RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 148, 00-08-03

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 148, 3 August 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER DEMANDS INCREASE IN TAX COLLECTION

[02] ARMENIA HONORS DECEASED DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER

[03] SPOKESMAN DENIES AZERBAIJANI EX-PRESIDENT'S HEALTH

[04] BAKU MAYOR GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION RALLY

[05] AZERBAIJANI FINANCE MINISTRY BEGINS AUDIT OF OPPOSITION

[06] DISPLACED PERSONS SUE GEORGIAN PRESIDENT, STATE MINISTER

[07] UN OUTLINES CONDITIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN ABKHAZIA

[08] FORMER CHEVRON OFFICIAL TO ADVISE GEORGIAN PRESIDENT

[09] KAZAKHSTAN WORKERS' MOVEMENT TO CREATE NEW COMMUNIST PARTY

[10] UIGHUR ORGANIZATION IN KAZAKHSTAN WARNS AGAINST RESETTLEMENT

[11] ASSASSINATION PLOT TRIAL OPENS IN KYRGYZSTAN

[12] GOVERNMENT SALARIES RAISED IN KYRGYZSTAN

[13] NEW GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS IN UZBEKISTAN

[14] CORRECTION:

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] MONTENEGRO FIRMLY OPPOSES YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS

[16] WHAT COURSE FOR THE SERBIAN OPPOSITION?

[17] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN

[18] SERBIAN COURT SENTENCES OPPOSITION ACTIVIST

[19] NATO SEEKING PUTIN'S HELP IN MONTENEGRO?

[20] MORE CLASHES IN SERBIA'S PODUJEVO VALLEY

[21] MODERATE KOSOVAR POLITICIAN WOUNDED IN GUN ATTACK

[22] BOSNIAN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT PASSES LABOR LAW DEMANDED BY WORLD

[23] BOSNIAN SERB PARENTS OPPOSE INTER-ETHNIC SCHOOL

[24] BOSNIAN SERB AIRLINE AGAIN FLIES TO BELGRADE

[25] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL--AT HOME

[26] CROATIAN CHIEF-OF-STAFF TO THE HAGUE?

[27] SLOVENIAN PRIME MINISTER: EU SHOULD BE CLEAR

[28] ALBANIAN POLICE CHIEF KILLED

[29] 'PROBLEMATIC' POLL SUGGESTS ILIESCU COULD LOSE ROMANIAN

[30] ROMANIAN NATIONALISTS CHOOSE NEW NAME

[31] PRIMAKOV SAYS CRIMEA COULD SERVE AS MODEL FOR

[32] OSCE SAYS RUSSIAN CONTINGENT IN TRANSDNIESTER 'FULFILLED

[33] NATO COMPENSATES BULGARIAN FAMILY FOR DAMAGED HOUSE

[C] END NOTE

[34] LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER DEMANDS INCREASE IN TAX COLLECTION

Markarian told the staff of Armenia's Tax Ministry on 2

August that despite their laudable efforts in overfulfilling-

-by 13.5 percent--last month's revenue target, monthly taxes

collected must increase by 15 percent for the rest of the

year in order to meet the projected figure of $320 million.

Only 45 percent of that figure has been collected so far this

year. Markarian also said that the tax authorities will

intensify their crackdown on the shadow economy. He excluded

any increase in tax rates. LF

[02] ARMENIA HONORS DECEASED DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER

Robert Kocharian, Premier Markarian, and Defense Minister

Serzh Sarkisian on 2 August paid their last respects to

Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Anatolii Zinevich,

who died the previous day at the age of 68. A former Soviet

Army officer, Zinevich settled in Armenia in 1992 and played

a key role in establishing and building up the country's

armed forces. From 1994-1997 he served as deputy commander of

the Defense Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh

Republic. LF

[03] SPOKESMAN DENIES AZERBAIJANI EX-PRESIDENT'S HEALTH

An unnamed assistant to Azerbaijan Popular

Front chairman Abulfaz Elchibey told Turan on 31 July that

Elchibey's health is "normal" and that he feels fine. Musavat

Party chairman Isa Gambar, who recently returned from

visiting the former president in the Ankara clinic where he

is undergoing treatment for a kidney ailment, likewise told

Turan on 2 August that Elchibey feels "worse than his friends

would hope, but better than his enemies would wish." Caspian

Press the same day had quoted an unidentified source within

the Popular Front as saying that Elchibey's condition is

worsening. LF

[04] BAKU MAYOR GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION RALLY

by opposition parties to convene a rally in the city on 5

August to demand amendments to the election laws, Turan

reported. Dozens of people were injured in late April when

demonstrators clashed with police at an unsanctioned protest.

A subsequent rally planned for 17 June was postponed after

the opposition and city authorities failed to reach agreement

on a mutually acceptable venue (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 May

and 19 June 2000). LF

[05] AZERBAIJANI FINANCE MINISTRY BEGINS AUDIT OF OPPOSITION

The Finance Ministry embarked on a review of

the financial records of the newspaper "Bakinskii bulvard,"

the journal "Monitor Weekly," and the Baku Printing House on

2 August, Turan reported. The local tax administration and

the prosecutor's office had conducted similar checks over the

past two months. The editor of both publications was found

guilty of slander by a Baku court in May for publishing

allegations that Defense Minister Safar Abiev was implicated

in corruption (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 June 2000). LF

[06] DISPLACED PERSONS SUE GEORGIAN PRESIDENT, STATE MINISTER

organization "Dabruneba" (Return), which was founded last

year to represent the interests of Georgian displaced persons

forced to flee Abkhazia during the 1992-1993 war, has filed

suit in the Sukhumi court in exile against President Eduard

Shevardnadze, State Minister Gia Arsenishvili, and Abkhaz

Premier Vyacheslav Tsugba, Caucasus Press reported on 2

August. The organization disputes the legality of the joint

protocol on stabilization measures signed by Arsenishvili and

Tsugba on 11 July. That document envisages legal actions

against persons who call for the use of force to resolve the

Abkhaz conflict. Dabruneba last year called for the

replacement of the Georgian leadership, whom it accused of

lacking any interest in creating conditions to allow the

displaced persons to return to Abkhazia (see "RFE/RL Caucasus

Report," 27 April 1999). LF

[07] UN OUTLINES CONDITIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN ABKHAZIA

Program's resident representative in Georgia, told

journalists that his agency will not finance any programs in

Abkhazia until the republic's status has been formally

determined as an integral part of the Georgian state,

Caucasus Press reported. LF

[08] FORMER CHEVRON OFFICIAL TO ADVISE GEORGIAN PRESIDENT

Chaus, a former vice president of Chevron, arrived in Tbilisi

on 1 August and will take up the duties of advisor to

President Shevardnadze on pipeline and energy issues,

Caucasus Press reported. His salary will be paid by the U.S.

Trade and Development Agency. LF

[09] KAZAKHSTAN WORKERS' MOVEMENT TO CREATE NEW COMMUNIST PARTY

intention to form a new Communist Party, RFE/RL's Almaty

bureau reported. They accused Communist Party of Kazakhstan

chairman Serikbolsyn Abdildin of being "a puppet of the

Kazakh government." They also complained that they were

constrained to hold their planned June conference in the

Russian city of Chelyabinsk after the Kazakh authorities

refused to allow them to do so in Kazakhstan. LF

[10] UIGHUR ORGANIZATION IN KAZAKHSTAN WARNS AGAINST RESETTLEMENT

Yusufbek Mukhlisi, who heads the

Almaty-based East Turkestan Liberation Front, told RFE/RL's

Almaty bureau on 2 August that his organization opposes the

mass repatriation to Kazakhstan of the estimated 2 million

Kazakh minority in China's neighboring Xinjiang Autonomous

Region. Visiting Kazakhstan last week, Chinese Vice President

Hu Jintao reached agreement with the Kazakh leadership that

those Kazakhs may emigrate to Kazakhstan (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 31 July 2000). But Mukhlisi argued that their

departure would contribute to the "Hanization" of the region

which the Uighurs consider their homeland, as the Chinese

authorities would bring in more Han to replace the departing

Kazakhs. LF

[11] ASSASSINATION PLOT TRIAL OPENS IN KYRGYZSTAN

in Bishkek on 31 July, and continued on 2 August, of nine

persons accused of plotting the assassination of President

Askar Akaev, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The

defendants, who include prominent opposition politician

Topchubek Turgunaliev, were arrested in May last year (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 1999). Turgunaliev claims that the

case was fabricated by Kyrgyzstan's National Security

Ministry. LF

[12] GOVERNMENT SALARIES RAISED IN KYRGYZSTAN

2 August signed decrees increasing government employees'

salaries by 20 percent to 800 soms ($17), the first increase

since 1997, Interfax reported. Finance Minister Sultan

Mederov denied that the increase would necessitate a monetary

emission, saying that it will be financed by rising

industrial production. Mederov also said that there are

currently "almost no arrears" in social benefit payments. LF

[13] NEW GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS IN UZBEKISTAN

Karimov on 2 August promoted two ministers to the rank of

deputy premier, Interfax reported. They are Finance Minister

Rustam Azimov, who had worked previously as chairman of the

National Foreign Economic Affairs Bank, and Agriculture

Minister Turop Kholtaev. In addition, Karimov promoted Rustam

Shoabdurakhmanov to the post of minister of macroeconomics

and statistics. He was previously first deputy within that

ministry. LF

[14] CORRECTION:

calculated on the basis of the exchange rate cited by

Interfax, is now the equivalent in sum of approximately $8,

not $80 as erroneously reported in "RFE/RL Newsline" on 2

August.

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] MONTENEGRO FIRMLY OPPOSES YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS

Montenegro's governing coalition told representatives of the

Serbian opposition in Podgorica on 2 August that the

coalition sticks by its earlier decision not to participate

in the 24 September federal elections (see "RFE/RL Balkan

Report," 3 August 2000). Miodrag Vukovic, who is an adviser

to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, said: "We explained

to our Serbian friends our principled stand not to accept the

illegitimate decisions of the illegitimate federal

institutions" to hold elections, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported. He added that "in the coming weeks, we'll

[nonetheless] do everything to help the Serbian opposition

unseat the Belgrade dictator." He did not elaborate.

Elsewhere, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic told a press

conference that Djukanovic made his opposition to the

elections clear to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

at their recent meeting in Rome (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2

August 2000). For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa

Burzan stressed that his Social Democratic Party will leave

the coalition if Djukanovic participates in the elections. PM

[16] WHAT COURSE FOR THE SERBIAN OPPOSITION?

leader Zoran Djindjic said in Podgorica on 2 August that the

opposition's talks with the Montenegrin leadership will

resume shortly, AP reported. The leadership of his party

maintains that it is "too soon" for the opposition to select

a joint candidate for the 24 September presidential vote, the

BBC's Serbian Service reported on 3 August. "Jane's

Intelligence Review" offered this description of Vojislav

Kostunica, who is most likely to be the joint candidate: "An

anti-[Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic Serb

nationalist, Kostunica would be a serious opponent of any

rapprochement with the West.... He advocates the separation

of the Serb-populated areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the

past he supported Radovan Karadzic and the creation of Serb

para-states in Croatia and Bosnia." PM

[17] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN

the anti-Milosevic Otpor (Resistance) student movement

appealed to the Montenegrin leaders to end their boycott and

join the Serbian opposition in its election campaign. On 2

August in Belgrade, Otpor launched an anti-Milosevic campaign

under the slogan "he is finished." The spokesman said that

some 10,000 activists are expected to take part. PM

[18] SERBIAN COURT SENTENCES OPPOSITION ACTIVIST

sentenced Cedomir Jovanovic on 2 August to five months in

prison for "slandering" Serbian Deputy Information Minister

Radmila Visic in an opposition leaflet. Jovanovic is an aide

to Djindjic. The sentence is but the latest in a series of

measures by the regime to crack down on its critics. PM

[19] NATO SEEKING PUTIN'S HELP IN MONTENEGRO?

General Lord Robertson has written to Russian President

Vladimir Putin requesting his help in persuading Milosevic

not to stage a coup against Djukanovic, "Danas" reported on 3

August. NATO spokesmen in Brussels declined to comment on the

story. Meanwhile in Belgrade, a Yugoslav Army spokesman said

that the army has arrested four unnamed Britons in

Montenegro, Reuters reported. The spokesman added that "an

investigation is in progress and an official statement will

be released during the day." PM

[20] MORE CLASHES IN SERBIA'S PODUJEVO VALLEY

said in Prishtina on 2 August that ethnic Albanian guerrillas

have recently improved their defensive positions around the

village of Dobrosin on the Serbian border with Kosova. In

response, Serbian forces have extended nearby trenches and

added checkpoints. The spokesman added that "there have been

exchanges of mortar and small arms fire" in the Presevo

Valley recently, AP reported. PM

[21] MODERATE KOSOVAR POLITICIAN WOUNDED IN GUN ATTACK

assailants shot and wounded Agim Veliu, a local leader of

Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), in

Podujeva on 2 August. Veliu was admitted to the hospital in

Prishtina and was released shortly afterward. The LDK is

expected to do well in the October elections, in which

several parties led by veterans of the former Kosova

Liberation Army are also expected to take part, Reuters

reported. On 3 August, "Koha Ditore" reported that another

LDK leader, Sejdi Koci, was shot and badly wounded near

Skenderaj. PM

[22] BOSNIAN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT PASSES LABOR LAW DEMANDED BY WORLD

The lower house on 2 August passed a bill to sharply

cut unemployment compensation for people laid off during and

after the 1992-1995 conflict. The upper house approved the

measure two days earlier. The World Bank called previous

provisions "overgenerous," Reuters reported. The World Bank

has made its $44 million financial package for 2000

conditional on the adoption of the changes in the labor law

as well as on "reforms" in legislation regarding pensions.

Unions say that the new labor legislation reduces workers'

rights and could lead to social unrest in a country where the

unemployment rate is more than 40 percent. PM

[23] BOSNIAN SERB PARENTS OPPOSE INTER-ETHNIC SCHOOL

representing parents of 60 Serbian elementary school pupils

in Brcko "vetoed" plans by the office of the international

community's High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch to send

the children to the same school as 600 Muslim refugee pupils

who have returned to the region, dpa reported on 2 August.

The plan called for the Serbian children to use textbooks

from the Republika Srpska and for the Muslim pupils to use

materials from Sarajevo. PM

[24] BOSNIAN SERB AIRLINE AGAIN FLIES TO BELGRADE

permission to Air Srpska to resume flights to Belgrade on 7

August. Air Srpska will fly twice weekly between Banja Luka

and Belgrade in cooperation with the Serbian carrier, JAT,

Reuters reported. The Bosnian Serb carrier stopped flights on

NATO orders in March 1999. PM

[25] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL--AT HOME

in Sisak arrested Slavko Drobnjak on 2 August, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. In 1999, a regional court sentenced

him in absentia to 20 years' imprisonment for war crimes

committed against Croats in 1991. Drobnjak recently returned

to his former home in Sisak from Serbia, where he had been

living as a refugee. PM

[26] CROATIAN CHIEF-OF-STAFF TO THE HAGUE?

said in Zagreb on 2 August that he is prepared to cooperate

with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal if it produces

concrete evidence of his wrongdoing during the 1995 campaign

in the Knin region against Serbian insurgents, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. Imre Agotic, who is President Stipe

Mesic's military adviser, said that Stipetic carried out his

duties as a general in a professional manner. Prime Minister

Ivica Racan told "Jutarnji list" of 3 August that no one,

including Stipetic, need fear a witch-hunt against former

commanders. He added, however, that he believes that the late

President Franjo Tudjman knew much about possible improper

behavior by Croatian forces. PM

[27] SLOVENIAN PRIME MINISTER: EU SHOULD BE CLEAR

told Vienna's "Der Standard" of 3 August that his country is

doing its best to meet the EU's conditions for admission. In

return, he added, Slovenes expect clarity from Brussels

regarding their admission date and hope to join the EU in

2003. Bajuk stressed that the EU represents for Slovenia a

form of security in a troubled part of Europe, adding that

Slovenia "will not be a burden for anyone" in the EU. He

warned that further delays in Slovenia's admission could lead

to the spread of politically destabilizing "pessimism" among

the population. Referring to Germany, Bajuk argued that

"great nations [have] great responsibilities" in preventing a

new division of Europe. PM

[28] ALBANIAN POLICE CHIEF KILLED

Shkoder died in a gunfight with a murder suspect, the

Interior Ministry said in a statement on 2 August. AP notes

that Zylyftari "was among the most respected members of

Albania's police force, which has been struggling to

establish law and order" since anarchy swept the country in

early 1997. PM

[29] 'PROBLEMATIC' POLL SUGGESTS ILIESCU COULD LOSE ROMANIAN

A public opinion poll published on 3 August by

the daily "Adevarul" suggests that Ion Iliescu, leader of

the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR),

could lose the 2000 presidential contest. The poll shows

that a team in which Iliescu runs as presidential candidate

and PDSR First Deputy Chairman Adrian Nastase as candidate

for premier would receive only 30 percent of the vote,

while one formed by former Premier Theodor Stolojan and

incumbent Premier Mugur Isarescu would have 44 percent

backing. The poll is "problematic," however, since the

premier is appointed not by the president but by the

parliament. The Stolojan-Isarescu team has been proposed by

the National Liberal Party, but the National Peasant Party

Christian Democratic is urging Isarescu to run for

president. MS

[30] ROMANIAN NATIONALISTS CHOOSE NEW NAME

resulting from the merger of the Party of Romanian National

Unity (PUNR) and the National Romanian Party (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 27 July 2000) will be called the National

Alliance, PUNR chairman Valeriu Tabara told journalists on

2 August. The party's emblem will remain the same as that

of the PUNR. Tabara said the merger agreement will be

signed on 9 August, while the National Alliance chairman

will be elected on 25 August and will be the new party's

candidate in the presidential elections, RFE/RL's Bucharest

bureau reported. MS

[31] PRIMAKOV SAYS CRIMEA COULD SERVE AS MODEL FOR

Yevgenii Primakov, chairman of the special

Russian commission on solving the Transdniester conflict,

said on 2 August that Crimea could serve as a model for

finding a solution to that conflict, Flux reported, citing

media outlets in the separatist region. Primakov said

Crimea is "part of Ukraine but has a certain degree of

autonomy" and enjoys "a great measure of stability" owing

to the fact that the authorities there pay particular

attention to "the national problem." Primakov added,

however, that he doubts the conflict in the Transdniester

can be solved by granting autonomy to the region because

"the problems there are very complex." On 2 August,

Primakov met with President Leonid Kuchma in Kyiv to

discuss various possible ways to solve the Transdniester

conflict. MS

[32] OSCE SAYS RUSSIAN CONTINGENT IN TRANSDNIESTER 'FULFILLED

William Hill, head of the OSCE mission in

Moldova, said on 2 August that the Russian contingent in

the separatist region has "fulfilled its mission" there and

will be replaced "in the distant future" by international

peacekeeping units that will include troops from European

countries, ITAR-TASS reported. Hill told journalists that

the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region will

"facilitate the building of trust" between Chisinau and

Tiraspol. MS

[33] NATO COMPENSATES BULGARIAN FAMILY FOR DAMAGED HOUSE

has compensated a Bulgarian family whose house in Gorna

Banya, a Sofia suburb, was damaged by a missile that went

astray during last year's air strikes against Yugoslavia,

Reuters reported on 2 August. The agency cited President

Petar Stoyanov's office as saying the alliance has agreed

to pay 67,253 leva ($32,000) to cover the full costs of the

damage. MS

[C] END NOTE

[34] LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE

A battle is raging over language in the post-Soviet

space. Soviet nationality policies left a legacy of 25

million Russians and many more "compatriots," that is,

Russian speakers, in countries of the former USSR excluding

Russia. Moscow sees the continued use of the Russian language

in former Soviet states with large numbers of Russophones as

ensuring its continued influence over these countries.

Russia has therefore praised Belarus and Kyrgyzstan for

elevating Russian to second state language and official

language respectively, and Kazakhstan's President Nazarbaev

for proposing a CIS Fund to Promote the Russian Language. In

June, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that if

Moldova raised Russian to a second state language, Moscow

would cease supporting the separatist Transdniester. And last

month Russia released its new foreign policy concept, which

seeks to "obtain guarantees for the rights and freedoms of

compatriots" and "to develop comprehensive ties with them and

their organizations." Currently, the State Duma is drafting a

bill on the status of the Russian language in the CIS.

By contrast, states such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,

and Ukraine are downgrading the status of Russian. In

Ukraine, the language question has been the source of heated

exchanges with Russia since last December, when the

Constitutional Court ruled that all state officials should

know and use Ukrainian and suggested how the constitutional

provision for Ukrainian as the sole state language could be

enforced. Deputy Prime Minister for the Humanities Mykola

Zhulynskyi drew up a program for expanding use of the

Ukrainian language, and a draft law was placed before the

parliament that replaced Russian with Ukrainian as the

"language for inter-communication" in Ukraine.

In fact, Ukraine's policies on enhancing the Ukrainian

language are similar to those advanced by President Putin,

who in January established a Council on the Russian Language

that aims to enhance the use of Russian both at home and

abroad. One of the council's first moves was to order the

Ministry of Education to fine Russian officials who have a

poor command of Russian.

This summer, Russia and Ukraine began to trade

accusations after nationalist demonstrations in Lviv followed

the death of Ihor Bilozir, a popular singer who was killed by

two Russophones after he refused to stop singing Ukrainian

songs. The Lviv Oblast Council responded by limiting the use

of Russian in public places, including popular music in

cafes, and in business circles. Radical nationalist parties

formed volunteer squads to monitor the application of these

new rules.

On 7 June, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the

"anti-Russian hysteria" sweeping western Ukraine, and 10 days

later, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Ivan Aboimov complained

about the alleged official encouragement of the Russophobic

campaign against the Russian language. The Ukrainian Foreign

Ministry rejected these allegations and the right of Russia

to speak on behalf of Russians and "compatriots." The Russian

State Duma, for its part, provoked further tensions by

accusing Ukraine of having violated the provisions on

national minorities in the May 1997 Russian-Ukrainian treaty.

It went on to demand that Putin adopt the necessary measures

to halt the alleged discrimination. The Ukrainian parliament

rejected all the Duma's accusations as a "manifestation of

interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state."

The increased use of Ukrainian in education throughout

the 1990s has inevitably led to a commensurate decline in the

use of Russian. The Ukrainian parliament sees this as "the

Ukrainian authorities' intention to secure the inalienable

and natural right of Ukrainian citizens to use their mother

tongue," and it has rejected accusations that this is in any

way "racially discriminatory." Within the CIS, according to

the Ukrainian lawmakers, Kyiv's nationality policies are

"balanced and far-sighted," leading to "interethnic accord

and peace."

In claiming that Ukraine had violated the 1997 treaty,

the State Duma pointed to Article 12, which outlines the

obligation of both states to ensure the ethnic, cultural,

linguistic, and religious identity of national minorities in

each country. The status of Ukrainians in Russia and Russians

in Ukraine was the subject of a visit to the two countries by

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Max van der

Stoel, last month.

However, it is Russia--not Ukraine--that has breached

Article 12. Although the 4.5 million-strong Ukrainian

community constitutes the second-largest national minority in

the Russian Federation (after Tatars), they do not have a

single Ukrainian school, theater, or newspaper. Parishes of

the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarch have been

forcibly abolished. In Ukraine, where Russians are the

largest minority, constituting 22 percent of the population,

33 percent of pupils and students are enrolled in Russian-

language schools and universities. And also in Ukraine, 1,193

newspapers are published in Russian, compared with 1,394 in

Ukrainian. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarch

continues to boast the largest number of parishes.

While the Lviv Oblast Council resolutions detailing

language requirements in the private sector are excessive,

the region remains more tolerant than either the Donbas or

Crimea. A Sotsis-Gallup opinion poll on ethnic tolerance

found Crimea to be the most intolerant among Ukraine's

regions. Although Ukrainians make up a quarter of the Crimean

population, only four of 582 Crimean schools (0.69 percent)

are Ukrainian, and only one out of 392 publications on the

peninsula is in Ukrainian. In the Donbas, where Ukrainians

constitute 50 percent of the population, the proportion of

pupils in Ukrainian language schools is still only 10

percent.

The author is honorary research fellow, Stasiuk Program on

Contemporary Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian

Studies, University of Alberta.

03-08-00

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

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