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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 122, 99-06-23Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 122, 23 June 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] SOUTHERN CAUCASUS COUNTRIES, EU ISSUE DECLARATIONArmenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia issued a joint statement with the European Union in Luxembourg on 22 June, the Turan news agency reported. The declaration noted that the EU is concerned about developments in the Caucasus and wants to expand cooperation with all three countries. It also called for the construction of multiple pipelines to carry the region's oil and gas to the west. PG[02] ARMENIAN CHURCH LEADER IN CRITICAL CONDITIONGaregin I, the catholicos of all Armenians, remains alive but in critical condition, the Snark news agency reported on 22 June. Armenian President Robert Kocharian visited the hospitalized churchman on 21 June, and Archbishop Mesrop Mutafian, the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, is flying to Yerevan to visit Garegin in the hospital, ITAR-TASS reported. PG[03] BAKU OUTRAGED BY MOSCOW ARRESTS OF AZERBAIJANISFourteen Azerbaijani citizens were "brutally beaten and arrested by Russian militiamen in Moscow," Caucasus Press reported on 22 June. Azerbaijan's ambassador to the Russian Federation, Ramiz Rzayev, said that the Russian and Azerbaijani Interior Ministries were investigating the incident. Meanwhile, the "Express" newspaper reported on the same day that Moscow police have arrested and beaten 34 Azerbaijanis as part of a crackdown against organized crime. The paper said that the reason behind what it characterized as "this barbarian operation" is a search for six criminals who escaped from an Irkutsk penal colony. PG[04] NEW AZERBAIJANI-ARMENIAN CLASHES REPORTEDThe Turan news agency on 22 June reported that Armenian troops had fired on Azerbaijani positions in Sadarak the day before. There has been no independent confirmation of this report, but tensions have been rising and incidents have taken place along the ceasefire line in recent weeks. PG[05] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION ENDS BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENTMembers of the opposition Democratic Bloc have decided to return to work in the Milli Mejlis, Turan reported on 22 June. The 18 opposition members of that body had been boycotting the parliament's sessions since 17 April. They decided to return to take part in debates over a controversial draft law on local elections. PG[06] CIS TROOPS MARK FIFTH ANNIVERSARY IN ABKHAZIASoldiers from countries in the CIS plan to mark their fifth anniversary as peacekeepers in Abkhazia on 23 June, ITAR-TASS reported on 22 June. Their commander, Major General Sergei Korovko said "the peacemakers have fulfilled their mission by providing for the ceasefire, the pullout of heavy armaments and armed units," and by creating "conditions for the return of refugees." Meanwhile, Russian forces on 22 June turned over control to the last of seven Russian frontier posts to Abkhaz forces, the Caucasus Press reported. PG[07] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT EXPRESSES CONFIDENCE IN GUUAMEduard Shevardnadze told the Asaval-Dasavali newspaper on 22 June that he had confidence in the viability of the association of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, ITAR- TASS reported. The Russian news agency described GUUAM as an "unpronounceable acronym," but the Georgian leader said that it would survive even as he expressed doubts about the ability of the CIS to do so. He said the latter organization could flourish only if the CIS "does not turn into an instrument to preserve Russia's influence" in this region. PG[08] SHEVARDNADZE SAYS NEIGHBORS PUSHING GEORGIA TOWARD NATOIn the same interview, President Shevardnadze said that "the more pressure is brought to bear on Georgia, the more will be our country's desire to join NATO." And he added that the timing of Georgia's effort to join the Western alliance "fully depends on some of our neighbors who are hurrying us towards this step." PG[09] GEORGIAN-TURKISH MILITARY COOPERATION EXPANDSA delegation from the Turkish general staff arrived in Tbilisi on 22 June for a three-day working visit, ITAR-TASS reported. In addition, the first graduates of the Georgian-Turkish border guards' course left their Lilo training center, the Caucasus Press reported on the same day. PG[10] POLITICAL CRISIS KEEPS KAZAKHSTAN PREMIER AT HOMEIn the face of a mounting political conflict between the parliament and the government, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev did not leave for Kyiv on 22 June as was expected, Interfax reported. Balgimbaev had been scheduled to meet with senior Ukrainian officials to discuss a variety of cooperation measures. PG[11] 50,000 DRUG ADDICTS IN KYRGYZSTANBishkek officials told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz service on 22 June that there are now some 50,000 drug addicts in that Central Asian country. Officially, however, only 6,000 addicts are registered. PG[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] CLINTON THANKS MACEDONIAN, ALBANIAN LEADERS...In Skopje on 22 June, U.S. President Bill Clinton thanked Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, and their Albanian counterparts, Rexhep Meidani and Pandeli Majko, for supporting NATO during the Kosova crisis and for taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees. He also promised international assistance to promote stability in the region, AP reported. Clinton stressed that "we must create real opportunities for ordinary citizens throughout southeastern Europe." He announced that the U.S. will assist Macedonia with $12 million in food commodities in addition to $72 million in aid that the U.S. has given to Macedonia since 1998. FS[13] ...URGES KOSOVARS TO SEEK RECONCILIATIONPresident Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd of Kosovars at Macedonia's Stenkovec refugee camp on 22 June that they should wait to go home until landmines are cleared. He also said that "no one, ever, ever should be punished and discriminated against or killed or uprooted because of their religion or their ethnic heritage." Attempts to take revenge, he stressed, "will only compound the horror." The president told U.S. peacekeepers bound for Kosova that "you've got a big, big job." He added that it will be their role "to protect the ethnic Kosovar Albanians and the ethnic Serbs alike." PM[14] KOSOVA PLAGUED BY EXPLOSIVE DEVICESFollowing the deaths of two British soldiers in Kosova in an attempt to render harmless unexploded "bomblets" from NATO cluster bombs, a Pentagon spokesman said on 22 June that there are probably "thousands" of unexploded bomblets in Yugoslavia, dpa reported. A Pentagon spokesman also noted that Serbian forces planted several hundred thousand landmines in Kosova. He noted that Serbian forces have provided little information on the location of mine fields and that much of what they have turned over is inaccurate. UN officials have estimated that the landmine problem in Kosova is on a level with those of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, and Afghanistan and will remain so for years to come. PM[15] DID RUSSIAN VOLUNTEERS COMMIT WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVA?The New York daily "Newsday" ran a story on 22 June saying that about 60 Russian volunteers recently participated in the killing of hundreds of ethnic Albanians and the destruction of towns and villages in the area around Prizren. The daily added that the volunteers were organized in a single unit, created by the Serbian Interior Ministry after the beginning of the NATO air strikes in March. Roy Gutman, who won a Pulitzer prize for his reporting on Serbian concentration camps during the Bosnian war, broke the story. He quoted ethnic Albanian and Serbian security sources as mentioning several examples of Russian involvement in atrocities against ethnic Albanians. Gutman also reported that German troops ordered that particular group of Russians to leave Kosova just last week, adding that most of them were military men either retired or not in active service. Their commander was an army colonel. FS[16] PENTAGON CONFIRMS PRESENCE OF RUSSIAN VOLUNTEERS IN KOSOVAPentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said in Washington on 22 June that international war crimes investigators will examine the role of the Russian volunteers. Bacon said: "We certainly know that Russians participated. Russian volunteers, mercenaries, we believe, did participate with paramilitary and other [Serbian] forces. ...I do not have verification that there were units or groups of the size that 'Newsday' reports." Bacon, however, stressed that the "Newsday" report will not affect the status or role of the Russian KFOR contingent. He noted that "we expect [the Russian KFOR troops] to be totally fair and professional in their dealings with both Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, as they have been in Bosnia and where they have been very stalwart and successful members of the peacekeeping force." FS[17] FRENCH ARREST THREE SERBS IN SHOOTING INCIDENTFrench KFOR troops have arrested three Serbs who fired on a French patrol in Mitrovica, Reuters reported on 23 June. The Serbs had previously tried to force several ethnic Albanians to leave their homes in a primarily Serbian neighborhood. A French army spokesman added that members of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) have begun putting up posters in mainly Albanian areas of Mitrovica, in which they called on local Serbs to leave. Several English-language dailies have recently reported that French KFOR troops have done little to control ethnic tensions in France's sector in northern Kosova. PM[18] MOUNTING REPORTS OF ATROCITIES AGAINST SERBSSome 30 elderly Serbs in the Prizren area told AP on 22 June that armed ethnic Albanians recently came to their homes, took their weapons, and told them to leave. Several Serbs said that the Albanians had beaten them and showed reporters their scars. International media have reported a series of incidents in recent days involving Serbs being stabbed to death, decapitated, or kidnapped. Some ethnic Albanians claim that local Serbs committed atrocities against them, looted their property, or acted as guides for Serbian paramilitaries from outside the region. "The New York Times" reported on 23 June that local ethnic tensions remain very high in Obilic and some other communities. PM[19] DJUKANOVIC CALLS ON CLINTON TO PROTECT SERBSPresident Milo Djukanovic told Montenegrin Television on 22 June that he urged Clinton during their recent meeting in Ljubljana to use his "authority to provide full protection for the people [in Kosova], especially to Serbs and Montenegrins, who are unfortunately exposed these days to the dangers of vengeance from Albanian armed extremists" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 1999). Djukanovic added that Montenegro will continue to promote democratization, market reforms, and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. Clinton, he continued, "showed full understanding" for Montenegro's policies. Djukanovic added that he did not seek U.S. support for Montenegrin independence. PM[20] IS BELGRADE PREPARING A COUP IN MONTENEGRO?"Yugoslav army troops forced out of [Kosova]...are reported to be pouring into Montenegro at an alarming rate, raising fears that Serbia's tiny neighbor is about to become the next victim of [Yugoslav] President Slobodan Milosevic's aggression," the London-based daily "The Independent" reported on 23 June. The paper added that "Serb paramilitaries...have been fanning out through the republic, allegedly including forces belonging to the most notorious paramilitary, [Zeljko Raznatovic] Arkan." Support for independence is growing in the mountainous republic, the daily concluded. PM[21] B-92 STAFF SACKEDSerbian officials have fired 17 long-term employees of the formerly independent Belgrade Radio B-92, "Danas" reported on 23 June. Veran Matic, who is B-92's former chief, called the move illegal and demanded that state-controlled B-92 be restored to "its legal owners." PM[22] DRASKOVIC SETS OWN COURSEVuk Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement said in Belgrade on 22 June that Serbia's leading parties should reach a formal agreement on forming a provisional government to launch reforms prior to the elections, which are slated for 2000. He rejected calls by a coalition of opposition groups for early elections. Many observers say that Draskovic still commands a loyal following but has seriously harmed his credibility by recently serving a brief stint in Milosevic's government. He is also widely regarded as mercurial and given to strong nationalist views. PM[23] ALBANIA'S BERISHA PROPOSES RETURN TO PARLIAMENTOpposition Democratic Party Chairman Sali Berisha proposed on 22 June that the party return to parliament, Reuters reported. The party leadership issued a statement saying that it "approves the proposal of its chairman to start procedures for the return to parliament." The statement added that the party leadership will soon call a meeting of the Democrats' 130- member National Council. The National Council will then consider organizing a special party congress that can approve the end of the parliamentary boycott. Berisha said: "I am convinced [the council and the congress] will listen to the call of the party chairman." He added that he recently received pledges from U.S. officials to help investigate the murder of Democratic Party legislator Azem Hajdari in September 1998. The Democrats have boycotted parliament since then because they suspect the governing Socialists of complicity in the killing. Albanian investigators say their work on the case has been hamstrung by the refusal of many witnesses to testify. FS[24] BOSNIAN UN POLICE TO KOSOVAA UN spokesman said in New York on 22 June that some 42 UN police have left Bosnia for Kosova. An additional 158 police will follow within 10 days. In Sarajevo, NATO officials lifted a ban on training, movement, and air activity that SFOR imposed on the separate Bosnian forces during the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia. PM[25] WESTENDORP AIDE WARNS OF CORRUPTIONJames Fergusson, who is a spokesman for the international community's Carlos Westendorp, said in Sarajevo on 22 June that corruption is a "cancer that threatens to destroy the society" of Bosnia- Herzegovina. He added that corruption involves hundreds of millions of dollars each year, and that evasion of taxes and customs duties are key problems. Fergusson rejected recent remarks by Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, who said that charges of corruption cannot be proven, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Recently, Westendorp's deputy, Jacques Klein, called corruption the largest single obstacle to Bosnia ever becoming independent of aid programs. Klein noted that some estimates suggest that the illegal economy accounts for up to 70 percent of Bosnia's GDP, Reuters reported. PM[26] ALBRIGHT IN BUCHARESTU.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met in Bucharest on 22 June with President Emil Constantinescu and Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. She praised the position Romania adopted during the Kosova conflict and said that by so doing it had "become a part of the NATO family." She also said that Bucharest must play "a leading role" in the process of achieving stability in the Balkans. Albright said that the U.S. supported Romania's aspirations for NATO integration as well as its candidacy for the OSCE chairmanship in 2001. Plesu said he presented Albright with proposals for Balkan reconstruction using the Southeast European Cooperation (whose rotating-presidency Romania holds) as an instrument for implementing regional stability. He offered that Romania host some of the planned talks on Balkan reconstruction. MS[27] ROMANIAN CHIEF OF STAFF PRESENTS ARMY RESTRUCTURING PLANS...General Constantin Degeratu on 22 June said military expenditure must rise from the present 1.8 percent of GDP to 2.2 percent by 2007 in order for the country to realize aspirations for NATO integration and to allow for the planned military reform, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. He said the reform includes two stages, one to restructure the armed forces by 2003, and another to modernize equipment by 2007. The per capita annual expense is to rise from $4,000 to $10,000 by 2007. Under the plan, drafted with U.S. and British expertise, Romania will have 480 tanks and 940 other armored vehicles, as well as 84 fighter planes and 80 helicopters. Degeratu said only 12 out of Romania's 18 MiG-29 planes are capable of flying. MS[28] ... AS BELL ABOUT TO MAKE NEW OFFERPremier Radu Vasile will meet this week with representatives of Bell Helicopters Textron, who will make a new offer for a majority stake in the IAR Gimbav aircraft company, Mediafax reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 June 1999). Vasile, however, has several times said that he considers the likelihood of a deal with the French-German Eurocopter consortium to be more advantageous. Representatives of the consortium are to visit Bucharest next month and present their offer, after which a decision will be made. MS[29] PROTESTERS CLASH WITH POLICE IN CHISINAU CENTRAL SQUAREViolent clashes between police and members of the National Trade Union Federation took place on 23 June in Chisinau's central square, Infotag reported. The trade unionists are protesting against wage arrears. By noon, 13 demonstrators had been arrested, two of whom were hospitalized, one of them with head injuries. On 22 June, World War II veterans besieged the presidential office, trying to force their way in to deliver a petition protesting against poverty and civil rights' infringements. After being repelled by police, the veterans said they would join the unions' demonstration the next day. The unions have also declared a "warning strike." The government warned that the strike may lead to "destabilization" of the situation in the country and said it is doing all it can to meet the unions' demands. MS[30] LUCINSCHI MEETS RULING COALITION DEPUTIESPresident Petru Lucinschi on 22 June met with deputies representing the ruling coalition, explaining the reasons for his drive to amend the constitution and introduce a presidential system in Moldova, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Iurie Rosca, leader of the Christian Democratic Popular Front and parliament vice chairman, said in reaction that he is a supporter of the parliamentary system. Parliament chairman Dumitru Diacov, who heads the pro-presidential For a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova Bloc (PMDP), was non- committal when asked by journalists to comment on the president's arguments. He said the PMDP will "analyze" Lucinschi's plea. MS[31] TRANSDNIESTER LEADER DISSATISFIED WITH RUSSIAN POSITIONIn an interview with Russian NTV broadcast on Tiraspol television, separatist leader Igor Smirnov on 21 June said Russian leaders are lately displaying "coarseness" towards the "Transdniester people," the independent Flux agency reported. Smirnov said he no longer can describe relations with Russia as being characterized by "sincere friendship" when "I hear from the U.S. ambassador [to Chisinau] that the U.S. and Russia have reached agreement on the evacuation of the Russian troops and arsenal from the Transdniester without my knowledge." He said the Transdniestrians will "defend their interests, even if [Russian troop commander Evgenii] Yevnevich says Russia has no strategic interest here." Smirnov said that the Transdniester has "no intention" to renounce what he called "our military assets," which Russia plans to give to Moldova. MS[32] BULGARIA URGES KFOR TO PROTECT KOSOVA SERBSPrime Minister Ivan Kostov told the parliament on 22 June that the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosova must "perform its mission and secure the safety of all citizens in Kosovo." He said that Bulgaria was "categorically against forcing out the Serbian population" and insisted on a quick disarmament of the Kosova Liberation Army, stressing that a slow disarmament process would result in "the full expulsion of the Serbs" from the region and "a power vacuum that may be filled by illegitimate and armed groups." Kostov also said Bulgaria was "very concerned" about reports of "assaults against Serbian villages and violence against the Serbs," Reuters and AP reported. He added that an "ethnically pure, Albanian" Kosova will be "reason for new conflicts and destabilization in southeastern Europe." MS[33] BRITISH ENVOY SAYS BULGARIA MAY JOIN NATO IN 2000Bulgaria may receive an invitation to join NATO in 2000 if it succeeds to fulfill its military reform plans by then, British ambassador to Sofia Richard Stagg told a NATO seminar in Shumen, northeastern Bulgaria, on 22 June. He said that the U.K. actively assists and supports the Bulgarian political and military leaders to this end, "but everything is in Bulgarian hands," BTA reported. MS[C] END NOTE[34] 'BEYOND BORDER MAGYARS' -- IS KOSOVA A MILESTONE?By Michael ShafirAs of late, Hungarian leaders display a constant preoccupation with the fate of the 350,000-strong Magyar minority in the Serbian province of Vojvodina. Indeed, hardly a day passes without either Prime Minister Viktor Orban or Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi raising the issue at one meeting or another, be it with their new NATO allies, with visiting Yugoslav opposition leaders, or in encounters with prominent members of the province's ethnic Hungarian leadership. This insistence has certainly not gone unnoticed in neighboring Romania and Slovakia, which also have sizable (1.7 million and 560,000, respectively) Hungarian minorities and where fears of similar demands being raised are constantly looming and cut across the political spectrum. Indeed, Romanian President Emil Constantinescu's denunciation earlier this month of a document whose origins are still unclarified, and which called for Romania's federalization and for autonomy for the Banat and Transylvania speaks miles of the echoes that the fragile post-Kosova truce may unwarrantedly have produced. After all, Constantinescu must have been aware of the fact that by denouncing the handful of intellectuals (Hungarian but also Romanian ethnics) who allegedly authored the document, he was willy- nilly playing the tune that extremist nationalist forces in his country had been playing for about a decade. And yet, the trumpet sounded in Budapest obviously penetrated the walls of the Banat, a historical province of the Austrian-Hungarian empire that Yugoslavia and Romania divided after World War I, producing a stringent note in Bucharest. In neighboring Slovakia, where, as in Romania, the Hungarian minority is a member of the ruling coalition, the Vojvodina offensive is not known to have triggered a reaction at leadership level, but it certainly was not very helpful to the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), whose drive to translate promises made by its coalition allies into post-electoral deeds is encountering considerable difficulty. Indeed, observers are of the opinion that the Slovak nationalist counteroffensive, aimed at stopping the minority-language bill from being passed by submitting the issue to a referendum, is not without chance of being successful. SMK leader Miklos Duray had to admit last week that some 60 percent of Slovaks are, in fact, quite unhappy to see the SMK in the government. Why should Hungary's neighbors fear the Kosova fallout? To put it in a nutshell, because they perceive Budapest's "Vojvodina offensive" as being perhaps the first step towards what many a Romanian or Slovak nationalist has long been suspecting Budapest of: destroying the post-Trianon treaty border arrangements. After all, that 1920 treaty is still widely referred to in Budapest as a "diktat," whereas the Hitler-imposed "arbitration" (the Budapest terminology) that briefly returned part of Transylvania to Romania in the early 1940s is considered a "diktat" in Bucharest. And, to be sure, those who chose to look at the Vojvodina autonomy demand through dark glasses seemed to be vindicated by politicians of the likes of Justice and Life Party leader Istvan Csurka, who did not wait for the guns to fall silent before calling for Vojvodina's annexation. In other words, Slovakia and Romania fear what political scientists used to call "the diffusion of political innovation" when they referred to East European dissident demands crossing borders and being emulated from one country to another. The fact that for the first time after many centuries Hungary finds itself on the winning side of an alliance after a war (even if brief) does not much help to alleviate those fears, to put it mildly. But to what extent is anxiety of such emulation justified? If one examines the ideas promoted by Budapest, one is bound to be surprised that their origin is, in fact, not really Hungarian. Or, more exactly stated, its origins may be Magyar, but not from within Hungary's present-day borders. The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), has for some time now promoted a program of a "three-pronged" autonomy for members of the community in that country and, as one may witness from the declarations made in Cologne on 10 June by Zsolt Nemeth, who is in charge of ties with Hungarian minorities beyond borders, it is precisely this model that has now been embraced in Budapest. In other words, yes, there is diffusion, but in the opposite direction. Of the three components of autonomy for the Vojvodina Hungarians that Nemeth mentioned at a conference in Cologne on 10 June, only one really needs explaining, and that is the concept of "personal autonomy." The other two--separate representative bodies and an alliance of settlements with Hungarian ethnic majority-- simply amount to self-rule and territorial autonomy. "Personal autonomy," in the view of the UDMR, means that ethnic Hungarians will have a right to participate in elections to the first structure mentioned above even if they do not reside in districts where there is a Hungarian minority. The "specter," as it turns out, is rather benign and the Foreign Ministry in Budapest has clearly distanced itself from any Csurka-like demands. But it is benign only as long as "autonomy" is read to mean a right that every citizen in a democratic polity has by definition of its being a democracy. And that reading, alas, still needs translators into Romanian or Slovak. 23-06-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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