RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 208, 99-10-25

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 208, 25 October 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER VOWS TO TARGET CORRUPTION

[02] ARMENIAN INTELLIGENTSIA WANTS ELECTION OF NEW CATHOLICOS

[03] AZERBAIJANI PRO-GOVERNMENT BLOC CALLS FOR REFERENDUM ON

[04] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR CONTINUES WORKING

[05] GEORGIAN POLITICIANS REACT TO ASSASSINATION CLAIMS

[06] KAZAKHSTAN HOLDS RUNOFF ELECTIONS

[07] KAZAKH PREMIER ENDORSES MULTIPLE PIPELINES

[08] JAPANESE HOSTAGES RELEASED

[09] OPPOSITION TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WANTS REGISTRATION

[10] TAJIK OPPOSITION PARTY HEADED FOR SPLIT?

[11] CORRECTION:

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] KOSOVA'S SERBS SET UP POLITICAL BODY

[13] ETHNIC ALBANIANS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST RUSSIAN PRESENCE

[14] NATO ARRESTS TWO SUSPECTED WAR CRIMINALS

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION MEETS DOBBINS IN BUDAPEST

[16] PANIC TELLS WASHINGTON TO USE 'NORIEGA OPTION'

[17] YUGOSLAV MINISTER LAUDS U.S. MEDIA

[18] SESELJ WARNS OF 'BLOODY WAR' IN MONTENEGRO

[19] DJUKANOVIC PLEDGES 'MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY'

[20] INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE LEAVES SREBRENICA POST

[21] JELAVIC CALLS FOR NEW DEAL FOR CROATS

[22] CROATIA'S MUSLIMS FORM JOINT ORGANIZATION

[23] FRANCE CONTINUES TO BLOCK CROATIAN, ALBANIAN MEMBERSHIP IN

[24] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS OPT FOR DIVIDED LEADERSHIP

[25] DEMOCRATS CALL FOR NEW ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA

[26] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION CALLS FOR EXPERTS' CABINET, EARLY

[27] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER DROPS OUT OF PRESIDENTIAL RACE

[28] MOLDOVAN DEPUTY PREMIER UNDER FIRE

[29] BULGARIAN PREMIER CONCEDES LOCAL ELECTIONS RESULT ARE

[30] ...SAYS MIGHT RESHUFFLE CABINET

[C] END NOTE

[31] LITHUANIAN CRISIS REFLECTS EAST EUROPEAN SKEPTICISM

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER VOWS TO TARGET CORRUPTION

address on 21 October, Vazgen Sargsian pledged to reduce the

"political problem" of corruption to dimensions that no

longer threaten the country's economic development, Noyan

Tapan reported. He called for a crackdown on bribery, which

he termed "widespread," and protectionism, which he said

deters foreign investment. Sargsian also called for the

maximum effort to ensure that the 24 October local elections

are perceived as free and fair, adding that no matter how

good government programs may be, they are doomed to failure

without competent local administrators to implement them. He

pledged that the 2000 draft budget, which is to be submitted

to the parliament on 1 November, will be "tough" but

"realistic and purposeful." LF

[02] ARMENIAN INTELLIGENTSIA WANTS ELECTION OF NEW CATHOLICOS

Meeting on 21 October in Yerevan, members of the

Armenian intelligentsia addressed an appeal to the Supreme

Ecclesiastical Council to delay the election later this week

of a successor to Catholicos Karekin I, who died in July,

Noyan Tapan reported. Representatives of several Armenian

opposition parties had made a similar appeal last week (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 20 October 1999). Also on 21 October,

Archbishop Grigoris Bournoutian announced that 35 bishops

have agreed to support a specific candidate for Catholicos,

but he declined to name that candidate. On 22 October, Gegham

Manoukian, who is a member of the Executive Council of the

opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun,

told Noyan Tapan that his party considers Aram I, catholicos

of the Great House of Cilicia, the best qualified candidate.

Aram has denied that he is seeking the post of catholicos. LF

[03] AZERBAIJANI PRO-GOVERNMENT BLOC CALLS FOR REFERENDUM ON

Fatherland Party leader Fazil Agamaly

told Turan on 23 October that choice of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's political status within

Azerbaijan should be reflected in Azerbaijan's Constitution

and determined by a nationwide referendum. At present, the

country's constitution describes Azerbaijan as a unitary

state but gives the exclave of Nakhichevan the status of an

autonomous republic. Foreign Minister Tofik Zulfugarov on 29

September denied any knowledge of plans to hold such a

referendum at the same time as the 12 December municipal

elections (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 and 30 September 1999).

Agamaly also complained that the Democratic Alliance, which

unites Fatherland and several other pro-government parties,

has virtually no political influence on developments in

Azerbaijan. LF

[04] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR CONTINUES WORKING

Heidar Aliev has not yet accepted the resignation as foreign

policy adviser Vafa Guluzade, Turan reported on 22 October.

Guluzade was reported to have submitted his resignation

earlier this month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 October 1999).

LF

[05] GEORGIAN POLITICIANS REACT TO ASSASSINATION CLAIMS

senior Georgian politicians have declined to confirm the

claims by former National Security Agency (NSA) Director

Lieutenant-General William Odom that during his tenure as

Russian prime minister, Yevgenii Primakov was aware of two

attempts by Russian government agencies to assassinate

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, Interfax reported.

Odom had told RFE/RL last week that the Georgian government

had provided unnamed countries with that information and

corroborating evidence. Union of Citizens of Georgia

parliamentary faction leader Mikhail Saakashvili said the

Georgian government has no evidence to support those claims.

Intelligence Department chairman Avtandil Ioseliani denied

that his service passed any such information to the NSA.

Ioseliani added that former Georgian Intelligence chief Igor

Giorgadze, whom the Georgian authorities have accused of a

botched attempt to kill Shevardnadze in August 1995, is on

good terms with Primakov. But "Vremya-MN" quoted an

unidentified Georgian security official as confirming that

Georgia provided the U.S. with information incriminating

Primakov. LF

[06] KAZAKHSTAN HOLDS RUNOFF ELECTIONS

in elections to the lower house of the parliament have taken

place in 47 districts where no candidate garnered the

required 50 percent of the vote during the first round two

weeks ago. A total of 94 candidates contested those seats,

and irregularities were reported at some polling stations,

RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported on 24 October. Voter turnout

was estimated at 49 percent, down 10 percent on the first

round. On 21 October, police broke up a rally in the town of

Talghar staged by supporters of Bigeldy Gabdullin, who is

"DAT" newspaper editor and a member of former Premier Akezhan

Kazhegeldin's Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan. The

following day, an Almaty district court rejected a suit by

Orleu Party leader Seydakhmet Quttyqadam, who had demanded

that the Central Electoral Commission refund his candidate's

fee. Quttyqadam accused the commission of unspecified

violations during the first round of voting. LF

[07] KAZAKH PREMIER ENDORSES MULTIPLE PIPELINES

in Astana on 22 October with his visiting Azerbaijani

counterpart, Artur Rasizade, Qasymzhomart Toqaev told

journalists that Kazakhstan supports the planned Baku-Ceyhan

pipeline as one of several to export Kazakhstan's oil,

Interfax reported. Rasizade said Azerbaijan does not rule out

the possibility of routing oil export pipelines via Iran and

Armenia if a peace treaty is signed with the latter. Rasizade

added that the two countries have only unspecified "minor

differences" over the status of the Caspian Sea. The previous

day, Russian Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhnyi

expressed doubts that the financial obstacles to the Baku-

Ceyhan project will ever be surmounted, according to

Interfax. He added that the assembly of pipe for an

alternative stretch of the existing Baku-Novorossiisk

pipeline bypassing Chechnya will begin this week. LF

[08] JAPANESE HOSTAGES RELEASED

their interpreter who were taken hostage by Uzbek guerrillas

in southern Kyrgyzstan nine weeks ago were released in

Tajikistan on 24 October and are on their way to Bishkek,

RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported the following

day. The release followed talks between Kyrgyz and Tajik

security officials and the guerrillas' leader, Djuma

Namangani. Reuters quoted a Japanese official as denying that

any ransom was paid to secure the hostages' release. LF

[09] OPPOSITION TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WANTS REGISTRATION

Following a 21 October ruling by Tajikistan's

Supreme Court, the Central Electoral Commission has

registered Economics and Foreign Trade Minister Davlat Usmon

as a candidate for the 6 November presidential poll. The

commission had refused to do so earlier this month on the

grounds that Usmon did not submit the required minimum of

145,000 signatures in support of his candidacy. However,

Usmon asked the commission on 22 October to cancel his

registration, saying that it is illegal as he has submitted

only 82,690 signatures in his support, Reuters reported. LF

[10] TAJIK OPPOSITION PARTY HEADED FOR SPLIT?

branches of the Islamic Rebirth Party (IRP), the senior

partner within the United Tajik Opposition, have called for

convening an emergency party congress to discuss the UTO's 18

October statement calling for the expulsion of First Deputy

Prime Minister Khodji Akbar Turadjonzoda from its ranks,

Asia-Plus Blitz reported on 21 October, citing Turadjonzoda's

press office. Turadjonzoda had condemned the UTO's demand for

an emergency parliamentary session to debate the Central

Electoral Commission's refusal to register three opposition

presidential candidates (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 and 19

October 1999). He had also argued that incumbent President

Imomali Rakhmonov is the most qualified presidential

candidate. The regional IRP branches affirmed their support

for Turadjonzoda's position. LF

[11] CORRECTION:

incorrectly on the transfer of Mig-29s to Armenia. The jet

fighters in question, like earlier Russian transfers of such

aircraft, will go to Russia's military base in that country

and thus will not be under the control of the Armenian

government.

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] KOSOVA'S SERBS SET UP POLITICAL BODY

24 October, the 49-strong Serbian National Council elected

Serbian Orthodox Archbishop Artemije president (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 19 October 1999). The representatives of Kosova's

approximately 100,000 remaining Serbs also chose Momcilo

Trajkovic to head the Executive Board. The council seeks to

act as a government body for the Serbian minority and to

establish five cantons in which the Serbs make up the

majority. The council did not vote to set up a Serbian

militia, which representatives of the international community

had earlier said would be unacceptable. It is unclear how the

international community will react to the council's plans to

function as a government body. Executive authority in Kosova

rests with Bernard Kouchner and his UN mission. Artemije and

Trajkovic are veteran leaders of their people and oppose the

policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. PM

[13] ETHNIC ALBANIANS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST RUSSIAN PRESENCE

4,000 ethnic Albanians gathered in Rahovec on 24 October to

reaffirm their opposition to stationing Russian peacekeepers

in the town. Since 23 August, ethnic Albanians have blocked

the main road into Rahovec to prevent Russians from entering

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 August 1999). The first anti-

Russian protests took place on 7 July. Local Albanians say

that unidentified Russians joined Serbs in committing

atrocities in the area in the spring and that Russians are

not welcome there. PM

[14] NATO ARRESTS TWO SUSPECTED WAR CRIMINALS

begun screening Serbian refugee columns in the hope of

finding persons believed to have committed atrocities in the

province earlier this year. A KFOR spokesman said in Rahovec

on 23 October that his soldiers arrested two Serbs who were

part of a convoy seeking to leave Kosova under KFOR

protection. The spokesman added that peacekeepers will screen

only those convoys that have requested a KFOR escort. PM

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION MEETS DOBBINS IN BUDAPEST

envoy for the former Yugoslavia James Dobbins met in Budapest

on 24 October with several leaders of the Serbian opposition

Alliance for Change. Alliance spokesman Veran Batic told the

private Beta news agency that Dobbins said that Washington is

against a complete lifting of sanctions against Serbia. The

U.S. diplomat added, however, that Washington will coordinate

its sanctions policy more closely with that of the EU and

that the number of Yugoslav officials barred from entering

the U.S. or EU will be doubled to more than 600. The

opposition has long argued that economic sanctions hurt

mainly average Serbs and that it is better to have punitive

measures targeted directly at the elite. On 22 October, the

parties represented in the Alliance agreed to form a

coalition in the next elections. PM

[16] PANIC TELLS WASHINGTON TO USE 'NORIEGA OPTION'

October, Alliance for Change leaders met in Budapest with

millionaire businessman and former Yugoslav Prime Minister

Milan Panic, who told AP that the opposition lacks funds. The

next day, Panic called on the U.S. to intervene militarily

against Milosevic, as it did against Panamanian President

Manuel Noriega in 1990. Panic said: "We have a dictator

called Milosevic who is a threat not only to poor Serbs, [who

are] the true victims of all this. We have an economy that

has truly collapsed...and the major issue we are discussing

is how to stop the suffering of people.... American troops

are closer to Milosevic's home than they were to Noriega's

home," Panic added. He argued that if the Americans want

Milosevic out of power, "then [they should] get him.... This

is a Serb speaking.... I know this is internationally

unacceptable, but if you want him so bad, don't punish

[average Serbs but] take him out, get him out, force him out,

do something," Panic concluded. PM

[17] YUGOSLAV MINISTER LAUDS U.S. MEDIA

Goran Matic said that "The New York Times," "The Washington

Post," and CNN provide better coverage of Yugoslav affairs

than do the independent Belgrade periodicals "Blic," "Danas,"

"Glas javnosti," and "Vreme," Beta reported on 25 October. PM

[18] SESELJ WARNS OF 'BLOODY WAR' IN MONTENEGRO

Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj told a Montenegrin radio

station on 24 October that any move by Montenegro to secede

from Yugoslavia could result in a "bloody war" and NATO

intervention, AP reported. His statement came the day before

officials of his Radical Party started talks with

representatives of Montenegro's governing Democratic Party of

Socialists on the future of relations between Serbia and

Montenegro. Also on 24 October, Montenegrin Prime Minister

Filip Vujanovic said that Belgrade's attitudes toward

Montenegro have changed recently. He did not elaborate. PM

[19] DJUKANOVIC PLEDGES 'MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY'

President Milo Djukanovic said in Herceg Novi that his

republic will soon introduce "monetary sovereignty,"

Belgrade's "Danas" wrote on 25 October. The daily added that

Montenegrin officials are well advanced in preparations to

introduce the German mark as legal tender along with the

Yugoslav dinar. Djukanovic and members of his government have

frequently spoken about planning to take steps toward greater

sovereignty for their republic but have not said when they

will do so. PM

[20] INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE LEAVES SREBRENICA POST

international community's Wolfgang Petritsch replaced Danish

diplomat Bent Jensen as his representative in Srebrenica,

RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 23 October. Muslim

leaders have complained that Jensen is pro-Serbian.

Petritsch's office said in a statement that Jensen was

replaced as part of a restructuring of the international

community's operation in Bosnia. The statement criticized

what it referred to as verbal attacks on individuals,

"Oslobodjenje" reported on 25 October. PM

[21] JELAVIC CALLS FOR NEW DEAL FOR CROATS

the ethnic Croatian representative on the joint Bosnian

presidency, said in Mostar that the present federation

between Croats and Muslims must be scrapped. He stressed that

the Croats are junior partners in the current arrangement and

that the international community regularly interferes in its

affairs to the detriment of the Croats, "Oslobodjenje"

reported on 25 October. Jelavic said that the terms governing

the federation must be renegotiated. If the international

community refuses to do this, then it should openly declare

Bosnia an international protectorate and dispense with any

pretense that there is self-government in Bosnia. PM

[22] CROATIA'S MUSLIMS FORM JOINT ORGANIZATION

several organizations of Bosnian Muslims living in Croatia

agreed in Pula on 23 October to form the League of Bosnjaks

(Muslims) of Croatia as an umbrella organization. Member

groups include the political Party of Democratic Action, the

religious Islamic Community, the cultural society Preporod,

and the charitable organization Merhamet. PM

[23] FRANCE CONTINUES TO BLOCK CROATIAN, ALBANIAN MEMBERSHIP IN

At the urging of France, the EU remains at loggerheads

with Washington over the terms of admission of Croatia and

Albania to the WTO, London's "Financial Times" reported on 25

October. Paris insists that Zagreb and Tirana place legal

restrictions on the import of U.S. films and television

programs. France refused to accept a recent compromise

between its EU partners and Washington. PM

[24] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS OPT FOR DIVIDED LEADERSHIP

October Socialist party congress in Tirana, delegates

approved the controversial election of 36 members of the 116-

strong steering committee. Party leader Fatos Nano had

challenged the election of the 36 because they received less

than 50 percent of votes cast at a similar gathering two

weeks earlier. Party statutes require Steering Committee

members to win more than 50 percent of the vote. Observers

note that Nano's apparent climb-down means that supporters of

Nano's rival, Prime Minister Pandeli Majko, will continue to

play a large role in governing the party (see "RFE/RL Balkan

Report," 19 October 1999). Nano's supporters are more

numerous than Majko's within the party, but Majko has a

stronger appeal to the public than does the combative Nano.

PM

[25] DEMOCRATS CALL FOR NEW ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA

leader Sali Berisha told several thousand supporters in

Tirana on 23 October that in-fighting within the Socialist

Party shows that the Socialists have lost their mandate to

govern. He repeated his frequent call for the Socialists to

resign and hold new elections. Berisha promised to hold a

series of protests in coming weeks until the governing

coalition agrees to a new ballot. PM

[26] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION CALLS FOR EXPERTS' CABINET, EARLY

Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR)

leader Ion Iliescu told journalists after a 22 October

meeting of the PDSR's Executive Bureau that his party is

demanding the dismissal of the cabinet, its replacement by

one composed of "apolitical experts," and early elections,

RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Iliescu said Radu

Vasile's cabinet has displayed "a lack of interest" vis-a-

vis the population and the "inability" to ensure minimum

living standards. MS

[27] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER DROPS OUT OF PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Democrat National Alliance that he has decided to withdraw

from the 2000 presidential elections. He gave no reason for

that decision, Romanian Radio reported on 22 October. MS

[28] MOLDOVAN DEPUTY PREMIER UNDER FIRE

member of the Moldovan Party of Rebirth and Conciliation

(PRCM), said on 23 October that he will demand that Deputy

Premier Nicolae Andronic be expelled from the PRCM for

having voted the same day in the parliament in favor of

setting up the new Taraclia county, BASA Press reported.

But PRCM Chairman Mircea Snegur said Andronic cast his vote

as a member of the cabinet, not as a PRCM deputy. Also on

23 October, Andronic denied allegations by General Nicolae

Alexe, former head of the Department for Combating

Organized Crime, that he is a member of a Russian mafia

group with branches in Moldova. The same day, Tiraspol's

Russian-language "Pridnestvoe" wrote that Andronic may have

been behind the killing of a police major, who lost his

life in a bomb explosion in Chisinau earlier this month. MS

[29] BULGARIAN PREMIER CONCEDES LOCAL ELECTIONS RESULT ARE

Prime Minister Ivan Kostov on 24 October said

that the results of the local elections are a "serious

warning for the ruling coalition" but that the course of

reform will not be changed, BTA reported. Run-offs in the

local elections took place one day earlier, on 23 October.

The Central Electoral Commission announced that the ruling

United Democratic Forces alliance (ODS) and the opposition

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) have approximately the same

level of support after the two rounds of voting. The ODS

won 101 local councils and the BSP 94. The ethnic Turkish

Movement for Rights and Freedom came third and lost the

municipality of Kurdjali to the ODS. It has accused the ODS

of having rigged the elections. MS

[30] ...SAYS MIGHT RESHUFFLE CABINET

the BBC to be aired on 25 October, said he will reshuffle his

cabinet if Bulgaria receives a formal invitation to join the

EU, Reuters reported on 23 October, citing the daily "Sega."

He said the cabinet is "structurally not suitable" for the

expected accession talks. Several opposition leaders said the

real reason for the reshuffle is the ODS's poor showing in

the local elections. On 24 October, Kostov suggested that the

talks with the EU may encounter difficulties because of the

union's insistence on closing down the Kozloduy nuclear

plant, AP reported. He said the EU invitation to accession

talks is "not so unconditional" as it might have looked and

that "national consensus [over Kozloduy] is a very high price

and I do not know who is going to pay it, even if it would

speed up the accession talks." MS

[C] END NOTE

[31] LITHUANIAN CRISIS REFLECTS EAST EUROPEAN SKEPTICISM

Lithuania's government crisis over the impending sale of

one-third of its state-owned Mazeikiai oil refinery to a U.S.

company broke into public view last week during a nationwide

television address by Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas.

Paksas--himself only five months in office-- said on 18

October that 18 months of negotiations with the Oklahoma-

based Williams International Company has ended in a deal

decidedly disadvantageous to Lithuania. That, he said, is

largely because the final accord, due to be signed on 29

October, requires Vilnius to pay up to $400 million to

Williams to cover both debts and a shortfall in Mazeikiai's

working capital.

The day after Paksas's speech, the crisis intensified

with the announcement of the resignations of Lithuania's

finance and economics ministers, both of whom said they agree

with Paksas's objections to the deal. But the rest of

Paksas's 15-member coalition cabinet support the idea, and

President Valdas Adamkus-- a former U.S. citizen--strongly

backs the deal. After the cabinet approved the deal in the

evening of 18 October and Adamkus had accepted the two

ministers' resignations, the president said he is not

necessarily for Williams but for what he called terms

"beneficial" to Lithuania.

Speaking for Premier Paksas, economics adviser Eduardas

Vilkas saw the matter very differently. He called the

Williams agreement "completely foolish," saying, "We must

finance $400 million dollars [in payments to Williams]

immediately, while the Americans stagger their payments. It

isn't right." Williams' payments are to total some $150

million.

According to Kestutis Girnius, director of RFE/RL's

Lithuanian Service, the Williams crisis has important

implications for changing East European attitudes toward

Western investment. He suggests that there is a general

tendency in Central and Eastern Europe "to look askance at

certain Western investments." He also says that the small

degree of "anti-Western skepticism about the West" is

growing. Major projects, such as Mazeikiai, are considered to

be the pride of local industry, and giving them up is seen as

a "sign of defeat," he argues.

Girnius believes this new tendency also reflects a

change in attitude toward Russia. He says there is a much

greater willingness in Lithuania today to accept Russian oil

as the country's principle source of energy. That, too, could

play a role in the evolution of the Williams crisis, because

Russia's oil giant LUKoil has cut off supplies of crude to

Lithuania in protest over the sale to Williams. LUKoil itself

had hoped to purchase a controlling share in Mazeikiai.

According to Girnius, the Williams accord could easily

bring down the Paksas government on or soon after 29 October,

when the deal is due to be signed. He thinks the government's

biggest mistake in the affair was not setting up a public

tender for Mazeikiai, which created the impression the

government was in effect giving away the huge refinery.

As for the immediate future, he say he believes nothing

will be done until 29 October. "After the deal is signed,

then I think there is a great possibility that pressure will

increase for Paksas' resignation. But in the long run, [it

will turn out that] his popularity has soared."

Paksas, according to Girnius, is already seen by the

public as "a defender of the little man, a folk hero." That,

he adds, may turn out to be the most important domestic

consequence of the Williams affair.

As for the international implications, it is clear that

the government crisis and public concern over the Williams

deal is a sign of rapidly changing attitudes in Eastern

Europe toward Western investment. How small or big a sign it

is will be known only over the weeks and months to come. But

the Williams affair strongly suggests that the change is

already well under way.

The author is a RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague.

25-10-99

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

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