RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 147, 00-08-02

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 147, 2 August 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA REGISTERS IMPRESSIVE GROWTH IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

[02] FELLOW FACTION MEMBERS CRITICIZE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION ATTEND CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSON

[04] ...PROTESTS NAKHICHEVAN ELECTION LAW

[05] RUSSIA BEGINS WITHDRAWING MILITARY HARDWARE FROM GEORGIA

[06] GEORGIAN INSURGENTS FORESWEAR NEW DESTABILIZATION ATTEMPTS

[07] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION PARTY ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN

[08] KYRGYZSTAN ECONOMY SHOWS SIGNS OF RECOVERY

[09] UZBEKISTAN RAISES SALARIES, GASOLINE PRICES

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] ALBRIGHT'S APPEAL TO YUGOSLAV OPPOSITION WITHOUT EFFECT?

[11] HOLLAND DENIES SERBIAN CHARGES ON 'ASSASSINS'

[12] KOSOVA'S MEDIA TO SEEK NEW HOME

[13] SECOND CROATIAN AUTO KINGPIN ARRESTED

[14] CROATIAN OFFICIALS STILL TAKE DIM VIEW OF YUGOSLAV MUSICIANS

[15] CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY UNDERGOING PURGE?

[16] CROATIA, ISRAEL TO LAUNCH MILITARY COOPERATION?

[17] ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER APPEALS TO CROATIA TO SCRAP VISAS

[18] GREEK TROOPS BEGIN WITHDRAWAL FROM ALBANIA

[19] BOSNIAN SERB POLICE ARREST MAN FOR ATTACK ON SFOR

[20] PETRITSCH'S OFFICE BLASTS NEW BOSNIAN SUCCESSION LAW

[21] FIRE THREATENS FUTURE OF BOSNIAN MUSLIM WEEKLY

[22] ROMANIA'S LIBERALS SAY CDR IS 'DEAD'

[23] NEW CDR IN 'BIRTH THROES'

[24] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENTARY CHAIRMAN 'SUGGESTS' LUCINSCHI

[25] BULGARIAN LAWMAKERS TO DISCUSS BUGGING SCANDAL

[C] END NOTE

[26] ACQUITTED RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENTALIST MAY FACE RETRIAL

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA REGISTERS IMPRESSIVE GROWTH IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

the first six months of 2000 compared with the same period

for 1999, Noyan Tapan reported on 2 August. Exports of such

products rose by 21 percent, or 4 billion drams ($7.3

million), compared with last year. First Deputy Industry and

Trade Minister Ashot Shahnazarian told Armenian State

Television that the number of people currently employed in

the industrial sector has risen by 8,000 since last year to

34,000. He noted the importance of the reactivation of

mining, smelting, and chemical sector plants, including the

giant Nairit chemical plant, which is now operating at a

profit. LF

[02] FELLOW FACTION MEMBERS CRITICIZE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

Armenia (HZhK), told RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau on 1 August that

the party's leadership has issued a statement "strongly

condemning" HZhK member and parliamentary speaker Armen

Khachatrian for his absence from the country during last

week's vote on the government's proposals for privatizing

four energy distribution networks (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27

and 31 July 2000). The HZhK opposed that bill. Khachatrian,

who is currently on vacation at a Black Sea resort, has been

repeatedly criticized for extensive foreign travel since his

election as speaker late last year (see "RFE/RL Caucasus

Report," Vol. 3, No. 14, 7 April 2000). LF

[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION ATTEND CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSON

The six opposition representatives on the 18-

strong Azerbaijan Central Electoral Commission attended a

session of that body on 1 August for the first time, having

abandoned the boycott they declared last month to demand

amendments to the election legislation, Turan reported. The

session was devoted to the financing of the election

campaign. Also on 1 August, the Democratic Path party signed

the statement issued by some 18 opposition parties on 27 July

demanding that the Azerbaijan authorities create conditions

for ensuring that the 5 November parliamentary poll is free

and fair. The Democratic Path party also issued a press

release condemning the restrictions on election participation

of parties that were not formally registered six months

before the announcement of the poll date. They termed those

restrictions a violation of Azerbaijan's commitments to the

Council of Europe. LF

[04] ...PROTESTS NAKHICHEVAN ELECTION LAW

branches of the Azerbaijan Popular Front, Musavat, the

Democratic and Azerbaijan National Independence parties, and

the Society of Nagorno-Karabakh War Invalids have issued a

statement criticizing the 29 July session of the parliament

of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, Turan reported on 1

August. At that session, which opposition representatives and

independent journalists were barred from attending, deputies

adopted election legislation according to which all 45 seats

in Nakhichevan's new legislature will be allocated under the

majoritarian system. The opposition parties demanded that an

unspecified number of mandates be allocated under the

proportional system. The ballot is scheduled to be held on 5

November at the same time as elections to the national

parliament. Parliamentary officials say the law conforms with

international norms. LF

[05] RUSSIA BEGINS WITHDRAWING MILITARY HARDWARE FROM GEORGIA

Russian army grouping in the Transcaucasus, told Interfax on

1 August that the first trainload of military equipment to be

withdrawn from the Russian base at Vaziani, near Tbilisi,

will depart for the Black Sea port of Batumi on 5 August.

From there, it will be transported by sea to Russia.

According to a joint statement by the Russian Foreign and

Defense Ministries, Moscow has formally notified the OSCE

that the withdrawal has begun. The statement expressed the

hope that the Georgian authorities will honor their

commitments to ensure the safe and unimpeded transportation

of that equipment. LF

[06] GEORGIAN INSURGENTS FORESWEAR NEW DESTABILIZATION ATTEMPTS

Akaki Eliava will not embark on any actions for the time

being to destabilize the political situation in Georgia,

"Rezonansi" on 2 August quoted Eliava's second-in-command,

Rezo Asmava, as saying. Asmava predicted that popular

discontent at the Georgian government's inability to pay

wages and pensions will increase spontaneously and that

eventually "the rotten apple will fall by itself." LF

[07] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION PARTY ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN

Bishkek on 29 July, the opposition People's Party elected

Melis Eshimkanov as its chairman and proposed him as a

candidate for the 29 October presidential poll, RFE/RL's

bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. Eshimkanov replaces

Daniyar Usenov, who had held the post of party chairman since

last December. Eshimkanov has already collected 120,000

signatures in his support or more than twice the 50,000

needed to register for the ballot. Meanwhile on 1 August, the

Vox Populi Center in Bishkek published the findings of a

recent opinion poll in which 68 percent of a total 8,400

respondents expressed confidence in incumbent President Askar

Akaev. LF

[08] KYRGYZSTAN ECONOMY SHOWS SIGNS OF RECOVERY

Statistical Board Director Zarylbek Kudaba announced last

week that Kyrgyzstan's GDP grew by 7.4 percent during the

first six months of 2000 compared with the corresponding

period last year, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported.

Industrial output rose by 3.3 percent and agricultural

production by 10.9 percent. Inflation during the first half

of the year was 7.1 percent, and the average monthly wage is

1,029 soms (about $22). Kudabaev said that unemployment

currently stands at 3.2 percent, but the Ministry of Trade

and Social Affairs last week estimated that the real

unemployment figure is 200,000 (of a total population of 4.8

million), rather than the 72,000 who are officially

registered as out of work LF

[09] UZBEKISTAN RAISES SALARIES, GASOLINE PRICES

employees' salaries have been increased by an average of 50

percent as of 1 August, Interfax reported. The minimum state

sector wage is now 2,450 sums (about $80). Pensions, benefits

and student allowances have also been raised. At the same

time, the government increased the price of gasoline by 28

percent and fares for public transportation in Tashkent by 60

percent. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] ALBRIGHT'S APPEAL TO YUGOSLAV OPPOSITION WITHOUT EFFECT?

governing coalition are slated to meet in Podgorica on 2

August. The previous day, Miodrag Vukovic, who is a senior

adviser to President Milo Djukanovic, said that the talks

with the Serbs will be a "pure formality" and have "no

influence on our previously publicly stated positions" to

boycott the 24 September federal elections, Montena-fax news

agency reported. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

appealed to Djukanovic in Rome to reconsider his boycott (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 1 August 2000). The Montenegrin leadership

has said the legislation on the basis of which the ballot

will be held is "illegal." Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal

Movement also plans to boycott the federal elections. PM

[11] HOLLAND DENIES SERBIAN CHARGES ON 'ASSASSINS'

Ministry spokesman said in Amsterdam on 1 August that his

government denies conducting any "military operation" against

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

1 August 2000). Paul Risley, who is a spokesman for the

Hague-based war crimes tribunal, told Reuters by telephone

that the Belgrade regime's charges are "fiction and nothing

more." In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip

Reeker mocked both the charge and Yugoslav Information

Minister Goran Matic, who made it. "In the past we've seen

that so-called Information Minister Goran Matic is

notoriously inventive in some of his so-called information.

His allegations appear to be quite ridiculous," an RFE/RL

correspondent quoted him as saying. PM

[12] KOSOVA'S MEDIA TO SEEK NEW HOME

in Prishtina on 1 August that the UN Fire Marshall's Office

wants to close the tower block that houses the offices of

many newspapers and radio stations. The statement called the

Media House a "major safety hazard that could lead to loss of

life or injury due to fire or electrocution," Reuters

reported. It added that "the OSCE will do its utmost to help

the media tenants of the tower block find alternative

accommodation in Prishtina." Like many structures in Kosova

and Serbia, the building has become unsafe because of years

of neglect. PM

[13] SECOND CROATIAN AUTO KINGPIN ARRESTED

Ante Jurjevic for misappropriating some $3 million in funds

belonging to his company, "Vecernji list" reported on 2

August. The arrest of the FIAT dealer comes just two weeks

after the arrest of Pavao Zubak on charges of tax evasion

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 July 2000). PM

[14] CROATIAN OFFICIALS STILL TAKE DIM VIEW OF YUGOSLAV MUSICIANS

prevented well-known Montenegrin rock singer Rambo Amadeus

and a Serbian hip-hop group from performing in Croatia, "Novi

List" reported on 2 August. The regime of the late President

Franjo Tudjman often put up bureaucratic hurdles to prevent

Yugoslav musicians from performing in Croatia, forcing fans

to travel to Slovenia to hear Bajaga and other popular stars.

PM

[15] CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY UNDERGOING PURGE?

Minister Tonino Picula said in Jerusalem on 1 August that his

government is replacing some 35 ambassadors or consuls in the

near future, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He added

that some of the diplomats' terms have expired but that

others are being sacked because "their views do not

correspond to the new foreign policy of the Croatian

government." He did not elaborate. PM

[16] CROATIA, ISRAEL TO LAUNCH MILITARY COOPERATION?

no longer require visas for Croatian citizens, "Vecernji

list" reported on 2 August. Croatian Deputy Prime Minister

Goran Granic and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy signed

agreements in Jerusalem on trade and on economic cooperation

the previous day. Granic also visited a plant belonging to an

aviation company that is interested in a $110 million package

to modernize 26 aging Croatian MiG-21 aircraft. The Croatian

authorities have not yet decided whether to modernize the

MiGs or to buy more costly new NATO aircraft. The Zagreb

authorities first discussed under Tudjman the possibility of

modernizing the MiGs. PM

[17] ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER APPEALS TO CROATIA TO SCRAP VISAS

mutual visa requirements, "Vecernji list" reported on 2

August. He stressed that lifting visa regulations would

greatly facilitate trade and tourism. Observers note that

there are many thousands of Croatian citizens of Kosovar

Albanian origin. PM

[18] GREEK TROOPS BEGIN WITHDRAWAL FROM ALBANIA

Greek soldiers left Albania on 1 August in an operation

expected to last two to three weeks, AP reported. The Greeks

first arrived in 1997 to help restore order after widespread

unrest broke out in the spring of that year. Some 87 Greek

military personnel will remain in Albania under a training

program. PM

[19] BOSNIAN SERB POLICE ARREST MAN FOR ATTACK ON SFOR

Banja Luka said in a statement on 2 August that they have

arrested Vukasin Nikolic from Zvornik "under suspicion of

having shot with a bazooka on 25 July at a house in which

SFOR personnel were living," AP reported. The statement added

that Nikolic confessed to the crime. A second suspect remains

at large. PM

[20] PETRITSCH'S OFFICE BLASTS NEW BOSNIAN SUCCESSION LAW

spokesman for the international community's High

Representative Wolfgang Petritsch said in Sarajevo on 1

August that a law recently passed by the federal parliament

on presidential succession is "manipulative and

undemocratic." The spokesman added that the law is probably

unconstitutional because it allows the election to the

presidency of an individual who was not first elected to the

parliament, Reuters reported. Petritsch's main problem with

the law is that it allows the present legislature to fill the

vacancy caused by the resignation of Muslim presidency member

Alija Izetbegovic. Petritsch wants the new parliament to be

elected in November to pick the successor. PM

[21] FIRE THREATENS FUTURE OF BOSNIAN MUSLIM WEEKLY

Iranian Cultural Center in central Sarajevo has caused severe

damage to the nearby offices of the Muslim weekly "Ljiljan,"

"Oslobodjenje" reported on 2 August. Some 100,000 copies of

the "Ljiljan" were destroyed by the fire. There was extensive

water damage to the weekly's computers. The editors appealed

for help from citizens, businesses, political organizations,

and other media centers. "Ljiljan" urgently needs money,

computers, and a new home, the editors added. PM

[22] ROMANIA'S LIBERALS SAY CDR IS 'DEAD'

Party Deputy Chairman Crin Antonescu said on 1 August that

the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR) is

"unfortunately dead," and he blamed the National Peasant

Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) for its demise.

Antonescu said the PNTCD had "dreaded the loss of its

hegemony in the CDR" and consequently sought to replace the

PNL in the CDR with parties that it could dominate,

RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. In turn, the PNTCD

Steering National Bureau decided at its 1 August meeting to

replace the former CDR protocol with one that includes the

Union of Democratic Forces (UFD), as a representative of

the CDR's "liberal component," and the two ecologist

parties. The bureau urged Premier Mugur Isarescu to

announce his candidacy for the presidency in the near

future. MS

[23] NEW CDR IN 'BIRTH THROES'

Muresan said after a meeting with the leaders of the UFD,

the National Christian Democratic Alliance (ANCD), the

Ecologist Party (PER), and the Ecology Federation (FER)

that the only way to forge a new alliance is to have PER

and FER merge and the ANCD "absorbed" by the PNTCD. But

ANCD leader Victor Ciorbea said his party has not given him

a mandate to negotiate the ANCD's re-unification with the

PNTCD and that he is empowered to discuss only an alliance

with that party. MS

[24] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENTARY CHAIRMAN 'SUGGESTS' LUCINSCHI

Dumitru Diacov, speaking on Moldovan television on

31 July, said the president should be elected by the

parliament on 17 November, the day on which presidential

elections took place in 1996. Diacov suggested that

President Petru Lucinschi resign before the end of his

mandate on 15 January 2001, thus making it possible for the

new president to assume office earlier. He said he hopes

Lucinschi does not intend "to head an opposition force

against the parliament" during the remainder of his term in

office. He also said that he hopes the president will

withdraw his proposal for a referendum on enlarging the

presidential powers, which legislators must debate by 13

January 2001. In addition, Diacov hinted that the

parliament will review the procedure under which the head

of state can dissolve the legislature if lawmakers twice

fail to elect a new president. MS

[25] BULGARIAN LAWMAKERS TO DISCUSS BUGGING SCANDAL

parliament will convene in special emergency session on 3

August to debate the case of the listening devices

discovered in the apartments of Prosecutor-General Nikola

Filichev and a deputy of the Socialist Party (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 31 July 2000). Interior Minister Emanuil

Yordanov told journalists on 1 August that three officers

working for his ministry's Technical Information Service

(SOTI) have been detained on suspicion that they failed to

remove the devices from the flat into which Filichev moved

at the end of 1999. Yordanov said the devices were planted

there by SOTI in 1993-1994, during the construction of the

building, and had never been used. The building largely

accommodates foreign diplomats. Yordanov said that at the

time the devices were planted, there was no law regulating

the use of such equipment. The relevant law was not passed

until 1997. MS

[C] END NOTE

[26] ACQUITTED RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENTALIST MAY FACE RETRIAL

Lawyers for Alexander Nikitin say the prosecutor-

general's refusal to accept the acquittal of the retired Navy

captain and environmentalist means that the Russian

authorities want to suppress information on potential

environmental disasters.

After five years of investigation and 13 court

decisions, Nikitin was acquitted of spying charges. That

acquittal was upheld by the Supreme Court. But now he risks a

retrial if the Prosecutor-General's Office gets its way. An

appeal to overturn the acquittal was filed by the Deputy

Prosecutor-General Sergei Kekhlerov and was scheduled to be

considered by the Supreme Court on 2 August. But the day of

the scheduled hearing, the Supreme Court Presidium postponed

considering the appeal until 13 September, arguing that one

of the judges had not had time to study the "Nikitin case."

Yurii Schmidt, Nikitin's lawyer, commented that this move was

aimed at "letting the case drag on" for another few months.

After Nikitin went public about the environmental

hazards of Russia's decrepit nuclear vessels and leaky

nuclear storage sites, authorities hit him with charges of

spying. The case made him Russia's most famous

environmentalist and aroused suspicions that the Federal

Security Service (FSB) was pressuring the prosecution.

Nikitin was one of the first people in post-Soviet Russia to

be named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

The news of this last appeal reached Nikitin in the

U.S., where he was to receive an environmental award and

testify before a Congressional panel about environmental

threats in Russia. He immediately returned to Russia to await

the court's decision.

In asking for a reversal of the December acquittal,

Deputy Prosecutor-General Kekhlerov argues that the case had

been handled with many violations of Nikitin's rights.

Schmidt argues that the prosecutor's logic is

inconsistent. Schmidt said on 1 August that for years, the

defense filed complaint after complaint about violations of

Nikitin's rights, only to have them all rejected by the

Prosecutor-General's Office. But now the same prosecutor is

admitting violations took place in order to use them as a

pretext for reopening the case. "In 40 years of legal

practice, I've never seen worse cynicism, worse abuse of the

constitution and of human rights--for the prosecution to

justify the overturning of an acquittal with the very

violations it committed," Schmidt said.

What has become known as the Nikitin case has lasted

almost five years. In October 1995, Russia's security service

raided the Murmansk office of the Norwegian-based

environmental association Bellona and confiscated all

documents, including a report about to be published on the

ecological hazards of the Northern Fleet nuclear submarines.

The FSB arrested Nikitin, who had helped research the

reports, saying he had divulged state secrets. Indicted on

eight sets of espionage charges, Nikitin spent 10 months in

jail.

The defense maintained Nikitin's innocence, arguing that

all the information came from open and public sources and did

not fall under any law on state secrets.

The proceedings dragged on, as the state came up with

new laws on state secrets and tried to apply them

retroactively to the case. The defense, meanwhile, complained

of harassment by the FSB. Nikitin's family members said they

were being constantly followed and their home searched in

their absence.

After Nikitin was finally acquitted by a Saint

Petersburg court last December, the Prosecutor-General's

Office appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. That court

rejected the appeal and enforced the acquittal, formally

closing the case.

Nikitin told RFE/RL on 1 August that he suspects the FSB

is behind the actions taken by the prosecution against him

and other environmentalists. "The FSB has a certain strategy

or conception that has been stated several times by FSB

officials, including by former FSB director Nikolai Kovalev,"

he noted. "They claim that secret services, foreign secret

services, are using environmentalist organizations as a cover

for spying. That's why everything that happens with

ecological associations--probes by the Prosecutor-General's

Office, persecutions of certain people, persecutions of some

organizations, and so on--in principle...all fits into this

strategy."

Last week, Nikitin also criticized the recent

dissolution of the government's official ecological watchdog,

the State Committee on the Environment. Nikitin said doing

away with the agency will make it difficult to assess the

risks posed by industrial or mining ventures.

Aleksei Simonov, the head of the private Glasnost

Defense Fund, which defends freedom of expression, says

Nikitin's case is not an isolated one but part of a pattern

of suppressing information on environmental degradation. He

adds that environmentalists have become a prime target of the

FSB.

The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Moscow.

02-08-00

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

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