RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 181, 99-09-16

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 181, 16 September 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] TRANSCAUCASUS PARLIAMENT CHAIRMEN MEET IN TBILISI

[02] TBILISI AGAIN DENIES ARMS TRANSPORTED VIA GEORGIA TO

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[03] MONTENEGRO: NO SIGN OF COMPROMISE FROM MILOSEVIC

[04] UN INTERVIEWS CANDIDATES FOR KOSOVA CORPS

[05] KFOR GENERAL SAYS KOSOVA IS DEVELOPING 'VERY WELL'

[06] KFOR DISCOVER WEAPONS CACHES

[07] BRITISH RAILWAY WORKERS SEND HUMANITARIAN TRAIN TO KOSOVA

[08] REFUGEES FROM PRESEVO LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE IN MACEDONIA

[09] CLARK DEFENDS WAR RECORD

[10] KARADZIC REPORT JUST 'PROPAGANDA?'

[11] SESELJ'S PARTY MAY FACE BAN IN BOSNIA

[12] ALBANIA'S NANO BLASTS MAJKO FOR SUPPORTING BUKOSHI'S

[13] ...WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY TO LOOK INTO ALLEGATIONS

[14] BUCHAREST COURT DENIES REGISTRATION TO FORMER PREMIER'S

[15] ROMANIA DENIES INTENTION TO IMPOSE VISA REQUIREMENT ON

[16] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT IN BULGARIA

[17] IMF RELEASES TRANCHE TO BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[18] WILL FORMER PREMIER'S DETENTION IMPACT ON KAZAKHSTAN'S

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] TRANSCAUCASUS PARLIAMENT CHAIRMEN MEET IN TBILISI

parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania and his Armenian and

Azerbaijani counterparts, Karen Demirchian and Murtuz

Alesqerov, took part in a meeting in Tbilisi on 15 September

under the aegis of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council

of Europe, Caucasus Press reported. PACE President Lord

Russell Johnston also attended. Demirchian told journalists

after the talks that regional conflicts, including Nagorno-

Karabakh, were discussed. Zhvania said that it is planned to

hold such meetings regularly. Meeting the previous day,

Alesqerov and Zhvania had discussed integration of the South

Caucasus states into European structures. Alesqerov told

Turan that he asked Zhvania to support his request that

Armenia and Azerbaijan be admitted simultaneously to full

membership in the Council of Europe. LF

[02] TBILISI AGAIN DENIES ARMS TRANSPORTED VIA GEORGIA TO

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[03] MONTENEGRO: NO SIGN OF COMPROMISE FROM MILOSEVIC

Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic said in Paris on 15 September

that his government has received "no sign that [Yugoslav]

President Slobodan Milosevic is ready for talks about

[Montenegro's] demand for more autonomy within the Yugoslav

federation," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

Meanwhile in Budapest, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic

charged that Milosevic is bent on destabilizing Montenegro

and replacing the current government with "puppets."

Djukanovic added that outsiders should not pin too great

hopes on the Serbian opposition, noting that only the Serbs

can bring democracy to Serbia. He told his hosts that

Montenegro will seek admission to the OSCE and the Council of

Europe, even though it is not an independent country, the

"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported. He also said that

Malev and Montenegro Airlines will begin flights between

Budapest and Podgorica in October. PM

[04] UN INTERVIEWS CANDIDATES FOR KOSOVA CORPS

International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 15

September began interviewing applicants for positions in the

Kosova Corps, a UN spokeswoman told an RFE/RL South Slavic

Service correspondent in Prishtina. The IOM has so far

registered over 10,700 applicants, most of them former Kosova

Liberation Army (UCK) fighters. The Kosova Corps will have a

staff of 5,000, including 2,000 reservists. KFOR spokesman

Ole Irgens said the corps will not be a military or defense

force, nor will it be in charge of implementing the law or

maintaining public order and security. FS

[05] KFOR GENERAL SAYS KOSOVA IS DEVELOPING 'VERY WELL'

General Pierre Giuseppe Giovanetti, who is the deputy head of

KFOR, told an RFE/RL South Slavic Service correspondent in

Tirana on 15 September that "the general situation in Kosova

is going very well. Going very well means that the level of

incidents have decreased [considerably]. We are sure that we

[will see] a big improvement in the near future." Giovanetti

added that KFOR expects the UCK to meet its demilitarization

deadline of 19 September. Referring to recent threats by

Yugoslav Army General Vladimir Lazarevic to retake Kosova by

force, Giovanetti said the Yugoslav Army is "not a threat to

NATO" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 September 1999). He explained

that the June military-technical agreement between NATO and

the Yugoslav authorities envisages the return of several

hundred Serbian police to Kosova, but he pointed out that

this is not going to happen until "the atmosphere permits."

FS

[06] KFOR DISCOVER WEAPONS CACHES

Prishtina on 15 September that the peacekeeping troops raided

homes in various regions of Kosova that day and confiscated

arms, explosives, and ammunition, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported. U.S. soldiers arrested three Serbs near

Gjilan, who were in possession of "large amounts" of weapons.

In Shtrpce, Polish soldiers arrested another Serb in

possession of arms and a Serbian paramilitary police uniform.

Meanwhile, "The Daily Telegraph" on 16 September quoted an

unnamed high-ranking NATO official as saying that UCK

commanders are seeking ways of keeping some of the

organization intact and are "squirreling away" some of its

guns. FS

[07] BRITISH RAILWAY WORKERS SEND HUMANITARIAN TRAIN TO KOSOVA

retired British railway workers, have loaded a train with

humanitarian aid for Kosova. Representatives of the

organization told Reuters on 15 September that it will be

"the first time" that a train runs directly from Britain to

the former Yugoslavia. The "Train for Life" is scheduled to

leave Britain on 17 September. It will carry 800 tons of aid,

including supplies to equip a school. The train's three

locomotives will be donated to the UN Mission in Kosova to

help deliver winter housing materials. FS

[08] REFUGEES FROM PRESEVO LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE IN MACEDONIA

recently began a hunger strike in the refugee camp of

Cegrane, near Gostivar, an RFE/RL South Slavic Service

correspondent reported on 15 September. The refugees demand

that either they be transferred to third countries while the

UNHCR prepares their return to Presevo or the UNHCR opens a

refugee camp for them in Kosova. UNHCR spokesman Bujar Idrizi

said "the UNHCR cannot organize their return to...Presevo,

because it cannot guarantee their security there." On 14

September, the Macedonian government ruled that residency

permits of all refugees will expire on 28 September. Idrizi,

however, said that "the UNHCR will negotiate with the

Macedonian government [and demand] that all refugees who

cannot return now to their homes will have their residency

rights extended." FS

[09] CLARK DEFENDS WAR RECORD

General Wesley Clark told NATO ambassadors that the

alliance's spring bombing campaign was highly effective. He

argued that pilots hit 181 Serbian tanks, of which 93 were

destroyed. A diplomat who attended the closed-door

presentation in Brussels on 15 September told Reuters that

Clark delivered an "impressive report. [He and his staff]

clearly applied very rigorous accounting standards" in

determining how effective the air strikes were. Reuters

suggested that Clark's presentation was intended to counter

Yugoslav claims that NATO destroyed only 13 Serbian tanks

during the bombing campaign. PM

[10] KARADZIC REPORT JUST 'PROPAGANDA?'

international community's Wolfgang Petritsch said in Sarajevo

on 15 September that a Muslim daily's recent report of a

public appearance by indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic

is "incorrect," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15

September 1999). The spokesman suggested that Sarajevo's

"Dnevni avaz" had published the story as "propaganda" to show

that the international community has grossly neglected the

task of catching war criminals and bringing them to justice.

Mensur Osmovic, who is the editor-in-chief of "Avaz," told

the news agency that he stands by his story. He stressed that

"this is not about propaganda." PM

[11] SESELJ'S PARTY MAY FACE BAN IN BOSNIA

Minister Milorad Dodik has drawn up legal measures to ban

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj's Radical Party

from the Bosnian Serb entity, the Frankfurt-based Serbian

daily "Vesti" reported on 16 September. Dodik is only waiting

for an "opportune moment" to make the ban public, an unnamed

"high official of the international community" told "Vesti."

The ban would also remove 11 Radicals from the parliament. It

is unclear whether new parliamentary elections would be

necessary as a result. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard

Holbrooke recently called for a ban on the Radicals and on

Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party on the grounds that they

propagate ethnic hatred, which is banned under the 1995

Dayton peace agreement. PM

[12] ALBANIA'S NANO BLASTS MAJKO FOR SUPPORTING BUKOSHI'S

Former Prime Minister Fatos Nano has accused his

successor, Pandeli Majko, of having allowed the Armed Forces

of the Republic of Kosova (FARK) of Kosovar shadow-state

Prime Minister Bujar Bukoshi to smuggle arms through Albania

before and during the recent Kosova conflict. Nano made the

remarks in a speech to supporters in Fier on 15 September, an

RFE/RL South Slavic Service correspondent reported. Nano said

that Majko allowed FARK to train on Albanian territory. The

former premier charged that Majko did so even though he knew

that FARK was involved in arms smuggling and in an armed

uprising by the Albanian opposition one year ago (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 14 September 1998). FS

[13] ...WHILE SOCIALIST PARTY TO LOOK INTO ALLEGATIONS

Ruci, who heads the Socialist faction in the parliament, told

an RFE/RL South Slavic Service correspondent on 15 September

that legislators will discuss Nano's allegations at a special

session. He pledged that "if there is such information, the

Socialist Party structures will respond in an appropriate

way." Jolos Beja, who is a Socialist deputy from Fier and

head of the parliamentary commission dealing with emergency

aid for Kosova, said that "Nano [must] give the National

Information Service (SHIK) the documents that prove his

charges." FS

[14] BUCHAREST COURT DENIES REGISTRATION TO FORMER PREMIER'S

Former Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea on 15 September

said that the decision of the Bucharest Appeals Court the

previous day to refuse registration to his National Christian

Democratic Alliance (ANCD) is "illegal, unconstitutional, and

undemocratic," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The court

upheld an appeal by the Prosecutor-General's Office and the

National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) against

the party's registration on grounds that its emblem too

closely resembles that of the PNTCD (from which the ANCD

split in April) and on several procedural grounds. The

Bucharest Tribunal, which decided to grant registration on 28

July, is to review the registration application once the ANCD

has dealt with the objections raised against it. Ciorbea

appealed to President Emil Constantinescu, saying he must

seek to stop political intervention in the judiciary. MS

[15] ROMANIA DENIES INTENTION TO IMPOSE VISA REQUIREMENT ON

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Simona Miculescu said

reports in the Moldovan press that Romania intends to impose

visa requirements for Moldovan citizens are "speculation"

aimed at "creating tension between the citizens of the two

states," Flux reported on 15 September. She noted that both

countries are striving for integration into the EU, which

"means that in the future they will both be part of the

Schengen agreements." Miculescu added that the process of

integration is "long and complex" and involves "certain

regulations on border crossing." She added, however, that

Romania's "political will" is to have "privileged relations"

with Moldova, meaning that "there will be no restrictions on

traffic between the two banks of the River Prut." MS

[16] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT IN BULGARIA

his Bulgarian counterpart, Petar Stoyanov, meeting in Sofia

on 15 September, signed seven bilateral agreements and a

declaration on promoting cooperation and friendship, BTA

reported. The declaration notes the "strategic importance" of

the TRACECA project, which will provide access for the

countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus to the trans-

European and trans-Asian transport networks, and of the

Interstate Oil and Gas Transport to Europe Program (INOGATE).

Nazarbaev said his country is ready to compete with OPEC

countries in supplying crude oil to Europe if pipelines

between Bulgaria and other Balkan countries are built.

Premier Ivan Kostov told journalists that Nazarbaev showed

"great interest" in the planned Bourgas-Alexandropolis

pipeline project, but "I was surprised to learn that I was

the first one to have told him about it," he added. MS

[17] IMF RELEASES TRANCHE TO BULGARIA

released a $72 million tranche of its three-year $860 million

stand-by credit to Bulgaria, an RFE/RL correspondent in

Washington reported. IMF First Deputy Managing Director

Stanley Fischer said the fund's executive board noted that

the Kosova crisis has had an impact on Bulgaria and that the

closure of inefficient state enterprises has entailed new

social costs for the country. Fischer said the IMF is urging

Bulgaria to complete its privatization program. MS

[C] END NOTE

[18] WILL FORMER PREMIER'S DETENTION IMPACT ON KAZAKHSTAN'S

By Liz Fuller

On 17 September, the population of Kazakhstan will elect

members of the Senate--the upper house of the parliament--in

the first round of parliamentary elections. A second round of

voting, for the 77 seats in the Mazhilis, the lower house, is

scheduled for 10 October.

The runup to the elections has been dominated by the

uncertainty of whether one of Kazakhstan's most prominent and

charismatic opposition figures, former Premier Akezhan

Kazhegeldin, would be permitted to run as a candidate. A 47-

year-old economist, Kazhegeldin presided over Kazakhstan's

privatization program for three years before resigning as

premier in October 1997, reportedly for health reasons. In

1998, he founded a political party to defend the interests of

Kazakhstan's industrialists and businessmen and in October of

that year declared his intention to contend the pre-term

January 1999 presidential election.

Kazhegeldin accused incumbent President Nursultan

Nazarbaev of authoritarianism, nepotism, and indifference to

human rights. He advocated creating a coalition government to

reverse the economic downturn, rising unemployment, and the

increasing impoverishment of the population, trends that he

predicted could result in mass social unrest. Kazhegeldin,

however, was barred from running in the presidential

elections on the grounds that he committed "an administrative

offense" by participating in an unsanctioned demonstration.

The OSCE and the U.S. subsequently termed the poll, in which

Nazarbaev was re-elected by almost 80 percent of voters,

"deeply flawed" and falling far short of OSCE standards.

In March, Kazakhstan's parliament adopted an election

law that introduced 10 seats in the Mazhilis that are to be

contested under the proportional system. But both the OCSE

and opposition parties criticized other provisions of that

legislation, including the $1,000 registration fee for

parliamentary candidates and the ban on persons running for

office who have committed an "administrative offense." The

parliament in June approved amendments proposed by President

Nazarbaev reducing the registration fee and abolishing the

ruling on administrative offenses.

Kazhegeldin's Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan

(KRKhP) was formally registered by the Ministry of Justice in

July and announced it would contend the Mazhilis elections.

But in April, the Prosecutor-General's Office had brought

charges of tax evasion and illegal acquisition of real estate

in Belgium against the former premier, who had left

Kazakhstan late in 1998. Kazhegeldin has denied those

charges, which he terms politically motivated.

On 9 September, the deadline for registration,

Kazakhstan's Central Electoral Commission refused to register

Kazhegeldin's candidacy because the charges of tax evasion

against him had not been lifted. He headed the KRKhP list of

10 candidates for the 10 party-list seats in the Mazhilis.

His party responded that it will boycott the elections. Six

of its members, however, are to run in single-mandate

constituencies.

On10 September, Russia police detained Kazhegeldin on

his arrival at Moscow's Sheremetevo airport, saying the

Kazakh authorities were demanding his extradition.

Kazhegeldin was hospitalized after suffering a suspected

heart attack but told RFE/RL from his hospital bed that he

traveled to Moscow en route for Kazakhstan following

published assurances by Kazakhstan's ambassador in Washington

that he is free to return to Kazakhstan, and that no legal

measures will be taken against him if he does so. On 15

September, Kazakhstan's Prosecutor-General Yurii Khitrin

announced that the charges against Kazhegeldin have been

dropped "on humanitarian grounds" and that he is free to

return to Kazakhstan.

Kazhegeldin's detention sparked protest demonstrations

in Almaty and was denounced by prominent opposition figures,

including Communist Party leader Serikbolsyn Abdildin. The

Communist Party, together with the Orleu (Progress) movement

and the Association of Russian, Slavic, and Cossack

Associations, is aligned with the KRKhP in the Republika

election bloc formed in July. Those parties have pledged not

to compete against one another in the single-mandate

constituencies.

A total of 565 candidates from 10 parties have

registered to contend the parliamentary poll. Russian

observers predict that the pro-presidential Otan party and

the Civic Party, which claims to represent businessmen and

industrialists, will garner the lion's share of the vote in

the Mazhilis, followed by the Communist Party. In the Senate

elections, 33 candidates will contest 16 seats.

The removal of the threat posed by Kazhegeldin and his

party does not necessarily guarantee a decisive election

victory for Otan, however. (Otan's proclaimed objective is to

replace the existing government with one both willing to and

capable of implementing Nazarbaev's economic policies.)

Kazhegeldin's supporters can vote for whichever opposition

party they consider has the best chance of competing with

Otan, or they can vote for no one in protest.

How many are likely to choose the latter option is

difficult to predict. The political situation in Kazakhstan

is characterized by a high degree of resentment among the

impoverished majority of the population against an oligarchy

centered on Nazarbaev. That oligarchy, many observers both in

Kazakhstan and abroad believe, is prepared to defy the

international community by rigging the elections in order to

cling to power.

But that resentment is accompanied by widespread

political passivity. To date, popular resentment has found an

outlet in protest demonstrations against employers' or local

authorities' failure to pay wages and pensions rather than in

support for opposition parties. Indeed, the results of a

recent opinion poll showed that more than half the

respondents could not name even a single political party. One

in five said they do not support any political party, while

Otan received the highest approval rating with 17 percent.

16-09-99

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

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