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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 218, 98-11-12Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 218, 12 November 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] KAZAKH OPPOSITION PARTIES TO JOIN FORCES...Speaking by telephone from Moscow, former Premier Akezhan Kazhegeldin told journalists in Almaty on 11 November that Kazakhstan's opposition parties may shortly announce the creation of a coalition against President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Reuters and Interfax reported. Kazhegeldin said opposition leaders have already held exploratory talks on uniting forces and that they may unite and publish a joint political program by the end of the week. Kazhegeldin also predicted that the 10 January presidential elections will be falsified and deplored the lack of a law on elections. Kazhegeldin's participation in the presidential poll is in doubt since he may take part only if a higher court overturns a verdict handed down to him last month by a district court for participation in a meeting of an unregistered political organization. LF[02] ...AS COMMUNISTS CRITICIZE ELECTION PREPARATIONSThe Communist Party of Kazakhstan convened a special session in Almaty on 11 November, RFE/RL's local bureau reported. At a press conference after that meeting, party leaders negatively assessed the Kazakh authorities' preparations for the presidential poll. They also criticized the constitutional amendments proposed by President Nazarbaev last month. LF[03] UKRAINIAN DELEGATION IN KAZAKHSTANPrime Minister Valeriy Pustovoytenko and his deputy, Anatoliy Golubchenko, headed a delegation to a session of the Kazakh-Ukrainian Joint Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Astana on 10 November, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau reported. The next day, the delegation met with Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balghymbayev. Their talks focused on the prospects for processing Kazakh crude oil at Ukrainian refineries, the participation of Ukrainian workers in construction projects in the new Kazakh capital, and the possible use of Ukrainian Black Sea ports to export Kazakh wheat and metals. Kazakhstan expressed an interest in purchasing the controlling interest in the Lisichansk oil refinery, which is slated for privatization, according to Interfax. LF[04] UZBEKISTAN AGAIN DENIES HARBORING TAJIK INSURGENTSUzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov told journalists in Tashkent on 11 November that his country has not given permission to the leaders of last week's failed revolt in northern Tajikistan either to enter or to settle in Uzbekistan, Reuters reported. But Kamilov admitted that the border between the two countries is porous, despite controls on the Uzbek side having been intensified following the rebellion. Kamilov added that he has information suggesting that former Tajik Premier Abdumalik Abdullojonov, identified as one of the organizers of the revolt along with Colonel Mahmud Khudaberdiyev, is currently in Switzerland. Earlier, Tajik presidential spokesman Zafar Saidov said the ringleaders may have crossed the frontier into Uzbekistan. LF[05] MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRMEN IN STEPANAKERTThe French, Russian, and U.S. co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group traveled from Yerevan to Stepanakert on 11 November to unveil their new proposals for resolving the Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The co-chairs met with Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno- Karabakh Republic, Foreign Minister Naira Melkumian, and Defense Minister Samvel Babayan. In a later statement, Ghukasian said later that the proposals will be carefully studied, but he did not disclose either their content or when an official response will be forthcoming. Addressing the Armenian parliament on 11 November, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said the new proposals are "a much more realistic" assessment of the present situation. Those proposals would entail Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh forming a common state. The precise relationship between the two would be specified in a separate agreement to be negotiated later. LF[06] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT EXCORIATES OPPOSITIONLawmakers adopted a resolution on 11 November calling on the country's law enforcement agencies to take measures against political parties whose activities fuel tensions in society and damage the country's international image, ITAR-TASS reported. Also on 11 November, President Heidar Aliev convened an emergency session of the Azerbaijani National Security Council, according to Turan. The agenda of that meeting was not disclosed. In violation of the country's election law, the protocols on the 11 October presidential election that are provided by the district and regional election commissions have not yet been published in the national press. Those statistics should have been made public within one month of the election. LF[07] GEORGIAN WARLORD TO APPEAL SENTENCEDjaba Ioseliani, leader of the paramilitary organization Mkhedrioni, is to appeal his 11- year sentence on charges of treason, robbery, and attempting to assassinate Georgian head of state Eduard Shevardnadze in the Georgian Supreme Court, Interfax reported on 11 November, quoting Ioseliani's lawyer Gogmar Gabunia. Gabunia alleged that the trial of Ioseliani and 14 of his associates was marred by "unprecedented" legal irregularities (see also "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 1, No. 29, 15 September 1998). He added that if Georgia is admitted to full membership of the Council of Europe, Ioseliani will also appeal his sentence in the European Court in Strasbourg as he believes the Georgian court failed to demonstrate his involvement in the attempt to kill Shevardnadze. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] UCK WANTS 'IRAQ-STYLE' APPROACH TO KOSOVABardhyl Mahmuti, who is a spokesman for the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), said in The Hague on 11 November that the guerrillas demand that the international community "be as energetic" in its handling of the crisis in Kosova as it has been in its dealings with Iraq. He added that by failing to intervene militarily against Serbian military targets, the international community tacitly encourages Belgrade to maintain a tough policy in the region. Mahmuti added that the UCK "will not harm a hair on the heads" of the OSCE civilian monitors in Kosova. PM[09] WESTERN OFFICIALS REPORT 'LEANER, MEANER' UCKUnnamed NATO officers told the "International Herald Tribune" of 12 November in Malisheva that the UCK has improved its organization and structure in recent weeks. One officer added that it remains unclear what tactics the UCK intends to pursue in the immediate future. A Western diplomat described the UCK as "leaner and meaner. They are far from defeated [and] their morale is high," he added. Naim Maloku, who is a former Yugoslav army captain and now a strategist for the UCK, stressed that his fighters "made tactical, organizational and propaganda mistakes. But now we are trying to institutionalize the forces and give them a reasonable political leadership." He did not elaborate. Also in Malisheva, a Serbian police commander said that his men "are ready for attacks against us. There are groups of people [in Kosova] out of everyone's control," the "Financial Times" quoted him as saying. PM[10] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT DEMANDS KOSOVA WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATIONRexhep Meidani told the North Atlantic Assembly meeting in Edinburgh on 11 November that "the Belgrade regime forms an explosive island of ethnic hatred, distrust, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in the very heart of Europe." He added that the international community should put pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to allow the Hague-based war crimes tribunal "to conduct a detailed investigation of atrocities in Kosova." Meidani stressed that "the tragedy of Kosova is caused by the [Serbs'] failure to meet the legitimate demands of the Albanian people in Kosova." He added that the Kosovar shadow state structures are "not a Muslim religious movement, nor a nationalist one, but a movement for freedom." OSCE Secretary- General Giancarlo Aragona told the assembly that Russia is having "full and constructive" discussions with NATO on Moscow's participation in peace-keeping in Kosova. FS[11] MONITORING CHIEF ARRIVES IN KOSOVAU.S. diplomat William Walker, who will head the OSCE's "verification mission" in the Serbian province, said in Prishtina on 11 November that the mission offers perhaps the last chance "to avert an irrational spiral of more violence" there. He added that "it is obvious that we have a long way to go from this battlefield to the negotiating table," AP reported. Walker stressed that the mission will do its best to help the parties concerned reach a political settlement on Kosova's future but added that the mission will not serve as a de facto government of the province. PM[12] KOSOVARS SEEK MISSING RELIGIOUS LEADERLocal residents near Prizren told "The Daily Telegraph" of 12 November that they hope the British members of the OSCE verification mission will soon find Muslim community leader Sheh Sali Mujaj, whom Serbian police took into custody on 10 November. Serbian forces barred the monitors from entering the region while the police conducted what they said was a search for weapons. OSCE officials in Prishtina confirmed the incident. Villagers suggested that "the police want [Mujaj] because he has so much influence in our community." PM[13] OSCE URGES MACEDONIA TO REDUCE ETHNIC TENSIONSThe OSCE issued a report in Vienna on 11 November calling on the next Macedonian government to improve relations between the Macedonian majority and the ethnic Albanians, who form the largest of the country's many ethnic minorities, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Austrian capital. The report stressed that "meeting the wishes of a minority within the constitutional framework of a unitary state might even strengthen the state...[because it will help] strengthen the willingness of a minority to identify with the state." The study specifically mentioned the need to increase the number of ethnic Albanians in state institutions, including the police. Ljubco Georgievski, who is most likely to be the next prime minister, told "RFE/RL Newsline" recently that the key to improving everyone's lot in Macedonia is to concentrate energies on economic development and not on ethnic issues. PM[14] ZAGREB RULES OUT PODGORICA DEALThe Croatian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on 11 November that it can solve the questions of the Prevlaka peninsula and of opening border crossings to Montenegro only with the federal authorities in Belgrade and not with the republican leadership in Podgorica (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 November 1998). Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic had earlier suggested to a Zagreb daily that Croatia and Montenegro could solve problems regarding their common frontier between themselves and without Belgrade, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Meanwhile, the Zagreb daily "Vjesnik" noted on 12 November that outstanding disputes between Croatia and Slovenia will pass to international arbitration on 25 November if Ljubljana and Zagreb do not find a solution by that date. Questions involving the common border, Croatian bank accounts in a Slovenian bank, and the joint nuclear facility at Krsko have dogged bilateral relations since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. PM[15] BOMB ATTACK ON ALBANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT CHIEFUnknown persons bombed and badly damaged the downtown Tirana apartment of Constitutional Court chief judge Fehmi Abdiu on 11 November. The judge was at home with his family at the time of the blast, which also shattered windows of neighboring houses. He suffered slight injuries but his family members were not hurt. Reuters suggested that the blast is linked to the 22 November referendum on a new constitution. Abdiu has defended the referendum, which the opposition Democratic Party has denounced as "anti- Albanian" and "anti-democratic." Prime Minister Pandeli Majko on 12 November said that incidents such as the bombing "aim to discourage our efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Albania." Meanwhile in Shkodra, the situation was calm after unrest the previous day (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 11 November 1998). FS[16] ALBANIANS SHOW INTEREST IN DRAFT CONSTITUTIONThe Society for Democratic Culture (SHKD) on 10 November issued the results of a survey showing that two-thirds of the population are quite familiar with the contents of the draft constitution. The survey, conducted among 400 residents throughout the country, also indicates that constitutional provisions on human rights and capital punishment are considered the most important among the population, according to the "Albanian Daily News." Some 93 percent favor keeping the death penalty in the penal code, despite calls from the Council of Europe to explicitly ban the death penalty in the constitution. Some 20 percent said they know nothing about the new constitution, and 9 percent said they do not want to know anything about it. The SHKD will monitor the referendum with 1,400 Albanian observers, in addition to international observers. FS[17] DETAILS ABOUT ROMANIAN REVOLUTION IN UNCLAIMED CONTAINER?Romanian Information Service (SRI) director Costin Georgescu on 12 November told the parliamentary commission supervising the SRI's activities that the service is still examining documents from a container that arrived in the Black Sea port of Constanta on 16 October and was not claimed by anyone. He added that the documents "may affect national security." According to Romanian state television, the documents are related to the 1989 revolution that toppled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Georgescu says the SRI was informed about the unclaimed container by the customs service, but Mediafax reports that customs service director Nini Sapunaru says the SRI alerted the customs about the container's likely arrival. The container was dispatched from California by the Megapower company. MS[18] ROMANIAN STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE IN BUCHARESTPrime Minister Radu Vasile is to meet student leaders on 12 November following the spread of demonstrations from several Romanian cities to the capital on 11 November. The students are protesting high examination fees, outdated equipment, low-quality accommodation, and too few grants. Education Minister Andrei Marga has already met with the students and told them he supports their demands. Also on 12 November, miners in Balan, Harghita County, went on strike to protest the decision to cut power at the local loss- making mine, while workers in Hunedoara blocked a road in protest against unpaid wages and the decision to cut power from the Deva region copper mines. MS[19] MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT SURVIVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTEThe Party of Moldovan Communists on 11 November failed to garner enough support in the parliament to bring down the Ion Ciubuc's cabinet, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Although a majority of 38 out of 58 deputies present in the chamber supported the no-confidence motion, the vote was short of the 51 majority needed in the 101- seat legislature. MS[20] IMF MISSION ENDS MOLDOVAN VISITMark Horton, head of the IMF mission that ended a two-week visit to Moldova, on 11 November, said in a statement that provisional agreement has been reached on a economic policy memorandum for the remainder of this year and the first half of 1999. Approval of the memorandum by the IMF Executive Board and its implementation in the coming weeks will lead to the disbursement of a $35 million tranche in late December or early January under the three-year agreement approved by the IMF in May 1996, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Infotag added that the IMF is still opposed to the agreement reached with Russia whereby Moldova will repay part of its debt to Gazprom with $90 million in treasury bonds. Gazprom is threatening to cut supplies if Moldova violates the agreement and to stop supplies altogether in 1999. MS[21] BULGARIAN CHURCH RIFT DEEPENSA spokesman for the Bulgarian Holy Synod told Reuters on 11 November that Patriarch Maxim will not resign. A recent meeting of clergymen ended with a unanimous vote to replace Maxim by the end of this year (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 November 1998). The spokesman said that the "call for dethronement is unreasonable..., not canonical..., and not in line with the Church spirit." In other news, AP reported that Bulgaria's first full- fledged Jewish school opened on 11 November. The Jewish School of Sofia is the 12th such institution to open in a post-communist country with the help of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation for the revival of Jewish education in Eastern Europe. MS[22] BULGARIAN STATE TELEVISION CHIEF RESIGNSIvan Popoiordanov, director-general of Bulgarian National Television, resigned earlier this week, saying the station needs new people to manage it, AP reported on 12 November. One of the television's two channels is up for sale. BTA on 9 November said the reason for Popoiordanov's resignation was the refusal by the television's Administrative Council to accept his programming proposal. MS[C] END NOTE[23] THE LONG DARK SHADOW OF A DANGEROUS DECISIONby Paul GobleThe failure of the Russian State Duma to condemn the anti- Semitic statements of one of its members not only makes a new wave of anti-Semitism in that country more likely but may also threaten both Russian democracy and the territorial integrity of that country. Last week, the Duma failed to pass a resolution censuring anti-Semitic remarks by hard-line communist deputy Albert Makashov during anti- government protests in October. The measure attracted only 107 votes, far fewer than the 226 votes needed for passage. Moreover, that measure was opposed by 121 deputies. On 6 November, a group of Russian artists denounced the failure of the Duma to act, saying that the vote demonstrated "the moral and intellectual level" of Duma deputies, "disgraced Russia in the eyes of the civilized world," and opened the door to the worst excesses of the past. Unless people speak out, the signatories to the open letter said, the Russian people will deserve whatever happens to them-- even if it means a repetition of the events of October 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin used force to disperse the old parliament, or even October 1917, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power. Two days later, Boris Berezovskii, the executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States, suggested that the consequences of the Duma vote could prove even more dramatic. Speaking on Ekho Moskvy, Berezovskii said the vote shows that the Russian Communist Party, which opposed the condemnation of Makashov's anti-Semitic remarks, must be banned if Russia is to have a future. "The Communists now represent a danger to the integrity of the Russian state," Berezovskii said. On the one hand, they have converted themselves into "national patriots and nationalists," which could easily lead to new clashes between the parliament and the government. On the other hand, Berezovskii added, by failing to condemn anti-Semitism the Communists are "stirring up inter- ethnic discord" and ethnicizing politics, two developments that threaten both the prospects for democracy and the territorial integrity of the multinational Russian Federation. The policy implicit in the Communists' approach, Berezovskii argued, guarantees heightened conflicts among the country's various ethnic groups. Moreover, it demonstrates that the Communists have learned nothing from the experience of the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and thus have nothing new to offer. "The Soviet Union disintegrated on the national formula," Berezovskii said. "And the same problem exists for Russia." Consequently, if the Communists tried to take the country backward to the Soviet past, they would almost certainly promote the breakup of the Russian Federation. In the short term, Berezovskii argued, the communist approach would lead to the disintegration of the country, starting with non-Russian regions in the North Caucasus rather than with increasingly independent-minded but nonetheless ethnic Russian regions of the Far East. At one level, Berezovskii's apocalyptic vision is likely to be dismissed by many in both Russia and the West simply as a rhetorical device to mobilize support against the Communists for their failure to denounce anti-Semitism. But at another and more important level, his conclusions, like those of the open letter's signatories, reflect their understanding of a fundamental political reality: when a state seeks to exploit ethnic animosities to build its authority, not only does it violate the human rights of the targeted groups but it also threatens democracy and stability. For that reason, many in both Russia and the West are likely to take Berezovskii's words more seriously than they would have in the past. They will also likely agree with the letter's signatories that "if you care for peace in Russia, if you care for freedom--including your own--then you must act!" 12-11-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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