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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 92, 00-05-12Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 92, 12 May 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN PARTY AGREE ON CANDIDATE FORPREMIER?Robert Kocharian has endorsed the candidacy of Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) chairman Andranik Markarian as prime minister, but the People's Party of Armenia, its partner in the majority Miasnutiun parliament bloc, has not yet done so, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 11 May, quoting an unnamed senior parliament official. Sources in the presidential administration declined either to confirm or deny that report. LF [02] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT FACTION TO FORM POLITICAL PARTYThe 22members of the second-largest parliamentary faction, Kayunutiun (Stability), intend to form an eponymous political party, faction leader Vartan Ayvazian told journalists on 11 May. He said that move will simply formalize the existing situation, as "we already operate like a party." Most Kayunutiun deputies are independents elected in single- mandate constituencies. The party will have a "social- democratic" orientation and will lobby for strengthening the regulatory role of the state in the country's economy, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Alluding to rumors that Kayunutiun may turn its back on its previous informal alignment with the majority Miasnutiun faction and pledge its open support for President Kocharian, Ayvazian said that "a new majority" may soon emerge within the parliament. LF [03] FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY ELECTS 'TEMPORARY' LEADERTheboard of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) on 11 May elected former Foreign Minister Alexander Arzoumanian as its "temporary" chairman, replacing former Interior Minister Vano Siradeghian, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Siradeghian is believed to have fled Armenia last month after parliamentary deputies voted to lift his immunity in order to enable him to be taken into custody for the duration of his ongoing trial on charges of commissioning several contract killings (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 and 6 April 2000). HHSh board member and former deputy parliamentary speaker Ara Sahakian said in Yerevan last month that the party has become "a hostage" to Siradeghian, Groong reported, citing Snark of 17 April. Arzoumanian said he hopes to cooperate with several smaller center-right parties that split from the HHSh in the 1990s. Those parties plan to convene a demonstration in Yerevan on 12 May to protest the present administration's policies. LF [04] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DISCUSSES RELATIONS WITH TURKEYVartan Oskanian told visiting European ParliamentParliamentary Cooperation Committee chair Ursula Schleicher in Yerevan on 10 May that Turkey's ongoing economic blockade of Armenia undermines stability in the South Caucasus, Snark and Noyan Tapan reported. Oskanian also said that recognition by Turkey of the Armenian genocide was one of the conditions laid down in 1987 for that country's admission to the EU. Noting Turkey's ongoing insistence that the normalization of relations with Armenia is contingent on a solution to the Karabakh conflict, Oskanian stressed that "the Karabakh problem is to be resolved between Armenia and Azerbaijan, [between] Azerbaijan and the [unrecognized] Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, but Turkey has nothing to do with this." LF [05] NEW IRANIAN AMBASSADOR ARRIVES IN YEREVANAfter a two-yearinterregnum, Mohamed-Farhad Koleini arrived in Yerevan on 11 May to take up the duties of Iranian ambassador, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He told journalists that there are no political implications to the interval between his predecessor's departure and his arrival in the Armenian capital. Koleini predicted that joint energy sector and transport projects, including the planned gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia, will give fresh impetus to bilateral relations. LF [06] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT PASSES ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS INFIRST READINGBy a vote of 90 to seven, deputies approved on 11 May the draft amendments to the election law submitted by President Heidar Aliev, Turan reported. Most opposition deputies abstained from the vote. Parliamentary speaker Murtuz Alesqerov said that no changes will be made to the numbers of deputies to be elected under the proportional (25) and majoritarian (100) systems but that other proposed changes may be taken into account during the second reading on 12 May. Opposition deputies have criticized the draft amendments, which they claim render the law even less democratic than before. LF [07] GEORGIA'S NEW STATE MINISTER OUTLINES PRIORITIESGiaArsenishvili told parliamentary deputies after they approved his nomination on 11 May that he considers his primary tasks to be implementing economic reform, combating the shadow economy, and resolving social problems, including the payment of pensions and wage arrears and creating new jobs, Russian agencies reported. Arsenishvili condemned political intrigues in the economic sector as "ruinous" for Georgia. Also on 11 May, parliamentary deputies approved President Eduard Shevardnadze's proposal to amend the structure of the government, reducing the number of ministries from 21 to 18 (not 22 to 19, as erroneously reported in "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 May 2000). LF [08] UN EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER DELAY IN ABKHAZ SETTLEMENTIn astatement released in New York on 11 May, the UN Security Council noted that the failure of the Georgian and Abkhaz leaderships to agree to a solution to the deadlocked conflict, including the status of Abkhazia vis-a-vis the central Georgian government, has "an unfavorable effect" on stability and the economic and humanitarian situation in the region, Caucasus Press reported. The statement calls on both sides to "show [the] political will" required to break the deadlock and to complete work on and sign the draft agreement on peace and the non-resumption of hostilities and the protocol on repatriation and measures to restore the Abkhaz economy. It also calls on both sides to ensure the safety of members of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia, several of whom were abducted in October 1999 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 and 18 October 1999). LF [09] GEORGIA AGAIN DENIES HOSTING MERCENARIES FOR CHECHNYAGeorgia's National Security Ministry on 11 May rejected as"absurd and groundless" allegations by Russian First Deputy Chief of Army General Staff Colonel General Valerii Manilov that some 1,500 mostly Arab mercenaries are currently in the Pankisi gorge close to Georgia's border with Chechnya, Caucasus Press reported. Manilov had claimed that the mercenaries are waiting for the snow to melt in order to cross into Chechnya. LF [10] LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT IN KAZAKHSTANFollowing talks in Astanaon 11 May, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his visiting Lithuanian counterpart, Valdas Adamkus, signed agreements on technical, scientific, and cultural cooperation and on joint measures to combat organized crime and drug- trafficking, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Nazarbaev said later at a joint press conference that Kazakhstan could export some 60,000 tons of oil each month to Lithuania only if it concluded an additional agreement with Russia. Lithuania had hoped to secure at least 4 million tons. Russia recently increased Kazakhstan's annual export quota by 3 million tons, but 2 million tons is to be transported via the new bypass pipeline from Makhachkala to Novorossiisk (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 April 2000). Nazarbaev expressed the hope that Lithuania will agree to transport goods to China and Southeast Asia via Kazakhstan, according to Interfax. Trade turnover between the two countries has increased significantly over the past three years, reaching $95.8 million in 1999. LF [11] KYRGYZ AUTHORITIES, OPPOSITION AGREE TO HOLD ROUNDTABLERepresentatives of the Kyrgyz leadership, opposition and NGOsagreed during talks on 10 May to convene a roundtable discussion in early June, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported the following day. Nine representatives each from the leadership, the opposition, and NGOs, including President Askar Akaev, will participate in the discussion, and all 29 registered Kyrgyz political parties will be invited to attend. The OSCE will also be represented. The participants will focus on the outcome of the contentious February-March parliamentary elections and measures to ensure the fairness of the upcoming presidential poll. LF [12] KYRGYZSTAN TO RESETTLE ETHNIC KYRGYZ FROM TAJIKISTANKyrgyzstan has created a special government commission todeal with the applications of some 1,600 ethnic Kyrgyz residents of neighboring Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 11 May, citing the government press service. The would-be emigres cite the worsening economic situation in Tajikistan as the reason why they wish to leave the country. The commission will travel to Kyrgyzstan's Osh Oblast later this month to identify villages where the immigrants could be resettled. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[13] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES MINORITY RIGHTS LAWThelegislature approved a package of government proposals on 11 May to guarantee minority rights according to European standards. The measures deal with minorities' cultural, educational, and linguistic rights and restore an earlier law that guarantees proportional representation in the parliament to minorities who constitute more than 8 percent of the population, which in practice means the Serbs. The Serbs made up 12 percent of the population in 1991, but most fled to Serbia or Bosnia after the 1995 Croatian army offensives that recaptured rebel territory. Many Serbs now wish to return or have already done so. Should they make up 8 percent by the next census, they could have 19 out of 151 legislative seats, which is more than some smaller parties in the governing coalition have, AP reported. "Vecernji list" wrote that the new legislation is more liberal than that in most European countries. The government's new budget earmarks just under $3 million for minority affairs, the largest share of which goes to the Serbs, "Jutarnji list" reported. PM [14] CROATIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS SALE OF NEWSPAPERThe anti-corruption agency has obtained a court ruling to block the sale of "Vecernji list" to a major Austrian media company, "Novi List" reported on 12 May. Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic said that the move is designed to protect foreign investors while the anti-corruption agency investigates the previous government's sale of shares in "Vecernji list" to an offshore company in the Virgin Islands. The sale of the mass- circulation daily in 1997 is under public scrutiny because of new evidence suggesting that political corruption was involved (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 2 May 2000). PM [15] FORMER SLAVONIAN POLICE CHIEF CHARGEDOn 11 May, thedistrict attorney in Osijek formally charged Dubravko Jezercic, who is the former police chief in that town, and his aide with blackmail and fraud in an effort to acquire property. This is the latest of many cases of corruption involving officials of the former government that have emerged since the elections in January and February. PM [16] CHALLENGES TO MILOSEVIC EVEN IN HOMETOWN?Pozarevac publicprosecutor Jovo Stanojevic has submitted his resignation, Radio B-292 reported on 11 May. He did not give a reason. The broadcast added that five of his deputies have also offered to quit. Meanwhile, the authorities suspended city judge Djordje Jankovic for participating in a recent demonstration. A local human rights lawyer told the radio that these latest developments indicate that even legal officials in the "bastion of the regime were fed up with pandering to illegal demands of the regime made for private interests." Elsewhere, Otpor activist Momcilo Veljkovic began a hunger strike on 12 May to protest his detention by police. PM [17] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PLANS MORE RALLIESLeaders of majoropposition groups agreed in Belgrade on 11 May to hold a major protest in the capital on 15 May. Democratic Party leader Vojislav Kostunica said that the rally will be "one in a series" that will also include a protest in Pozarevac, Reuters reported. He stressed that holding a rally in Milosevic's home town is a "matter of honor" after the regime prevented the opposition from holding a rally in Pozarevac on 9 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000). Elsewhere, Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic denied that the rally had been blocked. He stressed that the police were only trying to ensure citizens' safety. "Traffic controls, identity checks, [and vehicle] ownership checks are frequent and normal everywhere in the world," he said. PM [18] OPPOSITION TO UNITE IN OTPOR?Velimir Ilic, who is mayor ofCacak and heads the New Serbia party, said in Jagodina on 11 May that all opposition parties should "freeze" their activities and unite behind the Otpor (Resistance) student movement, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He stressed that the regime "will not be able to do anything" against a movement whose leaders are aged between 15 and 30 years. Elsewhere, Bogoljub Arsenijevic Maki, who is known as the Serbian Robin Hood, said that only civil disobedience and not elections can unseat the regime, "Vesti" reported on 12 May. Finally, two unidentified assailants beat up Otpor activist Dejan Veljovic in Belgrade. PM [19] MOBILE TELEPHONES BANNED IN YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT OFFICESThegovernment has banned mobile telephones and pagers in official buildings, Radio B-292 reported from Belgrade on 11 May. The move is designed to protect official secrets against "foreign spies and their local agents," the broadcast added. PM [20] MONTENEGRO TO 'DEFEND ITSELF'Justice Minister Dragan Soctold "Vesti" in Podgorica on 11 May that his government reserves the right to defend itself. He added that Montenegro will increase the size of its police force if the government feels that that is necessary to deal with threats from Belgrade and its Montenegrin backers. He dismissed charges by the federal army that the Montenegrin authorities have trained an elite unit of snipers to liquidate army officers (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 May 2000). Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic similarly denied the army's charge, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [21] KOSOVARS MOURN SLAIN LEADERSeveral tens of thousands ofethnic Albanians attended the funeral of the slain former commander of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), Ekrem Rexha, in Prizren on 11 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000). Lennart Myhlback, who heads the local UN administration, stressed that Rexha was a leader who knew what Kosova needed to build its future. Bernard Kouchner, who is Kosova's UN administrator, called Rexha "an important ally for all those working for peace, tolerance and reconstruction" in Kosova, Reuters reported. PM [22] WHO KILLED COMMANDER DRINI?The UCK's former commander AgimCeku suggested at the funeral in Prizren on 11 May that unnamed individuals opposed to Rexha's moderate polices are responsible for the death of the man better known locally as Commander Drini. Ceku stressed that "the future of Kosova cannot be built on murders and an absence of security. Nobody is going to allow" such lawlessness to continue, "The New York Times" reported. Several of Rexha's relatives said that his political opponents had recently threatened his life. Some 30 police have been assigned to the case. PM [23] SERBS STONE U.S. PEACEKEEPERS...Up to 300 Serbs stoned andjeered at U.S. peacekeepers in two separate incidents near Viti in southern Kosova on 11 May, AP reported. In one of the incidents, the peacekeepers were guarding a Serbian Orthodox Church when the crowd attacked them. PM [24] ...AND MUSLIM WOMENA UN spokesman said in Sarajevo on 11May that an apparently organized group of 150 Bosnian Serbs stoned four busses carrying Muslim women refugees who had come to visit their former homes in Bratunac. Police detained 22 of the attackers and expect to make additional arrests, the spokesman added. PM [25] MACEDONIA SIGNS TRADE PACTMacedonian officials initialed atrade agreement with the four-member European Free Trade Association in Geneva on 11 May, Reuters reported. Impoverished Macedonia is keen to promote economic relations with developed countries. PM [26] ROMANIAN MONEY-LAUNDERING CHIEF SUSPECT INTERVIEWED ONTELEVISION...In an interview with the private Pro-TV, Adrian Costea said on 11 May that his relation to former President Ion Iliescu and incumbent President Emil Constantinescu can be described as "that of counselor" and that his ties with former Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu were "ties of friendship." Costea said he can also "assume paternity" over the setting up of Melescanu's Alliance for Romania Party, Mediafax reported. Costea's mandate as a presidential counselor was prolonged after the 1996 elections and only recently terminated. Melescanu on 11 May said in Oradea that he is "ready to assume full responsibility" for having issued a diplomatic passport to Costea, who "was entitled to the document as a presidential counselor." He also said the affair "has been triggered by those who now fear losing the elections." MS [27] ...AFTER FRENCH INVESTIGATORS QUIZ MORE FORMER OFFICIALSViorel Hrebenciuc, who was in charge of local governmentaffairs in Nicolae Vacaroiu's cabinet, and Dan Nicolae Fruntelata, state secretary in the same cabinet, were questioned by French investigating judges on 11 May about their role in the money-laundering affair, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Hrebenciuc said that the contract under which Costea received large sums of money for the photograph album on Romania had been "perfectly legal" and that after the change of government in 1996, the contract was prolonged by the new cabinet. If that contract was illegal, Hrebenciuc said, his successor, former government secretary-general Remus Opris, must also be indicted. Opris responded that the money to Costea did not come from the state budget but from the now bankrupt Bancorex Bank, on the orders of the previous government. He added that he will sue Hrebenciuc. MS [28] LUCINSCHI DID NOT CONSULT EU EXPERT COMMISSIONThe EU VeniceCommission of constitutional experts on 11 May asked President Petru Lucinschi and parliamentary chairman Dumitru Diacov to cease debate on changing the constitutional system until the commission's experts have concluded an examination of the proposed changes. The commission said that the draft law sent by Lucinschi to the Constitutional Court (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000) is different from the draft Lucinschi sent to the expert commission. In sending the draft to the court, Lucinschi claimed the Venice commission had given it the green light. Following the appeal, the parliament on 11 May decided to suspend the debate on changing the country's constitutional system, Flux and Infotag reported. MS [29] BALKAN AIRLINE PILOTS END STRIKEPilots of Bulgaria'snational carrier Balkan Airlines on 11 May ended a nine-day strike after accepting an agreement proposed by the company's management, AP reported. Bozhidar Danev, head of the Bulgarian Industrialists' Association, who mediated in the conflict, did not specify the details of the agreement. On 10 May, Prime Minster Ivan Kostov had cut short a visit to Finland to deal with the strike, BTA reported. MS [30] BULGARIAN OPPOSITION MOVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTEThe BulgarianSocialist Party (BSP) and the Euroleft on 10 May submitted a no-confidence vote in Ivan Kostov's cabinet. BSP leader Georgi Parvanov said "corruption has engulfed the whole state machine" and is "at the core of all woes of derailing reforms, poor management of state enterprises, lack of a social policy...and lack of foreign investment," Reuters reported. The ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms did not support the motion, which has little chance of passage. The motion must be debated within 72 hours of its submission and the vote must take place within 24 hours of that debate. MS [C] END NOTE[31] REPRESSION BY SELECTIVE PROSECUTIONby Paul GobleNewly inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have embarked on a strategy long favored by authoritarian leaders: the selective prosecution of his opponents for legal violations. That chilling conclusion, only four days into Putin's term, is suggested by the 11 May police raid on a major Russian media group that has long been critical of Kremlin policy in general and of Putin's approach to a variety of issues, in particular. Early on 11 May, armed tax police searched the headquarters of the Media-Most Group, headed by Vladimir Gusinskii. This group controls NTV, the radio station Ekho Moskvy, the daily "Segodnya," and the weekly magazine "Itogi." The Federal Security Service (FSB) said that the raid was intended to find evidence of tax irregularities or what an FSB spokesman insisted was "a regular financial offence." Later the same day, FSB officials reported finding not only the evidence they said they were looking for but indications of other criminal activity, including the use of unauthorized eavesdropping devices. But Gusinskii and his supporters, who have often been the objects of official attention for their critical coverage of the government, viewed the police action in a very different way. Gusinskii himself suggested that "it is obvious that what is happening is a factor of political pressure." And another Media-Most leader, Igor Malashenko, said the action "contradicts the norms of Russia's constitution and is against freedom of speech." Because of the nature of the Russian political and economic system over the last decade, both the FSB and Gusinskii are right in some sense. Given confusion over tax policies and the underlying corruption of Russian society, virtually no firm in that country has always been able or willing to conduct its affairs in full compliance with the law. consequently, the authorities are likely to be able to find evidence justifying prosecution almost anywhere they choose to look. But it is precisely because the authorities have the possibility to pick and choose whom they will prosecute that Gusinskii and the Media-Most team have the better argument. They properly point out that they have been singled out from among all the other potential targets of investigation. And they plausibly suggest that the government has done so not out of a concern for law enforcement but rather to build its power. Even a cursory examination of the Russian media scene suggests that Gusinskii's group is no more "illegal" than that of other media barons, but Media-Most distinguished itself from other such holdings: it has been very critical of the Kremlin. The 11 May raid suggests that the Kremlin has decided to respond to that criticism and to do so in an ostensibly respectable way by using the provisions of the law itself rather than brute force to move against freedom of the press and those who seek to defend it. Such a strategy has three major advantages for a leader like Putin, who has made it clear that he wants to ensure his control. First, it can be used to silence or break those who oppose his regime, either by drawing them into legal cases or financially ruining them. Second, actions of this type intimidate other groups that might be thinking about opposing him. The latter can see what the costs of such an approach are and may therefore decide to remain silent or otherwise go along with the regime. And third, because such actions are cloaked in a mantle of legality, they often escape any criticism from democratic governments. Such governments can and do say to themselves that the Russian police are, after all, only enforcing the law. But for all three of these reasons, this "legal" threat to media freedom and to other forms of freedom that rely on it may be even more insidious than the direct application of force. Thus, the 11 May raid on Media-Most may prove an even more significant turning point in Russia's political development than Putin's inauguration as president four days earlier. 12-05-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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