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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 144, 99-07-27

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 144, 27 July 1999


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] ARMENIAN GAS CRISIS EASES
  • [02] AZERBAIJAN DEFENSE MINISTRY OFFICIAL SACKED
  • [03] MUTALIBOV OPPOSES CONCERNS ON KARABAKH
  • [04] GEORGIA SEEKS UN FINDING OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ABKHAZIA
  • [05] GEORGIAN-ADJARIAN TENSIONS INCREASE
  • [06] TBILISI TO RE-EXAMINE APRIL 1989 EVENTS
  • [07] SHEVARDNADZE ACCUSES FIVE PARTIES OF BUYING VOTES...
  • [08] ...SAYS HE MET WITH CHECHENS ON HOSTAGES
  • [09] NAZARBAYEV SAYS KAZAKH MEDIA SHOULD PLAY 'POSITIVE' ROLE
  • [10] LOCUSTS DRIVE OUT KAZAKH AGRICULTURE MINISTER
  • [11] KAZAKH WOMEN PROTEST LAND PRIVATIZATION
  • [12] KYRGYZ-UZBEK GAS TALKS CONTINUE
  • [13] KYRGYZSTAN TO REMOVE DZERZHINSKY STATUE

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [14] HAGUE COURT MOVING CLOSER TO INDICTING TUDJMAN?
  • [15] CROATIAN OPPOSITION FORESEES POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS
  • [16] EFFECT OF INDICTMENT COULD BE DEVASTATING
  • [17] SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS KILLINGS IN KOSOVA...
  • [18] ...AS DOES BERGER
  • [19] THACI SAYS GREATER ALBANIA NOT A GOAL
  • [20] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO FORGE AGREEMENT?
  • [21] DJINDJIC CALLS ON GENERAL TO OPPOSE MILOSEVIC
  • [22] SERBIAN PETITION DRIVE CONTINUES
  • [23] DANUBE COMMISSION SAYS CLEAN-UP TO COST $90 MILLION
  • [24] ROMANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS IMF ACCORD NOT CERTAIN
  • [25] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONTINUES 'TRANSYLVANIA
  • [26] U.S. TO HELP FINANCING RUSSIAN ARSENAL WITHDRAWAL FROM
  • [27] BULGARIAN DEPUTY PREMIER SAYS KOSOVA CRISIS HELPED BALKANS

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [28] ZEMAN'S GOVERNMENT ONE YEAR ON: A DUBIOUS RECORD

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] ARMENIAN GAS CRISIS EASES

    Gasoline was again available in

    most retail stations in Yerevan on 26 July, RFE/RL's Armenian

    Service reported, but prices were approximately 10 percent

    higher than a week earlier. Meanwhile, Armenpress reported

    that Armenian authorities are blaming Romania and Bulgaria

    for the crisis, noting that Bulgaria is now selling gas to

    Yugoslavia while Romania's major refinery is undergoing

    repairs. PG

    [02] AZERBAIJAN DEFENSE MINISTRY OFFICIAL SACKED

    Colonel Mehman

    Salimov, the chief of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry's

    educational department, has been fired "for serious mistakes

    in his work," the Turan news agency reported on 26 July. The

    agency suggested that he was released because of an interview

    he had given to the press supporting military critics of the

    current defense minister and opposing improved relations

    between Baku and NATO. PG

    [03] MUTALIBOV OPPOSES CONCERNS ON KARABAKH

    Former Azerbaijani

    President Ayaz Mutalibov told Turan on 26 July that he

    opposes making concessions to Armenia in order to resolve the

    Karabakh problem. He rejected proposals for confederation or

    a "common state" combining Azerbaijan and Karabakh, which, he

    suggested, "in fact would mean independence" for the disputed

    region. PG

    [04] GEORGIA SEEKS UN FINDING OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ABKHAZIA

    President Eduard Shevardnadze on 26 July said that his

    government wants the UN Security Council to issue a statement

    finding that there has been ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia,

    Interfax reported. But a source in the Russian Foreign

    Ministry said that Moscow would oppose any such finding and

    suggested that the Georgian request would likely be turned

    down. "We have no arguments in favor of recognizing the fact

    of ethnic cleansing against the Georgian population in

    Abkhazia," the unnamed source told ITAR-TASS the same day.

    Meanwhile, Georgian officials told Caucasus Press that the

    failure of the UN to issue such a finding would be "a defeat

    of the UN and a great disappointment for Georgia." At the UN,

    Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended that the UN mandate

    in Georgia be extended. PG

    [05] GEORGIAN-ADJARIAN TENSIONS INCREASE

    Georgian parliamentary

    deputies have said that a statement by Adjarian leader Aslan

    Abashidze that the 1921 Kars Treaty should be restored is

    "treasonous," Prime News reported on 26 July. Abashidze had

    earlier cited that treaty as justifying his region's right to

    free trade with Turkey and even to give him the right to stop

    the collection of customs duties at seaports there. PG

    [06] TBILISI TO RE-EXAMINE APRIL 1989 EVENTS

    President

    Shevardnadze has instructed his government to re-examine all

    documents related to the actions of Soviet forces in

    dispersing a peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi on 9 April

    1989, Caucasus Press reported on 26 July. Shevardnadze said

    he intends to publish a book on that tragic day, in which 16

    people were killed and many more wounded. Meanwhile, former

    Georgian Communist Party leader Jumbar Patiashvili said he

    welcomes this new investigation and that if he or anyone else

    is found to have violated the law, those people should be

    punished. PG

    [07] SHEVARDNADZE ACCUSES FIVE PARTIES OF BUYING VOTES...

    The

    Georgian president told a 26 July news conference that five

    political parties in his country have sought to bribe voters,

    Prime News reported. But the deputy chairman of the Central

    Election Commission, Gia Zesashvili, appeared to limit their

    legal liability by saying that vote-buying before a poll date

    is set is not in fact a crime. Shevardnadze told the

    journalists that he will soon fix a date for the elections.

    PG

    [08] ...SAYS HE MET WITH CHECHENS ON HOSTAGES

    In other comments

    at his 26 July press conference, Shevardnadze announced that

    he has met with Chechen Vice President Vakha Arsanov, now in

    Georgia for medical treatment, to discuss the release of

    Georgian citizens now held captive in Chechnya and the joint

    fight against kidnapping. PG

    [09] NAZARBAYEV SAYS KAZAKH MEDIA SHOULD PLAY 'POSITIVE' ROLE

    Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev told journalists in

    his country on 26 July that further democratization there is

    out of the question without a free media, "the basic

    institution of any law-abiding state," Interfax reported. But

    he suggested that journalists should give more attention to

    "positive" developments" since "shortcomings are present in

    any society; positive attitudes must be encouraged." PG

    [10] LOCUSTS DRIVE OUT KAZAKH AGRICULTURE MINISTER

    Kazakhstan's

    Minister of Agriculture Zhanibek Karibzhanov resigned on 26

    July after being criticized for failing to prevent the

    widespread locust infestation in that country, Reuters

    reported. His resignation was immediately accepted. At

    present, almost two-thirds of the area under cultivation

    there is suffering from locusts, the agency noted. PG

    [11] KAZAKH WOMEN PROTEST LAND PRIVATIZATION

    Seven women have

    declared a hunger strike in Almaty to demand that the

    country's parliament not act to privatize agricultural land,

    Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on 26 July. The women, ranging

    in age from 30 to 81, said that "we are not frightened by

    prison and death. We are only afraid of disgrace before

    future generations." PG

    [12] KYRGYZ-UZBEK GAS TALKS CONTINUE

    An official from the Kyrgyz

    state gas company told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service on 26 July

    that Bishkek is trying to secure agreement with Tashkent on

    stable deliveries of gas to Kyrgyzstan from Uzbekistan.

    Kyrgyzstan owes Uzbekistan some $3.5 million, and gas

    supplies have been irregular over the last year. PG

    [13] KYRGYZSTAN TO REMOVE DZERZHINSKY STATUE

    The Bishkek city

    administration has decided to remove the statue of Soviet

    secret police founder Feliks Dzherzhinsky from the center of

    the city sometime in the near future, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service

    reported on 23 July. In its place, the city authorities plan

    to erect a Statue of Liberty. PG


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [14] HAGUE COURT MOVING CLOSER TO INDICTING TUDJMAN?

    Prosecutor

    Gregory Kehoe told the Hague-based war crimes tribunal on 26

    July that Croatian General Tihomir Blaskic, who is on trial

    for war crimes committed in Bosnia's Lasva valley in 1993,

    was only an instrument of anti-Muslim policies, for which

    Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is ultimately responsible.

    Kehoe argued that the plan that Blaskic carried out was

    developed "in the halls of power in Zagreb by Franjo Tudjman

    and his associates, then deployed in [Bosnia] by the

    political structure there and the military machine" of the

    Herzegovinian Croats. "Blaskic was the tool. He worked hand

    in glove with [Tudjman and key Herzegovinian leaders] to

    achieve their goals--the removal of Muslims and ultimate

    annexation [of the Lasva valley] to the Republic of Croatia,"

    Reuters quoted the prosecutor as saying. Kehoe's remarks come

    at a time when Zagreb's relations with the court are strained

    over Croatia's refusal to extradite two indicted war

    criminals (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 July 1999). PM

    [15] CROATIAN OPPOSITION FORESEES POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS

    Opposition Istrian political leader Damir Kajin told

    "Jutarnji list" of 27 July that Kehoe's statements could lead

    to the most serious domestic crisis in Croatia since the

    country gained independence in 1991. Liberal leader Drazen

    Budisa said that the latest developments in The Hague do not

    bode well for Croatia. The Social Democrats' Ivica Racan

    called the news from the court "disturbing." Tudjman's

    spokesman, Tihomir Vinkovic, charged the court with meddling

    in politics. Ivica Ropus, who is the spokesman for Tudjman's

    governing Croatian Democratic Community, said that he is "not

    surprised" by the news from The Hague, because the court has

    a "political agenda" against Croatia. PM

    [16] EFFECT OF INDICTMENT COULD BE DEVASTATING

    "Jutarnji list" of

    27 July noted that the Hague court recently ruled that the

    1992-1995 conflict in Bosnia was an international conflict

    and not a civil war. That decision opened the way to a

    possible indictment of Belgrade leaders for their role in the

    bloodletting in Bosnia. Kehoe's remarks suggest that the

    prosecutors might soon turn their attention to the Zagreb

    leadership as well. Observers note that the potential effect

    of any future indictment by the Hague tribunal of Tudjman and

    other top Croatian leaders could have an immense impact on

    Croatia. That country depends on tourism and remittances from

    workers abroad for most of its hard-currency income. Croatia

    would therefore be much more vulnerable than Serbia if the

    international community were to apply sanctions as long as

    indicted war criminals remained in high office. PM

    [17] SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS KILLINGS IN KOSOVA...

    The UN's

    highest body issued a statement on 26 July, in which it

    called the recent killing of 14 Serbian farmers in Staro

    Gracko a "criminal act" and urged that those responsible be

    brought to justice (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 1999). The

    statement also expressed support for KFOR and the UN-

    sponsored civilian administration "in their efforts to ensure

    peace and security for all inhabitants" of the province. In

    Brussels, the EU Presidency condemned the killings in a

    statement calling on all citizens of Kosova to work for a

    common future "without violence or atrocities." PM

    [18] ...AS DOES BERGER

    President Bill Clinton's National Security

    Adviser Sandy Berger said in Washington on 26 July that the

    U.S. will provide up to $500 million to help Kosovars restore

    their homes and otherwise prepare for the coming winter.

    Referring to the Staro Gracko killings, Berger added that

    "this act of violence is not the same as the massive

    systematic campaign which was unleashed by [Yugoslav

    President Slobodan] Milosevic. But it is profoundly wrong and

    unacceptable and we will work against it. Those in the region

    who wish to be our partners must work actively against it as

    well," Reuters reported. PM

    [19] THACI SAYS GREATER ALBANIA NOT A GOAL

    Kosova Liberation Army

    (UCK) leader Hashim Thaci told the Ljubljana-based weekly

    "Mladina" that the Kosovars did not fight to establish a

    greater Albania, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 26

    July. He added that the border between Kosova and Albania

    will remain in place. Thaci stressed that the UCK will not

    accept republican status within Yugoslavia. He noted that

    Kosova's legal tender soon will not be the Yugoslav dinar but

    rather the German mark. PM

    [20] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO FORGE AGREEMENT?

    Opposition Alliance

    for Change leader Vladan Batic told Reuters on 27 July that

    "we expect a gentleman's agreement between the Alliance for

    Change and [Vuk Draskovic's] Serbian Renewal Movement very

    soon." He did not elaborate but suggested that talks are

    approaching an agreement whereby the two main opposition

    groupings would not publicly attack each other. PM

    [21] DJINDJIC CALLS ON GENERAL TO OPPOSE MILOSEVIC

    Democratic

    Party leader Zoran Djindjic said in Sabac on 26 July that

    General Nebojsa Pavkovic, who commands the Third Army, based

    in southern Serbia, should support the drive to oust

    Milosevic. Djindjic argued that the president is no longer

    capable of carrying out his duty to represent Yugoslavia

    abroad because he is an indicted war criminal. Djindjic

    stressed that it is Pavkovic's "duty" to help oust a

    president who cannot carry out his responsibilities. Pavkovic

    recently criticized the opposition for allegedly seeking the

    "unlawful" overthrow of a legally elected government (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 1999). PM

    [22] SERBIAN PETITION DRIVE CONTINUES

    Officials of the Alliance

    for Change said in Belgrade on 26 July that volunteer workers

    have collected 550,000 signatures on a petition calling for

    Milosevic to resign. Some 70,000 signatures come from

    Belgrade and 30,000 from Nis. The goal of the petition drive

    is to collect 2 million signatures, RFE/RL's South Slavic

    Service reported. PM

    [23] DANUBE COMMISSION SAYS CLEAN-UP TO COST $90 MILLION

    Experts

    from the international Danube Commission told Yugoslav

    officials that it will cost $14 million to clear the waterway

    as a result of damage caused by NATO's air campaign against

    Yugoslavia. Another $13 million will be needed to build

    temporary bridges and a further $63 million to rebuild or

    repair damaged bridges over the Danube. The experts said it

    will take up to six months to clear the waterway and some

    three years to rebuild the bridges. PM

    [24] ROMANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS IMF ACCORD NOT CERTAIN

    Gheorghe

    Banu, state secretary in the Ministry of Finance, told

    journalists on 26 July that Romania must still fulfill two

    conditions before the IMF executive board will consider

    approval of the $500 million stand-by loan agreed on in

    Bucharest last April. Banu said the two conditions--

    securing a $350 million credit from private lenders and

    completing the transfer of accounts from the near-bankrupt

    Bancorex to the Romanian Commercial Bank--must be fulfilled

    by 5 August, when the board is scheduled to discuss the

    loan, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS

    [25] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONTINUES 'TRANSYLVANIA

    OFFENSIVE'

    Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR)

    chairman Ion Iliescu on 26 July said Hungary has no right

    to criticize Romania's minorities policies as long as "it

    has not set its own house in order" and pursues a policy of

    assimilation toward its own ethnic minorities. Adrian

    Nastase, PDSR first deputy chairman, said three days

    earlier that the setting up of a Hungarian-language state

    university "makes no sense in a unitary state, where a

    state university in a language different from the official

    one is inconceivable." On 25 July, Nastase elaborated that

    "one cannot accept the existence of two types of

    nationalism, a good one that is Hungarian, a bad one that

    is Romanian." He said that Romania must not become the

    "practice ground for all sorts of revisionist sharp-shooter

    formulas." MS

    [26] U.S. TO HELP FINANCING RUSSIAN ARSENAL WITHDRAWAL FROM

    MOLDOVA

    The U.S. will grant Moldova $30 million in aid to

    help finance the withdrawal of the Russian troops' arsenal

    from the Transdniester, AP reported on 26 July, citing the

    Moldpres agency. Ceslav Ciobanu, Moldovan ambassador to

    Washington, said the decision was adopted last week by the

    House of Representatives. MS

    [27] BULGARIAN DEPUTY PREMIER SAYS KOSOVA CRISIS HELPED BALKANS

    "Every cloud has a silver lining," Deputy Premier Evgeni

    Bakardzhiev commented in a 26 July interview with Reuters on

    the impact of the Kosova crisis on the Balkans. Bakardzhiev

    explained that the region "used to be one of divisions"

    between Islam and Christianity and later between the Warsaw

    Pact and NATO, but in the wake of the Kosova crisis, the

    Balkan states have "identified common goals, such as EU

    membership and cooperation in joint infrastructure projects."

    He added that "Europe and the world are now paying serious

    attention to southeastern Europe," and foreign investors

    could return to the region if they see it as stable and

    reform-inclined. MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [28] ZEMAN'S GOVERNMENT ONE YEAR ON: A DUBIOUS RECORD

    by Michael Shafir

    On 22 July 1998, Czech President Vaclav Havel swore in

    the minority Social Democratic (CSSD) cabinet of Milos Zeman.

    One year minus one day later, Zeman dismissed Finance

    Minister Ivo Svoboda, against whom police had recently

    brought charges for damaging the interests of creditors of a

    baby-stroller factory that he co-managed before becoming a

    minister. Worse still, the anniversary was heavily shadowed

    by the findings of a public opinion poll conducted by the

    STEM institute showing that the CSSD has been pushed to third

    place in party preferences, trailing not only its rival-and-

    ally, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), but also the

    Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM). Given what

    prompted the Czech electorate in June 1998 to return the CSSD

    as the strongest party in the Chamber of Deputies (32.3

    percent, 74 seats), the record of the Czech cabinet is

    dubious.

    Following a series of corruption scandals, former Prime

    Minister Vaclav Klaus was forced to resign in 1997 and his

    party was decimated by dissidents who broke away to set up

    the Freedom Union. Apparently aware that the CSSD owed its

    plurality in the parliament more to Klaus's failures than to

    its alternative electoral program, Zeman pledged from the

    outset to launch a "clean hands" campaign and extirpate

    corruption from public administration. Ironically, it was one

    more corruption scandal that marred the anniversary of his

    one year in power.

    Like the ODS in its time, the CSSD has been eager not

    only to make arguably justifiable political appointments at

    the head of government departments, but also (and this can no

    longer be justified in any way) to appoint its cronies to

    leading positions in state-owned companies. And owing to the

    "opposition agreement" with the ODS--which allowed the

    formation of a minority government in exchange for leading

    positions in the parliament--this amounted to little else

    than reaching a modus vivendi (albeit sometimes a tense one)

    with Klaus's party over the division of the spoils.

    In July 1998, Zeman promised that his ministers would

    receive a "performance review" after one year and that those

    found to be lacking the necessary skills will be fired. That

    promise was apparently not kept. At the very least, Zeman

    might have been expected to part company with Jaroslav Basta,

    the minister in charge of the anti-corruption campaign. Not

    that other cabinet members were immune to criticism: the

    daily "Lidove noviny" on 21 July called Deputy Premier Egon

    Lansky "the non-coordinating coordinator" of foreign policy,

    while Development Minister Jaromil Cisar, Health Minister

    Ivan David, and Agriculture Minister Jan Fencl were all

    heavily criticized by the media, the opposition, and interest

    groups for their performance. In fact, Zeman himself had

    acknowledged on 16 July that the performance of at least four

    members of his cabinet (whom he did not name) was

    "unsatisfactory."

    The reluctance to subject his cabinet to more radical

    consequences raises the question of whether Svoboda has been

    pushed away for reasons other than his implication in the

    Liberta baby-stroller affair. The former minister is known to

    belong to the so-called "[Stanislav] Gross faction," headed

    by the CSSD parliamentary group chairman, who reportedly is a

    Zeman rival within the party.

    Be that as it may, after one year in power Zeman's

    ratings in opinion polls have plunged by 20 percent, and the

    CSSD's performance accounted for most of the upsurge in the

    support for the KSCM, with 20 percent of CSSD voters in 1998

    now backing the Communists. A STEM poll published on 21 July

    indicated that nearly three in four Czechs (74 percent) are

    dissatisfied with the government's performance and that even

    those who are still CSSD supporters tend toward the same

    dissatisfaction (43 percent).

    The minority cabinet's handling of foreign policy has

    been just as bad, and possibly even worse. Perhaps no one

    outmatched Lansky, who as foreign policy coordinator should

    have known better than to contradict Foreign Minister Jan

    Kavan during the Kosova crisis. Criticism of the NATO air

    strikes in Yugoslavia emanating from different ministers as

    the crisis peaked, a "Czech-Greek initiative" for settling

    the conflict launched without consulting the other NATO

    members, and criticism of Havel's visit to Kosova after the

    war by Zeman himself and other ministers--all these factors

    led (according to NATO sources that desire anonymity) to the

    questioning of the wisdom of expanding the alliance. Add to

    this the failure to promote legislation bringing Czech

    legislation into line with that of the EU (which has prompted

    union officials to wonder whether Prague will forfeit its

    membership in the "fast-track group") and one is left with a

    rather poor overall record.

    Is Zeman, as a columnist in "Zemske noviny" claimed on

    21 July, the "worst and the most untrustworthy head of

    government the independent Czech Republic has ever had?" He

    has at least one rival for that spot. The premier has

    repeatedly said that he intends to leave politics at the end

    of his cabinet's term. Those inclined to prophesize are

    already saying that Zeman will blame his failures on that

    same competitor, by whose grace the CSSD cabinet rules under

    the "opposition agreement." Should that prophecy come true,

    what started as "operation clean hands" would end up as

    "operation wash hands."

    27-07-99


    Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    URL: http://www.rferl.org


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