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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 239, 98-12-15Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 239, 15 December 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] AZERBAIJAN NOT TO ATTEND COUNCIL OF EUROPE KARABAKH HEARINGSAzerbaijani parliamentary speaker Murtuz Alesqerov told deputies on 11 December that Azerbaijan will not send a delegation to attend the 16 December Paris hearings on the Karabakh conflict, Assa-Irada reported. That meeting has been organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. An Armenian delegation headed by parliamentary speaker Khosrov Harutiunian left Yerevan on 14 December to participate in those hearings, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The hearings were originally scheduled for early November but were postponed after Baku objected to the participation of a separate delegation from the unrecognized Nagorno- Karabakh Republic headed by President Arkadii Ghukasian (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 and 27 October 1998). It was subsequently agreed that the Azerbaijani delegation to the talks would include representatives of the Azerbaijani community who were forced to flee Karabakh during the war. LF[02] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION LEADER SUMMONED FOR QUESTIONINGFormer President and Azerbaijani Popular Front chairman Abulfaz Elchibey was summoned to the Prosecutor-General's office in Baku on 14 December in connection with his 6 November statement that President Heidar Aliev was instrumental in creating the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turan reported. Two days earlier, Elchibey was required to give a written undertaking that he will not try to leave the country. LF[03] INDEPENDENT AZERBAIJANI NEWSPAPER FINEDA Baku city court handed down a $125,000 fine to "Azadlyg" on 14 December for publishing reports that members of President Aliev's family had purchased expensive real estate in the UK, AP reported. The newspaper was also ordered to print a front-page retraction of those allegations. Also on 14 December, editors of independent newspapers voted to postpone indefinitely a resumption of their suspended hunger strike after meeting with presidential administration member Ali Hasanov. Some 20 editors began a hunger strike in November to protest libel cases they believe are intended to bankrupt them. LF[04] DEMOLITION OF ARMENIAN MONUMENTS REPORTEDLY HALTEDThe destruction and removal of Armenian stone crosses and gravestones from a cemetery in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan has stopped, according to Groong on 14 December. Armenian observers in Iran had reported the demolition earlier this month, eliciting protests from Armenian officials (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 December 1998). LF[05] REWARD OFFERED IN ARMENIAN MURDER CASEThe Armenian Defense Ministry has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the clarification of the 10 December shooting of Deputy Defense Minister Vahram Khorkhoruni, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 14 December, citing the Prosecutor-General's Office. Khorkhoruni was close to Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsian, reputedly one of the most powerful men in Armenia. LF[06] ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW COGNAC FACTORY SALEArmenia has agreed to a request by Pernod-Ricard, the purchaser of the Yerevan Cognac Factory, to review the terms of the sale and extend for six months the deadline for the main payment, Reuters reported on 14 December, quoting Economy and Finance Minister Eduard Sandoyan. Pernod-Ricard had requested the delay after the financial crisis in Russia in effect wiped out demand for Armenian brandy. Russia is the plant's main market. Armenian opposition parties had protested the sale of the plant to Pernod Ricard, arguing that the price of $30 million was too low. LF[07] IMF EQUIVOCAL ON SUPPORT FOR GEORGIAHunter Munroe, the IMF representative in Tbilisi, told journalists on 14 December that "Georgia will receive the support of international financial organizations only if the government adopts a stronger economic policy," Caucasus Press reported. Munroe refused to predict how soon the Georgian lari would stabilize, after losing almost 50 percent of its value since early December. He said the IMF will take a decision on whether to release the next tranche of an ESAF loan after a delegation visits Georgia in January. Also on 14 December, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze ruled out a monetary emission to counter the lari's loss in value, Interfax reported. The IMF and World Bank have earmarked $200 million to cover half the estimated $400 million budget shortfall faced by six countries hardest hit by the Russian financial crisis: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan, Reuters reported on 11 December. LF[08] RUSSIANS, ABKHAZ ACCUSE GEORGIA OF MILITARY BUILDUPNikolai Rusak, a senior officer of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed along the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, told Caucasus Press on 15 December that Tbilisi has violated a September 1998 agreement limiting the number of troops either Georgia or Abkhazia may station in the border zone. Rusak claimed that Georgia currently has 1,300 regular troops stationed in the region, as opposed to the 365 permitted under the agreement. On 11 December, Abkhaz Interior Minister Amazbei Kchach accused the Georgian government of sending 300 troops into Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion, AP reported. A Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected that claim as "a provocation." LF[09] KAZAKH OFFICIALS CRITICIZE OSCE ADVICEPresidential candidate and head of the Customs Committee Gani Kasymov on 14 December commented on the OSCE'S 3 December call to postpone the January presidential elections, Reuters reported. Kasymov said that "as in every government, we have our constitution, and to say how it should work and moreover to give orders, right or not, is unsuitable." Revealing something about his own political standpoint, Kasymov commented that "democracy and a firm hand go well together," adding that "the people demand it and it is what they need." Senate speaker Omirbek Baigeldi also criticized OSCE statements on the presidential elections, Interfax reported on 14 December. Baigeldi said the early October decision of the country's parliament to hold elections in January 1999 "expresses the will of the Kazakh people." He viewed the participation of four candidates in the upcoming election as "the best proof" that the vote will be democratic. BP[10] RUSSIA INCREASES KAZAKH OIL QUOTARussia's Ministry of Fuel and Energy has offered to pump via Russian pipelines an additional 1.5 million tons of Kazakh oil and gas to countries outside the CIS, ITAR-TASS reported on 15 December. Kazakh Minister of Energy, Industry, and Trade Mukhtar Ablyazov called the offer a "gesture of goodwill," noting that 30 percent of his country's budget is based on sales of hydrocarbon resources. As a result, Kazakh oil exports to countries outside the CIS will increase from 3.5 million tons annually to 5 million tons. The Russian offer was made last week when Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymjomart Tokayev was in Washington to hold talks with U.S. oil and gas companies. BP[11] NUCLEAR TESTING SITE NEEDS $43 MILLION FOR CLEANUPA UN official, speaking in Almaty on 14 December, said that at least $43 million is needed to clean up the damage caused at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site in northern Kazakhstan during the Soviet era, Interfax reported. The official said the UN General Assembly discussed the issue in mid-November and agreed to submit 38 projects to the governments of donor countries. Kazakh Minister for Natural Resources Serikbek Daukeyev said his country cannot afford to clean up the environmental disaster in Semipalatinsk on its own. He added that negotiations are under way with a UN nongovernmental organization that is to offer between $5-7 million. BP[12] VOLSKII WRAPS UP VISIT TO KYRGYZSTANArkadii Volskii, the chairman of Russia's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, ended his two-day visit to Kyrgyzstan on 14 December, ITAR- TASS reported. Volskii held meetings with Kyrgyz government and business leaders, after which he said trade between Russia and Kyrgyzstan can easily be doubled. Volskii said if Kyrgyzstan exported rare earth elements to Russia and if transportation and energy tariffs were regulated, there would be "an instantaneous effect" on bilateral trade. Volskii also favored trade based on barter rather than hard currency. BP[13] AKAYEV SAYS DRUGS NO. 1 PROBLEMIn an interview with the Russian newspaper "Komsomolskaya pravda" published on 15 December, President Askar Akayev said that drug-trafficking is his country's number one problem, followed by "the infiltration of Muslim fundamentalist ideas into Kyrgyzstan." Akayev said the cyanide spill near the popular lake resort of Issik Kul this summer was not overly dangerous, "something immediately clear to me as an engineer-physicist." He commented that he is unsure whether he will run in the 2000 presidential elections but added that if the situation in Kyrgyzstan grows much worse, he will definitely not run. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[14] NATO DISMISSES MILOSEVIC WARNINGAn unnamed NATO official told dpa on 14 December that the NATO extraction force in Macedonia does not pose a threat to federal Yugoslavia. The official dismissed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's statement to the "Washington Post" that federal Yugoslavia would consider any NATO action to evacuate OSCE verifiers as an act of aggression (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 December 1998). The official said the force would act only "in a case of extreme emergency." Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke is scheduled to meet with Milosevic on 15 December in Belgrade and is expected to tell the Yugoslav leader that he must fulfill his commitments, a State Department official told Reuters the previous day. Meanwhile, the European Commission has approved $8.4 million in emergency aid to Kosova. FS[15] IMF POSTPONES READMISSION OF YUGOSLAVIAThe IMF has postponed the admission of federal Yugoslavia for six months, Reuters reported. The IMF has repeatedly postponed decisions on readmitting Yugoslavia since it expelled the country in 1992 as part of international sanctions. In 1995, after the Dayton agreement, the U.S. set three preconditions for Yugoslavia rejoining the IMF and the World Bank: full cooperation with the international war crime tribunal in The Hague, progress in talks on dividing assets of the former Yugoslavia, and an improved human rights record in Kosova. FS[16] ALBANIA PROTESTS BORDER VIOLATIONThe Albanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement to Yugoslavia on 14 December protesting recent incidents on the Kosova-Albanian border. The statement said that federal Yugoslav border guards fired several shots and shells inside Albanian territory, near Padesh, over the weekend. A shell hit the home of a local peasant family, destroying its roof. Albanian officials have asked Yugoslav officials for explanations. Yugoslav border officials failed to attend a meeting of a joint border commission scheduled for 13 December. FS[17] FRESH FIGHTING BREAKS OUT ON KOSOVA BORDERAt least 30 ethnic Albanians were killed and 12 wounded on 14 December in fighting with Yugoslav border guards near Prizren, OSCE representatives told AP. According to Tanjug, those killed were separatist guerrillas trying to smuggle arms and ammunition into Kosova. The ethnic Albanian Kosova Information Center confirmed there had been shooting in the area and reported that federal Yugoslav forces had surrounded three villages. Reuters said that locals had reported seeing a number of dead and wounded but had given no figures. Elsewhere, unidentified gunmen in Peja opened fire in a Serb-run bar the same day, killing four Serbs and wounding five others, according to OSCE verifiers. FS[18] IMPASSE OVER SERBIAN WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS...The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ruled on 14 December that federal Yugoslavia must bow to its jurisdiction, Reuters reported. The court demands the surrender of three former army officers who are charged with involvement in a massacre in which 260 unarmed men were killed in the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991. A military court in Belgrade has begun its own inquiry into the murders and called on the three to testify on 17 December. Western officials, however, have dismissed that move as a farce. The Belgrade court has asked The Hague tribunal to submit its evidence against the indicted men and has invited tribunal representatives to attend the Belgrade court session. FS[19] ...PROMPTING TRIBUNAL TO CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON BELGRADEMeanwhile, tribunal President Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald sent a letter to the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) on 14 December accusing federal Yugoslavia of obstructing the tribunal's work. McDonald informed representatives of the 51 PIC member states of Belgrade's refusal to recognize the court's jurisdiction and its failure to surrender the three indicted war crimes suspects. She argued there can be no lasting peace while one of the parties openly flouts the terms of the Dayton accord, Reuters reported. The PIC is holding its annual meeting in Madrid on 15 and 16 December. The talks will focus on the return of refugees, economic development, the reform of the judicial system, and the setting up of a centralized border police to fight widespread smuggling. FS[20] POPLASEN HOPES FOR DAYTON IMPLEMENTATIONBefore leaving for Madrid, Republika Srpska President Nikola Poplasen said in Banja Luka on 14 December that he is hopeful that the PIC meeting will help boost the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. FS[21] CROATIAN-BOSNIAN BORDER COMMISSION RESUMES WORKThe Croatian- Bosnian border commission met in Zagreb on 14 December to settle outstanding border questions, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The meeting took place, despite demands by Muslim Presidency member Alia Izetbegovic that Croatian police withdraw from the Bosnian town of Martin Brod before negotiations resume (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 December 1998). FS[22] CROATIAN TEACHERS' STRIKE FOR HIGHER WAGESCroatian high-school teachers staged day-long strike on 14 December, their fourth labor action this year, AP reported. The teachers are demanding a 12 percent salary hike and increased budget funds for education. The union decided to stage the strike after months of fruitless negotiations with the government and a series of warning protests and walkouts. Teachers earn the equivalent of $360 per month, well below the national average salary of $450. About 80 percent of teachers participated in the strike, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. FS[23] ALBANIAN STUDENTS LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKEAbout 70 students in Tirana launched a hunger strike on 11 December, demanding a 50 percent increase in scholarships and better accommodation. The students said their protest is not politically motivated, Reuters reported. Information Minister Musa Ulqini, for his part, suggested that the protest was organized by the opposition Democratic Party. Prime Minister Pandeli Majko said the following day that the students are justified in their demands, which the government will seek to fulfill. Majko also said he is ready to meet with the students to discuss their demands. FS[24] NEW TENSIONS OVER 'MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY' IN ROMANIA...National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) chairman Ion Diaconescu on 14 December said he recommends that the government does not appeal the Bucharest Court of Appeal's ruling last week against the setting up of the "multicultural" Petofi-Schiller university. PNTCD deputy chairman Remus Opris said the tribunal's decision had "washed away the government's shame" for "giving into the exaggerated demands of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania [UDMR]." Democratic Party Chairman Petre Roman said he recommends that the government "reformulate" the draft law on setting up the university to avoid illegalities. Prime Minister Radu Vasile said he is awaiting the opinion of government experts before deciding whether to appeal the decision, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS[25] ...AND OVER AMENDED EDUCATION LAWThe National Liberal Party (PNL) on 14 December announced it will not be represented on the mediation commission that is to attempt to find a compromise between the versions of the amended education law passed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. As a result of the PNL's decision, the opposition will be represented by three, instead of two, representatives on the seven-member commission. The same day, UDMR parliamentary deputies voted against all draft legislation proposed by the government, Mediafax reported. MS[26] ROMANIAN BANK SALE AGREEMENT CONCLUDEDRepresentatives of French Societe Generale were in Bucharest on 14 December to sign the agreement on acquiring a majority stake in Romania's fourth largest state bank, the Romanian Bank for Development. Societe Generale paid $200 million for the 51 percent share, of which $65 million will be reinvested in the bank to raise its capital share by 20 percent. Premier Vasile, who attended the signing ceremony, said the government is determined to pursue its bank privatization program. Also on 14 December, workers from the Bucharest Republica steel plant marched in the capital to protest the cutting off of power supplies to the plant because of a 10 billion lei (just below $1 million) debt to the state electricity company. Miners in the Brad gold mines are protesting the intention to close unprofitable mines. Thirty-eight of them launched a hunger strike on 14 December. MS[27] BULGARIAN LEV TO BE PEGGED TO EUROAs of 1 January 1999, the lev will be pegged to the Euro, National Bank governor Svetoslav Gavriiski told journalists on 11 December. The lev has been pegged to the German mark since mid-1997, when the Currency Board was set up. MS[28] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER IN SOFIABorislav Vukovic and Bulgarian Trade and Tourism Minister Valentin Vasilev, meeting in Sofia on 14 December, signed an agreement on avoiding double taxation, BTA reported. Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Ventislav Varbanov and Vukovic initialed an agreement on quarantine and plant protection as well as an accord on veterinary control. A working group is to study obstacles to bilateral trade and propose measures for overcoming them. The volume of trade between the two countries has dropped to $107 million this year, compared with $160 in 1997. MS[C] END NOTE[29] CORRUPTION REMAINS WIDESPREAD IN LATVIAby Peter Zvagulis and Jan CleaveA World Bank study on corruption in Latvia drew considerable attention in that country when its findings were published in the local media earlier this month. The study, which was carried out in the summer and focused on low-level corruption in the public sector, shows that the abuse of power among Latvian officials remains widespread. It also reveals that Latvians do not believe cabinet ministers have been serious in their efforts to deal with corruption. Indeed, that perception may prove as difficult to ameliorate as the problem itself, particularly in view of the corruption scandals that have plagued the executive over the past 18 months or so. According to the World Bank study, corruption is most widespread among customs officials and road traffic police, two groups that are noted for corruption across the post-Soviet region and with which Latvians are most likely to come into contact in every-day life. Companies surveyed for the study said bribes are required most frequently in dealings with road traffic police (33 percent of all cases of bribe payments) and customs officials (21 percent), while households identified pay-offs as most rife in dealings with customs (48 percent), road traffic police (39 percent), and the judiciary (38 percent). Thirty-seven percent of companies and 13 percent of households surveyed admitted they have made such payments. On average, companies spend 2.1 percent of their monthly turnover in pay-offs, while households pay an average of 1.2 percent of their monthly income. Sixty percent of both companies and households said they believe that corruption has increased over the past four years. The study asserts that the reason for the high level of corruption in Latvia is the largely unregulated competence of civil servants and their arbitrary application of the regulations that are in force. One day after publishing the results of the World Bank study, the Latvian daily "Diena" ran a survey among politicians of all stripes on their response to the study. Several of those politicians argued that the primary cause of corruption is inadequate legislation dealing with the problem. Arguably the most damning finding of the World Bank study is the widespread perception among the population that cabinet ministers have not been serious about fighting corruption. Asked to evaluate on a scale of zero to 10 the intention of the executive to carry out such a fight, 35 percent of companies, 28 percent of households, and 15 percent of civil servants gave a zero evaluation (reflecting the view that the "government does not have the slightest intention to fight corruption"). Only 1 percent in each of the three categories gave the government the maximum 10 points in this regard. The popular perception of an executive not committed to combating corruption can be attributed in large measure to last year's series of corruption scandals involving cabinet members, which led to the demise of Andris Skele's government in July 1997. Under the 1996 anti-corruption law, several members of Skele's cabinet were found guilty of a conflict of interests and of concealing private business activities. None of those ministers, however, was prosecuted since they were considered to have broken the law only "nominally" and their "crime" was not deemed to constitute a criminal offense. (Just weeks after the new minority government was installed last month, Andrejs Pantelejevs, head of the ruling coalition party Latvia's Way and chairman of the parliamentary commission investigating the Latvenergo affair, was found guilty of not declaring all his assets as required by the 1996 law. Similarly, he was considered to have broken the law only "nominally" and therefore escaped prosecution.) One of the ministers in Skele's cabinet found guilty of having broken the anti-corruption law was Vilis Kristopans, the head of the new government. At the time, Kristopans denied any wrongdoing, although he resigned his post as transport minister (only to be reappointed to that portfolio in the cabinet of Guntars Krasts). Asked by RFE/RL's Latvian Service last week whether he believes the World Bank study is "accurate," the prime minister answered "yes." He went on to argue that "you cannot expect the legacy of Soviet mentality to disappear overnight" but pledged that his cabinet would seek to deal with the issue. So far, however, there has been no statement on what measures the new government intends to take. Staking out a clear anti-corruption strategy would help convince both the Latvian population and officials in Brussels that the new government is serious about fighting corruption. In its annual progress report on countries aspiring to become EU members, which was released last month, the European Commission noted that Latvia has taken some measures to tackle the problem, including the establishment in September 1997 of a Council for the Prevention of Corruption and the adoption in January 1998 of a national program of urgent short-term measures against corruption, which so far has been implemented only in part. At the same time, the commission stressed that corruption remains an "important problem" in Latvia and, together with public administration reform and the strengthening of the judiciary, "requires continued efforts by the Latvian authorities." Peter Zvagulis is director of RFE/RL's Latvian Service. 15-12-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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