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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 187, 99-09-24Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 187, 24 September 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER APPEALS TO DIASPORA FOR MORE INVESTMENTAddressing the Armenia-Diaspora conference in Yerevan on 23September, Vazgen Sargsian called upon ethnic Armenians from abroad to invest more heavily in Armenia, promising financial and tax incentives and a crackdown on corruption, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Sargsian said the recently created Armenian Development Agency will provide would-be investors with a wide range of services, including legal counseling, registration of enterprises, and information about business opportunities. The agency plans to open offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, and Beirut. Conference participants adopted two statements calling for closer ties between Armenia and the diaspora. One expresses support for the Karabakh Armenians' drive to become a "subject of international law," while the other reaffirms the continued pursuit of international recognition of the 1915 genocide of more than 1 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. LF [02] HUNGER-STRIKE FOR KARABAKH ENDED IN AZERBAIJANMembers andsympathizers of the Coordinating Council of Political Parties on Karabakh have ended the hunger strike they began last month to protest the Azerbaijani leadership's apparent readiness for compromise in resolving the Karabakh conflict, Turan reported on 23 September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 August 1999). Nureddin Askerli, who is press secretary to the Coordinating Council, told Turan the previous day that the council will resort to more active methods of protest. "Hurriyet" reported on 23 September that under political pressure, a high-school director in Khirdalan Raion expelled a 10th-grade student for having participated in the hunger strike. LF [03] AZERBAIJAN'S SUPREME RELIGIOUS LEADER DENIES RELIGIOUSFREEDOM RESTRICTEDThe head of Azerbaijan's Muslim Spiritual Board, Sheykh-ul Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, has rejected the conclusions of a U.S. Congress report on restrictions on religious freedom in Azerbaijan, Turan reported on 23 September. Pashazade acknowledged that the activities of religious missionaries are limited, but he argued that those limitations are justified because such proselytizing leads to tensions between adherents of various religious faiths. He added that some missionaries offer cash incentives to prospective converts. And he acknowledged that one reason for missionaries' success is the low level of Islamic propaganda. LF [04] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ALLIANCE NAMES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONCANDIDATEThe so-called Batumi alliance of five opposition parties on 23 September named Adjar Supreme Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze as its candidate for next year's presidential elections, Caucasus Press reported. Abashidze is considered virtually the only Georgian politician capable of posing a real challenge to incumbent President Eduard Shevardnadze, who has already signaled his intention to run for a second term. A spokesman for Abashidze quoted him as saying that his decision was motivated by the desire "to save Georgia, which has been ruined by the policies of the president and current authorities," according to AP. LF [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRO-PRESIDENTIAL PARTY AGAIN ON COLLISION COURSEWITH GOVERNMENTMarat Ospanov, who is speaker of the lower house and deputy chairman of the pro-presidential Otan Party, told Interfax on 23 September that his party hopes to vote down the government's proposed draft budget for 2000 at a 25 September joint session of the two chambers of parliament. The draft budget envisages cuts in expenditures, including pensions, a budget deficit of 3 percent of GDP, and GDP growth of 1 percent. Ospanov has repeatedly criticized the government's financial policy (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 and 25 June 1999). He is regarded as a possible successor to Prime Minister Nurlan Balghymbaev. LF [06] COMISSION TO COMBAT RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM CREATED INKAZAKHSTANA spokesman for Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev said on 23 September that the president has decreed the formation of a commission to counter the threat of religious extremism, Reuters reported. The commission will be headed by Security Council Secretary Marat Tazhin. LF [07] ARMS HAUL SEIZED IN KAZAKHSTANPolice in Almaty havearrested a group of Chechens and confiscated from them 17 new Kalashnikov submachine guns and Makarov pistols with silencers as well as $2,300 in forged banknotes, ITAR-TASS and RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported on 23 September. The weapons have a black market value of $30,000. LF [08] INCUMBENT NOMINATED AS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE INTAJIKISTAN...As earlier announced, a 23 September congress of the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan named incumbent President Imomali Rakhmonov as its candidate for the 6 November presidential poll, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 September 1999). Two rival candidates have also been registered. The Justice Party of Tajikistan nominated Congress of People's Unity chairman Saifiddin Turaev as its candidate at a congress on 20 September, Asia Plus-Blitz reported three days later. Former presidential adviser for legal issues Zafar Ikramov will also contend the poll, according to ITAR-TASS. The Union of Youth of Tajikistan intends to select its candidate at a congress in Dushanbe on 24 September, according to Asia Plus-Blitz. LF [09] ...AND IN UZBEKISTANMeanwhile in Tashkent a congress of theFidorkorlar (Dedicated Ones) on 22 September nominated incumbent President Islam Karimov as its candidate for the 9 January presidential elections, ITAR-TASS and Interfax reported. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] SOLANA REJECTS INDEPENDENCE FOR KOSOVA...NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said on 23 September that ethnic Albanians in Kosova will have to give up any plans for establishing independence from Belgrade, AP reported. Solana, speaking in Washington, said a "shifting of borders" in Yugoslavia could lead to fragmentation elsewhere in the Balkans and perhaps even in Russia. Solana, who will leave his post on 6 October, said he is confident that there will be "moral reconstruction" in Kosova but that "it will take time to cure the many wounds." Solana said the war waged by NATO in Kosova "changed the history of Europe." He added that the only disappointment of his tenure was that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is still in power. PB [11] ...WHILE THACI ADVISER PREDICTS SOVEREIGNTY IN 10 YEARSSabri Kicmari, an adviser to Kosovar Albanian leader HashimThaci, said on 23 September that Kosova will be independent in 10 years, dpa reported. Speaking on Berlin radio, Kicmari said he is "sure that the majority of Kosova citizens will opt for independence." He said a return of some Serbian soldiers to the province, as mandated in the June peace agreement, is unacceptable. And he argued that Thaci could be viewed as the next prime minister of Kosova. "The Washington Post" reported on 24 September that many senior U.S. officials have dropped their opposition to Kosova breaking away from Yugoslavia, seeing such a development as inevitable. State Department spokesman James Rubin, however, said "we have always said we do not support independence for Kosova." PB [12] SERBS VOW TO FORM THEIR OWN 'DEFENSE CORPS'Kosovar Serbleader Momcilo Trajkovic said on 24 September that Serbs will demand that they be allowed to set up five cantons within Kosova and establish their own militia if the newly created Kosova Protection Corps is allowed to exist, AP reported. Trajkovic said the cantons will be formed in part of Prishtina and its surroundings, in northern Mitrovice, southeastern Gjilan, western Peje, and in the south of the province. He said his boycott of the interim Serb-Albanian council will end only if NATO and the UN agree to those demands. Trajkovic's plan to set up cantons based on ethnicity was dismissed by UN and NATO officials in Kosova several weeks ago. PB [13] DJINDJIC SAYS OPPOSITION PROTESTS WILL END IF SUPPORTCONTINUES TO WANEAfter the second straight day of declining support, Serbian opposition leader Zoran Djindjic said the campaign to oust Yugoslav President Milosevic will end unless more people join the demonstrations, Reuters reported. An initial crowd of some 400 increased to about 5,000 in Belgrade for the third rally on 23 September. That was about half the number who had protested the previous day. Protests organized by the coalition Alliance for Change in other towns and cities were also smaller than on previous days. Djindjic said "Belgraders have yet to realize that Milosevic's regime took away our freedom, our future." Alliance for Change coordinator Vladan Batic said the turnout was low at the start of the 1996 winter protests as well but that those rallies quickly turned into mass demonstrations. In a separate rally, some 2,000 high school students demonstrated against a ban on travelling abroad imposed by the education minister for "security reasons." PB [14] YUGOSLAV MILITARY HOLDS EXERCISES NEAR KOSOVAThe Yugoslavarmy held military exercises on 23 September near its southern province of Kosova, Reuters reported. Colonel- General Nebojsa Pavkovic, the commander of Yugoslavia's Third Army, said after the exercises that Belgrade will not recognize the formation of the Kosova Protection Corps. He called the civilian force a "deceit and farce." PB [15] COUNCIL OF EUROPE TO HELP GET MONEY TO REBUILD BRIDGESTheCouncil of Europe has unanimously adopted a Hungarian proposal to request financing from the EU to rebuild the destroyed bridges in Novi Sad, Hungarian Radio reported on 23 September. The proposal would allocate some $14 million for the reconstruction of the three bridges, which were wrecked during the NATO bombing campaign. PB [16] MONTENEGRO TO DRAFT ITS OWN TRADE, CUSTOMS POLICIESDeputyPremier Asim Telalevic announced on 24 September that Montenegro will begin drafting a trade policy independent of Belgrade, dpa reported. Telalevic said the republic will have to eventually draw up customs and trade regulations because of Serbian threats to block shipments for food and other goods to Montenegro. Montenegro has threatened to introduce its own currency and to even hold a referendum on independence if Belgrade does not agree to revise the relationship between the Serbian and Montenegrin republics. PB [17] MACEDONIA FREES NORWEGIAN PEACEKEEPERMacedonia has releaseda Norwegian soldier who was detained last month for his part in a car crash that killed Macedonian Minister without Portfolio Radovan Stojkovski, his wife, and daughter, Reuters reported on 23 September. His release ends a bitter battle between Skopje and Oslo, which claimed that as a member of NATO, the soldier could be tried for wrongdoing only in his home country. A NATO spokesman in Macedonia said the soldier will stand trial in Norway for charges associated with the accident. The NATO vehicle was reportedly travelling on the wrong side of the road when it struck the minister's car. The incident outraged many Macedonians who are wary of NATO's presence in their country. NATO still has several thousand troops in Macedonia. PB [18] MACEDONIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ASKS THAT PROMISES BE KEPTAleksandar Dimitrov has urged the international community tofulfill the financial and political pledges it made to Macedonia during the Kosova crisis, an RFE/RL correspondent reported on 23 September. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Dimitrov said that the consequences of the conflict are still being felt and that financial support from the international community is "indispensable" in order for the country's economy to recover. Dimitrov said the best guarantee for security in the Balkans would be to admit more countries in the region to the EU and NATO. In other news, Macedonia rejected appeals to allow some 450 Roma to cross the border from Kosova. The Roma said they are seeking to escape attacks by ethnic Albanians. PB [19] PETRITSCH TO SET UP ANTI-CORRUPTION BODYWolfgang Petritsch,the international community's high representative to Bosnia- Herzegovina, said he will form a Anti-Corruption and Transparency Group to help combat fraud, Reuters reported on 23 September. Petritsch said such a body would "provide a significant boost in our fight against corruption." "The New York Times" reported last month that some 20 percent of the $5.1 billion aid given to Bosnia has been embezzled or lost through corruption. In other news, Robert Barry, the head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia, said that Republika Srpska Vice President Mirko Sarovic should take over the post of president in line with the republic's constitution. He made his comments in Banja Luka after meeting with Republika Srpska Premier Milorad Dodik. PB [20] ALBANIA PRAISES NATO FOR ENDING 'GENOCIDE'In an address tothe UN General Assembly on 23 September, President Rexhep Meidani expressed Albania's gratitude to NATO for ending the Serbian "genocide: of ethnic Albanians in Kosova, AP reported. Meidani said the principles of the UN charter were upheld because the alliance's air strikes ended an "unprecedented genocide" by Serbian forces. He said "we welcome the international community for having...shown its firm will to condemn and to take effective measures to put an end to crimes perpetrated against a defenseless population." PB [21] GERMAN CHANCELLOR URGES ROMANIA TO CONTINUE REFORMSGerhardSchroeder on 24 September said his country will support Romania's efforts to join the EU, but he added that Bucharest must continue to implement tough reforms. Schroeder, who is on a two-day visit to Romania, also thanked the country for its support of the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia earlier this year. The German chancellor insisted that Romania is part of a "comprehensive accession process" to the EU that includes all candidates for membership. But he added that "if and when" Romania accedes to the EU depends on the country's "own economic progress," Reuters reported. VG [22] ROMANIA SECURES BORDERRomanian Interior Minister ConstantinDudu Ionescu on 23 September said his country has met EU targets for securing its borders, Reuters reported. Under an agreement with the EU, Romania pledged to reform its border guard system. However, Ionescu voiced discontent at what he described as the EU's failure to disburse 20 million euros ($20.8 million) to Romania to pay for logistics related to securing the border. He said the EU has given the country only 10.5 million euros for the project. VG [23] JOINT ROMANIAN-MOLDOVAN PEACEKEEPING BATTALION DISCUSSEDRomanian Defense Minister Victor Babiuc and his Moldovancounterpart, Boris Gamurar, discussed the creation of a joint peacekeeping battalion during a 23 September meeting in Chisinau, according to a Rompres report cited by the BBC. Babiuc said Romania is ready for the creation of such a battalion. Moldpres reported that the two sides also talked about the possibility of creating a larger battalion involving Polish and Ukrainian troops as well. Gamurar stressed that Romania has agreed to allow Moldovan military personnel to undergo training in Romania, Rompres reported. VG [24] BULGARIAN PREMIER REASSURED AFTER TALKS WITH SCHROEDERIvanKostov said he has more confidence in the implementation of the Balkan Stability Pact following talks with German Chancellor Schroeder in Sofia on 23 September, an RFE/RL correspondent reported. Kostov said Schroeder assured him that the pact will be implemented without delay, including measures related to the resumption of river trade on the Danube. However, Schroeder did not promise any direct financial aid to Bulgaria with regard to this issue. Sofia claims it lost some $100 million in trade revenue after NATO bombed bridges on the river during the campaign in Yugoslavia earlier this year. Schroeder also stressed that Bulgaria has made "very large strides" in its reform process, and he pledged German support for the country's efforts to join the EU, BTA reported on 23 September. VG [C] END NOTE[25] TAJIKISTAN BETWEEN ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY?by Liz FullerOn 26 September, the citizens of Tajikistan go to the polls to vote on proposed changes to the country's 1994 constitution. The referendum marks a milestone in the painful and protracted search by the Russian-backed leadership and the Islam-oriented United Tajik Opposition (UTO) to reach a modus vivendi. That search began more than two years ago, following the signing in Moscow in June 1997 of the Common Agreement on Peace and National Accord, which ended five years of civil war. The peace provided for the return from Iran and Afghanistan of opposition leaders and their armed units, whose members were to be disarmed and given a choice of serving in the Tajik army or police force. In exchange, the UTO was to be given 30 percent of posts in the central government and on local councils. Hopes that the disarmament process and the formation of a new coalition government would be completed in time for elections to be held in mid-1998 proved over-optimistic, however. The peace process and tenuous political stability were repeatedly threatened by local insurrections, political assassinations. and the inability of government and opposition representatives to reach agreement on the opposition's proposed candidates for 14 ministerial posts. In part, instability was the consequence of the exclusion from the peace process of representatives of strong regional elites. On three occasions--in August 1997, January 1998, and last November--Colonel Mahmud Khudoiberdiev, whose base is in the largely Uzbek-populated Kyurgan-Tyube region of southwestern Tajikistan, launched an unsuccessful insurrection. Tajik officials publicly accused Uzbekistan of supporting the most recent coup attempt by Khudoiberdiev, in Leninabad, in the northwest of the country. In particular, they claim that the Uzbek leadership offered refuge and possibly assistance to the man identified as the "third force" in Tajik politics, former Prime Minister Abdumalik Abdulladjonov. Khudoiberdiev reportedly receives both his orders and funding from Abdulladjonov, The assassination in September 1998 of Otakhon Latifi, a widely respected opposition politician, similarly threatened to derail the peace process. That murder prompted the UTO to suspend temporarily its participation in the work of the Commission for National Reconciliation, on which the UTO and the Tajik government have equal representation. Those disruptions notwithstanding, by November 1998 the UTO had reached agreement with the Tajik leadership on candidates for 11 of the 14 ministerial posts the opposition was claiming, including the first deputy premiership, which went to UTO Deputy Chairman Hodja Akbar Turandjonzoda. But the Tajik government's steadfast refusal to condone the appointment of former opposition field commander Mirzo Zioev to head the Defense Ministry prompted the opposition to threaten to withdraw from the peace process in May. After weeks of negotiations, and under pressure from the UN and OSCE representatives in Dushanbe, Zioev was named minister for emergency situations in early July, and some 90 imprisoned opposition members were released from jail. In the following weeks, the UTO reciprocated by completing the disarmament of its military units, a key precondition for holding presidential and parliamentary elections. Those elections, however, are to be preceded by the 26 September referendum, on which the parliament decided in late June. The electorate is to vote on a package of three constitutional amendments: replacing the unicameral parliament with a bicameral one, extending the president's term in office from five to seven years, and legalizing the participation in domestic politics of political parties of a religious nature. Of the three proposed amendments, the third is clearly the most controversial. The law on political parties, enacted by the parliament in May 1998, bans religious parties, including the Islamic Renaissance Party. That group forms the backbone of the UTO. In August, following the disarmament of the last opposition military units, the Tajik Supreme Court lifted the ban it had imposed in 1993 on four opposition formations: the Islamic Renaissance Party, the Democratic Party, and the Rastokhez and Lali Badakhshan movements. Those parties, however, must re-register with the Justice Ministry in order to contest the 6 November presidential poll (assuming that the referendum does not extend the president's term by two years) and the January 2000 parliamentary elections. In theory, that requirement could serve as a pretext for preventing the Islamic Renaissance Party from nominating a candidate to run against incumbent Imomali Rakhmonov in the presidential poll. But the deputy leader of the ruling People's Democratic Party, Abdulmadjid Dostiev, told Reuters last week that "opposition participation is important because it will prove that the elections were democratic." The present Tajik leadership, along with its backers in Moscow, are presumably confident that the country's war-weary population will opt for stability and continuity, rather than risk precipitating a new civil war. Such stability may prevail in the short term, provided that support for the Islamic opposition does not become a groundswell. If that were to happen, either Moscow or Tashkent, which regards any overtly Islamic force with extreme suspicion, might be tempted to intervene to thwart the avowed long-term goal of the Islamic Renaissance Party. According to its newly elected chairman, Said Abdullo Nuri, the party aims to come to power by peaceful democratic means. Alternatively, tensions may emerge between the moderate Nuri and more radical members of the Islamic Renaissance Party over the optimum strategy for assuming power and over the desirability of imposing an Islamic state. 24-09-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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