RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 101, 00-05-25

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 101, 25 May 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA MAY JOIN CIS CUSTOMS UNION

[02] FORMER AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS CAUCASUS SECURITY

[03] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS TWO MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES

[04] ABKHAZ LEADER WANTS TALKS WITH SHEVARDNADZE

[05] GEORGIAN 'HAWK' RESIGNS

[06] KAZAKHSTAN DETAINS SUSPECTED MERCENARIES

[07] UN ENVOY TERMS AFGHANISTAN A THREAT TO TAJIKISTAN

[08] TURKMENISTAN DEPORTS LAST RUSSIAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] CROATIA JOINS NATO PROGRAM...

[10] ...WITH BALKANS ON AGENDA AT NATO MEETING

[11] WHAT IS GOING ON IN PRESEVO?

[12] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS KOSOVA

[13] UNHCR WARNS OF KOSOVA SEX TRADE

[14] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN KINGPIN GOES ON TRIAL

[15] MILOSEVIC WANTS STREET PROTESTS IN MONTENEGRO

[16] BELGRADE MINISTER CALLS DEL PONTE 'WHORE'

[17] DEL PONTE ADMONISHES CROATS

[18] TOP CROATIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY SCRAPPED?

[19] ROMANIAN PREMIER CONTINUES U.S. VISIT

[20] ROMANIAN INVESTMENT FUND ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

[21] BULGARIA WARNED OVER PIRATE CD IMPORTS

[C] END NOTE

[22] RADICAL RIGHT ON THE MARCH IN CROATIA

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA MAY JOIN CIS CUSTOMS UNION

Minsk with his Belarusian counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka,

Armenian President Robert Kocharian said Armenia will

"seriously consider" joining the CIS Customs Union if that

body "starts functioning without major flaws," Interfax

reported. But he added that so far it is a "purely formal"

organization. The previous day, Russian President Vladimir

Putin had briefed Kocharian in Minsk on that day's Customs

Union session, ITAR-TASS reported. Putin and Kocharian also

focused on bilateral relations. LF

[02] FORMER AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS CAUCASUS SECURITY

Tofik Zulfugarov, who resigned

last fall as Azerbaijani foreign minister, believes it would

be premature to talk of creating a regional security system

in the South Caucasus before all regional conflicts have been

resolved, Caucasus Press reported on 24 May. He said one of

the "fundamental principles" of such a system is the mutual

recognition by all regional states of each others'

territorial integrity. But in the future, once that objective

is realized, he added, "such a system could become an

important factor for preserving peace and stability,"

provided that all regional states are included in it. LF

[03] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS TWO MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES

majority of deputies on 24 May declined to endorse the

candidates proposed by President Eduard Shevardnadze for the

posts of agriculture minister and minister for environmental

protection, Caucasus Press reported. Both of the candidates

had held those portfolios in the outgoing government. Bakur

Gulua, the proposed agriculture minister, served under then

Georgian Communist Party First Secretary Shevardnadze in the

early 1980s, when he successfully spearheaded agricultural

reform. He is currently implicated in an embezzlement

scandal. The candidate for minister of environmental

protection, Nino Chkhobadze, has been accused of condoning

the import for industrial purposes of substances that pose an

ecological hazard. LF

[04] ABKHAZ LEADER WANTS TALKS WITH SHEVARDNADZE

Ardzinba told journalists in Sukhum that the current state of

negotiations on resolving the Abkhaz conflict is

unsatisfactory, Caucasus Press reported. He said it is

imperative that he meet with President Shevardnadze to

address that problem, even before the two draft documents

currently under discussion are finalized. Shevardnadze has

consistently said he will agree to meet with Arzdinba only to

sign those agreements. Ardzinba also affirmed once more that

Abkhazia will not sign a third document, recently drafted by

the UN, defining the division of powers between the Abkhaz

leadership and the central Georgian government in Tbilisi.

Earlier this week, Shevardnadze and Arzdinba met separately

with U.S. State Department Special Envoy for conflicts in the

Newly Independent States Carey Cavanaugh to discuss the

situation in Abkhazia. LF

[05] GEORGIAN 'HAWK' RESIGNS

announced his resignation as chairman of the Abkhaz Supreme

Council in exile, which is composed of the ethnic Georgian

deputies elected to the Abkhaz parliament in 1990 and who

fled Abkhazia during the 1992-1993 war, Caucasus Press

reported. He also quit the "Abkhazeti" parliamentary faction.

Nadareishvili had announced the previous day that he intended

to step down as de facto leader of the ethnic Georgian

displaced persons from Abkhazia to protest what he considers

the Georgian government's too lenient approach to resolving

that conflict. He had resigned as chairman of the parliament

in exile following the May 1998 fighting in Abkhazia, but he

withdrew that decision under pressure from other members of

that body (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 1, No. 15, 9

June 1998). LF

[06] KAZAKHSTAN DETAINS SUSPECTED MERCENARIES

National Security Committee detained 16 Afghan and Pakistani

nationals on their arrival at Almaty airport from Karachi on

25 May, ITAR-TASS reported. A spokesman for the committee

said that the men, who reportedly carried forged passports

and virtually no baggage, are Taliban mudjahedin en route for

Chechnya via Georgia. A similar group of 70 Pakistanis was

refused entry into Kazakhstan last fall (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 17 November 1999). LF

[07] UN ENVOY TERMS AFGHANISTAN A THREAT TO TAJIKISTAN

Envoy for Tajikistan Ivo Petrov said in a statement released

in New York on 24 May that there is "constant instability" in

Tajikistan and that the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan

could torpedo the ongoing Tajik peace process, Reuters

reported. He said Tajikistan still needs large amounts of

economic aid. Ten days earlier, the UN Security Council had

positively assessed the work of its observer mission, which

withdrew from Tajikistan following this year's parliamentary

elections. That ballot marked the final stage of the peace

process. LF

[08] TURKMENISTAN DEPORTS LAST RUSSIAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY

security police have located Vitalii Tereshin, the last

remaining Russian Baptist missionary in Turkmenistan, and

deported him to Russia, Keston News Service reported on 23

May. Tereshin is the sixth Baptist missionary to be forced to

leave Turkmenistan, along with his family, since the

beginning of this year. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] CROATIA JOINS NATO PROGRAM...

Partnership for Peace program and the Euro-Atlantic

Partnership Council at the meeting of the alliance's foreign

ministers in Florence on 24 May. U.S. Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright noted that "in a few short months, Croatia

has made dramatic progress toward a democratic society, has

demonstrated a renewed commitment to the [Bosnian peace]

process, and has taken steps to promote stability and

security in southeastern Europe," AP reported. PM

[10] ...WITH BALKANS ON AGENDA AT NATO MEETING

Florence on 24 May that Serbia has no future as long as

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remains its leader. She

added that it can count on international assistance only when

it establishes a democratic system. Albright criticized

Russia for recently hosting Yugoslav Defense Minister

Dragoljub Ojdanic, who is an indicted war criminal. She

stressed that such individuals should be arrested and sent to

the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. Russian Foreign Minister

Igor Ivanov apologized for that visit, attributing it to "an

internal, technical hitch" (see Part I). NATO Secretary-

General Lord Robertson noted that several countries have

withdrawn their contingents from Kosova and that NATO is

having difficulty keeping the minimum numbers of troops it

needs to carry out its mission in the province, the

"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported. PM

[11] WHAT IS GOING ON IN PRESEVO?

25 May that there has recently been sporadic mortar and

machine gun fire in the Presevo valley area of southwestern

Serbia bordering Kosova. The spokesman was unable to confirm

reports by local ethnic Albanians that Serbian forces have

launched an offensive against four villages nearby. An

Albanian spokesman charged that Milosevic is launching a

crackdown in the area to divert attention from his problems

with the Serbian opposition (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 May

2000). An unnamed Serbian government official told the news

agency that there were only "regular police activities" in

the area. Serbian state-run television reported on 24 May

that "Albanian terrorists" fired mortar shells at a police

checkpoint near Bujanovac and that the shells came from the

direction of the ethnic Albanian village of Dobrosin in the

demilitarized zone along the border. The broadcast added that

several U.S. Apache helicopters flew over the area before the

shelling began. PM

[12] ALBANIAN PRESIDENT VISITS KOSOVA

became the first Albanian head of state to visit Kosova.

Referring to local elections slated for later this year,

Meidani called on voters to support candidates "who are

committed to stabilizing the situation in Kosova," Reuters

reported. UN chief civilian administrator Bernard Kouchner

said that he does not see any threat to regional stability

from greater Albanian nationalism and that Meidani shares

this view. Serbian propaganda frequently claims that Albanian

nationalists in Kosova and Albania seek to form a single

state. Observers note, however, that no mainstream Albanian

or Kosovar political leader or party calls for a greater

Albania as a practical political goal. Cross-border contacts

in recent years have enabled Albanians and Kosovars to

realize that their more than 80 years of political separation

have produced two very different societies and cultures. PM

[13] UNHCR WARNS OF KOSOVA SEX TRADE

released in Prishtina on 24 May that the large foreign

presence in Kosova has led to the growth of a sex industry in

which primarily East European women are forced into

prostitution. The women come chiefly from Moldova, Ukraine,

Romania, and Bulgaria and are often lured to Kosova by

promises of simple but well-paid jobs in restaurants and

entertainment. Once outside the borders of their homelands,

the women's new employers abuse them, take their documents,

and force them into virtual slavery. This reflects similar

patterns seen in human traffic in many parts of Eastern

Europe since the fall of communism and the opening of

frontiers. PM

[14] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN KINGPIN GOES ON TRIAL

on trial in Skopje on 24 May on charges of attempted murder

and possessing an illegal weapon, AP reported. Macedonian

authorities regard him as a criminal, but many ethnic

Albanians admire him as a hero of the 1999 conflict in Kosova

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

[15] MILOSEVIC WANTS STREET PROTESTS IN MONTENEGRO

reported on 25 May that a tape broadcast on the Montena

television station confirms allegations by the Montenegrin

media that Milosevic recently admonished his supporters in

Montenegro to destabilize the government of President Milo

Djukanovic by organizing street protests (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 24 May 2000). PM

[16] BELGRADE MINISTER CALLS DEL PONTE 'WHORE'

Minister Petar Jojic, who belongs to Vojislav Seselj's

Radical Party, sent a letter on 24 May to "the whore [Carla]

Del Ponte, the self-proclaimed prosecutor of the criminal

Hague [war crimes] tribunal." Jojic said that she and her

predecessor, Louise Arbour, "symbolize prostitution as you

take money from customers and do your best...to keep them

satisfied." He argued that the tribunal is "illegal" and

serves as an instrument for NATO and the U.S. to "persecute

Serbs." AP described the letter as "unprecedented." Jojic

wrote Del Ponte to reject her request that he cooperate with

the tribunal and extradite indicted persons living in Serbia.

PM

[17] DEL PONTE ADMONISHES CROATS

May to urge top officials to speed up their cooperation in

handing over documents to The Hague regarding Bosnian war

crimes. She also expressed concern that recent Croatian press

reports on the 1993 Ahmici massacres might tip off suspected

war criminals that the tribunal is looking into their cases,

Reuters reported. Del Ponte is also known to be unhappy with

the idea, suggested by several Croatian officials, that

indicted war criminals could be tried in Croatia rather than

in Holland. Her hosts included Prime Minister Ivica Racan,

Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic, and Justice Minister

Stjepan Ivanisevic. PM

[18] TOP CROATIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY SCRAPPED?

Zagreb on 24 May that the National Security Council has

agreed to "transform" the Croatian Intelligence Service (HIS)

and place it under professional civilian control. Police

occupied HIS offices to prevent the staff from tampering with

documents, "Jutarnji list" reported. The new head of HIS will

be Damir Loncaric, who is a former police inspector, "Novi

List" added. Racan said that the council's decision means, in

effect, that the HIS will be "dissolved," RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. President Stipe Mesic said, however,

that the intelligence organization will be merely

"reorganized." HIS was formerly headed by Miroslav Tudjman,

the son of the late president. It is widely believed that

Miroslav Tudjman misused the HIS for political purposes. How

to reform the intelligence services is a major topic of

dispute between Mesic and Racan. PM

[19] ROMANIAN PREMIER CONTINUES U.S. VISIT

Director Horst Koehler told Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu

in Washington on 24 May that he expects the fund's

executive board to approve at the end of this month

extending last year's stand-by agreement with Romania and

resuming the disbursement of tranches, which was

interrupted owing to Romania's lack of progress in

implementing reforms. Koehler said Romania now has a "clear

economic policy direction" and the government deserves the

IMF's support. Isarescu commented that reform will

continue, despite 2000 being an election year. Also on 24

May, Isarescu met with National Security Adviser Sandy

Berger and National Economic Adviser Mike Hammer to discuss

Romanian and regional economic recovery, an RFE/RL

correspondent in Washington reported. MS

[20] ROMANIAN INVESTMENT FUND ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

Budget and Finance Commission is to meet with the leaders

of the National Fund for Investment (FNI) on 25 May to

discuss the fund's situation, Romanian Radio reported. On

24 May, the fund "temporarily" halted payments after

hundreds of investors who wanted to close their accounts

were told that the fund cannot comply with that request.

Isarescu said in Washington that people who invest in funds

that are not state-guaranteed "assume a risk" and that

"there are no reasons" to believe the FNI precedent "could

spread to other financial institutions." Earlier this

month, the private International Bank of Religions had

announced it was unable to make payments to account holders

and was placed under the supervision of the National Bank.

MS

[21] BULGARIA WARNED OVER PIRATE CD IMPORTS

producing pirate products any more, but its market is

dominated by these products," Jay Berman, chairman of the

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told

Reuters on 24 May. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit

to Sofia, Berman said that while Bulgaria, a former major

producer of pirate CDs, has managed to clamp down on that

problem, it now has to tackle the flourishing street trade

in illegal imports. Berman said most of the pirate CDs are

from Ukraine, now Europe's leader in such merchandise, as

well as from Russia and Montenegro. MS

[C] END NOTE

[22] RADICAL RIGHT ON THE MARCH IN CROATIA

The Right in Croatia has been on the defensive ever

since late President Franjo Tudjman's ruling Croatian

Democratic Community's (HDZ) defeat in the parliamentary and

presidential elections early this year. Now a series of

right-wing incidents has shocked the country and shown that

the radical Right is still a threat that the new authorities

must take seriously.

Over the last few weeks, several veterans' organizations

have held large anti-government demonstrations. On 10 May,

for example, some 5,000 veterans gathered in Split to protest

the government's policy of cooperation with the Hague-based

International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

(ICTY). Veterans believe that the country's center-left

government is using the ICTY as a weapon against the Right.

They also believe that the government is intentionally

minimizing the contribution that the veterans made during the

country's war for independence. Veterans and Invalids of the

Patriotic War (HVIDRA) President Marinko Liovic has publicly

threatened that his veterans will sabotage the upcoming

tourist season by blocking roads, border crossings, and

airports.

Ethnic tensions are also growing between local Croats

and returning refugees in territories once occupied by rebel

Serbs. On 6 May, local Croats in the isolated village town of

Veljun prevented a group of Croatian Serbs from commemorating

a World War II era massacre by fascist Ustasha forces. In a

shockingly grotesque display, one local woman (who claimed

that her son was killed in the recent war) urinated on a

monument on which local Serbs planned to lay wreaths to the

victims of the World War II massacre. On 17 May, five

noncommissioned officers broke up the monument with their

hands. And there have also been reports that local Croats and

Serbs have again begun to arm themselves in Kordun, which saw

heavy fighting during the 1991-1995 war.

Many observers believe such incidents are being

organized by the right wing of the HDZ. Groups like Liovic's

HVIDRA have close ties to the former ruling party, and many

Croats regard them as the HDZ's satellites. They believe the

HDZ wants to use such incidents to create a state of chaos in

the country in the hope that this will unleash a political

crisis resulting in the fall of the current government and

the return of the HDZ to national prominence.

There are indications that these hard-liners are being

helped by renegades from the intelligence community who are

still loyal to the HDZ's right wing. Last week, police told

the independent weekly magazine "Nacional" that they suspect

that operatives from military intelligence and leaders of the

Split chapter of HVIDRA organized the 3 May riot by soccer

fans during a championship game in Split, which left 100

people injured and resulted in the arrest of another 100

fans. The stadium's surveillance tapes reveal that several

men brandishing mobile telephones directed the rioting crowds

in Split's soccer stadium. Police later identified them as

former operatives of military intelligence.

Opinion polls show that most Croats reject the right-

wing offensive. According to a recent poll in the daily

"Jutarnji list," nearly 90 percent of the country's citizens

disapprove of Liovic's inflammatory rhetoric. Most people do

not want to see a few zealots like Liovic scare off the

tourists and foreign investors whom the ailing economy

desperately needs.

Many veterans' groups have also spoken out against

Liovic's radical comments. The leader of the Rijeka chapter

of HVIDRA has threatened that his veterans will use force to

unblock roads and border crossings if Liovic carries through

on his threats. Minister of Veterans' Affairs Ivica Pancic

(who himself is a veteran and a displaced person from

Vukovar) claims that Liovic and other radical veterans'

leaders are motivated by their own selfish interests. Some

members of HVIDRA have accused Liovic of embezzling hundreds

of thousands of dollars from the organization. Pancic

believes that Liovic and others like him are trying to stir

up controversy and violence in order to detract attention

from their own shady financial dealings.

Meanwhile, the government's investigations into the

major corruption scandals that occurred under the HDZ regime

and the new authorities' willingness to extradite suspected

Croat war criminals to the ICTY are making some people

nervous. The Right may be able to find support among groups

such as influential army generals who fear prosecution by the

ICTY, Croatian immigrants from Bosnia who will be forced to

return the houses they have occupied to returning Serb

refugees, and members of other interest groups (like veterans

and war victims) who face the loss of their privileges. It

may also attract the support of the most needy and

underprivileged citizens, whom it may be able to convince

that returning Serb refugees are the main source of their

misery.

The threat from the radical Right poses a strong

challenge to the government, which until now has cooperated

with the ICTY and given its unconditional support to the

return of Serbian refugees to Croatia. Indeed, these policies

are the main reason why the West has finally allowed Croatia

to enter NATO's Partnership for Peace Program, which is

undoubtedly the biggest success of the government's first 100

days in office.

The author is a free-lance writer based in Zagreb

(akrickovic@aol.com).

25-05-00

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

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