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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 102, 98-06-01Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 102, 1 June 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] GEORGIAN, ABKHAZ PRESIDENTS PLEDGE TO IMPLEMENT CEASE-FIRE PROTOCOLIn a telephone conversation on 29 May, Eduard Shevardnadze and Vladislav Ardzinba affirmed their shared commitment to preventing another large-scale conflict in Abkhazia's Gali Raion, ITAR-TASS and Caucasus Press reported. Ardzinba also agreed to allow Georgian women and children who fled during the 19-25 May fighting to return to their homes but said the men should be screened to prevent those who took part in the fighting from returning. Ardzinba demanded that Tbilisi halt the activities of guerrilla units on Abkhaz territory and that both guerrilla organizations and the so- called Abkhaz parliament in exile (composed of Georgian deputies to the Abkhaz parliament elected in 1991) be disbanded. The chairman of that body, Tamaz Nadareishvili, announced his resignation on 29 May, saying he still believes that Tbilisi can only regain control over Abkhazia by force, according to Caucasus Press. LF[02] GEORGIA CONDEMNS ABKHAZ STATE OF EMERGENCYThe Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on 29 May saying the state of emergency imposed by Ardzinba in Gali and parts of two neighboring raions two days earlier is a violation of the Georgian Constitution, Caucasus Press reported. The statement said the state of emergency could hinder the implementation of the 25 May agreement on a cease-fire and the return of Georgian fugitives to their homes. In addition, the ministry rejected Ardzinba's claims that Ukrainian mercenaries participated in the recent fighting alongside Georgian guerrillas, according to ITAR- TASS. Also on 29 May, Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Pastukhov told Interfax that Russia opposes any peace-enforcement operation in Gali Raion. Pastukhov rejected charges that Russian peacekeepers supplied Abkhaz Interior Ministry troops with the heavy artillery they used during the fighting. LF[03] ABKHAZ DENY TAKING HOSTAGESAbkhaz officials on 31 May denied Georgian media reports that four Georgians seeking to return to their homes in a Gali village had been taken hostage, according to ITAR-TASS. Caucasus Press reported on 29 May that Abkhaz fighters were looting abandoned Georgian homes in the villages of Tagiloni and Nabakevi. A Georgian Interior Ministry official told Interfax the next day that police in three western Georgian raions have been placed on alert and security precautions intensified at the oil terminal under construction in Supsa. LF[04] SOUTH OSSETIAN DEPUTY PREMIER ASSASSINATEDValerii Khubulov was shot dead in his car by unidentified assailants in the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz, on 31 May, ITAR-TASS and Caucasus Press reported. A Russian businessman accompanying Khubulov was also killed. LF[05] ARMENIA WELCOMES FRENCH PARLIAMENT VOTE ON GENOCIDE...In a 29 May statement, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian expressed his thanks to French politicians and the French parliament for their unanimous vote to recognize the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The statement said the open discussion of the genocide within the framework of Armenian-Turkish relations could have a positive impact on establishing mutual trust between the two peoples as well as on security and stability in the region. LF[06] ...WHILE AZERBAIJAN, TURKEY CONDEMN ITThe following day, the Azerbaijan Popular Front condemned the vote as an act aimed at the entire Turkish world. The front called for France to be stripped of its co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group which is mediating a settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Turan reported. Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem condemned the resolution as "an attempt to destroy Turkish-French friendship," according to the "Turkish Daily News" of 30 May. LF[07] UTO THREATENS TO WALK OUT OF TAJIK PEACE PROCESSUnited Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader Said Abdullo Nuri on 30 May announced that his group may cease participating in the Tajik peace process, RFE/RL correspondents reported. Nuri's statement comes one week after the parliament refused to endorse the candidacies of opposition representatives Khoja Akbar Turajonzoda for first deputy prime minister and Davlat Usmon as economics minister and adopted a law banning religious political parties. Nuri raised the issue with the visiting head of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, saying the parliament's actions are the biggest obstacle to peace and stability in Tajikistan. The previous day, Nuri received some unexpected help from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Valerii Nesterushkin, who said in Moscow that the ban on parties presumes those formations' activities will be unconstitutional, Interfax reported. He also noted that the prohibition may "complicate" the situation in Tajikistan. BP[08] KUMTOR HEADS VISIT TO DISASTER SITEThe heads of the Kumtor gold mining project on 29 May visited residents of the area in which one of the company's trucks overturned and spilled nearly two tons of cyanide into the water supply, RFE/RL correspondents reported. Dastan Sarygulov and Gerhardt Glattis said the company will pay for all medical costs of the more than 1,000 people affected by the spill and will install a water system to villages on the south shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. The residents have demanded that there be no further shipments of sodium cyanide along the lake's southern road. ITAR-TASS reported on 29 May that on the lake's northern shore, where tourist facilities are located, more than half the reservations for the summer season have been canceled following reports of cyanide in Issyk-Kul. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[09] DJUKANOVIC WINS IN MONTENEGROFor a Better Life, the coalition loyal to reformist President Milo Djukanovic, has won an outright majority in the 31 May election to the Montenegrin parliament and to local assemblies. With 72 percent of the votes tallied, candidates loyal to former President Momir Bulatovic, who backs Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, have some 35 percent of the vote. Final results are to be announced on 2 June. A spokesman for Bulatovic conceded defeat in Podgorica on 1 June. Djukanovic supporters in the Montenegrin parliament will be able to change the composition of the Montenegrin delegation in the upper house of the federal parliament in Belgrade and thereby affect the balance of power between supporters and opponents of Milosevic there. PM[10] ANOTHER SERBIAN OFFENSIVE UNDER WAY IN KOSOVASerbian forces launched a fresh offensive in the Peja and Decan areas on 29 May, the Kosovar KIC news agency reported from Prishtina on 31 May. The semi- official Serbian Media Center added that the police killed "several dozen ethnic Albanians in response to an attack by armed separatists" over the weekend. According to KIC, Serbian police are holding 200 Albanians captive at one location in Decan and 70 at another. Some 3,000 refugees from Decan arrived in Lipjan. There is no independent confirmation of these and other reports of fighting because the Serbian authorities have kept almost all foreign journalists out of the combat area for nearly a month. Some telephone lines in the region "were cut" in recent days, the VOA reported on 1 June. The same day in Tirana, Interior Ministry spokesmen said some 1,000 Kosovar refugees have arrived in Albania over the past 24 hours. PM[11] RUGOVA GETS BACKING FROM CLINTON...Meeting in Washington on 29 May, President Bill Clinton praised Kosovar shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova and other top Kosovar officials for their commitment to non- violence. Veton Surroi, who is Kosova's leading journalist and a member of Rugova's negotiating team, said after the meeting: "the overall general assurance, I think, the umbrella assurance is that Bosnia will not be repeated." Clinton's press spokesman noted that Clinton expressed concern that Belgrade is "resorting to large-scale indiscriminate violence in western Kosova" and that Clinton expects a "swift and firm response" from the international Contact Group to the Serbian offensive. Rugova told reporters that he urged Clinton to take "urgent action" to protect the Kosovars. PM[12] ...AND ALBRIGHTThe Kosovars on 30 May received promises of political backing from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright's press spokesman said she "offered full U.S. support for the dialogue process and emphasized that it must deal urgently with substantive issues." He added that the Kosovars told her "that they are prepared to hold the dialogue on a continuous basis given the critical security situation on the ground." Surroi, however, said the Kosovars want an improvement in the security situation before talks can continue. Elsewhere, USAID Director Brian Atwood said Washington will increase assistance to Kosova this year from $7.5 million to $13.5 million. PM[13] GINGRICH PRAISES U.S. MISSION IN BOSNIASpeaker of the House Newt Gingrich said at the U.S. Bosnian base at Camp McGovern on 31 May that "the American mission here is very, very important, and I talked to people who see differences between violence and that what is now happening.... We have to be prepared to do here what we can for children to have a chance to grow up in peace, to get a chance to get a job and peaceful lives." Gingrich stressed, however, that the Bosnians themselves must shape their own future and that getting them to do so "is a big challenge." Meanwhile in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic told her Serbian People's League on 30 May that she has opted to return the Bosnian Serbs "to the normal, civilized world but without abandoning national goals," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[14] SARAJEVO SERBS URGE EQUALITYThe convention of the Serbian Civic Council (SGV), which represents Bosnian Serbs who remained loyal to the Bosnian government throughout the war, reelected Mirko Pejanovic as chairman in Sarajevo on 30 May. The delegates passed a measure calling for the establishment of full legal equality of Muslims, Croats, and Serbs throughout all of Bosnia- Herzegovina as a prerequisite to solving key problems, including the return of refugees. PM[15] THUGS THREATEN JOURNALISTSIn Sarajevo on 30 May, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights issued a statement condemning a verbal attack by former military police commander Ismet Bajramovic, also known as "Celo," against the staff of the independent bi-monthly "Dani." The previous day, Celo and four of his body guards threatened physical violence against the journalists, whose magazine recently published an article on organized crime. The Helsinki Group said that "responsibility for the prevalence of this sort of anarchy should be shouldered by the centers of the highest political power.... [It is the top leadership's] fault that people from the margins of society have been promoted into heroes and have been allowed to become rich and powerful and out of reach of justice." PM[16] ALBANIAN ARMY OFFICERS DETAINED OVER ARMS THEFTA Tirana military court on 29 May ordered the continued detention pending trial of two officers whom it suspects of involvement in the recent theft of 100 mortar shells and 1,000 artillery shells (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 28 May 1998). The court charged two other officers with negligence but did not order their arrest. The depot in Shkoze, north of Tirana, was not guarded when unknown thieves stole the ammunition. Arms prices on the black market have skyrocketed since the outbreak of fighting in Kosova in February. Meanwhile, the Forum of Albanian Intellectuals said in a resolution in Tirana on 30 May that NATO should deploy troops in Kosova. FS[17] SCHOOL CHILDREN CLEAN UP TIRANAThousands of pupils from 70 schools on 29 May followed the call of Prime Minister Fatos Nano and the OSCE to clean up their neighborhoods. The children collected 10,000 bags of garbage, for each of which the OSCE will donate $2 for the purchase of school supplies. Garbage is a serious problem in Tirana and elsewhere in Albania, reflecting both the boom in urbanization since the fall of Communism and a lack of civic consciousness. FS[18] ROMANIA'S ETHNIC HUNGARIANS DEMAND UNIVERSITY IN CLUJBela Marko, chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), announced on 30 May that the UDMR will submit to the parliament by 15 June a draft law for setting up a separate Hungarian-language university in Cluj. Marko said that the UDMR will "cease cooperation" with the other coalition partners if government regulations nos. 22 and 36 are not amended to the satisfaction of the Hungarian minority. Regulation 22, which allows for street signs in minority languages, has been rejected by the Senate and the Constitutional Court ruled that it contravened the basic law. Regulation 36 changed the education law to satisfy Hungarian demands but was amended by the Senate. Meanwhile, on 31 May, Prime Minister Radu Vasile said he will invite Viktor Orban, the likely future Hungarian premier, to pay a visit to Romania. MS[19] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION PARTY SETS UP 'SHADOW CABINET'The Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) on 29 May announced it will to set up a 10-member "shadow cabinet" to monitor the activities of the government. The cabinet is to be headed by PDSR deputy chairman Adrian Nastase. In a letter to President Emil Constantinescu, the PDSR demanded early elections. Also on 29 May, in an interview with Pro TV, Premier Vasile complained that he is being undermined by members of the ruling coalition and of his own party who, he said, are "set on demonstrating that this cabinet will have the same fate as that headed by [Victor] Ciorbea," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS[20] BULGARIA, RUSSIA 'SATISFIED' WITH RELATIONSForeign Ministers Nadezhda Mihailova and Yevgenii Primakov, meeting in Luxembourg on 29 May, said they are now "satisfied" that bilateral relations have improved after the signing in April of the agreement on Russian gas deliveries to Bulgaria. They added that preparations are now under way for "speeding up" the visit to Moscow by President Petar Stoyanov. The two countries' premiers are also to meet. Primakov said Russia "fully shares" Bulgaria's position that "economic sanctions" over Kosova "can only have an adverse effect on the economies of Yugoslavia's neighbors" and are "a dubious instrument" for pressure on Belgrade. In other news, Deputy Industry Minister Stefan Stavrev and his Ukrainian counterpart, Valeriy Subarev, meeting in Plodviv on 29 May, agreed on closer cooperation between the two countries' arms industries in order to produce new equipment and sell it to third countries, dpa reported. MS[21] BULGARIA'S ROMA THREATEN 'HUMAN TORCH' PROTESTMembers of the Romani community in the northern town of Lom are threatening to set themselves on fire to draw attention to their plight as victims of discrimination and racist abuse, AFP reported on 30 May. They have been on a hunger strike since 25 May to protest the refusal of state firms to employ Roma and media coverage that ignores the Roma's problems and focuses on criminal activities among the Romani community. The protest is also directed against the Lom local authorities, which has not paid them welfare benefits since the beginning of 1998. Andrei Terziyski of the Romani Union estimated that 92 percent of Roma in Bulgarian towns are unemployed and that 90 percent of inmates in the country's jails are Roma. MS[C] END NOTE[22] WHY "WAG THE DOG" SHOULD NOT BE SHOWN IN ALBANIAby Fabian SchmidtMonths after the movie "Wag the Dog" reached cinemas in the U.S. and much of Europe, it has not yet arrived here in Albania, which plays a pivotal role in the movie. But it would probably be for the best if the film never played in Albanian movie theaters. First, the movie would create unnecessary misgivings among Albanians about U.S.-Albanian relations. Many Albanians would have to recognize how insignificant their country looks from a U.S. perspective, and their patriotic feelings could be greatly hurt in the process. A few years ago, there was a heated debate about whether Gianni Amelio's movie "Lamerica"--which depicted the exodus of thousands of Albanians by sea -- presented Albania in an excessively ugly light. That, however, could prove to be only a foretaste of reactions to "Wag the Dog." The movie is not about Albania, but about the White House. It begins with a female student claiming sexual harassment by a fictitious U.S. president just days before an election. The presidential advisers quickly conclude that the only way to detract media attention from the scandal is to start a war. Consequently, the president's public relations consultant (Robert DeNiro) hires a Hollywood movie producer (Dustin Hoffman) to start an imaginary war against Albania, but just for the television screens. The character played by DeNiro offers a simple and clear argument for choosing Albania: "Why not?" He points out that Albania is the ideal candidate because nobody knows anything about it and nobody would notice that the war was purely a Hollywood production. This indifference and ignorance regarding Albania crop up throughout the movie. The only picture of Albania is as much a product of the imagination as the war itself: A young girl running over a bridge, holding a kitten and crying from fear, as houses burn and machine guns fire around her. That scene is produced in a video studio from several components, none of which is real. The girl is neither Albanian nor holding a kitten. In reality, she carries a bag of potato chips. Her folk costume looks more Russian or Polish than Balkan. And her hysterical crying against the background of three Balkan-style houses, an unpaved road in between, and the bridge are as much computer simulation as are the smoke and machine gun fire. But the result is surprisingly realistic. In another scene, the president returns from a visit abroad to a rainy U.S. airport and meets a supposedly Albanian refugee girl and her mother. In a carefully planned gesture, he offers his raincoat to them, just as George Bush did to an elderly lady during a visit to Budapest after the fall of Communism. The girl says something in a garbled language that is certainly not Albanian. The only scene in the whole movie in which the Albanian language is spoken-- albeit only three words--is a television interview with the Albanian-U.S. actor Jim Belushi. Furthermore, the media picture of Albania that has little, if anything, to do with reality is completed by several stereotypes, including a group of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists trying to smuggle a small nuclear bomb into the U.S. from Albania via Canada. The second reason why the movie should not be shown in Albania is that some Albanian viewers may start believing that the film reflects U.S. reality. Many may come to think that successful media manipulation is what democracy is all about, which would seriously endanger the fragile sense of democracy that has developed since the fall of Communism in 1991. Also, many Albanians may develop a variety of conspiracy theories about U.S. policy toward Albania and thus may mistakenly conclude that Albania really is a key factor in U.S. politics. A favorite subject of endless and fruitless debates in Tirana coffee houses is how competition between the EU and the U.S. is reflected in their respective policies toward Albania. "Wag the Dog" would add ample fuel to numerous conspiracy theories on this and similar questions. While some may only mistake the movie as reality, others may want to make it reality, which leads to the third reason why it should not be shown here. The biggest danger is that politicians, journalists, and influential media representatives in Tirana may be tempted to take a cue from the movie. In a U.S. context, it is unthinkable that the film's scenario could actually become reality. CNN's Christiane Amanpour would quickly land in Tirana to see what is actually going on. But in Albania's still developing media landscape, mingling fact with fantasy has a much greater chance of succeeding. Journalism and politics in Tirana are closely interconnected, and journalistic standards generally remain low, with much speculation and few hard facts dominating coverage. Over the centuries, Albanians have developed a highly sophisticated, Byzantine cynicism about politics. With computer-video technology currently coming to Albania, journalists and politicians in the country may soon be able to "wag the dog" much better than Hollywood, helped by the lack of ambitious, investigative reporters. But in the last analysis, the danger that "Wag the Dog" will come to Albania is rather remote. Out of Tirana's eight former cinemas, only one has survived post-communist privatization. Most of the others have been turned into bingo parlors, which are more lucrative. The only remaining cinema shows almost exclusively pornographic and children's films. The author is Tirana Project director of the Institute for Journalism in Transition. 01-06-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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