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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 231, 98-12-03Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 231, 3 December 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] SEARCH FOR SOLUTION TO KARABAKH CONFLICT CONTINUES...On the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting in Oslo, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met with the head of the U.S. delegation, Stephen Sestanovich, and with his Italian and Spanish counterparts to discuss the latest OSCE proposals for resolving the Karabakh conflict, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Norwegian capital. Italy is a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, but Spain is not. Addressing the OSCE meeting, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Tofik Zulfugarov repeated Azerbaijan's rejection of the proposals, which he termed a violation of Azerbaijan's sovereignty. Armenia and Stepanakert have said they will accept the proposals, despite reservations. LF[02] ...AS ARMENIAN OPPOSITION QUESTIONS CONTENT OF LATEST PEACE PLANArmenian parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Hovannes Igitian told journalists in Yerevan on 2 December that the new proposals do not, as widely reported, advocate Azerbaijan and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic creating a "common state." Igitian claimed that the new proposals would give Karabakh only broad autonomy within Azerbaijan, and he expressed his bewilderment that Baku has rejected them, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Former Armenian parliamentary speaker Babken Ararktsian had told journalists on 26 November that the most recent Minsk Group proposals "contain nothing new," but he suggested that Azerbaijan's rejection of those proposals was motivated by a desire to delay indefinitely a solution to the conflict. Both Igitian and Ararktsian are members of the former ruling Hanrapetitiun coalition,. which supported Levon Ter- Petrossian. The former president's stated willingness to accept a compromise solution to the conflict precipitated his resignation under pressure. LF[03] WESTERN AMBASSADORS TRY TO EXPEDITE ABKHAZ AGREEMENTAmbassadors to Tbilisi from the five Western countries that are members of the informal UN Secretary-General's Friends of Georgia group traveled to Sukhumi on 2 December for talks with Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba, ITAR- TASS reported. The talks were intended to clarify the reasons for the delay in the proposed meeting between Ardzinba and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze at which a protocol on the repatriation of ethnic Georgians to Abkhazia and a non-aggression pact is to be signed (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 and 19 November 1998). Ardzinba's adviser, Astamur Tania, has accused Tbilisi of demanding last-minute amendments to the two agreements. The Russian Foreign Ministry has also issued a statement expressing the hope that the two agreements will be signed soon as well as its concern at continuing terrorist acts in Abkhazia by maverick armed bands, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 3 December. LF[04] KYRGYZSTAN, UZBEKISTAN DECLARE AMNESTIESThe Uzbek and Kyrgyz presidents on 2 December declared an amnesty for some prisoners in their countries, Russian media sources reported. In Uzbekistan, veterans of World War Two, emergency workers at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant after the disaster in 1986, women over 60, minors, and the handicapped will be released over a four-month period beginning on 8 December, the sixth anniversary of the Uzbek Constitution. Other prisoners may have their sentences reduced. In Kyrgyzstan, 2,000 prisoners will be released on 10 December in honor of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. Those to be released are mainly minors and women, although some jailed for economic crimes may be set free if they can pay three times the amount of money they were charged with misappropriating. BP[05] KAZAKH COURT ORDERS OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER CLOSEDAlmaty City Court ordered the opposition newspaper "DAT" closed because of bankruptcy, RFE/RL correspondents reported. The court appointed a liquidation commission to seize the newspaper's assets and warned its owners to stop publishing or face a criminal case. The case against "DAT" on charges of unpaid taxes was opened this summer. Tax officials seized some of the newspaper's assets, but "DAT" had issues published in Russia and transported into Kazakhstan. Customs officials have confiscated those issues several times. The announcement of the newspaper's closure coincides with the start of the Kazakh presidential race. "DAT" has been connected with candidates running against incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev. BP[06] SMUGGLING ON THE RISE IN KYRGYZSTANPrime Minister Kubanychbek Jumaliev signed a decree on 2 December aimed at stepping up the fight against smuggling, RFE/RL correspondents in Bishkek reported. Smuggled goods that have been confiscated are now subject to excise taxes and customs duties. A government official told RFE/RL that 60 percent of cigarettes, 30 percent of alcohol, and 30 of oil products in Kyrgyzstan are brought into the country illegally. BP[07] NEW TURKMEN RULES ON HARD CURRENCY CONVERSIONThe Central Bank on 2 December published new regulations on the conversion of hard currency, Interfax reported. The manat can now be converted into hard currency only by people who are leaving the country for medical treatment and have a medical certificate from the Ministry of Health Care. Also eligible to convert currency are those leaving the country to study at foreign schools and state employees on official visits abroad. The Turkmen Central Bank said the move does not represent a suspension of hard currency conversion but is necessary owing to lower budget revenues caused by the decrease in exports of natural gas. Interfax quotes "sources" as saying Turkmenistan's foreign debt is equal to 75 percent of the country's GDP. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] NATO ARRESTS BOSNIAN SERB GENERAL...U.S. SFOR troops arrested Radislav Krstic near Brcko on 2 December and sent him to the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal. Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour said that the court indicted Krstic in October but did not announce the indictment lest he know that the tribunal was seeking to arrest him. She called his capture "very significant." Krstic is wanted for genocide and violations of the Geneva Convention on the conduct of war because of his direct personal involvement as commander of the Drina Corps in the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 and in the alleged subsequent massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men. At the time, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said that Krstic "planned...the action on Srebrenica. He has done an extraordinary job." Krstic is the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb officer to go to The Hague and the fifth person to be captured for war crimes by peacekeepers. PM[09] ...WHILE BOSNIAN SERBS TO LIMIT TIES TO SFORRepublika Srpska President Nikola Poplasen told the parliament in Banja Luka on 2 December that Krstic's arrest "embittered and upset" all Bosnian Serbs and could adversely affect the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement. Poplasen added that the Republika Srpska will reduce its contacts to SFOR "to the necessary minimum." Parliamentary speaker Petar Djokic said that the arrest "brings uncertainty to people, a feeling that every citizen of the Republika Srpska can be regarded as a potential war criminal in the eyes of the tribunal," the London-based "Daily Telegraph" reported. PM[10] U.S. ADOPTING TOUGHER POLICY TOWARD WAR CRIMINALS?Washington has adopted a "get tough" strategy toward indicted war criminals and placed a $5 million bounty each on Karadzic, General Ratko Mladic, and former Krajina Serb leader Milan Martic, "The Guardian" reported on 3 December. Unnamed Western diplomats told the London-based daily, however, that Karadzic is unlikely to "ever make it alive to The Hague" because he knows too much about the wartime roles of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and other leaders in the former Yugoslavia. Other observers suggested that the new U.S. policy may be linked to a tough line against Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 December 1998). The observers added that the key factor may be a desire to put an end to instability in the former Yugoslavia by removing from the scene those most responsible for that instability. PM[11] BOSNIAN SERBS PASS PROPERTY LAWSThe Republika Srpska parliament approved a bill on 2 December that confirms the right of former occupants to their homes and gives the government 30 days to respond to demands by Muslims and Croats for the return of their apartments and houses. Poplasen's Radicals opposed the measure, but legislators belonging to Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) voted for it. SDS spokesmen told AFP that they backed the bill as "the lesser of two evils" because it allows Serbian refugees living in Muslims' and Croats' former homes to appeal their eviction and requires the Bosnian Serb government to rehouse them if they lose. The SDS officials added that they feared that the international community's Carlos Westendorp would impose a "far worse" law if the parliament voted down the draft. PM[12] MACEDONIA APPROVES NATO BASEPrime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said in Skopje on 2 December that the government has made a "big decision" to allow NATO to base its rapid reaction force at Kumanovo near the border with Kosova. He stressed that the force's mission is humanitarian and is aimed at protecting the safety of 2,000 unarmed OSCE monitors in the Serbian province "in case of natural disasters or if [the monitors] become victims of extremists." Georgievski added that the government hopes that its decision "will contribute to Macedonia's speedier integration with NATO." In Brussels, unnamed NATO officials told Reuters that the force can begin to deploy to Kumanovo by 12 December. PM[13] ALBANIA, RUSSIA CLASH OVER KOSOVANorwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik told the two-day OSCE foreign ministers' meeting in Oslo on 2 December that he hopes the monitoring mission will "contribute to paving the way for a political solution" in Kosova. OSCE ambassador to Albania Daan Everts dismissed Serbian warnings to the international community not to maintain contacts with the Kosova Liberation Army, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 December 1998). The next day, Russian and Albanian diplomats differed over the proposed text of a final statement on Kosova. Russian officials want to avoid a reference to any one side--namely Serbia--as being to blame for the conflict. Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said his country cannot accept putting "on the same level the responsibilities of Milosevic and the Belgrade authorities with those of the Kosovar Albanian leadership for the crisis." PM[14] SERBIA BREAKS PLEDGE ON AMNESTYThe Serbian authorities have continued to detain some 1,500 Kosovars and have recently sentenced more than 20 others in connection with their alleged role in the recent conflict, the "Washington Post" reported on 3 December. A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told the daily that there is also a "systematic pattern of abuse" and torture directed against Kosovars held in Serbian prisons. The October agreement between Milosevic and U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke includes an amnesty for all offenses except war crimes. The Serbian authorities claim that Kosovars, who say they were only defending their homes, are guilty of "terrorism" under Serbian law. PM[15] CROATIAN OPPOSITION BACKS OUT OF TALKSSpokesmen for a coalition of six opposition parties said in Zagreb on 2 December that they will not take part in a breakfast meeting with President Franjo Tudjman that had been slated for the following day. The opposition leaders said that Tudjman would not agree to their precondition that he meet with them as head of his Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) and not as head of state (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 December 1998). Vladimir Seks, who heads the HDZ faction in the parliament, said that Tudjman may yet agree to meet with the opposition in his capacity of party leader, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[16] BOMB BLAST BLACKS OUT SOUTHERN ALBANIAUnknown persons blew up a high-voltage electricity tower near Durres on 1 December, blacking out several southern Albanian towns, dpa reported. Local police found another four unexploded bombs at the site of the explosion, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Artan Bizhga. Government officials called the bombing a "clear terrorist act" aimed at destabilizing the country. Police are investigating the incident but have found no suspects yet. Officials of the Electric Power Corporation estimated the damage to the high- voltage tower at around $25,000. FS[17] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT TO CURB SMUGGLING VIA ADRIATICThe government on 2 December sent a draft law to the parliament that will require owners of speed boats to register their vessels and limit their maximum speed to 40 nautical miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour). The measure is designed to curb smuggling across the Adriatic, Reuters reported. The Albanian and Italian coast guards began joint patrols along the Albanian coastline in early November to intercept smugglers before they reach the open sea (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 November 1998). FS[18] FIRE BREAKS OUT AT KEY ALBANIAN INVESTMENT PROJECTA major fire broke out on 2 December inside the warehouse of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Tirana. Fire brigades fought to control the blaze for nearly 12 hours. There were no injuries. Workers said the fire started after plastic boxes placed near huge spotlights melted and then ignited the blaze. The four-year-old plant is a $10 million joint venture involving Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Italy's Gruppo Busi, which also operates bottling plants in Italy. The Albanian plant produces about 100 million bottles annually or about 33 bottles a year for every Albanian. It represents the single largest foreign investment in Albania since the end of communism. The same day, another large fire destroyed parts of the Interior Ministry archives in the southern city of Skrapar, "Gazeta Shqiptare" reported on 3 December. Circumstances surrounding the blaze are unclear. FS[19] ROMANIAN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES REACH NEW LOWMugur Isarescu, the central bank governor, told an economic conference in Bucharest on 2 December that the country's foreign exchange reserves have dropped to $1.85 billion, the lowest level so far this year, AP reported. At the end of October, they totaled $2.04 billion. Isarescu said the drop is owing to external debt payments and central bank intervention to support the leu, which has depreciated in recent weeks. In other news, Ioan Avram Muresan was sworn in as agriculture minister. Muresan had served until now as minister of reform. Defense Minister Victor Babiuc has been charged with adding the acting head of the Reform Ministry to his portfolio. PB[20] STOYANOV PRAISES ROMANIA FOR RATIFYING FREE TRADE AGREEMENT...Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov said on 2 December that Romania has shown "exceptional understanding" in ratifying Bulgaria's accord with the Central European Free Trade Agreement, Bulgarian radio reported. Stoyanov said Romania is the first country to ratify the agreement even before Sofia has repaid its debts to Bucharest. He said Poland and Hungary first insisted the squaring of the money owed them before approving Bulgaria's accession to CEFTA. PB[21] ...WANTS SOFIA TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY OVER NATOAlso on 2 December, Petar Stoyanov said that a distinction should be made between countries "seriously seeking" membership in NATO and those that have no chance of joining the alliance in the near future, dpa reported. Stoyanov, addressing the parliamentary assembly of the Western European Union in Paris, said that countries that have already applied for membership should be given a higher rank than those that have just expressed an interest. He suggested that an "action plan" be developed that would better define cooperation with NATO and pave the way for quicker accession to the alliance. PB[C] END NOTE[22] THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PAST CONTINUESby Paul GobleEfforts to write new national histories in the post-Soviet states are exacerbating ethnic tensions across the region, undermining national unity in several countries, and increasing cynicism about the value of history itself. Each of these three developments threatens not only the possibilities for intellectual understanding of the states' complicated pasts but also the countries' prospects for evolving into stable, open, and democratic societies. Consequently at a time when most historians in the region assumed they could focus on correcting the distortions of the Soviet-era history, many are being forced to address post-Soviet challenges that may prove equally fateful. These were the unexpected and unsettling conclusions of a remarkable conference of young historians from seven of the post- Soviet states that took place in Moscow earlier this fall but was reported in a supplement to the Moscow newspaper "Nezavisimaya gazeta" last week. The meeting was unprecedented in one way and unusual in a number of others. It was unprecedented in that it attracted scholars from so many of those countries to discuss their current common problems. And it was unusual in that it was sponsored by private groups rather than state institutions, attracted junior researchers rather than senior scholars, and focused on the ideological problems facing historians in the post-Soviet period. While there were significant differences in emphasis among the participants, all agreed that efforts by national leaders to use history to bolster their authority and that of their country pose an extremely serious threat. First, efforts to create new national histories are exacerbating tensions among the countries of the region and in some cases among the peoples within those countries. That happens in several ways: Sometimes these historian- recruits to the national cause simply put a minus sign in front of Soviet views. Sometimes that approach seems reasonable. Many North Caucasians, for example, no longer celebrate the actions of the Russian generals who conquered them. But sometimes it is questionable. One speaker noted that some Georgians refuse to commemorate Hitler's defeat because a few historians there had suggested that the Georgian soldiers involved had fought in a foreign--that is, Soviet--army. In every case, such an approach offends many people even as it affirms the views of others. But this "change of signs" from plus to minus and from minus to plus is by no means the worst aspect of the new national histories. According to Tamara Guzenkova of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, new national history textbooks devote little attention to anything except military history and enemies within and without. That, in turn, has the effect of creating an explosive cycle, one that not only builds up the image of the enemy, which all the participants said was an integral part of nationalism, but also infuriates the nation whose heroes are denigrated. Not surprisingly, several participants blamed this new slant on history for the recent wave of ethnic violence. In the words of one, "many contemporary ethnopolitical conflicts have their roots in the pages of history texts." Second, in some cases, attempts to foster national unity are turning out to be counterproductive, destroying the very social cohesion that the political sponsors of such histories hope to achieve. Efforts to create national histories, several conference participants said, often prove self- defeating. Many of the post- Soviet states are divided along ethnic and regional lines. And what some groups approve, others find offensive. In every case, there is a generational problem. Older people tend to hold on to the heroes and enemies of the past, even the Soviet past, while younger people tend to fasten on new post- Soviet ones. And because national histories can be either ethnic or political, historians and political figures who seek to make use of them have to make a choice. In Kazakhstan, for example, the new national histories emphasize ethnicity. In Russia, the latest histories stress politics. Both approaches create problems at home and abroad. Third, because many of these post-Soviet efforts are so blatant, they are discrediting history in the minds of many and thus limiting its utility as a means of overcoming the problems of the past and building a better future. While the conference devoted relatively little attention to this problem beyond reporting a poll showing that fewer than one Russian student in three can now name the other former Soviet republics, this may prove the most serious obstacle of all. But the meeting ended on a remarkably optimistic note-- precisely because these young historians are now focusing on this problem and talking to one another, something they could not have done in the past. 03-12-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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