.
[06] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO RESIGN OVER VOTING LAW
Fino also said in Tirana that his broad coalition government will quit if
there is no suitable election law in place for the 29 June emergency
ballot. Fino's Socialists and President Sali Berisha's Democratic Party
failed to agree on a text on 30 April. The Socialists and the other parties
opposing the Democrats insist on a new law as a guarantee against the
abuses that marred last year's parliamentary vote. They also want to
introduce a system of proportional representation to enable smaller parties
to enter parliament.
[07] SERBIAN POLICE ARREST FIVE IN KOSOVO
Police on 30 April charged five ethnic Albanians with planning terrorist
activities over the 1 May holiday, the official Tanjug news agency reported
from Belgrade. A police statement said that the five belong to the
clandestine Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), which has killed 12 so far this
year. Until a few months ago, the UCK conducted only apparently random
attacks on Serbs. More recently, however, its killings have become more
frequent, more professional, and increasingly directed at those ethnic
Albanians whom it says collaborate with the Belgrade government.
[08] BILDT WANTS U.S. TROOPS REDEPLOYED TO BALKANS. . .
Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, said in Washington yesterday that the U.S. should transfer
some of its troops from Germany to southeastern Europe. Bildt said that
soldiers stationed in Germany are "deployed in order to counter a
Soviet threat that is no longer there." He added that the real threat to
security in Europe today lies in the Balkans. The former Swedish prime
minister also called "somewhat naive" U.S. Secretary of Defense William
Cohen's claim that the civilian provisions of the Dayton agreement have not
been implemented as well as the military ones.
[09] ...AND LEAVES DOOR OPEN TO TALKS WITH KARADZIC
On 30 April, Bildt told the U.N. Security Council that it might be
necessary to have "business contacts" with indicted war criminal Radovan
Karadzic. Bildt called him "a force of evil and intrigue," but added that
Karadzic is "an elected representative of Bosnia-Herzegovina." According to
the Dayton agreement, signatories are obliged to hand over all indicted war
criminals to the Hague-based tribunal. Under a deal reached between
the international community and the Bosnian Serbs last year, Karadzic is
supposed to leave public life completely.
[10] SERBS STONE RETURNING REFUGEES IN BRCKO
Bosnian Serb crowds yesterday attacked two buses carrying Muslim refugees
on a visit to their homes in the strategic northern town of Brcko. The
Social Democratic Party organized the trip, during which party leader
Zlatko Lagumdzija was among those wounded. Serb youths also stoned a bus
bringing in U.S. troops from Hungary. Earlier that day, Brcko's exiled
Muslim mayor, Munib Jusufovic, resigned to protest what he called
decisions by the international community to force returning Muslims to take
out Bosnian Serb identity papers, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from
Sarajevo.
[11] ROUNDUP FROM AROUND THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Also in the Bosnian capital, Bildt's office announced yesterday that the
international Bosnian aid donors' conference has been cancelled because the
Muslims, Croats, and Serbs cannot agree on basic economic legislation for
the republic. Still in Sarajevo, the OSCE said that voters crossing the
inter- entity border to vote in September's local elections must go
directly to their designated polling place and not try to visit their
former homes. In Croatia's Karlovac, vandals desecrated Jewish graves. City
officials and police have launched an investigation, Novi List writes this
morning. In Zagreb, the authorities have assigned an additional frequency
to independent Radio 101, one of Croatia's few independent broadcasters.
And in Belgrade, several thousand people turned out to demonstrate against
President Slobodan Milosevic and poor living conditions, an RFE/RL
correspondent reported from the Serbian capital.
[12] ROMANIAN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR REJECTS ACCUSATIONS
In his last speech as director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI),
Virgil Magureanu on April 30 rejected accusations that he or other SRI
members had been serving interests of the KGB or other foreign powers,
RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Magureanu also rejected accusations
that the report he presented to parliament on his activities had an anti-
Western bias. Speaking later to reporters, Magureanu confirmed that former
President Ion Iliescu had offered him a place on the list of the Party of
Social Democracy in Romania before the 1996 elections. Magureanu said he
intends to enter political life and that his views are "centrist." He
promised never to use information gathered during his tenure for political
purposes.
[13] ROMANIA APOLOGIZES TO GERMANY
Romania has apologized to Germany for the first time for having deported
ethnic German inhabitants to the Soviet Union after the Second World War.
Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Severin expressed what he termed "deep
regret, together with apologies for what happened," during German Foreign
Minister Klaus Kinkel's visit to Romania. Kinkel told the Romanian
parliament on 30 April that Bucharest's bid to join NATO is being examined
with great attention, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. He said the
results of NATO's July summit in Madrid are still unforeseeable, and that
the alliance will remain open for partners who are not invited to join in
July. He told the legislators that the EU's criteria will be "equal and
transparent" for all candidate countries. He also pledged that the new
Europe would be without "lines of separation or marginalization."
[14] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT VISITS FRANCE
Petar Stoyanov arrived in France yesterday on an official three-day visit.
His delegation includes a group of Bulgarian businessmen and caretaker
Economy Minister Alexander Bozhkov, who is expected to keep his post in a
new government named later this month. Stoyanov's schedule includes talks
with French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppe.
RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reports that Stoyanov will seek support for Sofia's
bid to join NATO. Bulgaria is not expected to be among the first candidates
invited. Meanwhile, today Bulgaria's Interim Prime Minister Stefan
Sofianski and U.S. presidential adviser Richard Shifter held talks in
Sofia. The talks focused on regional cooperation.
[15] BULGARIAN PATRIARCH FILES COMPLAINT WITH EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS
COMMISSION
The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Maxim, has filed a
complaint with the European Human Rights Commission in Strasbourg against
the Bulgarian Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General, a spokesman for the
Holy Synod told an RFE/RL correspondent on 1 May. If the commission accepts
the complaint, Patriach Maxim may take the case to the European Court.
Patriarch Maxim is protesting a July ruling of the Bulgarian Supreme Court,
which indirectly upheld an earlier decision of the then Union of Democratic
Forces (UDF) government, pronouncing Maxim's Holy Synod illegitimate and
supporting an alternative Synod, led by another Patriarch, Pimen. Maxim's
Synod was pronounced illegitimate because most of its members were not
elected, but appointed by the former Communist regime.
[16] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS SOFIA
Romania's President Emil Constantinescu met with Stoyanov in Sofia on 30
April. RFE/RL's Sofia bureau quoted Stoyanov's press service as saying that
the presidents were coordinating their positions on efforts to join NATO.
Earlier this month, Constantinescu said Romania and Bulgaria "are not
competitors, but partners" on the road to both the EU and NATO. The two
presidents also discussed bilateral relations, including a joint project
for building at least one new bridge across the Danube River border.
Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org
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