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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 150, 98-08-07Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 150, 7 August 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL MURDEREDHenrik Khachatrian was shot dead in his office on 6 August by senior prosecutor Aram Karapetian, who then committed suicide. The motives for the killing are unknown. A former member of the Armenian Constitutional Court, Khachatrian was appointed prosecutor-general in May 1997 by then President Levon Ter-Petrossian. Speaking on national television on 6 August, President Robert Kocharian praised Khachatrian for his honesty and professionalism as well as for his efforts to establish the rule of law in Armenia, Noyan Tapan reported. LF[02] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT SIGNS DECREE ABOLISHING CENSORSHIPAs announced by one of his advisers last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 July 1998), Heidar Aliev has signed a decree officially abolishing censorship in Azerbaijan. But at the same time, Aliev called for the creation of an alternative body to protect state secrets, Reuters reported on 6 August. Presidential administration official Ali Hasanov told Azerbaijani Television that the move to abolish censorship was not connected with the upcoming presidential elections. LF[03] OPPOSITION LEADER CONDEMNS ALIEV'S ELECTION MOVEFormer parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliev has told RFE/RL's Baku bureau that President Aliev's 5 August appeal to three opposition politicians to drop their proposed boycott of the presidential poll was intended to split the opposition ranks. Guliev was one of two other opposition leaders who have likewise declared their intention not to participate in the election unless their demands for liberalization are met. Guliev said that the "five" will continue to act in unison, and he condemned what he termed an attempt by Aliev to drive a wedge between them. LF[04] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW STATE MINISTERMeeting in an emergency session on 7 August, the Georgian parliament voted by 122 votes to two to approve the candidacy of former ambassador to Russia, Vazha Lortkipanidze, as minister of state, an RFE/RL correspondent in Tbilisi reported. Lortkipanidze told lawmakers that he will pursue a European-oriented foreign policy, adding that this does not preclude improving relations with Russia, which, he said, also aspires to closer integration into the European community. He argued that there is no alternative to continuing economic reforms but hinted that he might condone some protective measures to help local producers. The Socialist, Labor, and Popular factions had earlier announced that they will abstain from voting. Following the resignation of almost the entire cabinet last week, the former ministers of communications, industry, education, foreign economic relations, justice, and state property have not been renominated to those positions. LF[05] GEORGIA, RUSSIA, ABKHAZIA FORM ANTI-TERRORIST FORCEMeeting in western Georgia on 7 August, Georgian and Abkhaz representatives and the commander-in-chief of the Russian peacekeeping force deployed under CIS auspices in Abkhazia agreed to create a joint force to investigate terrorist attacks against the Russian peacekeepers, Caucasus Press reported. More than 60 members of that force have fallen victim to terrorist attacks over the past four years. LF[06] SUSPECTED MURDERER OF UN OFFICIAL ARRESTED IN TBILISIGeorgian police on 6 August arrested 20-year-old Zurab Bregvadze on suspicion of the 14 July shooting of a Polish woman employed by the UN mission in Georgia, Caucasus Press reported. LF[07] TALIBAN SUCCESS WORRIES RUSSIAN BORDER GUARD COMMANDERThe commander of Russia's Border Guard Service, Colonel-General Nikolai Bordyuzha, told journalists in Moscow on 6 August that he is worried that forces of Afghanistan's Taliban movement may soon advance to the border of Tajikistan, ITAR-TASS and Interfax reported. Bordyuzha said border guards in Tajikistan have already taken measures to secure the border with Afghanistan in the event that Taliban forces reach that frontier. Bordyuzha also said preparations are being made for the possible arrival of thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting in northern Afghanistan. BP[08] KAZAKH CENTRAL BANK CHIEF ON ECONOMIC PROSPECTSThe chairman of Kazakhstan's National Bank, Kadyrjon Damitov, told a press conference in Almaty on 6 August that inflation in the country will stand at 8 percent by year's end, Interfax reported. Damitov said in the first half of 1998, inflation dropped by 3.1 percent, compared with the same period in 1997, and totaled 3.6 percent. Damitov predicted that GDP will increase by 1.5 percent, well short of the planned 3 percent growth. He said the Financial Ministry's debt has grown by more 50 percent, compared with the same period last year, to reach 34.8 billion tenge (some $500 million). However, Damitov said he does not expect the tenge to drop significantly in value against the dollar in 1998, noting that in the first half of this year it lost only 1.73 percent of its value. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[09] KINKEL SAYS KOSOVA INTERVENTION WOULD BE DIFFICULTGerman Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said on 6 August that NATO intervention in Kosova would be drawn out and "enormously complicated," Reuters reported. Kinkel, speaking at The Hague, rejected allegations that the West has delayed taking action to stop the violence in the Serbian province. A White House spokesman said preparations for military intervention will be finished in a couple of days. Spokesman P. J. Crowley said Washington is outraged by the Serbs' continued use of violence against civilians. Kinkel also called on Russia to support a UN mandate for possible foreign military involvement in Kosova. PB[10] AFANASEVSKII IN PRISHTINARussian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasevskii traveled to Prishtina on 7 August for talks with ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and representatives of Serbian authorities and humanitarian agencies. Afanasevskii met in Karadjordjevo with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic the previous day, and both men urged new negotiations between Yugoslav and Kosovar Albanian officials, Tanjug reported. Afanasevskii told RIA Novosti after the talks that he concentrated on making Milosevic aware of Russian alarm over the latest developments in Kosova. JN[11] EU CALLS FOR EXPERTS TO PROBE MASS GRAVE ALLEGATIONSThe EU on 6 August called on Yugoslavia to grant forensic scientists access to the town of Rahovec, where mass graves are alleged to have been found (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 August 1998). EU officials said the previous day that they saw no evidence of the mass graves, which are said to contain the bodies of some 500 people. The Austrian daily "Die Presse" said the same day that there are two sites, not visited by the EU officials, that have been freshly plowed over by a bulldozer. UN human rights investigator Jiri Dienstbier said he has no independent confirmation of mass graves. He added that Serbian action in Kosova could not be termed ethnic cleansing when compared with what occurred in Bosnia. In Prishtina, family members of some 100 Serbs alleged to have been kidnapped by the Kosova Liberation Army met with Red Cross and U.S. officials to seek help in finding their missing relatives. PB[12] HUMANITARIAN GROUPS PLEAD WITH CLINTON ON KOSOVASeveral human rights organizations sent a letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton urging him to take immediate steps to stop Serbian aggression against civilians in Kosova, an RFE/RL correspondent in Washington reported on 7 August. The letter said the international community cannot afford to wait for a cease-fire or a political settlement before resolving the "humanitarian disaster." The letter was signed by 30 major humanitarian and human rights groups including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Institute. The letter said a large-scale crisis would occur without urgent action. It said the number of "besieged, displaced, and attacked" Kosovar residents nearly 1 million people. PB[13] HUNGARY WANTS BELGRADE TO STOP SENDING VOJVODINA CONSCRIPTS TO KOSOVAThe state secretary of Hungary's Foreign Ministry, Zsolt Nemeth, summoned Yugoslav ambassador Balsa Spadijer on 6 August to request that the Yugoslav authorities cease sending ethnic Hungarian soldiers and police from Vojvodina to Kosova, ministry spokesman Gabor Horvath told "Nepszabadsag." Nemeth repeatedly expressed the ministry's concern about the broadening of the crisis in Kosova and the call-up of ethnic Hungarian reserve soldiers and policemen to Kosova. In Subotica, the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina asked the Yugoslav Army not to send ethnic Croat conscripts to Kosova and called for the return of all conscripts from Vojvodina. (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 August) JN[14] MACEDONIA, UN CONFIRM MINING OF BORDER WITH YUGOSLAVIAThe Macedonian Ministry of Defense on 6 August confirmed news reports that the Macedonian- Yugoslav border has been mined. The previous day, a representative of the UN Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in Skopje said the minefields overlap UN patrol routes. Defense Ministry spokesman Petar Atanasov told Radio Macedonia the anti-personnel mines are on the Yugoslav side of the border. Yugoslav forces have been laying the mines for at least one month, the Skopje daily "Nova Makedonija" reported on 6 August. It added that four mines have exploded since 9 July. JN[15] MACEDONIAN ELECTIONS CALLEDTito Petkovski, the speaker of the Macedonian parliament, said on 6 August that elections for the 120-seat legislature in Skopje will be held on 18 October, AP reported. The Social Democrats won the last elections, which were boycotted by several opposition parties because of alleged voter fraud. PB[16] BOSNIAN SERB POLITICIANS PUNISHEDTwo Bosnian Serb politicians on 6 August were barred from participating in next month's parliamentary elections because of their actions in a protest to prevent the burial of a Muslim cleric, AFP reported. The names of Predrag Lazarevic and Slavko Zupljanin were struck from candidate lists by the Elections Appeal Sub-Commission for failure to "respect the codex of the elections." Some 800 Bosnian Serbs prevented the burial of Mufti Ibrahim Halilovic at the former site of the Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka late last month. In Sarajevo, the UN announced that 17 Bosnian Serb policemen were suspended last month for torture and abuse of authority. PB[17] MORE BODIES FOUND IN BOSNIAN MASS GRAVEUN officials said on 6 August that 70 more bodies have been exhumed from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia near Srebrenica, Reuters reported. UN spokesman Alexander Ivanko said many of the victims had been blindfolded and their hands had been tied behind their backs. Some 7,000 people from the Srebrenica region went missing after the fall of the town to Serbian forces. PB[18] CROATIAN TAXES ANGER BOSNIAN CROAT FARMERSBosnian Croat farmers blocked all but one border crossing between southwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia on 6 August to protest against a value-added tax on their produce, Reuters reported. Zagreb recently imposed a 22 percent levy and instituted other regulations on fruit and vegetables imported from Bosnia. Ahmed Smajic, the Bosnian agriculture minister, sent a letter to Darinko Bago, the Croatian ambassador in Sarajevo, protesting the actions as derailing economic cooperation between the two countries. Croatian farmers are also upset about the government's imposition of a 22 percent tax on the money they receive from government purchases of their grains. PB[19] ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES PLAN TO COLLECT ARMSThe parliament on 5 August approved legislation aimed at accelerating the collection of unregistered weapons. The creation of a central disarmament commission, headed by Minister of Local Government Bashkim Fino, is envisaged. Local disarmament commissions are to carry out the nationwide action to collect weapons over the next year. The authorities will first appeal to the people to hand over their weapons voluntarily; those who fail to do so will be liable to punishment. The law, however, allows several categories of Albanian civilians to keep their weapons. More than 600,000 arms were looted from depots during unrest in 1997. Police have so far collected only a small number of those arms. FS[20] ALBANIAN COMMISSION PRESENTS DRAFT CONSTITUTIONMinister for Institutional Reform Arben Malaj on 5 August said the commission drafting a new constitution, which he heads, has finished its work and will send the latest draft to the parliament for approval. The parliament will discuss the draft in September--after the summer recess-- and is scheduled to submit it to a referendum on 22 November. A preliminary version of the draft has been published in newspapers over the last two weeks. Albania's current constitution is based on constitutional provisions passed by the parliament in 1991 to replace the communist basic law. FS[21] BULGARIANS DIVIDED OVER ZHIVKOV'S LEGACYCommenting on the death of Todor Zhivkov on 5 August, Bulgaria's reformist president, Petar Stoyanov, said the former Communist dictator had overseen "one of the darkest periods of recent Bulgarian history.... Eight million Bulgarians lived during that long period with their work, dreams, and illusions, but also in fear and political repression." He added that "with the death of Todor Zhivkov, the era of Bulgarian communism is finally ending." The Bulgarian Socialist Party, which reinstated the ousted leader as a member earlier this year, praised Zhivkov and predicted "generations of Bulgarians would link his name to hard but creative work and a secure and easier life," BTA reported. JN[C] END NOTE[22] UZBEKISTAN TURNS BELIEVERS INTO CRIMINALSby Felix CorleyIn Uzbekistan, religious believers of all faiths are waiting in trepidation as the 15 August deadline for their communities to lodge re-registration applications with the Ministry of Justice approaches. Under registration regulations issued in a 20 June decree of the Council of Ministers, religious communities (such as mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples) have to provide extensive documentation to back up their applications, which the ministry must process within three months. Even for those with documentation that meets the strict new requirements set out under the revised law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations, adopted by parliament on 1 May, it is by no means certain that the Ministry of Justice will grant registration. The government and, in particular, President Islam Karimov have made clear their dislike of Muslims outside the control of the government-sponsored Muslim Board. Karimov has made frequent verbal attacks on such Muslims, whom he routinely dubs "Wahhabi fundamentalists," regardless of whether they have any links with the form of Islam found in Saudi Arabia. Indeed, Karimov cited the presence of such Muslims in Uzbekistan as the justification for the adoption of the harsh new law. During debates in the parliament, Karimov blamed such Muslims for instability in the country and declared that "such people must be shot in the head". But many religious communities in Uzbekistan--even some that now have state registration--will not be eligible to apply for re-registration, as they have fewer than the 100 adult members required under the new law. In what is being seen as a test case, the prosecutor-general of the Zheleznodorozhny district of Samarkand ruled on 25 June that a local community of Jehovah's Witnesses was functioning illegally without registration and that, with only 30 to 40 members, the community would be unable to gain registration under the new law. Uzbekistan's new law on freedom of conscience, which amends legislation first adopted in June 1991, is the harshest in the former Soviet Union. Registration is compulsory for all religious groups, whether local or national, and groups need the approval of the government's Committee for Religious Affairs before they can apply for registration with the Ministry of Justice. All unregistered religious activity is illegal, as is proselytism or any kind of missionary activity. Only central religious administrations have the right to publish religious literature, and all imported religious literature must be censored by the state. Under the same law, only centralized religious administrations can set up schools "to train clergy and other religious personnel". All other forms of religious education, even in private, are illegal. Religious political parties and social movements are banned. And only clerics may walk the streets in religious garb. The law specifies that those conducting "any illegal religious activity" will be subject to prosecution, as will religious leaders who evade state registration and officials who allow unregistered religious groups to function. Amendments to the administrative and criminal codes adopted by the parliament on 1 May spell out the penalties for the new offenses. First offenses are generally punishable by fines or short-term imprisonment of up to two weeks. Second-time offenders risk up to three years in prison for proselytism, for holding youth meetings, for teaching religion without permission, or for encouraging others to take part in illegal religious groups. For repeat offenses, organizers of illegal religious groups risk a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment. Crimes of violence with a religious coloring attract heavier penalties. Many of the provisions of the new law on freedom of conscience clearly violate Uzbekistan's human rights commitments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (Uzbekistan acceded to those two covenants in September 1995), as well as commitments enshrined in successive OSCE documents. The Uzbek government argues that tight restrictions are necessary to prevent religious-related conflict from spreading to Uzbekistan from neighboring Afghanistan and Tajikistan. President Islam Karimov conjures up bloodcurdling images of what would happen if Islamists came to power in Uzbekistan. But the system of control over all religious activity enshrined in the new law and backed up by the criminal code and the registration regulations goes far beyond the temporary derogations from international human rights commitments permitted in times of "public emergency." The Uzbek authorities are clearly sensitive on the subject of religion. On 1 August, Russian journalists Vitalii Ponomarev and Nikolai Mitrokhin were assaulted and beaten in the center of Tashkent by unknown attackers following their meeting with Marat Zakhidov, a well-known Uzbek human rights activist. The Glasnost Defense Foundation in Moscow believed the assault was connected with the journalists' investigation into "repression against religious organizations". The two had already visited the Fergana valley, a region with a strong Islamist presence. In one of the first responses to the new law, the local union of Baptists complained to President Karimov at the end of May that "the new law turns Baptists from peaceful citizens who obey the law into criminals". However, it is not just Baptists who will be subject to the full weight of the new legislation. How numerous these "criminals" turn out to be and how far Uzbekistan is prepared to go in flouting its international commitments will soon be seen. The author writes on religious liberty issues in the former Soviet Union. 07-08-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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