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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 191, 99-09-30Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 191, 30 September 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIA, GEORGIA PLEDGE CLOSER TIESFollowing talks inYerevan 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 MEETVartan Oskanianand 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 culturalfigures 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 NATIONALISMNazarbaev told the samegathering 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 FUNDINGAzat 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 INFILTRATORSThe Kyrgyz DefenseMinistry 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-REGISTEREDA spokesman for theIslamic 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 RALLYAtleast 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 CITIESAt anEU 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 MILOSEVICCarla 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 FINEDA judge in Belgrade levied a 130,000dinar ($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 HATREDOne day after a grenadeattack 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 WINTERDennis 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 CROATIAThe OSCE said in areport 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 TRIALIn the closingstatement 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 ISThe wife ofwartime 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 APPROVEDMacedonia'sElection 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 BERISHAGenc 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 BATTALIONRomanianDefense 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 CRIMEFBI 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 MOLDOVANDEPUTYThe 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 DANUBEBulgarianTransport 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 RETURNby Julie A. CorwinThe 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
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