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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 122, 00-06-23Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 122, 23 June 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] U.S. DIPLOMAT SAYS KARABAKH CONFLICT CAN BE SOLVED IN 3YEARSThe new U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Ross Wilson, told the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee on 22 June that he believes the Karabakh conflict "can and should" be resolved within the next three years, ITAR-TASS reported. The terms of both Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar Aliev, expire in 2003. On 21 June, Kocharian said on returning from Moscow, where he had discussed the conflict with Aliev the previous day, that "we have embarked on more active negotiations, but at this point I cannot yet conclude that the [Nagorno-Karabakh] peace process is entering the final phase." "Hayots ashkhar" reported. LF [02] AZERBAIJAN HOLDS SEMINAR ON PIPELINE SECURITYNATO andenergy sector representatives from Azerbaijan and other Caspian littoral states attended a two-day seminar in Baku on 20-21 June within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program to discuss security measures for planned oil and gas export pipelines that will transit the South Caucasus, Turan reported. On 22 June, the Turkish parliament finally ratified the package of agreements, signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, that constitute the legal framework for building the planned Baku- Ceyhan oil pipeline, AP reported. LF [03] AZERBAIJAN, CHINA DISCUSS COOPERATIONOn an official visitto Baku on 21-23 June, Chinese Assembly of People's Representatives chairman Li Peng met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Murtuz Alesqerov, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, and President Aliev, Turan reported. Li told Alesqerov and Rasizade that Beijing does not consider that human rights take precedence over the principles of state sovereignty and territorial integrity. He expressed his support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity but added that all regional conflicts should be resolved peacefully, according to ITAR-TASS. Li also told Aliev that Beijing has condemned as illegal the 18 June parliamentary elections in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Aliev said he would welcome Chinese involvement in exploiting Azerbaijan's oil and gas reserves. Li is also scheduled to visit the Mingechaur hydro-electric power station where he worked as a young man. LF [04] GEORGIA, U.S. SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENTGeorgianDefense Minister David Tevzadze and visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Edward Warner signed a plan for cooperation for this year and a joint statement on environmental cooperation, Caucasus Press reported. Warner told journalists that his talks with Tevzadze focused on the reform of the Georgian armed forces, the strength of which he advised should be reduced to 20,000 (from the present 33,000) and the control of Georgia's anti-aircraft defenses. Warner predicted that Georgia will need three to five years to bring its armed forces up to NATO standards. He also noted that budget funding for the armed forces is inadequate and should be increased. Warner also met with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, to whom he repeated earlier U.S. offers to help meet the costs of the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia. LF [05] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT RULES OUT BERIA REHABILITATTIONShevardnadze on 22 June said he considers "impossible" anymove to rehabilitate former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, Caucasus Press reported. He noted that on Beria's orders, "thousands were shot without any trial or investigation and families were ruined." But Shevardnadze did not rule out the possibility that future generations will approve Beria's rehabilitation. In late May the Russian Supreme Court's Military Collegium upheld the rejection by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of an appeal by Beria's descendants for his rehabilitation. At that time, former Georgian parliamentary speaker Vakhtang Goguadze argued that while Beria "does not provoke sympathies in the moral sense," his contribution to the Soviet war victory over Nazi Germany and to building "a powerful Soviet state" cannot be denied. LF [06] KAZAKHSTAN'S PARLIAMENT DEBATES EXPANDED POWERS FOR INCUMBENTPRESIDENTAt separate sessions on 22 June, both houses of Kazakhstan's parliament approved in the first reading legislation that would give President Nursultan Nazarbaev lifelong powers, Reuters and RFE/RL's Astana correspondent reported. Those powers include speaking at parliamentary and government sessions, advising on personnel appointments, heading the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, and membership in the National Security Council. Communist Party leader Serikbolsyn Abdildin condemned the bill as premature, given that Nazarbaev still has six years of his term to serve. Rakhmet Muqyshev, leader of the Civic Party which sponsored the bill, denied that Nazarbaev plans to follow the example of Russian President Boris Yeltsin by stepping down before his term ends and after having chosen an acceptable successor, according to Interfax. LF [07] KAZAKHSTAN DENIES HARBORING WOUNDED CHECHEN FIGHTERSKazakhstan National Security Committee spokesman KezhebulatBeknazarov told Interfax on 22 June that there is no truth to allegations that 300 wounded Chechen fighters are receiving medical treatment at a sanatorium in East Kazakhstan Oblast. The Kazakhstan Prosecutor-General's Office likewise dismissed those allegations as "a lie." The deputy commander of the Russian federal forces in the North Caucasus, Major General Vyacheslav Borisov, had made those claims at a press conference at the Khankala military base near Grozny the previous day. In Moscow, First Deputy Chief of Russian Army General Staff Colonel General Valerii Manilov said he could not definitively confirm the truth of Borisov's statement, according to Interfax. LF [08] RUSSIA NEGOTIATES PURCHASE OF URANIUM FROM KYRGYZSTANAdelegation headed by Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgenii Adamov held talks in Bishkek on 22 June with Kyrgyz Premier Amangeldy Muraliev on possible purchases of raw uranium and other precious metals, Interfax reported. The delegation also visited the Djanar Electronics Plant in Bishkek and the Kara- Balta mining complex which extracts gold and raw uranium. Adamov also met with Kyrgyz Defense Minister Esen Topev, with whom he signed an agreement on cooperation to modernize Kyrgyzstan's border defenses, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. It is not clear whether that Russian assistance in strengthening Kyrgyzstan's borders is intended as part or total payment for the uranium. LF [09] HUMAN RIGHTS WATCHDOG CONCERNED FOR JAILED UZBEK WRITERIn astatement released in New York on 22 June, Human Rights Watch warned that the health of Mamadali Makhmudov is deteriorating as a result of mistreatment in prison and said that his life may be in danger. Makhmudov, who is 57, was sentenced in August 1999 to 14 years imprisonment on fabricated charges of participating in a "criminal society" and of insulting Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 August 1999). LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] BOSNIA GETS NEW GOVERNMENTThe joint parliament on 22 Juneapproved the new government of Prime Minister Spasoje Tusevljak, which has six ministries. Only 18 out of 42 deputies cast their votes for the cabinet. Ten voted against, two abstained, and 12 were absent. The controversial Bosnian Serb Tusevljak will hold the rotating chair for eight months. He is also treasury minister. He said that improving the "economy is the basic task.... We have to push to create conditions that will enable Bosnia to participate actively in European integration and business," Reuters reported. PM [11] BOSNIAN MINISTER STRESSES EUROPEAN ORIENTATION...ForeignMinister Jadranko Prlic told RFE/RL's South Slavic Service on 22 June that the only future for the republic is as a single state integrated into Europe. He added that European integration will help encourage Bosnian Serbs to identify with Bosnia rather than with Serbia. Prlic noted that he travels "only with a Bosnian passport," although as an ethnic Croat he is also entitled to a Croatian one. Bosnia should follow the examples of Slovakia and Croatia and repudiate nationalism in favor of a pro-European orientation, he added. The Foreign Ministry, he noted, will soon add "about 100, mainly young people to its staff," and he added that the ministry is well on the way to completing the staffing of its missions abroad. He appealed to Bosnian citizens living abroad to consider coming home, saying his ministry could make use of their expertise and knowledge of foreign languages. PM [12] ...OFFERS MOSTAR AS CAPITALPrlic made it clear to RFE/RL'sSouth Slavic Service that he and the Bosnian branch of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) have broken with their Croatian-oriented nationalist past. "There's no turning back," he stressed. He said that the party's greatest mistake was to be too close to Croatia's HDZ and to have a bad personnel policy, but he did not elaborate. Prlic argued that the HDZ's greatest contribution was to propose dividing Bosnia into ethnically-based cantons as the most practical form of organization. He called for transforming ethnically divided Mostar, which the Croats of Herzegovina regard as their center, into a model community and suggested that Mostar could become the capital of the Muslim-Croatian federation. Prlic noted that his fellow Croats rejected the proposal when he made it in 1998, but he said the majority have since changed their view. PM [13] DEL PONTE PLEASED WITH MONTENEGRIN TRIPCarla Del Ponte, whois chief prosecutor of the Hague-based war crimes tribunal, said in Podgorica on 22 June that she is glad that she came to Montenegro, despite threats to her safety by supporters of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 June 2000). "I was determined to visit today, notwithstanding the threats made by President Milosevic in Belgrade because I knew that I was coming to a democratic country, which believes in the rule of law," she said. Del Ponte added that any deal to offer Milosevic a safe exile in return for his giving up power is unacceptable and that the only place for him is in The Hague (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 June 2000). "No deal is possible," Reuters quoted her as saying. Montenegrin Prime Minister Fillip Vujanovic said the republic has shown that it is "ready and able to guarantee safety to all who come to Montenegro, regardless of their mission." PM [14] MONTENEGRO APPEALS TO UNZeljko Perovic, who headsMontenegro's mission to the UN, sent the Security Council a document on 22 June asking for unspecified "security guarantees" for his republic because of "pressure" from Belgrade, dpa reported. The text includes several examples of Milosevic's attempts to intimidate the Montenegrin leadership. The council is slated to discuss the document on 23 June. PM [15] HEARING BEGINS IN DRASKOVIC CASEJudge Zoran Zivkovic openedthe court hearing of the brothers Ivan and Milan Lovric in Podgorica on 22 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 2000). He ordered the men detained for 30 days pending an investigation into their alleged "criminal act of terrorism" against Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic in Budva on 15 June. PM [16] U.S. STUDY: SERBS TARGETED YOUNG KOSOVAR MALESPaul Spiegeland Peter Salama of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote in a study published in London on 22 June that their "estimate of 12,000 deaths directly related to war trauma between February 1998 and June 1999 represents the first epidemiological estimate to be obtained for the entire Kosovar Albanian population.... Our data concur with other reports which indicate that men, and particularly Kosovar Albanian men of military age, were systematically targeted by the Serbian forces," Reuters reported. Most of the dead were civilians, they added. The findings appeared in "The Lancet," a medical journal. PM [17] WOUNDED SERBS IN 'STABLE CONDITION'The two Serbs recentlyshot by unknown assailants in Prishtina's Mother Teresa street are in "stable condition" in a British military hospital, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on 22 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 June 2000). Valentina Cukic, who was hit in the chest, was wearing a KFOR press identification badge at the time of the shooting. She works for Radio Kontakt, which is the only multi-ethnic radio station in Kosova. Her companion Ljubomir Topalovic was wounded in the leg. PM [18] BELGRADE REGIME BLASTS 'FOREIGN-BACKED TERRORISM'...InBelgrade on 22 June, indicted war criminal and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic said that recent incidents in the Presevo valley indicate that ethnic Albanian "terrorists are not giving up and that [police] measures must be expanded," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 2000). He added that Serbian "police are doing everything...to control the buffer zone [on the border with Kosova] and with good results in view of the extent of [terrorist] training facilities and bases in the Kosovska Kamenica region and vast logistical support of U.S. forces and KFOR" to the Kosova Liberation Army. PM [19] ...BUT ETHNIC ALBANIANS PLEAD 'SELF-DEFENSE'A manidentified only as Commander Bajram told AP in Prishtina on 22 June that his Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac Liberation Army has not launched recent attacks on Serbian property in the Presevo valley area. He argued that his forces fight only in response to attacks from Serbian forces. He admitted that his group uses clandestine routes into and out of Kosova but denied Serbian charges that it operates openly and freely there. PM [20] BELGRADE SLAMS EU 'WHITE LIST'In Belgrade on 22 June,Sainovic denounced EU plans to set up a "white list" of Serbian businesses that do not pay money to the state (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 June 2000). He argued that all businesses must pay taxes and therefore no business can meet the EU's criteria. "Who in France can sign a statement saying no taxes will be paid to the state? Tax evasion is heresy in their own countries. They [in the EU] know it is impossible," Reuters reported. Sainovic also made light of international sanctions against Belgrade. "There are no embargoes, there is only a price. Believe me, I am talking from personal experience and after eight years of sanctions," he said. PM [21] NO DEAL FOR MILOSEVICAn unnamed senior official ofMilosevic's Socialist Party told AP in Belgrade on 23 June that unspecified Western governments have indeed approached Milosevic with offers of safety in return for leaving Serbia. "There have been such initiatives every once in a while, but he even refused to discuss it. There's no way that he could opt for such a stupid option." The daily "Danas" added that "the current degree of state repression signals Milosevic's readiness to defend himself at any cost. The Yugoslav president has been cornered to defend not only his rule but also his skin." PM [22] FORMER ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TESTIFIES IN MONEY-LAUNDERINGAFFAIRParty of Social Democracy in Romania Chairman and former President Ion Iliescu on 22 June testified as a witness in the Adrian Costea money-laundering affair, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The previous day, the Prosecutor-General's Office had summoned Iliescu for the third time to testify. Iliescu said the investigators asked about "all the issues already publicized in the media" and that he "has nothing to add" to his earlier statements. Meanwhile, the Romanian post service has launched its own investigation into the circumstances of a letter sent to Iliescu by Costea's lawyers that was damaged on reaching its destination. The letter was published in the media before reaching Iliescu. MS [23] TRANSDNIESTER SUPREME SOVIET AMENDS CONSTITUTIONTheTransdniester Supreme Soviet on 22 June amended the separatist region's constitution to significantly increase the prerogatives of the president, Infotag reported. The change will not have an immediate impact since Igor Smirnov is both "head of state" and "premier." The amendments approved transforming the Supreme Soviet from a bicameral into a unicameral legislature that will have 43 deputies, instead of the 60 under the former, bicameral system. The legislature also approved a resolution condemning Chisinau's "infringement of the Gagauz people's economic rights" and "disregard for Gagauz interests in its internal and foreign policy," Flux reported. The session was attended by Gagauz Yeri Popular Assembly Chairman Mikhail Kendigelean, who said the autonomous region now wants to participate in the pending Chisinau-Tiraspol negotiations on "a joint common state." MS [24] BULGARIA, MOLDOVA, DISCUSS NUCLEAR WASTE TRANSITVisitingMoldovan Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis and his Bulgarian counterpart, Ivan Kostov, met in Sofia on 22 June to discuss the transit via Moldovan territory of nuclear waste from the Kozlodui plant bound for Russia, AP reported, citing BTA. Braghis said the Moldovan parliament is still considering whether to approve an agreement on the transit that was signed last year. Kostov said the issue is "of particular importance, and Bulgaria expects a positive solution." MS [25] BULGARIA TO PRIVATIZE SECOND NATIONAL TV CHANNELThegovernment on 22 June announced it will privatize the second national television channel. Bids for the 15-year license must be submitted by 1 September, Reuters and AP reported. Bidders will compete for a frequency that until 1997 had been used by Russian Public Television, which did not re-apply for a license. The signal covers 56 percent of Bulgarian territory, and the license holder will be required to expand coverage to 75 percent at its own expense. MS [C] END NOTE[26] TRANSYLVANIA'S LOCAL ELECTIONS SHOW NATIONALISM IS STRONGFACTORBy Zsolt-Istvan Mato Romania's post-communist political allegiances have been characterized by some notable regional differences: Moldova and Muntenia (except for their large urban settlements) tend to favor the post-communist "successor parties," while the former Hungarian province of Transylvania has supported the present governing coalition parties. A close examination of the 2000 local election results in Transylvania shows that the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR) and the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) won that contest. While most important cities are still controlled by coalition representatives, the UDMR and the PDSR dominate the county councils, where the system for the distribution of seats is similar to that used in parliamentary elections. The main political organization of ethnic Hungarians, representing 23 percent of the region's inhabitants, came first in five of the region's 16 counties and has a majority in two counties. The PDSR, on the other hand, won in six counties but failed to secure a majority on the councils where it won. Two cities attracted the most attention during the elections. One is Targu Mures, where in March 1990 Romanians clashed with ethnic Hungarians, leaving six dead and several injured. The city has since returned to "normalcy," but nationalist sentiments, though subdued, persist on each side. With its very large Hungarian ethnic minority, Targu Mures has been governed since 1992 by an ethnic Hungarian mayor, who in the past managed to enlist the support of some liberal-minded members of the town's ethnic Romanian majority. In the 4 June first round of the 2000 local elections, incumbent Imre Fodor was only 179 votes short of winning outright. But in the runoff two weeks later, Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) candidate Dorin Florea won by a narrow margin of 2,723 votes, producing what is perhaps the greatest surprise in Transylvania in the local elections. Florea, until now the prefect of Mures county, conducted a campaign that clearly appealed to Romanian nationalist sentiments. He thus managed to enlist the support of the CDR's nationalist adversaries against the UDMR candidate Fodor, whose party is a CDR partner in the central government coalition. Florea now faces a UDMR majority in the city council and the difficult task of working with two Hungarian vice mayors. Transylvania's "spiritual capital," Cluj, drew even more attention, however. Extreme nationalist Mayor Gheorghe Funar, secretary-general of the Greater Romania Party (PRM), has headed the mayoralty since 1992, when he was still a member (and then the leader) of the Party of Romanian National Unity. In the first round of this month's elections, he garnered 46 percent of the vote and UDMR candidate Peter Eckstein Kovacs placed second with 21 percent (roughly the percentage of the city's population that is Hungarian). Fearing the runoff would bring about a strong division along ethnic lines, Eckstein Kovacs stepped down in favor of Serban Radulescu, the CDR candidate who placed third with just over 11 percent backing. This prompted all parties except the PRM to form a coalition against Funar. Most local intellectuals declared their support for Radulescu, and the local media intensified the strong anti-Funar campaign they had launched before the first round. Radulescu centered his campaign on the need to return to "normalcy" in interethnic relations and to attract foreign investors, who have been scared off by Funar's anti-Western rhetoric. Clearly convinced he would repeat his 1996 performance, when he was one of the few mayors to win in the first round, Funar had conducted a surprisingly tame campaign. But ahead of the runoff he returned to waging an all-out war against the town's Hungarian minority and Magyars in Romania in general. He claimed that should Radulescu win, Hungarian would be introduced as an official language, a Hungarian-language university would be established (as it should have been long ago, in accordance with legislation already passed), and Romanians would be "kicked out of their homes." Moreover, according to the maverick mayor, Hungarian companies would buy up local firms, and Cluj would instantly return to being "Kolozsvar," the city's name under centuries- long Hungarian rule. Funar's tactics worked again, particularly among those Romanians whom late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu moved to Cluj to "Romanianize" Transylvania's capital. The coalition formed by the anti-Funar parties--which surprisingly included the PDSR--turned out to be "too little, too late." This took few people unawares since both the PDSR and some parties represented in the CDR have on occasion played the "nationalist card" themselves. Funar won with 53 to Radulescu's 47 percent., leaving the city even more divided than ever and with a local council dominated by the anti- Funar coalition representatives. But if Hungarian money seemed dirty for the residents of Cluj, German Marks proved attractive elsewhere in Transylvania. In the southern city of Sibiu, the runoff resulted in the overwhelming victory of Johannis Klaus, the candidate of the German Democratic Forum, over his PDSR adversary. That result was somewhat surprising: once dominated by Germans, the former Hermannstadt now has a population that is only 1 percent German. Klaus had offered global, not ethnic solutions for the city. Observers, however, note that Sibiu voters are hoping the ethnic German mayor will help attract investments from Germany and other EU member countries. The author is a freelance writer living in Cluj, Romania. 23-06-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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