RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 203, 99-10-18

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 203, 18 October 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CHARGES POWER AGENCIES WITH PREVENTING

[02] DIRECTOR OF MAJOR ARMENIAN PLANT CHARGED WITH MISMANAGEMENT

[03] AZERBAIJAN DENIES HOSTING CHECHEN INFORMATION CENTER

[04] REMAINING U.S. HOSTAGES RELEASED IN GEORGIA...

[05] ...AS GEORGIAN MILITARY ACCUSE THEM OF UNSANCTIONED

[06] OSCE DEPLORES ELECTION VIOLENCE IN GEORGIA...

[07] ...AS OPPOSITION PROTESTS HARASSMENT

[08] GEORGIA NOT TO QUIT CIS INTER-PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

[09] LAST GEORGIAN BORDER GUARDS PULL OUT OF GEORGIA

[10] PRELIMINARY KAZAKH ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED

[11] FOUR KYRGYZ HOSTAGES RELEASED

[12] TAJIK OPPOSITION BODY SUSPENDS PARTICIPATION IN PEACE

[13] ...WHILE DISSENTER RULES OUT ELECTION DELAY

[14] TWO SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIALS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIK CAPITAL

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] YUGOSLAV PREMIER THREATENS MONTENEGRO WITH ARMY

[16] MONTENEGRIN REFERENDUM 'SOONER THAN ANYONE EXPECTS'

[17] SERBIAN OPPOSITION BLAMES REGIME IN BOMBING ATTACK

[18] SERBIAN MINISTRY FILES CHARGES AGAINST PUBLISHER

[19] CITIZENS' ALLIANCE JOINS UMBRELLA GROUP

[20] BELGRADE TO 'CONTROL' USE OF EU OIL

[21] ALBRIGHT, COOK DENY STORY ON CHINESE EMBASSY BOMBING

[22] THREE KFOR PEACEKEEPERS INJURED IN FIRE

[23] KFOR SAYS UCK VIOLATED AGREEMENT

[24] KOSOVA'S SERBS TO SEEK OWN 'PROTECTION FORCE'

[25] DRASKOVIC BLASTS ALBANIAN PLANS FOR KOSOVA OFFICE

[26] CROATIAN WAR CRIMES SUSPECT REMAINS IN ZAGREB

[27] ROMANIAN PREMIER DISMISSES ORPHANAGE PROBLEM

[28] INFLATION FEARED AS ELECTRICITY PRICES GO UP IN ROMANIA

[29] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT GIVES INITIAL APPROVAL TO LANDMARK BILLS

[30] BULGARIA'S RULING PARTY SCORES DISAPPOINTING WIN IN LOCAL

[C] END NOTE

[31] ALBANIA'S RIVAL PARTIES STICK WITH OLD LEADERS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CHARGES POWER AGENCIES WITH PREVENTING

Meeting on 16 October with senior

representatives of the Defense, Interior, and National

Security Ministries, Robert Kocharian issued instructions to

ensure that the 24 October local elections will be completely

free and fair, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Kocharian

termed the poll Armenia's final test on the road to becoming

a full member of the Council of Europe, saying that the

preconditions exist for ensuring that the conduct of the poll

is exemplary. Some 200,000 ethnic Armenian refugees from

Azerbaijan who are not Armenian citizens will not be allowed

to participate in the vote, despite a 16 October ruling by

the Armenian Constitutional Court that a provision in the

election law barring them from doing so is unconstitutional.

That legislation will be amended to bring it into line with

the Armenian Constitution. LF

[02] DIRECTOR OF MAJOR ARMENIAN PLANT CHARGED WITH MISMANAGEMENT

plant, was charged with mismanagement of public funds on 16

October, four days after his detention, RFE/RL's Yerevan

bureau reported. Press reports quote law enforcement

officials as saying the charges stem from barter agreements

the plant concluded in an attempt to continue operating. Once

the foremost producer of synthetic rubber in the USSR, Nairit

now owes the state more than $30 million in unpaid taxes and

electricity bills. One of the leaders of the small opposition

Democratic Fatherland Party, of which Nersisian is a member,

told RFE/RL on 14 October that he considers the charges

against Nersisian groundless but not politically motivated.

LF

[03] AZERBAIJAN DENIES HOSTING CHECHEN INFORMATION CENTER

media allegations that Chechen militants have established an

information center in Baku are unfounded and intended to

undermine Russian-Azerbaijani relations, a spokesman for

Azerbaijan's Security Minister Araz Kurbanov told ITAR-TASS

on 15 October. The news agency added that an unofficial

Chechen mission in Baku that engages primarily in

humanitarian affairs also releases information about events

in Chechnya. LF

[04] REMAINING U.S. HOSTAGES RELEASED IN GEORGIA...

released four of their hostages (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 15

October 1999), the unidentified abductors who seized six UN

officials and their interpreter in western Georgia set free

the remaining three UN officials on 15 October after

receiving assurances from senior Georgian officials that

special forces will not launch an operation to free the

captives. Georgian Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze said

the next day that no ransom was paid for the hostages'

release. National Security Minister Vakhtang Kutateladze told

the independent Rustavi-2 TV station on 15 October that the

hostage-takers belong to a criminal gang and suggested that

they were also responsible for a similar abduction last July

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 July 1999). He also expressed his

view that the hostage-taking was timed to affect the 31

October elections. LF

[05] ...AS GEORGIAN MILITARY ACCUSE THEM OF UNSANCTIONED

Two senior Georgian Defense Ministry officials

said on 16 October that the helicopter that flew the UN

observers to the Kodori gorge where they were kidnapped had

engaged in filming unnamed "strategic facilities" in the

gorge without the permission of the Georgian authorities,

ITAR-TASS reported. Georgian Army Chief of Staff General

Djoni Pirtskhalaishvili said the observers were repeatedly

told they must inform Tbilisi in advance of any planned

flights in the area. On 14 October, a UN political adviser

with the observer mission had told ITAR-TASS that Georgia

should have taken measures to ensure the observers' safety.

LF

[06] OSCE DEPLORES ELECTION VIOLENCE IN GEORGIA...

Election Observation Mission in Tbilisi issued a statement on

14 October condemning violence during the runup to the 31

October parliamentary elections as "totally unacceptable" and

"contrary to both the letter and the spirit of OSCE

commitments on free elections," Caucasus Press reported. The

statement was pegged to a 10 October firebomb attack on the

home of a candidate in Aspindza Raion. The OSCE mission has

launched an investigation into that attack. LF

[07] ...AS OPPOSITION PROTESTS HARASSMENT

Union of Revival election bloc staged a half-hour silent

protest on Tbilisi's main boulevard on 15 October against

harassment of its candidates by the Georgian authorities,

Caucasus Press reported. Vakhtang Rcheulishvili, head of the

Socialist Party, which is one of the Union's five member

parties, told journalists that the bloc will not allow the

outcome of the poll to be falsified. The Union of Revival is

the main challenger to the ruling Union of Citizens of

Georgia. LF

[08] GEORGIA NOT TO QUIT CIS INTER-PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

will remain a member of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly,

parliamentary deputy Eldar Shengelaya said at a St.

Petersburg meeting of the assembly's governing body on 16

October, Interfax reported. President Shevardnadze had said

on 11 October that Georgia might withdraw from the assembly

after the Russian State Duma sent observers to monitor the 3

October presidential elections and referendum in Abkhazia,

which Georgia had termed illegal. The St. Petersburg session

adopted a resolution condemning the Abkhaz poll and

referendum and calling for the renewal of talks between the

Georgian and Abkhaz leaderships. LF

[09] LAST GEORGIAN BORDER GUARDS PULL OUT OF GEORGIA

contingent of Russian border guards previously deployed along

Georgia's borders with Russian and Turkey left Georgia on 15

October, ITAR-TASS reported. The withdrawal had been

implemented in stages under the terms of an agreement signed

last year. LF

[10] PRELIMINARY KAZAKH ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED

press conference in Astana on 17 October, Kazakhstan's

Central Electoral Commission Chairwoman Zaghipa Balieva

confirmed that in the party-list voting in the 10 October

elections to the lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament, the

pro-presidential Otan party polled 30.89 percent, the

Communist Party 17.75 percent, the Agrarian Party 12.63

percent, and the Civic Party 11.23 percent, Reuters and ITAR-

TASS reported. Otan thus acquired four of the 10 seats in the

lower house allocated under the party-list system, while the

remaining three parties got two seats each. Balieva also

confirmed that a second round of voting will be held on 24

October in 47 constituencies in which no candidate garnered

50 percent of the vote in the first round. LF

[11] FOUR KYRGYZ HOSTAGES RELEASED

hostages in southern Kyrgyzstan in late August released two

of those captives, a Kyrgyz Interior Ministry general and

lieutenant-colonel, on 18 October, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau

reported. Parliamentary deputy Tursunbai Bakir Uulu, who

secured their release in talks with the hostage takers, is

continuing talks aimed at negotiating the release of the

remaining five hostages: four Japanese geologists and their

Kyrgyz interpreter. Reuters on 16 October quoted unnamed

Kyrgyz government sources as saying that the gunmen are

demanding a $2 million ransom for the four Japanese. But

Security Council Secretary-General Bolot Djanuzakov said that

no ransom will be paid. Bakir Uulu succeeded in freeing five

hostages last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 and 15 October

1999). LF

[12] TAJIK OPPOSITION BODY SUSPENDS PARTICIPATION IN PEACE

The United Tajik Opposition (UTO) on 18 October

announced that it is suspending its representatives'

participation in the Commission for National Reconciliation

to protest the authorities' failure to meet its demands,

ITAR-TASS reported. In a 15 October statement, the UTO had

demanded that an emergency session of the parliament be

convened to debate postponing the presidential election

scheduled for 6 November, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Three

opposition parties had called for a boycott of that poll on

the grounds that they were prevented from collecting the

required signatures to register as candidates (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 12 and 13 October 1999). The UTO also called for

the election of a new Central Electoral Commission that would

include representatives of those parties that had proposed

presidential candidates, for equal access to state media to

be granted all presidential candidates, and for the UN, OSCE,

and other international organizations to supervise the

elections. LF

[13] ...WHILE DISSENTER RULES OUT ELECTION DELAY

chairman Akbar Turadjonzoda, who is also Tajikistan's first

deputy premier, told journalists on 16 October that the

legitimacy of next Tajik president will be open to question

if the presidential poll is delayed, ITAR-TASS reported. He

added that "most" members of the UTO Presidium do not support

the demand for a postponement of the election. Turadjonzoda

also argued that the UTO should have made public its

objections to the election law last year rather than wait

until one month before the poll. Tajikistan's Constitutional

Court Chairman Ubaidullo Davlatov issued a statement on 15

October saying that "nobody, neither the president nor the

parliament of the republic, has the right to alter the date

determined by the Constitutional law on elections and the

constitution of the country," Asia Plus-Blitz reported. LF

[14] TWO SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIALS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIK CAPITAL

colonel with the Tajik Defense Ministry was shot in the head

near his home on the morning of 16 October, Rusian agencies

reported. Later that day, a lieutenant-colonel with the

Russian Border Guard forces was shot dead in Dushanbe in what

Tajik officials said may have been a contract killing. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] YUGOSLAV PREMIER THREATENS MONTENEGRO WITH ARMY

Bulatovic said in Belgrade on 17 October that "the people"

and army will not allow Montenegro to secede from the

Yugoslav federation, AP reported. Bulatovic, who leads the

pro-Belgrade faction in Montenegro, also called his rivals in

Podgorica "cowards and traitors" for failing to resolutely

back the Serbian regime in its conflict with NATO this

spring. The Montenegrin authorities have frequently said they

will hold a referendum on independence unless the Belgrade

authorities negotiate seriously about redefining relations

between the two republics. PM

[16] MONTENEGRIN REFERENDUM 'SOONER THAN ANYONE EXPECTS'

"Die Presse" of 16 October that relations between Belgrade

and Podgorica have never been worse. He stressed that

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is afraid of the effect

on his power of the "Montenegrin model" of democracy and an

open economy. Belgrade is unwilling to talk seriously with

Podgorica about reforming bilateral relations, he said.

Montenegrins are consequently getting impatient, and their

government may call a referendum on independence "sooner than

anyone expects." It has become more of a danger to Montenegro

to remain in the same state as Milosevic than to hold a

referendum, Perovic concluded. PM

[17] SERBIAN OPPOSITION BLAMES REGIME IN BOMBING ATTACK

Party official Nebojsa Andric in Valjevo during the night of

16-17 October. No one was injured. In Belgrade, Veran Batic

of the opposition Alliance for Change said that "those who

don't want any changes in Serbia...are using terrorist

methods to intimidate people and prevent the inevitable,

namely the demise of Slobodan Milosevic and his clique," AP

reported. Batic added that "the regime is obviously losing

its head, it is ready to use any means just to stay in power.

We are in a very critical phase [of the campaign to oust

Milosevic]..., but all those attempts cannot stop the

democratization process in Serbia." PM

[18] SERBIAN MINISTRY FILES CHARGES AGAINST PUBLISHER

Information Ministry has sued Slavoljub Kacarevic, who heads

the printing firm ABC Grafika and publishes the private daily

"Glas Javnosti," the Association for Independent Electronic

Media in Yugoslavia said in a statement on 15 October. The

ministry charged that Kacarevic has violated the draconian

press law by publishing without the ministry's permission the

opposition daily leaflet "Changes" and reprinting it in his

daily. Kacarevic argues that "Changes" is not a periodical

but rather advertising and therefore does not have to be

registered with the authorities. PM

[19] CITIZENS' ALLIANCE JOINS UMBRELLA GROUP

Committee of the Citizens' Alliance of Serbia announced in

Belgrade on 17 October that it will join the opposition

coalition Alliance for Change, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported. In Novi Sad, some 10,000 students and other

opposition supporters turned out the previous night for what

the organizers called the first day of student protests in

Serbia. PM

[20] BELGRADE TO 'CONTROL' USE OF EU OIL

Minister Tomislav Nikolic said in Belgrade on 15 October that

the authorities will not prevent delivery of heating oil from

the EU to opposition-run towns. He added, however, that

federal government "will control" how the oil is used, AP

reported. He did not specify how Belgrade will do that. The

minister added that the municipal governments will not be

allowed to charge citizens for the fuel because it is a gift

from the EU. He argued that the "selective humanitarian help"

would not be necessary if NATO had not bombed Serbia. PM

[21] ALBRIGHT, COOK DENY STORY ON CHINESE EMBASSY BOMBING

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright described as

"balderdash" a story in the latest issue of London's "The

Observer" to the effect that NATO deliberately bombed the

Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May. Speaking to CNN on 17

October, Albright said that "there is information that [the

Chinese] were carrying on intelligence activities," but she

stressed that the bombing was a "tragic accident." In London,

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that he knows "not

a single shred of evidence to support [the weekly's] rather

wild story." "The Observer" wrote that the NATO deliberately

bombed the embassy because the Chinese were transmitting

Yugoslav military communications in return for information

about a U.S. Stealth aircraft that crashed on Serbian

territory. PM

[22] THREE KFOR PEACEKEEPERS INJURED IN FIRE

soldiers were slightly injured when a blaze that began in a

store spread to a former Prishtina television building now

housing KFOR troops. The fire began in the early hours of 18

October and quickly destroyed the television building, AP

reported. KFOR and UN police are investigating the incident.

PM

[23] KFOR SAYS UCK VIOLATED AGREEMENT

statement on 17 October that several members of the former

Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) violated the guerrillas'

agreement with the Atlantic alliance by appearing uniformed

and armed in public. The previous day, 15 UCK veterans wore

uniforms of the new Kosova Protection Corps and five wore UCK

garb at a gathering of 350 people in Gornje Obrinje to mark

the first anniversary of a massacre there. Several of the UCK

veterans carried pistols. The KFOR statement stressed: "This

gathering is a clear violation of the undertaking for

demilitarization and transformation [of the UCK].... KFOR is

not going to tolerate such actions of non-compliance. An

investigation is under way and subsequent action will be

taken as appropriate," the text concluded. PM

[24] KOSOVA'S SERBS TO SEEK OWN 'PROTECTION FORCE'

Trajkovic, who is the political leader of Kosova's Serbian

minority, said in Banja Luka on 16 October that the Serbs

will have to set up their own "protection force" as a

counterweight to the UCK-dominated Protection Corps.

Observers note that NATO and the UN are likely to consider

such a move illegal. Meanwhile in Prishtina, the first 173

graduates of the UN-sponsored Kosova police academy received

their diplomas. The class was about 90 percent ethnic

Albanian. PM

[25] DRASKOVIC BLASTS ALBANIAN PLANS FOR KOSOVA OFFICE

Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic said in Belgrade on 17

October that Albania is meddling in Serbian affairs and

"destabilizing the Balkans" by wanting to open a diplomatic

office in Prishtina. He added that setting up such a mission

would be a "flagrant violation of international norms."

Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said on a two-day visit

to Kosova that Tirana wants to open an office in the Kosovar

capital, as the U.S. and several other countries have already

done. PM

[26] CROATIAN WAR CRIMES SUSPECT REMAINS IN ZAGREB

Court ruled on 15 October that there are no legal grounds why

Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic cannot be extradited to The Hague,

where the war crimes tribunal has indicted him for atrocities

committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Tuta's lawyer

says, however, that his client requires urgent heart surgery

and is too ill to travel. The Hague court may send its own

medical experts to Zagreb to investigate, a spokesman for the

tribunal said on 17 October. PM

[27] ROMANIAN PREMIER DISMISSES ORPHANAGE PROBLEM

said on 15 October that the problem of poor conditions at

orphanages in his country is "practically solved," Mediafax

reported. The problem was cited by the EU last week in its

report suggesting that Romania should begin talks on joining

the union (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 October 1999). Vasile

said the only problems Romania still faces in joining the EU

are those associated with the ongoing "macrostabilization

process" of the economy. PB

[28] INFLATION FEARED AS ELECTRICITY PRICES GO UP IN ROMANIA

government announced an increase in the price of electricity

on 15 October, AP reported. The increase, which was made

because of a drop in the value of the lei, means an 8 percent

increase in utility bills for the average consumer. National

Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu advised the government to avoid

price hikes in fuel and utilities in the future, saying that

such measures will lead to inflation on other consumer goods.

Inflation was 39 percent through the first nine months of the

year. PB

[29] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT GIVES INITIAL APPROVAL TO LANDMARK BILLS

bill stipulating that advertising must be in the country's

official language, Infotag reported. Deputy Justice Minister

Victor Cretu said the bill aims at ending the "alarming

situation" where most of advertising in the media is in

Russian. The legislature also approved in the first reading a

bill on the prevention and fight against money laundering.

The draft law stipulates that banks must inform authorities

whenever the suspicion arises that deposits were acquired

illegally. MS

[30] BULGARIA'S RULING PARTY SCORES DISAPPOINTING WIN IN LOCAL

According to preliminary results, the ruling

United Democratic Front (UDF) received 35-45 percent of the

vote in the 16 October local elections, RFE/RL's Bulgarian

Service and AP reported. The ex-Communist Bulgarian Socialist

Party is reported to have garnered around 30 percent of the

vote, which is more than was predicted. Voter turnout was

disappointing, with only some 50 percent of the electorate

casting their ballots. Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, the head

of the UDF, said his party is paying the price for "painful

reforms" that included spending cuts, layoffs, and tax

increases. The UDF held on to the mayoral posts in both Sofia

and Plovdiv, while a UDF candidate in the country's third-

largest city, Varna, was ahead but will face a runoff next

week. Runoff elections will be held in some 200

municipalities next week. PB

[C] END NOTE

[31] ALBANIA'S RIVAL PARTIES STICK WITH OLD LEADERS

Members of the governing Socialist Party of Albania and

the opposition Democratic Party have recently re-elected

their respective leaders. Last weekend, former Prime Minister

Fatos Nano of the Socialist Party defeated his successor in

the government, 31-year-old reformer Pandeli Majko. And a

week or so earlier, former President Sali Berisha of the

Democratic Party fought back a challenge to his party

leadership by its former secretary-general, the charismatic

Genc Pollo.

Nano and Berisha are bitter rivals who count among the

older generation of Albanian politicians. The two are largely

responsible for the polarization that has characterized

Albanian political life since the end of communism, in 1991-

1992. Their rivalry grew into open personal antagonism after

the mid-1990s, when Berisha's government arrested Nano on

dubious corruption charges. In the wake of the unrest that

spread throughout Albania in early 1997 following the

collapse of pyramid investment schemes, Nano managed to

escape from prison. He won the elections in July of the same

year and became prime minister by presenting himself to the

voters as the main challenger to an authoritarian regime. A

Tirana court acquitted him of the corruption charges on 5

October 1999.

Berisha, in return, accused Nano of being the mastermind

of the 1997 unrest and blamed his government for the killing

of senior Democratic Party legislator Azem Hajdari in Tirana

in September 1998. The investigation into that murder has

been deadlocked for more than a year. Democratic Party

witnesses have refused to testify to investigators, arguing

that they do not trust the authorities to conduct an

impartial investigation.

Nano resigned shortly after the Hajdari murder, when

riots broke out during the legislator's funeral in Tirana.

The Socialists then charged the Democrats with having

conducted a coup attempt, a charge the Democrats vehemently

denied. Nano and Berisha, furthermore, have not refrained

from charging each other with involvement in corruption, arms

smuggling, and other crimes. These exchanges have long been

part of Albania's daily political discourse.

Nano's resignation paved the way for a new Socialist

government under Majko. Since taking office, he has sought to

present himself as a dynamic, forward-looking politician who

is willing to reconcile with the opposition for the benefit

of the entire country by establishing rule of law and

promoting economic recovery. The Kosova war gave Majko an

opportunity to call for unity among all Albanians and to put

aside old grievances. Majko also followed a policy of

establishing good-neighborly relations with Macedonia,

Greece, and Montenegro, and he made participation in the EU's

Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe one of his

government's priorities.

But Majko's government has faced difficult tasks. It was

unable to increase the level of public security until mid-

summer 1999. At that time, his newly appointed Public Order

Minister Spartak Poci launched an offensive against the

country's most notorious gangs. Poci acknowledged in early

October that unidentified politicians have put pressure on

police and justice officials to have several of the arrested

gang leaders released, thereby confirming that political

corruption is indeed widespread. He did not disclose names,

however.

Before the party congress, Majko threatened to resign

should Nano win the party chairmanship. After his defeat,

however, he pledged to remain in office, arguing that he lost

by a margin of only 30 votes. At the same time he stressed

that he felt "hurt in his moral and political legitimacy";

but while the vote indicates that his support within the

party is fragile, his decision to stay in government is

nonetheless based on backing from the Albanian public and the

international community, where Majko appears to enjoy more

support than within his party's rank and file.

Nano, on the other hand, is unlikely to seek to oust

Majko as prime minister and return to government, since a

second major change of government after two years could

derail the fragile reform process and give a boost to the

Democratic Party's demand for new elections.

For their part, the Democrats have maneuvered themselves

further into a corner by re-electing Berisha. Pollo's initial

candidature seemed to offer an alternative to Berisha's tight

control over the party and his role in the polarization of

political life. Pollo pledged to bring several other center-

right political parties into a coalition, most notably the

Republicans. But with the reelection of Berisha--whom many

potential Democratic voters consider too authoritarian--a

major shift in voter support from the Socialists to the

Democrats remains unlikely.

The two party congresses have shown that the old-

generation leaders--who were forced to resign after scandals

and amid charges of corruption against their respective

governments--do still have the backing of most party members.

The two men owe their victories probably less to any real

popular support for themselves and to their ideas than to

their patronage of those within the party willing to back

them in crucial leadership votes.

18-10-99

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

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