RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 134, 00-07-14

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 134, 14 July 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] KARABAKH FOREIGN MINISTER ASSESSES PEACE PROCESS

[02] AZERBAIJAN PROTESTS U.S. TERRORISM ALLEGATIONS

[03] AZERBAIJANI FACTIONS NAME CANDIDATES TO CENTRAL ELECTORAL

[04] GEORGIA, U.S. DISCUSS OIL TRANSPORTATION

[05] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES BUDGET SEQUESTER, TAX LAW

[06] GEORGIAN JUDICIARY PERSONNEL STRIKE

[07] CONFISCATED RADIO-ACTIVE MATERIALS TO BE TRANSPORTED FROM

[08] FORMER KAZAKH PREMIER DETAINED IN ROME

[09] LAWYER ARRESTED IN KAZAKHSTAN

[10] KYRGYZ OFFICIAL SAYS KULOV MAY BE ABLE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

[11] TAJIK, OSCE OFFICIALS DISCUSS SECURITY, AFGHANISTAN

[12] TWO POLICE KILLED BY CAR BOMB IN TAJIKISTAN

[13] CHINA TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO TAJIK MILITARY

[14] U.S. DELEGATION VISITS UZBEKISTAN

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION, MONTENEGRIN LEADERS PLAN STRATEGY

[16] ALBRIGHT PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR MONTENEGRO

[17] MESIC URGES DJUKANOVIC NOT TO FALL INTO TRAP

[18] BULATOVIC, SESELJ BLAST DJUKANOVIC

[19] MONTENEGRINS DEMAND OPEN BORDER TO BOSNIA

[20] BELGRADE BLOCKS EU AID FOR SOUTHERN SERBIA

[21] MS. MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR OPPOSITION TO GLOBALIZATION

[22] U.S. COMMANDER: BELGRADE'S AGENTS ACTIVE IN KOSOVA

[23] ATTACKS ON SERBIAN CHECKPOINT NEAR KOSOVA BORDER

[24] RUSSIA WARY ON KOSOVA ELECTIONS

[25] BALKAN MINISTERS MEET IN OHRID

[26] UN RENEWS PREVLAKA MANDATE

[27] CROATIA SEIZES 'TERRORIST' WEAPONS

[28] BOSNIAN SERB PRIME MINISTER CALLS SREBRENICA 'MASS CRIME'

[29] SREBRENICA WOMEN BLOCK HIGHWAY

[30] KLEIN DEMANDS ARREST OF KARADZIC BY NOVEMBER

[31] BOSNIA TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE IN 2001?

[32] ALLIANCE FOR ROMANIA TELLS LIBERALS 'NO DEAL'

[33] FORMER ROMANIAN OFFICIALS QUESTIONED ON YUGOSLAV EMBARGO

[34] ROMANIA ACTS TO IMPROVE CHILD PROTECTION

[35] PUTIN APPROVES TIMETABLE FOR MOLDOVAN WITHDRAWAL

[36] EU SUPPORTS MOLDOVAN BID TO JOIN STABILITY PACT

[37] BULGARIA'S CREDITORS EASE BURDEN

[C] END NOTE

[38] SERBIAN OPPOSITION AND ITS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS DISCUSS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] KARABAKH FOREIGN MINISTER ASSESSES PEACE PROCESS

telephone interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service on 13

July, foreign minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh

Republic Naira Melkumian stressed the importance both of the

Minsk Group mediation and the ongoing dialogue between

Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani

counterpart, Heidar Aliev. But Melkumian, who is currently in

Vienna, where the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group are

meeting, added that the peace process is "complex" and that

she doubts whether a settlement can be reached by the end of

this year. Melkumian noted that numerous Azerbaijan

politicians. with the exception of President Aliev, advocate

a new war to bring the unrecognized enclave back under

Azerbaijan's jurisdiction. She said that the Karabakh

Armenians do not want another war but added that if

Azerbaijan begins hostilities, the new war "will be fought on

Azerbaijani territory, considering the strength of the

Karabakh armed forces." LF

[02] AZERBAIJAN PROTESTS U.S. TERRORISM ALLEGATIONS

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has issued a statement taking

issue with that part of the U.S. State Department's report on

global terrorism in 1999 that relates to Azerbaijan, Turan

and Reuters reported. The statement rejects as groundless the

report's findings that Azerbaijan "serves as a center of

material and technical supply for international gunmen

linking with terrorist groups, some of which supported the

Chechen revolt in Russia." The Foreign Ministry statement

affirms that "Azerbaijan has always condemned terrorism in

all its forms and manifestations." LF

[03] AZERBAIJANI FACTIONS NAME CANDIDATES TO CENTRAL ELECTORAL

The majority Yeni Azerbaycan parliamentary

faction on 13 July named its six representatives to the new

Central Electoral Commission, Turan reported. The previous

day, independent parliamentary deputies had likewise named

their six representatives on the commission, one of whom must

now be approved by the parliamentary majority and another by

the parliamentary opposition. Of the two opposition parties

that in 1995 won representation in parliament under the

proportional system, the Azerbaijan Popular Front has named

two candidates of its own and yielded one seat on the

commission to the Musavat Party, while the Azerbaijan

National Independence Party has named two candidates and

ceded its third seat to the Civic Solidarity Party. LF

[04] GEORGIA, U.S. DISCUSS OIL TRANSPORTATION

adviser to the U.S. president and secretary of state on

Caspian issues, told journalists in Tbilisi on 13 July that

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze assured him in talks

the previous day that Georgia will abide by all its

international commitments with regard to construction of the

planned Baku-Ceyhan export pipeline for Caspian oil, Caucasus

Press reported. ITAR-TASS, however, reported the same day

that the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) is

currently exploring the possibility of expanding the

throughput capacity of the pipeline from Baku to Supsa on

Georgia's Black Sea coast; it currently exports Azerbaijani

Caspian oil through that pipeline. The AIOC has not yet made

any financial commitment to the BAKU-Ceyhan project, which

some analysts consider not economically viable. LF

[05] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES BUDGET SEQUESTER, TAX LAW

Deputies on 13 July approved the revised budget

in the second and final reading, Caucasus Press reported (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 10 July 2000). A total of 166 deputies

approved the bill; members of the opposition Industry Will

Save Georgia faction and the Union of Georgian

Traditionalists boycotted the vote to protest the

government's economic policies. Deputies also approved

amendments to the tax law proposed by President Eduard

Shevardnadze, rejecting several alternative drafts, including

one prepared by the Industry Will Save Georgia faction (see

"RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 28, 13 July 2000).

Deputies also approved a draft bill that allows Georgia's

autonomous Adjar Republic to retain 40 percent of the taxes

collected on its territory. Adjar leader Aslan Abashidze has

for years refused to transfer any tax revenues to the central

Georgian budget. LF

[06] GEORGIAN JUDICIARY PERSONNEL STRIKE

personnel began a strike on 13 July to protest the 28 percent

cut in funding for the judiciary necessitated by the budget

sequester and to demand two months' salary arrears, Caucasus

Press reported. Judges, who are also owed two months' salary,

are forbidden to strike under the law on the courts. LF

[07] CONFISCATED RADIO-ACTIVE MATERIALS TO BE TRANSPORTED FROM

The container of caesium-137

confiscated by Georgian customs officials in Poti earlier

this week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 July 2000) will be

transported to Azerbaijan, which apparently ordered it from

Turkey, Caucasus Press reported on 13 July. The Turkish and

Azerbaijani governments have apologized to Georgia for not

informing Tbilisi in advance of the proposed shipment. LF

[08] FORMER KAZAKH PREMIER DETAINED IN ROME

was detained by police at Rome airport on arriving from

London late on 12 July, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported the

following day. The "Wall Street Journal" on 14 July quoted

Kazhegeldin's lawyer, Charles Both, as saying that the

Italian police had acted in response to an urgent request to

Interpol by the Kazakh authorities, but he added that

Kazhegeldin has not been arrested, nor has any request been

made for his extradition. Both said the Kazakh authorities

have revived earlier charges against Kazhegeldin of money-

laundering, tax evasion, and abuse of power, adding that

those allegations have already been disproved. In Almaty,

Amirzhan Qosanov, a leading member of the opposition

Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan, of which Kazhegeldin

is chairman, said that Kazhegeldin also faces new charges of

terrorism, Reuters reported. LF

[09] LAWYER ARRESTED IN KAZAKHSTAN

Ginzburg was arrested earlier this week on charges of

engaging in unspecified "criminal activities" in 1994,

RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported on 13 July.

Ginzburg had recently agreed to defend National Security

Service Colonel Anatolii Adamov, who has been accused of

involvement in the April murder of arms export official

Talghat Ibraev (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 April and 6 June

2000). LF

[10] KYRGYZ OFFICIAL SAYS KULOV MAY BE ABLE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

Akaev, has said that opposition Ar-Namys party chairman

Feliks Kulov, who is currently on trial, "has every chance"

of participating in the presidential poll to be held on 29

October, Interfax reported. On 11 July, Interfax had quoted

Austrian Ambassador to Bishkek Margaret Westfeld as saying

that international observers will monitor the poll, provided

that democratic rights and freedoms are upheld in Kyrgyzstan.

LF

[11] TAJIK, OSCE OFFICIALS DISCUSS SECURITY, AFGHANISTAN

on 13 July with visiting OSCE ambassadors to discuss regional

security, ITAR-TASS reported. Both sides termed the situation

in Afghanistan "a permanent factor of destabilization in

Central Asia." Nazarov also told the delegation that the

government had agreed to the retrial of a woman sentenced to

death on murder charges whose conviction has been queried by

the OSCE and other international organizations (see "End

Note," "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 June 2000). The OSCE delegation

also met with representatives of political parties and the

media to evaluate the domestic social and political

situation. LF

[12] TWO POLICE KILLED BY CAR BOMB IN TAJIKISTAN

officers were killed and one civilian injured late on 12 July

when a bomb exploded in the car in which they were

travelling, Reuters reported. The incident took place on the

Dushanbe-Khorog highway in eastern Tajikistan. LF

[13] CHINA TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO TAJIK MILITARY

Chinese military delegation that visited Dushanbe on 12 July

signed an agreement with Tajikistan's Defense Minister

Colonel General Sherali Khairullaev to provide unspecified

technical support valued at 5 million yuan (about $700,000),

Asia Plus-Blitz reported. The delegation also met with

President Imomali Rakhmonov, who expressed gratitude for that

assistance, adding that he hopes for the further development

of bilateral defense cooperation. Earlier this week,

Khairullaev also met with China's new military attache in

Dushanbe, Pu Shouguan, to discuss bilateral military and

military-technical cooperation. LF

[14] U.S. DELEGATION VISITS UZBEKISTAN

Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Ambassador Stephen

Sestanovich, who is adviser on the CIS to the U.S. secretary

of state, met in Tashkent on 13 July with Uzbekistan's

President Islam Karimov, Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov,

Defense Minister Yurii Agzamov and Finance Minister Rustam

Azimov, Interfax reported. Topics of discussion were

bilateral relations and cooperation, regional security,

including Afghanistan, and cooperation in countering

religious extremism, international terrorism, and drug-

smuggling. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION, MONTENEGRIN LEADERS PLAN STRATEGY

met with supporters of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic

in Sveti Stefan on 14 July to discuss how to respond to the

constitutional changes introduced recently by Yugoslav

President Slobodan Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 July

2000). The Democratic Party's Zoran Djindjic told AP that "we

will try to form a joint strategy to counter Milosevic's

daily challenges and remove him from power. The aim of both

the Montenegrin leadership and Serbia's democratic opposition

is to form a modern and democratic state in the Balkans, no

matter if Serbia and Montenegro live as neighbors or in a

joint state. Without a democratic Serbia and with Milosevic

in power, there can be no stability in Montenegro or in the

Balkans," he stressed. PM

[16] ALBRIGHT PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR MONTENEGRO

State Madeleine Albright told Djukanovic on 13 July that

Washington will provide Podgorica with an additional $16.5

million to help promote political and economic reform. This

will bring total U.S. assistance to the mountainous republic

in fiscal 2000 to $77.1 million, her spokesman said. He added

that "the main thrust of the phone call was to express her

support for democracy in Montenegro and appreciation for the

moderate policies that Djukanovic has been following,"

Reuters reported. PM

[17] MESIC URGES DJUKANOVIC NOT TO FALL INTO TRAP

President Stipe Mesic said in Zagreb on 13 July that

Milosevic is trying to provoke Djukanovic into calling an

early referendum on independence as a pretext for "provoking

a crisis" that will enable Milosevic to keep his hold on

power, AP reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 2000).

Mesic urged Djukanovic "not to make it easy [for Milosevic]

by calling a referendum now." The Croatian leader stressed,

however, that Western countries "should send a message to

Milosevic" not to start a new conflict. If he does, the

international community "doesn't have a right to be late in

responding" to a war in Montenegro. PM

[18] BULATOVIC, SESELJ BLAST DJUKANOVIC

Yugoslav prime minister and Djukanovic's arch rival in

Montenegrin politics, said in Belgrade on 13 July that the

Djukanovic government is "sowing discord" in Montenegro by

claiming that the Yugoslav army is planning a coup there (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 13 July 2000). He called such claims

"untrue and unworthy," Reuters reported. Elsewhere, Serbian

Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj told a press conference

that Djukanovic "should be arrested for treason." Seselj

noted that the Montenegrin president has just met with

"Serbia's biggest enemies," namely his counterparts from

Croatia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July

2000). PM

[19] MONTENEGRINS DEMAND OPEN BORDER TO BOSNIA

villagers in western Montenegro have blocked a road in the

border area with Bosnia to protest the army's recent closure

of the frontier. The army cited "smuggling" as the reason for

closing the border, but the villagers are not convinced,

Reuters reported on 13 July. The villagers own land and

buildings in the Republika Srpska and complain that their hay

is rotting in the fields because they cannot bring it into

Montenegro. PM

[20] BELGRADE BLOCKS EU AID FOR SOUTHERN SERBIA

of Presevo in southwestern Serbia told AP on 13 July that the

Belgrade authorities will not allow the EU to provide

reconstruction and education funds to his mainly ethnic

Albanian community. Halimi said that Presevo has been

expecting some $100,000 from Brussels to rebuild schools, but

that Belgrade will allow such money to be distributed only

through the Education Ministry. PM

[21] MS. MILOSEVIC CALLS FOR OPPOSITION TO GLOBALIZATION

Markovic, who heads the hard-line United Yugoslav Left, said

in Belgrade on 13 July that people around the world should

unite to oppose globalization, which she called "a new form

of colonialism," "Politika" reported. She argued that that

globalization is different from previous forms of colonialism

in that one single country "is now trying to colonize the

entire planet." PM

[22] U.S. COMMANDER: BELGRADE'S AGENTS ACTIVE IN KOSOVA

General Randal M. Tieszen told AP in Camp Bondsteel, Kosova,

on 13 July that Serbian government agents are active

throughout the province. He added, however, that the agents

have not sought to orchestrate systematic violence against

NATO troops. PM

[23] ATTACKS ON SERBIAN CHECKPOINT NEAR KOSOVA BORDER

Beta news agency reported on 13 July that unidentified

persons fired on the Konculj border crossing in southwestern

Serbia on the border with Kosova three times in the previous

24 hours. It is unclear whether there were any casualties. PM

[24] RUSSIA WARY ON KOSOVA ELECTIONS

Mitrovica said on 14 July that Serbs will not register to

vote for the fall local elections unless security improves so

that more Serbian refugees and displaced persons can return

home, AP reported. The registration deadline is 15 July. In

New York on 13 July, Russian UN Ambassador Sergei Lavrov told

the Security Council that elections must not be held this

year lest ethnic Albanian hard-liners use them to take

control of local governments. He insisted that elections can

take place only when security conditions in the province have

improved and members of all ethnic groups are able to take

part in the ballot. PM

[25] BALKAN MINISTERS MEET IN OHRID

Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia,

Romania, and Turkey began a meeting on 14 July to discuss

regional security issues. PM

[26] UN RENEWS PREVLAKA MANDATE

unanimously on 13 July to extend the mandate for UN military

observers in Croatia's Prevlaka region until 15 January 2001.

The council appealed in a resolution to Belgrade and Zagreb

to settle questions involving Prevlaka soon. Zagreb and

Podgorica have repeatedly sought to resolve the issue but

Belgrade has shown little interest. Prevlaka is Croatian

territory but controls access by sea to Kotor, which is

Yugoslavia's only deep-water port. PM

[27] CROATIA SEIZES 'TERRORIST' WEAPONS

quantity of weapons and explosives in the Cista Provo area

east of Split, near the Herzegovinian border. The confiscated

materials were destined for "terrorists" in Western Europe,

"Jutarnji list" reported on 14 July. Police arrested three

persons after receiving a tip off from unspecified Western

European police colleagues. PM

[28] BOSNIAN SERB PRIME MINISTER CALLS SREBRENICA 'MASS CRIME'

have to be aware that, according to available reports, a mass

crime was perpetrated in Srebrenica and people whose loved

ones were killed there have an absolute right to mark this."

Many Serbs objected to a recent Muslim commemorative prayer

meeting in Srebrenica (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 2000).

PM

[29] SREBRENICA WOMEN BLOCK HIGHWAY

from Srebrenica blocked the main highway south of Sarajevo on

13 July to protest their eviction by the authorities from

Serbian-owned homes in the capital. The women demand that the

authorities provide either protection for their return to

their homes in Srebrenica or alternative housing on Muslim-

held territory, "Oslobodjenje" reported. PM

[30] KLEIN DEMANDS ARREST OF KARADZIC BY NOVEMBER

who heads the UN mission in Bosnia, told "Dnevni avaz" of 13

July that the international community must muster sufficient

"political will" to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader and

indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic. Klein stressed that

the West must overcome its "impotence" and arrest Karadzic

before the 11 November parliamentary elections. PM

[31] BOSNIA TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE IN 2001?

member of the Council of Europe's political affairs

committee, told Reuters in Sarajevo on 13 July that Bosnia

"will become a member of the Council of Europe very soon

after the adoption of the election law. If this is done this

year, Bosnia and Herzegovina will be a member state next

year." Politicians from ethnically-based parties fear that a

new election law will weaken their power base by encouraging

voting across ethnic lines. PM

[32] ALLIANCE FOR ROMANIA TELLS LIBERALS 'NO DEAL'

Bureau of Alliance for Romania (APR) announced on 13 July

that the party will run alone in the fall parliamentary

elections and will field Teodor Melescanu as its presidential

candidate. It said a pre-electoral alliance with the National

Liberal Party (PNL) is possible only if the PNL agrees to

back Melescanu for president and former Prime Minister

Theodor Stolojan for premier. The APR National Council meets

on 14 July to approve that decision. PNL spokesmen responded

that their party is ready to run on separate lists and field

its own presidential candidate but would rather wait for the

APR's National Council decision before deciding what

recommendation to make to its own National Council. That body

is scheduled to meet on 15 July. The PNL also signaled

readiness for further bargaining, saying a final decision

will be postponed until 18 July, after more negotiations with

the APR. MS

[33] FORMER ROMANIAN OFFICIALS QUESTIONED ON YUGOSLAV EMBARGO

Former Romanian Intelligence Service Chief Virgil

Magureanu told the Prosecutor-General's Office on 13 July

that Romania did not break the oil embargo against Yugoslavia

in 1994-1995 and that the 1,000 wagons transporting oil that

crossed the border with Yugoslavia were delivered as

"humanitarian aid" with the full knowledge of international

and Romanian authorities, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported.

Contradicting Magureanu, former Interior Minister Doru Ioan

Taracila said he had no knowledge of those transports, which

were never discussed by the Romanian authorities. Earlier

this week, former Finance Minister Florin Georgescu and

former Transportation Minister Aurel Novac also denied any

knowledge of, or involvement in, the alleged breach of the

embargo. MS

[34] ROMANIA ACTS TO IMPROVE CHILD PROTECTION

the EU to improve the protection of thousands of abandoned

children, the government on 13 July approved rules to help

local authorities cope with the financial burden of

orphanages, Reuters reported. The move clears the last hurdle

in decentralizing the administration and financing of the 440

orphanages that shelter nearly 100,000 abandoned or sick

children, some 2,000 of whom suffer from AIDS. The EU made

the improvement of the state of abandoned children one of the

conditions for accession talks with Romania. Last month, the

government doubled budget allocations for child protection to

the equivalent of $209 million annually. MS

[35] PUTIN APPROVES TIMETABLE FOR MOLDOVAN WITHDRAWAL

President Vladimir Putin on 13 July approved a timetable for

the withdrawal of the Russian contingent as well as its

arsenal and munitions from the Transdniester, Romanian

Television reported. The withdrawal is to end by 2002, in

line with the decision of the OSCE Istanbul summit of last

year. Putin discussed the timetable and the acceleration of

the envisaged Chisinau-Tiraspol settlement with Yevgenii

Primakov, who last month was appointed head of a special

commission on the Transdniester conflict. MS

[36] EU SUPPORTS MOLDOVAN BID TO JOIN STABILITY PACT

Commission President Romano Prodi told visiting Moldovan

President Petru Lucinschi on 13 July that the commission

supports Moldova's efforts to join the Stability Pact for

Southeastern Europe, but he noted that the decision lies with

EU member countries, an RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels

reported. BASA-press reported that France and Germany oppose

Moldova's bid to join the pact. Prodi said "Moldova is a

bridge between Russia, Ukraine, and Europe and between East

and West and it is our common interest to intensify economic

and political relations" with that country. Lucinschi told

journalists after meeting with Prodi that "Moldova will

continue its policy of European integration," promoting both

cooperation with "all European countries" and "with [the CIS]

countries with which we have had economic links for a long

time." MS

[37] BULGARIA'S CREDITORS EASE BURDEN

"in principle" to a partial conversion of Bulgaria's $703.4

million debt into investment in the country's infrastructure,

Finance Minister Muravei Radev told Bulgarian Radio on 13

July. Details are to be worked out during Radev's visit to

Paris, where he is meeting with representatives of the 14

creditor nations on 14 July, AFP reported. Bilateral

discussions are to establish the exact amount of debt relief,

as each creditor is free to decide how much it is prepared to

write off. Germany, which is Bulgaria's largest creditor, is

owed nearly one-third of the debt, while the next largest

creditors are Japan, Austria, Switzerland, and France. MS

[C] END NOTE

[38] SERBIAN OPPOSITION AND ITS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS DISCUSS

by Jolyon Naegele

An air of cautious optimism pervaded the two days of

discussions in Bratislava over the weekend of 8-9 July

between Serbian opposition activists and representatives of

the international community.

Several participants expressed the belief that Yugoslav

President Slobodan Milosevic may have made a fatal mistake in

pushing through constitutional changes in a bid to ensure his

hold on power for another eight years.

The executive director of George Soros's Open Society

Fund in Belgrade, Ivan Vejvoda, said Serbia is at present "in

a typical end-of-regime situation." He added that "of course

such a situation breeds many hopes for the future, but as we

also know from political history, it is a very dangerous

situation, because it could lead us down a very dramatic and

violent path."

Citing the views of famous Central and East European

dissidents in the 1970s and 1980s--including Andrei Sakharov,

Adam Michnik, Vaclav Havel, and Gyoergy Konrad--Vejvoda, said

that when change comes, it has to be nonviolent. Otherwise,

as he put it: "All the revolutions and stormings of the

Bastilles and Winter Palaces send us back into the past and

not into the future."

Vejvoda called on Serbian civil society to prepare now

for a future after Milosevic, saying this would be "the

return of our country to normalcy, to the family of nations

of Europe and the world, to the reintegration in all the

multilateral organizations." Isolation and absence of

communication with the world, he noted, "breed contempt,

breed misunderstanding, and breed intolerance."

Vejvoda welcomed the Balkan Stability Pact and the

international community's apparent attempt to speak in

unison, calling it a welcome change from the disharmony of

past years.

A recurrent theme during the Bratislava conference was

the need to lift international sanctions against Serbia. OSCE

Secretary-General Jan Kubis acknowledged that the

international community is seeking ways to better target

sanctions, which he said often hit ordinary citizens rather

than the regime. The OSCE, he added, very much wants to see

Yugoslavia return to the ranks of OSCE members. But he noted

that a precondition for Belgrade to reclaim its seat is

democratic change in Yugoslavia.

Russia's ambassador to Slovakia, Aleksandr Aksenonek,

told the Bratislava meeting that the use of sanctions against

Serbia is counterproductive. He also criticized the

international community for discussing the Balkan peace

process without Yugoslavia's participation.

The Russian diplomat went on to denounce the

international war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia as

"obviously politicized," saying it had determined in advance

the main guilty parties of the Yugoslav tragedy. Turning to

the domestic scene in Yugoslavia, Aksenonek avoided the

sensitive issue of Montenegro and said the Belgrade regime

and the Serbian opposition should resolve their differences

"through political dialogue."

U.S. diplomat Nicholas Hill, for his part, ruled out

including the Belgrade regime in negotiations and stressed

that the U.S. is "not negotiating with Yugoslav President

Slobodan Milosevic to find him an exit strategy," as some

media have reported. "The notion that we should engage

Milosevic in a discussion of Balkan stability in Bosnia or

wherever is something that -- Washington has come around to

this view -- is not worth it," he commented. "In many

respects, it is quite clear that Milosevic is a source of

instability in the Balkans and not a pillar of stability."

(Owing to the current break in diplomatic relations between

Washington and Belgrade, Hill is based in Budapest, where he

serves as the U.S. Embassy's first secretary for Serbian

affairs).

Miroljub Labus, the head of the G-17, a nongovernmental

Serbian opposition organization, told the gathering that

specific projects to assist the Serbian people are the best

way to overcome Serbs' mistrust of the international

community. One of these projects, for example, was the

"energy for democracy" project last winter, in which the

international community supplied heating oil to the

opposition-controlled cities of Nis and Pirot in southern

Serbia.

But Labus noted the international community is also

mistrustful of the Serbian civilian sector. It still prefers

EU-originated projects over those devised by Serbian

opposition groups.

The author is an RFE/RL senior correspondent based in Prague.

14-07-00

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

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