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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 89, 00-05-09Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 89, 9 May 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] SOUTH CAUCASUS PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKERS MEETFollowing talksin Strasbourg from 4-6 May, the speakers of the Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian parliaments issued a joint statement pledging to continue cooperation between their respective legislatures with the aim of strengthening "the atmosphere of trust in the region," Caucasus Press reported. They also agreed on convening a workshop later this year at which representatives of all three South Caucasus states will discuss the conditions in which displaced persons currently live and the prospects for their repatriation. LF [02] COMMUNISTS ISSUE ULTIMATUM TO ARMENIAN PRESIDENT...ArmenianCommunist Party leader Vladimir Darpinian warned President Robert Kocharian on 6 May that his party will launch a nationwide campaign to remove him from office unless he abandons his opposition to Armenia's accession to the Russia- Belarus union and agrees to amend the constitution to curtail the powers of the presidency, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Darpinian also criticized Kocharian for "decapitating the government of national unity" by his 2 May dismissal of Prime Minister Aram Sargsian. Kocharian had met on 5 May with representatives of the Miasnutiun majority parliamentary bloc to discuss in general terms the formation of the new government. Kocharian reportedly said during those talks that he will accept whichever candidate for premier Miasnutiun proposes. Vartan Ayvazian, who heads the second- largest Kayunutiun faction, said that Kocharian proposed that either he or the parliamentary majority should form the new cabinet. Ayvazian said the first of those two options would entail appointing a "technocrat" premier. LF [03] ...AS WAR VETERANS CALL FOR HIS RESIGNATIONAt an 8 Maygathering at the Yerablur war cemetery attended by dismissed Premier Sargsian, members of the Yerkrapah Union of veterans of the Karabakh war. which is aligned with Miasnutiun, proposed that both Kocharian and Yerkrapah members who currently hold senior government posts should step down "so the people can decide who should govern their country," RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. But Yerkrapah board member Miasnik Malkhasian stressed that the veterans will never resort to force to achieve their political objectives. LF [04] RUSSIAN MILITARY BASES NOT TO MOVE FROM GEORGIA TO ARMENIANoyan Tapan on 8 May quoted an unnamed Armenian DefenseMinistry spokesman as denying media reports that the Russian military bases in Georgia that are to be closed will be transferred to Armenian territory (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 April 2000). LF [05] U.S. DIPLOMAT VISITS ARMENIA...Carey Cavanaugh, who is theU.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group charged with mediating a settlement of the Karabakh conflict, met with President Kocharian and Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian on 7 May in Yerevan, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He was scheduled also to meet with Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in Yerevan. Cavanaugh told journalists the object of his visit is to assess the political situation in Armenia and the prospects for advancing a peace settlement. He disclosed that the Minsk Group is drafting a new Karabakh peace proposal, but he refused to give any details or say when that proposal might be submitted to the conflict parties. He said he will meet with his French and Russian counterparts as well as with international agencies in Geneva on 18 May to discuss funding for reconstruction and the resettlement of displaced persons and refugees. LF [06] ...AND AZERBAIJANCavanaugh met in Baku on 8 May withAzerbaijan's Foreign Minister Vilayet Guliev, ITAR-TASS and Turan reported. He assured Guliev that the new peace proposal must be acceptable to all parties to the conflict. Azerbaijan rejected the previous draft proposal of November 1998, which envisaged the creation of a "common state" comprising Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. LF [07] DEMONSTRATORS DETAINED IN AZERBAIJANI CAPITALPolice in Bakuon 8 May dispersed some 60 people who attempted to picket the Prosecutor-General's Office to demand the release of opposition leaders arrested during the 29 April unsanctioned demonstration in the capital, Turan reported. Nine demonstrators were detained. Six men were fined 55,000 manats ($11), while the three detained women were cautioned and then released. Also on 8 May, representatives of the 10 opposition parties aligned in the Democratic Congress decided to stage another mass demonstration in Baku on 20 May, Turan reported. They also issued an appeal to the authorities to "stop violating national interests" and to create conditions for holding democratic elections. On 5 May, Turan reported that 11 people detained on 29 April have been transferred from a police isolation ward to Baku's Bailov jail. LF [08] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT MAJORITY IN CRISISNine chairs ofparliamentary committees resigned their posts on 8 May to protest criticism expressed the previous day by parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania. Zhvania had criticized their demand that the outgoing government be held responsible for its failure to fulfill the 1999 budget, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 2000). Zhvania demanded that the 120 signatories disassociate themselves from that demand, which he construed as directed against Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. The initiators of the campaign have denied any such intent. Shevardnadze, for his part, attributed the move to the deputies' "inexperience," and expressed his full support for Zhvania, whom he charged with strengthening party discipline. Shevardnadze also castigated those parliamentary deputies who supported the proposal by Union of Traditionalists Chairman Akaki Asatiani to reintroduce the post of premier (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 17, 28 April 2000). LF [09] GEORGIAN TOWN REHABILITATES STALINA statue of Joseph Stalinwas unveiled in the west Georgian town of Khashuri on 7 May more than 40 years after it was dismantled and consigned to storage, ITAR-TASS reported. The restoration of that monument raises to 18 the number of Stalin statues in Georgia, according to AP. LF [10] KYRGYZ OFFICIALS MEET WITH BISHKEK PROTESTERSMeeting on 6May with participants in the Bishkek picket to protest the outcome of the February-March parliamentary poll, Bishkek Mayor Medet Kerimkulov asked those demonstrators to refrain from further marches in the next few days, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. But on 8 May, 75 protesters marched to the Agriculture Ministry, where they were dispersed by police after 30 minutes. The previous day, police had forcibly dispersed some 100 picketers gathered outside the Kyrgyztelekom building. On 8 May, Security Council secretary Bolot Djanuzakov similarly asked 10 representatives of the protesters not to undertake further marches. He assured them that the Supreme Court will begin reviewing the election results on 11 May. The Bishkek picket is now in its 55th day. LF [11] KYRGYZSTAN MAY LIFT MORATORIUM ON LAND OWNERSHIPSpeaking inKyrgyzstan's southern Djalalabad Oblast on 6 May. President Askar Akaev said that the free sale and purchase of land may be possible as early as this fall if parliamentary deputies consider it appropriate, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The Kyrgyz population endorsed private ownership of land in a referendum on October 1998, but the parliament subsequently imposed a five-year moratorium on implementing that decision. LF [12] KYRGYZ ENERGY TARIFFS REDUCEDState Energy Agency headUlarbek Mateev announced in Bishkek on 8 May that electricity tariffs will be reduced by 15 percent "soon," RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Tariffs had been raised on 1 May, sparking protests by the Kyrgyz trade unions. On 4 May, President Akaev criticized the price hike, calling for tariffs to be reduced (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 2000). LF [13] KYRGYZ, UZBEK GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES RESOLVE SOMEDIFFERENCESThe second meeting of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek inter- government commission, which took place in Bishkek on 5-6 May, resulted in agreement on the lifting of most mutual import restrictions, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. In a joint statement on 6 May, Uzbek Deputy Premier Rustam Yunosv and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Esengul Omuraliev, characterized the current state of bilateral relations as unsatisfactory and pledged to take measures to improve it. Both men termed the meeting "a kind of breakthrough" in bilateral relations. Yunosov also said during the meeting that Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov will visit Kyrgyzstan this fall. He added that the two countries may sign an agreement on relaxing visa regulations by the end of this month. LF [14] TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL GUARDS PERISH IN ROAD ACCIDENTSixmembers of President Imomali Rakhmonov's personal guard died in 7 May and another 23 were injured when the truck in which they were travelling crashed near a training camp south of Dushanbe, ITAR-TASS reported. No further details of the incident are available. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[15] MILOSEVIC'S HOMETOWN TENSE BEFORE PROTESTSerbian policedetained three journalists from the non-state media and two activists of the Otpor (Resistance) student movement in Pozarevac, Reuters reported on 9 May. Otpor and several other opposition groups recently called for a demonstration in the hometown of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at 3:00 p.m. local time on 9 May to protest the beating and arrest of three Otpor activists following their scuffle with friends of the president's son (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 May 2000). On 8 May, police released the three activists but then rearrested two of them, at the same time as the three journalists were detained. It is unclear what reason the police gave for the arrests. On 9 May, police stepped up their presence in Pozarevac and prevented vehicles carrying opposition supporters and their technical equipment from entering the city. PM [16] SERBIAN OPPOSITION CANCELS DEMONSTRATIONIn Novi Sad on 9May, police detained opposition leader Nenad Canak "for questioning" as he was on his way to Pozarevac (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 May 2000). Reuters quoted an unnamed opposition official in Belgrade as saying that several opposition leaders had met and decided to "postpone" the demonstration until an unspecified date. Elsewhere, several regime spokesmen and the pro-Milosevic daily "Politika" repeated their charges that Otpor leaders are "fascists" and "foreign agents." PM [17] ZAGREB CITY VOTE SHOWS APPROVAL FOR GOVERNMENT, PRESIDENTInthe Zagreb municipal elections on 7 May, Prime Minister Ivica Racan's Social Democrats emerged the winners with 21 percent of the popular vote and 15 out of 50 seats. Second in popular backing with 19 percent and third in seats with nine mandates is the People's Party (HNS) of President Stipe Mesic. Third with 15 percent of the popular vote but second with 15 seats are the Social Liberals of Drazen Budisa. A second Liberal Party has six seats, the late President Franjo Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) five, and the newly formed Democratic Center three. Far-right candidates won only two mandates. Turnout was low, at about 34 percent. PM [18] ZAGREB MAY HAVE SOCIAL DEMOCRAT MAYORBudisa said that hisparty will support Racan's deputies in the town council and that between them, the two parties will control half of the votes, "Jutarnji list" reported on 9 May. The Social Democrats' Milan Bandic is widely expected to be the next mayor. Vesna Pusic of the HNS said she expects to be elected council president. Observers note that the HNS has ridden Mesic's coattails in recent months to rise from near obscurity to second or third place in nationwide popularity. The Zagreb vote indicates that the governing parties continue to enjoy the support of the electorate and that the scandal- ridden HDZ is but a shadow of its former self (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 5 May 2000). PM [19] MESIC LEADS CROATIA'S ANTI-FASCIST CELEBRATIONSOn 8 May,Mesic became the first Croatian president since independence in 1991 to preside over the annual ceremony to honor the victory of Josip Broz Tito's Partisans in World War II. He addressed his audience as "dear friends and comrades," "Jutarnji list" reported. He argued that the victory over fascism in 1945 had the support of the majority of "freedom- loving Croats and Serbs," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The president stressed that "just as we opposed Nazi and fascist forces in 1941, so we opposed Milosevic in 1991." Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic added that "we must now build the society for which [the World War II veterans] also fought." Tudjman, who fought in the Partisans and later became Tito's youngest general, kept the Tito-era holiday to mark the end of World War II but did not preside over the ceremonies. PM [20] SUPPORT FOR BOSNIA FROM NEIGHBORSThe governments ofAlbania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey have formally written to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in support of Bosnia's application for membership in that body, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 7 May. PM [21] PETRITSCH EXPECTS MORE BOSNIAN ARRESTSWolfgang Petritsch,who is the international community's chief representative in Bosnia, said in Ottawa on 8 May that he expects additional war crimes suspects to be arrested in Bosnia and sent to The Hague "over the next couple of months," Reuters reported. He noted that there were few local protests following the recent arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik. It is important that key figures be arrested and brought to justice in order to "take away collective guilt" and put the blame squarely on those individuals responsible for war crimes, Petritsch concluded. PM [22] EU MONEY FOR MONTENEGROEU foreign ministers agreed inBrussels on 8 May to provide $18 million to support the Montenegrin state budget, AP reported. Javier Solana, who is the EU's spokesman for foreign and security policy, said that he hopes the money reaches Montenegro before the 11 June local elections, in which President Milo Djukanovic's backers face a challenge from pro-Milosevic parties. PM [23] FORMER KOSOVAR COMMANDER KILLEDSeveral armed men shot deadEkrem Rexha in broad daylight in Prizren on 8 May, dpa reported. He was known as Commander Drini while serving as a commander of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) during the 1999 conflict. In mid-April, former UCK commander Besim Mala was gunned down in Prishtina (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 9 May 2000). Violence in Kosova against prominent individuals has otherwise been rare. PM [24] ELECTION COORDINATOR SUFFOCATED TO DEATH IN ALBANIATiranapolice chief Arben Dashi told Reuters on 8 May that his subordinates are investigating the death the previous day of Joaquino Bernardo, whom unknown persons killed by suffocation. Bernardo was a Spanish citizen working for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which is a private group contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development to help organize the local elections slated for October. PM [25] POLICE MAKE ARREST IN ALBANIAN GOLD THEFTA spokesman forAlbanian police said in Tirana on 8 May that one unidentified man has been arrested in conjunction with the March 1997 theft of gold coins from the national gold reserves (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 5 May 2000). Police have recovered some of the coins and arrested four treasury police, whom they suspect of having helped the thieves. The spokesman said that the robbers entered the storage tunnel from "one of its rear entrances." Investigations are continuing, Reuters reported. PM [26] ROMANIAN MONEY-LAUNDERING SCANDAL INTENSIFIESThe SupremeCourt of Justice on 8 May published the full text of the French judicial authorities' request for help in the money- laundering investigation launched against French-Romanian citizen Adrian Costea (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 2000). The French prosecutors want to investigate as witnesses Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) first deputy chairman Adrian Nastase, former government minister Viorel Hrebenciuc, as well as former PDSR dignitaries, including Alliance for Romania leader Teodor Melescanu and Union of Rightist Forces First Deputy Chairman Mircea Cosea. PDSR Chairman Ion Iliescu on 8 May said the investigation is part of a plot aimed at forcing him out of the 2000 presidential race, while Nastase on 5 May said the "dossier" was "fabricated in Bucharest" and returned to Romania via France. MS [27] ROMANIAN DEMOCRATS REPLACE BUCHAREST MAYORAL CANDIDATETheDemocratic Party on 5 May nominated Transportation Minister Traian Basescu as its candidate for the Bucharest mayoral elections scheduled for 4 June, Mediafax reported. Basescu replaces George Nistor. The Democrats said a public opinion survey conducted by the party showed that Nistor's support was less than 3 percent. Also on 5 May, the Popular Party, headed by former Premier Radu Vasile, announced it is withdrawing its candidate for the mayoral elections and will support Basescu. Thirty-seven candidates for the mayor's post have been registered by the Central Electoral Commission. MS [28] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT SUBMITS DRAFT LAW ON CONSTITUTIONALCHANGEPresident Petru Lucinschi on 5 May submitted to the Constitutional Court a draft law on changing the political system from a semi-presidential to a fully-fledged presidential one, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Under existing legislation, the court must rule if the draft meets legal requirements. The law would change the electoral system from a proportional system to a mixed one in which 70 deputies would be elected in single constituencies and 30 on nationwide party lists. Ministers and the premier would be nominated by the president and would be responsible to him, while the parliament would exercise a "control function." The parliament would be able to dismiss the premier only by means of a "constructive no-confidence vote" such as exists in Germany. MS [29] BULGARIAN SOCIALISTS RE-ELECT PARVANOV AS LEADERTheopposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has re-elected Georgi Parvanov as party leader, Reuters and AP reported on 7 May. Parvanov, who stressed his support for Bulgaria's integration into NATO, received 550 votes. Yakani Stoilov, who was vague on NATO membership, was backed by 100 delegates, and a staunchly anti-NATO candidate received only 30 votes. Parvanov told the 6 May gathering that the BSP must continue its process of internal reform and that "any attempt to go back is doomed." He said the party must "overcome lots of hurdles" to return to power, which he described as "fear, disbelief, and suspicion" triggered among the electorate by the party's past. He also said the BSP must try to form a coalition with the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, whose leader, Ahmed Dogan, attended the gathering and suggested such a coalition was possible. MS [30] BULGARIAN BALKAN AIRLINE STRIKE CONTINUESThe strike by thenational carrier Balkan Airlines (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 2000) entered its sixth day on 8 May, after negotiations between the strikers and management failed, Reuters reported. Transportation Minister Antoni Slavinski had warned the previous day that the airline's license could be rescinded and its routes given to another company if Balkan Airlines failed to "fulfill its functions." The striking pilots on 8 May appealed to the government to help find a solution to their conflict with the management of Balkan Air, in which Israel's Zeevi Group owns a controlling share. MS [C] END NOTE[31] SPIES VERSUS OLIGARCHSBy Paul GobleRussian President Vladimir Putin plans to use the country's intelligence services to break the power of the oligarchs as part of his drive to establish a stronger and more centralized state. Such an effort, at the very least, sets the stage for increased tensions both between the newly inaugurated president and the oligarchs as a group, as well as between those oligarchs aligned with Putin and others linked to rival political groups. But more than that, Putin's plan to use the Russian intelligence agencies for domestic control recalls one of the worst features of the Soviet system and could undermine the chance that Russia will move in a more democratic direction anytime soon. A former KGB officer himself, Putin has made no secret of his readiness to rely on Russia's still powerful intelligence agencies. Indeed, he has even joked about their successful penetration of the Russian government during his watch. But the clearest indication of how far he may be prepared to go in this direction and just what that might mean for the country as a whole came in a purported Kremlin planning document leaked to the Russian press last week. The document was outlined in "Kommersant-Daily," a newspaper owned by oligarch Boris Berezovskii, who has opposed Putin on many occasions. For this reason, some commentators have questioned whether the document is genuine or have played down its significance. Nonetheless, the ideas presented in the document appear both consistent with or extensions of proposals that Putin and his closest aides have made in the past. And as such, they merit scrutiny, even if Putin ultimately backs away from them. As outlined by "Kommersant-Daily," the document calls for the fusion of the intelligence services and a new presidential political directorate. These combined forces are to be used to build a power base for the president independent of the political process by undermining any opposition to his person or polices. Sometimes, the document is said to argue, this new agency will seek compromising information about these opponents; sometimes, it will plant unfavorable stories about them in the press; and sometimes, it is implied, it will use other, unspecified methods. Such an arrangement, the document states, will give the president "real control over political processes in Russia," reducing the government to the executor of presidential policies and protecting his agents from the kind of criticism democracy requires. Even more disturbing, the document suggests that this new presidential security arrangement will allow Putin to "actually manage political and social processes in Russia and in nearby foreign countries," an apparent reference to the former Soviet republics. All of this, "Kommersant-Daily" concludes, will allow Putin to impose his preferred economic reforms, regardless of what powerful economic interests in particular and Russian society in general say they want--through the media and the ballot box. The newspaper continues that this suggests the realization of the provisions of this document will transform Russia's current "self-regulating and self-managing" political system into one resembling "Chile under Pinochet." Such an arrangement is likely to prove popular with many in both Russia and the West. On the one hand, many in both places long for the restoration of stability in Moscow, even at the cost of democratic procedures. On the other hand, Putin appears ready to use the enhanced power that such an arrangement might give to promote economic reforms that would challenge the economic and political power of the oligarchs to dominate the political scene. But if Putin's plans may be greeted in some quarters, there are three reasons why they are likely to create more problems than they solve. First, the very fact that this document was leaked suggests that not everyone in the Kremlin is happy with increased reliance on the security services. Indeed, many people within the government may try to undermine it and thereby further weaken the regime. Second, the publication of commentary on this document highlights just one of the ways the oligarchs would fight the implementation of such a plan. Efforts to suppress that resistance would be long, costly, and almost certainly counterproductive. And third, any attempt by a newly expanded presidential security apparatus to suppress democracy, even in the name of economic reform, would generate resistance among Putin's own supporters in the population at large. Those Russians who have welcomed Putin's toughness vis- a-vis the Chechens are unlikely to be so supportive if he employs a similar toughness against Russian society. His support has been broad but not deep; and such efforts could erode it quickly. That, in turn, would set the stage either for his retreat from a security-service-based form of rule or its even more rigorous application, either of which would cast a shadow on his presidency. 09-05-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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