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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 37, 97-05-23
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 37, 23 May 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] TAJIK TALKS BEGIN
[02] CHEVRON BOSS ANTICIPATES DELAYS IN BUILDING CASPIAN PIPELINE
[03] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CURBS PRIVATIZATION
[04] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT CALLS ON UN TO TAKE MORE PRINCIPLED STAND ON
ABKHAZIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] VRANITZKY SAYS ALBANIAN ELECTIONS WILL GO AHEAD
[06] ALBRIGHT SAYS U.S. HAS LONG-TERM INTEREST IN BOSNIA
[07] DUAL CITIZENSHIP FOR BOSNIAN SERBS
[08] MILOSEVIC BLASTS FOREIGN CONSPIRACIES AGAINST SERBIA
[09] CROATIAN OPPOSITION UNITES BEHIND LIBERAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
[10] SLOVENIAN RAIL STRIKE ESCALATES
[11] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT IN GREECE
[12] LEADING U.S. LEGISLATORS BACK ROMANIA'S ENTRY TO NATO
[13] ROMANIAN EXTREMIST PARTY ORGANIZES DEMONSTRATION AGAINST TREATY WITH
UKRAINE
[14] DAEWOO ACCUSED OF BREAKING INVESTMENT PROMISES IN ROMANIA
[15] MOLDOVAN PREMIER ON AGREEMENT WITH WORLD BANK
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] TAJIK TALKS BEGIN
Representatives of the Tajik government and United Tajik Opposition resumed
talks in Tehran on 22 May, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported. The talks broke
off in mid-April. UN special envoy to Tajikistan Gerd Merrem presented a
proposal for resolving the Tajik conflict by giving the UTO 30% of seats in
government, reforming the government's power ministries, and disarming of
the UTO. No details have been made public, while the two sides review the
proposals and formulate counterproposals. Because of the Iranian
presidential elections today, the two sides will not meet again until 24
May.
[02] CHEVRON BOSS ANTICIPATES DELAYS IN BUILDING CASPIAN PIPELINE
Richard Matzke, head of international operations for the U.S. oil company
Chevron, says that construction of the export pipeline from Kazakstan's
Tengiz oil field to Novorossiisk may fall behind schedule, according to the
Financial Times on 23 May. Matzke said that talks on tariffs have not yet
begun with four Russian regions through which the pipeline will pass. A 25
April Russian government decree, published in Rossiiskaya gazeta on 23 May,
instructs the government of the Republic of Kalmykia and the
administrations of Astrakhan Oblast and Stavropol and Krasnodar Krais to
make land available for construction of the pipeline. Matzke argued that
export pipelines should be owned by the companies engaged in exploiting the
oil fields in question. He also criticized unnamed "independent promoters"
of export pipelines as a "disruptive force."
[03] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CURBS PRIVATIZATION
Askar Akayev on 22 May signed a decree banning all forms of privatization
except auctioning, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. Akayev said "state-
owned facilities" have been sold at "unjustifiable" low prices. (An RFE/RL
correspondent in Bishkek reports that the Osh silk factory was valued at 93
million som [$5.5 million] but its sale price last year was only 1.5
million som.) He ordered Procurator-General Asanbek Sharshenaliev to
prepare a report on privatization to date "in the shortest possible time."
Batyrbek Davletov, the head of the president's economic policy department,
said the ban is not the end of privatization but a way to keep a check on
"offenses and outrages" before the third privatization wave begins. Forty
of Kyrgyzstan's leading companies are slated to pass into private ownership
during that wave. Since 1992, Kyrgyzstan has privatized 61% of state-owned
industrial enterprises.
[04] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT CALLS ON UN TO TAKE MORE PRINCIPLED STAND ON
ABKHAZIA
Meeting in Tbilisi on 21 May with UN Under Secretary-General Marrack
Goulding, Eduard Shevardnadze said that although the UN has played an
important role in creating the legal framework for a settlement of the
Abkhaz conflict, it should take "a more principled position" in order to
expedite the peace process, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on 23 May.
Shevardnadze argued that the presence of a CIS peacekeeping force along the
border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia is an obstacle to the
negotiating process. He also said its withdrawal would not lead to a
resumption of hostilities, Interfax reported on 22 May.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] VRANITZKY SAYS ALBANIAN ELECTIONS WILL GO AHEAD
Voting seems set to go ahead on 29 June following the Socialists'
announcement in Tirana that they will take part (see RFE/RL Newsline, 22
May 1997). OSCE special envoy Franz Vranitzky said in Vienna that Socialist
Prime Minister Bashkim Fino told him that the other opposition parties will
also participate. Vranitzky added that the international community will
help Albania in its political and economic recovery. He stressed, however,
that the ultimate responsibility lies with the Albanians themselves, an
RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Austrian capital. Vranitzky told the
Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he can well imagine Operation Alba being extended
for three months beyond the elections. He said that the Albanian political
scene contains many "absurdities" rooted in that country's recent history
but that the elections should nonetheless go ahead because they will
contribute to stability.
[06] ALBRIGHT SAYS U.S. HAS LONG-TERM INTEREST IN BOSNIA
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in New York on 22 May that
Washington has a lasting concern over Bosnia's stability and will do all it
can to preserve peace and promote unity there. She warned that the U.S.
insists on full implementation of the Dayton accord and "the parties cannot
pick and choose [to enforce only] those elements they prefer." Albright
added that "Bosnians should either join the effort to make [Dayton] work or
get out of the way." She said that SFOR could expand its role to provide "a
secure environment for managed refugee returns" and to help with civilian
reconstruction projects, such as restoring telecommunications links.
However, Pentagon officials stated that NATO already does such things.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns added that there are no plans to
keep SFOR troops in Bosnia after their mandate runs out in June 1998. The
New York speech was Albright's first major address on Bosnia as secretary
of state and marks the end of a six-week policy review.
[07] DUAL CITIZENSHIP FOR BOSNIAN SERBS
Nasa Borba reported on 23 May that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic
discussed federal Yugoslav citizenship for Bosnian Serbs in his recent
meeting with Bosnian Serb leaders. Such a move would contradict the
provision of the Dayton accords saying Bosnia is a unitary state made up of
two entities. Milosevic also wants dual citizenship for Croatian Serbs but
denies it to Yugoslavia's own Albanians, Muslims, Hungarians, and Croats.
In another move that may run counter to the spirit of Dayton, the Bosnian
Serb authorities said on 21 May that they will set up a company to be
called RS Airlines to connect Banja Luka with five or six neighboring
countries.
[08] MILOSEVIC BLASTS FOREIGN CONSPIRACIES AGAINST SERBIA
Milosevic told supporters in Arandjelovac, in the Serbian heartland of
Sumadija, on 22 May that the "opposition parties with foreign assistance
are trying to destabilize Serbia," an RFE/RL correspondent reported from
the area. The Serbian president also promised his audience that this year
their country will enjoy the highest growth rate in Europe, which, he
claimed, will be twice as high as that of any other country. Independent
Belgrade media, meanwhile, suggested that Milosevic will replenish state
coffers before the elections due later this year by selling off half of the
state telephone monopoly to an Italian firm for $923 million.
[09] CROATIAN OPPOSITION UNITES BEHIND LIBERAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
At least six opposition parties agreed in Zagreb on 22 May to back the
Liberals' candidate, Vlado Gotovac, in next month's presidential elections,
an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the capital. The move in effect
narrows down the race to Gotovac, President Franjo Tudjman of the Croatian
Democratic Community, and the Social Democrats' Zdravko Tomac. Polls
suggest that Tudjman will easily win another term. Also in Zagreb, Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia wants to extend by six
months the mandate for a reduced UN peacekeeping force in eastern Slavonia.
Tudjman insists the mandate end as scheduled on 15 July.
[10] SLOVENIAN RAIL STRIKE ESCALATES
Railroad workers halted all freight traffic throughout the country on 23
May after management sacked the members of the strike committee. The unions
say they will stop all trains later in the day if the strike leaders are
not given back their jobs. Also in Ljubljana, President Milan Kucan said on
22 May that he will seek another term when elections take place later this
year. The 56-year-old Kucan has been in office since 1990 and was last re-
elected in 1992 with 64% of the vote. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court
has put off a decision on the legality of foreigners owning land in
Slovenia. The issue must be clarified before Slovenia can join the EU. Many
Slovenes fear that Italians with family ties to Slovenia will buy up land
if allowed to do so.
[11] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT IN GREECE
At the beginning of his three-day visit to Greece, Emil Constantinescu met
with his Greek counterpart, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, and Premier Costas
Simitis on 22 May, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The talks focused on
bilateral relations. Stephanopoulos reiterated Greece's full support for
Romania's accession to NATO in the first wave of expansion. Constantinescu
said the two countries are united in a "strategic political partnership"
that may enable them to become an "axis of stability in the region." The
two countries' foreign ministers, Theodoros Pangalos and Adrian Severin,
signed a cooperation memorandum providing for Greek support for Romania's
bid to join NATO and the EU. Greece pledged to inform other members of the
two organizations on Bucharest's progress in the democratization of its
legal, economic, and military systems.
[12] LEADING U.S. LEGISLATORS BACK ROMANIA'S ENTRY TO NATO
Senator Alphonse d'Amato and Representative Christopher Smith, the joint
chairmen of the U.S. Congressional Helsinki Commission, have called on U.S.
President Bill Clinton to back Romania's quest to become a NATO member in
the first wave of expansion, an RFE/RL Washington correspondent reported.
In a letter addressed to Clinton on 22 May, they say Romania deserves to be
invited because of its recent progress toward meeting admission criteria
and because of its strategic position in what will be NATO's southeastern
tier. The U.S. legislators also say that, in particular, Romania meets the
criteria on respect for human rights, treatment of national minorities,
freedom of expression, and a free press.
[13] ROMANIAN EXTREMIST PARTY ORGANIZES DEMONSTRATION AGAINST TREATY WITH
UKRAINE
The extremist Greater Romania Party (PRM) and several other associations
staged a demonstration in Bucharest on 22 May against the forthcoming
signing of the basic treaty between Ukraine and Romania. PRM leader
Corneliu Vadim Tudor said the government's decision to conclude a treaty
that recognizes Ukrainian sovereignty over northern Bukovina, southern
Bessarabia, and the Herta territory (incorporated into the former Soviet
Union in 1940) is an act of "national treason." He added that the
government had no right to sign the treaty without first submitting it to a
national referendum. The demonstrators carried maps showing the old borders
of the country.
[14] DAEWOO ACCUSED OF BREAKING INVESTMENT PROMISES IN ROMANIA
A Romanian parliamentary commission says the South Korean Daewoo Motor
Company has broken pledges made when it acquired 51% of the ownership of a
Craiova car manufacturer, AFP and Romanian media reported. Daewoo undertook
to ensure that 60% of the parts were produced in Romania, but only 10% are
in fact produced locally, the commission said. The commission accuses the
Koreans of wanting to "give work to the South Koreans only" and to "profit
from facilities without honoring its commitments." It says Daewoo has
imported 20,000 cars into Romania at "dumping prices" and benefited from
exemption of custom duties because it declared the cars were spare parts
needed for production. A spokesman for Daewoo said more time is needed to
ensure that the pledges undertaken will be fulfilled.
[15] MOLDOVAN PREMIER ON AGREEMENT WITH WORLD BANK
At a press conference in Chisinau on 22 May following his return from
Washington, Ion Ciubuc said the memorandum signed by Moldova and the World
Bank in the U.S. capital earlier this week provides for a loan of $100
million, which is to be repaid by Moldova over 30 years, an RFE/RL
correspondent in Chisinau reported. Ciubuc said that 20% of the loan
carries a 2% interest and that the first installment of the loan, worth
some $35 million, could reach Chisinau as early as June. The loan is
conditional on Moldova's reducing the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by the
end of this year, land privatization, demonopolization of the agricultural
and energy sectors, and speeding up the reform of the social protection and
pension systems.
Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org
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