RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 66, 00-04-03

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 66, 3 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER AGAIN CALLS FOR NEW ELECTIONS

[02] ARMENIA, RUSSIA CONCLUDE WAR-GAMES

[03] ARMENIAN POW RELEASED

[04] RUSSIAN MINISTER VISITS AZERBAIJAN

[05] GEORGIA EXTRACTS FIRST OIL

[06] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION CONVENES ANTI-ELECTION DEMO

[07] KAZAKHS STAGE PROTEST ON BORDER WITH UZBEKISTAN...

[08] IS KAZAKHSTAN PLANNING TERRITORIAL-ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM?

[09] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION PARTY TO 'GO UNDERGROUND'

[10] COURT IMPOSES NEW PENALTIES ON KYRGYZ OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER

[11] TAJIK PRESIDENT, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER CALL FOR

[12] TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN PREPARE TO DEMARCATE COMMON BORDER

[13] UZBEKISTAN INTERCEPTS RADIO-ACTIVE MATERIALS ON BORDER WITH

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] NATO TROOPS ARREST EX-BOSNIAN SERB CHIEF

[15] KRAJISNIK'S FAMILY DESCRIBES ARREST

[16] CLARK SAYS NATO WATCHING MONTENEGRO

[17] MESIC WARNS OF IMPENDING BALKAN CONFLICT

[18] KOSOVA'S SERBS RETURN TO UN COUNCIL

[19] TERRORIST ATTACK FOILED IN PRISHTINA?

[20] SLOVENIAN PRIME MINISTER NAMES NEW CABINET MEMBERS

[21] ROMANIAN ROMA DENOUNCE RACIST STATEMENT BY OPPOSITION LEADER

[22] PLANNED ANTONESCU STATUE AGAIN RAISES CONTROVERSY

[23] ROMANIA CUTS OFF ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA

[24] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT QUESTIONS BILL ON COMMUNIST REGIME

[25] BULGARIAN PREMIER DENIES FLOATING IDEA OF SERBIA'S

[C] END NOTE

[26] ATTACK ON KARABAKH PRESIDENT EXACERBATES POLITICAL TENSIONS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER AGAIN CALLS FOR NEW ELECTIONS

National Democratic Union Chairman Vazgen Manukian again

advocated pre-term parliamentary and presidential elections,

Armenpress and Noyan Tapan reported. He had called on

President Robert Kocharian to resign in mid-January (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 20 January 2000). Manukian argued that

Armenia is "on the verge of disaster" as a result of the

"process of destruction" embarked upon by individuals "of a

low intellectual level" long before the 27 October parliament

shootings. Manukian also repeated his doubts that Samvel

Babayan, the former defense minister of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, was involved in the 22 March

attempt to assassinate the enclave's president, Arkadii

Ghukasian (see also "End Note" below). LF

[02] ARMENIA, RUSSIA CONCLUDE WAR-GAMES

Russian troops on 31 March wrapped up four days of military

maneuvers at a training ground west of Yerevan, RFE/RL's

bureau in the Armenian capital reported (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 29 March 2000). The commander of the Russian Group

of Forces in the Transcaucasus, Lieutenant General Vladimir

Andreev, who directed the maneuvers, denied that the exercise

was connected with or aimed to duplicate Russia's ongoing

military campaign in Chechnya. But Armenian General Mikael

Harutiunian said the Armenian armed forces are looking into

elements of Russia's tactics against veteran Chechen fighters

in mountainous terrain in order to improve their performance

in mountainous or wooded areas. LF

[03] ARMENIAN POW RELEASED

held prisoner in Azerbaijan for five months was released on

31 March in what an Armenian Security Ministry official

termed "a goodwill gesture" on the part of Azerbaijan's

President Heidar Aliev, ITAR-TASS and Turan reported. Armenia

still holds 10 Azerbaijani prisoners. LF

[04] RUSSIAN MINISTER VISITS AZERBAIJAN

Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu held talks with President

Aliev in Baku on 31 March, focusing on responses to natural

disasters and on measures to prevent landslides such as the

one that caused major damage in Baku on 6 March, ITAR-TASS

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 March 2000). Aliev assured

Shoigu of his country's continued support for Russia's

military action in Chechnya and called for greater Russian

input in resolving conflicts on the territory of CIS member

states. He said resolving such conflicts is a prerequisite

for greater regional cooperation between Russia, Azerbaijan,

Georgia, and Armenia. LF

[05] GEORGIA EXTRACTS FIRST OIL

that began drilling its first well at Taribana in eastern

Georgia four months ago extracted its first oil on 1 April in

the presence of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze,

Caucasus Press reported. According to the news agency,

Shevardnadze, having sampled the oil, said the taste is

reminiscent of Georgian red wine. Taribana's reserves are

estimated at 1 million tons. LF

[06] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION CONVENES ANTI-ELECTION DEMO

supporters of deceased Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia

attended a demonstration in Tbilisi on his birthday, 31

March, AP reported. Participants called on the Georgian

electorate to boycott the 9 April presidential election. Also

on 31 March, a 49-year-old woman set fire to herself near the

Georgian parliament building in Tbilisi to protest the

authorities' refusal to amnesty political prisoners, Caucasus

Press reported. The previous day, the International Helsinki

Federation for Human Rights wrote to President Shevardnadze

to draw his attention to the condition of four prisoners who

have declared a hunger strike to demand such an amnesty (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 21 March 2000). The letter noted that when

Georgia joined the Council of Europe one year ago, it

undertook to review the cases of some 100 imprisoned

Gamsakhurdia supporters but has not yet begun to do so. LF

[07] KAZAKHS STAGE PROTEST ON BORDER WITH UZBEKISTAN...

residents of the Sary-Aghdash district of South Kazakhstan

Oblast gathered on the border with Uzbekistan on 31 March to

protest the planned construction of additional customs points

on the Uzbek side of the border, RFE/RL's Almaty

correspondent reported. Local officials from the two

countries agreed to postpone the beginning of construction

work. Speaking in Astana on 1 April, Kazakhstan's Foreign

Minister Erlan Idrisov denied that any tensions exist along

unpopulated stretches of the border that are currently being

demarcated, but he admitted that demarcation is proving more

problematic in populated areas, ITAR-TASS reported. Idrisov

said that the Kazakh authorities have reached agreement with

their Uzbek counterparts that no unilateral actions wll be

taken on the border until the demarcation is complete. LF

[08] IS KAZAKHSTAN PLANNING TERRITORIAL-ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM?

3 April as saying that the Kazakh leadership is considering

abolishing the 14 oblasts into which the country is currently

divided and creating in their place five larger regions. The

five would be Western Kazakhstan, comprising the present

Atyrau, Oral, Mangystau, and Aqtobe Oblasts; South

Kazakhstan, comprising Qyzyl-Orda, Zhambyl, and South

Kazakhstan Oblasts and some districts of Almaty and the

former Taldy-Qorghan Oblast; Eastern Kazakhstan, comprising

the rest of Taldy-Qorghan as well as the former Semey and

Eastern Kazakhstan and Pavlodar Oblasts; Northern Kazakhstan,

comprising the present North Kazakhstan, Qostanay, and

Kokshetau Oblasts; and Central Kazakhstan, comprising Aqmola,

Qaraghandy, Zhezkazghan, and Torghay Oblasts. LF

[09] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION PARTY TO 'GO UNDERGROUND'

delegates to a 2 April emergency congress of the opposition

Ar-Namys party voted to go underground in response to ongoing

persecution by the Kyrgyz authorities, RFE/RL's bureau in the

Kyrgyz capital reported. The delegates also appealed to the

international community to exert pressure on the Kyrgyz

leadership to give detained Ar-Namys chairman Feliks Kulov

and the head of Kulov's election campaign team, Emil Aliev,

the official status of political prisoners. Meanwhile,

several hundred people continued their picket in central

Bishkek to demand Kulov's release and the annulment of the

parliamentary election results in the constituency where he

lost the 12 March runoff vote. LF

[10] COURT IMPOSES NEW PENALTIES ON KYRGYZ OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER

Bishkek district court on 31 March imposed a 40,000 som

(about $850) fine on the opposition weekly "Res Publica" for

libel, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. The

newspaper's chief editor and a journalist were fined 5,000

soms each. The newspaper has suspended publication as it has

still not paid a fine imposed by a previous court ruling for

slandering the chairman of the National Radio and Television

Corporation (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 January 2000). LF

[11] TAJIK PRESIDENT, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER CALL FOR

Imomali Rakhmonov and Igor

Sergeev on 2 April appealed to Russia and the CIS states,

specifically the states of Central Asia, to cooperate in the

battle against international terrorism, Russian agencies

reported. The two men were speaking on the final day of the

first stage of military exercises in Tajikistan, in which

some 13,000 troops from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan took part. Belarus and Armenia

have sent observers. With the aid of 40 tanks and armored

vehicles, those troops were called upon to simulate the

elimination of a terrorist group that had crossed into the

territory of one of the Central Asian states. The second

stage of the maneuvers begins in Uzbekistan on 3 April. LF

[12] TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN PREPARE TO DEMARCATE COMMON BORDER

Niyazov and Islam Karimov, agreed during a telephone

conversation on 31 March to draft an agreement on demarcating

the border between their two countries, Russian agencies

reported. The agreement will also focus on the shared use of

waters from the Amu-Darya River, which forms part of that

frontier. LF

[13] UZBEKISTAN INTERCEPTS RADIO-ACTIVE MATERIALS ON BORDER WITH

Uzbek customs officials on 31 March confiscated

10 lead containers with radio-active material from an

Iranian-registered truck at the Kazakh-Uzbek border, Russian

agencies reported on 2 April. The truck was headed for

Pakistan, and its driver had documentation claiming that his

cargo consisted of stainless steel scrap. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] NATO TROOPS ARREST EX-BOSNIAN SERB CHIEF

arrested Momcilo Krajisnik in Pale on 3 April under a "sealed

indictment" from the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. The

former Serbian representative on the Bosnian joint presidency

is "the highest-ranking person" arrested and sent to The

Hague so far, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said in

Brussels. Krajisnik faces charges of "genocide, crimes

against humanity, violations of the laws and customs of war

and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, including

murder, willful killing, extermination, complicity in

genocide, deportation, and inhumane acts," according to

Robertson. He added that the arrest of the former top aide to

Radovan Karadzic "is good news for justice and good news for

the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. To those individuals

who remain at large I will repeat...the net is closing. It is

time to give yourselves in." Robertson praised the "courage,

professionalism, and dedication" of the troops who carried

out the arrest. PM

[15] KRAJISNIK'S FAMILY DESCRIBES ARREST

(21) told AP on 3 April that an unspecified number of NATO

troops "took my dad away. Some of them spoke Serbian, some

English, but mostly French." He said he counted seven or

eight soldiers before they bound him and his brother Njegos

and turned their faces toward the floor. Krajisnik's father,

Sretko, told reporters that the troops used unnecessary force

when they destroyed the door to the Krajisnik home with

explosives prior to making the arrest. "If they had knocked

on the door, I would have opened it," the elderly man said.

PM

[16] CLARK SAYS NATO WATCHING MONTENEGRO

Europe General Wesley Clark said in Riga on 2 April that the

Atlantic alliance is carefully monitoring possible moves by

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to undermine the

Montenegrin leadership under President Milo Djukanovic. "I

can tell you that NATO remains concerned, we are very

watchful. We have seen over the past...months long

development of various capabilities that could be employed to

threaten Mr. Djukanovic," Reuters reported. He did not

elaborate (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 March 2000). Meanwhile

in Podgorica, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic said that three

Yugoslav generals have been appointed as advisers to

Djukanovic and the government as a means of improving

communication between the Montenegrin authorities and the

army, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

[17] MESIC WARNS OF IMPENDING BALKAN CONFLICT

Stipe Mesic told the German weekly "Der Spiegel" of 3 April

that "Milosevic is like a bicyclist who can keep going only

as long as he moves in the direction of war." The possibility

of a new war in the Balkans is great, and the West knows that

a number of danger signals are already present. "Violence can

erupt at any time," Mesic stressed. Montenegro and Macedonia

are possible flashpoints, but Kosova and southwestern Serbia

are more likely, the Croatian president continued. In any

event, the West must let Milosevic know beyond any doubt that

"if you attack Montenegro militarily, then your days are

numbered." Montenegro needs international support to develop

its democracy and a free economy. This, in turn, can serve as

a model for Serbia. Mesic warned, however, that "it is a

waste of time to wait for democracy to come to Serbia" at any

time soon. PM

[18] KOSOVA'S SERBS RETURN TO UN COUNCIL

is a spokesman for the Serbian National Council (SNV), said

in Gracanica on 2 April that SNV leaders have agreed to

return to the UN's provisional advisory council for Kosova as

observers. Sava stressed that the Serbs' return after a

boycott of several months will be on a three-month trial

basis to see what the council can achieve in promoting

"security, housing, and the return of refugees," AP reported.

If the results are not adequate after three months, it "will

not be possible to continue our participation within the

interim administration," Reuters added. Sava argued that "we

are at the door. We need the door opened a bit." Bernard

Kouchner, who heads the UN civilian administration, said that

the Serbs' decision was "courageous." He added that "now the

real work can start on setting up the administration." Pro-

Milosevic Serbs in Mitrovica called the Gracanica decision

"catastrophic." The SNV opposes the Belgrade leadership. PM

[19] TERRORIST ATTACK FOILED IN PRISHTINA?

"unprecedented" security measures around the alliance's

headquarters and U.S. diplomatic offices in Prishtina on 2

April, Reuters reported. Alliance officials feared a

guerrilla attack after raiding a nearby house that until

recently was used by the Joint Relief Committee, a Saudi

Arabian charity. A NATO spokesman said that "people in the

house had obviously been observing our facilities and U.S.

facilities. And they obviously left in a hurry." Members of

the former Kosova Liberation Army "had staked out the [house]

for months and reported the movements of its staff to U.S.

officials," the news agency added. U.S. officials suspected

the charity of having links to Osama bin Laden, who is wanted

in connection with previous terrorist attacks on U.S.

facilities. Spokesmen for the charity denied any links to

terrorism. One noted that "people react strangely to Saudi

Arabians." PM

[20] SLOVENIAN PRIME MINISTER NAMES NEW CABINET MEMBERS

Drnovsek said in Ljubljana on 3 April that he has proposed

eight experts who do not belong to any political party to

join his cabinet following the resignation of nine ministers

from the People's Party (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 March

2000). He added that he will resign if the parliament rejects

his nominees. The legislature has until 7 April to decide, AP

reported. Drnovsek's Liberals hold only 25 out of 90 seats in

the parliament and need the support of their former coalition

partners to govern. Elections are due by the end of the year,

but many observers believe that an early ballot will be

necessary following the decision of the People's Party to

leave the government. PM

[21] ROMANIAN ROMA DENOUNCE RACIST STATEMENT BY OPPOSITION LEADER

Studies asked on 31 March that international institutions

involved in the protection of human rights protest a recent

racist comment by Alliance for Romania Deputy Chairman

Mugurel Vintila. The center said Vintila told the daily

"National" of 28 March that "Western chancelleries" are

preparing Romania's "transformation into a Gypsy state" and

that according to information he had received from "a

diplomat posted in the West," there are plans to bring Roma

from other countries to Romania and create on its territory

"a Gypsy state." Vintila added that the Roma in Romania are

financed from abroad in order to "penetrate the [country's]

power-structures." MS

[22] PLANNED ANTONESCU STATUE AGAIN RAISES CONTROVERSY

prefect Bogdan Cerghizan on 31 March said the town's

municipal authorities have begun construction for a planned

statue of wartime leader Marshal Ion Antonescu. His

predecessor, Vasile Salcudean, had appealed to an

administrative court against the decision to erect the

statue. That appeal is still pending and Cerghizan says that

if construction works are not immediately stopped, he will

demand that a criminal investigation be launched against the

local authorities, Mediafax reported. MS

[23] ROMANIA CUTS OFF ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA

ceased supplying electricity to Moldova at midnight 31 March.

Romanian Industry and Trade Minister Radu Berceanu said on

Romanian Television that Moldova owes Romania $36 million.

The current contract for electricity supplies expired on 31

March and a new one has not been negotiated. Moldovan Premier

Dumitru Braghis said on 1 April that the cut resulted from a

"misunderstanding." He explained that the former

Moldtranselectro company, which negotiated the supplies, has

been restructured and the Romanian side fears that its three

successor-companies will not take over the debt. In a

telephone conversation with his Romanian counterpart, Mugur

Isarescu, Braghis proposed that the debt be taken over by the

Moldovan state. Romania supplies some 20 percent of Moldova's

electricity. MS

[24] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT QUESTIONS BILL ON COMMUNIST REGIME

Petar Stoyanov told journalists on 31 March

that the bill on the unlawfulness of the communist regime,

which the parliament had passed in the first reading one day

earlier, poses some problems and that he hopes lawmakers will

look at it once more before the second reading (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 31 March 2000), BTA reported. Stoyanov said that

the bill is accurate in describing "the misanthropic theory

and practices of the communist regime" but "it is another

matter whether the legal formulations employed in it and the

timing of its passage are the right ones." The bill lifts the

statute of limitations on crimes committed by the Communists.

MS

[25] BULGARIAN PREMIER DENIES FLOATING IDEA OF SERBIA'S

Ivan Kostov denied in the parliament on 31

March that at the 17-18 March meeting in Budapest of

countries neighboring Yugoslavia, he promoted the idea of

transforming that country into a six-state federation, BTA

reported. Kostov said that the idea "was not his"; rather, it

had been floated by the Social Democratic League in

Vojvodina, and "we only drew attention that such an idea

exists." MS

[C] END NOTE

[26] ATTACK ON KARABAKH PRESIDENT EXACERBATES POLITICAL TENSIONS

By Liz Fuller

Investigators in Stepanakert announced on 27 March that

the botched attempt five days earlier to assassinate Arkadii

Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh

Republic, was planned and carried out by persons close to

Samvel Babayan, the enclave's former army commander and

defense minister. Babayan is the most formidable political

opponent Ghukasian, who dismissed Babayan as defense minister

last July, triggering protests by other senior generals and

precipitating a political standoff that was defused only by

the intervention of Armenian President Robert Kocharian. Five

months later, in December 1999, Ghukasian also replaced

Babayan as commander of the Karabakh Defense Army. But

Babayan nonetheless remained one of the unrecognized

republic's most influential political figures, enjoying the

support of many local parliamentary deputies and of the

Karabakh-based Armenian National Democratic Party.

Three of the five persons named on 27 March as having

confessed to the attack on Ghukasian are members of Babayan's

bodyguard, and a fourth is his wife's brother. Babayan was

taken into custody within hours of the attack, as was his

brother Karen, who has since been suspended as mayor of

Stepanakert. As of 30 March, neither brother had been charged

with involvement in the assassination bid. But the

unrecognized enclave's prosecutor-general told RFE/RL's

Stepanakert correspondent the same day that other charges

could brought against Samvel Babayan, in addition to illegal

arms possession, abuse of power, and tax evasion.

Senior officials in Stepanakert and Yerevan say that the

motives for the attack on Ghukasian are to be sought in the

local political situation. The unrecognized republic's

foreign minister, Naira Melkumian, was quoted by Armenpress

on 24 March as saying that "I do not think that there is a

force outside Karabakh and Armenia that was interested in the

elimination of President Ghukasian." Speaking in Tbilisi on

28 March, Armenian President Kocharian attributed the attack

to "internal processes that take place in post-war countries

and regions when order is being restored."

In view of his months-long standoff with Ghukasian,

Babayan was the most obvious suspect in the attack on the

Karabakh president. Babayan's extensive power can be partly

attributed to his control over dubious economic interests on

which Ghukasian now plans to crack down. The attack on

Ghukasian thus presented the Karabakh leadership with a cast-

iron excuse to detain the renegade general and, by extension,

hamstring the opposition to Ghukasian in the runup to this

summer's elections for the enclave's new parliament, which

Babayan's supporters stood a good chance of winning. Noyan

Tapan's veteran political commentator David Petrosian

observed that the primary beneficiary of the attack is

Karabakh Premier Anushavan Danielian, who would have lost his

post in the event of an election victory by Babayan's

supporters. Danielian is currently discharging the duties of

Karabakh president.

But whether despite or precisely because of the fact

that Babayan was the most obvious suspect, an increasing

number of Armenian politicians from across the political

spectrum are expressing doubt at his personal involvement in

the attack and are warning against making him a scapegoat.

Those skeptics include not only leading members of the

nationalist "Right and Accord" bloc, which supports Babayan

and is believed to receive funding from him, but also Kim

Balayan, a Karabakh-born member of the Armenian Revolutionary

Federation--Dashnaktsutiun, National Democratic Union

chairman Vazgen Manukian, who characterized Babayan as too

intelligent to issue direct orders for an attempt on

Ghukasian's life, and Andranik Markarian, head of the

Miasnutiun majority parliamentary bloc.

If Babayan is formally charged with the assassination

bid, President Kocharian's failure unequivocally to condemn

that charge could exacerbate the rift that already exists

between the Armenian president and Miasnutiun, and broaden it

into one between Ghukasian and Kocharian, on the one hand,

and Babayan's sympathizers and supporters in Yerevan and

Stepanakert, on the other. But if Kocharian were to fail to

endorse Babayan's indictment, the ensuing perceived lack of

solidarity between Yerevan and Stepanakert could, at the very

least, negatively affect the ongoing search for a political

settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Meanwhile, the circumstances of the attack, specifically

the use of automatic rifles against a moving target, raise

the question of whether the intention was in fact to

eliminate Ghukasian or simply to create a pretext for

neutralizing Babayan. Like some other observers, Lenser

Aghalovian, chairman of a small Armenian party composed

mainly of Karabakh-born intellectuals, reasoned that if an

experienced warrior like Babayan had indeed wanted to get rid

of Ghukasian, the latter would not have survived. A single

shot from a grenade-launcher would have left Ghukasian with

no chance of survival, Aghalovian told "Haykakan Zhamanak."

03-04-00

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URL: http://www.rferl.org

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