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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 55, 98-03-20Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 55, 20 March 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] KOCHARYAN ASSESSES ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL POLLArmenian Prime Minister and acting President Robert Kocharyan told journalists in Yerevan on 19 March that "minor" procedural violations during the presidential elections did not significantly affect the final results (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 March 1998). Kocharyan said he has informed the head of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe's observer mission that he disagrees with three of the six points of criticism contained in the OSCE evaluation. He pledged to ensure that the 30 March runoff will be free of infringements. Kocharyan also said he is discussing a possible second round alliance with defeated candidate Paruir Hairikyan, who polled 5.5 percent. He also appealed to Vazgen Manukyan, who came in third, "not to burn bridges" for future cooperation, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. LF[02] NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC UNION ON REPORTED VIOLATIONSSeyran Avakyan, a spokesman for Manukyan's National Democratic Union (NDU) said on 19 March that the party has already lodged 30 formal protests with the Central Electoral Commission and another 16 with local commissions, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Avakyan said Manukyan's campaign staff are still receiving complaints of fraud and will seek legal action on 50 "criminal cases" of violence against NDU activists. Avakyan added that whereas most violations occurred during the vote count in 1996, the majority took place during the actual voting this year. Four members of the Central Electoral Commission, including Vova Hakhverdyan of the NDU, refused to sign the final protocol on preliminary returns issued by the commission on 19 March, Noyan Tapan reported. LF[03] FORMER GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT DEPUTY SPEAKER RELEASEDNemo Burchuladze, who was Georgian deputy parliamentary speaker under ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was released on bail by Russian police on 19 March after being detained in Moscow for one day, Russian media reported. Senior Georgian officials told Caucasus Press on 19 March that Tbilisi will not demand Burchuladze's extradition because of the positive role he played in securing the release of four UN observers abducted by Gamsakhurdia sympathizers in western Georgia last month. Also on 19 March, Guram Absandze, who was finance minister under Gamsakhurdia, was extradited to Tbilisi and taken into detention on arrival, Russian media reported. Absandze, who was arrested in Smolensk on 16 March, is suspected of financing the 9 February assassination attempt against Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. LF[04] KAZAKHSTAN EXPELS SUSPECTED IRANIAN SPIESKazakh Foreign Minister Kasymjomart Tokayev announced on 19 March that the three Iranian nationals arrested charged with espionage last month will be sent back to Iran, ITAR-TASS reported. Tokayev told the Iranian ambassador to Kazakhstan that Kazakh security agents had been able to establish that the Iranians had gathered information and "infringed on the interests of Kazakhstan's national security." Tokayev, who had been in Tehran on 13 March to discuss the issue, added that "to show goodwill...[and] preserve friendly relations between the two countries," the Kazakh authorities had decided to free the suspected spies. There was no mention of the fate of the Kazakh citizen who was charged alongside the three Iranians. BP[05] KYRGYZSTAN EXEMPTED FROM JACKSON-VANICK ACTKyrgyz presidential press spokesman Kanybek Imanaliev said on 18 March that the U.S. has removed Kyrgyzstan from the list of countries covered by the 1973 Jackson-Vanick amendment, RFE/RL correspondents reported. That act placed severe restrictions on trade with countries that have a poor human rights records. Removal from the list means Kyrgyz exports are now officially freed from the maximum customs duties that could be levied on listed countries. However, since the 1992 agreement with the U.S. giving Kyrgyzstan most-favored nation status, those duties have rarely been enforced. Last November, President Askar Akayev sent a letter to the U.S. President Bill Clinton requesting Kyrgyzstan be removed from the list. BP[06] OIL STORAGE FACILITY OPENS IN TURKMENBASHIMohammad Hasan Marikana, the president of Malaysia's Petronas Oil Company, opened the oil tank storage facility at the Turkmen Caspian port of Turkmenbashi on 19 March, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. Petronas will invest between $60-70 million in offshore oil-drilling projects this year in the Livanovo, Barinovo, and Gubkino Caspian fields, which contain an estimated total of 500-660 million tons of oil. Earlier the same day, Marikana met with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in Ashgabat. BPREGIONAL AFFAIRS [07] RUSSIA SENDS MIXED SIGNALS ON SANCTIONS AGAINST LATVIAPresidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii announced on 19 March that Russia is considering "certain targeted economic counter- measures" against Latvia, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported. Yastrzhembskii expressed concern about the "silence" of other European countries over the recent march in Riga by veterans of the Latvian SS Legion (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 March 1998). Yastrzhembskii questioned whether the lack of condemnation of that march indicates that the verdicts at the Nuremburg trials are no longer deemed binding international law and whether Europe is willing to invite "a country whose government panders to SS remnants" into the "zone of democracy." In contrast, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced on 19 March that "Russia will not impose economic sanctions on Latvia," ITAR-TASS reported. He added that "we do not support a 'tooth for a tooth' position." LB[08] LATVIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CLAIMS "ANTI-LATVIAN CAMPAIGN"Addressing a session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva on 19 March, Valdis Birkavs argued that Russia is conducting a "widespread anti-Latvian campaign," BNS reported. Referring to the recent incident at the Latvian Embassy in Moscow (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 March 1998),. Birkavs said Latvian diplomatic personnel "have been threatened with physical violence." He added that "Latvia has received threats of economic sanctions because, it is said, Latvia is not loyal enough to Russian interests." Birkavs was responding to a proposal made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yurii Ushakhov in Geneva two days earlier that the committee adopt a resolution condemning human rights violations in Latvia. The Latvian minister rejected Ushakhov's accusation of applying "double standards" over the protection of human rights, adding that he is ready to discuss those rights with Moscow. JC[09] LATVIA ARRESTS RUSSIAN NATIONAL ON GENOCIDE CHARGEThe Latvian Prosecutor-General's Office on 19 March arrested a Russian citizen and former Soviet security official on charges of genocide, BNS reported. Ilya Mashonkin is accused of involvement in the 1949 deportation of some 100 ethnic Latvian families. Many of the deportees reportedly died in exile. A spokeswoman said that Mashonkin's arrest cannot be linked to the recent activities of Latvia's Russian-speakers or SS Legion veterans because the Prosecutor-General's Office has been working on the case for the past year or so. Until now, Latvia had sentenced only one former Soviet security official. Alfons Noviks, a Latvian citizen, was jailed for life in 1995 for helping organize deportations. He died in prison the following year, aged 89. JC[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] ETHNIC ALBANIANS, SERBS HOLD RIVAL RALLIES IN PRISTINASome 40,000 ethnic Albanians on 19 March held a demonstration in the center of the Kosovar capital at which demonstrators jangled keys to signify the passing of the deadline set by the six-nation Contact Group for Belgrade to begin talks with ethnic Albanian leaders. A few hours later, some 50,000 Serbs, carrying flags and singing nationalist songs, began a counterprotest against what they called "terrorism and separatism," an RFE/RL correspondent in Pristina reported. Fighting broke out between many of the demonstrators from the opposing sides, and police had to use tear gas to restore calm. Some minor injuries were reported. In Pec, some 10,000 people attended the funeral of a man said to have been shot by Serbian police during a rally the previous day that ended with gunshots. Police officials deny the charges. PB[11] TOP FOREIGN DIPLOMATS SAYS PROGRESS MADE IN TALKS WITH BELGRADEGerman and French Foreign Ministers Klaus Kinkel and Hubert Vedrine said progress was made in talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian President Milan Milutinovic in Belgrade on 19 March, Reuters reported. Vedrine said "significant progress was achieved," although Kinkel added that there had not been a "breakthrough." Milosevic was said to have made concessions by naming Yugoslav Deputy Premier Vladan Kutlesic as a special envoy for Kosovo and by agreeing to talk with EU special envoy Felipe Gonzalez. Those talks, however, will deal only with relations between Belgrade and the EU and will not cover Kosovo. Milosevic is also said to have agreed in the talks with Kinkel and Vedrine to withdraw special paramilitary police units from Kosovo, a promise he had already made earlier this week. Kinkel did not say if the pledges by Belgrade were enough to prevent a tougher regime of sanctions to be imposed by the Contact Group, which is scheduled to meet in Brussels on 20 March to review the situation. PB[12] ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER SLAMS DIALOGUE OFFERXhemail Mustafa, an adviser to Kosovo shadow state President Ibrahim Rugova, said that Serbian President Milutinovic's offer of unconditional talks with Kosovo Albanian leaders next week is a "farce," AFP reported on 19 March. Mustafa said it is "another attempt at deceiving the public and international political circles." Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov said in Banja Luka on 19 March that autonomy is the "most acceptable" answer for the Kosovo crisis, though he repeated his position that it is Yugoslavia's internal affair. PB[13] ETHNIC ALBANIAN PARTY URGES VOTERS TO GO TO POLLSThe Kosovo Democratic League (LDK), the leading ethnic Albanian party, called for voters to turn out in force on 22 March in the elections to elect a shadow Kosovo president and 130-seat parliament, AFP reported on 19 March. An LDK statement said the elections "will be a sort of referendum of Albanians for an independent republic of Kosovo." The document accused Belgrade of doing everything possible to prevent the vote. Rugova, who is also the leader of the LDK, is the only candidate for president. Several other Kosovo Albanian political parties have called for the elections to be postponed until tensions in the province subside (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 and 19 March 1998). The election commission announced that voting will not take place in the Drenica region owing to the Serbian police presence there. PB[14] GELBARD IN TIRANA...U.S. special envoy to the Balkans Robert Gelbard told journalists on 19 March that if Yugoslav President Milosevic fails to comply with the Contact Group's demand that he begin a dialogue with the Kosovo leadership and withdraw special police from the region, the U.S. government will consider toughening its sanctions against Serbia. "If President Milosevic is serious about the dialogue, then he is going to have to prove it," Gelbard affirmed, following a meeting in Tirana with Albanian leaders. Gelbard also expressed approval of Rugova's 18 March statement that he is ready to seek a dialogue with the Serbian leadership. LF[15] ...AND SKOPJEAlso on 19 March, Gelbard said after talks with Macedonian Foreign Minister Blagoj Handziski in Skopje that Yugoslav President Milosevic does not understand the "seriousness" of the Kosovo situation, AFP reported. Gelbard said Milosevic "is not prepared yet" to take the measures prescribed by the Contact Group to relieve tension in Kosovo. He said Belgrade's call for dialogue "falls quite short of what we feel is necessary to a serious start." PB[16] PRIMAKOV DUBIOUS ABOUT TOUGHER SANCTIONSAddressing Russian members of SFOR, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov said he hopes that the Contact Group will be able to avoid imposing tougher sanctions on Yugoslavia at its 25 March meeting, Interfax reported on 19 March. Primakov said that Serbian President Milutinovic's statement the previous day that he is ready to begin a dialogue with the Kosovo leadership on self- government may render such sanctions unnecessary. He also underlined that Moscow is opposed to Kosovo's seceding from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Speaking in Moscow on 19 March, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Valerii Nesterushkin welcomed Milutinovic's offer and called on the Kosovo Albanian leadership to accept it. LF[17] MONTENEGRIN PARLIAMENT SHORTENS MANDATELawmakers on 19 March voted to shorten their mandates, thereby enabling President Milo Djukanovic to schedule new parliamentary elections for May, AFP reported. The parliament also voted to increase the number of deputies from 71 to 78. In January, Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic brokered an agreement between Djukanovic and his predecessor, Momir Bulatovic, on scheduling pre-term elections (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 January 1998). LF[18] YUGOSLAVIA APPLIES TO JOIN COUNCIL OF EUROPEThe Federal Republic of Yugoslavia applied to join the Council of Europe on 19 March, AFP reported. Daniel Tarschys, secretary-general of the council, said that a decision on whether to admit Belgrade would be based on Yugoslavia's respect for human rights and the rights of minorities. PB[19] KINKEL, VEDRINE IN ZAGREBBefore their talks with Milosevic and Milutinovic in Belgrade, the German and French foreign ministers said in Zagreb on 18 March that as long as Croatia continues to implement the Dayton peace agreement and facilitate the return of Serbian refugees, Zagreb can count on French-German support in forging closer ties with Europe. Kinkel and Vedrine held talks with their Croatian counterpart, Mate Granic, and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. Granic said Tudjman presented them with a new proposal for establishing a lasting peace in the region by demilitarizing under EU guarantees and securing non-aggression agreements between Croatia and Bosnia and between Yugoslavia and Bosnia. Also on 18 March, Granic complained that Croatia is being put under "unjust and unfair pressure" by the international community. JN/PB[20] TALBOTT IN BUCHARESTU.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott on 19 March met with President Emil Constantinescu, Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea, and Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu to discuss the Kosovo crisis, regional developments, Romania's bid for NATO membership, and U.S. investments in Romania, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Talbott said that all three leaders expressed Romania's readiness to participate in finding a solution to the Kosovo crisis and that Bucharest is in a position to "use its prestige and influence" for that purpose. He added that the U.S. wants to see a "strong, democratic, prosperous Romania" that will be integrated into NATO as soon as possible. MS[21] ROMANIAN SENATE DEBATES OPENING SECRET POLICE FILESThe Senate on 19 March began the long-postponed debate on a draft law allowing access to former secret police files, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. It approved the first article of the law, whereby Romanian citizens residing in the country or abroad as well as those who acquired foreign citizenship after 1945 will be allowed to inspect their own files. Debates on all articles of the law are expected to take months. MS[22] MOLDOVA'S CIUBUC WILLING TO FORM NEXT GOVERNMENTVictor Ciubuc told journalists on 19 March that he is ready to fulfill President Petru Lucinschi's wish that he form the next government but added he will do so only if it is not a heterogeneous cabinet such as the current one. Ciubuc called on the electorate to support Lucinschi's program at the 22 March ballot, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. The premier added that recent negotiations in Moscow over gas deliveries had been "difficult" because Gazprom had set "very tough terms" for those deliveries. The two sides had agreed, however, that Moldova supply goods worth $100 million and pay $40 million in cash to cover part of its debt. Setting up the MoldovaGas company, in which Gazprom owns 50 percent of the shares, will cover another $47 million of the debt. MS[23] MOLDOVAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN MARRED BY INCIDENTSThe electoral headquarters of the pro- presidential Social Democratic Bloc Speranta in Tiraspol was ransacked by officers from the Transdniester Ministry of State Security. The leader of the bloc, presidential adviser Anatol Taranu, called the incident a "pogrom," Infotag reported on 19 March. The separatist authorities say that campaigning for the Moldovan elections in the region is illegal. BASA-press reported on 19 March that the cars of two candidates running on the list of the pro- presidential For a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova, were stolen while the candidates were campaigning in Chisinau and Comrat, respectively. MS[24] BULGARIA TO COOPERATE WITH NATO AGENCYBulgarian Deputy Defense Minister Rumen Kanchev and Robert Zweerts, the visiting manager-general of the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMASA) met in Sofia on 19 March and signed a memorandum on cooperation in logistics, RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reported. The cooperation will begin with coordinating the codification of military standards, which is to be achieved within two years. Kanchev said this was the "first step toward integration into Western military structures." One day earlier, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott discussed with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova measures aimed at ending the conflict in Kosovo. He lauded Sofia's stabilizing role in the Balkans, saying Bulgaria has become a "strong multi-ethnic democracy that could serve as a model for other Balkan nations," dpa reported. MS[C] END NOTE[25] MOLDOVA'S UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS (PART TWO)by Michael Shafir It is a victory of the Right, rather than of the Left, that President Petru Lucinschi fears may lead to a "confrontational situation" between himself and the parliament. The main force on the Right is the Democratic Convention of Moldova (CDM), an alliance that was set up last year. Its main components are the Party of Revival and Conciliation (PRRM) and the Christian Democratic Popular Front (FPCD). Former President Mircea Snegur, who heads the PRRM, and the FPCD were bitter enemies in 1994, when Snegur opted for the road of "Moldovanism" and the FPCD remained true to its pro-Romanian, unionist stance. But Snegur's alliance with the FPCD may been seen by some observers as the "homecoming" of the former president. Leaving behind his communist identity (as chairman of the Moldovan Supreme Soviet in July 1989 and Central Committee secretary since 1985), Snegur in 1990 allied himself with the pro-independence and pro- Romanian Popular Front.Snegur has not fully returned to a pro-Romanian unionist position, but Iurie Rosca, the co-chairman of the CDM, has apparently decided to follow the "Romanian model" in setting up the convention. Like the Democratic Convention of Romania, the CDM sees its main purpose in removing the "vestiges of communism" and is therefore willing to postpone resolving differences among its component parties or leaders. For the time being, the FPCD is not promoting reunification with Romania as a main priority, though the CDM wants closer links with Bucharest and wants to step up efforts to eventually gain entry to the EU. It also insists that it is the only political alternative that can guarantee accelerating the privatization process and cutting the umbilical cord that links President Lucinschi (a former Central Committee secretary in Moscow under Mikhail Gorbachev) to the CIS and Russia. Other parties on the Right of the political spectrum are the Party of Democratic Forces (PFD), led by Valeriu Matei, and the Alliance of Democratic Forces Bloc (BAFD), set up by the National Peasant Party and the National Liberal Party. Their electoral chances are uncertain. The first CURS-IMAS poll put support for the PFD at 15 percent, the second at 16 percent. Support for the BAFD dropped from 11 percent to 6 percent over the past two months, according to the CURS-IMAS surveys. The Opinia poll also credited the PFD with 15 percent, but put the BAFD below the electoral threshold. The CDM, meanwhile, has been running a close second to the Communists in the opinion polls. It gained 18 percent support in the first CURS-IMAS poll, 19 percent in the second, and 20 percent in the Opinia survey. The fact that the CDM has moderated its position on unification with Romania may well explain why it leads the field among rightist parties. Polls in Moldova have consistently shown that for both historical and more immediate reasons, a solid majority of voters do not favor reunification. And while the separatist Transdniestrian demands find little backing on the left bank of the Dniester River, Moldovans are in general willing to go a long way toward accommodating the fears of the non-Romanian (non- "Moldovan") minorities, whether they are Russian, Ukrainian, Gagauz, or any other. For lack of a better definition, parties backing President Lucinschi can be considered "centrist". The Center is aware of the need to promote reforms but at the same time realizes that many voters oppose them. It also builds on Lucinschi's popularity and the widespread belief that his links to Moscow will ultimately bring about a settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict whereby the country's territorial integrity would be preserved and the large population of Slavs and particularly Russians (who constitute nearly 13 percent of the population) would be accommodated. The pro-presidential For a Democratic Prosperous and Moldova Bloc (PMDP), set up immediately after Lucinschi's victory in the late 1996 presidential elections and led by Dumitru Diacov, is the most prominent among the centrist parties. Premier Ion Ciubuc, whom Lucinschi has named as his preferred candidate for the premiership after the elections, is a PMDP member. Support for the PMDP has soared from 9 percent to 19 percent in just one month, according to the two CURS-IMAS polls (the Opinia poll credited it with some 10 percent backing). The PMDP, as well as other pro- presidential lists (which, unlike it, may fail to pass the 4 percent election threshold), favors transforming the system from a parliamentary democracy into a presidential one-- a rather dangerous proposition in a state lacking strong democratic traditions. Perhaps the most colorful of the centrist formations is the Party of Social and Economic Justice. Last week, 16 would-be candidates on the list headed by Maricica Levitschi left the party in protest at her apparent attempts to bribe the electorate by distributing humanitarian aid received from abroad, including condoms and contraceptive pills. They also objected to the fact that Levitschi had forced them to swear on the Bible everlasting political fidelity. She should have known that there is no such thing in politics and least of all in Moldovan politics, where everything is still in flux. 20-03-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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