RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 218, 99-11-09

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From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 218, 9 November 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] FORMER ARMENIAN JOURNALIST CHARGED IN PARLIAMENT SHOOTINGS

[02] POPE VISITS GEORGIA

[03] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT SAYS RUSSIA WANTED TO ATTACK CHECHNYA FROM

[04] AZERBAIJAN DEMANDS PAYMENT FOR RENT OF RADAR FACILITY

[05] KAZAKHSTAN PLANS TIGHTER EXPORT CONTROLS

[06] KAZAKHSTAN, EES TO CANCEL PART OF MUTUAL DEBTS

[07] INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION WANTS KAZAKHSTAN ELECTION RESULTS

[08] KAZAKHSTAN'S AUTHORITIES RESORTING TO INTERNET CENSORSHIP?

[09] KYRGYZSTAN SETS DATE FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

[10] UN SET TO PROLONG OBSERVER MISSION IN TAJIKISTAN

[11] U.S. NOTES IRREGULARITIES IN TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL POLL

[12] UZBEKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BEGINS CHINA VISIT

[13] CORRECTION:

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] CLINTON OUTLINES BALKAN 'CHALLENGE'

[15] THACI ARGUES KOSOVA IS NOT CHECHNYA...

[16] ...SAYS SERBIAN CIVILIANS ARE WELCOME...

[17] ...AND NOTES PROBLEMS REMAIN BETWEEN KOSOVARS

[18] RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT WANTS POLITICAL SETTLEMENT

[19] CALL FOR MONITORING OF KOSOVA 'POLITICAL TRIAL'

[20] HAGUE COURT PRESIDENT DEMANDS ARREST OF BIG FISH

[21] EU READY TO START OIL DELIVERIES TO SERBIA

[22] GRAND OLD MAN OF SLOVENIA DIES

[23] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT SEEKING TO DEFUSE BRASOV LABOR CONFLICT

[24] JEWISH CEMETERIES VANDALIZED IN ROMANIA

[25] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT VOTES NO CONFIDENCE IN CABINET

[C] END NOTE

[26] HOW AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES USE ELECTIONS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] FORMER ARMENIAN JOURNALIST CHARGED IN PARLIAMENT SHOOTINGS

against pollster and former journalist Nairi Badalian in

connection with the 27 October murders of eight senior

officials, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 8 November.

Badalian has been formally charged with "assisting in the

crime," according to an official from the military

prosecutor's office. He faces a 10-year sentence if

convicted. Badalian runs the independent polling organization

"Logos." Like the gunmen's leader, Nairi Hunanian, he is a

former member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-

Dashnaktsutyun. LF

[02] POPE VISITS GEORGIA

head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II,

greeted Pope John Paul II on his arrival in Tbilisi on 8

November. The pontiff later held talks with Ilia II in the

11th century cathedral of the former Georgian capital,

Mtskheta, during which Ilia pointedly failed to respond to

the pope's call for "new bridges" between the Roman Catholic

and Orthodox Churches, the "Los Angeles Times" noted the

following day. The two clerics also issued a statement

condemning terrorism and characterizing the situation in

Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the North Caucasus as a threat

to world peace. On 9 November, the pope celebrated Mass for

Georgia's tiny Roman Catholic community at a sports palace in

Tbilisi. LF

[03] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT SAYS RUSSIA WANTED TO ATTACK CHECHNYA FROM

Shevardnadze said on 8 November in his weekly radio

address that the Georgian Security Council last week rejected

requests from Russian leaders for permission to launch

attacks on Chechen fighters from Georgian territory, Caucasus

Press reported. He did not disclose who those Russian leaders

were. Shevardnadze added that Georgia's refusal was "in

Russia's interests," according to ITAR-TASS. LF

[04] AZERBAIJAN DEMANDS PAYMENT FOR RENT OF RADAR FACILITY

November that Azerbaijan wants an annual payment of $4

million plus utility fees for Russia's continued use of the

Gabala radar facility in central Azerbaijan, AP reported,

citing Interfax. LF

[05] KAZAKHSTAN PLANS TIGHTER EXPORT CONTROLS

cooperating with its "partners," especially the U.S., to

improve export controls, Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov told

journalists in Almaty on 8 November. He linked those measures

to the need to prevent a repeat of the illegal sale to North

Korea of MiG-21 fighter aircraft. Also on 8 November, the

National Security Ministry press service announced that

materials summarizing the investigation into those sales will

be forwarded to the Almaty City Court within one week,

RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported. LF

[06] KAZAKHSTAN, EES TO CANCEL PART OF MUTUAL DEBTS

and Russia's Unified Electricity Systems (EES) have agreed on

a deal for writing off part of their mutual debts and setting

up a joint venture under which each party will own a 50

percent stake in the Ekibastuz Power Generating Plant,

Interfax reported on 5 November. The agreement was apparently

reached at a meeting in late October between First Russian

Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Aksenenko, EES Director

Anatolii Chubais, and Kazakh railways officials to discuss

debts for shipments of coal from the Russian-owned Severnyi

coal mine in Kazakhstan to the Sverdlovsk power grid,

according to "Izvestiya" of 2 November. LF

[07] INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION WANTS KAZAKHSTAN ELECTION RESULTS

Meeting in Astana on 7 November, members of the

Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan sent

an open letter to President Nursultan Nazarbaev and to the

Kazakhstan office of the OSCE demanding that the results of

the recent parliamentary elections be declared void, RFE/RL's

correspondent in the capital reported. The trade unionists

also accused Almaty Mayor Adilbek Zhaqsybekov of condoning

violations of the election law during the poll. They demanded

his resignation. LF

[08] KAZAKHSTAN'S AUTHORITIES RESORTING TO INTERNET CENSORSHIP?

"Eurasia" (http://www.eurasia.org.ru) which is controlled by

opposition parties, according to the director of the

Kazakhstan office of Internews. Technicians for the Internet

provider Nursat told Internews that access to the site will

be impossible for the foreseeable future owing to "technical

reasons." LF

[09] KYRGYZSTAN SETS DATE FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Askar Akaev will issue a decree later this week scheduling

elections to both chambers of Kyrgyzstan's parliament for 13

February 2000, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 8

November, citing an unnamed source within the presidential

administration. The People's Assembly (upper house) will be

composed of 45 deputies and the Legislative Assembly (lower

house) 60 deputies, of whom 15 will be elected under the

party list system. LF

[10] UN SET TO PROLONG OBSERVER MISSION IN TAJIKISTAN

November report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General

Kofi Annan advocated extending for another six months the

mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Tajikistan, Reuters and

AP reported. Annan noted progress in the democratization

process in Tajikistan, including the September referendum on

amendments to the country's constitution. He said the

Observer Mission's mandate will not be extended again

following the parliamentary elections scheduled for February

2000. That vote is to mark the end of the transition period

envisaged in the 1997 peace agreement ending the civil war.

LF

[11] U.S. NOTES IRREGULARITIES IN TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL POLL

State Department statement of 8 November identified

violations in the conduct of the 6 November Tajik

presidential poll, Reuters reported. It pointed to widespread

multiple voting, "a lack of transparency in the balloting

process," and the failure of the country's media to explain

opposition candidate Davlat Usmon's refusal to run. The

statement expressed the hope that the Tajik government will

take steps to ensure that the parliamentary elections in

February 2000 conform to OSCE standards. LF

[12] UZBEKISTAN'S PRESIDENT BEGINS CHINA VISIT

arrived in Beijing on 8 November for a three-day state visit

and met with his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, to discuss

bilateral relations, international terrorism, and religious

extremism, ITAR-TASS reported. The two expressed satisfaction

at the development of bilateral cooperation and noted the

"huge" potential for expanding ties. Members of Kazakhstan's

Uighur minority staged a demonstration outside Uzbekistan's

embassy in Kazakhstan on 4 November to demand that Karimov

raise with his Chinese hosts the case of Uighur human rights

activist Rabia Qadir, who was arrested by Chinese authorities

in Xinjiang earlier this year. LF

[13] CORRECTION:

identified Gerhard Glogowski as head of a German delegation

from Sachsen-Anhalt visiting Kazakhstan. Glogowski is in fact

prime minister of Niedersachsen.

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] CLINTON OUTLINES BALKAN 'CHALLENGE'

Georgetown University on 8 November marking the 10th

anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, U.S. President

Bill Clinton stressed that U.S. policy faces four challenges:

Russia, the Balkans, Greek-Turkish tensions, and the need to

maintain U.S. "leadership and engagement in the world" (see

Part I). Referring to Serbia and its neighbors, Clinton said

that it will be important to bring stability to the Balkans

so that "bitter ethnic problems can no longer be exploited by

dictators and Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic

again to fight in another war." In particular, Clinton called

for a democratic transition in Serbia from the rule of

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, whom the president

called "the last living relic of the age of European

dictators of the communist era," AP reported. PM

[15] THACI ARGUES KOSOVA IS NOT CHECHNYA...

heads the provisional government appointed by the former

Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), told Vienna's "Die Presse" of 8

November that Serbia no longer has any authority over Kosova.

The Kosovars have no intention of permitting "another

Chechnya" by allowing Serbian troops to return, he stressed.

Thaci condemned violence against non-Albanian minorities in

the province. He argued that there are armed groups active in

Kosova who are outside the control of the UCK. These groups

include people who entered Kosova after the recent armed

conflict. He did not elaborate but may have meant criminal

gangs that entered Kosova from Albania after the withdrawal

of Serbian forces in June. Frankfurt's Serbian-language daily

"Vesti" on 9 November reported that a previously unknown

masked group calling itself the Real UCK has carried out a

series of attacks on moderate Kosovars loyal to shadow-state

leader Ibrahim Rugova. PM

[16] ...SAYS SERBIAN CIVILIANS ARE WELCOME...

that all Serbian civilians who did not take part in

atrocities are welcome to stay in or return to Kosova, "Die

Presse" reported on 6 November. The daily quoted a Serbian

journalist who listened to Thaci's speech as saying that

Thaci's words are one thing, "but the reality in Kosova is

something quite different." Local Serbs have frequently

charged that Thaci calls for peace and inter-ethnic harmony

when speaking to foreigners but tells his own people that

they are now masters in the province. PM

[17] ...AND NOTES PROBLEMS REMAIN BETWEEN KOSOVARS

"Die Presse" of 8 November that relations between the UCK and

Rugova's Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) "could be better."

He accused Rugova of having a "totalitarian mentality," by

which he meant that Rugova considers himself the only leader

of the Kosovars. Thaci argued that the political scene "has

room for everyone and not just one man." He added that the

LDK continues to control funds from the diaspora and uses

some of the money for its own political purposes instead of

helping the population in general. Observers note that some

Kosovar critics charge that Thaci and the UCK have sought to

monopolize political power for themselves. They also note

that there are deep differences in political style and

outlook between the younger generation of leaders around

Thaci and older people, such as Rugova, whose political

careers began under Josip Broz Tito in the 1970s. PM

[18] RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT WANTS POLITICAL SETTLEMENT

Ambassador to the UN Sergei Lavrov said in Prishtina on 8

November that talks should begin "as soon as possible"

between Belgrade and the various ethnic communities in

Kosova, AP reported. The news agency added that his remarks

reflect the "increasing frustration" among the Serbian

minority regarding their status and safety in the province.

He also criticized KFOR and the UN not doing enough to

protect ethnic minorities, Reuters noted (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 8 November 1999). PM

[19] CALL FOR MONITORING OF KOSOVA 'POLITICAL TRIAL'

York-based NGO Human Rights Watch appealed on 8 November to

diplomats and the media to monitor the trial of Flora

Brovina, which begins in Nis on 11 November. Brovina heads

the League of Albanian Women in Kosova and is charged with

"terrorism." She has been held for several months under

difficult conditions in the prison of Pozarevac. Among the

other prominent Kosovars still held in Serbian jails is

student activist Albin Kurti. PM

[20] HAGUE COURT PRESIDENT DEMANDS ARREST OF BIG FISH

Gabrielle Kirk McDonald said at the UN on 8 November that the

world body and NATO must take action to arrest major war

criminals. She said it is unacceptable that only relatively

minor figures have been sent to the Hague-based war crimes

tribunal. McDonald also urged the international community to

get tough with the governments of Serbia, Croatia, and the

Republika Srpska. She charged that these three governments

"thumb their nose" at the court and do not cooperate with it,

as they are obliged to do under the 1995 Dayton peace

agreement. McDonald leaves her position at the court on 16

November and will live in New York. PM

[21] EU READY TO START OIL DELIVERIES TO SERBIA

EU "source" told Reuters in Brussels on 8 November that the

EU will start heating-oil shipments to the opposition-run

cities of Nis and Pirot between 15 and 20 November. Mladjan

Dinkic of the independent G-17 group of Serbian economists

told "RFE/RL Newsline" in Munich recently that the opposition

will use independent shippers. He added that the deliveries

will receive much publicity in the independent media in order

to deter the government from stealing the fuel. The

deliveries are a pilot project of the opposition's Energy for

Democracy program. The program's goal is to show voters that

the opposition is able to obtain needed fuel from abroad at a

time when international sanctions weigh heavily against the

Belgrade regime. PM

[22] GRAND OLD MAN OF SLOVENIA DIES

failure in Ljubljana on 8 November, just four days before his

101st birthday. He was the world's oldest surviving Olympic

athlete and won a total of six medals in gymnastics for the

former Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1924, 1928, and 1936. He

regularly topped popularity polls in Slovenia and was

recently voted its Man of the Year. Stukelj attributed his

longevity to "moderation in all things and a glass of red

wine every day," VOA's Croatian Service reported. PM

[23] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT SEEKING TO DEFUSE BRASOV LABOR CONFLICT

workers at Brasov's Roman truckmaker reached agreement on 8

November on several proposals, following riots in Brasov

three days earlier (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 November 1999).

Under those proposals, the Defense and Interior Ministries

will purchase some 320 vehicles in part payment of the

company's debts to the state budget, Romanian radio reported

on 9 November. The government is to meet on 9 November to

discuss the proposals. MS

[24] JEWISH CEMETERIES VANDALIZED IN ROMANIA

destroyed more than 50 tombstones in two Transylvanian Jewish

cemeteries over the last days, Mediafax reported on 8

November, citing sources from the Federation of Jewish

Communities in Romania. On 5 November, 25 tombstones were

overturned, while others were smashed in the Satu Mare

cemetery. A few days earlier, the Resita cemetery was also

desecrated and 26 tombstones overturned, as a result of which

some were destroyed. Last February a similar incident took

place in the Alba Iulia cemetery, which is also in

Transylvania. MS

[25] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT VOTES NO CONFIDENCE IN CABINET

eight out of a total of 101 deputies have backed the motion

to dismiss Ion Sturza's cabinet, Infotag reported on 9

November. Deputies from the outgoing coalition did not take

part in the vote as a sign of protest. The previous day,

President Petru Lucinschi had told journalists that the

resignation or dismissal of the cabinet was "inevitable." He

said the government's performance is far less spectacular

than claimed by Sturza and that many of those claims are

"inventions." Asked how a cabinet could be formed by the

Communists and the ideologically opposed Popular Front

Christian Democratic, Lucinschi said the new government will

have to be "much less politicized" than its predecessor,

RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. MS

[C] END NOTE

[26] HOW AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES USE ELECTIONS

Authoritarian leaders regularly use elections to

legitimize or even enhance their powers rather than to

promote democracy, a strategy that poses special challenges

not only to those who live under their control but also to

others who want to advance the cause of popular governance.

Nowhere is this pattern clearer than in the post-Soviet

states of Central Asia, where leaders proclaim their

adherence to the ideas of democracy but do everything they

can to subvert the power of the people to use elections or

any other means to determine their own destinies.

The most egregious examples of this misuse of elections

are to be found in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The recent parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, Bigeldin

Gabdullin told an RFE/RL press briefing in Washington on 2

November, were marked by "very serious violations of civil

and human rights."

Opposition rallies were blocked, ballot boxes stuffed,

and opposition observers excluded--all to ensure that the

regime of President Nursultan Nazarbaev would have not just a

majority in the parliament but an overwhelmingly strong

position that would appear to block the emergence of any new

challengers in the future.

In Turkmenistan last week, the Central Election

Commission announced that all candidates must be registered

as independents because President Sapurmurat Niyazov had

decided that his country will not be ready for a multi-party

political system for at least another decade.

And in Uzbekistan, the authorities have routinely

employed coercion to stifle dissent and drive any criticism

of the regime of President Islam Karimov underground.

Tashkent has then attacked the opposition for linking up with

Islamist groups and demanded Western understanding in moving

against those "threats" to democracy.

Because these regimes, together with others like them,

have been so apparently successful in using electoral forms

as a way of promoting the notion that they are democratic or

at least committed to the establishment of democracy in the

future, democratic activists both in these countries and

elsewhere have been divided on how to respond.

In some cases, these activists have argued against

taking part in what they see as a charade of democracy and

have urged international monitoring groups like the OSCE to

stay away lest their presence be exploited by these regimes

as evidence of their claimed attachment to democracy.

Advocates of this position have noted that the regimes

sometimes are able to coopt those who do participate in the

voting. And they have pointed out that the authorities

routinely invoke their willingness to allow outside

monitoring as a sign of good faith--even when these monitors

deliver blistering denunciations of fundamental violations of

democratic procedure.

But in other cases, democratic activists take just the

opposite position, arguing that participation in virtually

any election enhances their power rather than that of the

regime. They also maintain that outside observers, however

the regime seeks to portray them, typically help push along

the slow but difficult process of democratization.

Kazakhstan's Gabdullin falls in this latter camp. Even

though he and his colleagues were defeated by the

machinations of Nazarbaev and his regime, Gabdullin, who

edits that country's only independent newspaper, said the

election helped to multiply the number of opposition figures.

Where before there had only been one major opposition

figure, the democratic activist said, now all 500 of the

candidates who were kept from having a genuine chance to

compete have become opponents of the regime as well. Now, he

continued, they are more ready not only to cooperate with one

another but also to stand up for democracy in the future.

Even though Gabdullin argued that the outside observers

had seldom spent long enough in Kazakhstan to see all the

tricks Nazarbaev's people used to control the vote, he agreed

that the observers had played a role by focusing

international attention on the elections and by signaling to

democrats in Kazakhstan that they are not alone when they

stand up to authoritarian regimes.

For most of the last century, dictators and would-be

dictators have sought to use electoral forms, but not genuine

elections, to enhance their power. But the experience of

Kazakhstan's Gabdullin and his colleagues in other Central

Asian countries suggests that these regimes may be

undermining their own power rather than strengthening it.

With each electoral cycle, ever more people in these

countries as well as elsewhere are likely to demand a genuine

voice over their own lives. And to the extent that happens,

elections there are likely to become genuinely democratic, a

development that may ultimately lead to the departure from

the political scene of those who seek to use a democratic

instrument for patently non-democratic goals.

09-11-99

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

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