RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 70, 00-04-07

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 70, 7 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA ISSUES ARREST WARRANT FOR MISSING EX-MINISTER

[02] AZERBAIJAN REPEAT LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS PUBLISHED

[03] SURVEY SUGGESTS SUPPORT FOR INCUMBENT WANING ON EVE OF

[04] MORE SHOOTINGS IN ABKHAZIA

[05] KAZAKH OPPOSITION PROPOSES REFERENDUM ON NEW ELECTIONS

[06] KAZAKH OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED

[07] KYRGYZ PROTESTERS MOVE PICKET TO U.S. EMBASSY

[08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CREATES WORKING GROUP TO AMEND ELECTION LAW

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] SLOVENIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES GOVERNMENT'S FUTURE

[10] KRAJISNIK PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY'

[11] BOSNIA VOTES IN LOCAL ELECTIONS

[12] U.S. AMBASSADOR WARNS BOSNIAN VOTERS

[13] HERZEGOVINIAN LEADER THREATENS MIGRATION TO CROATIA

[14] KFOR, MILOSEVIC BACKERS CLASH AT MONASTERY...

[15] ...AS KOSOVA SERB MODERATES APPEAL FOR CALM

[16] FIRE SWEEPS OFFICES OF SERBIAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA

[17] PROTESTS IN VOJVODINA'S SECOND CITY

[18] U.S. CRITICIZES AUSTRALIA OVER EMBASSY APPOINTMENT

[19] BELGRADE'S AMBASSADOR TO VATICAN TO STAY IN ROME

[20] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT REBUKES STATE UTILITIES MONOPOLIES

[21] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES LOCAL ELECTION HURDLE

[22] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT BACKS CLUJ MAYOR

[23] MOLDOVAN PREMIER RESPONDS TO RECOMMENDATIONS ON RUSSIAN

[24] BULGARIAN ENVOY MEETS WITH IMPRISONED MEDICS IN LIBYA

[C] END NOTE

[25] UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA ISSUES ARREST WARRANT FOR MISSING EX-MINISTER

warrant for former Interior Minister Vano Siradeghian,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The same day, the Yerevan

district court where Siradeghian is being tried for having

ordered a series of contract killings suspended proceedings

for seven days. Siradeghian is believed either to have left

the country or gone into hiding after his fellow

parliamentary deputies voted on 4 April to lift his immunity

from detention (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 April 2000). Members

of his family have denied any knowledge of his whereabouts

and expressed concern for his safety. LF

[02] AZERBAIJAN REPEAT LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS PUBLISHED

Central Electoral Commission announced on 7 April that repeat

municipal elections held on 26 March were valid in 74 out of

75 districts, Turan reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 March

2000). A total of 556 deputies were elected, representing 10

political parties and four public organizations. Voter

turnout was 48.2 percent. Commission chairman Djafar Veliev

said he believes the poll was free and fair. LF

[03] SURVEY SUGGESTS SUPPORT FOR INCUMBENT WANING ON EVE OF

Caucasus Press on 7 April cited

the findings of recent opinion polls that indicate that

incumbent President Eduard Shevardnadze may not win the 50

percent of the vote needed for an outright, first-round

victory in the 9 April presidential election. Support for

Shevardnadze is said to have slipped by 11.3 percent over the

past two months to 43.1 percent, while his closest rival and

successor as Georgian Communist Party first secretary,

Djumber Patiashvili, has seen his backing leap from 5.7

percent to 20 percent. Adjar parliamentary chairman Aslan

Abashidze now has only 4.3 percent support compared with 12.4

percent two months ago. The chances of the remaining four

candidates are regarded as minimal. Shevardnadze met with

Abashidze in Batumi on 6 April, but no details of their talks

were revealed (see also "End Note"). LF

[04] MORE SHOOTINGS IN ABKHAZIA

an Abkhaz customs official were killed in an exchange of fire

between the Abkhaz patrol and Georgian guerrillas near the

village of Chuburkhindji early on 6 April, Interfax and

Caucasus Press reported. A second customs official was

wounded. LF

[05] KAZAKH OPPOSITION PROPOSES REFERENDUM ON NEW ELECTIONS

Abelsiitov, chairman of the opposition Azamat party, told a

press conference in Almaty on 6 April that Azamat wants a

nationwide referendum to be held in fall 2000 on removing

President Nursultan Nazarbaev from office and disbanding the

parliament, Interfax reported. The party is also demanding

that the governors of Kazakhstan's 14 oblasts be elected,

rather than appointed, by the president. Abelsiitov

characterized his party's "main task" as "creating a truly

multi-party system" in Kazakhstan. He expressed skepticism

that the various opposition factions would be able to unite

and coordinate their activities. LF

[06] KAZAKH OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED

on 6 April sentenced Workers Movement leader Madel Ismailov

to 15 days' imprisonment for participating in an unsanctioned

demonstration in that city on 30 January, Interfax reported

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 April 2000). LF

[07] KYRGYZ PROTESTERS MOVE PICKET TO U.S. EMBASSY

protesters who were forcibly removed by police from the

square in front of the government building in Bishkek late on

4 April have taken up position outside the U.S. embassy,

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

participant Kural Usubaliev, a retired policeman, was

sentenced by a district court in Bishkek on 6 April to five

days' imprisonment on charges of resisting the police. LF

[08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CREATES WORKING GROUP TO AMEND ELECTION LAW

group charged with drafting amendments to the existing

election law by 1 July, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The

groups comprises the chairman of the Central Electoral

Commission, a member of the presidential administration, and

deputies to the parliament elected in February-March, some of

whom represent moderate opposition parties. The new

parliament will meet for its first session on 14 April. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] SLOVENIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES GOVERNMENT'S FUTURE

legislature on 7 April began a debate on the proposed new

cabinet of Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek following the recent

resignation of nine ministers from the People's Party (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2000). The parliament will vote by

9 April on whether to approve the new government. Drnovsek

has said he will resign and call early elections if he does

not receive a vote of confidence for his minority cabinet,

Montenegrin Television reported. Elections are due in the

last quarter of 2000. The parliament is the center of

political power in Slovenia. PM

[10] KRAJISNIK PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY'

tribunal, Momcilo Krajisnik pleaded "not guilty" on 7 April

to charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity,

and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, including

counts of extermination, murder, willful killing, and

inhumane acts, AP reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 4

April 2000). The former deputy to Radovan Karadzic added "no,

no" for emphasis when denying the charge of genocide. The

judge denied his request "to say a few words in my defense."

Krajisnik could face up to life in prison if convicted on any

of the various counts. He is the highest-ranking defendant to

appear before the court to date. Chief Prosecutor Carla Del

Ponte called for the arrest of Karadzic so that he can stand

trial together with Krajisnik, Reuters reported. PM

[11] BOSNIA VOTES IN LOCAL ELECTIONS

Bosnian citizens are entitled to cast their votes at 3,500

polling stations in elections for local and municipal

officials, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Some 68

parties and coalitions, as well as 18 independent candidates,

will appear on the ballot. The OSCE is supervising the vote,

and some 6,500 foreign and domestic monitors will be present.

On 6 April, OSCE election organizers disqualified a small

Croatian nationalist party from the vote on the grounds that

it is opposed to the Dayton agreement. PM

[12] U.S. AMBASSADOR WARNS BOSNIAN VOTERS

Bosnia Thomas Miller said in Sarajevo on 6 April that voters

in the 8 April local elections should think carefully before

voting for the nationalist parties that have held sway in

Bosnia for a decade. Miller stressed: "I'm not interested in

recommending to my bosses in Washington that they put any

money into areas where you have people who are doing all they

can to obstruct Dayton implementation. But if we can show

some achievement this year, we have the decent chance to

convince the American people and leaders to continue the

[economic, military, and political] assistance," AP reported.

One analyst suggested, however, that most voters "will say to

themselves: 'I'm more afraid of the other nationality than of

my own crooks'" and will cast their ballots for one of the

three main nationalist parties. PM

[13] HERZEGOVINIAN LEADER THREATENS MIGRATION TO CROATIA

Jelavic, who is the Croatian member of the Bosnian joint

presidency and head of that republic's Croatian Democratic

Community (HDZ), said in Mostar that the government of

Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan is trying to destroy the

power of the HDZ in Bosnia at the urging of the international

community. Jelavic noted that the Croatian authorities have

held up or are threatening to cut pensions to Herzegovinian

war veterans. He said that the only solution for the

Herzegovinians might be to move en masse to Croatia,

"Jutarnji list" reported on 7 April. Croatia recognizes

ethnic Croatian citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina as Croatian

citizens. PM

[14] KFOR, MILOSEVIC BACKERS CLASH AT MONASTERY...

Kosova Serb supporters of Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic attacked the Gracanica monastery with axes and

pitchforks on 6 April in a second day of protest against a

decision by moderates to attend meetings of the UN's

provisional council as observers (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6

April 2000). One Serb was wounded in the leg when Swedish

peacekeepers fired shots to disperse the angry crowd. Pro-

Milosevic Serbs plan further demonstrations on 7 April. PM

[15] ...AS KOSOVA SERB MODERATES APPEAL FOR CALM

is one of the moderate Serb political leaders cooperating

with the UN, said at Gracanica on 6 April that KFOR troops

unnecessarily angered the protesters by using dogs against

them, "Vesti" reported. Sava added that he had been afraid

that enraged protesters would set fire to the 16th century

Serbian Orthodox building complex. Moderate spokesman

Aleksandar Vidojevic said the protesters fear that the

moderates will agree to independence for Kosova, adding that

it is easy for the Belgrade regime to "manipulate their

fears," AP reported. PM

[16] FIRE SWEEPS OFFICES OF SERBIAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA

people were injured and one killed in a 6 April blaze

destroyed the Novi Sad offices of independent Radio 021, two

private television stations, and the bureaus of Montenegrin

television and the Belgrade daily "Danas," Reuters reported.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. Opposition

leader Nenad Canak said, however, that "it means something

that it happened in the offices of the only independent

electronic media in Novi Sad." PM

[17] PROTESTS IN VOJVODINA'S SECOND CITY

demonstrated in Zrenjanin on 6 April to protest the detention

by police of one opposition city council member and the

sacking of two others. Some 25 members of opposition parties

spent the night in the council offices to protest what they

called the "illegal" detention and sackings, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. PM

[18] U.S. CRITICIZES AUSTRALIA OVER EMBASSY APPOINTMENT

embassy spokesman said in Canberra on 7 April that Australia

is wrong to name a new ambassador to Belgrade at a time when

most Western governments are trying to isolate the Milosevic

regime. A spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign

Affairs and Trade defended his government's decision. He said

that "we have an ambassador [in Belgrade] because we have a

large Australian Serbian community and we recognize states,

not governments," Reuters reported. The spokesman also denied

press reports that Australia named the new ambassador as part

of a deal in 1999 to secure the release from a Serbian jail

of two Australian aid workers and their translator (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 2 September 1999). PM

[19] BELGRADE'S AMBASSADOR TO VATICAN TO STAY IN ROME

Maslovaric, who is Yugoslavia's ambassador to the Vatican,

said in Rome that he will not return to Serbia even though

his diplomatic appointment ended several days ago, "Vesti"

reported on 7 April. He said that he will remain in Rome

"temporarily" because of what he called "private reasons."

When asked if his decision is linked to that of former

Yugoslav Ambassador to Italy Miodrag Lekic to remain in Rome,

Maslovaric stressed that "everyone has his reasons for not

going back" to Yugoslavia. Maslovaric pointed out that Lekic

is a "career diplomat and a Montenegrin." PM

[20] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT REBUKES STATE UTILITIES MONOPOLIES

that it is "inadmissible" for the state utilities monopolies

to regularly raise prices while paying "enormous salaries" to

some of their employees. Saying the population is regularly

subjected to "arbitrary hikes," he asked Prime Minister Mugur

Isarescu to examine as quickly as possible the methods of

calculating prices used by these companies as well as their

economic performance. Constantinescu also said that only the

breaking up of monopolies can bring about a free-market,

competitive system based on genuine economic performance,

RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS

[21] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES LOCAL ELECTION HURDLE

cabinet on 6 April approved an ordinance setting a 5 percent

electoral hurdle for gaining representation on local

councils, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Local elections

are scheduled for June 2000. MS

[22] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT BACKS CLUJ MAYOR

6 April rejected Cluj prefect Vasile Salcudean's appeal

against a Cluj tribunal ruling that reinstated controversial

Mayor Gheorghe Funar. The government had suspended Funar

pending an investigation of allegations that he abused his

position and harmed the interests of the Alimentara company

(see "RFE/RL Newsline, 25 and 27 January 2000). The Supreme

Court's ruling is final, Romanian Radio reported. MS

[23] MOLDOVAN PREMIER RESPONDS TO RECOMMENDATIONS ON RUSSIAN

A civic organization called "The Republic" has

suggested that Russia be allowed to maintain a military base

in the breakaway region of Transdniester and that Moldova

should adopt Russian as the country's second official

language, AP Flux reported, citing "De Facto." The newspaper

quoted Moldovan Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis as saying in

an unofficial interview that he does not rule out the

possibility of Russia's maintaining a base in the

Transdniester in exchange for natural gas and other products.

Nevertheless, Braghis noted that such a deal would run

counter to the OSCE resolution on the Russian troop

withdrawal and the Moldovan government's own declarations

concerning neutrality and demilitarization. He ruled out the

possibility of recognizing two official languages in Moldova.

VG

[24] BULGARIAN ENVOY MEETS WITH IMPRISONED MEDICS IN LIBYA

Danov, an envoy of Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov, has

met with the six detained Bulgarian medical workers accused

of intentionally infecting 393 Libyan children with the HIV

virus, BTA reported on 6 April. He said the medical workers,

who say they are not guilty, are in good spirits and are

hoping for a "fair and just trial." Danov informed them that

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy has assured Stoyanov that the

trial will be fair. The trial is scheduled to begin on 30

April. VG

[C] END NOTE

[25] UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

No one doubts for a second that incumbent President

Eduard Shevardnadze will be re-elected for a second term in

the 9 April presidential poll in Georgia. But many of those

who vote for Shevardnadze will do so not because they approve

of his policies or because they believe his election

promises. Rather, they fear that a victory by any of the six

alternative candidates would result in even greater economic

hardship and a return to instability.

The conduct of the election campaign has highlighted

numerous problems and weaknesses in the Georgian political

system that Shevardnadze has so far proved powerless to

solve. They include tensions between the central government

and the regions (including Georgia's three autonomous

formations); corruption, which Shevardnadze has been vowing

for years to eradicate, without success; and the

marginalization of all but a handful of political parties,

partly as a result of the flawed law under which last

October's parliamentary elections were conducted. Equally

serious are the economic problems that the country faces: an

external debt of $2.39 billion, which is equal to 85 percent

of last year's GDP, pensions and wage arrears amounting to

millions of dollars (Shevardnadze said last month that paying

pensions arrears would raise his share of the vote by 20

percent), and massive unemployment (despite Shevardnadze's

1995 presidential election campaign pledge to create 1

million new jobs).

None of Shevardnadze's six rival candidates has an

election program that offers convincing solutions to any of

those problems. Indeed, only two of those rivals stand even a

remote chance of polling more than 10 percent of the vote.

They are Shevardnadze's successor as Georgian Communist Party

first secretary, Djumber Patiashvili, and Adjar Supreme

Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze. Both men are leaders of the

so-called Batumi Alliance of five disparate opposition

parties, which is the second-largest parliamentary faction.

Patiashvili is still compromised in the view of many

Georgians, as he himself admits, for his as yet unclarified

role in the attack by Russian troops on demonstrators in

Tbilisi on 9 April 1989. Under the rubric "We can and will

give people back a better, dignified life," his election

program focuses on reducing budget spending to fund social

programs and on abolishing what he terms the "anti-

constitutional" institution of regional governors appointed

by the president. His foreign-policy program combines

continued cooperation with the West and improved ties with

Russia.

The authoritarian Abashidze, widely regarded as Russia's

stalking horse, has not campaigned beyond his native turf and

was rumored on 6 April to have decided to withdraw his

candidacy. Of the remaining four candidates, Tengiz Asanidze

is in jail in Batumi, Abashidze having refused to release

him, despite an amnesty from Shevardnadze. National Political

Union of Georgia "Mdzleveli" leader Avtandil Djoglidze is a

political unknown, as is Vazha Zhghenti, chairman of the

obscure Progressive Party, who believes Georgia should turn

its back on imported economic and political models and create

a new "national" ideology and laws.

By contrast, the seventh candidate, Chairman of the

Corporation of Lawyers of Georgia Kartlos Gharibashvili, is a

presidential election veteran: in 1991, he failed to collect

the requisite number of signatures to run against Zviad

Gamsakhurdia, and in the 1995 election he placed joint fourth

in a field of six candidates with less than 1 percent of the

vote. Gharibashvili told RFE/RL on 3 April that his program

has nothing in common with those of the other candidates,

being "that of a lawyer, not of a Communist Party official."

He said that the main focus of that program is human rights,

which he described as "as alien to a Communist Party leader

as the kiwi fruit is to Georgia."

The election campaign has been marred by voter apathy

and by resentment on the part of several would-be candidates

rejected by the Central Electoral Commission. (One of those

rejected, former National Security Minister Igor Giorgadze,

who is accused of masterminding the failed 1995 attempt to

assassinate Shevardnadze, still ranks as the "wild card" in

Georgian politics. He claims to enjoy the secret support of

60-70 percent of the army and of the Interior and Security

Ministries.)

At the same time, there appears to be little support for

calls by an alliance of some 25 extra-parliamentary parties

to boycott the poll unless the authorities agree to postpone

voting until after a census that would determine the exact

number of potential voters and thus remove the potential for

falsification of the outcome.

Some segments of society have, nonetheless, signaled

that they would not vote for Shevardnadze if he did not

deliver on earlier promises: those groups include the

500,000-strong population of the west Georgian region of

Mingrelia (a stronghold of sympathy for deceased President

Gamsakhurdia) and the ethnic Georgian displaced persons from

Abkhazia, who are demanding payment of their monthly $12

subsistence allowances.

The key question left unanswered by the 9 April poll is

not how many and which specific voters will reject

Shevardnadze's candidacy but what he can realistically do in

his second term to galvanize the economy, crack down on the

most egregious manifestations of corruption, restore

Georgia's control over its breakaway autonomous formations,

and prepare a new leadership team in which the population has

at least some degree of trust. The chances for a democratic

and peaceful transition of power at the close of the

Shevardnadze era depend in large part on his successful

accomplishment of those tasks.

07-04-00

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

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article