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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 73, 97-07-15Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 1, No. 73, 15 July 1997CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] TAJIK PRESIDENT SIGNS MUTUAL FORGIVENESS ACTImomali Rakhmonov on 14 July signed the Mutual Forgiveness Act drawn up by the National Reconciliation Commission at their recent meeting in Moscow (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 1997), according to RFE/RL correspondents in Dushanbe. The act calls for "all those who during the civil war and political confrontation took up arms and fought against one another" to forget about their recent enmities. Anyone who takes up arms again "will be brought to justice in line with the laws of Tajikistan, " the act states. The document goes into force with Rakhmonov's signature.[02] KAZAKSTAN TO DEVELOP SMALL, MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISESPresident Nursultan Nazarbayev has appointed Umirzak Shukeyev deputy minister of economics and trade, according to Interfax on 14 July. Nazarbayev said Shukeyev's appointment is aimed at helping develop small and medium-sized businesses, which, he said, account for only 6-7 percent of industrial output and employ only some 500,000 out of a work force totaling 9.2 million people. Shukeyev is a 33-year-old graduate of the Moscow Economics and Statistics Institute.[03] UZBEKISTAN READY TO EXPORT PETROLEUM PRODUCTSFirst Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Jurabekov said on 14 July said that Uzbekistan is now in a position to export petroleum products to other CIS countries, Interfax reported. Jurabekov, speaking at the opening of a compressor station at the Kokdumalak oil and gas field in the Kashkadarya region, noted that Uzbekistan ceased importing petroleum products in the second half of 1995. He also said the station, which was built with U.S. and Japanese assistance, will allow Uzbekistan to increase oil production in the area from 2 million tons to 4.5 million tons annually. Gas condensate extraction will nearly triple, headded. The Kokdumalak field is estimated to contain 98.7 million tons of oil and 96.3 million tons of gas condensate.[04] OSCE SECRETARY-GENERAL WRAPS UP UZBEK VISITGiancarlo Aragona, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), concluded his four-day visit to Uzbekistan on 14 July, according to ITAR-TASS. Aragona met with top ranking Uzbek officials, including President Islam Karimov. Aragona highly assessed Uzbekistan's cooperation with the OSCE and praised Karimov for efforts toward creating a nuclear free zone in Central Asia.[05] TURKISH PRESIDENT IN GEORGIASuleyman Demirel arrived in Tbilisi on 14 July for a two-day official visit accompanied by several state ministers, including Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, and military and economic officials, the "Turkish Daily News" reported on 15 July. Demirel and his Georgian counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze, signed a declaration on boosting cooperation as well as agreements delineating the joint sea border, on training Georgian military personnel in Turkey, and on other issues, Russian media reported. The two presidents discussed the construction of a railway from Kars to the south Georgian town of Akhalkalaki. Demirel told journalists that a third frontier crossing will be opened between the two countries. He said that Georgia is the "guarantor of peace and stability in the Caucasus" and underscored the "complete mutual understanding and mutual respect" between the two countries, according to "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 15 July.[06] ARMENIAN PAN-NATIONAL MOVEMENT BOARD ELECTS NEW CHAIRMANFollowing the conclusion of the ninth congress of the Armenian Pan-National Movement on 13 July, the movement's 40-strong board elected Yerevan Mayor Vano Siradeghyan as its new chairman to succeed Ter-Husik Lazaryan, Noyan Tapan reported. Siradeghyan, whose candidacy was endorsed by President Levon Ter-Petrossyan, had proposed delaying the election of a new board chairman.[07] CORRECTION:"RFE/RL Newsline" incorrectly reported on 14 July that Siradeghyan's rival candidate, parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Eduard Yegoryan, had not been elected to the new board of the Armenian Pan-National Movement. According to Noyan Tapan on 14 July, he was elected a board member.[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] ALBANIANS VOTED 2:1 AGAINST MONARCHYThe Central Election Commission announced in Tirana on 14 July that 66.7 percent of the voters in the 29 June referendum opposed the restoration of the monarchy. Supporters of Leka Zogu, the claimant to the throne, said the earliest returns showed a victory for the king. They added that the Socialists manipulated subsequent results and stole the vote from the monarch. They have produced little evidence to support their findings. Leka returned home to South Africa following a rally at which he and some of his supporters were armed (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 July 1997). The royalist party won only two seats in the parliament. The relatively high vote for the monarchy in the referendum probably reflects popular disgust toward the established politicians rather than enthusiasm for Leka.[09] MILOSEVIC TO BE ONLY CANDIDATE FOR YUGOSLAV PRESIDENCYTwo parliamentary committees meeting in Belgrade on 14 July ruled that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is the only approved candidate for the federal Yugoslav presidency. The committees said that "five politically unknown persons" who announced their respective candidacies had not legally registered as candidates, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Serbian capital. The parliament must elect a new president by 25 July, which will be one month after former President Zoran Lilic's term expired. Milosevic is constitutionally barred from another term as Serbian president. Also in Belgrade, BETA reported that the first round of the Serbian presidential elections will take place on 14 September and the second round two weeks later. Parliamentary elections will also be held on 28 September.[10] MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS CONTINUE IN MONTENEGROThe steering committee of the governing Democratic Socialist Party (DPS) met in Podgorica on 14 July and overturned recent decisions by the Podgorica and Pljevlja party branches to expel reformists from their ranks (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 July 1997). The steering committee reaffirmed its support for the reformist DPS leadership opposed to Milosevic, but it turned down motions to expel pro-Milosevic President Momir Bulatovic from the party, BETA reported on 15 July. Bulatovic has called a party congress for August, at which he expects to rout his opponents, who control the steering committee. DPS President Milica Pejanovic-Djurisic charged that Bulatovic wants to purge the DPS at the congress. She added, however, that the congress will not be held by the DPS but by a "new party of Momir Bulatovic," the Belgrade daily "Danas" reported on 15 July.[11] UN EXTENDS SLAVONIAN MANDATEThe UN Security Council voted in New York on 14 July to extend the mandate for the United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) for six months. The mandate was slated to end on 15 July, when full Croatian control was to have been restored. Some 2,000 UNTAES troops will leave soon, and the remaining 3,000 will depart by 15 January. The UN wants to be sure that all refugees who want to return to their homes in the area are able to do so, and that the rights of local ethnic Serbs will be respected. Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in response to the resolution: "Croatia does not have a problem with its minorities. It has difficulties with reintegrating one segment of one minority group that chose to take up arms." In Vukovar, UNTAES officials welcomed the resolution and said that much work now needs to be done to resettle refugees.[12] ANOTHER EXPLOSION ON BOSNIAN SERB TERRITORYOfficials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in Pale on 15 July that an explosion took place outside an apartment building housing OSCE workers in Banja Luka. Many windows were broken, but no injuries were reported. OSCE spokesmen said there seems to be an orchestrated anti-foreign campaign within the Republika Srpska following NATO's recent direct intervention against indicted war criminals. Bosnian Serb state-run media have raised the level of their xenophobic rhetoric in recent days following NATO's move against the war criminals and the sentencing of Dusan Tadic in The Hague for wartime atrocities (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 July 1997).[13] PLAVSIC SAYS KRAJISNIK IS JUST AN "EMPLOYEE"Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic said in Banja Luka on 14 July that Momcilo Krajisnik, the ethnic Serb member of the Bosnian state presidency, is an "employee of the country. He has no competence to [involve himself] in matters of the constitution of the Republika Srpska." Krajisnik and other backers of Radovan Karadzic are working to overturn Plavsic's recent decision to dissolve the parliament and hold new elections in September. Plavsic seems determined not to give any ground to her opponents, even though she fears that the ongoing confrontation with NATO will attract popular support to Karadzic and his allies.[14] SLOVENIA NOW SET TO JOIN EU?The parliament voted on 14 July to amend the constitution to permit foreigners to own property. The amendment removes the last major obstacle in the way of Slovenia's ratifying its association agreement with the EU. Ratification is expected on 15 July, and Slovenia hopes to become a full member of the union within ten years. The property issue is politically sensitive because many Slovenes fear that lifting the ban will lead to a massive buy-up of property by Italians, whose families left Slovenia in the wake of World War II.[15] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT IN JAPANEmil Constantinescu, who is currently on a five-day visit to Japan, met with Premier Ryutaru Hashimoto on 14 July and discussed several possible Japanese investment projects in Romania. Constantinescu called on Tokyo to establish a "special economic partnership" with Bucharest. Hashimoto said Japan viewed Romania as a "pillar" in Central and Eastern Europe on which Tokyo is now focusing its interest. Foreign Minister Adrian Severin and his Japanese counterpart, Yuchihiko Ikeda, signed several agreements, including one that provides for a $194 million loan to develop port facilities and road construction. This is the first government-guaranteed loan that Japan has signed with a former communist country, according to Radio Bucharest. Also on 14 July, Finance Minister Mircea Ciumara and the Japanese director of EXIMBANK signed an agreement for a $50 million loan for the restructuring of the finance and banking sector.[16] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY ON EU MEMBERSHIPIn a press release on 14 July, the Foreign Ministry says it is confident the EU summit scheduled for December in Luxembourg will find "non- discriminating solutions" to the enlargement of the union. It adds that if reports saying the EU Commission recommends beginning membership talks with only six countries are confirmed, this would signify a "departure" from the agreement to open negotiations with all candidates on the basis of full equality. In other news, the State Property Fund (FPS) on 14 July announced that 940 state enterprises have been privatized since the beginning of 1997, which is 300 more than the number registered for the same period last year. Of the enterprises privatized so far this year, 821 were defined as "small, " 105 as "medium," and 14 as "large." Since December 1992, more than 4,000 state enterprises have been privatized, the FPS said.[17] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT PROPOSES AMENDMENT TO LAND LAWPetru Lucinschi on 14 July proposed an amendment to the land law to allow the distribution of plots to teachers, doctors, and other public-sector employees in rural settlements, BASA-press reported. The agency says that because of low wages and salary arrears, many qualified specialists are leaving the countryside to seek jobs elsewhere. In other news, ITAR-TASS reported that the first private Slavic university was opened in Chisinau. Its founders are the Slavic Languages and Culture Foundation; Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Belarusian ethnic minority organizations; and several left-wing organizations and parties. University president Oleg Babenko told journalists that teaching will be in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Polish, and "partly in Romanian."[18] MOLDOVAN SECURITY MINISTER ON STAFF, KGB FILESTudor Botnaru told the daily "Moldova suverana" on 12 July that some 30 percent of officers at the Ministry of Security were hired before 1990. He said staff levels have been reduced by "30-50 percent" because many employees have quit. With regard to public access to the files of the former KGB in Moldova, Botnaru said they are "top secret" and that the time for making them public "has not yet come." Only close relatives of people who were deported from Moldova are permitted access to the files, provided they contain no other names, he said.[C] END NOTE[19] WESTERN MACEDONIA'S VICIOUS CIRCLE OF VIOLENCEBy Fabian SchmidtAlmost a week has passed since massive riots broke out in Gostivar, western Macedonia. So far, three people have died, more than 50 have been injured, and some 320 arrested. The conflict began after the Macedonian parliament passed legislation on 8 July stipulating that the Albanian flag can be hoisted from public buildings only on national holidays and next to the Macedonian flag. But local officials in Gostivar had hoisted the Albanian flag from the municipal building during the six months before the law went into effect. Just one day after the passage of the law, police forces went to Gostivar to take down the flag, thereby sparking the riots. Interior Minister Tomislav Cokrevski told the parliament on 10 July that the police had been preparing to intervene immediately after the legislation was passed. Since then, shops and offices have remained closed; and there is a strong police presence in the streets as well as a curfew in force. According to some reports, inhabitants have begun stockpiling food reserves in anticipation of a worsening of the situation. But the flag issue was only a catalyst that brought long-simmering tensions to the surface. At the root of the dispute is a strong mutual distrust between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians. The decision to send in the police and the level of violence that followed indicate that both sides may be willing to go far in defending what they regard as their respective interests. The motivation on both sides is strong. On the one hand, Macedonians fear the separatist aspirations of Albanians and see Albanian irredentism as an existential danger to their young and volatile state. The symbolism of the flag is so strong that the Interior Ministry apparently considered it had no option but to send in the police to enforce the law against the will of ethnic Albanian local officials. But on the other hand, such tough conduct in dealing with political conflicts serves to alienate many Albanians even further from the Macedonian government. Most of them, especially the large number of unemployed youth, feel discriminated against by the Slavic-speaking majority and have become increasingly desperate. The Albanians' repeated failure to achieve their most basic aim of political and social equality through Macedonia's political institutions reinforces that frustration and feeds nationalism. For example, the Albanians' long-standing demand for university education in the Albanian language has met with only limited positive response. The authorities have granted the Albanians a few concessions, including the use of Albanian language at the pedagogic faculty at Skopje University. Before the collapse of Yugoslavia, young Macedonian Albanians at least had the possibility to study in their mother tongue in Kosovo. After losing that opportunity when Pristina University closed in 1989, they demanded the opening of an Albanian-language university in Tetovo. But many Macedonians fear that such a university would become a stronghold of separatist and nationalist ideology, as in the case of the Albanian Studies Department of Kosovo's Pristina University. Tensions in Macedonia, however, continue to smolder. In 1995, Skopje decided to crack down against the illegally founded Tetovo University by using police force rather than trying to find a political solution. Instead of isolating the ethnic Albanian nationalists by opening negotiations with moderate academics, the government turned the nationalist leaders into martyrs by imprisoning them for a couple of months and then bulldozing their university building. But that policy not only stoked nationalist sentiments among Albanians: in early 1997; it also encouraged some nationalist Macedonian students to protest the only real concession given to the Albanians, namely the Albanian-language pedagogic faculty. In this increasingly nationalist climate, it will be difficult for politicians on either side to break the vicious circle of mutual mistrust. The governing Social Democratic-led coalition government is faced with a growing Macedonian nationalistic opposition and seemingly feels the need to show the electorate that it can be tough in the face of alleged Albanian separatism. But the apparent toughness over the flag issue may, in fact, be seen as a sign of the government's weakness. In any event, the tough policy is likely to further alienate the Albanians and increase the danger of separatism. The only way out of this cycle would be for each side to show good will and to take each other's concerns seriously. But that seems unlikely in view of the latest developments. The author is a Balkan specialist focusing on Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo. He recently spent two months in Albania as a media regulation adviser with the OSCE. Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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