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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 153, 98-08-11

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 2, No. 153, 11 August 1998


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] UZBEKISTAN READY FOR AFGHAN REFUGEES
  • [02] KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR JOINT ACTION OVER AFGHAN SITUATION
  • [03] KILLERS OF UN OBSERVERS IN TAJIKISTAN IDENTIFIED
  • [04] TURKISH COMPANY WINS RIGHTS TO SELL TURKMEN ELECTRICITY
  • [05] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT NAMES NEW ADVISOR
  • [06] GHUKASIAN WELCOMES ARMENIAN PRESIDENT'S INVITATION TO BAKU
  • [07] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT, OPPOSITION LEADERS TRADE ACCUSATIONS
  • [08] AZERBAIJAN EXPELS TURKISH KURDS
  • [09] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT GIVES REASONS FOR PENSION ARREARS

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [10] UCK VOWS TO FIGHT ON
  • [11] ALBANIA PROTESTS AIRSPACE VIOLATIONS
  • [12] NUMBER OF REFUGEES GROWING
  • [13] ARKAN APPEALS TO CLINTON
  • [14] HAGUE INMATES CHARGE DUTCH WITH NEGLIGENCE
  • [15] ABSENTEE VOTING BEGINS FOR BOSNIA
  • [16] KRAJISNIK DENIES RUMORS OF WEALTH
  • [17] ALBANIA, GREECE LAUNCH JOINT COAST GUARD PATROLS
  • [18] ALBANIAN ORGANIZATION CRITICIZES STATE TELEVISION
  • [19] HUNGARIAN DEFENSE MINISTER IN ROMANIA
  • [20] ROMANIAN FARMERS PROTEST WHEAT IMPORTS FROM HUNGARY
  • [21] MOLDOVAN METROPOLITAN BISHOP ATTACKS 'PROSELYTISM'
  • [22] BULGARIA PLANNING TO CUT VAT

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [23] WHEN THE PRESS IS THE PROBLEM

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] UZBEKISTAN READY FOR AFGHAN REFUGEES

    UN High Commission for Refugees representative in Uzbekistan Taslimar Rahman on 10 August said the Uzbek government is prepared to provide temporary shelter and help to transport any Afghan refugees across its territory, Interfax reported. The UN refugees office was moved to Termez, Uzbekistan, on the border with Afghanistan, after the Taliban overran Mazar-i-Sharif on 8 August. Formerly, the office had been located in the Afghan city. Rahman said no fugitives have crossed CIS borders so far. Meanwhile, there are numerous reports that people have fled northern cities as the Taliban troops advance northward. BP

    [02] KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR JOINT ACTION OVER AFGHAN SITUATION

    Kasymjomart Tokayev on 10 August said that the situation in Afghanistan should be discussed "immediately" by the foreign ministers of those countries that are concerned about the conflict, Interfax reported. Tokayev referred to a statement adopted by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in October 1996, after Kabul fell to the Taliban. That statement urged an end to the bloodshed. Tokayev noted that action will be taken in accordance with the CIS collective security treaty if the CIS's southern borders are threatened. BP

    [03] KILLERS OF UN OBSERVERS IN TAJIKISTAN IDENTIFIED

    UN special envoy to Tajikistan Jan Kubis told ITAR-TASS on 11 August that the Tajik government finished its investigation into the murders of four UN employees on 20 July. Kubis said "the identities of those responsible for the heinous crime have been established without doubt." He did not give any names but said he is now waiting for the quick arrest of the killers and an explanation of their motives. The results of the investigation have not yet been made public. BP

    [04] TURKISH COMPANY WINS RIGHTS TO SELL TURKMEN ELECTRICITY

    The Turkish company STFA has been granted exclusive rights by the Turkmen Energy and Industry Ministry to sell Turkmen energy to third countries, Interfax reported on 7 August and ITAR-TASS on 10 August. A condition of the agreement is that STFA use profits to finance projects to develop Turkmenistan's energy infrastructure and to increase the country's potential for exporting energy. STFA will build an electric substation to transport power to Turkey via Iran and will lay a 500-kilowatt power line to Pakistan via Afghanistan. The combined cost of those two projects is estimated at more than $300 million. BP

    [05] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT NAMES NEW ADVISOR

    Vahram Nercissiantz, former head of the World Bank mission to Armenia, was appointed adviser to President Robert Kocharian on 10 August, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. His area of responsibility was not specified, but he is expected to focus on economic issues. Nercissiantz, who is a U.S. citizen, said on completing his tour of duty in Yerevan in June that Armenia needs a special presidential body to oversee the use of international loans. LF

    [06] GHUKASIAN WELCOMES ARMENIAN PRESIDENT'S INVITATION TO BAKU

    Speaking on Karabakh state television at the weekend, Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, said Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev took a "very serious step" in inviting his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, to attend an international conference in Baku, an RFE/RL correspondent in Stepanakert reported on 10 August. Ghukasian welcomed the possibility of direct talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan but warned that Stepanakert should not be excluded from the Karabakh peace process. He praised Armenia's "clear approach" to resolving the conflict, saying that "we have a considerable capacity to jointly defend our positions on the international stage." Ghukasian described the economic situation in Karabakh as "unsatisfactory" but expressed the hope that privatization will bring improvement. He pledged to ensure fairness in privatizing agricultural land and to ensure that the local elections scheduled for September are democratic. LF

    [07] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT, OPPOSITION LEADERS TRADE ACCUSATIONS

    Musavat Party chairman Isa Gambar has sent a written response to President Aliev's appeal to five prominent opposition politicians to abandon their proposed boycott of the 11 October presidential elections, Turan reported on 10 August. While describing the abolition of censorship as a positive development, Gambar said progress toward democratization in Azerbaijan is insufficient. He expressed doubt that the existing Central Electoral Commission will be enable to ensure free and democratic elections. The majority of the commission's members were nominated either by Aliev or by the parliament. Aliev had told journalists on 9 August that charges made by Azerbaijan Popular Front Party chairman Abulfaz Elchibey in his response to Aliev's appeal are groundless. Aliev added that the opposition "does not have the right to put forward conditions," claiming that it was involved in earlier attempts on his life. LF

    [08] AZERBAIJAN EXPELS TURKISH KURDS

    Azerbaijani Interior Minister Ramil Usubov has confirmed media reports that a group of ethnic Kurdish Turkish citizens who entered Azerbaijan illegally has been expelled from the country, Caucasus Press reported on 11 August, citing ANS-Press. But Usubov added that his ministry cannot confirm that those persons were members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). In early July, the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry denied reports in opposition publications that the PKK has established an official presence in Baku (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 July 1998). LF

    [09] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT GIVES REASONS FOR PENSION ARREARS

    In his weekly radio broadcast on 10 August, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said corruption and shortcomings within the tax system are to blame for frequent delays in paying pensions and wages, Caucasus Press reported. Meeting with tax department officials on 6 August, Shevardnadze had called for "serious structural changes" within the tax service. He said corruption was the sole reason for the failure to collect all budget revenues in 1997, noting that only 79 percent of planned tax revenues were collected during the first six months of this year. Also on 6 August, the government approved a proposal to raise state-sector wages by an average of 10 percent beginning on 1 September. It also announced that pensions and unemployment benefits will be increased beginning 1 November, ITAR-TASS reported. LF

    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [10] UCK VOWS TO FIGHT ON

    Fighting continued in western Kosova on 10 August between Serbian forces and the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK). In Prishtina the next day, the guerrillas issued a statement pledging to fight on despite their recent losses. The text noted that the battlefield setbacks have "only strengthened our resolve to bravely continue on the road to freedom." It also called on Kosovars to "unite with the UCK and help us in our just fight for freedom," AP reported. The statement warned NATO not to station troops along the Albanian-Kosovar border, across which the guerrillas' supplies pass, "because we would consider this the second offensive against our freedom and our national pride." PM

    [11] ALBANIA PROTESTS AIRSPACE VIOLATIONS

    The Foreign Ministry in Tirana on 10 August issued a strongly worded protest to the Yugoslav authorities over three alleged violations of its airspace by Serbian helicopters near Tropoja and Kukes over the previous two days. The statement said that "such incidents carry the risk of escalating the conflict [in Kosova].... If Belgrade wants to apply such a confrontational policy with regional implications, then it will have to fully bear the responsibilities and the consequences of this conflict." The ministry also denied Serbian charges that UCK fighters have training facilities on Albanian territory. The statement stressed that Belgrade seeks "to justify its own military actions of ethnic cleansing in Kosova [by spreading] disinformation" and by blaming Albania for certain problems. The statement conceded that the UCK has arms supply routes on Albanian territory but stressed that Tirana is trying to halt the flow of those supplies. FS

    [12] NUMBER OF REFUGEES GROWING

    A spokesman for the Albanian Foreign Ministry said in Tirana on 11 August that some 70 Kosovars crossed into Albania during the previous 24 hours. In Prishtina on 10 August, a representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that the number of displaced persons within Kosova stands at 167,000. An additional 64,000 persons from Kosova are refugees in Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, or elsewhere, he added. Meanwhile, a Slovenian ship left the port of Koper with humanitarian relief worth $100,000 for Kosovar refugees in Albania. In Tirana, State Secretary Franko Juri of the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said that the conflict in Kosova is not an ethnic one but rather a political issue involving the democratization of Yugoslav society and the establishment of human and ethnic rights. PM

    [13] ARKAN APPEALS TO CLINTON

    Zeljko Raznatovic "Arkan," who is the Serbian nationalist leader of the paramilitary "Tigers," appealed on 10 August in a letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton for Washington's help in fighting "terrorism" on Serbian territory. Arkan, whom many in Croatia and Bosnia regard as a war criminal, told Clinton that the U.S. should not allow bombings similar to those that took place in Kenya and Tanzania on 7 August to happen anywhere else in the world, AP reported from Belgrade. "Mr. President, don't let...terrorism in this part of the Balkans continue, in the Serbian state that for centuries has been a friend to your state," Arkan wrote. PM

    [14] HAGUE INMATES CHARGE DUTCH WITH NEGLIGENCE

    Slobodan Ivanovic, a Serbian medical doctor who regularly visits the indicted war criminals held by the Hague-based tribunal, said that inmates, regardless of nationality, are enraged by the recent death from a heart attack of Milan Kovacevic, who was also a physician, "The Daily Telegraph" reported on 11 August. Ivanovic added that the inmates may be planning a revolt as a result. The inmates told Ivanovic that Kovacevic "died a slow and painful death as a result of a ruptured aorta despite repeated calls for help to jailers over a period of five hours." A hospital is only five minutes drive from the prison, where Croatian inmate General Tihomir Blaskic tried to revive Kovacevic. Dutch officials denied the charges of neglect and argued that the inmates receive better care than they would in prisons in the former Yugoslavia. PM

    [15] ABSENTEE VOTING BEGINS FOR BOSNIA

    Bosnian refugees living outside Bosnia, Croatia, and federal Yugoslavia have begun casting their ballots in the 12-13 September general elections, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Sarajevo on 10 August. The Election Commission had earlier processed 148,000 requests for absentee ballots, which voters must complete and send by mail to the OSCE in Vienna. Most Bosnian refugees live in Croatia and federal Yugoslavia and will be able to vote there at special polling stations. PM

    [16] KRAJISNIK DENIES RUMORS OF WEALTH

    Momcilo Krajisnik, who is the Serbian member of the Bosnian joint presidency and an ally of nationalist leader Radovan Karadzic, said that Bosnian Serbs fall into two political camps, the Belgrade daily "Danas" wrote on 11 August. One group consists of "steadfast Serbs," who remain true to the ideals for which they fought in the 1992-1995 war, and the other is made up of "servile Serbs," who have since signed political alliances with the Muslims. By the "servile" group, he was presumably referring to the Republika Srpska's leadership based in Banja Luka. Krajisnik denied that he accumulated a private fortune during the war and added that he has lived in one room in Pale for the past six years. He added that he is building a home on Serbian-held territory outside his native Sarajevo and that he has a small flat in Belgrade, but he denied rumors that he owns villas. PM

    [17] ALBANIA, GREECE LAUNCH JOINT COAST GUARD PATROLS

    Greek maritime police began joint patrols with their Albanian colleagues in the Ionian Sea on 10 August. The Greek police officers are based in the Albanian port of Saranda near Corfu and work as part of an Albanian Coast Guard unit. The joint patrols will continue for six months, ATSH news agency reported. Meanwhile near Vlora the previous day, patrol boats of the Italian financial police intercepted two speed boats bound for Italy carrying some 50 illegal immigrants . Most of the refugees were Kurdish women and children. During the past four weeks or so, Italian patrols have intercepted 52 speed-boats carrying a total of some 1,500 refugees, mostly from Kosova and Turkey. FS

    [18] ALBANIAN ORGANIZATION CRITICIZES STATE TELEVISION

    Spokesmen for the Society for Democratic Culture announced the results of their five month-long monitoring of state television (TVSH) on 10 August in Tirana. They concluded that TVSH gives too much coverage to events involving the capital's political elite and neglects the interests of the broader public, with only few reports about local, economic, and social issues. The observers noted that several independent newspapers provide more balanced coverage and deal with a wider range of issues than TVSH. FS

    [19] HUNGARIAN DEFENSE MINISTER IN ROMANIA

    Janos Szabo on 10 August met with his Romanian counterpart, Victor Babiuc, in the spa of Baile Felix. The two ministers discussed Romania's bid to join Euro-Atlantic organizations, the setting up of a Romanian-Hungarian peace-keeping battalion, and the conflict in Kosova, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Szabo said the battalion will have some 1,000 members but that there are financial difficulties in setting it up. He noted that if Romania "wishes to head to Europe," it must also pay attention to "all aspects of democracy," including "human rights and respect for minority rights." In this context, he mentioned the controversy over the Hungarian state university but did not link Hungarian support for Romania's NATO bid to a resolution to this controversy. MS

    [20] ROMANIAN FARMERS PROTEST WHEAT IMPORTS FROM HUNGARY

    Dozens of farmers used tractors and other equipment on 10 August to block the Nadlac and Varasani border crossing points with Hungary to protest imports and the government's agricultural policies, Reuters and AP reported. The Curtici railroad crossing point was also blocked. The protest was organized by the Agrostar trade union. Hungarian agricultural products are cheaper on Romanian markets than are local produce. Hungarian wheat production is subsidized, and Agrostar is demanding subsidies for Romanian producers. Last month, Bucharest increased custom duties on Hungarian wheat and flour imports, but Agrostar says that the measures have not yet been implemented and that it will continue protests until they are in force. Hungary, however, is threatening to take retaliatory action against the higher customs duties. Officials from the Romanian and Hungarian Agricultural Ministries are due to meet this week to discuss the issue. MS

    [21] MOLDOVAN METROPOLITAN BISHOP ATTACKS 'PROSELYTISM'

    The head of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, Bishop Petru, said on 10 August that the neo- Protestant Churches are guilty of "proselytism" and of trying to "lure" believers to a "misleading faith" that contradicts the "teaching of the Holy Scriptures." The neo- Protestant Churches are currently organizing in Chisinau the "Jesus Christ--Moldova's Hope" event. Petru accused the Churches of using "heavy funding that comes from abroad" in order to "attract those weak in their faith," the independent news agency Flux reported. Also on 10 August, a group of Moldovan historians appealed to President Petru Lucinschi to revoke a 2 July decree that sets national celebration days for the years 1998-2000. They argued that the constitution prohibits any "state official ideology" and that the official calendar promotes "Moldovanism" as such an ideology. MS

    [22] BULGARIA PLANNING TO CUT VAT

    Finance Minister Muravei Radev on 10 August said that next year, Bulgaria is planning to reduce value-added tax by two percent, to 20 percent. Radev said that income tax will also be reduced, but did not say by how much, AP reported. He noted that the 1999 budget will be based on the assumption that the country's GDP will grow 4 percent. And he added that GDP growth is predicted at 4.8 percent for 2000 and at 5.1 percent for 2001. Also on 10 August, the government decided that beginning next year, it will phase out a 2 percent import tax currently levied on all imports in addition to other tariffs. That tax was reduced in July from 4 percent to 2 percent owing to an improved balance of payments. MS

    [C] END NOTE

    [23] WHEN THE PRESS IS THE PROBLEM

    by Paul Goble

    The new free press in many post-communist countries may be contributing to social and political problems there rather than helping resolve them.

    Nowhere is that danger greater than in countries where the reading public is split along linguistic lines, where individual publications both reflect these divisions and may even deepen them. That is the disturbing conclusion of a detailed study of how newspapers in Latvia, both Latvian-language and Russian-language, covered issues of citizenship and naturalization in that Baltic country during 1997.

    Prepared by two local scholars and summarized in the current issue of the Riga weekly "Diena-Dosug," one of the few publications issued in both Latvian and Russian in Latvia, this study found that the post-Soviet press as a whole is marked by sensationalism, tendentiousness, and an uncritical handling of sources. It concluded not only that the press as a whole has failed to serve as the "watchdog of democracy," as many had hoped, but that it is now "one of the problems of post-communist society rather than one of the solutions."

    Its authors, Ilza Shuman and Sergei Kruk, devoted most of their attention to the specific problems arising from the simultaneous existence of a Latvian-language and a Russian-language media in one country. They suggest that the differences between the newspapers in these two languages are now so great that in Latvia "there now exist two weakly connected information spaces." The effect is a further division of the two communities who read them.

    During the struggle for the recovery of Latvian independence, the authors note, newspapers typically discussed the same issues in the same way. Because of that, the two communities were drawn together by newspapers that engaged in an active dialogue across language lines.

    But now there is little or no dialogue across language lines. Instead, the study found, newspapers in the Latvian language focus on one set of issues while Russian-language newspapers focus on a very different one.

    A content analysis of 879 articles in 10 different newspapers showed just how deep this divide has become.

    On questions of citizenship and naturalization examined in the study, Latvian newspapers focused on passports and the rights citizenship provides, while Russian papers focused far more on questions about the status of non- citizenship and the impact of citizenship on links with Russia.

    At one level, this difference in coverage reflects differences in interest of the readers of the newspapers in each language. But at another level, and as polling data the authors supply show, the story is much more complicated and problematic.

    On the one hand, the Latvian-language press tends to respond to the interests of ethnic Latvians who are Latvian citizens while the Russian- language press tends to reflect the interests of ethnic Russians who are not Latvian citizens. That leaves the many ethnic Russians who are citizens in Latvia without an obvious place to obtain the kind of news that is of greatest interest to them.

    On the other hand, the study's authors concluded, the dramatic difference in focus often means that newspapers published in one language seldom enter into an active dialogue with newspapers published in another, a situation that promotes both isolation and suspicion. Moreover, the Latvian-language newspapers and the Russian-language newspapers divide according to what the authors suggest are specific national styles of journalism.

    This is partly inevitable: as the authors point out, "the expression of one and the same thought in different languages will come out differently." But the existing differences are both more fundamental and more a matter of choice.

    As Shuman and Kruk wrote, the Russian-language press has traditionally defined itself as a medium for the expression of the opinions of individuals rather than the communication of hard news. It also sees itself as more critical, when possible, than supportive of the existing political order.

    The Latvian-language press focuses more on information than on opinion, a trend that can help produce what the authors call a "quality" medium. But it also sometimes means it is significantly less critical in its use of sources than the Russian-language media.

    Shuman and Kruk end their study on a pessimistic note. They suggest that there is no easy way out of the current situation and that the closing of one or another newspaper will not allow the press to assume its proper function in a free society. But if the authors are pessimistic, the publication of their study gives grounds for optimism: only a press fully aware of its problems will be able to overcome them and only a press fully conscious of its enormous responsibilities will try to do so.

    11-08-98


    Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    URL: http://www.rferl.org


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