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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 85, 97-07-31Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 1, No. 85, 31 July 1997CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] GEORGIA EQUIVOCAL OVER PEACEKEEPERSSpeaking on national radio on 30 July, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili said the Georgian leadership does not think that the mandate of the CIS peacekeeping force in Abkhazia should be extended beyond 31 July, when it is due to expire. But he stressed this does not mean that Georgia is calling for the peacekeepers' withdrawal, Reuters reported. Menagharishvili told journalists that Georgia still wants the peacekeepers' mandate broadened to enable them to protect ethnic Georgians who wish to return to their abandoned homes in Abkhazia. He also denied media speculation that the Georgian leadership is split over the issue of whether the peacekeepers should remain, according to Interfax. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry special envoy for Abkhazia Gennadii Ilichev again said that the peacekeeping force will be withdrawn after 31 July unless Georgia formally requests that its mandate be extended.[02] ARMENIAN EDITORS CALL FOR CLEMENCY FOR OPPOSITION ACTIVISTDirectors of independent news agencies and editors of nine Armenian newspapers, including the government-funded Armenian language daily and several opposition publications, have called on President Levon Ter- Petrossyan to pardon Dashnak party activist Hrant Markaryan, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 30 July. In a letter published in the Dashnak party newspaper "Hayots ashkhar," the journalists argue that the release of Markaryan would help overcome the "polarization of political life" in Armenia and expedite national reconciliation. An Iranian citizen, Markaryan emigrated to Armenia in1990 and distinguished himself fighting as a volunteer in Nagorno-Karabakh. He was arrested together with other Dashnak party members in December 1994 and sentenced last year to five years' imprisonment on charges of illegal possession of weapons.[03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT UPBEAT OVER BAKU-CEYHAN PIPELINEHeidar Aliev is confident that the proposed pipeline for exporting Azerbaijan's Caspian oil from Baku to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan "will become a reality," the "Turkish Daily News" reported on 31 July. During his first full day of engagements in Washington, Aliev met with Congressional leaders and attended a reception with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who predicted that a settlement of the Karabakh conflict could be reached by the end of this year.[04] KYRGYZSTAN REGISTERS LARGEST PRODUCTION INCREASE IN CISIn a CIS Interstate Statistics Committee report on industrial production from January to June 1997, Kyrgyzstan came first ahead of the 11 other CIS countries, Interfax reported on 30 July. Kyrgyzstan's industrial production rose by 28.8 percent during that period. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan, all registered increases, while the other five -- Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan -- saw declines in production. The report states that the largest decrease was in Turkmenistan (according to the Turkmen National Statistics Committee, industrial production dropped by 35.2 percent -- see also below). Kyrgyzstan also showed a 6.8 percent increase in GDP but ranked behind Georgia (14.7 percent increase) and Belarus (11 percent).[05] TURKMEN STATE COUNCIL DISCUSSES ECONOMIC SITUATIONMeanwhile, the Turkmen State Council met on 30 July to examine the country's economic situation in the first half of 1997, according to RFE/RL correspondents in Ashgabat. It was announced that the output of the cotton- ginning industry dropped to 20.7 percent of its level in the same period last year, while the refusal to supply other CIS countries with gas because of large outstanding debts led to a sharp decrease in gas exports (down 57.7 percent on the 1996 figure). In addition, only 53 percent of the target figure for grain production in 1997 was met. President Saparmurat Niyazov called for full use of the country's resources to combat this trend. On a positive note, he commented that prices and the national currency have stabilized. He also emphasized the need to meet the cotton quota of 1.4 million tons by 15 October.[06] DEMONSTRATION IN KAZAKH CAPITALFollowing a demonstration in the northern city of Kokchetau (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 July 1997), some 400 pensioners gathered in front of the parliament building in Almaty to protest pension arrears and hikes in housing and utility costs, RFE/RL correspondents in the capital reported. Members of the parliament's lower house invited representatives of the demonstrators to enter the building to discuss the matter. No information is available on that meeting.[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[07] ALBANIAN PREMIER GIVES PRIORITY TO CREATING JOBSBashkim Fino and six cabinet ministers held talks with top Italian officials in Rome on 30 July. Fino said the purpose of his trip, which includes attending an international donors' conference on 31 July, is to set priorities for the reconstruction of Albania's economy. He stressed that Tirana is not interested in simply attracting large sums of money from abroad but rather in setting up sound programs that will create jobs. Fino stated that the best thing his government can do is to create an economic environment in which citizens can save, invest, and prosper. He refused, however, to reimburse directly persons who lost their savings in collapsed pyramid schemes earlier this year. His Socialist Party had led people to believe during the recent election campaign that they would indeed be reimbursed for their losses.[08] ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT DEALS WITH PYRAMID IMBROGLIOThe legislature on 30 July approved a measure aimed at controlling the four pyramid investment schemes still functioning. The government now has the power to appoint an administrator for each of the four and to publish lists of the companies' assets. Anastas Angjeli, who heads the parliament's finance committee, said that another law will soon be passed to control how the four disburse money. The 30 July measure also permits investigations of collapsed pyramids to see if any lost investments can still be returned. Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry appealed on television to draft-age men who have not yet served in the military to report for duty and to recent veterans to return to active service. The new government is trying to revive the armed forces, which disintegrated in the anarchy following the collapse of the pyramids.[09] MONTENEGRINS BLOCK ROAD TO ALBANIAN TRUCKSLocal people set up barricades on the main highway near Virpazar in Montenegro in the night of 28-29 July, BETA reported on 30 July. Police intervened to secure passage for a convoy of about 100 trucks carrying scrap metal from Albania, but no further trucks crossed into Montenegro at an illegal border crossing near Ulcinj. The residents of Virpazar are angry about the effects on their environment and infrastructure from the constant stream of trucks. Meanwhile in Tetovo, Macedonia, a local court delayed until October the sentencing of top ethnic Albanian local officials in conjunction with recent unrest over the hoisting of the Albanian flag. And in Novi Pazar in Sandzak, Muslim leaders protested against what they called a systematic campaign by Belgrade to deny the Muslims basic democratic rights. Muslim leaders from Kosovo came to Novi Pazar to express solidarity.[10] BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY TALKS TOUGH ON DAYTONRobin Cook said after meeting with President Franjo Tudjman on 30 July in Zagreb that "the patience of the international community is running out over the slow progress in implementing the Dayton agreement." Cook added that the international community has "set deadlines" for the return of refugees to their homes and for handing over indicted war criminals to The Hague. In recent days, Cook delivered a similarly tough message to Serbian and Muslim officials in his tour of the region. Cook also said in Zagreb that Croatia can join European institutions "only if it embraces standards of a modern European state." He added that "there is no plot, no conspiracy by the international community to create a south-eastern political union. Former Yugoslavia is finished, nobody is attempting to rebuild it."[11] KARADZIC TO TALK TO WAR CRIMES TEAM?Momcilo Krajisnik, the Serbian member of the Bosnian joint presidency, has urged the Hague-based war crimes tribunal to send representatives to Pale to question Radovan Karadzic, BETA reported from Belgrade on 30 July. Krajisnik added that he was sure Karadzic would cooperate with the investigators to clear his name and that "all of [the Bosnian Serbs'] documents and institutions" would be at the investigators' disposal. Krajisnik said Karadzic could easily clear up the war crimes charges against him and that Karadzic's testimony would put an end to what Krajisnik called an international campaign to ascribe to all Serbs a collective guilt for war crimes. Meanwhile in The Hague, the indicted Bosnian Serb Milan Kovacevic appeared before the court for the first time and denied he is guilty of war crimes.[12] CROATIAN UPDATEForeign Minister Mate Granic said in Zagreb on 30 July that "a group" of Bosnian Croats is willing to go the war crimes tribunal in The Hague if they have assurance that their cases will be processed within three months, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Croatian capital. Granic's ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement accusing Yugoslavia of trying to force its Croatian minority out of cities, especially Zemun. But Zagreb's soccer club Croatia defeated by a score of 5:0 Belgrade's Partizan, which had won a politically charged match the previous week (see "RFE/RL Newsline, " 24 July 1997). Both matches took place without any serious incidents. And on the island of Hvar, more than 1,000 firemen and numerous volunteers fought a losing battle with a fire that has swept over 3,000 acres.[13] NEW FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF IN ROMANIAPresidential counselor Catalin Harnagea on 30 July was appointed director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. His predecessor, Ioan Talpes, recently resigned from that post (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 July 1997). Harnagea, aged 39, has no experience in intelligence work and no party affiliation. He is an engineer by training and worked as a journalist after 1989. In 1997, he graduated from the National Defense College, having written a thesis on "Crisis Management and the Secret Services." Harnagea was Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea's campaign manager when Ciorbea ran for and won the Bucharest mayoralty in the 1996 local elections.[14] ROMANIAN REFORM MINISTER CRITICIZES ECONOMIC SITUATIONUlm Spineanu told journalists on 30 July that a list of 12 state-owned enterprises slated for immediate liquidation is to be submitted to the government. He said that paying the debts of those companies would require some nine years. Spineanu criticized the general economic situation, saying that although production is steadily decreasing, supply still far exceeds demand on the domestic market. He added that there is a demand for some of those products on foreign markets but that those managers who are incapable of responding must be replaced, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. In other news, the World Bank on 30 July announced that it is lending Romania $70 million to promote educational reform. The project will cost $130 million. The remainder of the costs will be covered by the Council of Europe ($14 million) and the Romanian government ($46 million).[15] UNFOLDING SAGA OF HUNGARIAN FLAG IN CLUJGheorghe Funar, the nationalist Cluj mayor, on 30 July again ordered the Hungarian national flag hoisted at Budapest's Cluj consulate to be taken down. The same day, he went to the consulate at a head of a team that included the three persons who recently stole the flag (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 July 1997). The deputy head of the local police ordered the group to leave. The mayor claimed that the hoisted flag was not that of Hungary but one that bore the Hungarian symbols of Transylvania. That allegation was denied by the Hungarian consul in Cluj, RFE/RL's correspondent there reported.[16] TIRASPOL REFUSES TO ALLOW CHISINAU OFFICIAL TO VISIT ALLEGED TERRORISTThe authorities in Tiraspol refused to allow Moldovan presidential counselor Anatol Taranu to visit Ilie Ilascu, who has been sentenced to death for alleged acts of terrorism in December 1993 after being arrested by the Tiraspol authorities in June 1992. Ilascu, who on 30 July celebrated his 45th birthday, is being detained in the Hlinoaia prison. Three other members of the so-called "Ilascu group" are also in prison. The leader of the breakaway region, Igor Smirnov, said he had received no "official request" from Chisinau for the visit, while the chairman of the breakaway region's Supreme Soviet, Grigore Markutsa, said Ilascu is regularly visited by members of his family but other people "may be denied permission" to visit him. Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, the extreme nationalist mayor of Cluj Gheorghe Funar, and the Bucharest Mayor Viorel Lis sent birthday messages to Ilascu, whom many Romanians view as a national hero.[17] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES LAW ON OPENING COMMUNIST POLICE FILESThe parliament on 30 July approved a bill allowing communist secret police files to be opened (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 July 1997). The opposition Socialist Party deputies walked out of the chamber in protest, saying the bill harmed national security and was anti-constitutional. They said they will contest it in the Constitutional Court, Reuters reported. Deputies representing the third-largest faction in the parliament, the Union for National Salvation, abstained. Under the new law, the files of all members of the parliament, senior government officials, and high-ranking judges will be immediately opened and screened to find out whether they worked for the communist secret services. Within a year, all Bulgarian citizens will have access to their own files.[C] END NOTE[18] NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE PIPELINEby Paul GobleWashington's decision not to oppose Western involvement in an Iranian pipeline project fundamentally changes the geopolitical situation in Eurasia even if it is unlikely to lead to a new outflow of natural gas anytime soon. U.S. officials said recently that Washington has concluded it has no legal basis for objecting to Western participation in the development of a pipeline system to carry Turkmenistan natural gas across Iran to Turkey. They argued that the principle beneficiaries of the pipeline would be Turkmenistan and Turkey, rather than Iran. Therefore, a White House spokeswoman said, the decision in no way represents a change in policy or any signal regarding that policy." But despite such denials, the decision is likely to be seen across the region as a major shift away from the U.S. policy of seeking to isolate Iran, long identified as a sponsor of international terrorism, by imposing sanctions on any firm doing business there. That perception, in itself, will have a significant, if sometimes contradictory, impact on Iran, on Iran's relations with its neighbors, and on Russian relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia and with the U.S. For Iran, Washington's decision represents both an important concession from its chief opponent on the international scene and an equally strong stimulus to continue the more moderate path it has pursued since presidential elections last spring. While explicitly limited to the current case, the decision will inevitably trigger expectations that Washington will become even more forthcoming and will curtail further the U.S. effort to keep the Europeans in line on the issue of isolating Iran. If such expectations prompt Iranian leaders to move toward a more moderate course, the decision could herald a fundamental change in relations between Iran and the rest of the world on a broad range of issues. Even more significant than its likely impact on the Iranians themselves is the effect the decision is bound to have on Iran's relationship with other countries in the region. Few countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, or the Caucasus have been willing to follow Tehran's ideological lead, but all the countries in those regions have wanted to maintain good relations with Iran because of both its size and its location. Many have felt constrained in pursuing such ties by the vehemence of U.S. opposition to the Iranian authorities. The latest U.S. decision is likely to encourage some countries to step up their efforts in that direction. But perhaps the most important consequence of Washington's decision will be its impact on Moscow's ability to maintain its influence over the former Soviet republics that are now independent countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Many experts have pointed out that those eight countries would be far more independent of Moscow today if they had been able to export across Iran. But the radicalism of the Iranian authorities and U.S. opposition to it has limited their ability to do so. Thus, U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran, unintentionally had the effect of blocking efforts by those countries to pursue a more independent line. That served Moscow's geopolitical purposes and also helped explain why the Russians have provided military and even nuclear technology to the Iranian authorities, despite repeated U.S. objections. Consequently, this shift in U.S. policy, reflecting Washington's desire to gain access to the enormous oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea basin, may appear to some in Moscow to be a direct challenge to Russian geopolitical interests. Past and present Russian aid to Tehran may give Moscow the leverage in Iran to block the flow of Central Asian or Caucasian oil and gas across that country to the West. But any Russian efforts in that direction are likely to exacerbate divisions within the Iranian leadership. Iranian radicals who will see the construction of such a pipeline and any further rapprochement with the West as a threat to their vision of the future may agree with the Russians. Such conclusions may thus presage a number of shifts in the road and the pipeline before any gas begins to come across Iran to the West. Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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