RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 224, 99-11-17

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 224, 17 November 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS PARLIAMENTARY KILLINGS A SETBACK TO

[02] NEW APPOINTMENT FOR FORMER ARMENIAN NATIONAL SECURITY

[03] KAZAKH OPPOSITION CONDEMNS PRESIDENT'S CRITICISM OF OSCE

[04] KAZAKH PREMIER CALLS FOR TIGHTER BORDER SECURITY

[05] UIGHUR MINORITY STAGES SECOND PROTEST IN ALMATY

[06] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT ENDS VISIT TO DENMARK

[07] KYRGYZ PREMIER UPBEAT ON ECONOMIC PROSPECTS

[08] TAJIK PRESIDENT PRAISES 'STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP' WITH RUSSIA

[09] TURKMEN AUTHORITIES DEMOLISH ADVENTIST CHURCH

[10] MILITANTS KILL SIX IN UZBEK SHOOTOUTS

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] STATE MEDIA ATTACKS DRASKOVIC FOR GOING TO ISTANBUL...

[12] ...AS YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT PROTESTS EXCLUSION, CLINTON VISIT

[13] UN SAYS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MAINLY KOSOVAR SERB REFUGEES

[14] EU PLEDGES $500 MILLION FOR KOSOVA RECONSTRUCTION

[15] U.S. WELCOMES ELECTION OF TRAJKOVSKI

[16] TUDJMAN'S DOCTORS SAY PRESIDENT ON THE MEND

[17] CROATIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY OFFICIALS MEET BOSNIAN

[18] GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS TROOPS STILL NEEDED IN BOSNIA

[19] MEDIA COMMISSION ORDERS BOSNIAN-CROAT TV STATION TO CLOSE

[20] ALBANIA HIT BY POWER SHORTAGE

[21] ROMANIAN MINISTERS CONSIDER SUING OPPOSITION LEADER

[22] ROMANIAN STUDENTS SAY THEIR PROTESTS ARE NOT POLITICAL

[23] MOLDOVAN COURT RULES ON REFERENDUM

[24] RUSSIANS START WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA

[25] BULGARIAN PREMIER SAYS MUNICIPAL FINANCES 'CRITICAL'

[26] BULGARIAN TRADE UNION TO LAUNCH POLITICAL FORMATION

[C] END NOTE

[27] THE VELVET REVOLUTION: A CHRONOLOGY

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS PARLIAMENTARY KILLINGS A SETBACK TO

In an interview aired on four Armenian

television channels on 16 November, Robert Kocharian said the

27 October murders of Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian and

seven other officials have set back by several months the

ongoing talks on a settlement of the Karabakh conflict,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Kocharian said that no

formal document resolving the conflict will be signed at the

upcoming OSCE summit, but he added that he may meet there

with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar Aliev, and with the

presidents or foreign ministers of U.S., France, and Russia,

which co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group. Kocharian dismissed as

"baseless" suggestions that Russia is "jealous" of

Washington's role in trying to broker a solution to the

conflict, noting that his first direct talks with Aliev took

place in Moscow, according to Interfax. He said political

stability has now been restored after the 27 October

shootings, which, he noted, damaged the country in the eyes

of the international community. LF

[02] NEW APPOINTMENT FOR FORMER ARMENIAN NATIONAL SECURITY

President Kocharian on 16 November named Serzh

Sarkisian as head of the presidential administration,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Aleksan Harutiunian, who

previously occupied that post, was appointed presidential

foreign policy adviser. Sarkisian had tendered his

resignation two days after the 27 October Armenian parliament

shootings, in response to a demand by senior Defense Ministry

officials that he, the interior minister, and the prosecutor-

general should resign (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 October and

1 November 1999). Also on 16 November, Kocharian appointed

Boris Nazarian, prosecutor in the southern province of

Ararat, to succeed Aghvan Hovsepian as prosecutor-general. LF

[03] KAZAKH OPPOSITION CONDEMNS PRESIDENT'S CRITICISM OF OSCE

main opposition parties, have rejected what they termed

President Nursultan Nazarbaev's "groundless" attack on the

OSCE, RFE/RL's correspondent in the former capital reported

on 16 November. Last week Nazarbaev questioned whether the

OSCE served any useful purpose if it failed to address the

conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

11 November 1999). The opposition leaders also rejected

Nazarbaev's claim that the OSCE is guilty of double standards

in criticizing the conduct of the presidential and

parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan earlier this year. They

expressed their support for the work of the OSCE in

Kazakhstan. LF

[04] KAZAKH PREMIER CALLS FOR TIGHTER BORDER SECURITY

a cabinet meeting on 16 November, Qasymzhomart Toqaev called

for intensified internal security to stem the influx of

foreign nationals into Kazakhstan via neighboring states,

Interfax reported. Toqaev said the failure of such persons to

register with the Interior Ministry "creates social and

political tensions." He instructed the Interior Ministry to

round up and deport illegal immigrants within one week. A

group of some 70 Pakistani men was refused entry into the

country last month. Several thousand Chechens have also

arrived in Kazakhstan to take refuge with relatives among the

70,000 strong Chechen community there. LF

[05] UIGHUR MINORITY STAGES SECOND PROTEST IN ALMATY

Uighur women staged a demonstration on 16 November outside

the Chinese embassy in Almaty to protest the continued

detention in Xinjiang of Rabia Qadir, RFE/RL's Almaty

correspondent reported. Qadir was arrested earlier this year

and charged with contacts with Uighur separatists. Uighurs in

Almaty had also held a demonstration on her behalf on 4

November. LF

[06] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT ENDS VISIT TO DENMARK

on 15-16 November, Askar Akaev met with Queen Margrethe II

and discussed bilateral relations with Prime Minister Poul

Nyrup Rasmussen, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. Agreement

was reached on strengthening relations and widening

cooperation in agriculture, energy, tourism, and on support

for small and medium-sized business. However, several

documents prepared by the Kyrgyz side on cooperation between

the two countries' Foreign Ministries and Chambers of Trade

were not signed. LF

[07] KYRGYZ PREMIER UPBEAT ON ECONOMIC PROSPECTS

parliament on 15 November, Amangeldy Muraliev said that

during the first 10 months of 1999, GDP grew by 4 percent and

agricultural output by 9 percent, compared with 1998,

Interfax reported. He said those figures demonstrate that

favorable conditions have been created for economic growth.

Muraliev also told deputies that the procedures for

registering small private businesses will be simplified. LF

[08] TAJIK PRESIDENT PRAISES 'STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP' WITH RUSSIA

and Prime Minister Yahye Azimov in Dushanbe on 16 November

following Rakhmonov's official inauguration. Putin's press

spokesman Mikhail Korzhukov told journalist that the Russian

premier's talks with Rakhmonov focused on bilateral

relations, the status of Russian troops stationed in

Tajikistan, cooperation within the CIS, the situation in

Afghanistan, and the upcoming OSCE Istanbul summit. Rakhmonov

assured Putin that Tajikistan will continue to regard Russia

as a "strategic partner." Putin termed bilateral relations

"constructive" and said that the countries' mutual debts can

be resolved without difficulty. Putin and Azimov discussed

two joint hydro-electric projects and the possibility of a

textiles joint venture utilizing Tajik cotton. LF

[09] TURKMEN AUTHORITIES DEMOLISH ADVENTIST CHURCH

City authorities bulldozed a Seventh Day Adventist church in

the city on 13 November, Compass Direct reported three days

later. Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov had

granted permission for construction of the church in 1992. It

was the only Adventist church in Turkmenistan. Turkmen

security officials also raided an Evangelical Baptist

community in Ashgabat on 14 November and confiscated Bibles

and hymn books. LF

[10] MILITANTS KILL SIX IN UZBEK SHOOTOUTS

Uzbek Interior Ministry officials said are "Islamic

militants" shot dead three hunters who approached their camp

near the eastern resort town of Yangiabad on 15 November,

Interfax and Reuters reported. In a subsequent attack on a

police post near Yangiabad, four militants and three

policemen were shot dead. Police are still trying to locate

the gunmen, who they say may belong to the band headed by

Djuma Namangani. That group took hostages in southern

Kyrgyzstan in August. According to Tajikistan's Minister for

Emergency Situations Mirzo Ziyeev, the group left Tajikistan

earlier this month for Afghanistan. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] STATE MEDIA ATTACKS DRASKOVIC FOR GOING TO ISTANBUL...

government media criticized Serbian opposition leader Vuk

Draskovic on 16 November for his decision to attend the OSCE

summit in Istanbul on 18-19 November, Reuters reported. The

"Politika Express" daily said "the everlasting political

loser...has once again missed the right side." Media coverage

of Draskovic has been relatively favorable recently because

of his refusal to participate in anti-government rallies led

by the Alliance for Change (SZP). Draskovic, SZP leader Zoran

Djindjic, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, and possibly

Dragoslav Aramovic are to attend the OSCE summit, some of

them as part of the Czech President Vaclav Havel's

delegation. Draskovic spokesman Ivan Kovacevic said Draskovic

will go to Istanbul to "fight for an end to sanctions and to

get the country out of its crisis." PB

[12] ...AS YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT PROTESTS EXCLUSION, CLINTON VISIT

The Yugoslav government on 16 November protested

the fact that it will not be represented at the OSCE summit

in Istanbul, AP reported. Deputy Foreign Minister Miroslav

Milosevic said the government has prepared a document for the

summit participants detailing "NATO aggression" against

Yugoslavia, which he said will promote collective security in

Europe. Belgrade was suspended from the OSCE in 1992

following international sanctions over its involvement in the

Croatian and Bosnian wars. The daily "Politika Express" also

criticized the planned visit next week of U.S. President Bill

Clinton to Kosova. The newspaper said the visit violates

Yugoslav sovereignty and encourages ethnic Albanian

extremists. PB

[13] UN SAYS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MAINLY KOSOVAR SERB REFUGEES

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

said on 16 November that up to 240,000 non-Albanian refugees

have fled the Serbian province of Kosova, Reuters reported. A

UNHCR spokeswoman said the chances are "very slim" that these

people will return to Kosova because of the problems non-

Albanians face in the province. Most of the refugees are

staying with family and friends, while 10,000 are being

housed in refugee centers, the agency said. The UNHCR is to

provide aid packages and financial aid for 50,000 refugees in

the coming weeks. Additionally, there are still some 500,000

mostly Serbian refugees in Yugoslavia who fled earlier

conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia. PB

[14] EU PLEDGES $500 MILLION FOR KOSOVA RECONSTRUCTION

said on 17 November that it will give more than $500 million

to a fund to support the long-term reconstruction of Kosova,

Reuters reported. Chris Patten, the EU's foreign relations

commissioner, made the pledge at the European Parliament in

Strasbourg. The World Bank and the European Commission

estimate that some $2.3 billion will be needed in the next

five years. The World Bank is seeking $1.1 billion for 2000,

half of which is to be provided by the EU. PB

[15] U.S. WELCOMES ELECTION OF TRAJKOVSKI

Department said on 16 November that it looks forward to a

"positive, constructive" relationship with newly elected

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, an RFE/RL

correspondent reported. The State Department said in a

statement that the U.S. "worked closely" with Trajkovski

throughout the Kosova crisis. It also congratulated the

Macedonian people for "undertaking a peaceful, democratic

change in leadership." The elections have been marred by

complaints of fraud (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 November

1999). PB

[16] TUDJMAN'S DOCTORS SAY PRESIDENT ON THE MEND

of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said on 16 November that

"improvement...has been maintained" over the last 48 hours,

Croatian Radio reported. A statement signed by a hospital

doctor said that Tudjman's "postoperative period is

proceeding well." Tudjman has been in hospital for 16 days.

Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, the deputy chairwoman of Tudjman's

ruling Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), said the chief of

the presidential staff, Ivica Kostovic, has briefed HDZ

officials on the president's condition. She said the HDZ has

not discussed what will happen if Tudjman is unable to

formally call elections because there is "no need for this

since the president is recovering." PB

[17] CROATIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY OFFICIALS MEET BOSNIAN

A delegation of Bosnian Interior Ministry

officials arrived in Zagreb on 16 November for talks on

bilateral relations and cooperation in fighting terrorism and

drug trafficking, Hina reported. Croatian Interior Minister

Ivan Penic said the two groups are to work on three annexes

within an agreement on special relations. In other news, the

president of the soccer club Croatia Zagreb announced that a

vote will be held among club members on whether to rename the

team Dinamo Zagreb. President Tudjman changed the name from

Dinamo after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia because it

sounded "too communist." Most fans resented the name change

and some have boycotted games until the name "Dinamo" is

restored. PB

[18] GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS TROOPS STILL NEEDED IN BOSNIA

international military presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina is

still necessary, dpa reported. Scharping, on a one-day visit

to Bosnia, said he does not support the setting of a

timetable for a gradual withdrawal of the Stabilization Force

(SFOR) troops. As part of a scheduled reduction in the size

of SFOR, Scharping said some 300 German soldiers will leave

Bosnia over the next few months, as a result of which 2,000

German soldiers will remain there. SFOR troops will be

reduced from the current 31,000 to some 20,000 by April.

Scharping also met with the defense ministers of the two

autonomous entities in Bosnia and said he hopes the country's

separate armed forces will become more multiethnic. PB

[19] MEDIA COMMISSION ORDERS BOSNIAN-CROAT TV STATION TO CLOSE

said on 16 November that it has ordered the private Erotel TV

to stop broadcasting, AP reported. The IMC is an

international body that regulates broadcast media in Bosnia

and is authorized to grant and revoke licenses. Erotel TV is

based in the Croat-run part of Mostar and serves the Croat

community in the Muslim-Croat Federation. It has been

operating without a license for two years and retransmits

programs from state-run Croatian Television. PB

[20] ALBANIA HIT BY POWER SHORTAGE

taxes on gas imports in an effort to overcome a power

shortage in the country, ATA reported on 16 November. A

severe drought has lowered the water levels of rivers and led

to reduced output at hydroelectric power plants, which

produce some 95 percent of the country's electricity.

Blackouts have been reported in the north, and government

officials are trying to persuade industries to run at night

to ensure an even distribution of power. The government

proposed reducing customs taxes on heating gas from 20

percent to 10 percent and approved two draft bills aimed at

liberalizing gas imports. PB

[21] ROMANIAN MINISTERS CONSIDER SUING OPPOSITION LEADER

members of his cabinet that they are free to launch law

suits against Party of Social Democracy in Romania leader

Ion Iliescu if they so desire, Mediafax reported on 16

November. Government spokeswoman Adriana Saftoiu said

Vasile's decision was a response to a statement by Iliescu

last week in which the opposition leader said "there is no

minister or parliamentary deputy belonging to the ruling

parties who is not involved in business and who did not get

spectacularly rich during all this period." Various top

members of the governing coalition have called on Iliescu

to produce proof of his allegation, and senators are

considering lifting his immunity from prosecution. Iliescu

responded that his statement has been misinterpreted,

saying he had not accused all legislators of being involved

in business. He said he had simply wanted to know how many

current government deputies are not involved in business.

VG

[22] ROMANIAN STUDENTS SAY THEIR PROTESTS ARE NOT POLITICAL

rejected politicians' assertions that the student protests

could be politically influenced by extremists, Mediafax

reported. Democratic Party Senator Nicolae Alexandru recently

said the student street protests risk coming under the sway

of "rightist extremists or communists." Several student

leaders have rejected Alexandru's claim, saying their

movement is peaceful and not political. Meanwhile, one person

was injured on 16 November after about 1,500 students clashed

with police in the northeastern city of Iasi, Mediafax

reported. VG

[23] MOLDOVAN COURT RULES ON REFERENDUM

Constitutional Court on 16 November rejected a

parliamentary decision that three-fifths of the population

must participate in a referendum for the vote to be

considered valid, BASA-Press reported. The court also

approved a draft constitutional proposal by 38

parliamentary deputies on the transformation of Moldova

into a parliamentary democracy. The proposal by the

deputies would restrict the president's powers. VG

[24] RUSSIANS START WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA

16 November dispatched the first trainload of military

hardware from Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region. The

previous day, it destroyed 13 tanks, armored vehicles, and

self-propelled guns in the presence of OSCE delegates.

However, the Moldovan government charged that the Russian

military is not conducting a "real withdrawal" but is

simply destroying obsolete equipment. VG

[25] BULGARIAN PREMIER SAYS MUNICIPAL FINANCES 'CRITICAL'

Kostov said on 16 November that the financial situation of

municipalities is in a "critical" state, BTA reported.

Kostov made the statement after meeting in Sofia with

representatives of the National Association of

Municipalities. He said municipalities lack heating fuel

for schools, hospitals, and social institutions. Supplying

local governments with heating fuel will cost some 30

million leva ($15.9 million). Finance Minister Murayev

Radev said the government will supply municipalities with

heating fuel by the end of the year, rather than give them

the money to purchase it. Kostov noted that municipal

deficits will total 221 million leva this year, which he

said is the result of a lack of financial discipline in

local government. He added that mayors should make staff

cuts to save money. VG

[26] BULGARIAN TRADE UNION TO LAUNCH POLITICAL FORMATION

Podkrepa Labor Confederation announced on 16 November that

it plans to put together a new political formation to

compete in the next parliamentary elections, according to a

Bulgarian Radio report cited by the BBC. Confederation

President Konstantin Trenchev said the new formation will

be made up of various "democratic organizations" and will

offer an "alternative model" of democratic governing in the

country. VG

[C] END NOTE

[27] THE VELVET REVOLUTION: A CHRONOLOGY

Eight months after Alexander Dubcek took office as

Communist Party first secretary and launched the "Prague

Spring" reforms, the five armies of the Soviet-led Warsaw

Pact occupied Czechoslovakia. That move strangled reform not

only in Czechoslovakia but throughout the Soviet bloc for

years to come.

The post-1968 ferment in Czechoslovakia's socialist

neighbors started with the brutally suppressed Gdansk riots

in Poland in 1970 that toppled communist leader Wladyslaw

Gomulka. Unrest resumed in Poland in summer 1976 with

worker's protests in Radom against price rises. The

Communists once again responded with force.

The Vatican's election of a Pole, Karol Wojtyla, as pope

in 1978 did much to encourage Poles as well as devout members

of neighboring nations, including the Slovaks. The papal

visit to Poland the following year inspired the birth of the

Solidarity free trade union movement in summer 1980. All

these events also encouraged Czechoslovakia's modest, largely

intellectual opposition.

But while Poles rarely took the communist system in

which they lived completely seriously, Czechs and Slovaks

did. The legacy of 1968 and the Munich pact of 1939 as well

as the awareness that they were a small country hardly gave

them cause for self-confidence.

On 13 December 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski

declared martial law in Poland rather than risk a Soviet

invasion. That came as a relief to Czechoslovakia's communist

rulers and a disappointment to those who hoped that the

flames of Solidarity would spread south..

The Radio Moscow announcement of the death of Soviet

Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev came amid economic,

political, and social stagnation throughout the Soviet bloc.

The brief rule of Brezhnev's two ailing successors, Yuri

Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, ensured that even the word

"reform" continued to be defined by the Czechoslovak

communist party as a "temporary, tactical step backward--

favored by right-wing revisionists."

The 1985 election of the dynamic Mikhail Gorbachev and

the gradual introduction of his policies of perestroika and

glasnost yet again raised hopes across Czechoslovakia that

change might finally be on the horizon.

At least as important for the Soviet satellites was

Gorbachev's oft-repeated warning to his fellow Communist

party chiefs at closed door Warsaw Pact summits that the

Soviet Union would no longer run their affairs. Few of the

aging leaders took Gorbachev's words seriously. And some,

particularly Czechoslovakia's leadership, assumed Gorbachev

and his policies were a temporary deviation from the true

Marxist-Leninist line.

Gorbachev's visit to Czechoslovakia in April 1987 only

reinforced this view as he failed to urge reform or a re-

evaluation of 1968. Perestroika and glasnost remained merely

empty phrases in Czechoslovakia. Prague authorities began

curtailing the distribution of the Soviet press in a bid to

prevent the dissemination of openly critical articles.

Gorbachev's speeches were censored in the Czechoslovak

Communist Party daily "Rude pravo."

The round-table talks in Poland in early 1989 between

Solidarity and the communist authorities and the Hungarian

parliament's move to re-evaluate its 1956 revolution and

transform itself into a parliamentary democracy contributed

to a sense of change in Czechoslovakia. Elements of a civil

society began to develop in response to the jailing of

dissident playwright Vaclav Havel and others.

The mass demonstrations in East Germany and the exodus

of East Germans through Czechoslovakia to the West in

September and October 1989 served as an example for

Czechoslovaks. They saw how massive, peaceful civil

disobedience could force a Soviet bloc satellite to rein in

its forces.

But Czechs were also witness to clashes between their

own police and East German asylum seekers trying to reach the

West German Embassy in Prague. East German police had ceased

beating demonstrators by mid October.

On 28 October, the 71st anniversary of the founding of

Czechoslovakia, the streets of central Prague once again

echoed with chanting and whistling as police battled peaceful

protesters.

The crowd numbered some 20,000--hardly enough to

persuade a government to resign. In marked contrast to

neighboring East Germany, the Prague police resorted to

clubs, water cannon and armored personnel carriers to

disperse the gathering.

On 9 November, East German authorities opened the Berlin

Wall. Eight days later, on 17 November, a record 50,000

Czechoslovaks turned out for a student demonstration in

Prague which, though officially sanctioned, turned violent as

police surrounded and beat demonstrators. Secret police

disinformation that a student had been killed backfired: in

the following days, the number of protesters soared into the

hundreds of thousands. Opposition activists and intellectuals

founded the Civic Forum two days after what came to be known

as the "massacre."

The secret police, riot police, Interior Ministry troops

and the army all waited in vain for orders to act. But the

orders never came. As with the Berlin Wall, Moscow monitored

the situation in Prague closely but refrained from any

interference. Within a week, Jakes and the rest of

Czechoslovak Politburo resigned. But equally incompetent

bureaucrats were appointed as replacements.

Some 700,000 people demonstrated on 25-26 November to

express their outrage and demand an end to communist rule.

The crowd whistled and booed Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec,

who soon resigned.

On 3 December, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact

issued separate statements condemning their invasion of

Czechoslovakia in 1968. And on 10 December, after he swore in

a new government of opposition activists and moderate

Communists under Communist Prime Minister Marian Calfa, Husak

finally stepped down as president.

By the end of the month, Dubcek was speaker of the

federal parliament, and the most articulate and outspoken

critic of the communist regime, Vaclav Havel, was president

of Czechoslovakia.

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

17-11-99

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

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