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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 178, 97-12-12Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 1, No. 178, 12 December 1997CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN FM SLAMS OPPOSITION KARABAKH STATEMENTSAlexander Arzoumanian on 11 December criticized as "illiterate" and "misleading" two statements addressed by the Armenian opposition to the country's leadership and to the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The statements, demanding that the Armenian leadership reject any proposed settlement of the Karabakh conflict that returns Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani jurisdiction, were adopted at an opposition rally in Yerevan on 10 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 December 1997). Arzoumanian said his ministry will continue to defend Armenia's national interests despite the dissemination by the opposition of "slander, lies and suspicion." On 10 December Arzoumanian met with his Nagorno-Karabakh counterpart Naira Melkumian to discuss the Karabakh peace process, Armenian agencies reported. LF[02] CHEVRON TO BUILD ITS OWN TRANS-GEORGIA PIPELINE?The U.S. oil company Chevron plans to begin construction in 1998 of a pipeline from Baku to the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi to export crude from Kazakhstan's Tengiz field, according to "Finansoviye izvestiya" of 9 December. The pipeline will cost an estimated $600 million and have an annual throughput capacity of 5 million tons. It is not clear how the transport tariffs for oil exported through Georgia to Batumi would be shared between the central Georgian government and the autonomous Republic of Adjaria, of which Batumi is the capital. Chevron President Richard Matzke visited Tbilisi and Batumi in October 1996, to discuss the planned export of Tengiz oil via Georgia. LF[03] KYRGYZ MUFTIAT DENOUNCES WAHHABISMThe six senior members of Kyrgyzstan's Muftiat met in Bishkek on 10-11 December to discuss the activities of Wahhabis in the country, RFE/RL correspondents report. Members of the Muftiat have been especially vocal in their denunciation of Wahhabism since the Kyrgyz weekly newspaper "Kyrgyz Rukhu" printed an article in early December alleging two deputies of the Mufti Absatar-Agy Majitov, as well as the former head Mufti Sadykjan Kamalov, were disseminating the sect's ideas. The Muftiat stated that it is not responsible for activities of Kamalov's International Center for Islamic Cooperation located in Osh and excluded the center from the Muslim community of Kyrgyzstan. The members also reviewed the activities of Imams in Kyrgyzstan and discussed the formation of an expert commission to translate the Koran into Kyrgyz. BP[04] PROTEST AT TURKMEN EMBASSY IN MOSCOWDemonstrators gathered in front of Turkmenistan's Embassy in Moscow on 11 December to protest what they claim is the oppressive rule of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, RFE/RL correspondents reported. The "Memorial" human rights organization and the Turkmen opposition Diaspora in Moscow coordinated the demonstration. Some people carried signs calling on Niyazov to free political prisoners and stop using psychiatric hospitals as a place to incarcerate dissidents. Participants were able to hand a letter of protest to officials at the Embassy. The demonstration took place on the eve of the second anniversary of Turkmenistan's recognition by the United Nations as a "Neutral State" such as Switzerland. BP[05] UZBEK-CHINESE RELATIONSUzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov met with his Chinese counterpart Qian Qichen in Beijing on 11 December, according to ITAR-TASS and Xinhua. The two ministers expressed their satisfaction at the course of bilateral relations and noted that the volume of trade between the countries was not yet big enough, but has grown steadily in recent years. Agreements were signed on civilian and criminal judicial assistance and environmental protection. Qian said the two countries are still neighbors even though they do not share a common border. BP[06] SAUDI EMBASSY OFFICIAL KILLED IN KAZAKHSTANThe second Secretary of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Kazakhstan was found dead from multiple stab wounds in his apartment on 11 December, RFE/RL correspondents reported. According to neighbors, Ahmed Assaui hosted a party on the night of 10 December and police concluded it was later that night or early the next morning that he was murdered. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[07] MAJOR BALKAN HIGHWAY PROJECT LAUNCHEDRepresentatives of the U.S. and Albanian governments signed an agreement in Tirana on 11 December that provides Albania with an initial grant of $10.3 million to build an east-west highway from Durres to Qafe Thane on the Macedonian border. Albania will improve an existing road and build a rail line by 2003, and then it will build a completely new highway by 2010. The U.S. also will provide $20 million to Macedonia and Bulgaria to extend the route to Varna on the Black Sea. Improved east-west traffic links among Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria will not only strengthen ties between the three states but reduce Macedonia's dependence on transportation routes across Greece or Serbia. Turkey is also a strong supporter of the project. FS and PM[08] WORLD BANK GIVES $30 MILLION CREDIT TO ALBANIAThe World Bank issued a credit of $30 million on 10 December to support the reform of Albania's banking system, government and administration, "Koha Jone" reported. The credit is the first part of a $70 million package promised by the World Bank at an international donors' conference in October. The aim of the credit is to modernize the country's economic system and to fight poverty by reducing unemployment and improving social security. FS[09] INTERNATIONAL HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR KOSOVO?Edita Tahiri, a member of the presidency of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the main Kosovar political organization, said in Pristina on 11 December that the international community should appoint a high representative for Kosovo on the model of the high representative for Bosnia. Tahiri added that the Yugoslav delegation's recent walkout at the Bonn conference on Bosnia showed that Belgrade is a destabilizing factor in the Balkans and it is not interested in solving the Kosovo question, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Pristina. The Yugoslav and Bosnian Serb delegations left the Bonn meeting to protest the inclusion of references to Kosovo in the final declaration (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 10 and 11 December 1997). PM[10] U.S. FIRM ON KOSOVOA State Department spokesman said in Washington on 11 December that the Serbs' walkout could have the opposite effect on world public opinion from what the Serbs wanted. "What the walkout did was to highlight what continues to be an important issue on the agenda of the international community, namely, the serious problems in Kosovo. Belgrade's objections to including Kosovo in the communiquŽ... only reinforce our determination -- the United States' determination and commitment-- to press for real progress in Kosovo." PM[11] SANDZAK MUSLIMS SAY HUMAN RIGHTS NOT INTERNAL AFFAIRThe federal Yugoslav government issued a statement in Belgrade on 11 December that praised the walkout. The statement stressed that Kosovo is an internal Yugoslav affair, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Serbian capital. Rasim Ljajic, the president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of Sandzak, said in Novi Pazar, however, that human rights issues can never be the internal affair of any one country. He told the Belgrade daily "Danas" of 12 December that top British, German, and U.S. diplomats also have called attention to the human rights issue in Sandzak. Sandzak is the former Ottoman Sandzak of Novi Pazar and is now divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Muslims make up just more than half of its population and most of them feel close political and cultural affinity with the Muslims of Bosnia. Ljajic's SDA is a branch of the Bosnian party of Alija Izetbegovic. PM[12] OSCE CALLS FOR KARADZIC, MLADIC ARRESTRobert Frowick, the head of the OSCE mission to Bosnia, said in Vienna on 11 December that indicted war criminals Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic should have been arrested and sent to The Hague long ago. Frowick added that the OSCE will need to maintain a presence in Bosnia for at least several years to come. Meanwhile in Pale, hard-line Serbian leader Momcilo Krajisnik played down the decision of the Bonn conference to expand the authority of Carlos Westendorp, the international community's high representative in Bosnia. Krajisnik also stated that the Dayton agreement is being implemented "very successfully." But in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic urged the Serbs to conduct policies "based on reality" and to "professionalize" their media in order to deny any grounds for foreign intervention in Bosnian Serb affairs. PM[13] WESTENDORP HOPEFUL ON YUGOSLAV SUCCESSION TALKSWestendorp told an RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels on 11 December that he hopes that the Bonn gathering will have a favorable impact on the ongoing talks in the Belgian capital about dividing the assets and obligations of the former Yugoslavia. Westendorp suggested that the former Yugoslav republics could begin by dividing up among themselves the Yugoslav hard currency reserves held in Swiss banks. Previous succession talks were hamstrung by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's insistence that his state is the sole legal successor to Tito's. The other republics demand a division of the assets, although they differ among themselves about how the division should take place. PM[14] IZETBEGOVIC CALLS FOR MUSLIM-WESTERN COOPERATIONBosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic told the closing session of the three-day summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran on 11 December that Muslims should work together with Western countries. He said that "Islam is the best, but we [Muslims] are not the best... The West is neither corrupted nor degenerate.... It is strong, well-educated and organized. Their schools are better than ours. Their cities are cleaner than ours... The level of respect for human rights in the West is higher and the care for the poor and less capable is better organized. The Westerners are usually responsible and accurate in their words... Instead of hating the West, let us... proclaim cooperation instead of confrontation." PM[15] UN SLAMS MUSLIM SECRET POLICEA UN police spokesman said in Sarajevo on 11 December that the Muslim-run intelligence organization known as AID is the spy-arm of the SDA and is not responsible to the Muslim- Croat federal government. He said that political parties cannot operate secret police operations, although governments certainly can. The Muslims claim that they need their own intelligence arm because the Croats can obtain sensitive information from Zagreb and the Serbs can get intelligence from Belgrade. PM[16] BELGRADE CHALLENGES MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENTIAL VOTEYugoslav federal prosecutor Vukasin Jokanovic said in Belgrade on 11 December that the Montenegrin supreme court violated federal law when it ordered an updating of voter rolls before the October presidential elections won by Milosevic's opponents. Montenegrin President-elect Milo Djukanovic has warned Belgrade not to meddle in Montenegro's affairs. PM[17] FORMER ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TESTIFIES IN COURTIon Iliescu on 11 December told a court in Bucharest that it was "preposterous" to claim that the miners who rampaged Bucharest and brought about the dismissal of the government headed by Petre Roman in September 1991 had been summoned by him, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Iliescu testified at the trial of miners' leader Miron Cozma, accused of "undermining state authority." Cozma told the court earlier that Iliescu should be with him in the dock. Roman said the miners had arrived at the instigation of the former president. In other news, a court of justice on 10 December sentenced former Securitate boss Tudor Postelnicu and former Interior Minister Gheorghe Homostean to 18 years in prison for their role in the killing of hijackers and hostages in 1981, when they acted at the orders of communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu. MS[18] IMF CHIEF NEGOTIATOR MEETS ROMANIAN PREMIERPoul Thomsen on 11 December met with Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea and National Bank governor Mugur Isarescu, Romanian media report. They discussed the continuation of the reform program and agreed that reforms must be accelerated and inflation reduced. Thomsen said inflation was above the 30 percent agreed on with the government by the IMF and said it is necessary to trim the budget to reduce inflation. Details will be worked out at a meeting scheduled for January 1988. MS[19] CHISINAU-TIRASPOL EXPERTS MEETExperts representing Moldova and separatist Transdniester met in Chisinau on 11 December to continue discussions on elaborating a document outlining a "joint economic, social and judicial space," RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. The experts also discussed the case of the Ilie Ilascu group, whose members are detained in the separatist region. The Transdniester experts said the document most likely to emerge from the meetings will be one of "intermediary nature." They said the document would have to include the agreements reached by President Petru Lucinschi and separatist leader Igor Smirnov, as well as "some last- minute proposals," such as that of "double citizenship" for Transdniestrians. Moldovan presidential advisor Anatol Taranu, cited by BASA-press, said that the conditions of detention of the Ilascu group "are deteriorating." MS[20] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT POSTPONES RUSSIAN VISITPetar Stoyanov on 11 December told reporters in Sofia that his 18-20 December visit to Russia has been postponed due to President Boris Yeltsin's illness, BTA and Reuters reported. Stoyanov said he had spoken to Yeltsin in the morning and they agreed that the visit will take place in February or March 1998. At a joint press conference marking the end of the visit of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, the two presidents told reporters that their countries' bids to join NATO are not prompted by fear of Russia and pledged to develop friendly ties with Moscow. MS[C] END NOTE[21] SLOW PROGRESS ON NEW CONVENTIONAL ARMS TREATYby Roland EgglestonNegotiators in Vienna hope that a new treaty limiting the danger of an arms build-up in Europe can be achieved by the end of next year, although they warn considerable political will to reach agreement will be required on the part of some countries. The negotiators are revising the 1990 CFE treaty between NATO and the former Warsaw Pact, which placed limits on the number of tanks, artillery, armored cars, war planes, and battle helicopters located between the Atlantic and the Urals. The new treaty will replace the bloc-to-bloc ceilings imposed on both alliances with national and territorial ceilings. National ceilings place a limit on the size of each country's armed forces, while the territorial ceilings impose a limit on the overall number of military forces deployed in any single country. In most cases, the territorial ceilings will be higher than the national ones, but the actual limits are still being worked out. A senior negotiator told RFE/RL that the national and territorial ceilings on the number of tanks, artillery, and other weapons are among the most difficult issues to resolve. "They go to the heart of the security of individual states, many of which remain suspicious of each other" he said. "Each government wants to be certain that the treaty allows it enough forces to meet its legitimate defense requirements." Thirty countries are participating in the negotiations, including the U.S., Russia, and most of the states of Western, Central and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova. The neutral countries and Central Asian states, with the exception of Kazakhstan, are not involved. Gregory Govan, the chief U.S. negotiator, told RFE/RL that the talks are proceeding "slowly but methodically." He said one of the biggest political problems is Russia's attempts to impose conditions that would limit the effects of NATO enlargement. For example, Russia wants to restrict the degree to which the original 16 members of NATO can deploy forces on the territory of the alliance's new members, either permanently or temporarily. NATO believes fixed limits should be established only for ground forces, while Russia wants also to include fixed limits for warplanes and battle helicopters. NATO argues that including aircraft and helicopters is unrealistic. It is relatively easy for inspectors to determine whether ground forces are within the limits set by a treaty. But aircraft and helicopters can be flown in and out of a territory within minutes, making effective inspection virtually impossible. NATO diplomats say the alliance considers Russia's fears of a possible buildup of Western military power in countries near its borders to be exaggerated. However, it understands those fears and is trying to quell them. To this end, the U.S. has proposed the creation of a "zone of stability" in which the size of military forces would be limited. However, it insists that the zone include other countries as well as the new NATO members. Under the U.S. proposal--which has now been accepted by NATO as a whole-- the "zone of stability" would include Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Belarus, northern Ukraine, and Kaliningrad. The U.S. suggests that territorial limits in this zone would be the same as the present national limits, effectively preventing a build-up of foreign forces in any of those countries. The same conditions would apply until the next review of the treaty, scheduled for 2001. The U.S. further proposes that the treaty be reviewed every five years. Govan says that, in addition to political issues, there are many technical problems to be resolved. Among them is the system for checking that signatories are honoring the treaty. "One of the best features of the 1990 CFE treaty was its system of verification and transparency," he said. "Everyone agrees that it worked well and should be continued. The problem is how to maintain the same degree of assurance and confidence in a much more complicated treaty." According to Govan, the attitude of some countries is also a problem. "One group of countries at the talks has strong ideas on how a future treaty on conventional forces should look," he said. "There are other countries that don't have this outlook. Some have difficulties adjusting to a new kind of treaty that is not based on a bloc-to-bloc approach. Govan did not identify any countries but acknowledged that some NATO countries are among those nostalgic for the ease of decision-making under the old system. Originally, the new CFE treaty was expected to be ready by summer 1998, but few diplomats believe this timetable is realistic. Most now hope the negotiations can be completed by November 1998, allowing the new treaty to be signed in December by the heads of government attending a summit meeting of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. However, the signing ceremony is still many months and many problems away. The author writes regularly for RFE/RL. 12-12-97 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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