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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 139, 99-07-20Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 139, 20 July 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN NEWSPAPER PREDICTS EXPANDED WAR WITH AZERBAIJANEven as Armenian President Robert Kocharian and AzerbaijaniPresident Heidar Aliev expressed satisfaction with their recent meeting, the Armenian newspaper "Golos Armenii" suggested that Azerbaijan will eventually earn enough money from oil and gas exports to be able to finance a new and larger war against Armenia. Writing in that newspaper's 17 July issue, V. Grigoryan said that "it will then become increasingly harder for Armenia to maintain military parity and a full-scale war will be unavoidable in 10 years' time." PG [02] STALIN WAS 'RUSSIAN' PHENOMENON, SAYS GRANDSONSpeaking inMoscow on 18 July to a meeting of those opposed to burying Lenin, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili said that his grandfather was "not a Georgian but a Russian phenomenon," Caucasus Press reported on 19 July. And he said that those who try to blame Stalin on the Georgians are making a major mistake. PG [03] SHEVARDNADZE WILL 'PROBABLY' RUN AGAIN...At his weekly newsconference on 19 July, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said that he will "probably" run for a second term but added that "to be serious, I haven't yet decided," Reuters reported. In other comments, reported by Caucasus Press, Shevardnadze expressed his believe that the "president can head a political party," suggesting that he will seek to run as the leader of one. PG [04] ...WELCOMES GROWING TIES WITH U.S.The Georgian leader saidthat "relations between Georgia and the U.S. are gradually assuming the nature of a strategic partnership," ITAR-TASS reported. But he commented that "this cooperation is not aimed against anyone." He again expressed interest in NATO's participation in finding a solution to the Abkhaz problem. In related developments, Tbilisi announced that the parliament will consider sending 20 Georgian servicemen to Kosova, ITAR- TASS reported. A representative of the Georgian military will go to Italy in August for NATO training, according to Caucasus Press. PG [05] GEORGIA RAISES THRESHOLD FOR PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIONThe Georgian parliament on 20 July voted to increase thevoting threshold for representation in parliament from 5 percent to 7 percent, Caucasus Press reported. The vote, which will make it more difficult for some smaller parties to gain representation in the parliament, results in the first amendment to the country's 1995 constitution. But President Shevardnadze dismissed it as having little importance for him and his political future. PG [06] CENTRAL ASIANS TO FORM SECURITIES MARKETKazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will form a securities market, the Kazakhstan government announced to Interfax- Kazakhstan on 20 July. PG [07] KAZAKHSTAN STEPS UP PRESSURE OVER BAIKONURMeibekMoldabekov, the head of Kazakhstan's Space Agency, told Reuters on 20 July that his government will seek a percentage of profits from all future Russian launches from Baikonur as well as a say in future launch schedules. But he acknowledged that "Kazakhstan does not have the legal right" to limit the number of launches at the site, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported the same day. PG [08] KYRGYZSTAN, RUSSIA SIGN BORDER CONTROL ACCORDUnder theterms of a 17 July agreement, Kyrgyzstan will assume responsibility for parts of its border that have been under the control of Russian border guards, Interfax reported on 19 July. PG [09] TAJJIK MUSLIM LEADER RE-ELECTEDHaji Amanullo Negmatzoda wasre-elected to the chairmanship of the Tajik Muslim Religious Board for another five years, Interfax reported on 19 July. PG [10] UZBEKISTAN PRESIDENT PROPOSES AFGHAN PEACE PLANSpeaking toa meeting of the "Six plus Two" group in Tashkent on 19 July, President Islam Karimov called for a cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners, and the end of all blockades of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, Interfax reported. Karimov said that "our most coveted and greatest desire is to see a peaceful, stable, and secure Afghanistan." PG [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[11] REHN CALLS FOR 'NEW MECHANISM' AGAINST RIGHTS VIOLATORSFormer UN envoy to Bosnia Elisabeth Rehn said in Helsinki on19 July the international community must "create a mechanism with which we can deal with the actions of this kind of a terror state"--by which she meant Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia--without resorting to a bombing campaign. "Every missile cost around $1 million and, in a few years, we will pay for the reconstruction. And so much sorrow and misery," Reuters reported. Rehn also called upon NATO not to reduce its forces in the Balkans until the remaining indicted war criminals have been captured. Rehn is a former Finnish defense minister and has served the UN in the Balkans for the past four years. PM [12] U.S. REJECTS AMNESTY FOR MILOSEVICState Departmentspokesman James Rubin said in Washington on 19 July that "Milosevic's future is only in one place, and that is The Hague. We oppose any suggestion of granting sanctuary or amnesty to indicted war criminals, and we encourage any state that obtains custody over Milosevic to deliver him directly to The Hague." Serbian opposition politician Vuk Draskovic recently suggested that Milosevic receive amnesty in return for leaving office (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 July 1999). PM [13] CLINTON TO ATTEND BALKAN SUMMITU.S. President Bill Clintonwill attend the international summit on Balkan reconstruction in Sarajevo on 30 July, the White House said in a statement on 19 July. The statement noted that "the leaders will discuss ways to strengthen peace and stability, deepen democracy and civil society, and promote economic reforms throughout southeast Europe." On 28 July, international financial experts will meet in Brussels to plan an aid package for the region. PM [14] EU REACHES 'MESSY COMPROMISE' ON BALKAN RECONSTRUCTIONLondon's "The Independent" reported on 20 July that Europeanforeign ministers the previous day reached a "messy compromise" dividing EU offices for Balkan reconstruction between Thessaloniki and Prishtina. An unnamed "senior European Commission official said the member states were behaving in a 'disgraceful' way, and United States diplomats [were] taken aback by the naked self-interest of the infighting," the daily continued. The ministers also agreed to lift the oil embargo on Montenegro and Kosova "soon." PM [15] DJINDJIC WANTS 'CONCRETE PLAN' FOR EU ADMISSIONSerbianDemocratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic told German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Bonn on 19 July that the EU should offer Serbia a "concrete plan" for obtaining EU membership. Djindjic stressed that Serbs will make "great efforts" to join European structures once Milosevic is out of power, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported. Djindjic added he considers that "Milosevic is already history." The opposition leader pointed out, however, that removing Milosevic from office "will not be easy." Schroeder replied that he "does not exclude" EU membership for Belgrade once Milosevic is gone, Deutsche Welle reported. PM [16] BELGRADE CAMPAIGN AGAINST 'CRONYISM'?Serbian Deputy PrimeMinister Dragoljub Karic said that many unspecified company managers with "membership in certain political parties and with political connections" all too often "channel [corporate] money into private pockets," Reuters reported on 19 July. Observers suggested that his reference was to a large number of businessmen close to the respective political parties of Milosevic and his wife. Former top banker Dragoslav Avramovic told an opposition news conference that Karic could not "give such a statement without a certain security, certain guarantees for himself, according to the way things work here." PM [17] BELGRADE SAYS UN VIOLATES ITS SOVEREIGNTYVladislavJovanovic, who is Yugoslavia's chief envoy to the UN, said in a letter in New York on 19 July that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 12 July report on Kosova was "biased and tendentious" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 July 1999). Jovanovic added that Annan showed "scant respect" for Belgrade's sovereignty in the province. Elsewhere, the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions approved an initial $200 million to finance the UN's operation in Kosova. PM [18] UN TRIES TO GET RUGOVA'S PARTY ON TRANSITIONAL COUNCILOn 20July in Prishtina, unnamed officials of the UN and the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) discussed the possible participation of moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova in the UN- sponsored transitional council for the province (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 July 1999). The council's next session is scheduled for 26 July. Rugova's foreign relations adviser, Edita Tahiri, told AFP in Prishtina that the LDK declined to attend the first council meeting on 16 July because the Christian Democratic, Liberal, and Social Democratic Parties were not invited. These small parties were represented in the last shadow-state parliament. The UN instead opted to invite all Kosovar representatives who were at the Rambouillet conference, as well as representatives of the Kosovar Serbs and Turks. A UN official told AFP that inclusion of the smaller Albanian parties could lead to further demands for representation by other small lobby groups from other ethnic communities. FS [19] WORLD BANK GIVES $40 MILLION TO ALBANIAAlbanian PrimeMinister Pandeli Majko and World Bank President James Wolfensohn signed an agreement in Tirana on 19 July providing for a $40 million loan, AP reported. The loan will be used to upgrade infrastructure, promote regional integration, and assist the development of small enterprises. The credit has a 40-year maturity period, a 10-year grace period, and an annual interest rate of 0.75 percent. Wolfensohn told President Rexhep Meidani that "now is the moment for you to secure...Albania's position in the region and world. The World Bank will be your partner." He urged the Albanian government to continue its privatization program and step up the fight against corruption. Since 1991, Albania has received loans totaling $482 million from the World Bank in support of 33 projects. FS [20] GREECE EXPELS MORE ALBANIANSGreek authorities continued todeport Albanian immigrants on 19 July, dpa reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 July 1999). Within 24 hours, Greek police shipped 1,000 immigrants to the border crossing of Kakavia. Many of them complained that Greek police had torn up their bank documents, which made it impossible for them to retrieve their savings deposited in Greek banks. Others claimed that they have the necessary papers to stay in Greece. One immigrant told Albanian Radio that "the police did not bother to look at my documents, they just tore them up and put me forcibly on a bus for the border." Albanian officials estimate that Greek authorities deported more than 3,000 emigrants to Albania the previous week. FS [21] CROATIA REBUFFS ARBOURCroatian Minister of Justice ZvonimirSeparovic told Louise Arbour, who is the Hague-based war crimes tribunal's special prosecutor, in Zagreb on 19 July that the Croatian authorities will not extradite Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic and Vinko "Stela" Martinovic until court cases against them in Croatia have been completed. She had demanded that the two appear before the tribunal to face charges of war crimes that they allegedly committed in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war. Separovic also refused to give Arbour all the documents the latter had requested regarding alleged atrocities committed against Serbs in Croatia between 1991 and 1995. Separovic commented that "we have to take care of our national interests." He stressed, however, that "no country" has given the court as many documents as Croatia has. PM [22] ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER DEFENDS CONVICTED GENERALSVictorBabiuc on 19 July said his ministry will appeal not only the decision of the Supreme Court obliging his ministry to pay damages to the victims of the 1989 uprising in Timisoara but also the sentencing of Generals Victor Stanculescu and Mihai Chitac (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"16 July 1999). Babiuc said the sentence was "not just a legal mistake" but "a blunder, with strong political bias" aimed at discrediting the army as a whole. He emphasized that the army in 1989 "sided with the revolution" and that Stanculescu "played a key role in that decision." Chief of Staff General Constantin Degeratu said the sentence was "bizarre, unfounded, and illegal" and undermined the principle of "fulfillment of orders" by the military. MS [23] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT DENIES ALLEGATIONS OF ESPIONAGEPresidential spokesman Razvan Popescu on 19 July said thatSenator Corneliu Vadim Tudor's recent allegations that Emil Constantinescu spied for the U.S. were "just another aberration circulated by Tudor and the team of retired Securitate people that surrounds him." Popescu called on the Prosecutor-General's Office to indict the senator. During an interview with a private television station on 15 July, Tudor played a videotape in which a former officer of the communist secret police made the allegation. Interviewed by the daily "Cotidianul" on 19 July, the officer repeated the allegations but added that he cannot produce proof. His colleagues who were in charge of shadowing Constantinescu under the former regime are all dead, he added. MS [24] TRANSDNIESTER LEADER ON KYIV SUMMITSpeaking on Tiraspoltelevision on returning from the Kyiv summit (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 19 July 1999), separatist leader Igor Smirnov said the negotiations were "constructive" and that the documents submitted by his delegation were "highly appreciated" by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and "particularly by [Russian Prime Minister] Sergei Stepashin." Smirnov said that according to Stepashin, the agreed declaration on a single Moldovan-Transdniestrian state "may successfully serve as a model for solving relations between the Russian Federation and Chechnya," RFE RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Smirnov also said that Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi "did not share Stepashin's optimism," pointing out that the Moldovan Constitution defines the country as a "unitary state." MS [25] RUSSIA REBUFFS BULGARIA ON AIR CORRIDORS FOR KFOR TROOPSRussia has said it rejects as "unacceptable" the conditionsset by Bulgaria on air corridors for the transportation to Kosova of Russian KFOR peacekeepers. An embassy spokesman said on 19 July that Bulgaria insists that Russia present a list of the exact number of troops, their weapons, and ammunition five days prior to the transit. He argued that it is "impossible to satisfy these demands," ITAR-TASS reported. The spokesman also said that the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has informed the embassy that the transit requires parliamentary approval and that the legislature cannot discuss the request now because of the parliamentary recess. MS [26] BULGARIA BANS USE OF POLICE FORCE AGAINST JOURNALISTSInterior Minister Bogomil Bonev on 19 July issued an orderprohibiting police from using force against journalists, AP reported, citing BTA. The ban comes after several incidents involving such force. Most recently, police in Varna confiscated and exposed the films of a local newspaper photographer who was taking pictures of municipal workers pulling down illegally constructed buildings. Last week, military police in Sofia handcuffed a newspaper photographer taking pictures of guests arriving at a reception at the French embassy. Earlier, police on the Bulgarian-Turkish border attacked a radio reporter covering the transit of Turkish peacekeepers to Kosova. MS [C] END NOTE[27] HAS HUNGARY OVERSTATED ITS VOJVODINA CASE?by Michael ShafirThere are indications that Budapest's repeated insistence on the need for the autonomy of neighboring Vojvodina is having diminished returns. Hungary's new allies in NATO and its prospective future EU partners have distanced themselves from the Hungarian position, according to which the Vojvodina Magyars must be safeguarded against the idiosyncrasies of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Belgrade. There are three reasons for this development. First, Hungarian leaders have been using vague terminology, such as "personal autonomy," borrowed from the program of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania. That term, which has been widely employed but seldom clarified, means little more than ensuring that Vojvodina ethnic Hungarians living in settlements where there is no Magyar majority have the right to participate in electing provincial representative bodies. The lack of understanding of this term is self-evident: The Hungarian language is not exactly an international communications tool, nor are leaders of Hungary's new allies known for browsing through Hungarian publications over their morning porridge or croissants. Second, Budapest's behavior during the Kosova conflict failed to meet the expectations of its new allies. While that behavior was not as unsatisfactory as that of the Czech government--prominent members of which criticized the alliance as air strikes took place against Yugoslavia --the Hungarian cabinet obviously considered it had done its duty by allowing the alliance to use the Taszar air base for anti- Yugoslav sorties. Moreover, according to a report in the daily "Vilaggazdasag" on 25 June, Prime Minister Viktor Orban had vetoed in April a planned NATO ground operation from Hungary. Budapest repeatedly emphasized that Yugoslavia's likely reprisals against the 350,000-strong Magyar minority in the province prevented it from contributing troops to a possible ground force. Its worries about such reprisals are likely to have been the reason for Orban's vetoing an invasion from Hungary. But after the conflict ended and Hungary escalated its own Vojvodina autonomy campaign, her allies were little inclined to follow a course that could lead to a new conflict, one for which neither domestic nor international public opinion were prepared. Not that the Hungarian argument lacks in persuasiveness. Orban, Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, and other Hungarian officials have all pointed out that since the region's autonomy was abolished by Milosevic in 1989, Vojvodina has lost much of its multi-ethnic character. The break up of Tito's Yugoslavia saw Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia settled in Vojvodina, and the region's ethnic balance was further altered by the recent conflict in Kosova. In an address to a NATO workshop in Budapest on 21 June, Orban said that no fewer than 250,000 Serbs fled from Kosova to Vojvodina once Milosevic's defeat became clear. Even more worrisome, as Hungarian President Arpad Goncz indicated during a visit to Norway in late June, members of Serbian paramilitary organizations from Kosova had appeared in Vojvodina, increasing the prospect of ethnic-cleansing in the province. The third reason for NATO's reluctance to support the Hungarian position stems from the reaction of Hungary's neighbors, other than Yugoslavia, which fear that the next step in applying the autonomy model might be "imported" to their territory. When NATO Supreme Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark spoke in Budapest last month about the obliteration of the Trianon legacy (by which he meant non- interference in so-called "internal affairs" when human rights are at stake), Romania's politicians were united in denouncing the declaration and calling for "clarification." It was not sufficient for NATO headquarters in Brussels to send a verbatim report of Clark's statement to Bucharest, which the media printed in full. Clark himself had to reassure his hosts, during a brief visit of Bucharest on 15 July, that he had not suggested that borders would in any way be questioned after Kosova. NATO was pursuing regional stability, he stressed, and "stability means no change of borders." When William Cohen visited Budapest on 12 July, the U.S. defense secretary's hosts were confronted with his obvious reluctance to back ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina. "Magyar Hirlap" reported that when Orban asked for such support, Cohen "politely" changed the subject. The look on his face, according to an AP report, was "not again!" A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP that the U.S. would certainly not meet Orban's request that the issue be included on the Western agenda for talks on the future of the Balkans. "The last thing we need," he said, "is another push for autonomy." Likewise, a Foreign Ministry official from one of the EU member states told "Nepszabadsag" that the issue of autonomy for Vojvodina's Hungarians will be at the bottom of the list of priorities in talks on the region's stability. The official rejected the Kosova-Vojvodina link, noting that the two provinces are not comparable, since one's population is 90 percent Albanian and the other's 17 percent Hungarian. When Orban was asked whether his demand that NATO "guarantee" autonomy meant using military force, he replied "How else?" He would have been well advised to come up with a different answer. Unless, of course, he is ready to settle for an air base in the U.S, from which Hungary would launch air strikes to defend its Vojvodina brethren. 20-07-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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