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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 95, 99-05-18Radio 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, 18 May 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CONCERNED AT IRREGULARITIES IN VOTER REGISTRATIONSpeaking at a press conference in Yerevan on 17 May, two prominent representatives of the National Democratic Union (AZhM) cited instances in which district electoral commissions in Yerevan have included the names of deceased and temporary residents in lists of persons eligible to vote in the 30 May parliamentary election, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Vahe Varsanian, who is the AZhM's representative on the Central Electoral Commission, also claimed that the Self- Determination Union (IM) and the Hayrenik bloc have sold to pro-government figures the seats on local electoral commissions to which they are legally entitled. He offered no evidence to substantiate that allegation, which an IM spokesman rejected. LF[02] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DELAYS RETURN HOMEHeidar Aliev's departure from the U.S. for Turkey, which Russian media reported had taken place on 16 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 May 1999), was postponed until 18 May because of "technical reasons" connected with the choice of airplane in which Aliev will travel, Reuters reported on 17 May, quoting presidential administration member Ali Hasanov. LF[03] ARE RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS LEAVING ABKHAZIA?Georgian border guards commander Valeri Ckheidze told journalists in Tbilisi on 17 May that Russian border guards have already withdrawn from three posts in Abkhazia in accordance with an agreement signed last year by Moscow and Tbilisi, Caucasus Press reported. He rejected as "unserious" a demand by the Abkhaz leadership that departing Russian guards should not be allowed to take their equipment with them. But Abkhaz officials denied on 17 May that the Russian contingent has begun to leave Abkhazia. The chief of staff of the Russian Border Guards' Service, General Nikolai Reznichenko, had reached an agreement on 5 May with Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba whereby the Russians would leave only after the end of the academic year, as their children are attending local schools. LF[04] RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPING COMMANDER CONDEMNS PLANNED ABKHAZ MILITARY EXERCISESNikolai Rusak, who is a political officer with the CIS peacekeeping force deployed along the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, told Caucasus Press on 18 May that the Abkhaz "have no right" to conduct large- scale military maneuvers in the region's central Ochamchire Raion and should have informed the Russian contingent of their intention to do so. Abkhaz Defense Minister Vladimir Mikanba had announced the previous day that the military exercises, which will include the use of heavy equipment, will be held in late May. Rusak added that the conduct of such exercises would constitute a violation of the May 1994 cease-fire agreement, under which Ochamchira is designated part of the arms-limit zone, in which only limited quantities of military equipment may be deployed. LF[05] ABKHAZ SECURITY MINISTER SAYS PARLIAMENT BOMB WAS 'HOOLIGANISM'Astamur Tarba told Caucasus Press on 17 May that the bomb that damaged the Abkhaz parliament building in Sukhumi on the night of 15-16 May was not the work of professionals (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 May 1999). He dismissed as improbable earlier suggestions by Abkhaz Interior Ministry officials that Georgian intelligence may have been responsible, saying that professional saboteurs would have used more powerful explosive and planted the bomb on a weekday. Also on 17 May, the Georgian paper "Dilis gazeti" reported that an organization known as Amtsabza has distributed leaflets in Sukhumi criticizing the present Abkhaz leadership's policies and calling on the Abkhaz population to oppose the regime. LF[06] KAZAKH SECURITY MINISTRY SAYS IT IS BUGGEDKazakhstan's National Security Ministry officials say they have discovered a secret radio receiver on the roof of the building that houses the British, German, and French embassies, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau reported on 18 May quoting the "31st Channel" TV station. The unnamed security officials told the TV station that the receiver could be used to monitor conversations within the ministry building and incoming electronic messages. LF[07] KAZAKHSTAN'S OPPOSITION PARTIES MEETRepresentatives of the People's Republican Party, the Communist Party, Azamat, the Azat movement, and cultural centers representing ethnic minorities held a conference in Almaty on 17 May, RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported. The discussion focused on the current political situation and the parliamentary elections due this fall. LF[08] TURKMENISTAN TO SELL ELECTRICITY TO TURKEYUnder an agreement signed on 12 May by the Turkish and Turkmen Energy Ministers, Ziya Aktash and Safarmurad Nuriev, Turkey will purchase 750 million kW hours of electricity annually from Turkmenistan between 2000 and 2006, an RFE/RL correspondent reported on 17 May. The electricity will be transported via Iran. It is unclear how much Ankara will pay for it. LF[09] UZBEK OFFICIAL IMPLICATES TAJIK LEADERSHIP IN DRUG-SMUGGLINGThe director of Uzbekistan's National Center to Fight Narcotics , Kurban Baimuradov, told AFF on 17 May that drug cartels regularly bribe senior Tajik government officials, including members of the presidential apparatus. ITAR-TASS reported the same day that Tajikistan's military court has sentenced a police colonel to death for dealing in raw opium. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] RUGOVA SAYS AGREEMENT WITH MILUTINOVIC 'MEANINGLESS'Kosovar leader Ibrahim Rugova told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" of 17 May that he signed a declaration with Serbian President Milan Milutinovic in Belgrade on 28 April under duress. The declaration called for a resumption of talks between Serbian government and Kosovar representatives aimed at establishing wide-ranging autonomy for the province and respecting the territorial integrity of Serbia. Rugova stressed that "whatever I signed in Belgrade is meaningless." He added that he put his signature to the document to protect his family, which was under Serbian house arrest, along with him. Rugova stressed that NATO air strikes must continue until the alliance achieves its objectives. He said that he does not recognize the provisional Kosovar government of Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) leader Hashim Thaci. And he said he will invite Kosovar leaders, including UCK representatives, to Bonn to negotiate forming a new Kosovar government. FS[11] ALBANIA'S ULQINI DEFENDS RECOGNITION OF THACI GOVERNMENTIn an interview to RFE/RL on 17 May, Albanian Information Minister Musa Ulqini dismissed opposition charges that the Albanian government has politically divided the Kosovar Albanians by its 12 May recognition of the Thaci government. Ulqini stressed that the Albanian government has engaged itself to achieve "the unification of [the rival Kosovar political groups]. This is what we achieved in Rambouillet, where the [Kosovar] Albanians...managed to present a united stand." He added that "we recognize the agreement [reached by the members of the Kosovar Albanian delegation after the Rambouillet talks] on the creation of a provisional government. We remain engaged in this process and we are convinced that very soon all the Kosovar political and military groups will [form a joint] representation that has the support of everybody." FS[12] CONTINUING CLASHES ALONG ALBANIAN BORDERSerbian forces shelled Albanian army tanks near Letaj in the Has Mountains on 17 May, prompting those vehicles to withdraw four kilometers behind the border, AP reported. In Kukes, Albanian army reinforcements arrived, including multiple rocket launchers. Elsewhere, NATO planes attacked Serbian positions in Planeja, between Kukes and Prizren, Reuters reported. Nearby at the Morina border crossing, only a few dozen refugees crossed into Albania. Several of them reported atrocities and arbitrary killings by Serbian forces. Officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said refugees continue to oppose efforts to evacuate them from Kukes to safer places in central and southern Albania. Most of those refusing to leave say they are waiting for relatives still inside Kosova. FS[13] U.K.: TIME TO CONSIDER GROUND TROOPS FOR KOSOVABritish Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Sofia on 17 May that NATO will continue its campaign against Serbia and will use "whatever it takes" to achieve its goals, "The Guardian" reported. In Brussels, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook argued that the allies will "not hang around waiting for [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic to give us a written invitation" to send in ground forces. Cook added that NATO forces should go into the province as soon as Serbian forces can no longer offer "organized resistance." He suggested that intervention should take place well before the harsh Balkan winter sets in, the "New York Times" quoted him as saying. Cook also charged that Serbian forces used Kosovar civilians as human shields in the recent incident at Korisa (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 May 1999). The foreign secretary noted that he knows of at least 80 cases of Serbian forces using civilians as human shields. PM[14] DJUKANOVIC: NO PEACE WITH MILOSEVICMost of the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on 17 May had little sympathy for Cook's views and stressed instead the importance of finding a diplomatic solution quickly, "The Guardian" reported (see also Part I). Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic told the ministers that any final settlement "must be signed by someone other" than Milosevic in order to be credible, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Djukanovic added that Milosevic seeks to destabilize Montenegro by sending in some 45,000 Yugoslav army troops and trying to censor state-run television. The Montenegrin president stressed that he condemns all violence, including that by Milosevic, the Kosovar guerrillas, and NATO. The EU ministers promised Djukanovic more than $13 million in refugee relief. They gave "no details of how the money would be channeled to Podgorica to prevent it falling into the hands" of Belgrade, "The Independent" reported. PM[15] YUGOSLAV ARMY MOVES INTO CETINJESeveral hundred Yugoslav army troops recently entered Cetinje, the traditional political stronghold of Montenegrins favoring independence from Serbia, Reuters reported on 17 May. Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan said that the army "wants to demonstrate that by controlling Cetinje that they control the [entire] country. People in Montenegro are generally armed...[and] they are particularly heavily armed in Cetinje." He urged local people not to respond to any "provocation" by the army and stressed that "whoever starts [a conflict in Montenegro] will end up the big loser." There are some 26,000 Yugoslav army troops in Montenegro. Djukanovic's police number about 12,000. PM[16] KOSOVAR MALES FREED IN MONTENEGROYugoslav forces returned more than 100 Kosovar males to their families in Rozaje on 17 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 May 1999). Montenegrin officials said that the release came after the Yugoslav army "checked" the men for their possible links to the UCK. Yugoslav troops recently took the men off busses en route from Montenegro to Albania. Elsewhere, a Georgian- registered ship carrying flour arrived on 17 May in Dubrovnik. The flour will be transferred to trucks and taken to Montenegro by road. They Yugoslav navy had prevented the ship from docking at Montenegro's port of Bar (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 May 1999). PM[17] LARGE GROUPS OF DISPLACED PERSONS IN KOSOVANATO officials said in Brussels on 17 May that a total of 70,000 displaced persons are gathered in the areas around Junik and to the west of Ferizaj and that these people appear to be en route to Albania. Another group of about 40,000 Kosovars is "trapped" in the region between Ferizaj and Gjilan, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. At Blace, on the Macedonian border, Serbian authorities ordered back into Kosova a train carrying some 2,000 persons who boarded in Prishtina and Ferizaj. A UN spokesman at Blace said that he does not know what happened to the people on the train. He added that "this is quite a worrisome development." In Skopje, President Kiro Gligorov said that "it is important" for the international community to send abroad at least 100,000 of the estimated 230,000 Kosovar refugees in his country. PM[18] WESTENDORP: KOSOVA NEEDS INTERNATIONAL PROTECTORATECarlos Westendorp, who is the international community's chief representative in Bosnia, told the UN Security Council in New York on 17 May that Kosova needs "a real protectorate in order to protect the refugees coming back to their homes." He stressed that any international mandate in Kosova should be "much shorter and more robust" than the one in Bosnia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 May 1999). Westendorp argued that the international community must control the administration, police, and army in Kosova, which it did not do in Bosnia. He concluded that "there will be no long- term solution or stable solution if Milosevic remains in place for a long time, because it will mean there is no democracy in the region. And without democracy, the problems of the region are not going to be solved." PM[19] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION SUBMITS CENSURE MOTIONA group of deputies and senators from the Social Democracy Party of Romania, the Greater Romania Party, and the Romanian National Unity Party have submitted a censure motion against the government, which they accuse of seeking to by-pass the parliament in attempting to push through legislation on economic reform, Rompres reported on 17 May. The move comes in response to the cabinet's decision to accelerate the passage of a package of economic reforms by linking it to a vote of confidence in the government. The package of measures, which is in line with IMF recommendations, is aimed at speeding up economic reform (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 May 1999). The opposition said the government's reforms would generate chaos and encourage corruption. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Radu Vasile's coalition government is expected to survive the motion, Reuters reported on 17 May. VG[20] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR SUPPORT IN REFERENDUMPetru Lucinschi has called on voters to support his bid to increase the powers of the president in a 23 May non-binding referendum on changing the constitution, Infotag reported on 17 May. Lucinschi said the current "state mechanisms do not work properly" and that presidential rule is needed to "solve problems." He also urged voters to support the candidacy of incumbent Chisinau Mayor Serafim Urecheanu in the 23 May local elections. In other news, officials of Moldova's Gagauz autonomous region signed a bilateral economic and cultural agreement with officials from the republic of Tatarstan in Russia, BASA-Press reported on 17 May. VG[21] BLAIR VISITS BULGARIABritish Prime Minister Tony Blair on 17 May praised Bulgaria's support for NATO's campaign against Yugoslavia and pledged that his country will support moves to speed up Bulgaria's accession into the EU and NATO, international media reported. Blair met with Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov and Prime Minister Ivan Kostov. Just hours before his arrival, Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mikhailova criticized the West for employing a strategy of "managing existing crises" in the Balkans over the past few years, rather than implementing a "long-term strategic vision" for the region, Reuters reported on 17 May. She said she hoped this "policy of sending fire brigades will be replaced by a fire-prevention policy." Meanwhile, small group of protesters interrupted Blair's speech at Sofia University and another small group of young Bulgarian Socialists burnt an effigy of the British prime minister in the center of the capital. A majority of Bulgarians are opposed to the NATO campaign in Yugoslavia. VG[C] END NOTE[22] SCHUSTER LIKELY TO DEFEAT MECIAR IN RUN-OFFBy Ron SynovitzThe first round of voting in Slovakia's presidential election saw Kosice Mayor Rudolf Schuster and former Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar advance to a run-off on 29 May. If turnout is similar to the 74 percent in the 15 May first round, Schuster appears likely to become Slovakia's first directly elected president. According to the Slovak Election Commission, Schuster, who is the official candidate of Slovakia's governing coalition, won 47 percent of the first- round vote, while about 37 percent supported Meciar. Third among the nine candidates was Magda Vasaryova, a former actress who gathered 6.6 percent of the vote on an independent ticket. She was followed by independent Ivan Mjartan, with about 3.6 percent, and Jan Slota of the Slovak National Party, with 2.5 percent. While Meciar could get some votes from backers of Mjartan and Slota in the runoff, their combined cross- over vote would be insufficient to push him ahead of Schuster. Meanwhile, most of Vasaryova's supporters are believed to be vehemently opposed to Meciar. There is little likelihood that the former prime minister will gain votes from them. Yet many of Vasaryova's backers may choose to abstain from the runoff ballot rather than support Schuster. That is largely because of Schuster's background as a member of the Slovak Communist Party's Central Committee before the collapse of communist rule in 1989. Other political leaders who earlier opposed Schuster because of his communist background have now begun announcing their support for him as the "anti-Meciar" candidate. Most important among them is Justice Minister Jan Carnogursky, who chairs the governing coalition's Christian Democratic Movement. Schuster told RFE/RL he expects unity over the run-off within the coalition, which first joined forces to defeat Meciar in parliamentary elections eight months ago. "I think that the citizens had the opportunity to gauge the degree to which we are united," he commented, "and now we shouldn't even talk about unity because there are only two candidates. We have only two possibilities. Either a part of the coalition will support Mr. Meciar or the whole coalition will support me. There is no other alternative.... Now we have to act if we want to confirm the change that happened [in last year's parliamentary elections]." First round exit polls suggest that as many as 92 percent of Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian voters supported Schuster. That development, according to the mayor, shows the strength of the coalition. But he also warned against xenophobic distortions of those statistics. "I have no problem with [the support I have from ethnic Hungarians]. It is Meciar's problem. Meciar separates Slovak society. I unify it. This is the first evidence that the Hungarian minority can support the candidate of a coalition.... The Hungarians have kept their coalition promise. I see only a positive development in that, not negative." Meciar, who was Slovak prime minister for most of the period from 1992 to 1998, helped trigger the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Western leaders often criticized what was seen as the authoritarian manner of his rule, which they cited as the reason Slovakia has not been invited to join either NATO or the front-ranking candidate states for EU membership. But Meciar remains popular in rural communities, and he retains political influence through his allies who still control top management positions in major state companies. Meciar's nationalist rhetoric also could appeal to the unemployed, who have seen little improvement in their economic situation since last year's elections. Tibor Cabaj, parliamentary leader of Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), said he does not see Meciar's second place as a failure. In fact, the 37 percent of the vote that Meciar gathered was much higher than pre- election polls had predicted. While Slovakia's presidency is largely a ceremonial office, Western business leaders in Bratislava have been watching the ballot closely to determine whether Meciar has a political future in the country. If Meciar loses, one effect could be speedier management reforms at state companies. Such reforms are seen by the IMF and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a key to increasing productivity and foreign investment in Slovakia. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague. 18-05-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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