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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 191, 99-09-30

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. 191, 30 September 1999


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] ARMENIA, GEORGIA PLEDGE CLOSER TIES
  • [02] ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET
  • [03] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT LOBBIES FOR REGIONAL UNITY...
  • [04] ...WARNS AGAINST NATIONALISM
  • [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S CIVIC PARTY DENIES RECEIVING FOREIGN FUNDING
  • [06] KYRGYZ TROOPS INTERCEPT INFILTRATORS
  • [07] TAJIK OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTERED

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [08] DOZENS INJURED AS POLICE USE FORCE TO END BELGRADE RALLY
  • [09] YUGOSLAV ECONOMISTS ASKS EU TO SEND ENERGY TO CITIES
  • [10] NEW WAR CRIMES CHIEF TO FOCUS ON MILOSEVIC
  • [11] BELGRADE DAILY FINED
  • [12] UN HEAD IN KOSOVA CONDEMNS HATRED
  • [13] UN OFFICIAL SAYS KOSOVA FACES TOUGH WINTER
  • [14] OSCE, WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL SLAM CROATIA
  • [15] SAKIC PLEADS INNOCENCE AT END OF TRIAL
  • [16] MRS. KARADZIC DOESN'T KNOW WHERE HER HUSBAND IS
  • [17] CANDIDATES FOR MACEDONIAN PRESIDENCY APPROVED
  • [18] ALBANIA'S POLLO DECIDES NOT TO CHALLENGE BERISHA
  • [19] ROMANIA, HUNGARY AGREE TO SET UP BATTALION
  • [20] FBI DIRECTOR IMPRESSED WITH ROMANIA'S FIGHT AGAINST CRIME
  • [21] COUNCIL OF EUROPE DEMANDS ACCESS TO IMPRISONED MOLDOVAN
  • [22] BULGARIA CALLS FOR RAPID REOPENING OF DANUBE

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [23] CONTROVERSY DOESN'T END WITH SACRED TEXT'S RETURN

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] ARMENIA, GEORGIA PLEDGE CLOSER TIES

    Following talks in

    Yerevan on 29 September, Armenian President Robert Kocharian

    and his visiting Georgian counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze,

    signed a "Declaration on the Main Principles of Cooperation

    at the New Stage of Georgian-Armenian relations," Caucasus

    Press reported. Shevardnadze said the document raises those

    bilateral relations to a new level of friendship and

    cooperation, while Kocharian added that they clarify the two

    states' foreign policy and bring their respective reforms

    into closer harmony with one another. The two presidents also

    discussed the situation in the North Caucasus and in

    Georgia's southern, predominantly Armenian-populated region

    of Djavakhetia, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Georgian

    businessmen accompanying the Georgian delegation met in

    Yerevan the same day with Armenian business circles to

    discuss expanding cooperation, including joint ventures. LF

    [02] ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET

    Vartan Oskanian

    and Tofik Zulfugarov met with U.S. Secretary of State

    Madeleine Albright on 29 September in a continued effort to

    find a mutually acceptable framework for resuming OSCE-

    mediated talks on resolving the Karabakh conflict, Reuters

    reported. The agency quoted a senior U.S. diplomat as saying

    that those talks reflect both sides' desire to reach a

    solution to that conflict. Zulfugarov had said the previous

    day that Azerbaijan is not prepared to make any compromises

    over its territorial integrity, according to Turan. He also

    denied any knowledge of plans to hold a referendum on

    Karabakh simultaneously with the 12 December municipal

    elections (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 September 1999). LF

    [03] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT LOBBIES FOR REGIONAL UNITY...

    Addressing a gathering of prominent scientists and cultural

    figures from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and

    Uzbekistan in Astana on 29 September, Nursultan Nazarbaev

    argued that although those countries will enter the 21st

    century as independent states, there are no obstacles to

    their becoming "a single region geopolitically and

    economically," Interfax reported. "Our strategic, economic

    goal is to form a single economic environment, a single trade

    and customs zone, a single currency union and a single

    economic strategy," he said. However, he did not specify how

    that objective can be reconciled with the creation of a

    single economic space by members of the CIS Customs Union, of

    which Russia and Belarus are also members (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 27 September 1999). LF

    [04] ...WARNS AGAINST NATIONALISM

    Nazarbaev told the same

    gathering on 29 September that while a process of national

    awakening is only natural, the states of Central Asia should

    make every effort to harmonize their national interests in

    order to preclude "the national supremacy disease," Interfax

    reported. He said that part of the Soviet legacy is "a huge

    mass of negative stereotypes" that contributes to each state

    in the region perceiving its culture as unique and isolated.

    Also, Nazarbaev warned that political terrorism could pose a

    real threat to the region in the 21st century, according to

    ITAR-TASS. LF

    [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S CIVIC PARTY DENIES RECEIVING FOREIGN FUNDING

    Azat Peruashev, leader of the pro-presidential Civic Party,

    told journalists in the northern city of Pavlodar on 29

    September that there is no truth to the Azamat Party's

    allegations that his party is using funds provided by foreign

    investors to finance its parliamentary election campaign,

    RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported on 30 September. Azamat

    party leader Ghalym Abilseitov made those allegations at a

    press conference earlier this week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28

    September 1999). But Peruashev admitted that the Civic Party

    has received financial support from heads of industrial

    enterprises in Aqmola, Aqtobe, Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, and

    Qostanay Oblasts. LF

    [06] KYRGYZ TROOPS INTERCEPT INFILTRATORS

    The Kyrgyz Defense

    Ministry issued a statement in Bishkek on 29 September saying

    that its forces intercepted nine people, one of them armed,

    in Batken Raion the previous night, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau

    reported. The nine are suspected of having illegally crossed

    the border from neighboring Tajikistan. Also on 29 September,

    senior Kyrgyz Defense Ministry officials meeting in Batken

    gave the go-ahead for air raids on the guerrillas who are

    holding 13 hostages in that district, Interfax reported. At

    the same time, they said that caution is to be exercised in

    order to avoid harming either local residents or the

    hostages. LF

    [07] TAJIK OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTERED

    A spokesman for the

    Islamic Renaissance Party told Reuters on 29 September that

    the previous day the party had successfully completed the

    process of re-registering with the Ministry of Justice.

    Continuing its emergency congress on 29 September, the party

    again endorsed Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Davlat

    Usmon as its candidate for the 6 November presidential

    elections. LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [08] DOZENS INJURED AS POLICE USE FORCE TO END BELGRADE RALLY

    At

    least 60 people were injured on 29 September when Serbian

    riot police beat back protesters who were marching to the

    Belgrade home of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,

    Reuters reported. Some 30,000 people took part in the march

    to the capital's Dedinje district. Some 300 riot police,

    backed by water cannon, turned on the protesters before they

    reached the Milosevic residence. At least four demonstrators

    were seriously injured. Five policemen and several

    journalists, including a CNN cameraman, also sustained

    injuries. Eleven people were reported arrested, including

    some opposition officials. Alliance for Change leader Zoran

    Djindjic said at a subsequent downtown rally that Milosevic

    "made this protest a popular uprising because you use such

    force only when you see the protests as a big threat to your

    regime." The Interior Ministry commented that "a large group

    of hooligans...including known criminals [and] drug addicts"

    had attacked police with bricks, stones, and sticks. Protest

    organizers vowed to attempt to march to Dedinje again the

    following day. Large demonstrations were also held in Nis,

    Novi Sad, and several other towns. PB

    [09] YUGOSLAV ECONOMISTS ASKS EU TO SEND ENERGY TO CITIES

    At an

    EU meeting in Helsinki on 29 September, the independent group

    of Yugoslav economists called Group 17 urged the EU to help

    the democratic process in Serbia by providing gas to cities

    that have opposition-led administrations, Reuters reported.

    The economists said they need $3.5 million to begin heating

    oil projects in the southeastern Serbian cities of Nis and

    Pirot. Group 17 coordinator Mladjan Dinkic said the message

    to the EU is "that the cost of not acting would surely be

    higher to the EU than the cost of acting, so give us a chance

    to show what we can do." He added that if Milosevic tried to

    stop a fuel shipment from arriving in a Serbian town, "he

    will face the animosity of citizens who will not have

    heating." The economists will also visit Paris, Berlin,

    London, and The Hague. PB

    [10] NEW WAR CRIMES CHIEF TO FOCUS ON MILOSEVIC

    Carla del Ponte,

    the new chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal at The

    Hague, said on 29 September that the court will concentrate

    on gathering evidence against Yugoslav President Milosevic

    and others suspected of ordering atrocities to be committed

    in Kosova, AP reported. The tribunal indicted Milosevic and

    four top advisers in May for crimes against humanity. Del

    Ponte said the cases against those indictees will be

    strengthened. Formerly the federal prosecutor for

    Switzerland, Del Ponte replaced Louise Arbour, who accepted

    an appointment to the Canadian Supreme Court. PB

    [11] BELGRADE DAILY FINED

    A judge in Belgrade levied a 130,000

    dinar ($21,600 at the official exchange rate) fine on the

    daily "Glas javnosti" for a story it published on alleged

    corruption in the distribution of humanitarian aid, Radio B2-

    92 reported on 29 September. In addition, the newspaper's

    editor in chief, Srecko Petric, was fined 70,000 dinars. In

    other news, Milosevic named Major-General Milen Simic as head

    of the Yugoslav Army's General Staff for Information and

    Morale. He replaces General Aleksandar Bakocevic, who Tanjug

    said will return to "civilian service." PB

    [12] UN HEAD IN KOSOVA CONDEMNS HATRED

    One day after a grenade

    attack in an outdoor market killed two and left nearly 50

    people injured, Bernard Kouchner decried the "massive hatred"

    between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, AFP reported on 29

    September. "We have tanks, troops, and police, but this is

    not enough," Kouchner said at a hospital where he visited

    people injured in the incident. A UN spokeswoman said two

    people arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack

    have been questioned and released. She said reports the

    previous day that four people had been detained were

    erroneous. In Prishtina, Zivojin Mitrovic, the president of

    the Serbian National Assembly of Kosova, said that "if

    similar crimes continue, the Serbs...will be forced to find

    appropriate forms of self-organization in order to protect

    their lives and homes." PB

    [13] UN OFFICIAL SAYS KOSOVA FACES TOUGH WINTER

    Dennis McNamara,

    a deputy representative in Kosova's UN administration, said

    the lack of major reconstruction in the Serbian province of

    Kosova means many people will not have proper housing this

    winter, Reuters reported. McNamara said the UN and other

    agencies will provide enough "repair kits" to patch up one

    room each in 50,000 damaged homes. He said some 300,000 to

    400,000 people whose homes will not be repaired will have to

    seek accommodation with family and friends over the winter.

    McNamara added that 44 people have been killed and 194

    injured by landmines and unexploded bombs since the war ended

    in June. PB

    [14] OSCE, WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL SLAM CROATIA

    The OSCE said in a

    report on 29 September that although Zagreb has made some

    progress toward Western standards of democracy, it remains

    far behind in many important areas, AP reported. It cited

    difficulties in property restitution, an ambiguous amnesty

    law, discriminatory legislation, and flawed media and

    electoral laws ahead of the December parliamentary elections.

    It also said that monitoring of Croatian television shows "a

    continuing pattern of unbalanced news and...reporting in

    favor of the ruling party." The same day, the UN war crimes

    tribunal at The Hague said in a letter to the UN Security

    Council that Zagreb is still not cooperating with the

    tribunal's efforts to apprehend and prosecute suspects. The

    court is seeking the extradition of suspected war criminal

    Mladen Naletilic, who is being detained in Zagreb. PB

    [15] SAKIC PLEADS INNOCENCE AT END OF TRIAL

    In the closing

    statement at his trial on charges of crimes against humanity,

    Dinko Sakic, the commander of a concentration camp in Croatia

    during World War II, claimed that the trial is politically

    motivated and influenced by international pressure on

    Croatia, Hina reported. Sakic, 77, said he believes he "was

    convicted before the process started." He said his voluntary

    return to Croatia from Argentina is proof of his innocence.

    Sakic said that he was only carrying out orders "that

    corresponded to my beliefs about national interests and the

    biological survival of the Croatian people." He was in charge

    of the Jasenovac camp from May to October 1944 and is accused

    of being responsible for the deaths of 2,000 prisoners. A

    verdict is expected on 4 October. PB

    [16] MRS. KARADZIC DOESN'T KNOW WHERE HER HUSBAND IS

    The wife of

    wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said on 29

    September that she has not seen her husband for three months,

    Reuters reported, citing an interview in the Belgrade weekly

    "Nedeljni Telegraf." She said he moves around a lot and that

    she receives reports that he is doing alright. Karadzic is

    wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal for crimes committed

    during the Bosnian war. In other news, U.S. citizen Charles

    Kim was found guilty in New York on 29 September of

    defrauding the UN mission in Bosnia of some $800,000. Kim

    headed the mission's Zagreb-based transport and travel office

    from 1995-1998. He will be sentenced in December. PB

    [17] CANDIDATES FOR MACEDONIAN PRESIDENCY APPROVED

    Macedonia's

    Election Commission approved six candidates to run in the

    country's third presidential elections, which will take place

    on 31 October, AP reported on 29 September. Among the six are

    two ethnic Albanians, Muarem Nexhipi of the Albanian

    Democratic Party and Muhamed Halili of the Albanian Party for

    Democratic Prosperity. The frontrunner in the election is

    Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Trajkovski. The other

    candidates are Vasil Tupurkovski of the Democratic

    Alternative, Tito Petkovski of the opposition Social

    Democratic Union, and Stojan Andov of the Liberal Democrats.

    PB

    [18] ALBANIA'S POLLO DECIDES NOT TO CHALLENGE BERISHA

    Genc Pollo,

    a leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said on 29

    September that he will not challenge former Albanian

    President Sali Berisha for the leadership of the party,

    Reuters reported. Pollo said gross violations in the election

    of delegates to the party's convention set to open on 30

    September were the reason for his decision. He blamed Berisha

    for "stimulating and ordering such acts." Pollo also resigned

    from all of his party functions although he will remain in

    the party. PB

    [19] ROMANIA, HUNGARY AGREE TO SET UP BATTALION

    Romanian

    Defense Minister Victor Babiuc and his visiting Hungarian

    counterpart, Janos Szabo, agreed on 29 September to set up

    a Romanian-Hungarian peacekeeping battalion by 1 January

    2000, according to an MTI report cited by the BBC. The two

    ministers said that the "excellent" relationships between

    the two countries' military forces could serve as a model

    for bilateral relations in other areas. In other news,

    Istvan Szent-Ivanyi, the chairman of the Hungarian

    parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, told a visiting

    Romanian parliamentary delegation that Hungary supports the

    quick accession of Romania to NATO and the EU. He said the

    fact that Hungary will have to impose visa restrictions on

    Romanians as part of the EU's Schengen convention could

    endanger relations between the two countries in the long

    term. VG

    [20] FBI DIRECTOR IMPRESSED WITH ROMANIA'S FIGHT AGAINST CRIME

    FBI Director Louis Freeh on 29 September said he is

    "impressed" with Romania's "determination to fight against

    crime and organized crime," AP reported. Freeh was in

    Bucharest for talks with Romanian Interior Minister Dudu

    Ionescu and Intelligence Service head Costin Georgescu.

    Freeh said the FBI will open a permanent residence in

    Bucharest, the 38th such residence in a foreign capital. VG

    [21] COUNCIL OF EUROPE DEMANDS ACCESS TO IMPRISONED MOLDOVAN

    DEPUTY

    The president of the Council of Europe's

    Parliamentary Assembly, Lord Russell Johnston, has urgently

    requested that the Red Cross be permitted to visit an

    imprisoned Moldovan deputy in the breakaway Transdniester

    region, Infotag reported on 29 September. The so-called

    Supreme Court of Tiraspol convicted Ilie Ilascu and three

    other Moldovans of terrorism in 1992. The court is not

    recognized by the international community. VG

    [22] BULGARIA CALLS FOR RAPID REOPENING OF DANUBE

    Bulgarian

    Transport Minister Wilhelm Kraus has rejected a proposal by

    the Danube Commission to reopen the Danube River to boat

    traffic no earlier than next spring, BTA reported on 29

    September. Describing the proposals as "absolutely

    unacceptable," Kraus demanded that the river be re-opened

    to traffic sooner. He also called on Yugoslavia to

    cooperate with other countries in the region to find a

    solution acceptable to all. He added that if Yugoslavia

    refuses to provide access to its destroyed bridges on the

    River Danube, Bulgaria will invoke the Convention on the

    Regime of Navigation on the Danube. Under the convention, a

    country's refusal to grant such access can be "ignored."

    Bulgaria claims it has lost millions of dollars as a result

    of the war in Kosova, which disrupted trade on the Danube.

    VG


    [C] END NOTE

    [23] CONTROVERSY DOESN'T END WITH SACRED TEXT'S RETURN

    by Julie A. Corwin

    The Atlas of Tibetan Medicine is back in Buryatia, the

    southern Russian republic bordering Mongolia, but a dispute

    over the atlas is likely to resurface and spill over into

    regional politics.

    Local Buddhists, who consider the atlas sacred, last

    year objected to the republic's decision to send it to

    North American art museums without what they believed

    sufficient safeguards and a guarantee of its eventual

    return to Ulan Ude, Buryatia's capital. At the time, their

    objections led to a clash between police and Buddhist

    monks, which many predicted (wrongly, as it turned out)

    would cost Buryatia President Leonid Potapov reelection.

    The atlas in question is not an atlas in a conventional

    sense, but a series of 76 paintings, measuring 32 by 26

    inches, copied by Tibetan artists in the 1920s from a 17th

    century medical treatise that was subsequently lost. It

    somehow survived former Soviet leader Josef Stalin's assault

    on the Buddhist Church in the 1930s. And the U.S.-based Pro

    Cultura foundation, which sponsored the atlas's tour of North

    America, is working with Ulan Ude's Museum of the History of

    Buryatia to ensure its future preservation.

    Museum workers say that the paintings should and will

    remain at the museum. But the head of Russia's Buddhist

    Church, Pandito Xambo Lama, also known as Damba Ausheev,

    apparently has other ideas. When asked about the museum's

    likely opposition to having the atlas removed, he told

    RFE/RL in Ulan Ude this month that "museum directors and

    government heads change. New people will take over and our

    republic will have democratic leaders who understand the

    values of democracy.... State officials have no moral or

    spiritual right to control this property."

    At the present time, the atlas is formally the property

    of the Russian federal government, but Ausheev says that "it

    would be very desirable for the atlas to become our property

    again and return to our possession." He also reported that

    the head of the Aginskii datsan (temple), which originally

    commissioned the work, is gathering documents and will file a

    petition to have the atlas returned to the temple.

    But Lidia Nimaeva, head of the Department for the

    North, Siberia and Far East at the federal Ministry for

    Nationalities Policy, says just the opposite. She told

    RFE/RL in Moscow that the head of the datsan understands

    that it "would be too much of a burden" to care for the

    atlas and provide "adequately for its storage and

    safekeeping." The head of the datsan and the Museum of the

    History of Buryatia, she added, are in complete agreement

    on this issue.

    She also suggested that Ausheev's past and present

    stance regarding the atlas is based more on political grounds

    than religious ones and that it was no coincidence that the

    monks challenged Buryatia President Leonid Potapov's decision

    to send some of the paintings abroad just weeks before

    presidential elections took place in the republic.

    Ausheev counters that taking the atlas out of the

    country "would have been a problem for us at any time,

    although perhaps we were lucky that the conflict occurred

    when it did." Noting that neither the Aginskii datsan nor

    the Buddhist Church received one ruble from the proceeds of

    the exhibition, he argues that the primary motivation for

    President Potapov's agreeing to the atlas's exhibition was

    monetary, since the federal Ministry of Culture, the

    republic's government, and the museum all received hard

    currency in return. Nimaeva, however, says the amount of

    money involved was small since the atlas was shown only at

    university museums, each of which paid only $5,000.

    A renewed conflict over the atlas would likely affect

    not only local politics in Buryatia but could also deepen the

    rift that currently exists within Russia's Buddhist Church.

    Ausheev's chief rival, Lama Nimazhap Ilyukhinov, head of the

    Spiritual Agency of Buddhists of Russia, came out in support

    of Potapov following the clash with police last year.

    Ilyukhinov, who leads the Buddhist communities in St.

    Petersburg and Moscow, criticizes what he calls Ausheev's

    nationalist tendencies and suggests that Ausheev and his

    followers should be more open to exchanges with Buddhists in

    other regions and countries and less confrontational with

    political authorities, such as Potapov.

    Ausheev, on the other hand, remains adamant not only

    that the atlas be returned to its original owner but that

    Buryat Buddhism be allowed to develop independently of the

    influence of other traditions. "We do not like it very much

    when missionaries come over from other Buddhist countries,"

    he told RFE/RL. At the same time, he stressed that it is

    wrong to accuse him of being undemocratic for opposing

    their incursions into his territory.

    "I understand the word democracy to mean the right of a

    person to live in a traditional milieu, in the embrace of the

    religion practice by his parents, the religion that helped

    them to survive," he says. "If you want Russia to become a

    democratic state, then you must give its traditional

    religions a chance to develop on their own."

    30-09-99


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


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