RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 139, 00-07-21

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 139, 21 July 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] MURDERED ARMENIAN SERVICEMEN'S PARENTS STAGE PROTEST

[02] KARABAKH EX-DEFENSE MINISTER DECLARES HUNGER STRIKE

[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION THREATENS ELECTION BOYCOTT

[04] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PROTESTS ABKHAZ PROTOCOL

[05] KAZAKHSTAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ENDORSES LAW ON FIRST

[06] KAZAKHSTAN'S OIL EXTRACTION ON INCREASE

[07] KYRGYZ POLICE TARGET HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

[08] TAJIKISTAN HOPES FOR STRONGER TIES WITH JAPAN

[09] UZBEK POLICE ABDUCT PRACTISING MUSLIM

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] RFE/RL PRESIDENT SLAMS BELGRADE DECISION AGAINST BROADCASTER

[11] SESELJ LASHES OUT AT INDEPENDENT MEDIA

[12] BELGRADE HARASSES FIRMS ON EU 'WHITE LIST'

[13] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT TO BE ELECTED BY SIMPLE MAJORITY?

[14] MS. MILOSEVIC 'BORROWS' FROM U.S. WEB SITE

[15] MITROVICA SERBS WARN OF MORE PROTESTS

[16] U.S. TROOPS 'FLATTEN' CLANDESTINE KOSOVA BASE

[17] BOSNIAN SERBS RULE OUT JOINT BOSNIAN ARMY

[18] MAGLAJ ROAD BLOCKADE ENDED

[19] AUSTRIAN BANK BUYS STAKE IN BOSNIA

[20] PRLIC WILL STAY IN BOSNIAN HDZ

[21] CROATIAN RIGHTS GROUP WANTS DEATHS CLARIFIED

[22] CROATIA, MONTENEGRO TO STRENGTHEN TIES

[23] ROMANIA'S LIBERALS STILL PLAYING 'MUSICAL CHAIRS'

[24] ROMANIAN POLL SHOWS ILIESCU AHEAD BUT LOSING STEAM

[25] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT OVERRIDES PRESIDENTIAL VETO

[26] BULGARIA DISSATISFIED WITH BALKAN STABILITY PACT

[27] BULGARIA FACES PROBLEMS WITH NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

[28] BULGARIA PROTESTS ISRAELI DECISION ON FORMER KING MEMORIAL

[C] END NOTE

[29] MUSCLE-FLEXING OR ATTEMPTED COUP?

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] MURDERED ARMENIAN SERVICEMEN'S PARENTS STAGE PROTEST

of parents whose sons were killed in peacetime army incidents

blocked a main thoroughfare near the presidential palace in

Yerevan for the fourth consecutive day on 20 July, RFE/RL's

bureau in the Armenian capital reported. They were protesting

what they believe is a deliberate official cover-up of

killings and beatings committed by army officers, and they

also demanded a meeting with President Robert Kocharian to

discuss the issue. Kocharian's spokesman, Vahe Gabrielian,

said, however, that the protest "exceeds the limits of what

is permissible," implying that Kocharian will not agree to

such a meeting. LF

[02] KARABAKH EX-DEFENSE MINISTER DECLARES HUNGER STRIKE

Babayan, former defense minister and commander of the Defense

Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, began a

hunger strike on 20 July to protest the refusal of the

republic's prosecutor-general to transfer to the Armenian

Prosecutor-General's Office the ongoing investigation into

Babayan's alleged involvement in the 22 March attempt to

assassinate Karabakh President Arkadii Ghukasian, Noyan Tapan

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 July 2000). LF

[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION THREATENS ELECTION BOYCOTT

Azerbaijani opposition parties issued a statement on 20 July

warning that they may boycott the 5 November parliamentary

poll if the present parliament fails to amend the disputed

law on elections to incorporate demands by the opposition and

the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human

Rights or if it amends the law on the Central Electoral

Commission to facilitate the control of that body by the

ruling authorities, Turan reported. Also on 20 July, the 11

members of the Central Electoral Commission who represent the

majority Yeni Azerbaycan party and independent deputies

accused the six opposition representatives who are boycotting

the commission's sessions of seeking to sabotage the ballot

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 July 2000 and "RFE/RL Caucasus

Report," Vol. 3, No. 29, 20 July 2000). LF

[04] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PROTESTS ABKHAZ PROTOCOL

of 28 extraparliamentary opposition parties and movements

have staged a protest outside the UN office in Tbilisi to

register their anger at the signing of the 11 July Abkhaz-

Georgian protocol on measures to stabilize the situation

along the Abkhaz-Georgian internal border, Caucasus Press

reported on 21 July (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3,

No. 28, 14 July 2000). Some protesters called for the

replacement of UN special envoy for Abkhazia Dieter Boden,

who participated in the meeting at which the protocol was

signed, on the grounds that he is "anti-Georgian." LF

[05] KAZAKHSTAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ENDORSES LAW ON FIRST

In a statement published on 20 July, Kazakhstan's

Constitutional Court ruled that the legislation enacted last

month that gives life-long privileges to President Nursultan

Nazarbaev does not violate the country's basic law, Reuters

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 and 28 June 2000). The

opposition has protested that the law in effect allows

Nazarbaev to remain president for life. LF

[06] KAZAKHSTAN'S OIL EXTRACTION ON INCREASE

a total of 14,191 million tons of crude during the first six

months of 2000, which represents a 13 percent increase over

the corresponding period in 1999, Interfax reported on 20

July. Production of gas condensate increased by 40 percent

over the same period to reach 2.254 million tons. LF

[07] KYRGYZ POLICE TARGET HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

Bishkek on 20 July detained Almaz Dyryldaev, the son of

Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights director Ramazan Dyryldaev,

and sealed the organization's offices, AP reported. Ramazan

Dyryldaev went into hiding on 17 July after police went to

his home with an arrest warrant. He told AP by telephone on

20 July from an undisclosed location that he fears for his

safety if he is taken into custody. LF

[08] TAJIKISTAN HOPES FOR STRONGER TIES WITH JAPAN

Dushanbe with a visiting Japanese delegation headed by

parliamentary deputy Muneo Suzuki, Tajikistan's President

Imomali expressed the hope that Japan will become "a reliable

trade and economic partner," ITAR-TASS reported on 20 July.

Rakhmonov stressed the need to create a solid legal basis for

economic cooperation and advocated convening a summit to sign

the appropriate agreements. He also expressed the hope that

Japan will persuade other members of the international

community to contribute to the funding of post-civil war

reconstruction in Tajikistan. LF

[09] UZBEK POLICE ABDUCT PRACTISING MUSLIM

detained Bahodir Hasanov, and are refusing to disclose his

whereabouts, Human Rights Watch reported on 20 July. Hasanov,

whose father and brother are prisoners of conscience, was

detained by police in February, September, and November 1999

and subjected to torture. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] RFE/RL PRESIDENT SLAMS BELGRADE DECISION AGAINST BROADCASTER

declare RFE/RL activities in that country illegal as a

violation of international law and an indication of the

desperation of the Milosevic regime. "Only a government

afraid of the truth would try to prevent our journalists from

gathering and disseminating information," Dine said in

Prague. "We will do everything in our power to protect our

journalists and to make sure that they can continue to do

their important work." Dine's comments came in reaction to a

letter from Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic to

Nenad Pejic, the director of RFE/RL's South Slavic Service.

In that letter, which was a response to Pejic's request to

register RFE/RL's bureau in Belgrade, Matic said his

government views RFE/RL not as an objective journalistic

organization but as a propaganda arm of the NATO coalition

against Yugoslavia. "Both Yugoslav journalists and the

Yugoslav people know the value of our work," Dine argued. "We

will not let them down." PM

[11] SESELJ LASHES OUT AT INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Minister Vojislav Seselj said in Belgrade on 20 July that

independent and anti-government media "must disappear from

the political stage," the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"

reported. He called unspecified independent journalists

"foreign spies" and their editorial boards "foreign spy

agencies." It is not clear what concrete measures, if any,

Seselj or the government plan to take and against whom they

might be directed. PM

[12] BELGRADE HARASSES FIRMS ON EU 'WHITE LIST'

authorities are making life difficult for many of the 189

Serbian companies on the EU's "white list" of firms exempt

from sanctions, Vienna's "Die Presse" reported on 21 July

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 June 2000). Government auditors

are closely monitoring the finances of the companies. Other

authorities deny the companies licenses to conduct foreign

trade. The government has not taken an official position on

the "white list" but has let it be known that it is a "badge

of patriotism" not to be on it, the daily noted. Some firms

have circumvented government restrictions by registering

under more than one name. PM

[13] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT TO BE ELECTED BY SIMPLE MAJORITY?

proposed law on election rules states that the federal

president will be elected by a majority of voters casting

their ballots, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 20

July. The law does not require a majority of registered

voters to participate in the ballot for it to be valid. PM

[14] MS. MILOSEVIC 'BORROWS' FROM U.S. WEB SITE

United Yugoslav Left (JUL) of Mira Markovic is using an image

taken from the web site of the U.S. Bridge company in a

current campaign poster, "Vesti" reported on 21 July. The

poster shows two workmen constructing a bridge above the

words "renewal and development" written in Serbo-Croatian.

"Vesti" reproduced the U.S. firm's website image to show that

it is one and the same picture. Several weeks ago, some Novi

Sad residents viewing a program on "renewal and development"

on state-run television saw among the happy construction

workers a neighbor who had been dead for five years. PM

[15] MITROVICA SERBS WARN OF MORE PROTESTS

of Dalibor Vukovic from prison by an ethnic Albanian judge on

20 July, Mitrovica Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said that

local Serbs will again take to the streets to protest any

further "undemocratic decision by the international

community," AP reported. He praised local Serbs for having

"proved that we can fight for justice in a civilized manner"

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 July 2000). PM

[16] U.S. TROOPS 'FLATTEN' CLANDESTINE KOSOVA BASE

"flattened" an illegal paramilitary training ground in the

Shterpce area near the Macedonian border on 20 July, dpa

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 July 2000). U.S.

spokesman Major Scott Slaten said in Prishtina that KFOR

representatives met with local Serbian leaders before

destroying the base but did not specify whether Serbs or

Albanians had used it. He added that investigations are

continuing. Local Serb leaders had asked KFOR to search the

area where the troops found the base, Reuters reported. There

have been tensions between U.S. forces and Serbs in Shterpce

in recent weeks (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June and 3 July

2000). PM

[17] BOSNIAN SERBS RULE OUT JOINT BOSNIAN ARMY

Luka on 20 July, several of the top political leaders of the

Republika Srpska rejected the recent call by NATO Secretary-

General Lord Robertson and the international community's High

Representative Wolfgang Petritsch to establish a joint

Bosnian army, "Vesti" reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report, 21

July 2000). The leaders stressed that the Bosnian Serbs never

agreed to set up a joint army. The leaders added that the

Republika Srpska is meeting its obligations to streamline its

army by reducing its size. Among those present were Prime

Minister Milorad Dodik and Zivko Radisic, who is the Serbian

representative on the joint presidency. PM

[18] MAGLAJ ROAD BLOCKADE ENDED

several roadblocks in the Maglaj area. Local Muslims,

including some former Islamic fighters from the Middle East,

recently erected the barricades to protest their eviction

from Serbian-owned homes (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 21 July

2000). PM

[19] AUSTRIAN BANK BUYS STAKE IN BOSNIA

Zentralbank Oesterreich announced in all three Sarajevo

dailies on 21 July that it has acquired a majority stake of

up to 90 percent in Market Banka. The Austrian Volksbank is

already active in Bosnia. Raiffeisen has branches in 10

Central and Southeastern European countries, AP reported. PM

[20] PRLIC WILL STAY IN BOSNIAN HDZ

Jadranko Prlic said in Sarajevo on 20 July that he will

remain in the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) despite his

recent defeat in the bid for a top leadership post in the

party (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 July 2000). PM

[21] CROATIAN RIGHTS GROUP WANTS DEATHS CLARIFIED

of the local branch of the Helsinki Human Rights Committee in

the central regions of Banija and Kordun said on 20 June that

some 267 ethnic Serbian civilians were killed or

"disappeared" during or after the 1995 Croatian offensive in

the area. "Until these crimes are solved and perpetrators

punished, we cannot speak of the rule of law in Croatia," AP

quoted him as saying. The total of dead or missing comes to

over 650 if victims from the southern Knin area, whom

Puhovski's group reported on in 1999, are included in the

tally. PM

[22] CROATIA, MONTENEGRO TO STRENGTHEN TIES

Minister Tonino Picula said in Podgorica on 20 July that his

country and Montenegro expect to sign as early as September

agreements to promote trade free of "taxes" and to

"liberalize" visa requirements. "We will also regulate border

policy to ease the flow of people and goods," Reuters quoted

him as saying. PM

[23] ROMANIA'S LIBERALS STILL PLAYING 'MUSICAL CHAIRS'

day after deciding to re-launch a center-right alliance

with its former partners (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 July

2000), the leadership of the National Liberal Party (PNL)

renewed negotiations with the Alliance for Romania (APR),

RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 20 July. Participants

said the negotiations were "a step forward" and agreed to

conclude by next week an agreement on "a possible electoral

alliance" with joint parliamentary lists based on equal

representation. PNL First Deputy Vice Chairman Valeriu

Stoica said the decision on joint candidates for the

presidency and the premiership will be made after the

agreement is concluded, but APR Deputy Chairman Marian

Enache said his party's presidential candidate "remains

Teodor Melescanu." On 21 July, the PNL leadership is

resuming negotiations with the National Peasant Party

Christian Democratic. MS

[24] ROMANIAN POLL SHOWS ILIESCU AHEAD BUT LOSING STEAM

first public opinion poll conducted after President Emil

Constantinescu's decision to withdraw from the presidential

race shows that his predecessor, Party of Social Democracy

in Romania candidate Ion Iliescu, is still ahead but that

the distance between him and the second-placed candidate

has been reduced considerably. The INSOMAR poll shows

Iliescu ahead of Premier Mugur Isarescu (who has still not

declared his intention to run). The former president's

backing is 34.5 percent (down nearly 7 percentage points on

the previous poll), while Isarescu is backed by 18.5

percent (the same level of support as Constantinescu had

before withdrawing). Third place is occupied by former

Premier Theodor Stolojan (16.2 percent), followed by

Melescanu (13 percent) and Greater Romania Party leader

Corneliu Vadim Tudor (9.1 percent). MS

[25] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT OVERRIDES PRESIDENTIAL VETO

parliament on 21 July voted by 87 to six to override the

veto cast one day earlier by President Petru Lucinschi on

the law transforming Moldova into a parliamentary republic,

Infotag reported. Lucinschi must now sign that bill into

law within two weeks. On 20 July, the president returned

the law to the parliament, proposing two possible ways to

overcome the constitutional impasse: either submit to a

plebiscite on 5 November both the law approved by the

legislature on 5 July and his own proposal for enlarging

the presidential prerogatives or hold early elections in

which 70 percent of the seats are decided in single member

constituencies and 30 percent on party lists. The 101-seat

parliament is now elected entirely on the basis of the

proportional system. MS

[26] BULGARIA DISSATISFIED WITH BALKAN STABILITY PACT

Petar Stoyanov, Prime Minister Ivan Kostov, and Foreign

Minister Nadezhda Mihailova have voiced dissatisfaction

with the Southeast European Stability Pact, AP and BTA

reported on 20 July. Stoyanov told visiting pact

coordinator Bodo Hombach: "If Europe wants to see our

continent united, it should invest in this pact." Kostov

and Mihailova also criticized the lack of progress in

securing Western investments in the region. Kostov

complained, in particular, about delays in starting the

construction of the new Vidin-Calafat bridge over the River

Danube. Hombach urged his hosts not to rely on foreign

investment but instead to stimulate the interest of local

companies, adding that Western Europe wants to create as

many new jobs as possible in the Balkans. He said only

three to five Western companies will participate in the

construction of the new bridge, while all the other

participants will be Bulgarian companies. MS

[27] BULGARIA FACES PROBLEMS WITH NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

Kaschiev, head of Bulgaria's Agency for the Peaceful Use of

Atomic Energy, told AP on 20 July that his country will

face mounting problems with storing waste from the Kozlodui

nuclear plant. Kaschiev said Bulgaria has no facilities to

permanently bury cassettes with used nuclear fuel and other

nuclear waste. Although Sofia has agreed to shut down

Kozlodui's two oldest units by 2002, he said, "it takes 50

years and hundreds of millions of dollars to fully

decommission a reactor after it is shut down." Kaschiev

said experts estimate that the Kozlodui plant will release

100,000 tons of radioactive waste during its life span;

storing that amount of waste in accordance with

international safety standards will cost about $1 billion,

he added. Existing temporary storage space can hold waste

for up to 10 years and is already 70 percent full, Kaschiev

noted. MS

[28] BULGARIA PROTESTS ISRAELI DECISION ON FORMER KING MEMORIAL

"everything possible" must be done to prevent the plans of

the Jewish National Fund to replace a memorial in Israel

honoring King Boris III, Reuters reported. Vlaikov said

bilateral relations with Israel are "excellent" but the

move "would embitter them." After Israeli experts ruled

that King Boris III did not act to save Macedonian and

Thracian Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 18 July 2000), the fund intends to

replace the memorial for the king with two other memorials-

-one honoring the victims deported from the two regions

that were then were under Bulgarian occupation and the

other honoring Bulgarians who saved Jews, without

mentioning any names, Reuters reported. MS

[C] END NOTE

[29] MUSCLE-FLEXING OR ATTEMPTED COUP?

On 18 July, Chechen deputy interim administration head

Beslan Gantemirov dispatched some 200 militiamen to Gudermes,

where the administration of interim Chechen leader Akhmed-

hadji Kadyrov is located. Those troops were ordered to comb

the town to identify Chechen fighters loyal to Chechen

President Aslan Maskhadov. Gantemirov cited two motives for

that action: first, the need to cleanse the town in general,

and Kadyrov's entourage in particular, of "terrorists,

separatists, and nationalists"; and second, his personal

objection to the decision taken by Kadyrov on 17 July to fire

six local administration heads and police department

officials in Grozny and other towns.

Reports differ as to whether Gantemirov confronted his

superior, but Chechen military commandant Lieutenant General

Ivan Babichev and deputy presidential representative to South

Russia Lieutenant General Vladimir Bokovikov reportedly

persuaded Gantemirov to back down. The unruly commander

eventually withdrew his men the same day to his Grozny

headquarters. A meeting between Kadyrov and Gantemirov on 19

July in Gudermes failed, however, to dispel the tensions

between the two men.

Kadyrov has offered various explanations for the

deterioration in his relations with his deputy. In an

interview with Interfax on 18 July, Kadyrov termed

Gantemirov's behavior "puzzling and illogical," because, he

said, Gantemirov had approved the dismissals of the six

officials at a meeting the previous day. The next day,

Kadyrov described Gantemirov as "unpredictable" suggesting

that the commander could even be plotting a coup. He also

told Interfax that the reasons for Gantemirov's objection to

the firing of the six officials was that "without these

people, who had connived at thievery, Gantemirov's influence

has been sharply declining." In the same conversation with

ITAR-TASS, Kadyrov said "the real reason for the conflict

between Gantemirov and myself is a feud between clans."

All of those statements may contain elements of truth,

except perhaps Kadyrov's hypothesis that Gantemirov was

planning to overthrow him, which was more probably intended

as an appeal to Moscow to take resolute action to rein in

Gantemirov. (Even if Gantemirov himself failed to realize

that trying to remove Moscow's chosen marionette at this

juncture would achieve little, his backers must have been

aware of that fact.)

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the entire

episode is the light it has shed on the various degrees of

support for Gantemirov among Russian military and civilian

leaders. Presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii and Chechen

military commandant Babichev both unequivocally characterized

Gantemirov's action as impermissible and illegal.

Yastrzhembskii stressed that it is imperative that "decisions

by the head of the Chechen administration, who was appointed

to that post by the Russian president, should be fulfilled

without fail. Otherwise the new Chechen administration will

follow the pattern of the Maskhadov administration, when

several centers of power existed simultaneously, bringing

about the paralysis of local authority and anarchy" in

Chechnya.

But at the same time. Yastrzhembskii said that

Gantemirov "still has a chance" to remain in his post. And

despite the perception that Gantemirov had acted unlawfully,

it appears that no legal action has been taken against him.

Interfax on 19 July quoted Bokovikov as saying that criminal

proceedings had been opened against Gantemirov, but later the

same day Chechnya's newly appointed prosecutor, Nikolai

Shepel, said that his office is still considering whether

there are legal grounds for doing so.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Vladimir Shamanov,

commander of the western group of forces in Chechnya, blamed

Kadyrov for the confrontation. In an interview published in

"Trud" on 20 July, Shamanov accused Kadyrov of initiating a

"counter-productive" attack on Gantemirov. He went on to

argue that "objectively, Kadyrov cannot control the situation

in all of Chechnya's districts, and life is promoting to him

a coalition method of government." Shamanov also advocated

that "at the current stage, a representative of the federal

authorities must run the republic, a person who is above

clashes between the local clan leaders."

The clear reluctance on the part of both the Russian

military and civilian leadership to take action against

Gantemirov is understandable. First, it could turn the

current conflict in Chechnya into a three-pronged one, with

the Russian forces facing attack both from Maskhadov's men

and Gantemirov's loyalists. Second, it would be a clear

admission that Gantemirov's appointment constituted an error

of judgment in the first place. And third, Gantemirov's

Chechen militia, acting under Russian military supervision,

could still fulfill a useful purpose. The number of Russian

casualties would be reduced if the Chechen militia were

allowed to take over from the Russian Interior Ministry part

of the responsibility for identifying and neutralizing those

apparently numerous Chechens who spend part of their time

fighting with Maskhadov's men and the rest loafing around

their native villages in civilian clothes. But if the

militia's track record in "neutralizing bandits" proves

mediocre, that in itself would provide a convenient reason

for dismissing Gantemirov should his behavior appear to

constitute a threat at some point in the future.

Whether Kadyrov will agree to continue to work in tandem

with Gantemirov is, however, unclear. Kadyrov told ITAR-TASS

on 19 July that Gantemirov is not de jure his deputy, as he

has not yet signed any official resolution to that effect.

21-07-00

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

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