RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 84, 00-04-28

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. 84, 28 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH PARLIAMENT FACTIONS

[02] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER PROPOSES NEW GOVERNMENT

[03] RUSSIAN TROOPS TO RELOCATE FROM GEORGIA TO ARMENIA?

[04] IMPRISONED KARABAKH JOURNALIST RELEASED

[05] BAKU MAYOR BANS AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION DEMO

[06] NATO OFFICIAL SAYS GEORGIA MAY EVENTUALLY JOIN ALLIANCE

[07] GEORGIA, RUSSIA AGREE TO RESCHEDULE GAS DEBTS

[08] KAZAKHSTAN SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS DISCUSS TRANSPORTATION

[09] IRAN WARNS AGAINST CONFRONTATION IN CASPIAN...

[10] ...BIDS FOR OIL EXPORT ROLE

[11] IS KAZAKHSTAN'S NEW CAPITAL A POTEMKIN VILLAGE?

[12] KYRGYZSTAN REGISTERS MINIMAL FIRST QUARTER GDP GROWTH

[13] TAJIK PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR ON CRIME

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] CONTROVERSY OVER BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER

[15] BOSNIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES REFORM PACKAGE

[16] MUSLIMS EXHUME MASS GRAVES

[17] BOSNIAN SERB PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY' TO 80 CHARGES

[18] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES LAWS ON MINORITY EDUCATION

[19] KUCAN, HAVEL STRESS NO DELAYS IN EU ENLARGEMENT

[20] HAVEL CALLS FOR GREATER SLOVENIAN ROLE IN KOSOVA

[21] KFOR COMMANDER SLAMS ATTACKS ON RUSSIANS

[22] ANOTHER SHOOT-OUT IN BELGRADE

[23] YUGOSLAV AIRLINES CHIEF BURIED

[24] SERBIAN SOCCER STAR WARNS AUTHORITIES

[25] MOLDOVA, ROMANIA, INITIAL BASIC TREATY

[26] MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT SAYS PEOPLE 'MUST NOT PANIC'

[27] BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION MEETS IN

[28] MOLDOVAN CENTRIST PARTIES FORM ELECTORAL BLOC

[29] BULGARIANS DETAINED IN AIDS SCANDAL MAY LEAVE LIBYA

[30] BULGARIAN EMIGRES GATHER IN SOFIA

[C] END NOTE

[31] SERBIA AFTER THE PROTEST

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH PARLIAMENT FACTIONS

Kocharian met on 27 April with members of the Kayunutiun

parliament faction to discuss the deteriorating political

situation, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau. Kayunutiun is closely

aligned with the majority Miasnutiun bloc that on 25 April

had considered demanding Kocharian's impeachment. Kocharian

expressed his concern at the parliament's 25 April vote to

halt the tender for privatization of four energy-distribution

networks. Also on 27 April, Hrant Voskanian, who heads the

Communist Party of Armenia (CPA) parliamentary faction, told

Noyan Tapan that Kocharian had met the previous day with CPA

members to discuss their proposed amendments to the

constitution, which he rejects, and the possibility of

holding a nationwide referendum on Armenia's accession to the

Union of Belarus and Russia (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report,"

Vol. 3, No. 16, 21 April 2000). LF

[02] ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER PROPOSES NEW GOVERNMENT

at a press conference in Yerevan on 27 April, National

Democratic Union chairman Vazgen Manukian warned that a

definitive victory by either side in the ongoing power

struggle between the president and the parliament majority

aligned with Prime Minister Aram Sargsian would only compound

the difficulties Armenia currently faces, Noyan Tapan

reported. Manukian advocated creating a new government with

broader powers that would enjoy the trust of both those

players. Then, Manukian said, a new constitution should be

adopted as a prelude to the holding of pre-term parliamentary

and presidential elections, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported.

He further warned that uncertainty whether Armenia's primary

foreign policy orientation should be pro-Western or focused

on eventual accession to the Union of Belarus and Russia

aggravates internal political tensions. LF

[03] RUSSIAN TROOPS TO RELOCATE FROM GEORGIA TO ARMENIA?

Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian, who traveled to

Moscow on 27 April with Prime Minister Sargsian, will discuss

with his Russian counterpart, Igor Sergeev, the logistics of

relocating to Armenia the Russian forces to be withdrawn from

Russia's four military bases in Georgia, Caucasus Press

reported on 27 April quoting an unnamed Russian Defense

Ministry official. On 26 April, "Kommersant-Daily" published

what it claims is the full text of a secret protocol signed

after the Russian-Georgian talks in Moscow on 20-21 April at

which agreement was reached on the Russian withdrawal from

Georgia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 April 2000). LF

[04] IMPRISONED KARABAKH JOURNALIST RELEASED

journalist with the opposition newspaper "Tasnerord nahang,"

was released on 27 April and his sentence suspended for two

years, RFE/RL's Stepanakert correspondent reported.

Aghajanian was sentenced on 12 April to one year of jail on

charges of slandering the prime minister of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Anushavan Danielian, in an article

he published last November (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 April

2000). LF

[05] BAKU MAYOR BANS AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION DEMO

the Baku Municipal Council told Turan on 27 April that the

rally which opposition parties plan to hold on 29 April on

the city's Fizuli Square is "inexpedient." The 10 opposition

parties aligned in the Democratic Congress decided on 26

April to hold the demonstration at that location after

refusing an offer by the Baku city authorities to convene at

a motorcycle racetrack on the city's outskirts. The

protesters will demand amendments to the election law to

ensure that the parliamentary poll scheduled for November

2000 is truly free and democratic. LF

[06] NATO OFFICIAL SAYS GEORGIA MAY EVENTUALLY JOIN ALLIANCE

Military Committee, said after talks in Tbilisi on 27 April

with President Eduard Shevardnadze that Georgia has good

prospects of eventually joining the alliance, according to

AP. But he implicitly called into question Shevardnadze's

prognosis that Georgia "will knock on NATO's door" in 2005,

noting that Georgia's accession will be a "long, drawn out"

and "step-by-step" process. On 26 April, Venturoni discussed

with Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze Georgia's

ongoing participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace

program. U.S., Georgian, Azerbaijani, and possibly also

Armenian forces will participate in maneuvers to be held in

Georgia later this year within the framework of that program,

ITAR-TASS quoted Tevzadze as saying. LF

[07] GEORGIA, RUSSIA AGREE TO RESCHEDULE GAS DEBTS

in Moscow on 27 April, Georgian Deputy Minister of State Vano

Chkhartishvili and Fuel and Energy Minister David

Mirtskhulava agreed that by 5 May Tbilisi will pay the

Gazprom subsidiary ITERA part of its outstanding $70 million

debt for gas supplies, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported.

Tbilisi will also draw up a schedule for meeting remaining

repayments. ITERA cut deliveries to Georgia by half on 15

April. ITERA agreed to resume gas supplies to Tbilisi in May,

but supplies to other areas of Georgia will be resumed only

after consumers repay their debts. The two sides also agreed

to establish a joint working group to discuss ITERA's

participation in the privatization of Georgia's gas

distribution network. LF

[08] KAZAKHSTAN SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS DISCUSS TRANSPORTATION

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze told the

Eurasia-2000 summit in Almaty on 27 April that the TRACECA

transportation network should be expanded to include a north-

south transportation link running through Russian territory,

Caucasus Press reported. A Russian scholar had recently

called for making the route though the Caucasus the hub of

any new Eurasian transport system (see "RFE/RL Caucasus

Report," Vol. 3, No. 10, 10 March 2000). Russian Deputy Prime

Minister Viktor Khristenko, for his part, said that a single

Eurasian transport system should include an east-west route

from China across the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Poland

to Germany, according to Interfax. Khristenko also pushed for

a single investment system within the CIS in order to

strengthen stability and economic development. LF

[09] IRAN WARNS AGAINST CONFRONTATION IN CASPIAN...

Eurasia-2000 forum in Almaty on 27 April, Iranian Vice

President Hasan Habibi warned that competition for influence

in the Caspian region, in particular by the U.S., could

compound instability in the area, Reuters and AFP reported.

Habibi said conflicts in the Caucasus and the war in

Afghanistan pose a threat to regional security. He also

called for a speedy decision on defining the legal status of

the Caspian Sea, but stressed that that decision must be

taken by the five Caspian littoral states. He said Iran does

not support the agreement reached in 1998 between Russia and

Kazakhstan delimiting their respective sectors of the

northern Caspian. But Russian Deputy Prime Minister

Khristenko told journalists after talks with Kazakh President

Nursultan Nazarbaev on the sidelines of the summit that

Moscow welcomes Kazakhstan's offer to revise that

delimitation agreement, according to Interfax. LF

[10] ...BIDS FOR OIL EXPORT ROLE

Mohammed Hossein Adeli told the Eurasia-2000 forum on 28

April that the choice of export routes for Caspian

hydrocarbons should not be constrained by political factors,

Reuters reported. He argued that a pipeline running south

from Kazakhstan through Iran to the Persian Gulf "is the

cheapest, shortest, most economically viable way to take 1.8

million barrels per day of oil over 1,500 km." He estimated

the cost of construction of such a pipeline at $1.2 billion,

less than half the estimated cost of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline

which the U.S. and Turkey support. Some analysts say a firm

commitment by Kazakhstan to export some oil via the Baku-

Ceyhan pipeline is needed for that project to be economically

viable, but a Kazakh oil sector official said earlier this

month that Kazakhstan is unlikely to produce enough oil to

require access to that pipeline before 2008 (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 11 April 2000). LF

[11] IS KAZAKHSTAN'S NEW CAPITAL A POTEMKIN VILLAGE?

Premier Danial Akhmetov told a cabinet session on 27 April

that the majority of the buildings in the new capital,

Astana, including some constructed by international

companies, are of such low quality that they do not meet

international standards, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau reported. He

ordered the State Construction Committee and State Standards

Commission to review the situation and identify international

companies that do not have the requisite licenses. Western

visitors to Astana have termed it a "Potemkin village." LF

[12] KYRGYZSTAN REGISTERS MINIMAL FIRST QUARTER GDP GROWTH

Finance Minister Kubat Kanimetov told a cabinet session in

Bishkek on 27 April that GDP grew by only 1 percent during

the first three months of 2000 compared with the same period

in 1999, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported.

Agricultural production rose by 3.6 percent and the volume of

construction by 10.8 percent, according to Interfax, but

industrial output during the first quarter declined by 4.5

percent, and foreign trade turnover at $221 million was down

7 percent on the 1999 figure. GDP growth for 1999 as a whole

was 3 percent (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 January 2000). LF

[13] TAJIK PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR ON CRIME

address to the first joint session of both chambers of the

newly-elected Tajik parliament on 27 April, Imomali Rakhmonov

vowed to "declare war" on crime and drug smuggling, Asia

Plus-Blitz reported. Referring to the anti-crime campaign

launched earlier this month, he said a new decree will be

issued banning the wearing of camouflage uniforms and

carrying weapons except by military personnel on duty. He

also announced that the government will soon draft a national

military doctrine. Rakhmonov specifically lauded the

contribution of the National Reconciliation Commission and

its chairman, Said Abdullo Nuri, to the peace process.

Rakhmonov singled out industrial development and market

reform as crucial for the country's economic development,

noting the need to appoint qualified specialists to implement

those reforms. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[14] CONTROVERSY OVER BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER

(Concord) coalition in Banja Luka said in a statement on 27

April that it will demand the resignation of Zivko Radisic as

the Bosnian Serb representative on the joint presidency.

Sloga said that Radisic nominated former Bosnian Serb Deputy

Prime Minister Tihomir Gligoric to head the new, expanded

joint cabinet without consulting Sloga, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 April 2000).

Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party said it will

support Gligoric only if it has a representative or

representatives in the cabinet. Alija Izetbegovic's Party of

Democratic Action, for its part, approved Gligoric. Finally,

the Social Democrats announced that they will decide whether

to back the new prime minister once they see his program. PM

[15] BOSNIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES REFORM PACKAGE

House of Nations passed a package of recommendations from the

EU on promoting political and economic reform. Passing the

measures is one of the EU's preconditions for holding another

donors conference. Several representatives of the

international community have repeatedly warned that foreign

money for Bosnia will dry up unless key reforms are

implemented. PM

[16] MUSLIMS EXHUME MASS GRAVES

Muslim Commission for Missing Persons have exhumed 83 bodies

from several mass graves in eastern Bosnia, AP reported on 28

April. The bodies found in the Bratunac area are believed to

be those of some of the 6,000 Muslim males killed by Serbian

forces after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. Jasmin

Odobasic, who is the deputy head of the commission, said that

investigations will continue at Bratunac and other sites

throughout Bosnia in the coming week. PM

[17] BOSNIAN SERB PLEADS 'NOT GUILTY' TO 80 CHARGES

Nikolic, the Bosnian Serb prison commander recently arrested

by SFOR troops, entered a blanket plea on 28 April of not

guilty to all 80 counts against him of crimes against

humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and

violations of the laws or customs of war (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 25 April 2000). It was the first time in the

history of the tribunal that anyone has entered a blanket

plea rather than respond to each charge individually, Reuters

reported. The 80 counts against Nikolic are the highest

number in any public indictment that the tribunal has

announced to date. PM

[18] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES LAWS ON MINORITY EDUCATION

lower house of the parliament on 27 April approved two bills

regulating the education of ethnic minorities and their right

to use their respective native languages and alphabets.

Legislators from the Croatian Democratic Community and the

far-right Croatian Party of [Historic] Rights opposed the

bill, "Slobodna Dalmacija" reported. Meanwhile, the

government approved a measure to amend the constitution to

list all legally recognized minorities and to drop references

to two autonomous districts, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported. Under late President Franjo Tudjman, references to

the Muslim and Slovenian minorities were dropped from the

constitution, although some numerically far smaller

minorities retained their legal status. The governments in

Sarajevo and Ljubljana protested the change. More recently,

some critics have called for dropping all references to

ethnic groups and stressing instead that Croatia is a state

of all its citizens. PM

[19] KUCAN, HAVEL STRESS NO DELAYS IN EU ENLARGEMENT

meeting in Brdo Pri Kranju in Slovenia on 27 April, President

Milan Kucan and his guest Czech President Vaclav Havel said

that they hope that political troubles in current member

states will not hold up the process of EU enlargement. Kucan

added bluntly: "A delay, making up new conditions or allowing

special bilateral conditions, may cause candidates to

question if they are truly wanted in the EU.... [The same

would be true if the applicants come to sense that] they are

only interesting to the EU as a market, as consumers, and on

condition that they will not increase labor competition

towards member states," Reuters reported. Kucan's statement

follows recent remarks by German businessmen that they

foresee no enlargement before 2004, as well as periodic

statements by Austrian Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider and

others of his party opposed to enlargement. PM

[20] HAVEL CALLS FOR GREATER SLOVENIAN ROLE IN KOSOVA

in Ljubljana on 27 April that Slovenia is ideally suited to

act as a bridge between Central Europe and the Balkans. CTK

quoted him as saying: "It seems to me that Slovenia, which is

closest to [the crisis region] not only geographically but

also owing to its insight and understanding, can play an

important role in this field as the international community

is a bit helpless on many points.... Why could not the

contribution of Slovenia, a stable democracy in the former

Yugoslav region, be [a factor] enriching the general

conscience and bringing new ideas?" Observers note that

following independence in 1991, Slovenia took great pains to

identify itself with Central Europe rather than with the

other former Yugoslav republics, except to regain its former

markets there. EU and especially NATO member states have made

it clear to Ljubljana, however, that they expect it to do its

part to promote stability and development in the region. PM

[21] KFOR COMMANDER SLAMS ATTACKS ON RUSSIANS

said in Prishtina on 27 April that peacekeepers will not

tolerate a spate of recent attacks on Russian personnel.

These included three incidents on 26 April, one of which led

to the death of a Russian soldier, AP reported. Ortuno added:

"An attack against one soldier is an attack against us all."

he said. "We are one force and such acts will not be

tolerated." Many ethnic Albanians regard all Russians as pro-

Serbian and believe that Russian volunteers and mercenaries

took part in the Serbian crackdown prior to NATO's

intervention in 1999. PM

[22] ANOTHER SHOOT-OUT IN BELGRADE

Reuters describes as "a Yugoslav businessman," was killed by

unidentified gunmen following a car chase in the Belgrade

suburb of Vidikovac on 27 April. A second, unidentified

individual was also killed. Some Serbian press reports had

linked Skole to the slaying of Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic at

the start of the year. Two days earlier, an explosion rocked

the building where Skole has his flat. PM

[23] YUGOSLAV AIRLINES CHIEF BURIED

hundreds of mourners including top government ministers and

Yugoslav Airlines personnel attended the funeral of Zika

Petrovic, who was gunned down two days earlier (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 26 April 2000). Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic and his wife did not attend but sent a wreath. In

Athens, a Greek government spokesman said that Serbia needs

to become more democratic and that street killings are not

the way to solve problems, "Vesti" reported. PM

[24] SERBIAN SOCCER STAR WARNS AUTHORITIES

plays for the Italian team Lazio, said in Rome on 27 April

that he will no longer play for the Yugoslav national team

unless the Belgrade authorities deny a recent report in the

regime press that he has joined Milosevic's Socialist Party.

He gave the authorities a deadline of three days to meet his

conditions. Mihajlovic stressed that he recently signed a

document naming him as a "sports ambassador" of his country

and not as a member of a political party. PM

[25] MOLDOVA, ROMANIA, INITIAL BASIC TREATY

Foreign Minister Petre Roman and his Moldovan counterpart,

Nicolae Tabacaru, initialed the basic treaty between their

countries in Chisinau on 28 April, the RFE/RL bureau in the

Moldovan capital reported. The treaty must now be approved by

the two countries' parliaments. Roman said the treaty defines

relations between the two countries as a "privileged

partnership" and "is of historic significance for the two

Romanian states," while also contributing to European

stability. Tabacaru said that the treaty includes "all the

elements that must be included in such a document" while also

"codifying the special relationship between the two

countries." MS

[26] MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT SAYS PEOPLE 'MUST NOT PANIC'

appeal to "all forces in society," the government on 27 April

said Moldova is undergoing "one of its most difficult periods

in modern history" and faced the danger of "relapsing into

the second or third layer of states in the world." The

government called on citizens "not to panic" but "consolidate

[instead] all intellectual, physical, material, and spiritual

forces" of the nation. It said the cabinet will "soon"

undertake "urgent measures" for overcoming the crisis,

relaunch the economy, strengthen "social discipline,"

liquidate corruption, and fight organized crime. "Now and in

the future, the Republic can count on itself alone, and

development cannot be achieved only on the basis of foreign

credits. At the same time, we cannot imagine an autarchic

economy," the appeal said, in reference to the recent IMF and

World Bank decisions to stop lending to Moldova. MS

[27] BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION MEETS IN

The foreign ministers of members in the Black Sea

Economic Cooperation Organization, gathering in Chisinau on

27 April, decided to establish a permanent seat for the

organization's secretariat in Istanbul, Romanian radio

reported. Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Dumitru

Braghis expressed the hope that the forum will help his

country's quest to become a member of the Stability Pact for

Southeastern Europe. Roman, who will be the next rotating

chairman of the organization, told the gathering that the

organization must improve efficiency and turn itself into one

"ready for the 21st century." He said attention must

concentrate on regional projects financed by the Black Sea

Bank and international organizations, above all the EU. MS

[28] MOLDOVAN CENTRIST PARTIES FORM ELECTORAL BLOC

Democratic Party of Moldova, the Party of Revival and

Conciliation, and the Party of Democratic Forces signed an

agreement in Chisinau on 27 April on setting up an electoral

bloc, Infotag reported. They said this is "a strategic

partnership for all forthcoming electoral campaigns."

Democratic Party leader Dumitru Diacov said the three parties

will support a joint candidate in the next presidential

elections. MS

[29] BULGARIANS DETAINED IN AIDS SCANDAL MAY LEAVE LIBYA

the 17 Bulgarians detained last year in Libya in connection

with the accusation that they deliberately infected children

with the HIV virus have been released and can leave the

country, the BBC reported on 26 April, citing BTA. MS

[30] BULGARIAN EMIGRES GATHER IN SOFIA

emigres from the West held a meeting with representatives of

the government on 26 April to discuss ways of generating

international support for Bulgaria's efforts to join the EU,

AP reported. Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, who initiated the

meeting, told the forum that before Bulgaria can join the EU

it must solve the problem of "economic backwardness and low

incomes." MS

[C] END NOTE

[31] SERBIA AFTER THE PROTEST

The opposition has been congratulating itself on a

successful mass demonstration. The question now is: where

will Serbian politics go from here?

The feuding leaders of Serbian's opposition--most

notably the Serbian Renewal Movement's Vuk Draskovic and the

Democratic Party's Zoran Djindjic--managed to bury their

hatchets for at least a few hours on 14 April to stage one of

the largest demonstrations Belgrade has seen. Estimates in

the independent and private media ranged up to 200,000

participants.

Shortly thereafter, the opposition began congratulating

itself on a job well done, despite the fact that Draskovic

was soon criticizing Djindjic in public, much to the delight

of the regime media. For its part, the Belgrade independent

daily "Danas" wrote of the "therapeutic effect" of the

harmony that the opposition displayed at the rally.

Germany's "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" went perhaps

a step further and spoke of a "pre-revolutionary situation."

The paper pointed to the results of recent polls to conclude

that a large segment of the population supports the

opposition. Some 46 percent of the respondents would back a

joint opposition slate, while only 19 percent would choose

the regime. At the rally, the paper added, the majority of

the citizens showed that they were tired not only of the

regime but also of the divisions within the opposition. The

protesters' message to their leaders was clear: unite and

provide the leadership to channel the growing frustration

across the country.

Whether the opposition will be willing and able to do so

is anybody's guess. Your editor has the gut feeling that the

long-term future (at any rate) belongs to the educated

professionals of the G-17 group and the Alliance for Change.

Djindjic, by contrast, may prove to be a spent force.

There remains, moreover, often precious little substantive

difference between Draskovic's people and those of the

regime, especially where nationalism and anti-Westernism are

concerned. One German diplomat commented to "RFE/RL Balkan

Report" that the common link between Draskovic and the regime

is anti-modernism, which vents itself as anti-Americanism. In

any event, Draskovic knows well how to play upon the

confusion and ignorance of many voters. Like Djindjic, he has

every intention of becoming Serbia's next leader.

The regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, for

its part, still has teeth, although some observers feel that

its behavior is increasingly that of a cornered animal. The

wheels of repression continue to turn, and rarely do a day or

two pass without news of one or another independent or

private media outlet being hit with a stiff fine for

violating the Kafkaesque 1998 media law. Similarly, Milan

Protic and other opposition leaders face libel suits filed by

Milosevic's followers.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj, the

United Yugoslav Left's Mira Markovic, and their respective

minions regularly slam the opposition as traitors and NATO's

bootlickers. One would be inclined to laugh these hard-

liners off as pathetic political dinosaurs--except for the

fact that Serbia remains a country where political violence

is not unknown.

Just three days before the latest protest, independent

journalists and human rights activists held several

commemorative meetings in Belgrade to mark the first

anniversary of the killing of publisher Slavko Curuvija. At

the site of the murder, friends and colleagues of Curuvija

unveiled a memorial plaque, which reads that he was "killed

for his tough and critical words" against the regime of

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, whom he had once

supported. A friend of Curuvija's said at the meeting that

the late journalist "was not killed; he was executed,"

"Vesti" reported. Seselj, true to form, called Curuvija a

"criminal," "Danas" noted. The authorities have remained

silent on the killing.

Another unresolved mystery is the fire that swept some

offices in Novi Sad on 6 April. These rooms were located on

the upper floors of a modern office building. They just

happened to house the editorial boards or bureaus of key

independent media outlets: TV Duga, TV Melos, TV Montenegro,

Radio 021, Radio Signal, and "Danas." The weekly "Vreme"

recently concluded that unless the authorities produce a

convincing explanation for the fire and do so soon, one may

most likely assume that the MUP, or the Ministry of the

Interior, knows more about the fire and its origins than it

cares to admit.

The question remains as to where things are headed in

Serbia. Even if the opposition manages to maintain a healthy

degree of unity and parlay popular discontent into a real

citizens' movement, it is difficult to see where such a

movement can go. But former General Momcilo Perisic has

called for further demonstrations across Serbia to serve as a

"referendum" on the opposition's demand for early elections.

Under the present circumstances, one may not

realistically expect that any elections could be free and

fair. This is true both for the local vote that the regime

wants in order to oust the opposition from their provincial

strongholds, and for the general elections that the

opposition seeks in order to "turn the rascals out." In

the fall of 1998, several independent Serbian journalists

participated in a roundtable at RFE/RL headquarters in

Prague. Someone asked one of the Serbs what he thought the

political landscape would look like in six months. The

journalist replied that nobody in Serbia knows what the

situation will be in six days, let alone in six months. Those

words seem to ring as true now as they did then.

28-04-00

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