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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 95, 99-05-17Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 95, 17 May 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] INSPECTORS SAY ARMENIA IN COMPLIANCE WITH CFEA team of French, Belgian, and Turkish military officers who inspected an Armenian army detachment near Yerevan from 11-14 May detected no violations of the limits on military equipment stipulated by the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 15 May, quoting a senior Foreign Ministry official. An earlier inspection of the Russian military base in Armenia similarly found no violations of those limits (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 April 1999). The Armenian parliament voted in May 1997 to cede part of Armenia's CFE equipment allocation to Russia. LF[02] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT LEAVES U.S. FOR HOMEHeidar Aliev, who was discharged from the Cleveland Clinic a week ago after heart bypass surgery, flew to London on 16 May, Interfax reported. Aliev will travel to Turkey on 18 May and return to Baku three days later. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION CRITICIZES LAW ON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONSThe Democratic Bloc, which is composed of 17 opposition parliamentary deputies, issued a statement on 14 May condemning as "reactionary" and "anti-democratic" legislation on the status of municipalities and on municipal elections passed by the parliament in the first reading on 4 May, Turan reported. The statement says that the drafts of those bills differed from the ones that had received a positive assessment from Council of Europe experts before the vote. LF[04] INVESTIGATION OF BID TO KILL GEORGIAN PRESIDENT COMPLETEDThe Georgian Prosecutor-General's office has completed and forwarded to the Supreme Court the investigation into the 9 February 1998 failed attempt to assassinate Eduard Shevardnadze, Interfax reported. Thirteen people, including Guram Absandze, who served as finance minister in 1990-1991 under President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, face charges of state treason, attempted murder, and forming an anti-government military organization. Senior investigator Gigla Agulashvili told journalists that the accused had prepared the attack in Chechnya. LF[05] BOMB EXPLODES NEAR ABKHAZ PARLIAMENT BUILDINGThe Abkhaz parliamentary building was damaged by a bomb explosion early on 16 May, but no one was injured, Interfax reported. Two days earlier, a political officer with the Russian peace- keeping troops deployed along the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia expressed concern at a series of violent incidents over the past week, which, he said, had augmented tensions in southern Abkhazia. He suggested that the violence is intended to sabotage the ongoing return of displaced persons to Abkhazia, according to ITAR-TASS. LF[06] WORLD BANK APPROVES NEW LOAN FOR KAZAKHSTANThe board of directors of the World Bank has approved a $16.5 million loan for Kazakhstan to finance the reform of the country's legal and judicial system, an RFE/RL correspondent in Washington reported on 14 May. The bank also approved a $130,000 grant to help Kazakhstan cope with the millennium bug, according to Interfax. LF[07] KYRGYZ SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES NEW FOREIGN POLICY CONCEPTMeeting in Bishkek on 14 May, the Security Council approved a new foreign- policy concept drafted by the Foreign Ministry on the basis of President Askar Akaev's "Silk Road Diplomacy" doctrine, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. That doctrine, published in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 10 March, envisages making use of Kyrgyzstan's geographic position to forge harmonious relations with neighboring Central Asian countries, with the states of Eastern and Southeastern Asia, and with Europe. Addressing the council, Akaev called for a concerted and coordinated effort to crack down on drug- related crime, according to Interfax. LF[08] KYRGYZ CUSTOMS INTERCEPT PLUTONIUM SMUGGLEROfficials at Bishkek airport arrested an Uzbek citizen who had agreed to transport a canister of radioactive plutonium to the United Arab Emirates, AP and dpa reported, quoting ITAR-TASS. The man claimed to have been given the material by a stranger who promised him $16,000 to smuggle it out of Kyrgyzstan. LF[09] UN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR REFERENDUM, ELECTIONS IN TAJIKISTANIn a resolution unanimously adopted on 15 May, the UN Security Council called on the Tajik authorities to speed up implementation of the 1997 peace plan by demobilizing fighters, establishing a "broad political dialogue," and creating conditions for holding a referendum and for parliamentary elections that are due before the end of the year, Reuters and AP reported. The previous day, the Tajik parliament voted unanimously to approve a proposal by President Imomali Rakhmonov to amnesty some 5,500 opposition fighters, Reuters reported. The amnesty was one of a series of demands that United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri had addressed to Rakhmonov earlier this month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 May 1999). LF[10] TURKMEN PRESIDENT UNENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT CIS FREE TRADE ZONEIn talks with CIS Executive Secretary Yurii Yarov in Ashgabat on 14 May, Saparmurat Niyazov said he considers it inexpedient for his country to join the proposed CIS free trade zone, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. Niyazov said Turkmenistan would incur financial losses of approximately $500 million annually by acceding to that agreement. He also noting that equal opportunities do not exist for all CIS member states, citing Russia's rejection of Turkmen proposals for the export of its gas to international markets via Russian pipelines. Niyazov added that a CIS free trade zone would become redundant if CIS states fulfilled their shared ambition of joining the World Trade Organization. LF[11] UZBEK FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS TAJIKISTANOn a two-day visit to Dushanbe on 14-15 May, Abdulaziz Komilov held talks with President Rakhmonov on the peace process in Tajikistan and regional security issues, ITAR-TASS reported. Komilov told journalists that Tashkent is monitoring the situation in Tajikistan and "supports the policy conducted by the Tajik president to consolidate the peace process." The Uzbek delegation also met with Tajik officials to assess the implementation of previous bilateral agreements. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] COHEN BLASTS SERBS FOR 'CROCODILE TEARS'British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote in the "Washington Post" of 17 May that "there have been perhaps hundreds of innocent casualties as a result of NATO action" against Yugoslav military targets. Cook and Albright stressed that they "deeply regret that.... But in a conflict as intense as this, it is impossible to eliminate such casualties." U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said in Washington the previous day that "for the Serbs to lament publicly about the deaths of these refugees is almost tantamount to [Nazi war criminal] Adolf Eichmann complaining about Allied forces bombing the crematoriums. These are crocodile tears coming out of mass killers." PM[13] U.S.: KORISA VICTIMS MOST LIKELY 'HUMAN SHIELDS'Cohen also said in Washington on 16 May that the 87 displaced Kosovars killed in a NATO air strike on Serbian military targets in Korisa two days previously may have been deliberately brought to that village by Serbian forces as human shields. "I think there's no level to which [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic and his troops won't sink in terms of using refugees as human shields," Cohen argued. Elsewhere, U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering said that he also had heard reports from refugees that civilians were being used as human shields, although there is no independent verification of those claims, AP reported. "It is another tragic example of absolutely outrageous behavior on the part of Milosevic, trying to use innocent [ethnic] Albanians to protect his military forces," Pickering concluded. PM[14] U.K.: SURVIVORS SAY SERBS USED THEM AS HUMAN SHIELDSIn London, British Defense Minister John Spellar said on 16 May that Serbian forces were using Korisa at the time of the air strike "as a military camp and command post with military vehicles and artillery present. We do not yet know the reason why civilians were at this location at the time of the attack. But it increasingly appears likely, however, that the civilians were used as human shields. We're aware of continued reports that according to survivors, the civilians were ordered by Serb police to return to the village from the hills where they'd been hiding for several weeks. On their return they were not permitted to live in their homes, instead they were herded into concentrated areas within the village and held there until the NATO attack took place," AP quoted him as saying. PM[15] NATO: ATTACKS WILL CONTINUEIn Brussels on 16 May, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said that "we know that we're up against an adversary who has no scruples when it comes to using civilians as human shields." He noted that NATO considers the possible presence of human shields in selecting its targets. Shea also stressed that "we will never, never intentionally target civilians." He concluded, however, that the attacks will continue and that the Atlantic alliance will not be deterred in carrying out its mission by the Serbian use of human shields. PM[16] CLINTON OUTLINES GROUNDS FOR INTERVENTIONPresident Bill Clinton said in Las Vegas on May 16 that U.S. intervention in Bosnia and Kosova was prompted by a desire to stop "ethnic cleansing [and] mass killing of people because of their ethnic and religious background. If we can't stop that in the underbelly of Europe on the edge of the 21st century, then we're going to have a very difficult world ahead of us because there will be a lot more of it," he continued. Clinton also stressed, however, that "we can't ask people not to fight each other if one group wants to secede and the other doesn't. He added that nor can "[we tell people] what their governmental arrangements have to be." Referring to what he called the "terrible, regrettable" conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Clinton said that it is a cross-border tribal conflict, Reuters reported. "Ten thousand people have been killed there. No one has suggested that some third party should intervene and fight both of them," the president concluded. PM[17] JOINT CHIEFS: GROUND TROOPS NEEDEDThe members of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff have written to U.S. Secretary of Defense Cohen that ground troops must be committed in the conflict in Kosova to "guarantee fulfillment of the administration's political objectives," "Newsweek" reported on 17 May. The military leaders added that "a ground war would have to commence by the beginning of August, and the forces required must start assembling by the beginning of June" if the hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons are to be back in their homes before winter. PM[18] REFUGEES POUR INTO MACEDONIAMore than 800 Albanians arrived on 16 May at the Macedonian border crossing of Blace, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond said that most of the refugees are from Ferizaj. He suggested that this is only the beginning of a new wave of refugees from Kosova. Redmond told Reuters that "when the word spreads that the border is open, we are going to see more and more people...it can easily be in the tens of thousands, it could be more than 100,000." Refugees told AP that there are constant food shortages in Kosova and that Serbian forces conduct sporadic killings. One refugee reported that Serbian forces separated the men from the women in her village and gunned down about 40 males. Refugees also said that Serbian shopkeepers refused to sell food to ethnic Albanians. FS[19] FIGHTING ALONG NORTHERN ALBANIAN BORDERSerbian forces and Kosova Liberation Army fighters exchanged fire inside Albania for about five hours in the village of Zogaj, near Tropoja, on 16 May, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Tirana. Government officials in Tirana said that Serbian forces shelled the village of Dobruna in the Has Mountains and that women and children left the village, while the men there have taken up fighting positions. Nearby, Albanian border guards and Serbian forces exchanged fire in the village of Letaj. The previous day, NATO jets pounded targets in the village of Zhur, on the Kosovar side of the Kukes region. FS[20] REFUGEE INFLUX TO ALBANIA STOPSOnly about a dozen refugees arrived in Kukes over the weekend, apparently signaling a virtual halt to the flow of refugees, Reuters reported on 15 May. In Tirana, Information Minister Musa Ulqini said on 15 May that there are currently about 80,000 refugees still in Kukes, despite UNHCR efforts to evacuate refugees from the town. Elsewhere, AP reported that the only international agency bringing humanitarian aid to about 3,000 refugees in Bajram Curri is the Irish aid group Concern. Other agencies avoid the remote town owing to frequent armed robberies in the area. FS[21] YUGOSLAV MILITARY ABDUCTS ALBANIANS IN MONTENEGRORefugees arriving in Albania on 16 May said that Yugoslav army forces ordered about 150 ethnic Albanian males of military age to get off busses en route to the Albanian border crossing of Hani i Hotit, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Tirana. Refugees said that the males were taken away in the direction of Ulcinj. It is unclear what happened to them. The refugees were part of a group of some 400 people from the areas of Klina and Peja. FS[22] MONTENEGRO WARNS OF 'CREEPING COUP'After the Yugoslav army moved to close the border with Albania, it took control of the western frontier with Bosnia, AP reported from Podgorica on 17 May. Two days' earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan said that the army is preparing a "creeping coup" aimed at ousting the democratic government of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic through a series of incremental steps. On 14 May, Djukanovic said in Paris that he condemns Milosevic's policies. He argued that Milosevic seeks "to create internal conflict in Montenegro, but we won't fall into that trap because our priority is to maintain peace in the country." In related news, the Yugoslav navy on 16 May prevented a cargo ship from docking at Montenegro's port of Bar with a cargo of much-needed flour. PM[23] BOSNIAN MUSLIMS, CROATS AGREE ON ECONOMIC PROGRAMBosnian federal Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic, who is a Muslim, and Deputy Prime Minister Dragan Covic, who is an ethnic Croat, agreed on 14 May in Sarajevo on a package of concrete measures aimed at reviving the economy. The measures deal with accelerating privatization, strengthening the currency, reforming several socialist-era economic institutions, and establishing an integrated railway system. Western observers have frequently criticized what they regard as pervasive corruption and bureaucracy in Bosnia. The observers note that reform must take place quickly because Bosnia will need to attract more foreign investors in the coming months once many postwar aid programs come to an end. PM[24] CORRECTION:A "RFE/RL Newsline" report on 14 May was based on a source that did not make clear that Romania has agreed to permit international FM broadcasting to Yugoslavia from its territory and that this FM net carries programs to Yugoslavia 24 hours a day from RFE/RL, VOA, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC.[25] ROMANIA'S HUNGARIAN FEDERATION RE-ELECTS LEADERAt a 15- 16 May congress in Miercurea-Ciuc, the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) re-elected chairman Bela Marko for another four-year term, an RFE/RL correspondent reported. Marko criticized Romania's governing coalition, in which the UDMR is a partner, for not following its program with regard to minority issues. He also acknowledged that the status of minorities in Romania, while still not "perfect," has significantly improved over the last decade. The congress, which was marked by heated debates between "radical" and "moderate" wings, modified the UDMR's statute and program to include a "strategic partnership" with Romanians from Transylvania. The congress also adopted a statement describing the NATO campaign in Yugoslavia as "inevitable and justified." ZSM[26] ROMANIA, BULGARIA REACH AGREEMENT ON DANUBE BRIDGERomanian President Emil Constantinescu and Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov agreed on 14 May to build a bridge linking their countries over the Danube River at Vidin-Calafat, BTA reported. Constantinescu said the conflict in Yugoslavia changed Romania's views about building a second bridge linking his country with Bulgaria. He also said Bulgaria will have to arrange financing for the new bridge. The two presidents, who met at the Central European summit in Lviv, said they will ask their transport ministers to hold urgent meetings on the problem of Danube shipping. In other news, the foreign ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece met in Sofia on 14-15 May to discuss the conflict in Yugoslavia. The ministers said the conflict should be resolved by political means and without any border changes. They said any solution should be followed by a Balkan stability pact to help integrate the region into European structures. VG[27] BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR ON VISAS FOR MOLDOVANSBulgarian Ambassador to Moldova Petar Vodenski said his country's decision to apply visa restrictions to Moldovans is not related to Chisinau's refusal to allow Bulgaria to transport spent nuclear materials through Moldova, BASA-Press reported on 14 May. Vodenski also denied that visa requirements were related to demands by the Bulgarian minority in the Taraclia district of Moldova for autonomy. He said the visa decision is part of Bulgaria's attempts to bring its laws into line with EU standards. On 12 May, Moldovan government adviser Nicolae Chirtoaca rejected that explanation, saying Bulgaria had not applied visa restrictions on Ukrainian and Russian travelers. Chirtoaca said the "true motive" for the restrictions was related to Moldova's stance on the used nuclear materials. VG[C] END NOTE[28] WHILE EUROPE LOOKS ELSEWHEREby Jan MaksymiukAs NATO continues to bomb Yugoslavia, the chances that Belarusian democrats will be able to turn the political situation in Belarus to their advantage are becoming increasingly remote. Thanks to Belarus's official propaganda machine, NATO's air strikes in Yugoslavia have become a powerful stimulus for advancing President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's idea of "Slavic unity" and reintegration with Russia. Russia's Yegor Gaidar has complained that by dropping bombs on Yugoslavia, NATO is bombing Russian democracy. That statement is even more true with regard to Belarus and its democratic opposition. What seemed a far-fetched idea when first voiced by ultranationalist Serbian Deputy Premier Vojislav Seselj in Belarus in May 1998 has come true one year later: the Yugoslav parliament recently applied for membership in the Belarus-Russia Union and was supported in its bid by the Russian State Duma, not to mention the Belarusian legislature, which is subservient to Lukashenka. Most would argue that joining the " Slavic union" was simply a propaganda exercise on the part of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as he and his regime face international isolation. Doubtless such is the case. But that move has also added a dimension and given increased publicity to what initially looked like a whim primarily of Belarus's authoritarian president. It is hardly conceivable that the idea of Slavic unity idea would ever appeal to Poland and the Czech Republic, which are now safely in NATO, or to Slovenia and Bulgaria, both yearning to be there as soon as possible. But Lukashenka's appeals are intended primarily for the ears of Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians--the "East Slavic core" of a possible union state that he so much covets. The NATO action in Yugoslavia has reanimated and strongly inflamed Soviet stereotypes about the "NATO aggressive block." Lukashenka's bid to transform what he calls today's "unipolar world" into a bipolar one--as, for example, in the Brezhnev era--is finding more and more backers in the former Soviet republics. As for Lukashenka, he continues to consistently promote himself as a "tough" leader who can make this transformation happen. Lukashenka's propaganda campaign has three major pillars: the Belarus- Russia Union (which he hopes will expand to include other countries) should counterbalance NATO by building up its military power; both Belarus and Russia, while remaining sovereign states, should delegate extensive executive powers to the Union leadership in the sphere of military and economic policies; and the Belarus-Russian Union should help Yugoslavia militarily. In their coverage of the Kosova conflict, Belarus's official media provide graphic examples of how "total propaganda" techniques are utilized to achieve Lukashenka's political goals. The coverage is extremely biased-- there is virtually no reports on the problem of Albanian refugees and, consequently, no reference whatsoever to the reason for NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia. The most "insightful" official explanation states that Yugoslavia can be found guilty only of desiring to exist "according to its own laws." Addressing flood-stricken villagers in Brest Oblast, Lukashenka explained NATO intervention in Yugoslavia even more simplistically: Yugoslavia is being attacked because it is one of the "richest regions [where] people mine gold and other precious metals." In this atmosphere of prejudice and manipulation, Belarus's official media present the Belarusian opposition as a West-sponsored group of nationalists backing NATO intervention in Belarus. When former Premier Mikhail Chyhir, a candidate in the opposition presidential elections, somewhat carelessly told journalists, that the situation in Belarus may worsen to the point where it will be necessary to bring in peacekeeping troops, Lukashenka's propaganda machine did not miss its chance. Chyhir's statement was interpreted as an open invitation for NATO to bomb Belarus. According to one of the five main tenets of classical propaganda, the so- called "rule of orchestration," the message was subject to endless variation, including condemnation by Lukashenka. And when Chyhir was subsequently jailed on charges of embezzlement, his image in the media had been sufficiently sullied to "officially justify" his arrest and possibly enlist public moral support for this measure. The first piece of bad news for the Belarusian opposition is that its orientation toward Western democratic values has become very vulnerable to propaganda attacks that claim such values have to be supported by bloodshed. When U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Daniel Speckhard said during his short trip to Minsk that the Belarusian authorities should not resort to force in dealing with the opposition, the official response was damning: "If the U.S. path to democracy and integration leads through bombing and destroying a civilian population in an independent European state, we advise Mr. Speckhard that he should [promote] something else in his own homeland," Belarusian Television commented earlier this month. The second piece of bad news is that by pressing so hard to achieve a satisfying solution to the Kosova problem, European democracies are tending to ease their pressure on the Lukashenka regime. That, at least, is how the situation is perceived by many Belarusian commentators and oppositionists, who fear that the prospect of Belarusian democracy--a minor problem in comparison with the Kosova crisis--will be sacrificed on the altar of a Kosova solution. According to Belarusian pessimists, the arrest of Chyhir and the OSCE's refusal to send observers to the opposition presidential elections in Belarus are the first signs of such a sacrifice. Moreover, it would doubtless be an irony of history if by seeking to depose one dictator in the Balkans, Europe helped another one to consolidate his hold over Belarus. 17-05-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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