RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 226, 99-11-19

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 226, 19 November 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA STRUGGLES TO MEET TAX REVENUE TARGET

[02] FRAMEWORK DOCUMENTS SIGNED ON AZERBAIJAN OIL EXPORT

[03] ...TO RUSSIA'S CLEAR DISPLEASURE

[04] RUSSIAN OFFICIALS MAKE CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS OVER

[05] GEORGIA, RUSSIA TO CONDUCT JOINT INVESTIGATION INTO

[06] TWO MORE GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES DISPUTE RESULTS OF

[07] LABOR LEADER ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RUN FOR GEORGIAN PRESIDENT

[08] ABKHAZ GOVERNMENT IN EXILE REJECTS CHARGES OF EMBEZZLEMENT

[09] CENTRAL ASIAN PRESIDENTS AIR SECURITY CONCERNS IN ISTANBUL

[10] KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA REACH AGREEMENT ON BAIKONUR LAUNCHES

[11] OPPOSITION NEWSAPER IN KAZAKHSTAN AGAIN PREVENTED FROM

[12] TAJIK PRESIDENT ADVOCATES OSCE ENGAGEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN

[13] TRANSCASPIAN GAS PIPELINE ACCORD SIGNED

[14] TURKMEN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN COUNTERPARTS

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] U.S., EU, SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO PLAN FOR FUTURE

[16] MONTENEGRIAN PRESIDENT DJUKANOVIC ASKS OSCE FOR HELP

[17] BRITISH EXPERTS: SERBS HID WAR CRIMES EVIDENCE

[18] MACEDONIAN ELECTION COMMISSION TO RECONVENE

[19] NATO, MACEDONIA AGREE TO END BORDER BOTTLENECK

[20] BREAKTHROUGH IN MACEDONIAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT CASE?

[21] CROATIA TO AVERT CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS?

[22] BUDISA CALLS FOR SWEEPING REVISION OF CROATIAN CONSTITUTION

[23] OPPOSITION HEADING FOR VICTORY IN CROATIAN ELECTIONS?

[24] POLL: MOST ROMANIANS SAY THEY WERE BETTER OFF UNDER

[25] ROMANIAN WORKERS DEMONSTRATE

[26] ROMANIAN-LANGUAGE TESTS FOR MOLDOVAN STUDENTS

[27] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT DELAYS VOTE ON GOVERNMENT

[28] OSCE CONSIDERS FUNDING RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA

[29] USAID EXTENDS GRANT TO BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[30] FORMER LEADERS ARGUE OVER MEANING OF 1989

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA STRUGGLES TO MEET TAX REVENUE TARGET

government adopted unspecified urgent measures on 18 November

to ensure that the remaining 35 billion drams ($67 million)

needed to meet the annual tax revenue target of 191 billion

drams are collected, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported.

Minister for State Revenues Smbat Ayvazian told RFE/RL that

the third tranche of a $65 million World Bank loan is

contingent on meeting tax revenue targets. The second, $25

million tranche of that loan was disbursed in late September

after a three-month delay caused by Yerevan's higher-than-

projected budget deficit. Ayvazian said tax collection slowed

down after the 27 October assassination of Prime Minister

Vazgen Sargsian and other top officials and the delay in

naming a new cabinet. In addition, the August increase in

excise duties on cigarettes and gasoline has not brought as

much additional money to the budget as was expected, Ayvazian

added. LF

[02] FRAMEWORK DOCUMENTS SIGNED ON AZERBAIJAN OIL EXPORT

On the sidelines of the OSCE Istanbul summit, the

presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey on 18 November

signed agreements that constitute the legal framework for the

construction and operation of a oil pipeline from Baku to the

Turkish Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan. Those agreements

are a bilateral treaty between Turkey and Azerbaijan

establishing the principles regulating transit issues; an

agreement between pipeline investors and the governments of

the countries through which the pipeline will pass; an

agreement on construction of the pipeline with Turkey's

state-owned pipeline company Botas; and Turkish government

guarantees on the agreement with Botas. Construction of the

1,730 km pipeline will begin after a feasibility study is

completed, probably in 2001, and must be completed in three

years. The Turkish government will meet costs exceeding $2.4

billion, which no oil company has yet committed. The

presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a separate

declaration with their Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Georgian

counterparts pledging to export oil via the pipeline. LF

[03] ...TO RUSSIA'S CLEAR DISPLEASURE

Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia as well as U.S. President

Bill Clinton greeted the signing of the agreements on Baku-

Ceyhan as "a historic event," Russian Fuel and Energy

Minister Viktor Kalyuzhnyi predicted that the project will be

difficult to implement, Interfax reported. He also noted that

the tariffs agreed on are twice as high as those for the

transport of Azerbaijan's oil via the northern Baku-

Novorossiisk pipeline. Meanwhile in Moscow, a member of the

board of Kalyuzhnyi's ministry told Russian State Duma

deputies on 18 November that Russia may halt exports of

Azerbaijan's oil via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline "for

purely political reasons," according to Interfax. Russian

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, meanwhile, said that the U.S.

resorted to "political pressure" to secure the multi-state

agreement on the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, according to Interfax

on 19 November. He added that the World Bank and other

experts doubt that the project is economically viable.

LF

[04] RUSSIAN OFFICIALS MAKE CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS OVER

Turan on 18 November quoted

Russia's Minister for Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, as

telling Azerbaijani journalists in Istanbul on the sidelines

of the OSCE summit that there is no evidence to substantiate

Russian charges that arms and mercenaries have entered

Chechnya via Azerbaijan. But he did suggest that criminals

wanted by the Azerbaijani authorities may have sought refuge

in Chechnya. A Russian Defense Ministry statement issued in

Moscow on 18 November, however, named among international

organizations said to have provided aid to Chechnya the Grey

Wolves organization which it claims still operates in

Azerbaijan, Interfax reported. The statement said that the

Grey Wolves trained 16 gunmen, three of them from

Afghanistan, whom they then sent to Chechnya. The Azerbaijani

Grey Wolves were founded by former Premier Iskander Hamidov

in the early 1990s and reportedly sent fighters to Chechnya

in early 1995. Their name was changed in 1995 to Party of

National Democracy. LF

[05] GEORGIA, RUSSIA TO CONDUCT JOINT INVESTIGATION INTO

A Russian Air Force commission is due to

travel to Georgia on 19 November to investigate, together

with Georgian officials, the circumstances under which three

Rusian helicopters dropped landmines on a remote Georgian

mountain village close to Georgia's frontier with Chechnya on

17 November, Reuters and Caucasus Press reported. On 18

November, Russian air force commander Colonel-General

Anatolii Kornukov denied that his aircraft carried out the

attack but added that Russian army helicopters may have been

responsible. Speaking at the OSCE summit in Istanbul on 18

November, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze called on

his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, to take measures to

prevent a repeat of the incident, Caucasus Press reported. LF

[06] TWO MORE GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES DISPUTE RESULTS OF

Mamuka Giorgadze, leader of the People's

Party of Georgia, said in Tbilisi on 18 November that

contrary to the official electoral returns released by the

Central Electoral Commission, his party succeeded in polling

the minimum 7 percent of the vote to qualify for

representation in the parliament, Caucasus Press reported. He

accused the ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia of "usurping

power" in the 31 October parliamentary poll. But Giorgadze

added that he does not see any point in appealing the results

in court. At an 18 November congress of the National

Democratic Party of Georgia, chairwoman Irina Sarishvili-

Chanturia similarly termed the 31 October poll "a devaluation

of the concept of elections," according to Caucasus Pres. She

said her party will immediately begin preparing for the next

parliamentary elections in 2003 but will not propose a

candidate for the presidential elections in April 2000. LF

[07] LABOR LEADER ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RUN FOR GEORGIAN PRESIDENT

said he will contend the presidential poll due next April,

Caucasus Press reported. Natelashvili said he counts on

receiving the votes of those "who are sick and tired of the

fruitless promises of the ruling regime." While arguing that

"fair elections are impossible in Georgia as long as

Shevardnadze is in power," Natelashvili stressed that is

crucial that Shevardnadze should be replaced as president by

elections, rather than by force. He suggested that the

election victory of the ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia

was rigged in order to introduce amendments to the

constitution to allow one individual to serve more than two

consecutive presidential terms. Shevardnadze was first

elected president in November 1995 and has announced his

intention for running for a second term next year. LF

[08] ABKHAZ GOVERNMENT IN EXILE REJECTS CHARGES OF EMBEZZLEMENT

Londer Tsaava, who is chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz

government in exile, denied claims by the Georgian Finance

Ministry that the government misappropriated budget funds,

Caucasus Press reported. He added that the government has

received only 65 percent of the monies it has been allocated,

resulting in delays in the payment of salaries to government

officials and of pensions and other allowances to displaced

persons. LF

[09] CENTRAL ASIAN PRESIDENTS AIR SECURITY CONCERNS IN ISTANBUL

Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbaev, Kyrgyzstan's Askar Akaev,

and Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov called on the OSCE to do more

to boost security in Central Asia, an RFE/RL correspondent in

Istanbul reported. Karimov said regional security in Central

Asia is as important as security in Europe, and he proposed

the OSCE open an international center for fighting terrorism.

Before departing for Istanbul, Karimov had accused the OSCE

of focusing exclusively on human rights and ignoring

security, economic, and humanitarian issues, according to

ITAR-TASS. Akaev said Kyrgyzstan has become the front line in

the battle against international terrorism following an

incursion by Islamic militants this summer. In an allusion to

OSCE criticism of this year's elections, Nazarbaev stressed

that Kazakhstan is an "Asian state" and should not be judged

by the same standards as Western countries. LF

[10] KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA REACH AGREEMENT ON BAIKONUR LAUNCHES

Prime Minister Aleksandr Pavlov and his Russian counterpart,

Ilya Klebanov, agreed to resume rocket launches from

Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, with the exception of

Proton rockets of the type that exploded after blastoff in

July and late October of this year, AP reported. The

government of Kazakhstan had banned all further launches

until February 2000 following the October blast (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 29 October 1999). The two deputy premiers also

signed related agreements on coordinating the schedules for

launches from Baikonur and environmental protection measures

close to that site, Interfax reported. LF

[11] OPPOSITION NEWSAPER IN KAZAKHSTAN AGAIN PREVENTED FROM

Bigeldy Gabdullin, chairman of the independent

daily "XXI vek," told RFE/RL's Almaty correspondent on 18

November that the head of the Agricultural Ministry's

publishing house informed him, on orders from the Kazakh

National Security Committee, that the ministry is no longer

prepared to print his newspaper. The ministry has printed

"XXI vek" over the past few months after a private company

had refused to continue doing so without offering any

explanations for that decision. Gabdullin said he is seeking

alternative possibilities to continue publication either in

Kazakhstan or abroad. LF

[12] TAJIK PRESIDENT ADVOCATES OSCE ENGAGEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN

Office Knut Vollebaek, Tajikistan's President Imomali

Rakhmonov suggested that the OSCE should join forces with the

UN to assist the latter in its attempts to mediate between

the warring parties in Afghanistan, Asia Plus-Blitz reported.

In a clear reference to the OSCE's refusal to send observers

to monitor the 6 November presidential poll, in which he was

reelected for a second term, Rakhmonov argue that in

promoting democratization in Central Asian states the OSCE

should bear in mind their specific traditions and cultural

and moral values. He affirmed that efforts are being made to

ensure that the February parliamentary poll will be free and

democratic. LF

[13] TRANSCASPIAN GAS PIPELINE ACCORD SIGNED

in Istanbul at which the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia

and Turkey signed the Baku-Ceyhan oil export pipeline

framework agreements, Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat

Niyazov and his Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Turkish

counterparts signed a letter of intent on building an

underwater Trans-Caspian pipeline to export natural gas from

Turkmenistan via Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, Reuters

and Interfax reported. That pipeline will cost an estimated

$3 billion, which the project operator PSG must now raise.

Until recently, disagreements between Turkmenistan and

Azerbaijan threatened to torpedo implementation of the

project. The Turkmen and Turkish presidents and Turkey's

Minister of Fuel and Energy Resources also signed a separate

agreement on natural gas exports to Turkey beginning in 2002.

Turkmenistan will eventually export 30 billion cubic meters

of gas annually via the Trans-Caspian pipeline, of which 14

billion cubic meters will be destined for European markets.

LF

[14] TURKMEN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN COUNTERPARTS

November on the sidelines of the OSCE summit, Interfax

reported. Yeltsin underscored Russia's willingness to expand

and strengthen mutually advantageous relations with

Turkmenistan. The two presidents also reached tentative

agreement that the next CIS summit will be held in Ashgabat

in May 2000. (The most recent summit was in Moscow in April.)

Meanwhile, Niyazov agreed with his Ukrainian counterpart,

Leonid Kuchma, that a Ukrainian delegation headed by Premier

Valeriy Pustovoytenko will travel to Ashgabat in the near

future to discuss the terms for resuming shipments of Turkmen

gas to Ukraine. Ashgabat suspended those shipments in May

1999 in a dispute with Ukraine over that country's debts to

Turkmenistan for earlier gas supplies and to Russia in

transit fees for that gas. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] U.S., EU, SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO PLAN FOR FUTURE

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in Istanbul on 18

November that representatives of her country, the EU, and the

Serbian opposition will soon meet to begin making concrete

plans aimed at promoting democratic change in Serbia. She

stressed that "Yugoslavia, too, will soon begin the journey

[to democracy] under new leadership." In Belgrade, Ivica

Dacic, who is a spokesman for Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic's Socialist Party, said that the opposition leaders

are foreign puppets who "went to do the bidding of the

murderers of our children while the graves of all [those]

killed in [NATO's] aggression are still fresh," AP reported.

Dacic called on the OSCE summit to "condemn NATO's illegal

aggression against Yugoslavia." PM

[16] MONTENEGRIAN PRESIDENT DJUKANOVIC ASKS OSCE FOR HELP

Djukanovic told the OSCE summit in Istanbul on 18 November

that moves toward democratization in his country "are in a

critical phase," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He

appealed for unspecified "effective help." PM

[17] BRITISH EXPERTS: SERBS HID WAR CRIMES EVIDENCE

Nettleton, who coordinates British investigations into war

crimes, said that Serbian forces tried to hide evidence of

atrocities by burning the bodies of their victims, dropping

them into rivers, or burying them in cemeteries, London's

"The Guardian" reported on 19 November. She added that the

real number of victims of the Serbian forces may never be

known. British experts remain convinced that their original

estimate of 10,000 victims is accurate, the daily added. PM

[18] MACEDONIAN ELECTION COMMISSION TO RECONVENE

ruling on complaints of irregularities in the recent

presidential vote suspended its work on 18 November. Chairman

Josif Lukovski said the commission was unable to do its work

with at least 25,000 angry protesters outside its building,

who claimed that defeated Social Democratic candidate Tito

Petkovski was cheated of victory. The commission will

reconvene on 19 November to examine charges by the Social

Democrats of extensive fraud, particularly in western

Macedonia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 November 1999).

Elsewhere in Skopje, French Ambassador to Macedonia Jacques

Huntzinger said that the "election was not rigged," Reuters

reported. Western officials have stressed in recent days that

the election had some irregularities but was not basically

flawed. Social Democratic leader Branko Crvenkovski

nonetheless said in Skopje on 18 November that "we shall

fight to topple this government...by democratic means...and

call new elections," AP added. PM

[19] NATO, MACEDONIA AGREE TO END BORDER BOTTLENECK

Interior Minister Pavle Trajanov and NATO's Hans Jorg Eiff

agreed on 18 November in Skopje to ease traffic congestion at

the Blace border crossing between Macedonia and Kosova. An

additional lane will soon be added to the existing highway in

order to speed up humanitarian aid shipments. The measure is

an emergency one designed to relieve pressure until an $18

million project to completely reconstruct the crossing can be

carried out. Macedonian officials and NATO representatives

have accused one another of being responsible for the

bottleneck. PM

[20] BREAKTHROUGH IN MACEDONIAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT CASE?

Czech police spokesman said in Prague on 17 November that

police have "detained" a 35-year-old Macedonian citizen whom

the spokesman described as an "internationally wanted drug

boss," CTK reported. The spokesman added that Macedonian

police are "interested" in the detainee in conjunction with

the October 1996 attempt on the life of President Kiro

Gligorov. Macedonia has not requested the extradition of the

man, whom the spokesman identified only by the initials A.N.

Investigations into the assassination attempt have not

yielded any results (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 November

1999). PM

[21] CROATIA TO AVERT CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS?

Vlatko Pavletic said on 19 November that he will meet later

in the day with representatives of the parties represented in

the legislature. An unnamed parliamentary official told

Reuters: "They will be discussing the possibility of holding

another parliament session. I assume they will be seeking a

consensus to pass a law whereby Pavletic would act as

temporary president." The legislature's mandate runs out on

27 November. Key issues requiring immediate presidential

attention include issuing a call for parliamentary elections

on 22 December and approving the budget for 2000. President

Franjo Tudjman has been hospitalized since 1 November, and

most observers do not expect him to recover. The constitution

is widely regarded to have been written for Tudjman and

provides for sweeping powers for the president. PM

[22] BUDISA CALLS FOR SWEEPING REVISION OF CROATIAN CONSTITUTION

List" of 19 November that time has come to change the

constitution and reduce the powers of the president. He added

that continuing the present system would mean "turning the

government into a circus." Leaders of all six main opposition

parties agree that the constitution must be changed quickly

if a political crisis is to be averted, the daily added. PM

[23] OPPOSITION HEADING FOR VICTORY IN CROATIAN ELECTIONS?

independent Zagreb daily "Jutarnji list" reported on 19

November that a new poll by the U.S.-based International

Republican Institute suggests that the main opposition

coalition will win in eight out of 10 electoral districts.

The coalition of the Social Democrats and Budisa's Croatian

Social Liberal Party will take 35 percent of the overall

vote, compared with 24 percent for the governing Croatian

Democratic Community (HDZ), according to the poll. A

coalition of four small opposition parties is in third place.

Recent polls published in the same daily suggest that the top

vote-getters in any future race to replace Tudjman would be

the Social Democrats' Ivica Racan, followed by the moderate

HDZ leader Mate Granic, who is currently foreign minister. PM

[24] POLL: MOST ROMANIANS SAY THEY WERE BETTER OFF UNDER

A poll released by the Open Society Fund on 18

November found that 61 percent of Romanians say they were

better off under former communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu,

Reuters reported. The poll of 2,019 Romanians showed 84

percent of respondents saying they lack confidence in the

current government. More than 80 percent of respondents said

they had lost confidence in the parliament and in political

parties. The poll also found that 77 percent of Romanians

favor a market economy. The results come after an earlier

poll conducted by the Center for Urban and Regional Sociology

found that most Romanians believe the switch from communism

in 1989 has been a "success" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18

November 1999). VG

[25] ROMANIAN WORKERS DEMONSTRATE

marched through several major cities on 18 November to

protest falling living standards, Reuters reported.

Demonstrations took place in Constanta, Timisoara, Ploiesti,

and Turnu Severin. Meanwhile, on 17 November, four major

Romanian trade unions agreed to coordinate their protests

against the government in the coming days, Mediafax reported.

VG

[26] ROMANIAN-LANGUAGE TESTS FOR MOLDOVAN STUDENTS

Education Ministry officials on 18 November announced that

beginning next year, all university applicants will have to

pass tests of their knowledge of the Romanian language and

literature, BASA-Press reported. VG

[27] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT DELAYS VOTE ON GOVERNMENT

Minister-designate Valeriu Bobutac on 18 November asked the

parliament to postpone a confidence vote in the cabinet until

next week, BASA-Press reported. Communist deputy Victor

Stepaniuc said the vote was put off because of "some small

misunderstandings." In other news, the Moldovan prosecutor-

general asked the parliament to lift deputy speaker Iurie

Rosca's immunity in connection with a September car accident.

Also, the Democratic Convention of Moldova expelled

parliamentary deputy Ala Mandacanu for supporting the new

government structure proposed by the Communists and the

Christian Democratic Popular Front. VG

[28] OSCE CONSIDERS FUNDING RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA

mission head to Moldova William Hill said the organization is

prepared to fund the withdrawal of Russian forces from

Moldova, but he added that the cost must first be determined,

Reuters reported. A number of OSCE countries have proposed

that the organization carry out an inventory of Russian arms

and equipment in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester

VG

[29] USAID EXTENDS GRANT TO BULGARIA

International Development has extended a $25 million grant to

Bulgaria to deal with the effects of the NATO bombing

campaign in Yugoslavia earlier this year as well as to ease

the impact of economic reforms, AP reported on 18 November.

In other news, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party

expressed reservations about preparations for U.S. President

Bill Clinton's upcoming visit to Bulgaria. The party on 18

November protested plans to ban street traffic in parts of

Sofia during the visit and complained that Clinton does not

plan to address the parliament. VG

[C] END NOTE

[30] FORMER LEADERS ARGUE OVER MEANING OF 1989

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former British

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former U.S. President

George Bush, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former

Polish President and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa, and

the wife of the late French President Francois Mitterrand

were all awarded high state honors in Prague on 17 November.

The awards were conferred by former dissident and current

Czech President Vaclav Havel.

The visit of the former leaders was planned as a largely

ceremonial occasion. But at a panel discussion that preceded

the award ceremony, participants sharply disagreed over the

significance of the anti-communist revolutions and their

aftermath. The talk laid bare the ideological rifts that

still exist among some former adversaries and that could

threaten to bring more divisions between East and West next

century.

Thatcher called the fall of communism a triumph of

freedom and capitalism, especially as espoused by Britain and

the U.S. She took a large measure of credit for the collapse

of communism and said the two countries provided a shining

example for the East to follow. Thatcher said the best thing

the U.S. and Britain could do would be to continue exporting

their values and way of life abroad. "I think our task today

is not to ponder on what happened in the last 10 years but to

see how we extend liberty to those countries that do not know

it," she commented.

Thatcher's views earned a gentle rebuke from the

moderator, Oxford history professor Timothy Garton Ash, who

noted that other European democracies had also perhaps

contributed to inspiring the East's quest for freedom.

But it was Gorbachev who took on Thatcher directly,

accusing her of communist-style rhetoric in the service of a

narrow ideology. He said that if anything, the past 10 years

have proven that new ideas are needed--something approaching

a synthesis between capitalism and communism, to solve

problems in an increasingly global world economy: "I think

that just as an inferiority complex is a bad thing, a

victor's complex is no less harmful. I think we should say

that no single ideology at the end of the 20th century can

answer the challenges of the 21st century and the global

problems that stand before us--neither liberal, nor

communist, nor conservative."

Gorbachev also reminded Thatcher that it was the

Communists who saw everything in black and white, and he

questioned whether she had not stumbled down the same path.

Former union leader and ex-President Walesa chastised

the West for congratulating itself over the end of communism

without providing sufficient aid and assistance to those

countries now trying to transform their economies. He drew a

parallel with the end of World War II and said Western Europe

has benefited from U.S. assistance through the generosity of

the Marshall Plan.

But Walesa noted that 10 years after the fall of

communism in Eastern Europe, no comprehensive assistance has

been forthcoming from the U.S. and a now prosperous Western

Europe. He warned that in many countries across the East,

democracy is now endangered by the failure of economic

reform, crime, corruption, and a nostalgia among some people

for the old regime.

Czech President Havel called the year of revolutions a

magic moment. But he said that it was not, as some once

predicted, the end of history. The revolutions of Eastern

Europe, he said, marked a victory for human dignity and

universal human values, not any particular ideology.

"If I posed myself the question: what triumphed over

what or who triumphed over whom 10 years ago, then I wouldn't

answer that it was the victory of one ideology over another,

of one state over another state, or of one superpower over

another," he said. "But I'd say certain values triumphed.

Freedom triumphed over oppression. Respect for human dignity

triumphed over humiliation. Respect for human rights

triumphed over disdain for human rights. But it was one small

battle in an unending chain of battles, because the war

continues."

Kohl said the revolutions of 1989 were clearly

interconnected, and he praised the bravery of those Central

and Eastern Europeans who stood up against communism and

overthrew it. But Kohl noted that both the former Soviet and

U.S. leaders deserve recognition for their role as catalysts

to the process. "No one in Europe, and this is my considered

opinion, should think there would have been success had it

not been that the two great powers set out on a rational

road."

Bush, like Thatcher, noted the leadership of Britain and

the United States in ending the Cold War. But he also spoke

of Washington's initially cautious approach to the momentous

events of 1989: "The U.S. was concerned that if we provoke,

needlessly provoke, then President Gorbachev, who knows how

the forces to his right, his military, might have reacted.

And so we tried to be very careful about not dancing on the

[Berlin] Wall, for example."

Bush paid homage to his host, Havel, and to Walesa. He

called both men heroes of the democratic revolutions of 1989,

whose example inspired the U.S. people. He argued that what

"got through" to the U.S. people were the "symbols" of the

new-won freedom, in this case, Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa.

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

19-11-99

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

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