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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 116, 99-06-15
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 3, No. 116, 15 June 1999
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI TROOPS CLASH
[02] U.S. AMBASSSADOR HOPES FOR AMENDMENTS TO AZERBAIJANI ELECTION LAW
[03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT NOT TO ATTEND LUXEMBOURG SUMMIT?
[04] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT UNDERSCORES TIES WITH RUSSIA
[05] U.S. INVESTIGATES KAZAKHSTAN'S URANIUM SALES
[06] KYRGYZSTAN AGAIN WITHOUT GAS
[07] KYRGYZ PREMIER'S VISIT TO UZBEKISTAN POSTPONED
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[08] SERBIAN FORCES RETREAT FROM KOSOVA...
[09] ...AS CIVILIAN EXODUS MOUNTS
[10] WHAT IS GOING ON IN DECAN?
[11] ETHNIC ALBANIANS CELEBRATE IN PRIZREN
[12] EVIDENCE OF ATROCITIES MOUNTS
[13] NATO ARRESTS UCK FIGHTERS IN DEATH OF SERB
[14] ANNAN PRESENTS KOSOVA ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO SECURITY COUNCIL
[15] MORE REFUGEES RETURN TO KOSOVA FROM ALBANIA
[16] IMF GIVES NEW LOAN TO ALBANIA
[17] MILOSEVIC LAUNCHING CAMPAIGN?
[18] DJUKANOVIC: MIXED MESSAGE ON INDEPENDENCE
[19] MEIDANI: BOTH KOSOVA AND MONTENEGRO MUST BE INDEPENDENT
[20] KOSCHNICK CALLS FOR FIRMNESS
[21] BOSNIAN SERB MINE CLEARERS FOR KOSOVA
[22] ROMANIA REFUSES RUSSIAN OVERFLIGHTS TO KOSOVA
[23] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN LABOR CONFLICT
[24] ROMANIAN SENATOR CALL FOR ANTONESCU'S REHABILITATION
[25] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT ASKS CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO RULE ON REFERENDUM
[26] BULGARIA DENIES MOSCOW REQUEST FOR AIR SPACE
[C] END NOTE
[27] IS ROMANIA THE FUTURE OF SLOVAKIA?
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI TROOPS CLASH
Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces engaged in a four-hour exchange of
fire on 14 June close to the northeastern border of the unrecognized
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Azerbaijani agencies said that 300 Armenian
troops mounted an offensive using firearms, mortars, and heavy machine guns
in a series of unsuccessful attempts to capture Azerbaijani positions, but
retreated after sustaining severe casualties. According to an Armenian
Defense Ministry spokesman, Armenian forces opened fire in order to repulse
an Azerbaijani attack. He said two Armenian soldiers were wounded in the
fighting. Azerbaijani sources give their losses as two killed and four
wounded. The exchange of fire was the most serious incident on the line of
contact since the summer of 1997. LF
[02] U.S. AMBASSSADOR HOPES FOR AMENDMENTS TO AZERBAIJANI ELECTION LAW
Stanley Escudero said after a two-hour talk with first deputy parliamentary
speaker Arif Ragimzade that the U.S. government "is absolutely confident"
that deputies will introduce four unspecified amendments to the law on
municipal elections before it is passed in the third and final reading,
Turan reported on 14 June. Opposition deputies have criticized the bill as
undemocratic. LF
[03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT NOT TO ATTEND LUXEMBOURG SUMMIT?
Turan on 14 June quoted unnamed sources as saying that on his doctors'
advice, President Heidar Aliev will not travel to Luxembourg to attend the
22 June summit of Transcaucasus presidents. Prime Minister Artur Rasizade
will represent Azerbaijan at that meeting, which Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze told journalists on 14 June is of a "consultative" character.
The main objective of the meeting is the ratification of agreements between
the three South Caucasus states and the European Union. Aliev was also
scheduled to discuss the Karabakh conflict with his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian. LF
[04] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT UNDERSCORES TIES WITH RUSSIA
Speaking at a press briefing in Tbilisi on 14 June, Eduard Shevardnadze
called for a "radical overhaul" of relations with Russia, insisting that
"no one is driving Russia out of Georgia," Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported.
Shevardnadze said that Georgia is "open for cooperation with Russian
businessmen, politicians, the military." The previous day, Georgian
parliamentary chairman Zurab Zhvania had similarly expressed regret that
Russia's policies towards Georgia are counterproductive and serve only to
undermine bilateral cooperation, according to "Dilis gazeti" of 14 June. LF
[05] U.S. INVESTIGATES KAZAKHSTAN'S URANIUM SALES
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan told journalists on 14 June
that the U.S. Trade Department has not yet completed the investigation
begun earlier this year into allegations that Kazakhstan has violated a
1992 pledge not to sell uranium on the world market at "dumping" prices,
RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Kazakh National Atomic Company official
Murat Zhakishev and Kazakhatomprom Vice President Viktor Yazikov have both
denied that Kazakhstan was violating the 1992 agreement. Interfax on 11
June reported that the U.S. has already imposed anti-dumping sanctions on
Kazakhstan's uranium suppliers, adding that Kazakh uranium is being sold
in the U.S. at 15 percent less than world prices. LF
[06] KYRGYZSTAN AGAIN WITHOUT GAS
Intergas, the Kazakh company that supplies gas from Uzbekistan to
Kyrgyzstan, again cut supplies to northern regions of Kyrgzystan, including
Bishkek, on the morning of 14 June, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The
Kyrgyz government owes Intergas some $3.2 million for past deliveries, and
Intergaz has halted supplies several times earlier this year because of
Bishkek's failure to meet that debt. A senior Kazakh government official
had assured the Kyrgyz government in late May that there would be
no further disruptions in supplies. LF
[07] KYRGYZ PREMIER'S VISIT TO UZBEKISTAN POSTPONED
A visit to Tashkent by Amangeldy Muraliev scheduled for 12 June has been
postponed indefinitely, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 12 June. No
explanation has been given for the postponement. LF
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[08] SERBIAN FORCES RETREAT FROM KOSOVA...
A spokesman for German peacekeepers said in Prizren on 15 June that all
Serbian military, police, and paramilitary forces have left the area.
A Defense Department spokesman noted in Washington the previous day that
Serbian forces are "making a strong effort" to withdraw from Kosova in
accordance with the deadlines set down in the recent agreement between
Belgrade and NATO. The spokesman noted that "the roads are jammed [and
Serbian commanders] are having a hard time getting [their forces]
out." In Peja, AP reported that some of the retreating Serbs engaged in a
"final spree of burning, shooting, and alleged rapes." One Serbian officer
said: "We're finishing up." PM
[09] ...AS CIVILIAN EXODUS MOUNTS
Thousands of Serbs continue to flee Kosova on 15 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline,
" 14 June 1999). It is unclear how many intend to leave permanently and how
many want to stay temporarily in Serbia or Montenegro to see how the
situation in Kosova shapes up. Momcilo Trajkovic, who is the leader of the
Serbian Resistance Movement in Kosova and a critic of Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic, called on the international community to protect the
remaining Serbs. He stressed that the Serbs will have no choice but to
defend themselves if they feel they are in danger, the Belgrade daily
"Danas" reported on 15 June. Trajkovic urged Serbs to stay and work for a
political solution in the province. He also warned Belgrade politicians not
to use the Serbs of Kosova for their own political purposes. PM
[10] WHAT IS GOING ON IN DECAN?
An unspecified number of fighters of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK)
attacked several ethnic Serbian villages in the Rahovec and Decan areas,
prompting Serbs to seek refuge in local monasteries, "Danas" reported
on 15 June. Some 200 villagers took refuge in the Decan monastery alone.
Two days earlier, Bishop Artemije, who is the leading Serbian Orthodox
cleric in the province, said in a statement that KFOR "is arriving too
slowly" to protect Serbs. It is not clear whether peacekeepers have
meanwhile reached the monasteries. PM
[11] ETHNIC ALBANIANS CELEBRATE IN PRIZREN
Thousands of Kosovars staged a massive street party in Prizren to celebrate
the departure of Serbian troops and the arrival of German KFOR peacekeepers,
Deutsche Welle reported on 15 June. One Kosovar told "The New York Times"
that the Serbs "will never come back. Kosova is Albanian." He added that
"ninety percent" of the Serbian population "has bloody hands." PM
[12] EVIDENCE OF ATROCITIES MOUNTS
Dutch peacekeepers found some 20 charred bodies in a village near Prizren,
Reuters reported on 15 June. The UCK tipped the Dutch off about the
atrocity. German KFOR troops found a mass grave in the area containing
71 bodies, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Elsewhere, both U.K. and
U.S. peacekeepers found further evidence of mass burials in the province,
the BBC reported. In Kacanik, British troops continue to put together
details of the apparent "mass slaughter" of Kosovars by Serbian forces this
spring, "The Guardian" wrote (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 June 1999). NATO
officials said they are concerned that Kosovars will inadvertently destroy
evidence of war crimes in their haste to give victims a decent burial.
Observers note that the villagers are generally simple people with little
understanding of the role and practices of forensics. PM
[13] NATO ARRESTS UCK FIGHTERS IN DEATH OF SERB
British KFOR troops arrested five suspected UCK guerrillas in Prishtina in
conjunction with the shooting death of a Serb the previous night, a British
military spokesman said in London on 15 June. The spokesman stressed: "What
we're trying to achieve is a stable situation. People wandering around with
weapons and shooting at us or each other is clearly not acceptable."
PM
[14] ANNAN PRESENTS KOSOVA ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO SECURITY COUNCIL
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented his finalized plan for a civil UN
administration for Kosova to the Security Council on 14 June, Reuters
reported. The plan puts the EU in charge of reconstruction and gives the
OSCE primary responsibility for establishing democratic institutions,
organizing elections, and monitoring human rights. The UNHCR will take
charge of the resettlement of refugees and displaced persons. The UN
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo [UNMIK] will administer the police,
justice, schools, public transport, telecommunications, and power plants.
An international police unit of up to 2,000 will oversee the establishment
of a Kosova police force. On 12 June, Annan appointed UN Undersecretary-
General Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil as interim special representative.
FS
[15] MORE REFUGEES RETURN TO KOSOVA FROM ALBANIA
Hundreds of refugees returned to Kosova despite efforts by UCK soldiers
to stop them from doing so until conditions are safe, AP reported.
Meanwhile, many Albanian inhabitants of villages in the border region
returned to their homes, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Tirana. The
border region was mostly calm with the exception of an exchange of fire
near the village of Letaj, but no details are available. Serbian forces
fired several artillery shells into Dobruna in the same area, which is the
site of a UCK base. Another RFE/RL correspondent reported that many UCK
fighters came down from the border region into Prizren to look for their
families and inspect their homes. FS
[16] IMF GIVES NEW LOAN TO ALBANIA
Officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told Reuters in
Washington that they have given a $12.9 million loan to Albania. The IMF
will also increase the credits available to Albania under a 1998 agreement
by $13.1 million to $60.6 million. IMF officials said the impact of the
refugee crisis on Albania's inflation and economic growth will be small
because other foreign donors are covering most refugee-related costs. The
IMF officials issued a statement saying that if "the refugees...have
returned home by early 2000, foreign direct investment resumes, and fiscal
consolidation and structural reforms continue as programmed, growth is
expected to average 7 to 8 percent a year, while inflation stabilizes at
industrial country levels." FS
[17] MILOSEVIC LAUNCHING CAMPAIGN?
Milosevic made a rare public appearance on 14 June, ostensibly to
inaugurate the reconstruction of destroyed bridges in Novi Sad. He praised
what he called the unity and determination of the population during the
NATO air strikes. Some 10,000 people turned out to greet him, state-run
television reported. He moved about in the crowd with what the "Berliner
Zeitung" called the appearance of a politician on the stump. Elections are
not due until 2000, but the opposition wants them to take place this fall.
PM
[18] DJUKANOVIC: MIXED MESSAGE ON INDEPENDENCE
Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said in Bucharest on 14 June that
his mountainous republic will continue to work for reform, democracy, and
the promotion of good relations between Balkan countries, Romanian
Television reported. He stressed that Montenegro will realize its aims,
with or without Serbia. He added, however, that the time is not yet ripe
for holding a referendum on independence and that he does not consider
independence the only way to achieve his goals, the Romanian broadcast
quoted him as saying. PM
[19] MEIDANI: BOTH KOSOVA AND MONTENEGRO MUST BE INDEPENDENT
Albanian President Rexhep Meidani said in Bonn that both Kosova and
Montenegro should become independent of Yugoslavia, the "Berliner Zeitung"
reported on 15 June. He urged that all European countries become part of
one federal state on the U.S. model. He stressed that an independent
Kosova and Montenegro integrated into a united Europe would be a factor for
stability. PM
[20] KOSCHNICK CALLS FOR FIRMNESS
Hans Koschnick, who is Germany's special envoy for the Balkans and a former
EU administrator in Mostar, told the "Berliner Zeitung" of 15 June that it
is "impossible" to use compromise as a means of solving difficulties in the
Balkans. He stressed that a willingness to compromise with the parties on
the ground will be taken by each of them as a sign of weakness. Any
partition of Kosova will lead to demands for a wholesale redrawing of
frontiers on the peninsula, Koschnick warned. He stressed that refugees
will gladly go home once they feel they will be secure there. He urged that
international reconstruction aid be well coordinated and that it be
extended to the Serbs as well. PM
[21] BOSNIAN SERB MINE CLEARERS FOR KOSOVA
An official of the UNHCR told Reuters in Sarajevo on 14 June that a group
of Bosnian Serb mine-clearing specialists will soon leave for Kosova. "It
is quicker to send people from here now than to train people" from Kosova,
the official said. The German non- governmental organization HELP will help
organize the mission. HELP sponsors two Serbian, two Croatian, and two
Muslim demining teams in Bosnia, and may send some of the Croats and
Muslims to Kosova as well. PM
[22] ROMANIA REFUSES RUSSIAN OVERFLIGHTS TO KOSOVA
President Emil Constantinescu on 14 June said Romania is refusing a Russian
request to allow overflight transportation of troops to Kosova without
prior approval of those flights by the UN Security Council, RFE/RL's
Bucharest bureau reported. "Even if the UN gave that permission, the
request would have to follow the same procedure as that which has applied
to the NATO overflight request, that is to say it would have to be
approved by the parliament," Constantinescu said. In other news, U.S.
President Bill Clinton on 14 June phoned Premier Radu Vasile, thanking him
for the position adopted by Bucharest in the Kosova conflict. MS
[23] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN LABOR CONFLICT
Representatives of the teachers' trade unions will meet on 15 June with
Premier Vasile in an attempt to end the teachers' strike. The move follows
President Constantinescu's intervention one day earlier. The president met
with the unions' leaders and phoned Vasile in their presence, requesting
the resumption of the parleys between the government and the strikers,
RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS
[24] ROMANIAN SENATOR CALL FOR ANTONESCU'S REHABILITATION
Senator Ion Moisin, a member of the ruling National Peasant Party
Christian Democratic, demanded on 14 June that the Senate pass a resolution
for the rehabilitation of Romania's wartime leader, Marshal Ion Antonescu,
Mediafax reported. He said Antonescu had been "a great Romanian patriot,
who fought for his country till his death." Antonescu was executed in 1946
as a war criminal. Moisin said that unlike the recently- rehabilitated
Romanian spy chief, General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who served the Communist
regime, Antonescu "fought against the USSR, and liberated Bessarabia and
Bukovina." He also denied Antonescu bore any responsibility for the
Holocaust, claiming that "on the contrary, he saved the lives of hundreds
of thousands of Jews, refusing to carry out Adolf Hitler's order to send
them to Germany." Moisin's demand was supported by independent Senator
Sergiu Nicolaescu. MS
[25] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT ASKS CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO RULE ON REFERENDUM
Presidential spokesman Anatol Golea on 14 June told journalists that
President Petru Lucinschi will ask the Constitutional Court to rule whether
the resolution adopted by the parliament on 10 June is in line with the
constitution. The resolution says a referendum is invalid if less than 60
percent of eligible voters participate in it and was adopted in reaction to
the Central Electoral Commission's validation of the 23 May non-binding
referendum on changing the parliamentary system into a presidential one
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 and 8 June 1999). Golea also hinted that
Moldovan parliament members were behind a declaration adopted by the
Central European Initiative at its Prague meeting of 6-8 June that stated
"concern over political developments in Moldova, where parliamentary
democracy is endangered by anti- democratic, authoritative tendencies that
could lead to destabilization." MS
[26] BULGARIA DENIES MOSCOW REQUEST FOR AIR SPACE
Government spokeswoman Stoyana Georgieva on 14 June said the government
will withhold permission from Russia to use its air space for flights to
Kosova until NATO and Moscow reach an agreement on the implementation of
the international peacekeeping operation in that region, Reuters reported
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 June 1999). Georgieva also said that the
Bulgarian government has "many times said that a partition of Kosovo would
be against Bulgaria's national interests." In other news, an RFE/RL
correspondent in Sofia on 14 June reported that a two-week NATO naval
exercise began off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Participants include the
U.S., Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria. MS
[C] END NOTE
[27] IS ROMANIA THE FUTURE OF SLOVAKIA?
By Michael Shafir
An interesting analysis of the Slovak parliamentary and presidential
elections has been recently provided by two members of the Slovak Academy
of Sciences, Jan Buncak and Valentina Harmadyova. The two Slovak
sociologists, unlike other analysts of the Slovak scene, do not believe
that the victory of the four-party coalition in the ballot conducted
for the legislature last autumn, or Rudolf Schuster's May victory over
former Premier Vladimir Meciar in the presidential elections are an
indication of the Slovak electorate's move to the right of the political
spectrum.
Buncak and Harmadyova point out that there are right and left forces both
in the new coalition and in the opposition, as they emerged after the
parliamentary ballot. The real confrontation, the two sociologists show, is
between approaches to reform. One orientation is to the West, the
other towards an "own Slovak path," the latter being embodied by Meciar and
his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), but also including such
rightist parties as the Slovak National Party. Schuster's own political
views, they point out, would place him more on the left side of the
political spectrum, yet that part of the Slovak left has apparently
concluded that only emulation of the West in introducing reform can take
Slovakia out of the economic dead end which it had reached under Meciar's
rule. Precisely the opposite is true for the other side of the spectrum.
The opposition, Buncak says, though divided between left-center and right
oriented streams, is nonetheless "united by the unwillingness to accept
standard methods and by the effort to seek an original Slovak solution."
Harmadyova points out that psychological, rather than political factors,
play an important role in this cleavage. The "Slovak-oriented" side, she
says, is also connected with "the traditional Slovak countryside
community." It is made up of "people who accept changes only with
difficulties." Both sociologists conclude that the division reflected in
the last elections is more one between town and countryside orientations.
Three caveats arise here, however. First, there is nothing either new, nor
indeed originally Slovak about this division. "Urbanists" and "populists"
have been known to confront one another under different names through the
eastern part of the European continent for longer than a century. Second,
Buncak and Harmadyova overlook what political scientists call the
"performance" criterion. After all, Meciar and his HZDS lost the elections
not because the structure of the population underwent a radical change in
the last four years, but simply because the "Slovakia's way" recipe had
produced nothing but an economic dead end combined with increasingly
apparent evidence of corruption among Meciar cronies. Finally, they also
fail to consider the ethnicity factor. It is not an exaggeration to state
that it was the Hungarian vote that decided the outcome of both elections
and that this vote cut across the classical town- village division.
These caveats, in turn, are food for thought for further speculation. If
the town-countryside division could be overcome due to the "performance
criterion," this means the outcome of the elections is also easily
reversible. In other words, unless the four-party coalition implements its
intentions and proceeds to austerity measures and radical reforms, then in
four years the electorate will remember the former and fail to benefit from
the latter. "Declarations of intent" are simply destined to be short-lived,
as the Romanian case amply demonstrates. In that country, the Democratic
Convention of Romania (CDR) in 1996 had displaced the Party of Social
Democracy in Romania (PDSR), whose social base, like that of the HZDS, is
in the countryside and in smaller urban settlements, precisely because of
the "performance record" of the PDSR. Now, most polls indicate that the
PDSR and its leader, former President Ion Iliescu, are likely to win the
next elections. Instead of having implemented its program, the CDR, fearing
social unrest at the earliest stage of its rule, has plunged the country
into the "NATO membership" substitute. Having failed to achieve the latter,
it is now left without credibility (and probably running out of time) for
its capacity to lead the way to the former.
Slovakia may be more fortunate, for the government of Premier Mikulas
Dzurinda has made admission to the EU "fast track" group, rather than NATO
membership, its main target, and that, in itself, calls for "performance
evidence." But as viewed by the EU, such evidence must come not only in
economic, but also in political form. And above all, the Slovaks are
expected by the EU to pass a minority-language bill. As in Romania, where
the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania has been a member of the
coalition but encountered difficulties in achieving concrete results in the
legislation it wants to promote for the benefit of this minority, in
Slovakia the Hungarian Slovak Coalition, having once joined the government,
is facing opposition in the same quest. It might not be a bad idea for
Bratislava to take a better look at Bucharest. It will find a lot of
similarities, starting from the inapplicability of the classic left-right
spectrum to believers in "Romania's way," a category uniting leftists and
rightists alike. This glance may help the Slovaks avoid repeating the
mistakes of their Romanian peers.
15-06-99
Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org
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