RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 68, 00-04-05

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 68, 5 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] KARABAKH PROSECUTOR SAYS FORMER MINISTER

[02] FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY CONDEMNS

[03] FORMER GEORGIAN NAVAL COMMANDER

[04] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER ANTICIPATES RISE IN GDP

[05] COMPROMISED KAZAKH SECURITY OFFICIAL MOVES

[06] POLICE DISPERSE KYRGYZ PROTESTERS

[07] BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT VISITS TAJIKISTAN

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[08] SERBIAN OFFICERS REVEAL 'SICKENING ATROCITIES'

[09] YUGOSLAV ARMY REJECTS SPECIAL LINKS TO

[10] ROBERTSON SAYS KOSOVA MISSION ON 'RAZOR'S

[11] KOSOVA VILLAGES QUIET AFTER CLASH

[12] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST ALLEGED SERBIAN WAR

[13] DEL PONTE SEEKS EVIDENCE IN CROATIA

[14] IS PLAVSIC ON HAGUE'S ARREST LIST?

[15] PETRITSCH CALLS FOR 'CHANGE' IN BOSNIAN VOTE

[16] SERBIA BANS CORRESPONDENT

[17] LARGEST MACEDONIAN BANK SOLD

[18] ALBANIAN FORMALLY ENDS DEATH PENALTY

[19] ITALY, ALBANIA AGREE ON MIGRANT LABOR

[20] SLOVAK FOREIGN MINISTER IN ROMANIA

[21] MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN ROMANIA GIVEN

[22] ROMANIAN COURT APPROVES ROYAL RESTITUTION

[23] MOLDOVAN OFFICIAL SAYS RUSSIA TO SUBMIT

[24] BULGARIA AGAIN REJECTS UN REPORT

[25] BULGARIAN LEFTIST PARTIES TO COOPERATE

[C] END NOTE

[26] TURN OF THE SCREWS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] KARABAKH PROSECUTOR SAYS FORMER MINISTER

Mavrik Ghukasian,

prosecutor-general of the unrecognized Nagorno-

Karabakh Republic, told a news conference in Stepanakert

on 4 April that the enclave's former defense minister,

Samvel Babayan, has been formally charged with

masterminding the 22 March assassination attempt on

President Arkadii Ghukasian, RFE/RL's Stepanakert

correspondent reported. Mavrik Ghukasian said that the

charges were read to Babayan in the presence of his lawyer

after the former minister had admitted his guilt. He added

that there is "sufficient evidence" that Babayan planned to

install an interim military government after the

president's demise and then assume the leadership. LF

[02] FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY CONDEMNS

The Armenian Pan-

National Movement issued a statement on 4 April

condemning the Yerevan district court ruling of the

previous day empowering the country's prosecutor-

general to ask the parliament to allow the detention of

parliamentary deputy and former Interior Minister Vano

Siradeghian, Noyan Tapan reported (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 4 April 2000). The statement characterized the

measures against Siradeghian as "persecution" and a

manifestation of the "wave of terror" sweeping the

country. It said the court ruling demonstrates that the

Armenian judiciary is not independent of the executive.

Also on 4 April, parliamentary deputy speaker Gagik

Aslanian said he thinks it unlikely that Siradeghian has

fled the country to avoid being taken into custody,

according to Armenpress cited by Groong. LF

[03] FORMER GEORGIAN NAVAL COMMANDER

A Tbilisi district court on 4 April handed

down a two-year prison sentence to Naval Captain Otar

Chkhartishvili, former commander of the Georgian navy,

for abuse of office and misappropriating 78,000 lari

($40,000), Caucasus Press reported. The prosecution had

demanded a 12-year jail term. Chkhartishvili refused to

testify during his trial, which lasted over a year. He had

been fired by Defense Minister David Tevzadze in spring

1998 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 May 1998). LF

[04] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER ANTICIPATES RISE IN GDP

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev said

that GDP growth during the first quarter of 2000 is likely

to exceed 8 percent, compared with the previous year,

Interfax reported. He said industrial output for the first

quarter of the year increased by 14.5 percent, compared

with the first three months of 1999. Toqaev also noted a

marked improvement in tax collection. In an interview

published in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 1 April, Toqaev's

first deputy, Aleksandr Pavlov, noted that Kazakhstan has

finally overcome the after-effects of the 1998 Russian

economic crisis, and he predicted a stage of "steady

growth." LF

[05] COMPROMISED KAZAKH SECURITY OFFICIAL MOVES

Prime Minister Toqaev has

named Nurtai Abyqaev to the post of first deputy foreign

minister, Interfax reported on 4 April. Abyqaev was

dismissed in August 1999 from his post as head of the

National Security Committee for his involvement in the

clandestine sale to North Korea of obsolete MiG fighters

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 August 1999). He had

previously served as head of the presidential

administration and as Kazakhstan's ambassador to the

U.K. LF

[06] POLICE DISPERSE KYRGYZ PROTESTERS

police used force to disperse participants in the ongoing

picket in central Bishkek during the late evening of 4

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

Fifteen picketers who had embarked on a hunger strike to

protest the 22 March detention of opposition Ar-Namys

party chairman Feliks Kulov were forcibly hospitalized.

Kulov had appealed to them earlier that day to abandon

their fast. On 31 March the Bishkek City administration

had issued a ban on pickets and demonstrations, except

on one city square at a greater distance from the

government building. LF

[07] BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT VISITS TAJIKISTAN

the head of a delegation that also included the Belarusian

defense, industry and finance ministers and the secretary

of the country's Security Council, ITAR-TASS reported.

Lukashenka stressed the unused potential for expanding

by up to 10 times bilateral trade, which declined by 40

percent last year, according to Interfax. He said Belarus is

interested in importing cotton, aluminum, and tobacco

from Tajikistan and exporting agricultural equipment,

fertilizers and oil products. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[08] SERBIAN OFFICERS REVEAL 'SICKENING ATROCITIES'

A new internal Yugoslav army report details

numerous Serbian officers' revulsion at the atrocities they

saw fellow Serbs commit against defenseless Albanian

civilians in Kosova in 1999, London's "The Independent"

reported on 5 April. One commander of a tank unit said

that "for the entire time I was in [Kosova], I never saw a

single enemy soldier, and my unit was never involved in

firing at military targets." He added that "tanks, which

cost $2.5 million each, were used to slaughter Albanian

children. I am ashamed," the British daily added. A second

officer described how he watched with his "own eyes as a

reservist lined up 30 Albanian women and children...,

crouched down behind an anti-aircraft machine-gun, and

pulled the trigger. The half-inch bullets just tore the

bodies apart," he said. The army compiled the study in

January and February to "gauge morale against the

backdrop of growing tension between Serbia and

Montenegro." Most officers were "appalled" at the

prospect of a conflict with Montenegro and were

"traumatized" by what they saw in Kosova, the daily

added. PM

[09] YUGOSLAV ARMY REJECTS SPECIAL LINKS TO

The army said in a statement in Belgrade

on 4 April that it communicates directly with civilian

authorities and does not need any go-betweens, "Danas"

reported. The statement added that three former generals

whom the Montenegrin government has hired as advisers

were fired from the military because they "lost the trust"

of the army (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 April 2000). PM

[10] ROBERTSON SAYS KOSOVA MISSION ON 'RAZOR'S

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said in

Washington on 4 April that the alliance's mission in

Kosova is "still on that razor's edge between success...or

failure--failure of political will, a failure to put in the right

resources. We have to succeed for a whole series of

reasons, but most of all because we want to create a

model...for what the international community can do in

stopping evil and rebuilding a healthy, [multi-]ethnic,

[and] democratic society," AP reported. PM

[11] KOSOVA VILLAGES QUIET AFTER CLASH

Serbian-inhabited villages in the Sara National Park area

on the Kosova-Macedonian border were quiet on 5 April

after a clash between some 150 local Serbian civilians and

KFOR troops the previous day, Reuters reported. The clash

involved "shoving, clubs, dogs, and rubber bullets," AP

added. The confrontation began when peacekeepers tried

to confiscate illegally-held grenades from a Serbian home

and arrested one Serb. The man subsequently escaped and

was not recaptured. Some 11 U.S. troops, one Polish

soldier, an interpreter, and up to 14 Serbian civilians

sustained light injuries. PM

[12] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST ALLEGED SERBIAN WAR

Police in Sisak arrested Nebojsa Jelic on 4

April after he returned from Serbia. The ethnic Serb is

wanted for allegedly "maltreating and torturing" 16

Croatian policemen and a civilian in Glina in 1991, AP

reported. Jelic, who belonged to a paramilitary unit

during the Krajina Serb uprising, confessed his crimes to

police. He added that he felt he would be better off "in a

Croatian prison than living as a free man in Serbia," the

news agency added. PM

[13] DEL PONTE SEEKS EVIDENCE IN CROATIA

based war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del

Ponte, arrived in Zagreb on 4 April from Slovenia. She met

with President Stipe Mesic and is slated to hold talks with

Prime Minister Ivica Racan and Justice Minister Stjepan

Ivanisevic on 5 April. Her main goal is to obtain key

documents regarding the Croatian offensives in Krajina in

1995 and their aftermath. Mesic said that Croatia wants to

cooperate with the tribunal because the government

knows that the country can be absolved of collective guilt

for war crimes only by establishing the guilt of specific

individuals, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

Government spokesmen would neither confirm nor deny

reports that Del Ponte is looking for specific documents

about wartime Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak, Ivan

Korade, and Mirko Norac, "Novi List" reported on 5 April.

PM

[14] IS PLAVSIC ON HAGUE'S ARREST LIST?

Serb legal experts say that virtually all Bosnian Serb

leaders during the 1992-1995 war have been indicted by

the Hague-based tribunal, either openly or in sealed

indictments. Allegedly included on the list is former

Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic, who has long

broken with the hard-liners, "Vesti" reported on 5 April.

The newspaper also notes that NATO recently refused to

guarantee the safety of General Manojlo Milovanovic, who

consequently refused to go on a planned trip to Brussels.

PM

[15] PETRITSCH CALLS FOR 'CHANGE' IN BOSNIAN VOTE

chief representative in Bosnia, said in a statement in

Sarajevo on 4 April that he hopes voters will choose

"change" when they cast their ballots in local elections on

8 April. He specifically urged voters to consider voting for

"open lists" instead of traditional one-party slates,

RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The international

community's representatives in Bosnia want to break the

10-year grip of nationalist parties on the electorate. The

nationalists, for their part, have accused the foreigners of

interfering in the electoral process. In addition, Petritsch

warned that Bosnia may soon face a deep "economic

crisis" unless its legislators quickly introduce key reforms

and work seriously to fight corruption, "Oslobodjenje"

reported. PM

[16] SERBIA BANS CORRESPONDENT

authorities on 4 April banned Carlotta Gall, who is a

correspondent for the "New York Times," from visiting

Serbia for one year. Gall's visa had long expired. The ban

also applies to Edward Testa, who is a photographer

working for the same daily, AP reported. In New York,

Gall's editor Andrew Rosenthal said that his newspaper

has asked the Serbian authorities to "look into this." PM

[17] LARGEST MACEDONIAN BANK SOLD

Bank of Greece, the European Bank for Reconstruction and

Development, and the International Financing

Cooperation bought some 65 percent of the shares of

Stopanska Banka for $46.5 million on 4 April. Some 80

percent of the foreign-held assets belong to the National

Bank of Greece. PM

[18] ALBANIAN FORMALLY ENDS DEATH PENALTY

Minister Ilir Meta signed documents at the Council of

Europe in Strasbourg on 4 April confirming that his

country has abolished capital punishment, "Die Presse"

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 December 1999). PM

[19] ITALY, ALBANIA AGREE ON MIGRANT LABOR

Italian Embassy in Tirana said in a statement on 4 April

that Italy has agreed to accept 6,000 seasonal workers in

an effort to halt illegal immigration. To apply for a visa,

the workers need only an invitation from relatives already

working legally in Italy, dpa reported. Previously, legal

migrants had to find a job in Italy before applying for a

visa. Tirana and Rome want to end the lucrative traffic in

illegal immigrants from Albania to Italy. In related news,

the Albanian Foreign Ministry on 5 April issued a

statement appealing to Greece not to shoot at ships

carrying illegal immigrants. The previous day, Greek

patrol boats allegedly fired at a high-speed boat carrying

illegal immigrants from Albania to Corfu, Reuters

reported. PM

[20] SLOVAK FOREIGN MINISTER IN ROMANIA

Kukan and his Romanian counterpart, Petre Roman, said

in Bucharest on 4 April their countries will support each

other's efforts to gain membership in the EU and NATO as

well as temporary seats on the UN Security Council,

Rompres and TASR reported. Roman invited Slovakia to

participate in the construction of the new seaport

Constanta-South and accepted Slovakia's offer to take part

in building a second bridge across the River Danube.

Meanwhile, in Bratislava, Slovak Environment Minister

Laszlo Miklos said his country will seek compensation

from Bucharest for damage caused by two recent

incidents of pollution on the Tisza River. Miklos said

Bratislava will coordinate its efforts to obtain

compensation with other countries in the region. VG

[21] MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN ROMANIA GIVEN

Overturning a decision by the Bucharest

Appeals Court, the Supreme Court on 4 April paved the

way for the setting up of the Petofi-Schiller

"multicultural" university, Mediafax reported. The

government had appealed the lower court's decision,

which had ruled at the request of the Party of Social

Democracy in Romania and the Party of Romanian

National Unity that the institution was "illegal." The

government had decided on 30 September 1998 to

establish the university. The decision of the Supreme

Court is final and cannot be appealed. MS

[22] ROMANIAN COURT APPROVES ROYAL RESTITUTION

request that the Savarsin castle in Transylvania be

restituted to him, Romanian Radio reported on 4 April.

The castle is, in fact, a large hunting lodge. MS

[23] MOLDOVAN OFFICIAL SAYS RUSSIA TO SUBMIT

Moldovan

Foreign Ministry official Ion Stavila said on 4 April that

Russia has promised to submit a timetable for the

withdrawal of its troops from the breakaway region of

Transdniester by the end of April, BASA-press and Infotag

reported. He said Moldovan and Russian negotiators

agreed to this during talks in Chisinau last weekend. VG

[24] BULGARIA AGAIN REJECTS UN REPORT

April again rejected a recent UN report saying the country

violated international sanctions against the sale of arms to

Angola's UNITA rebels (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 March

2000), an RFE/RL correspondent reported. The Bulgarian

mission at the UN has sent a letter to the UN Security

Council describing the report as a "distortion and

misinterpretation" of the facts. The UN Security Council is

expected to consider a resolution based on the report in

about two weeks. VG

[25] BULGARIAN LEFTIST PARTIES TO COOPERATE

Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Euro-Left have agreed to

cooperate in Bulgaria's next parliamentary elections,

Bulgarian Radio reported on 4 April. Meanwhile, the Green

Party has announced that it will leave the Alliance for

National Salvation to form a new parliamentary group. VG

[C] END NOTE

[26] TURN OF THE SCREWS

As Russia and the rest of the world waits for

President-elect Vladimir Putin to make some decisive

policy moves, leaders in Russia's far-flung regions already

know what to expect. During his three months as acting

president, Putin initiated changes in how Moscow

manages its relations with the periphery. And in a marked

contrast to how he began his tenure at the helm of the

Federal Security Service (FSB), Putin is making no

assurances that a major overhaul will not occur.

Consider Putin's words at his first press conference

when he took over as director of the FSB in 1998. He

promised that "there will practically be no new

approaches to work with the regions." He declared that

control in the regions "will be strengthened but no extra

tightening of the screws (zakruchivaniye gaek) will take

place." Before his FSB assignment, Putin headed the

Kremlin's Control Department, where, among other

things, he uncovered 9,000 cases in which federal money

totaling some 3 trillion rubles ($104 billion at the current

exchange rate) had been spent by the regions for purposes

other than those intended. Putin's rise to power made

regional leaders understandably nervous.

Now, as then, regional leaders' anxiety is almost

palpable. Governors of all political stripes moved with

breakneck speed to back Putin's presidential campaign

and form their own branches of the Putin-backed Unity

movement. Some even suggested that the presidential

term be lengthened and the federation reformed into a

smaller number of more manageable units. But rather

than reassuring the fretful regional poo-bahs, this time

Putin started promising change from the very beginning.

Less than a month after taking over from former

President Boris Yeltsin, Putin called for declaring a war

against the "legal chaos" existing in regions where local

laws often conflict with federal legislation. Later, he spoke

about the need to place "all subjects of the Russian

Federation in the same economic conditions vis-a-vis the

federal center," noting that "several subjects have certain

privileges that others do not." So far, Putin's only

concession to maintaining the status quo was rejection of

the idea of appointing--rather than electing--governors, as

some regional heads had suggested. The president-elect

noted that the Russian population has "gotten used to its

right to influence who will be its leader."

But more important than Putin's words have been his

actions and that of his government. One month after his

appointment as acting president, Putin dismissed more

than 20 presidential representatives to Russian regions,

replacing them with his own appointees. In the weeks that

followed, the Justice Ministry announced the formation of

a commission to check the compliance of regional laws

with federal legislation; the Interior Ministry reorganized

its structure, subordinating all of its regional criminal

police units to Moscow headquarters; the Finance Ministry

announced stricter controls over regional finances; and

the Tax Ministry announced expansion of its project to

maximize information about the regions' tax-paying

capabilities. And only last week, German Gref, the head of

the Center for Strategic Research, the think tank charged

with drafting Putin's economic program, told reporters

that the relationship between the federal government and

regional governors will be revised.

What all these diverse policies have in common is a

tightening of control by the center over the regions. And it

may be reasonable to assume that in the future Putin will

seek to maximize control by supporting those regional

heads who not only express loyalty but can themselves

control outcomes on their territories and deliver on their

promises to the center. Those leaders who did not get the

vote out for Putin in presidential elections may find

themselves in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis Moscow. One

example might be Primorskii Krai, where Governor

Yevgenii Nazdratenko was one of the first governors to

support Unity. There, Putin barely scraped a victory with

some 40.08 percent of the vote, compared with

Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov's 36.36

percent. Similarly, in Buryatia, Putin also performed

poorly next to Zyuganov, 41.96 percent versus 40.53

percent. This occurred. despite the fact that three deputy

prime ministers in the republic's government took three-

month vacations so that they could head the local election

headquarters for Putin.

Since Putin has rejected the notion of appointing

governors, he may have to rely on less obvious means of

controlling regional leaders. "Vedomosti" suggested last

month that new legal measures being introduced to

tighten federal control over regional finances may make

regional leaders "docile" without the necessity of more

overt administrative measures. After all, only a handful of

Russia's 89 regions contribute more in revenue to the

center than they get in return. But previous attempts at

recentralizing Russia have generally failed--stymied in

part by the sheer size of the federation. Putin may have

one advantage that his predecessors since Stalin lacked:

fear.

Putin's conduct of policy in Chechnya and in the

presidential elections suggests he has a tendency toward

"overkill" and is uncomfortable leaving anything to

chance. In 1998, when Kalmykia's President Kirsan

Ilyumzhinov challenged the then weak Yeltsin leadership

by announcing that his republic considered itself outside

of the federation and would no longer transfer its federal

taxes, Moscow responded harshly, dismissing its federal

treasury official there and suspending all aid. What is the

likelihood that Ilyumzhinov or one of his peers will risk

making even a less dramatic statement and discovering

President Putin's reaction?

05-04-00

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URL: http://www.rferl.org

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