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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 59, 98-03-26Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 59, 26 March 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] TENSIONS EASE IN KOFARNIKHONRepresentatives of the Tajik government, the National Reconciliation Commission, and the UN have succeeded in securing a cease-fire agreement with an armed group that had recently been involved in fighting in the Kofarnikhon region, RFE/RL correspondents reported on 25 March. The armed group and the government exchanged the bodies of 22 of those killed in fighting the previous day. Despite the cease-fire agreement, some 109 government soldiers are still being held in the Romit Gorge by the armed group. The government has sent an additional 200 troops in armored vehicles to the area. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the attacks by the armed group and laid the blame on the United Tajik Opposition. UN special envoy to Tajikistan Gerd Merrem called on UTO leaders to remind their forces that they now have representatives in the government, whose police and soldiers they are killing. BP[02] NAZARBAYEV REPRIMANDS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALSKazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 26 March reprimanded Energy Minister Asygat Jabagin, Justice Minister Baurjan Muhamedjanov, and Yerjan Utembayev, the chairman of the agency for strategic planning and reform, RFE/RL correspondents and ITAR-TASS reported. The president's press service said the reason for the reprimand was failure to fulfill the presidents orders. But according to ITAR-TASS, "inadequate information about the investment activities of one of the foreign companies" prompted the president's decision. BP[03] KAZAKHSTAN OPENS MISSION AT NATOKazakhstan opened a mission at NATO headquarters in Brussels on 25 March, ITAR-TASS and Interfax reported. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said the mission will help "raise relations with the alliance to a higher political level." Kazakhstan is already a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, and Kazakhstan's armed forces participated in NATO-sponsored training exercises in September 1997 under that program. BP[04] KOCHARYAN PROPOSES CHANGES TO ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONMeeting with supporters in Yerevan on 25 March, Prime Minister and acting President Robert Kocharyan called for the consolidation of all Armenian political forces to implement "a common goal, a common program," Interfax reported. Kocharyan advocated substantive changes to the 1995 constitution to curtail the "excessively broad" powers of the president and redefine the latter's relations with the prime minister, the government, the parliament, and the judiciary. He proposes stripping the president of the right to dissolve the parliament, which, he said, is conducive to creating, rather than resolving, domestic political conflicts. Instead, he suggests that the constitution grant the parliament the right to disband itself. LF[05] KARABAKH INTELLECTUALS ISSUE PROTESTIn a statement issued on 24 March and circulated the following day by Noyan Tapan, members of the Nagorno-Karabakh Unions of Writers and Journalists and faculty from the Karabakh State University condemned attempts by unspecified Armenian politicians to capitalize on the Karabakh conflict during the presidential election campaign. Recent articles in both the Armenian and Russian press on the election campaign adversely affect the image of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and devalue its achievements in the "national liberation struggle," the statement reads. LF[06] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION TO DEMAND DEFENSE MINISTER'S RESIGNATIONThe Abkhazeti faction has begun collecting signatures to demand the impeachment of Defense Minister Vardiko Nadibaidze, Caucasus Press reported on 25 March. The People faction immediately expressed its support for that initiative. Opposition deputies have long been critical of Nadibaidze, a former Soviet army general whom they accuse of serving Russia's interests. A minimum of 75 signatures from members of the 225- strong parliament is needed to include the issue on the agenda of the legislature. LF[07] ARAB CONNECTION IN SHEVARDNADZE ASSASSINATION BID?The men who perpetrated the failed 9 February attempt to assassinate Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze were trained in Lebanon and Libya by representatives of the intelligence services and NGOs of "several Islamic states," "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 26 March. Georgian First Deputy Prosecutor Revaz Kipiani has claimed that the attackers were trained in Chechnya (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 March 1998), though not at the behest of the Chechen leadership. Chechnya's diplomatic representative to Tbilisi, Khizar Aldamov, has denied that allegation, however. LF[08] SOUTH OSSETIA WANTS MORE PEACEKEEPERSThe parliament of Georgia's would-be secessionist republic of South Ossetia has voted against the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping force currently deployed in the region. It has also demanded that the numbers of peacekeepers in Tskhinvali Raion be increased, Caucasus Press reported on 26 March. A group of Georgian military intelligence trainees staged an armed raid on a village in the raion earlier this month (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 6 March 1998). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[09] SERBIAN OFFENSIVE IN KOSOVO CONTINUESSerbian paramilitary police on 25 March continued to maintain a strong presence in the Drenica region, west of Pristina, despite repeated demands by the international Contact Group for them to withdraw. The paramilitary police also fired heavy weapons into Kosovar villages in the Decani and Djakovica regions, where they launched an offensive the previous day, Albanian and independent Serbian media reported. The Serbian forces continue to bar journalists from the area, and precise information about military actions or casualties is not available. Kosovar spokesmen said in Pristina and Pec that wounded people from the region under attack were brought to the hospitals in those two towns on 24 and 25 March. PM[10] KOSOVARS SAY SERBIAN GOAL IS ETHNIC CLEANSINGA Kosovar shadow-state spokesman told "RFE/RL Newsline" on 25 March that the purpose of the paramilitary offensive is to drive the ethnic Albanian population out of Kosovo by using the methods that the Serbs used in their "ethnic cleansing" campaigns in Bosnia. The spokesman said that the Drenica offensive was aimed at clearing a strategic corridor west of Pristina and that the current drive near Djakovica is intended to drive the Kosovars out of the border regions with Albania. He added that refugees are fleeing to Macedonia rather than to Albania, which is widely known in Kosovo to be too impoverished to handle a refugee influx. The spokesman stressed that the Serbs might be able to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo very quickly because the Kosovars, unlike the Bosnian Muslims, have no military organization to protect them. PM[11] CONTACT GROUP GIVES MILOSEVIC MORE TIMEThe foreign ministers of the U.S., U.K., Russia, Germany, France, and Italy agreed in Bonn on 25 March to give Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic four more weeks to meet the demands that the six countries put forward at their gathering in London on 9 March in conjunction with the Kosovo crisis (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 March 1998). Their original deadline to Milosevic to withdraw his paramilitary police from Kosovo and launch serious talks with the Kosovars was 19 March. Russia, which is Milosevic's main arms supplier, and Italy, which has many public sector contracts in Yugoslavia, opposed U.S. attempts to impose an immediate arms embargo and tough economic sanctions on Belgrade. German, French, and Italian diplomats argued that the international community should offer Milosevic positive incentives, not just punitive ones, in order to secure his cooperation. PM[12] ALBRIGHT INSISTS ON TOUGHNESSSpeaking at the Bonn gathering on 25 March, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned her colleagues that Milosevic is stalling for time in the hopes that the international community will lose interest in Kosovo. She said that "we have to remember that progress has only come about through sustained pressure.... If [Milosevic] has his way, he will do as little as possible to meet our concerns, and then only under pressure and at the last minute. Incentives tend to be pocketed; warnings tend not to be believed." PM[13] IS RUSSIA SELLING ARMS TO MILOSEVIC?Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov said in Bonn on 25 March that Russia will discuss a possible arms embargo with the other Contact Group countries in the coming days. He insisted, however, that any such move must not be "one- sided" and must include a ban on arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo. "The New York Times" wrote that Russia agreed in December 1997 to sell Yugoslavia tanks, attack helicopters, ground-to-air missiles, MiG-29s and spare parts. The newspaper added that Washington is concerned lest the deal upset the military balance in the region and violate the Dayton agreement, which includes provisions on arms ceilings. The daily quoted U.S. officials as saying that Russian-made attack helicopters may have been used in the current crackdown in Kosovo. PM[14] CHIRAC CALLS FOR DIALOGUEFrench President Jacques Chirac sent a message to Kosovar shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova in which Chirac "hailed the [22 March] elections in Kosovo" and urged the Kosovar leader "to make the best [political] use of his position following the vote." Chirac called on Rugova to begin a dialogue with the Yugoslav authorities and to distance himself from "terrorism." In Tirana, the French ambassador gave President Rexhep Meidani a message from Chirac, who called on his Albanian colleague to help find a solution to the Kosovo problem based on "real autonomy within the existing international borders," "Zeri i Popullit" wrote. PM/FS[15] ALBANIA REJECTS SERBIAN CHARGESDefense Minister Sabit Brokaj rejected charges by the Serbian Interior Ministry that armed bands recently crossed into Kosovo from Albania to attack Serbian police. Speaking in Tirana on 25 March, Brokaj said that international monitors stationed on Albania's borders know that such charges are baseless. Brokaj also signed a cooperation agreement with his Macedonian counterpart, Lazar Kitanovski. Brokaj announced that NATO experts will arrive in Albania and Macedonia next week to help train local security forces in monitoring their countries' respective borders with Kosovo. PM[16] POLICE EVICT HUNGER-STRIKERS FROM ALBANIAN PYRAMID OFFICESPolice on 25 March evicted some 30 hunger-strikers from the offices of the VEFA pyramid company in Tirana, "Koha Jone" reported. The strikers had begun the strike on 25 February to protest the planned shut-down and sell- off of the bankrupt firm. They hoped that, if left alone, it might continue to function and generate at least some profit, which could then be divided among investors. On 23 March, a delegation of investors signed an agreement providing for transparency in the bankruptcy procedures with the government through the mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The hunger-strikers, however, refused to accept the deal. FS[17] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR ON CORRUPTIONRexhep Meidani called key government officials to a special meeting on 25 March to discuss steps to fight corruption, "Gazeta Shqiptare" reported. Among those attending were the interior and defense ministers, the deputy finance minister, and the heads of the secret services, customs, police, and the anti-corruption agency. Meidani accused the various government departments of not taking the fight against corruption seriously and of failing to cooperate among themselves. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor-General has launched investigations against former Defense Minister Safet Zhulali and former Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi for alleged corruption in connection with arms sales, "Koha Jone" reported. FS[18] ROMANIAN PREMIER FACES CHALLENGE FROM WITHIN OWN PARTYProminent members of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) met recently in Brasov to draft a letter expressing "apprehension" about the party's "deteriorating image and isolation" and the party's neglect of the "national dimension"-- an allusion to concessions made to the Hungarian minority. The group called for Premier Victor Ciorbea to be replaced by PNTCD Secretary-General Radu Vasile. It also said a party congress must be called to discuss those issues, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Also on 25 March, the first vice chairman of the national Liberal Party, Valeriu Stoica, said the ongoing political crisis must be solved "even if the price is the sacrifice of the premier." MS[19] ROMANIAN SENATE COMMISSION REJECTS DRAFT BUDGETThe Senate's Agriculture Commission on 25 March voted to reject the draft budget submitted to the parliament by the cabinet, RFE/RL's Bucharest Bureau reported. Criticism of the budget has been expressed by other commissions currently debating the draft. Senator Varujan Vosganian, who heads the Senate's Budget and Finance Commission, said the draft might be sent back to the government for revisions. Ciorbea has threatened to resign if the budget is amended by the parliament. MS[20] MOLDOVAN POLITICAL LEADERS APPEAL TO REFORMERS TO UNITEIn a joint declaration released on 25 March, Mircea Snegur and Iurie Rosca, co-chairmen of the Democratic Convention of Moldova, say the "disastrous effects" of the Democratic Agrarian Party's term in office, combined with "divisions among pro-reform forces," explain why the Communists won the 22 March elections, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. But since the Communists do not have a majority, most Moldovans "favor the continuation of reforms," they argue. They call on the three non-communist parties to "overcome differences" and "display responsibility" in negotiations to form a new governing coalition. Dumitru Diacov, leader of the pro- presidential For a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova Bloc (PMPD), said the formation of the coalition depends on the readiness of the non-communist parties to "compromise." He admitted, however, that the PMPD has also held talks with Communist leader Vladimir Voronin. MS[21] SECOND ROUND OF MASS PRIVATIZATION UNDER WAY IN BULGARIAThe parliament on 25 March approved a bill increasing the rights of citizens to buy investment bonds in state owned companies. Whereas a law passed in 1997 stipulated only 1,000 state companies slated for privatization, citizens may now purchase bonds in any state company that do not exceed a total value of 250,000 leva ($139). Those bonds can then be exchanged for shares or invested in pension funds. The bonds will be used to pay wage and pension arrears from 1997, RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reported. MS[22] BULGARIAN REFINERY WORKERS END RAILROAD BLOCKADEBulgarian state television on 25 March reported that some 1,200 workers from the Plama oil refinery have ended a blockade of a railroad station near Pleven after an appeal by Premier Ivan Kostov. The workers from the Plama refinery were protesting that their wages have not been paid for two months. Kostov said the protest was justified but that the government "could not intervene in the operation of a private company." He pledged to "do everything possible" to seek a solution. Earlier on 25 March, Deputy Premier Alexander Bozhkov told the workers that Plama's new owner, International Equities Inc., would pay wage arrears as soon as the purchase of the refinery from Euroenergy Holding is finalized, Reuters reported. MS[C] END NOTE[23] REGIONS AND RUSSIAN REFORMby Paul GoblePeople in the small and medium-sized cities of Russia's far-flung regions may ultimately become the political base for a move against corruption and organized crime in the country as a whole. As such, this demographic group may play a major role in the current reshuffling of the Russian government. Less touched by corruption and crime themselves but increasingly fearful of both, Russians in the regions are a potentially powerful political force waiting to be tapped by Moscow politicians who are prepared to take their concerns into consideration. To the extent that happens, Russia's regions could play a somewhat unexpected role in re-establishing government authority and promoting democratic and free market reforms. Yurii Veremeenko, editor in chief of Moscow's "Invest 100" magazine and the former spokesmen for the governor of Tver, told RFE/RL in Washington on 23 March that media exposes about organized crime have left people in smaller Russian cities fearful. Such reports on Russian television and in the national newspapers have convinced the residents of such cities that they are equally threatened, even though statistics suggest that they are much less likely to be victims of crime than they believe. As a result, Veremeenko said that the residents of the Russian regions are ever more prepared to support law-and-order candidates, especially if the latter couch their message in terms of a nationalist defense of Russia itself. Asked which Russian leader might find it the easiest to tap into such sentiments, Veremeenko, who also heads the Tver Association of Political Culture, immediately named retired general and former presidential candidate Aleksandr Lebed. But he suggested that other Moscow leaders were likely to turn increasingly to this issue, running as it were against crime, the long-despised "center," and foreigners, whom many Russians blame for their current problems. Indeed, Veremeenko argued, President Boris Yeltsin himself might seek to draw on precisely those sentiments as he moves to form a new government following his dismissal of the entire cabinet earlier this week. In an otherwise upbeat characterization of the role such attitudes and appeals to them could play, Veremeenko argued that there are three potentially serious downside risks. First, few Russians in the regions have much experience with either democracy or law and thus may be prepared to back anyone who says he can eliminate crime, regardless of the methods he proposes to use. Second, any linking of these anti-crime attitudes with anti-foreign ones could help power a very ugly kind of xenophobic nationalism, something that could short-circuit the path toward reforms of all kinds. And third, at least for the next few years, the power of those who have benefited from corruption and organized crime may be so great that any movement that sought to root out those evils could fail and thus undercut public confidence in democratic institutions. Although Veremeenko did not mention them, two other factors undoubtedly work against the successful use of these anti-crime attitudes in Russia's regions. On the one hand, Russian politics remains so centered on Moscow that few politicians there yet seem ready to reach out beyond the ring road around the Russian capital. Consequently, they may raise this issue but not seek to mobilize opinion outside Moscow in any systematic way. On the other hand, many Russians in the regions, like many Russians in Moscow, appear to have little faith in the political system as a solution to their problems. To the extent that they feel insulted and injured but see no obvious redress to their difficulties within the political system, those groups may simply withdraw, seeking to protect themselves as best they can rather than supporting someone who can address their problems. For all those reasons, Veremeenko may be far too optimistic about the role Russia's regions will play in the future of that country. But his argument that attitudes outside of Moscow may help to overcome crime and corruption there suggest that Russia's regions may play a positive role, something few Russian leaders or observers have been willing to consider in the past. 26-03-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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