RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 78, 00-04-19

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 78, 19 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT, ITERA AT ODDS

[02] TURKEY ALLOCATES FURTHER GRANT FOR GEORGIAN MILITARY

[03] RUSSIA TO STEP UP SECURITY ON BORDER WITH KAZAKHSTAN?

[04] KAZAKHSTAN WANTS TO LURE ITS ETHNIC GERMANS BACK

[05] WORKER PROTEST IN SOUTHERN KAZAKHSTAN ENTERS SECOND WEEK

[06] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION DEMANDS KULOV'S RELEASE

[07] CRIME BOSS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIKISTAN

[08] UZBEK PRESIDENT REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] SLOVENIAN PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON PRIME MINISTER

[10] FONTAINE: SLOVENIA TO EU IN FIRST GROUP

[11] FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS SIGN ITALIAN COMMERCIAL PACT

[12] WAR CRIMES TRIALS TO TAKE PLACE IN CROATIA?

[13] BANKING SCANDALS WEIGH HEAVILY ON CROATIA'S BUDGET

[14] RACAN: TUDJMAN, AIDES INVOLVED IN 'ROBBERY'

[15] GRANIC ALSO IN THE DOCK?

[16] UN SLAMS SERBIA OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

[17] SERBIAN COURT FINES BETA

[18] DJINDJIC: SERBIA HEADING FOR GENERAL STRIKE

[19] MILOSEVIC BACKERS IN MONTENEGRO CLOSE RANKS

[20] HUGE GOLD DEPOSIT FOUND IN ROMANIA

[21] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT RAISES PENSIONS

[22] CHISINAU STUDENTS WIN ROUND...

[23] ...AND RENEW DEMONSTRATIONS

[24] STOYANOV SAYS BULGARIA VICTIM OF YUGOSLAV CONFLICTS

[25] UN RESOLUTION ON ANGOLA MAY AFFECT BULGARIA

[26] IOM LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST WOMEN SEX SLAVERY IN BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[27] GETTING PRIORITIES STRAIGHT IN CROATIA

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT, ITERA AT ODDS

Karen Galstian told journalists in Yerevan on 18 April that

the Gazprom subsidiary ITERA has been excluded from the

short-list of five foreign companies whose tenders for four

Armenian energy distribution networks are currently under

consideration, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Galstian

explained that ITERA does not qualify because its partner in

the bid, Rosatomenergo, failed to submit the findings of a

compulsory international audit clarifying its financial

situation. Four international companies, from France, Spain,

the U.S., and a Swedish-Swiss group, remain in the running.

One day earlier, ITERA announced that it had cut gas

deliveries to Armenia by half because of nonpayment of bills

for previous deliveries. The director of the Armrosgaz joint

venture, Roland Adonts, told ITAR-TASS that non-payment of

debts totalling millions of dollars incurred by Armenian

power plants and private consumers preclude his

organization's paying its own debts to ITERA. LF

[02] TURKEY ALLOCATES FURTHER GRANT FOR GEORGIAN MILITARY

General Sherafeddin Teliasan, who heads the Financial

Department of the Turkish Armed Forces General Staff, and

Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Giorgi Katamadze signed an

agreement in Tbilisi on 19 April under which Ankara will

provide a further $4 million for the Georgian armed forces,

Caucasus Press reported. Katamadze told journalists that most

of that sum is earmarked for reorganizing the 11th brigade of

the Georgian army, for measures to raise standards to comply

with NATO requirements, and to finance the opening of a NATO

office in Georgia. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has

said on several occasions that Georgia will make a formal bid

no later than 2005 for membership in the alliance. Turkey

allocated $5.5 million for the Georgian armed forces in 1998

and an additional $3.8 million in 1999. LF

[03] RUSSIA TO STEP UP SECURITY ON BORDER WITH KAZAKHSTAN?

correspondents in Kazakhstan on 19 April cited the KODA news

agency as reporting that Moscow will deploy troops and

Cossack units to guard its border with Kazakhstan beginning

next month. Both the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the Russian

Embassy in Kazakhstan have refused to comment on that report.

"Nezavisimaya gazeta-regiony" reported in issue No. 6 of this

year that the Volgograd authorities have asked Moscow to

establish a frontier zone encompassing six raions of

Volgograd Oblast to put a halt to purchases of land in those

districts by residents of Kazakhstan and to an upsurge in

smuggling and other cross-border crime. LF

[04] KAZAKHSTAN WANTS TO LURE ITS ETHNIC GERMANS BACK

meeting between Kazakhstan's deputy premier, Erzhan Utembaev,

and a German government representative, it was announced that

Kazakhstan will launch a campaign to persuade ethnic Germans

who emigrated from Kazakhstan to return, "Inostranets"

reported in issue No. 14. Kazakhstan will offer financial aid

to those who wish to do so. Over the past 11 years

Kazakhstan's ethnic-German population has shrunk from almost

1 million to 350,000. LF

[05] WORKER PROTEST IN SOUTHERN KAZAKHSTAN ENTERS SECOND WEEK

Phosphorous Plant in Kazakhstan's southern Zhambyl Oblast are

continuing the protest they began on 11 April to demand

payment of overdue salaries and pensions, RFE/RL's Kazakh

Service reported on 18 April. An unknown number of protesters

are on hunger strike, of whom five have been hospitalized. As

of 13 April, 20 protesters had been arrested. LF

[06] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION DEMANDS KULOV'S RELEASE

opposition representatives staged a march in central Bishkek

on 18 April to demand the release from pre-trial detention of

opposition Ar-Namys party chairman Feliks Kulov, Interfax

reported. Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan leader Jipar

Jeksheev said that the protest was intended to reassure the

public that the authorities cannot "destroy democracy." LF

[07] CRIME BOSS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIKISTAN

officials killed Nurullo Isaev, whom they identified as head

of a major criminal gang, in a shootout east of Dushanbe on

17 April, Reuters reported the following day. One police

officer was also killed in the exchange of fire. Isaev's gang

was reportedly responsible for the murder in 1999 of the head

of the Tajik Interior Ministry's department for the struggle

against organized crime. LF

[08] UZBEK PRESIDENT REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

in Tashkent on 18 April after her talks with Uzbek President

Islam Karimov that the latter categorically rejected U.S.

criticism of human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, AP and

Reuters reported. Albright also noted that Uzbekistan is

delaying serious market reform, in particular in making its

currency fully convertible. But she stressed that the U.S.

regards Uzbekistan as a friend, and is prepared to assist

Tashkent in combatting any spillover of Islamic extremism

from Afghanistan or elsewhere in Central Asia. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] SLOVENIAN PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON PRIME MINISTER

parliament begins discussions on the afternoon of 19 April on

the candidacy of center-right opposition candidate Andrej

Bajuk to succeed Janez Drnovsek as prime minister (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 17 April 2000). The ballot is expected on

20 April at the latest. If Bajuk does not win the necessary

46 out of 90 votes, President Milan Kucan and the various

political parties have three more days to nominate other

candidates or to renominate Bajuk. If the legislature fails

to elect a new prime minister by 8 May, Kucan must bring

elections forward from the fall to June or July. Bajuk is

expected to obtain not more than 44 votes, Reuters reported.

Political power in Slovenia is centered in the parliament.

Several parties other than Drnovsek's Liberals want new

election legislation based on proportional representation. PM

[10] FONTAINE: SLOVENIA TO EU IN FIRST GROUP

is president of the European Parliament, said in Ljubljana on

18 April that she does not expect the current Slovenian

government crisis to delay the Alpine republic's admission to

the EU (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 April 2000). She added that

she expects Slovenia to be among the next group of new

members admitted. "I believe Slovenia could be among

countries that will participate in the 2004 election to the

European Parliament," Reuters quoted her as saying. PM

[11] FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS SIGN ITALIAN COMMERCIAL PACT

a multilateral agreement in Trieste to promote economic

contacts between each other and with Italy, "Jutarnji list"

reported on 19 April. This is the first such agreement since

the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia began in 1991 and is

sponsored by Confcommercio, or the Italian Chamber of

Commerce. The agreement contains few concrete pledges but

paves the way for cooperation between firms in the various

former Yugoslav republics with the backing of Italian money.

PM

[12] WAR CRIMES TRIALS TO TAKE PLACE IN CROATIA?

from the Hague-based war crimes tribunal discovered an

unspecified quantity of human bones at a suspected mass grave

at Obradovic Varos near Gospic, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported on 18 April (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 April 2000).

Deputy Justice Minister Ranko Marijan suggested that suspects

might eventually be tried in Croatia rather than in The

Netherlands. He added: "Under our constitutional law, the

[Hague-based] tribunal should have jurisdiction, but given

the recent talks between the government and the chief

prosecutor, [Carla Del Ponte,] it is not unlikely that the

war crimes cases will be tried in Croatia," Reuters reported.

"It is in the vital interest of Croatia and its citizens that

the suspects stand trial here," Marijan added. If any trials

do take place in Croatia, it would be the first time that the

tribunal has agreed to hold trials outside The Netherlands.

PM

[13] BANKING SCANDALS WEIGH HEAVILY ON CROATIA'S BUDGET

Bank Governor Marko Skreb said in Zagreb on 18 April that the

costs of resolving problems stemming from some 25 bank

failures will amount to $5.5 billion, or two-thirds of the

1999 state budget. Some of the costs will be covered by

selling off the banks' assets and the rest from the state

budget, AP reported. Critics have charged that Skreb, who

until recently was a member of late President Franjo

Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), took too long

to investigate the bank failures. Many Croats believe that

bad loans to HDZ loyalists lie at the root of most of the

bank failures. PM

[14] RACAN: TUDJMAN, AIDES INVOLVED IN 'ROBBERY'

Minister Ivica Racan said in Zagreb on 18 April that

recordings of conversations between Tudjman and some of his

aides indicate that they were involved in "robbery" in the

sale of the mass-circulation daily "Vecernji list," "Jutarnji

list" reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 April 2000). Deputy

Prime Minister Zeljka Antunovic added that this was not the

only privatization of a firm to be directed by the

president's office. Parliamentary speaker Zlatko Tomcic is

expected to make further recommendations in the case in the

course of 19 April. Rijeka's "Novi List" called the scandal

"Croatia's Watergate affair." The independent daily also

speculated as to whether Ivic Pasalic, who heads the

Herzegovinian lobby and was Tudjman's top domestic advisor,

will wind up in jail once the case goes to court. He

currently enjoys parliamentary immunity. Speculation has

centered on the possibility that Pasalic and one of Tudjman's

sons actually controlled "Vecernji list." PM

[15] GRANIC ALSO IN THE DOCK?

preparing criminal charges against Mate Granic, who is a

former foreign minister and HDZ presidential candidate,

"Jutarnji list" reported on 19 April. Granic allegedly

illegally transferred some $1.75 million over an unspecified

period of time to foreign bank accounts. The money then

returned to Croatia to finance the construction of Granic's

house and other projects. He called the charges an example of

politically-motivated "revenge-seeking." Granic recently left

the HDZ to form the more moderate Democratic Center, which

leads the HDZ in popularity polls. PM

[16] UN SLAMS SERBIA OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

Rights Commission voted 44-1 to condemn Belgrade for

repression of the independent media and political opposition,

as well as for the misuse of justice for political purposes.

Russia cast the sole vote against. The measure also noted

that in Kosova there had been "systematic targeting and

terrorization of the civilian population...by Serbian forces,

mass forced displacement, expulsion, group massacres, and

summary executions, torture, arbitrary detention," as well as

rape, widespread destruction of homes, and the repression of

the expression of political views, AP reported. PM

[17] SERBIAN COURT FINES BETA

the private news agency Beta $6,900 at the black market rate

in a libel suit filed by Yugoslav Information Minister Goran

Matic. A similar suit was dismissed against the daily "Blic"

on the grounds that it had simply reprinted a Beta story

linking Matic to the 1999 murder of independent journalist

Slavko Curuvija rather than report the charge on its own.

Beta Director Radomir Diklic told Reuters that he expects to

lose the case. "They will fine us for certain, because the

[media] law exists so that they can collect their bounty," he

added. PM

[18] DJINDJIC: SERBIA HEADING FOR GENERAL STRIKE

leader Zoran Djindjic said that the "final scenario" in the

political action begun with the 14 April Belgrade protest

meeting will be for two million citizens to turn out in a

"kind of general strike," "Danas" reported on 19 April (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 17 April 2000). He added that Yugoslav

Prime Minister Slobodan Milosevic is now frightened of

defections from the ranks of his supporters. PM

[19] MILOSEVIC BACKERS IN MONTENEGRO CLOSE RANKS

branches of the Serbian People's Party and Vojislav Seselj's

Radicals have joined an electoral coalition recently formed

by Milosevic's supporters in that republic, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported on 18 April (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

17 April 2000). PM

[20] HUGE GOLD DEPOSIT FOUND IN ROMANIA

believed to be the biggest in Europe, has been found in

central Romania, according to a report published on 18 April

by the U.S. Pinock Allen and Holt Company, AFP reported. The

deposit is near the town of Rosia Montana and is believed to

contain over 250 tons of gold and 1,370 tons of silver spread

over 20 square kilometers. Frank Timis, head of the Canadian

mining company Gabriel Resources, which holds a 65 percent

stake in the joint venture behind the find, said his company

has spent $20 million on feasibility studies for the find and

plans to invest up to $250 million in the project, convinced

that "we will be able to extract 85-90 percent" of the

precious metals. The project will employ some 2,000 workers

in a region hit hard by unemployment. MS

[21] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT RAISES PENSIONS

April decided to gradually raise pensions beginning on 1 May.

The smallest pensions will be raised by as much as 50

percent. The cabinet said the move was made possible by its

decision to tax economic activities that previously went

untaxed. The cabinet also decided to restructure the state-

owned ROMGAZ company, breaking the monopoly into five

independent companies. MS

[22] CHISINAU STUDENTS WIN ROUND...

Urechean on 18 April told some 20,000 students demonstrating

in the Moldovan capital that the mayoralty has decided to

annul its decision depriving them of the right to free travel

on public transportation (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 April

2000). Urechean also said that the students detained one day

earlier after clashes with the police had been freed. But he

added that the decision on free public transportation may be

revised, depending on government subsidies. After his

announcement, most demonstrators withdrew but several

thousand gathered on one of the town's main streets where

skirmishes with police forces reoccurred. They blocked

traffic, but dispersed after further parleys with the police,

RFE/RL's bureau in the Moldovan capital reported.

Parliamentary Chairman Dumitru Diacov said "provocateurs"

identified to be President Petru Lucinschi supporters had

been spotted among the demonstrators. MS

[23] ...AND RENEW DEMONSTRATIONS

19 April in Grand National Assembly Square to protest against

their peers having been beaten up by police in a student

hostel the previous night. The students claim policemen

locked up students in a hostel, beat them and said they

should stop participating in the protests. A police spokesman

said an investigation has been launched. MS

[24] STOYANOV SAYS BULGARIA VICTIM OF YUGOSLAV CONFLICTS

18 April in an interview with the daily "Sueddeutsche

Zeitung" that the Yugoslav conflicts over the past nine years

"caused Bulgaria great losses" and deprived it of being "a

transit country for west European goods to southeastern

Europe." Stoyanov said investors have also been scared off

and the wars in general have threatened the success of

Bulgaria's economic reforms. He said that the Bosnia war of

1992-1995 cost Bulgaria "at least $5-6 billion" and the

Kosova war also "caused damages in the billions." Further

losses are now produced by the blocking of navigation on the

Danube River as the result of the NATO air strikes, he said.

MS

[25] UN RESOLUTION ON ANGOLA MAY AFFECT BULGARIA

Council on 19 April approved a resolution warning that it

will consider imposing penalties against countries found to

have 89iolated an arms embargo and economic sanctions against

Angolan rebels. The council set a six-month period to further

investigate how the UNITA rebels were able to fuel their war

and said it will decide in November whether to take action

against violators. An independent panel of experts earlier

said Bulgaria had been the main supplier of arms to the

rebels, though a number of African countries and Belgium were

also involved. Bulgaria has called the report "distorted,"

Reuters reported. MS

[26] IOM LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN AGAINST WOMEN SEX SLAVERY IN BULGARIA

April launched a campaign aimed at preventing the export of

women as sex slaves, AP reported. A similar campaign was

launched, also on 18 April, in Slovakia. The IOM says some

10,000 Bulgarian women, mostly under 18, have fallen prey to

the sex trade, being lured into going abroad by promises of

jobs as models and dancers, and even marriages to Westerners.

Village girls as young as 14 have also been kidnapped and

smuggled over the border. MS

[C] END NOTE

[27] GETTING PRIORITIES STRAIGHT IN CROATIA

leaden statements by officials of the Croatian Democratic

Community (HDZ) alternating with pathetic cries from a

seemingly helpless opposition. The HDZ has split and its

remaining leaders feud in public. It is true that HDZ-backed

newspapers like "Vecernji list," "Slobodna Dalmacija," and

"Vjesnik" have lost their government insider's edge and

furthermore face an uncertain future. But the independent

"Jutarnji list" and the independent weeklies make for

exciting reading as HDZ leaders fight each other and scandals

from the previous 10 years emerge on an almost daily basis.

But that is not the only excitement in the Croatian

press these days. Something else that crops up almost every

day are verbal pot-shots exchanged between President Stipe

Mesic and members of the government, usually Prime Minister

Ivica Racan or Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic. It is to

be expected that the two sides do not see eye-to-eye about

the issues surrounding the reduction of the president's

constitutional powers. Opinion polls, moreover, suggest that

most voters are pleased with both the president and the

government, and that they find the ongoing tension between

them normal and healthy. In fact, Mesic is the country's most

popular politician, and right behind him comes Racan.

But one area of seemingly constant sparring is more an

embarrassment than anything else, namely how they deal with

The Ghost of Franjo Tudjman. This does not refer to the

question of cutting the president's constitutional powers.

The issue is the pains to which politicians go to show

themselves as breaking with Tudjman's fondness for official

pomp and circumstance.

If Tudjman's strutting about flanked by young men in

"historical" comic-opera uniforms was unintentionally funny,

the same might be said of the current sparring over the

legacy of government-by-show. Specifically, "issues" have

arisen regarding the home of the president and other

officials, and the proper protocol to be shown at airports.

Last month, Mesic was furious that the government

offered him a "luxury villa" as his official residence. He

refused the house, calling the offer a ploy to make him look

extravagant in the eyes of average Croats. It appears that

many people were indeed angry that their president would live

in the lap of luxury, but a look at the photos of the home

suggested that it was anything but of international

presidential quality. The author knows any number of U.S.

professors or German businessmen who live in much more

comfortable or spacious surroundings, and the list need not

stop there.

In the end, Mesic did not take the house. (Whether the

building's pre-1941 owners will get it back is another

matter.) For good measure, it might be noted that the prime

minister lives in an ordinary flat, with guards outside his

apartment block on a parking lot shared by several other

modern buildings.

This self-enforced modesty recalls tales of the blue-

blooded former British Labour minister who shunned his

aristocratic title and allegedly painted rust spots on his

car to give himself a more close-to-the-people image. But not

all modesty is a matter of personal choice. Mesic and Granic

openly sparred in the press over the degree of protocol to be

shown to the president when he leaves on or returns from an

official visit, such as the one Mesic made to Bosnia-

Herzegovina in March. Mesic argued that his demands are far

from Tudjman's pomp and in keeping with the practices of such

democracies as Slovenia and Bulgaria. He felt that the Racan

government virtually ignored his visit and that such behavior

amounted to an insult.

But Granic was not to be budged in his role as the

defender of modesty in government. He recently sought not to

have to ride in the same car from the airport as a visiting

Thai princess, in contradiction to protocol. Questions of

protocol also arose over the issue of the presence of a

military band--de rigeur under Tudjman--to greet her. In the

end, Racan and the government went along with internationally

accepted standards of protocol in receiving the visiting

dignitary. But this is unlikely to be the end of the matter.

Croatia certainly has more substantial problems than the

legacy of pomp and circumstance. It will take a while before

a truly functioning democracy takes root, including the

establishment of really independent media. The government

certainly cannot afford to forget that a main reason that it

attracted voter support in January was popular anger over the

HDZ's corruption and misuse of the privatization process, but

this will take long years to set right. Issues of housing,

unemployment, and the cost of living require immediate

attention, although here, too, there are no easy answers.

Perhaps more profoundly, there is a general social malaise

and ethical vacuum that one finds in many post-communist

societies. How these aspects of life will be brought up to

"European norms" is anybody's guess.

In short, Croatia has its tasks more than cut out for

it. The example of Slovakia shows that even a determined

opposition with its own agenda can squabble and falter after

it comes to power, making a return of the old regime a very

real possibility. In such circumstances, one does not know

whether to laugh or cry when Croatia's top elected officials

fight publicly over issues such as the size of the

president's work room or the color of a carpet at an airport.

19-04-00

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

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