RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 137, 00-07-19

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 137, 19 July 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] RELEASE OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SHOOTING SUSPECTS QUESTIONED

[02] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN DISCUSSES KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN

[03] ...AS ARMENIA, KARABAKH RELEASE FURTHER POWS

[04] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT APPROVES FIRST CENTRAL ELECTORAL

[05] SLAIN GEORGIAN INSURGENT NOT YET BURIED

[06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSES OIL PIPELINE OPTIONS IN LONDON

[07] KAZAKHSTAN SEEKS TO ALLEVIATE WATER SHORTAGE

[08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PASSES LANGUAGE EXAM

[09] TURKMENISTAN, RUSSIA AT ODDS OVER CASPIAN

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS ALBANIANS, SERBS

[11] MITROVICA SERBS PLEDGE MORE PROTESTS

[12] RISTIC TO HEAD MODERATE SERBIAN BODY

[13] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS STAGE PROTEST FOR TETOVO UNIVERSITY

[14] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES CUTTING MINISTRIES

[15] YUGOSLAV ARMY SAYS IT WILL 'NEVER' ATTACK MONTENEGRO

[16] FAMILIES OF DEAD SERBIAN JOURNALISTS SUE STATE TV BOSSES

[17] PROSECUTORS CHARGE 10 PEOPLE IN ARKAN SLAYING

[18] VERHEUGEN: EU MEMBERSHIP FOR SLOVENIA BY 2003?

[19] MESIC BUOYED BY EU TIES

[20] BOSNIAN SERB INFORMATION CHIEF QUITS

[21] NEW RIGHTIST COALITION IN ROMANIA TO BACK ISARESCU FOR

[22] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES USE OF EU FUNDS

[23] OSCE TO TAKE STRICTER STANCE ON TRANSDNIESTER SEPARATISTS?

[24] BULGARIAN JUSTICE MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO LIBYA OVER RACIAL

[C] END NOTE

[25] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS DOOR SHUT

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] RELEASE OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SHOOTING SUSPECTS QUESTIONED

Armenian parliament shootings have addressed a statement to

Military Prosecutor Gagik Jahangirian questioning his

decision to shelve the investigation into the possible

compliance in that crime of four persons, including

presidential aide Aleksan Harutiunian, RFE/RL's Yerevan

bureau reported on 18 July. The statement, which was

published in the independent daily "Aravot," argued that

rather than take that decision on the basis of testimony

given by Nairi Hunanian, the leader of the five gunmen who

committed the killings, Jahangirian should have collated the

evidence given by all the defendants. Jahangirian told RFE/RL

that the victims' families may appeal to the prosecutor-

general to review the findings of the preliminary

investigation. But the wife of slain parliamentary deputy

speaker Yurii Bakhshian said that the families do not want to

prolong the investigation and would prefer that the case go

to trial. LF

[02] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN DISCUSSES KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN

Meeting in Baku on 18 July with Azerbaijan

President Heidar Aliev, Foreign Minister Vilayet Guliev, and

parliamentary speaker Murtuz Alesqerov, Benita Ferrero-

Waldner called on the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan

"to take the courageous steps necessary" to resolve the

conflict now on the basis of mutual compromise. She also

stressed the importance of taking "small but significant

confidence-building measures" proposed by the OSCE in the

economic and military spheres. Aliev, however, said he thinks

the OSCE should be more active and responsive in promoting a

settlement of the conflict, Reuters reported. Guliev, for his

part, said that Ferrero-Waldner had brought no new proposals

on how the conflict could be resolved, although "there are

some elements that need to be carefully looked at." LF

[03] ...AS ARMENIA, KARABAKH RELEASE FURTHER POWS

an appeal by Ferrero-Waldner, Nagorno-Karabakh President

Arkadii Ghukasian released four Azerbaijani prisoners of war

who had been detained in Stepanakert for up to two years,

Russian agencies reported. Two more Azerbaijani POWs who had

been held in Yerevan were also freed. The six men were flown

to Baku on 18 July. LF

[04] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT APPROVES FIRST CENTRAL ELECTORAL

Parliamentary deputies on 18 July

endorsed nine nominees to the new Central Electoral

Commission by 85 votes to nine, Turan reported. Three of the

nominees represent the majority Yeni Azerbaycan party, three

are independent deputies, two are from the opposition

Azerbaijan National Independence Party (AMIP), and one

represents the opposition Musavat Party. But AMIP chairman

Etibar Mamedov warned the parliament the same day that the

opposition representatives to the election commission from

his party and from the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front

will refuse to cooperate with the commission until the

parliament amends the election law to comply with the demands

of the opposition and the OSCE's Office for Democratic

Institutions and Human Rights (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report,"

Vol. 3, No. 26, 30 June 2000). That refusal, Mamedov said,

will paralyze the functioning of the commission, whose

decisions must be adopted by two-thirds of its 18 members.

Meeting with Azerbaijani officials on 18 July, OSCE

Chairwoman in Office Ferrero-Waldner likewise noted "serious

shortcomings" in the election law and expressed the hope they

will be corrected, Turan reported. LF

[05] SLAIN GEORGIAN INSURGENT NOT YET BURIED

Colonel Akaki Eliava, killed in unclear circumstances by

Georgian security officials on 9 July (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

10 July 2000), held funeral rites for him in his home town of

Senaki on 18 July but are refusing to bury him until the

Georgian authorities release three of his comrades in arms,

Caucasus Press reported. The three men were detained with

Eliava on 9 July and have been charged with illegal

possession of arms, although two of them were unarmed at the

time of their arrest. Bondo Djikia, governor of the west

Georgian regions of Mingrelia and Upper Svaneti, on 18 July

joined Georgian ombudsman Nana Devdariani in calling for the

three men's release. LF

[06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSES OIL PIPELINE OPTIONS IN LONDON

state visit, met with oil sector officials in London on 18

July to discuss the feasibility of a second Baku-Supsa oil

export pipeline and of a pipeline from the Russian Black Sea

port of Novorossiissk via Supsa to the Turkish terminal at

Ceyhan, Caucasus Press reported. LF

[07] KAZAKHSTAN SEEKS TO ALLEVIATE WATER SHORTAGE

government officials have held urgent talks with neighboring

Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on increasing water supplies to

southern Kazakhstan, Deputy Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov

told journalists on 18 July. He did not say whether those

talks were successful, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Serikbek Daukeev

told a recent cabinet meeting that Uzbekistan is violating a

schedule drawn up by the inter-governmental commission on

water resources, according to Interfax on 18 July. Kyrgyzstan

has reduced the flow of irrigation water to southern

Kazakhstan, where the cotton crop in Maqta-Aral is threatened

by drought, in retaliation for Kazakhstan's failure to comply

with an agreement concluded last year on exchanging coal for

irrigation water. LF

[08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PASSES LANGUAGE EXAM

Tursunbek Akunov on 18 July became the first candidate for

the 29 October presidential poll to sit the mandatory tests

in fluency in the Kyrgyz language ordered last month by the

Central Electoral Commission, Interfax reported (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 29 June 2000). The tests comprise writing an essay

on an assigned topic, making a five-minute oral presentation

in Kyrgyz, and reading extracts from fictional works. A

second presidential candidate, film-maker and parliament

deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbaev, has condemned the language test

as humiliating and designed to exclude non-Kyrgyz candidates.

LF

[09] TURKMENISTAN, RUSSIA AT ODDS OVER CASPIAN

Foreign Minister and presidential envoy for the Caspian

Viktor Kalyuzhnyi held three hours of behind-closed-doors

talks in Ashgabat on 18 July with Turkmenistan's President

Saparmurat Niyazov, Russian agencies reported. Kalyuzhnyi

told journalists later that those discussions were "much more

difficult" than his talks earlier this month in Astana and

Baku (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 17 July 2000). Kalyuzhnyi

proposed a phased approach to resolving the question of the

legal status of the Caspian, beginning with an agreement on

the environment and the sea's biological resources. But

Niyazov argued that environmental and other issues should be

addressed only after the median line has been defined and all

five littoral states have signed a convention on the status

of the sea, according to Interfax. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS ALBANIANS, SERBS

said in Prishtina on 18 July that the Atlantic alliance

demands a stop to ethnically-motivated violence in Kosova. He

stressed that "we are going to protect a multi-ethnic society

here and we'll do it if necessary by making sure the

individual groups are protected in their homes and

communities," AP reported. He told ethnic Albanians not to

"allow the Serb community to be run out of Kosovo and into

the arms of [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic."

Robertson called on Serbs to admit that "some horrifying

violence went on here over the last two years, and [that] the

memory of that is not going to fade very quickly" among local

Albanians. Addressing the Albanians, Robertson said: "Go and

visit the [Serbian] churches and show that you, too, care

about sacred sites that are being despoiled. Go to those who

have had relations or friends murdered and tell them that

you, the Kosovo Albanians, know more about harassment than

practically any other people on Earth." PM

[11] MITROVICA SERBS PLEDGE MORE PROTESTS

Oliver Ivanovic told AP on 19 July that local Serbs have

lifted their blockades of roads leading into northern

Mitrovica. He added, however, that there will be daily

protests until Dalibor Vukovic is freed from jail for having

set fire to Albanian-owned cars (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18

July 2000). Ivanovic also warned that there could be violence

if Vukovic remains in prison, adding: "Over the past 10

months, during clashes around bridges [in Mitrovica], we had

more than 100 people injured and not a single Albanian was

jailed. Some 53 Serbs were killed or abducted and not a

single Albanian is in jail." Ivanovic told AP that he will

meet with UN officials in the course of the day to try to

persuade them to free Vukovic. PM

[12] RISTIC TO HEAD MODERATE SERBIAN BODY

18 July, members of the moderate Serbian National Council

(SNV) elected Dusan Ristic president. He replaces Momcilo

Trajkovic, who recently resigned to protest the SNV's

decision to resume cooperation with the UN civilian

administration's advisory council, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 June 2000). PM

[13] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS STAGE PROTEST FOR TETOVO UNIVERSITY

18 July to demand that the parliament make the underground

Tetovo Albanian-language university a full-fledged state

institution (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 July 2000). Dean Fadil

Sulejmani said a compromise put forward by the OSCE to make

the university an accredited but private institution is

"unacceptable." Reuters reported. The opposition Party of

Democratic Prosperity organized the rally. The question of

Tetovo University is one of the most acrimonious in

Macedonian politics. PM

[14] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES CUTTING MINISTRIES

parliament on 18 July began debates on the status of Tetovo

University and on the reorganization of the state

administration. The government wants to cut the number of

ministries from 21 to 14, the private MIC news agency

reported. If the legislature gives the proposal the necessary

two-thirds majority, some of the ministries that have been

eliminated will be reorganized as "agencies" of other

ministries. A new cabinet will also be formed. PM

[15] YUGOSLAV ARMY SAYS IT WILL 'NEVER' ATTACK MONTENEGRO

Svetozar Radisic told journalists in Belgrade on 18 July that

"there is no price for which the Yugoslav army would attack

Montenegro," Reuters reported. He said that reports to the

contrary in the Montenegrin and foreign media are "notorious

lies." The colonel stressed that "the Yugoslav army has no

intention of attacking either [federal] republic because its

purpose is to defend them. It does not even cross its mind to

enter into conflicts with its people. The Yugoslav army has

always been with the people, never against them, and will

therefore prevent a civil war at any price," he argued.

Radisic stressed that the army recognizes that the former

Yugoslav military made a "mistake" when it attacked Slovenia,

Croatia, and Bosnia, "Glas javnosti" reported. He added,

however, that while the army is free of partisan politics, it

recognizes that it has a political role to play in keeping

the peace, "Danas" reported. PM

[16] FAMILIES OF DEAD SERBIAN JOURNALISTS SUE STATE TV BOSSES

of 12 families against Serbian Television's Director

Dragoljub Milanovic, Editor-in-Chief Milorad Komrakov,

Chairman of the Administrative Board Vukasin Jokanovic, and

several other people, "Danas" reported on 19 July. The

families say that the officials knew that NATO was planning

to attack the state television building in April 1999 but did

nothing to warn the staff. The air strike left 16 dead and 18

injured. State television has been one of the main pillars of

Milosevic's rule. In response to the families' lawsuit,

Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic said that NATO, not the

Belgrade authorities, are responsible for the deaths. PM

[17] PROSECUTORS CHARGE 10 PEOPLE IN ARKAN SLAYING

public prosecutor's office said in a statement on 18 July

that it has charged four people for the murder of warlord and

indicted war criminal Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic in January

(see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 18 January 2000). The statement

added that another six individuals have been charged as

accomplices. One of the alleged murderers is at large and

will be tried in absentia, AP reported. The statement did not

indicate when the trial will begin. PM

[18] VERHEUGEN: EU MEMBERSHIP FOR SLOVENIA BY 2003?

Verheugen, who is the EU's commissioner for enlargement, said

in Ljubljana on 18 July that Slovenia must keep up the

momentum for reform, "Delo" reported. He urged his hosts to

make special efforts to introduce the EU's common body of

legislation, known as the "acquis communautaire." Verheugen

added that EU membership for Slovenia could be a realistic

possibility by 2003 or 2005. Slovenian Foreign Minister Lojze

Peterle recently said membership is a realistic possibility

only between 2005 and 2008. PM

[19] MESIC BUOYED BY EU TIES

in Brussels on 18 July that the leaders of all 15 EU member

states will attend the EU's Balkan summit slated for the fall

in Zagreb, "Jutarnji list" reported. He added that he has

received backing in Brussels for a number of key economic

projects. These include building an Adriatic-Ionian highway,

reopening the Croatian segment of the Danube to navigation,

constructing an oil pipeline from the Caspian to the

Adriatic, and launching work on a gas pipeline linking Norway

to the Adriatic. PM

[20] BOSNIAN SERB INFORMATION CHIEF QUITS

Information Minister Rajko Vasic resigned on 18 July

following criticism by several representatives of the

international community of his alleged interference in the

appointment of officials of Bosnian Serb television, RFE/RL's

South Slavic Service reported. Prime Minister Milorad Dodik

accepted the resignation. "Dnevni avaz" wrote that the

Information Ministry will in any case soon be abolished.

Unnamed representatives of the international community have

repeatedly called for the ministry's abolition on the grounds

that democratic countries do not have such ministries. PM

[21] NEW RIGHTIST COALITION IN ROMANIA TO BACK ISARESCU FOR

At a meeting organized by the Civic Alliance

Movement (MAC), the leaders of the National Peasant Party

Christian Democratic (PNTCD), the Union of Rightist Forces,

the National Christian Democratic Alliance, and the

Ecologist Federation agreed to set up a center-right

alliance and run on joint lists in the fall parliamentary

elections, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. A final

agreement is to be concluded by 1 August. The MAC will not

field candidates but will support the alliance. PNTCD

chairman Ion Diaconescu said the alliance will support

either Premier Mugur Isarescu as its presidential candidate

"or another person." He noted that Isarescu has agreed to

replace President Emil Constantinescu as the alliance's

candidate for head of state (see "End Note" below). But

Isarescu said he learned about the initiative only "from

the media." The daily "Ziua" reported on 19 July that the

alliance's "other" possible candidate for president might

be Education Minister Andrei Marga. MS

[22] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES USE OF EU FUNDS

national television after chairing a cabinet meeting,

Constantinescu said he has urged Isarescu to take urgent

measures to ensure the "transparent and efficient" use of

funds granted by the EU. He said that otherwise Romania

runs the risk of being unable to use funding from the EU

and other foreign creditors. Isarescu said the government

was "on course" to meet budget targets but noted that

budget figures might have to be revised. He also announced

that pensions will be increased as of 1 September. On 19

July, Constantinescu was scheduled to depart for visits to

Mexico and Brazil. MS

[23] OSCE TO TAKE STRICTER STANCE ON TRANSDNIESTER SEPARATISTS?

the OSCE Standing Bureau's meeting in Vienna on 18 July,

said the organization is contemplating adopting punitive

measures against the Transdniester separatists for their

obstruction of a solution to the conflict, RFE/RL's

Chisinau bureau reported. Vition said the OSCE Standing

Bureau harshly criticized the Tiraspol leaders, saying that

it is "inadmissible" that they continue attempting to

thwart the decisions of the OSCE's summit in Istanbul last

year. The Transdniester delegation walked out of the

meeting after the bureau refused to accept the delegation's

claim that it represents the separatist region and is not

part of the Moldovan delegation. At the meeting, Russia

submitted a four-stage plan for withdrawing its troops and

arsenal from the Transdniester but neither submitted a

time-table for the withdrawal nor specified when it would

begin. MS

[24] BULGARIAN JUSTICE MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO LIBYA OVER RACIAL

Justice Minister Teodosii Simeonov on 18 July

apologized to Libya over a remark he had made in connection

with the pending trial of six Bulgarian nationals who are

accused by Tripoli of having willfully infected children in a

Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus, dpa reported, citing

BTA. The six face the death penalty if found guilty. Simeonov

had told Bulgarian journalists that he could predict the

outcome of a trial "in a white country, but this is not

Libya's case." In a fax to the Libyan authorities, Simeonov

said his words "must not be wrongly interpreted as an

insult." Last week, Prime Minister Mubarak Abdallah al-

Shamikh and parliamentary chairman Zenati Mohammed Zenati

told a Bulgarian parliamentary delegation to Libya that

Tripoli is "extremely unhappy" about the Bulgarian media's

coverage of the pending trial, Reuters reported. MS

[C] END NOTE

[25] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS DOOR SHUT

President Emil Constantinescu's decision not to seek

re-election was surprising, but not unexpected.

Constantinescu made the announcement on national television

on 17 July, less than three weeks after declaring he would

seek a second mandate. However, for months Constantinescu has

been trailing his predecessor and likely successor in office,

Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) chairman Ion

Iliescu, and some recent polls even showed him behind Teodor

Melescanu, the leader of Alliance for Romania (APR). The gap

between Iliescu and Constantinescu seemed too large to close,

unless the incumbent could have counted on the support of all

those who voted for "anyone but Iliescu."

But it became clear between his two announcements that

Constantinescu could not count on the backing of that part of

the electorate. His candidacy was endorsed by the National

Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) and the Union of

Rightist Forces, which will run in an alliance in the fall

parliamentary and presidential elections. The two formations

even picked a "running mate" for Constantinescu--namely,

Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu, who, though politically

independent, was to be their choice for premier. This,

however, was an electoral gimmick: the constitution does not

grant the president the right to appoint the premier--that

appointment being rather the prerogative of the parliament.

Moreover, those behind the creation of the

Constantinescu-Isarescu "team" failed to take into account

two factors: Theodor Stolojan, also a former premier (1991-

1992) and, like Isarescu, a popular figure; and the National

Liberal Party (PNL), although it is uncertain how much longer

the party will continue to use that name.

For some time, a group calling itself the Social Liberal

Initiative had been pushing Stolojan's candidacy for either

the premiership or the presidency, as an alternative to the

PDSR-Iliescu tandem or that of Constantinescu and the

Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR). Based on the A Future

for Romania debating club, which formerly had ties with the

PDSR, this reformist group had developed over the last years

closer ties to Melescanu's party. These ties were "natural,"

so to speak, as the APR had split from the PDSR in 1997. The

APR embraced the idea of the "return of Stolojan" but made

its support for that idea conditional on the "ticket" of

"Melescanu for president, Stolojan for premier."

And then there is the PNL factor. In the June local

elections, that party, which was the PNTCD's main partner in

the CDR in the 1996 parliamentary elections, chose to run on

separate lists. It did not do well, but it did better than

the so-called "CDR"--which was virtually the PNTCD. The

dilemma faced by the PNL leadership after the June ballot was

how to avoid, in the electorate's eyes, sharing

responsibility for the country's dismal economic performance

and the failure of its three post-1996 cabinets to implement

reform while remaining credible in its opposition to the

left-wing PDSR.

The party had two choices: run on separate lists in the

fall elections (infringing on a PNTCD-PNL agreement to revive

the CDR for that ballot) or seek a new partner. The final

decision has not yet been taken, but all the indications are

that PNL First Deputy Chairman Valeriu Stoica will have his

way and the PNL will run in the elections on joint lists with

the APR. This ideologically unlikely alliance has already

deeply divided the PNL, and some prominent members have

resigned. And to complicate matters, the APR is insisting

that Melescanu be presidential candidate and Stolojan the

candidate for the premiership. The PNL, however, would rather

back Stolojan for the first position.

One thing is clear: the PNL will not back

Constantinescu. This explains why Constantinescu, in

addressing the nation on 17 July, spoke bitterly of

competition among Romania's political parties having turned

into "a blind struggle for power-seeking personal or group

interests." "This is a time, he said, when "people buy and

sell principles, ideologies, seats in the parliament and the

cabinet, making use to that end of lies, blackmail,

vulgarity, and manipulation."

Constantinescu may also feel betrayed by the electorate

or, rather, by what its preferences are likely to be in the

presidential and parliamentary elections, based on the

outcome of the local ballot. He had been waging, he said, a

struggle against the "Mafia-like" structures that had

penetrated Romanian's economic and political structures. But

instead of receiving support for those efforts, his political

adversaries (read: Iliescu) had accused him of manipulating

the judicial process for electoral purposes.

The electorate, for its part, has clearly shown that it

cares little at this point about Constantinescu's anti-

corruption drive, or perhaps it simply does not believe that

one side is better than the other. This is why Constantinescu

urged Romania's citizens to choose between "the world of

theft and lies or a country of honesty and truth." Aware of

the fact that he himself has also been accused of condoning,

and even of being personally involved in, corruption,

Constantinescu announced that he will not seek election to

the parliament and hence will not enjoy immunity. Unlike his

predecessor, as his audience was clearly meant to understand.

Regardless of whether one chooses to view

Constantinescu's slamming of the political door as a gesture

of a frustrated politician or of a desperate honest man, it

should not be forgotten that no other politician in Romania

has voluntarily quit. Those who stay in the race will find it

hard to explain why they, rather than Emil Constantinescu,

should continue to pursue their electoral ambitions.

19-07-00

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

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