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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 79, 98-04-27Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 79, 27 April 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] SHEVARDNADZE DISMISSES DEFENSE MINISTERGeorgian President Eduard Shevardnadze announced on 27 April that he will call a special session of the Georgian Security Council and will accept the resignation of Defense Minister Vardiko Nadibaidze, an RFE/RL correspondent in Tbilisi reported. Observers believe Shevardnadze initiated the defense minister's removal. In a radio interview broadcast on 27 April, Shevardnadze cited many "mistakes" made recently by Nadibaidze, noting by way of example that two military planes were not able to accompany him to a 26 April meeting in Trabzon with his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts (see below). He also charged that a Defense Ministry tank unit failed to close off the main roads to Tbilisi on 9 February, allowing terrorists who nearly assassinated Shevardnadze to escape. According to RFE/RL's correspondent, Nadibaidze was considered among the most pro-Russian officials in Shevardnadze's circle. His removal comes before the summit of CIS presidents scheduled for 29 April in Moscow. LB[02] RUSSIA WARNS AGAINST PLANNED GEORGIAN PROTESTThe Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement saying the 28 April mass protest planned by the youth wing of the Union of Citizens of Georgia on the internal border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia is "a new big provocation," ITAR-TASS reported on 25 April. The protesters are to demand the redeployment throughout Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion of the CIS peacekeeping force currently stationed along the border. They argue that this measure is needed to expedite the repatriation of Georgians forced to flee the district during the 1992-1993 war. The Russian statement claimed that the Georgian government ignored earlier requests to put an end to "inadmissible" acts of violence against the peacekeepers. Also on 25 April, one person was killed and three injured in an exchange of fire between Abkhaz and Georgians in Gali, according to ITAR-TASS. And in a related development, the Georgian Foreign Ministry on 27 April said Tbilisi will not raise the issue of the withdrawal of peacekeepers at the upcoming CIS summit. LF/PG[03] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT REJECTS DATA ON OUTMIGRATIONShevardnadze on 25 April denied that up to 1.5 million people have left Georgia in recent years in search of employment, ITAR-TASS reported. He said that the number does not exceed 300,000-350,000. Caucasus Press on 24 April cited the figure of 1.5 million, which, it said, was based on data released at a government session earlier that day. LF[04] AZERBAIJANI, GEORGIAN, TURKISH PRESIDENTS MEETHeidar Aliev, Shevardnadze, and Suleyman Demirel met in the Black Sea town of Trabzon on 26 April to discuss trilateral cooperation and construction of the planned Baku-Ceyhan export pipeline for Caspian oil. They planned to focus on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process as well, AFP reported, citing "Azadlyg." The three presidents also attended a ceremony to mark the beginning of construction of the Deriner hydro-electric project on the Chorokhi River south of the Turkish-Georgian frontier. Georgian ecologists have protested the proposed construction of the 200-meter high dam, claiming it will result in the mass erosion of Georgia's Black Sea beaches and the flooding of coastal areas (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 1, No. 7, 14 April 1998). LF[05] IRANIAN AMBASSADOR REITERATES STANCE ON CASPIANIranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Safari has affirmed that his country still opposes the Russian-Kazakh proposal to divide the bed of the Caspian Sea into national sectors, Interfax reported on 24 April. Safari said Tehran believes that each littoral state should have jurisdiction over a 10-mile zone and that the rest of the sea, including the sea bed, water, and surface, should remain common property. He argued that all questions related to the legal status of the sea should be resolved by consensus between all five littoral states. LF[06] ARMENIA MARKS GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARYPresident Robert Kocharian and members of the Armenian government on 24 April laid wreaths at a Yerevan memorial to the victims of the 1915 genocide. Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Kocharian confirmed his government's stated intention that in relations with Ankara, it will raise the issue of recognizing the genocide. He denied that the move will harm Armenian-Turkish relations. Kocharian also advocated that an article pledging to achieve recognition of the genocide be included in the Armenian Constitution, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. In a 23 April address to mark the anniversary, Kocharian argued that the absence of either recognition of or expressed regret for the genocide contributed to the mass killings of Armenians in Sumgait in 1988 and Baku in 1990. He said that recognition of the 1915 genocide will "advance world peace," Noyan Tapan reported. LF[07] NATURAL DISASTERS ASSAIL TAJIKISTANOver a 48- hour period last week, heavy rains resulted in four times the average monthly precipitation in large areas of Tajikistan, cutting off communications to many parts of the country, ITAR-TASS reported. Both heavy rains and a small earthquake on 24 April are being blamed for landslides that have killed at least 15 people. In central Tajikistan's Garm region, a landslide hit the village of Navdi, leaving 12 dead and injuring 15. Damage to crops is likely to be severe. Health officials, meanwhile, are concerned that floods will wash bacteria into the country's water system, resulting in the spread of typhus and cholera. BP[08] KYRGYZ POLICE APPREHEND UZBEK SECURITY OFFICERKyrgyz police have taken a Security Service officer into custody after finding more than 3.5 kilograms of narcotics in his car, ITAR-TASS reported on 24 April. The officer was attempting to return to Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan's Osh region when a routine inspection at a customs post revealed a briefcase on the back seat filled with heroin and opium. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[09] CLASHES CONTINUE IN DECAN...Serbian paramilitary police and the Yugoslav army clashed at least three times with ethnic Albanian Kosovars in the Decan and Gjakova regions near the Albanian border between 23 and 27 April. The Kosovar news agency KIC says the Serbian forces used helicopter gunships and heavy weapons to attack villagers and killed at least 19. Serbian media report that the security forces routed several hundred armed guerrillas and weapons smugglers who had entered Yugoslavia from Albania. "The Times" wrote on 27 April that villagers in Koshara said that Yugoslav troops routed 200 "teenage gunrunners" on 23 April. The daily added that some Yugoslav troops, especially those from Montenegro, abandoned their uniforms or deliberately let young Kosovars escape the dragnet. PM[10] ...AND ELSEWHERE IN KOSOVAKosovar media reported that Serbian forces on 25 April shelled a village in the Drenica area, where the crackdown began at the end of February. Serbian media stated that masked gunmen wounded a policeman in Kijeva on 25 April and injured two more in southwestern Kosova two days later. There is no independent confirmation available on most of the Serbian and Kosovar reports, which contradict one another on several key points. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said on 24 April that the U.S. is preparing to impose new sanctions on Belgrade unless Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launches serious negotiations with the Kosovars about the province's future. PM[11] NANO SAYS KOSOVAR STRUGGLE IS 'SELF DEFENSE'Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano said on state-run television on 26 April that the Kosovars' armed resistance is an "act of self-defense in response to long-standing and pathological violence by the Serbian authorities.... Continuous Serbian violence has increased the indignation and hatred of the Albanians against the terrorist policies of Milosevic," he added. Kosova, the prime minister continued, "has become a priority for Albanian diplomacy... our police, army, secret services, in short, for us all.... We should work without becoming excessively nationalist..., but we should defend our national interests. We hope very much for active international support for Kosova, but we should remember that the [international Contact Group] is not united on the issue." PM[12] YUGOSLAV-ALBANIAN BORDER STILL TENSEAlbanian General Kudusi Lama told state-run television on 26 April that the border region with Yugoslavia remains quiet but tense. He added that large Yugoslav army formations are positioned only 200 meters from the Albanian frontier in some areas and the Albanian army is on a state of maximum alert. The previous day, the Albanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that recent "border incidents claimed by the Belgrade government are totally untrue.... There has been no traffic of arms or men from Albanian territory into Yugoslavia." Albanian media suggested that the Yugoslav authorities staged the alleged incidents of arms smuggling as part of an ongoing campaign aimed at intimidating Tirana. PM[13] ALBANIAN POLICE THREATEN TO EXPEL KOSOVARSUnnamed officials of the Albanian Secret Service (SHIK) told "Koha Jone" on 25 April that they ordered a group of some 1,000 immigrants from Kosova either to register as refugees or return to Kosova unarmed. They threatened to hand the refugees over to the federal Yugoslav authorities if the latter rejected those options. The officials added that the group arrived in the northern Albanian city of Tropoja last week and "requested arms [from local officials] to fight" against Serbian police forces in Kosova. SHIK estimates that by 26 April, some 80 percent of the members of the group had returned, "Koha Jone" reported. Only 22 refugees from Kosova are officially registered in Albania. Recently arrived refugees told "Koha Jone" that they saw Kosova Liberation Army fighters hiding in the Has mountains, but they gave no further details. FS[14] DOUBTS ON SERBIAN REFERENDUMOn 25 April, a spokesman for the opposition Belgrade Center for Free Elections and Democracy questioned the official figure of 73 percent turnout in the referendum two days earlier against foreign mediation in Kosova (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 April 1998). The spokesman noted that ethnic Serbs make up only 63 percent of Serbia's population and that the leaders of most ethnic minority political organizations had called for a boycott of the vote, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Belgrade. Meanwhile in Skopje, Macedonian Defense Minister Lazar Kitanovski and his Greek counterpart, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, agreed on unspecified joint military measures aimed at promoting regional stability should the Kosova crisis intensify. PM[15] ETHNIC CLASHES ROCK BOSNIABosnian Serb and Muslim crowds blocked the road linking Muslim-held Tuzla with Serb-controlled Doboj on 27 April. The previous day, a grenade attack wounded at least five Serbs in the inter- entity border region through which the road passes. Following the incident, Serbs stoned Muslims, injuring three. Elsewhere, some 200 Bosnian Serb refugees arrived in Banja Luka from Croatian-held Drvar, where the Serbs recently returned to their homes. Well-organized Croatian mobs have been intimidating the Serbs since their return and recently burned some Serbian homes. Meanwhile in the Derventa area on 25 April, Bosnian Serb crowds blocked the road to busses carrying Croatian refugees to a Mass near their former homes (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 April 1998). PM[16] SLOVENIAN COURT SENTENCES JOURNALISTThe Ljubljana regional court gave a one-month suspended sentence to Bostjan Celec on 24 April. The court ruled that Celec had damaged the reputation and integrity of a Maribor politician by suggesting in an article last year that the politician was responsible for his wife's death and for forcing his son out of the house. PM[17] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT APPROVES NEW CABINETRexhep Meidani on 25 April approved the final members of the new cabinet proposed by Prime Minister Fatos Nano earlier this month. Meidani had delayed approving Defense Minister Luan Hajdaraga and Culture Minister Edi Rama until the resignation of their predecessors (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 April 1998). Meidani also appointed Sabit Brokaj, who was Hajdaraga's predecessor, as his own military adviser. In a statement explaining his resignation as defense minister, Brokaj accused Nano on 24 April of having "neglected the country's defense at a time when Serbian troops are getting close to the Albanian borders." Rama's predecessor, Socialist deputy Arta Dade, also criticized Nano and threatened to bring a no- confidence vote against the prime minister, "Koha Jone" reported. FS[18] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT EXPLAINS CIGARETTE SMUGGLING AFFAIR...President Emil Constantinescu said after a 25 April meeting of the Supreme National Defense Council that the recent "cigarette-smuggling affair" resulted from a "trap" set up by those "responsible for the struggle against corruption." Earlier this month, a Ukrainian-chartered Bulgarian air plane unloaded a large transport of smuggled cigarettes at Bucharest's military airport. Constantinescu said the trap was a result of "long investigations" by the Romanian Intelligence Service. He added that the Prosecutor-General's Office is now investigating several high-ranking officers, including a colonel of the Special Protection Guard. On 26 April, he commander of the military airport was detained for five days. MS[19] ...WHILE TUDOR, OTHER DEPUTIES TO BE INVESTIGATEDThe Supreme National Defense Council on 25 April ordered the Prosecutor- General's Office to launch investigations into Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the leader of the Greater Romania Party (PRM), and another 15 PRM deputies. At a press conference the previous day, Tudor announced that the deputies have sent several Euro-Atlantic organizations a memorandum claiming that Romania is led by "mafia-like organizations" and that the president and other officials are involved in the cigarette-smuggling affair and other organized criminal activities. Tudor claimed Constantinescu had received a $2 million bribe for his involvement in the cigarette-smuggling and other affairs and that the money is to be used to finance his presidential campaign in the year 2000. MS[20] FUNAR SETS UP OWN PARTYGheorghe Funar, the nationalist mayor of Cluj, on 25 April launched the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). Some 600 delegates attended the Cluj congress of the new political formation, most of whose members left the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) after its leadership expelled Funar last year. Three deputies and one senator from the PUNR have joined the formation. PUNR leader Valeriu Tabara said he will contest in court Funar's right to use that name. In 1990, the PUNR joined an electoral alliance with the Republican Party, which was called the AUR. MS[21] BULGARIANS PROTEST TOWN'S RENAMINGFor the third day in a row, protesters on 24 April blocked the main road to the border town of Vidin to protest President Petar Stoyanov's decree giving the small northern town of Pelovo the new name of Iskar. Stoyanov has refused to reconsider that decision, noting that Pelovo was named after the local communist Pelo Pelov, who is known to have been associated with the political purges that followed the communist takeover. Stoyanov said towns and villages in Bulgaria must no longer carry the names of "people responsible for the division of the nation," RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reported. The opposition Socialist Party organized the protest in Vidin. The ruling Union of Democratic Forces (ODS) has also proposed changing the name of Dimitrovgrad, which is named after communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. MS[22] BULGARIAN SOCIALIST PARTY LOSES MEMBERSSome 11,000 people in Sofia alone have recently left the opposition Socialist Party, party leader Nikola Koichev told journalists on 24 April. Koichev said the Socialist Party branch in the capital now has 39,000 members. He attributed its dwindling membership to "lack of motivation" and "the easy way the party gave up power" in 1997, an RFE/RL correspondent in Sofia reported. According to figures released by the party, the Socialists have lost some 42,000 members nationwide since 1994, although they remain the largest party in Bulgaria. The ODS last month announced it has set a target of 80,000 members. On 25 April, the Union of People Persecuted Under Communism announced that it plans to formally join the ODS. MS[C] END NOTE[23] DUMA RELENTS, APPROVES KIRIENKOby Floriana FossatoSergei Kirienko, President Boris Yeltsin's nominee for prime minister, was confirmed at the end of last week after being rejected twice earlier this month. As expected, deputies of the State Duma (lower house) decided to cast their ballots in private, using special ballots in an election- style polling booth. This slower method allowed Communist deputies to depart from the Party line against Kirienko, agreed by Party leaders, and to vote without being seeing. Only members of Grigorii Yavlinskii's Yabloko faction kept their word and refused--as a bloc--to vote. Most other factions were split. Kirienko needed 226 votes to be approved by the 450-member Duma. With a total of 251 deputies backing Kirienko and 25 voting against, the outcome is seen as a clear victory for Yeltsin, who had refused to compromise with the Communist opposition and to offer another candidate. Having waited until the very last moment before acknowledging that Yeltsin would resolutely stick with Kirienko, Communist leaders seem to have lost their opportunity to take part in consultations with the Kremlin on the formation of the new government. Even if the Duma had again rejected Kirienko, Yeltsin would have had the constitutional right to appoint the young technocrat as premier. He would also have had the right to dissolve the Duma and call early elections. That would effectively have paralyzed the adoption of much- needed economic legislation for most of 1998. By contrast, the more pragmatic Federation Council (the upper house), had urged the Duma to confirm Kirienko and avoid plunging Russia into new political and economic uncertainty. The leader of the Our Home is Russia faction, Aleksandr Shokhin, said after casting his ballot that he would meet with Kirienko the same day to discuss cabinet posts. Our Home is Russia is led by former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who the day before the vote had said the movement's 67-member parliamentary faction would support Kirienko. Shokhin said that, in his opinion, "at least two representatives" of Our Home is Russia will join the government and that one would possibly even be a deputy prime minister. Russian media noted before the vote that Shokhin, a former economics minister, was hoping to replace acting First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov in a new government. Most analysts agree that Nemtsov, who originally brought Kirienko to Moscow, is likely to retain a prominent post in the new government. In recent weeks, "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" has led a strong campaign against Kirienko--apparently reflecting the view of Boris Berezovskii, the business magnates who controls the newspaper. Yeltsin is reported to have recently warned the magnate that he should limit his intrigues or leave the country. Berezovskii has denied those reports. However, Kremlin officials said in private conversations with RFE/RL correspondents that they believe unnamed "business interests" had influenced some deputies during the second round of vote, resulting in Kirienko's rejection. Shortly before the third vote on Kirienko's nomination, "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" argued that the appointment of Kirienko might prove a "Pyrrhic victory" for Yeltsin if it prompted unnamed "oligarchs" to become the president's opponents. The newspaper also claimed that since Yeltsin sacked Chernomyrdin's government, Yeltsin has been unable to realize his goal of obtaining an "apolitical government of technocrats" that would better manage the economy. On the same day as the third vote, Russian media controlled by business interests seen as close to Berezovskii ran reports about former Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii Chubais's possible appointment at Unified Energy Systems. First Radio Ekho Moskvy and then the commercial NTV television station quoted an unnamed source close to the presidential administration as saying that Yeltsin had assented to the appointment. Both the radio and the television are part of NTV Media Holding, a powerful media conglomerate controlled by Vladimir Gussinskii. The presidential press service immediately "categorically denied" the rumor, and Chubais's spokesman Andrei Trapeznikov told RFE/RL that the reports were "political disinformation" designed to spoil the Duma vote and deter deputies from voting for Kirienko. In contrast, media financed by Oneksimbank, seen as close to Chubais and the so-called "reformist camp," have advocated appointing Chubais to head the electricity- generating monopoly and putting Nemtsov in charge of supervising natural monopolies in the energy and transportation sectors. Chubais's appointment, if confirmed by a meeting of the EES board of directors this month, would be welcomed by investors but would likely be bad news for some influential businessmen and politicians. Most observers agree it would keep Russia's second-largest company and most-traded stock in the hands of the reformist camp, thus giving the company the possibility to control one of the possible strategic sources of financing for the 2000 presidential election. Communist leaders' attempt to try to negotiate Chubais's possible appointment as a main condition for backing Kirienko was most likely a tactical mistake-- because, in the president's eyes, it may have linked the opposition with the "oligarchs." As one unidentified Kremlin official said recently, "Yeltsin is more and more convinced that he himself is a young reformer. After sacking Chernomyrdin and saying he wanted young people in the government to increase the pace of reform, the president is trying to stick exactly to what he said." Skeptics, however, are asking how long Yeltsin will continue supporting the young reformers. He has provided ample proof in the past that his decisions can be most unpredictable. Also, Yeltsin's support will certainly not make it easier for Kirienko to work with a Duma that voted for him above all to maintain its own existence. The author is a Moscow-based RFE/RL correspondent. 27-04-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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