RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 155, 00-08-14

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 155, 14 August 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER, WORLD BANK DISCUSS DELAYED LOANS

[02] ARMENIAN GENERAL QUITS AS LEADER OF NEW WAR VETERANS' UNION

[03] KARABAKH OFFICIALS DENY ENCLAVE USED FOR DRUGS TRANSIT

[04] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION AGAIN DEMANDS ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS

[05] AZERBAIJANI POLICE DENY JOURNALISTS ACCESS TO DISPLACED

[06] ABDUCTED RED CROSS WORKERS RELEASED IN GEORGIA

[07] EXPLOSION DESTROYS MONUMENT TO ABKHAZ WRITER

[08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT 'SATISFIED' WITH MACRO-ECONOMIC

[09] UZBEK ISLAMISTS INVADE KYRGYZSTAN

[10] TWO MILITARY PHYSICIANS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIK CAPITAL

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] SERBIAN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE SEEKS 'THIRD PATH' BETWEEN

[12] ...CALLS FOR 'EUROPEAN' AID...

[13] ...CRITICIZES MONTENEGRIN LEADERS

[14] MONTENEGRIN PARTY LEADERS TO MEET

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO RUN CANDIDATES IN MONTENEGRO?

[16] MILOSEVIC ADOPTS NEW DEFENSE STRATEGY

[17] PEACEKEEPERS TAKE CONTROL OF MINING COMPLEX IN NORTHERN

[18] KOSOVA TO VOTE ON 28 OCTOBER

[19] SERBIAN RADIO IN MITROVICA REJECTS UN ORDER

[20] ROMANIA INVESTMENT FUND MANAGER ARRESTED

[21] TOP NATIONAL PEASANT PARTY OFFICIALS JOIN LIBERAL PARTY

[22] OSCE URGES CONFIDENCE-BUILDING BETWEEN MOLDOVA,

[23] MALFUNCTION LEADS TO TEMPORARY CLOSING OF BULGARIAN NUCLEAR

[24] BULGARIAN MINERS STRIKE FOR BACK WAGES

[C] END NOTE

[25] LEFT IN THE FILES

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER, WORLD BANK DISCUSS DELAYED LOANS

Markarian met with World Bank officials in Yerevan on 11

August to discuss terms for the release by the bank of some

$46 million in two structural adjustment credits intended to

cover much of the anticipated budget deficit for this year,

RFE/RL's bureau in the Armenian capital reported. The World

Bank had earlier made disbursement of the two new tranches

contingent on privatization of four energy distribution

networks (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 May 2000). LF

[02] ARMENIAN GENERAL QUITS AS LEADER OF NEW WAR VETERANS' UNION

to step down as head of the recently created Union of

Veterans of the Liberation Struggle on 10 August, Noyan Tapan

reported. That organization was established as a counterpart

to the increasingly politicized Yerkrapah Union of Veterans

of the Karabakh war (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 May 2000).

Ter-Tadevossian said in a statement that while the new

organization is already "fully fledged," he wishes to devote

himself to other, unspecified activities. LF

[03] KARABAKH OFFICIALS DENY ENCLAVE USED FOR DRUGS TRANSIT

Sahakian, who is interior minister of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, has rejected allegations by

Azerbaijani presidential apparatus official Ali Hasanov that

the enclave is used for the transit of drugs from Asia to

Europe, Noyan Tapan reported on 11 August. Hasanov blamed a

100 percent increase in drug addiction in Azerbaijan over the

last three years on the increased availability of drugs

transiting Karabakh. Sahakian said that his ministry fully

controls the situation in Karabakh. He affirmed his readiness

to cooperate with the Azerbaijani central authorities to

crack down on drugs smuggling. LF

[04] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION AGAIN DEMANDS ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS

sanctioned demonstration in Baku on 12 August demanding

amendments to the election laws to ensure that the 5 November

parliamentary poll is democratic and fair, ITAR-TASS and

Turan reported. They also demanded changes to the election

law of Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic that

would allocate at least a number of seats in the exclave's

new legislature under the proportional system (see "RFE./RL

Newsline," 2 August 2000). Some members of the Islamic Party

of Azerbaijan who attended the demonstration carried green

banners, according to ITAR-TASS. Police confiscated portraits

of imprisoned former Interior Minister Iskander Hamidov from

rally participants. Speaking at a press conference in Baku

the previous day, parliament secretariat head Safa Mirzoev

said he does not consider necessary any changes to either the

national or the Nakhichevan electoral laws. He termed the

failure of the Nakhichevan election law to allocate any

mandates under the proportional system "an internal affairs"

of that republic. LF

[05] AZERBAIJANI POLICE DENY JOURNALISTS ACCESS TO DISPLACED

Police and local officials resorted to

violence and insults to prevent six journalists representing

non-government funded newspapers from entering a camp for

displaced persons in Azerbaijan's southern Sabirabad Raion on

11 August, Turan reported. The journalists were herded into a

bus and driven to the raion border. LF

[06] ABDUCTED RED CROSS WORKERS RELEASED IN GEORGIA

Cross workers abducted in Georgia's Pankisi gorge on 4 August

were released unharmed early on 13 August. Former Georgian

parliamentary deputy Mamuka Areshidze, who negotiated with

the abductors, said they had agreed to release their captives

without any ransom payment in exchange for guarantees that

the criminal case opened against them will be shelved,

according to "The Independent" on 14 August. Georgian

authorities have not disclosed the identity or nationality of

the hostage-takers, but AP quoted Italian Ambassador to

Georgia, Michelangelo Pipan as saying that they "were not

Chechen rebels but in all probability common criminals." The

persons responsible for two earlier abductions of UN

observers in western Georgia have likewise never been

identified or apprehended (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 October

1999 and 6 June 2000). LF

[07] EXPLOSION DESTROYS MONUMENT TO ABKHAZ WRITER

destroyed the monument in Sukhum to Dmitri Gulia early on12

August, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported. Gulia is

regarded as the founder of modern Abkhaz literature. LF

[08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT 'SATISFIED' WITH MACRO-ECONOMIC

Nursultan Nazarbaev told a cabinet session in

Astana on 11 August that "we should all be satisfied" with

"unprecedented" high indicators for GDP growth and industrial

output during the first half of the year, Interfax reported.

Industrial output increased by 116.3 percent during that

period compared with the first six months of 1999. Nazarbaev

said that last year's devaluation of the tenge and "the

successful work of the government" contributed to that

upswing. He denied that any further cabinet reshuffle is

imminent. As future priorities he singled out combating

poverty and unemployment. He also warned against "reinventing

the wheel" in drafting programs for medium- and long-term

economic development, advocating close attention to the

experience of Australia and Canada in substituting domestic

production for imports. LF

[09] UZBEK ISLAMISTS INVADE KYRGYZSTAN

approximately 100 Islamic insurgents invaded southern

Kyrgyzstan's Batken Oblast on the morning of 11 August. Since

then, at least 10 Kyrgyz troops and 30 of the militants have

been killed in heavy fighting involving combat helicopters.

Reuters on 13 August quoted a Kyrgyz Defense Ministry

spokesman as saying that "the majority of the bandit groups

have been destroyed." ITAR-TASS on 14 August quoted Kyrgyz

presidential spokesman Osmonakun Ibraimov as saying that at

this stage Bishkek will not ask its CIS allies for military

assistance to fight the invaders. On 12 August, an Uzbek

Defense Ministry official denied media reports that the

country's armed forces had incurred "mass casualties"

fighting the Islamists last week. On 11 August, General

Amirqul Azimov, who is Tajik Security Council secretary,

denied that the Islamists had entered Uzbekistan from Tajik

territory, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. He also ruled out the

possibility that they could reach Kyrgyzstan via Tajik

territory. But the region of Kyrgyzstan where the current

fighting is taking place is surrounded by Tajik territory and

does not border on Uzbekistan. LF

[10] TWO MILITARY PHYSICIANS SHOT DEAD IN TAJIK CAPITAL

military doctors, one of them a woman, were shot dead in a

residential district of Dushanbe on the night of 11 August,

AP and ITAR-TASS reported the following day, citing the Tajik

Interior Ministry. Police have not yet established the motive

for the killings. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] SERBIAN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE SEEKS 'THIRD PATH' BETWEEN

Vojislav Kostunica, who is the united

opposition's candidate for the Yugoslav presidency in the 24

September elections, said in Belgrade on 13 August that he

does not want any help from the U.S. in his campaign against

President Slobodan Milosevic. "Serbia and this unfortunate

nation do not need any help coming from the White House. I do

not want any kind of support that may serve as an excuse for

any foreign intervention," Reuters reported. Kostunica added

that he wants Serbia to follow what he called a "third path"

between Milosevic and the U.S., which he described as "the

two extremes...that are slowly tightening the noose around

the neck of the Serbian opposition." He argued that

Washington has been "evil" toward the Serbs, AP reported. PM

[12] ...CALLS FOR 'EUROPEAN' AID...

on 13 August that "our path must be the one where Serbia was

born, namely Europe. We need...the kind of assistance that

has been coming from Europe for some time, in the form of

energy [and] asphalt..., the assistance that helps to ease

life of people who suffer from sanctions and NATO bombing,"

Reuters reported. Observers note that Milosevic and Vuk

Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) also place most of

the blame for Serbia's problems on the U.S. and NATO rather

than on mismanagement by Serbia's own elected authorities.

Kostunica and many other nationalists seem to hope that the

EU will soon return to providing generous trade benefits and

credits, as Western countries did during much of the rule of

Josip Broz Tito. PM

[13] ...CRITICIZES MONTENEGRIN LEADERS

on 13 August that he "will not be able to accept any help

from the Montenegrin leaders [around President Milo

Djukanovic] if they boycott the elections." Kostunica added

that it would be "hypocrisy" for him to accept assistance

from Djukanovic, whom he taunted for not taking part in the

vote: "By boycotting the ballot, these parties help Milosevic

out of fear that they might lose. They say they are

democratic authorities. But a democratic leadership allows

itself to be tested at the polls. If [a governing party] is

strong, it will win," Reuters reported. Kostunica added,

however, that he is prepared to stand aside as opposition

presidential candidate in favor of "someone" from Montenegro

if the Montenegrin leadership reverses its decision to

boycott the ballot. PM

[14] MONTENEGRIN PARTY LEADERS TO MEET

Djukanovic's Democratic Socialist Party and the opposition

Socialist People's Party of Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir

Bulatovic will meet on 17 August in Podgorica, Montena-fax

news agency reported on 12 August. On the agenda will be a

discussion of the general political situation in Montenegro

and the need to maintain peace amid growing political

tensions in the run-up to the federal elections. Djukanovic

told representatives of the Montenegrin diaspora in Cetinje

recently that he wants neither the elections nor internal

strife, the Belgrade daily "Blic" reported on 14 August.

Bulatovic and his supporters have said they will participate

in the elections. Elsewhere, the authorities of some two-

thirds of Montenegro's districts have informed the federal

Election Commission that they will not hold elections in

their respective districts on 24 September, Montena-fax

reported on 12 August. PM

[15] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO RUN CANDIDATES IN MONTENEGRO?

of the united opposition in the Alliance for Change are

slated to meet in Belgrade on 14 August to decide whether to

put forward lists of candidates in Montenegro, Democratic

Party leader Zoran Djindjic told "Blic." The alliance hopes

to win votes of Montenegrins opposed both to Milosevic and to

the boycott. PM

[16] MILOSEVIC ADOPTS NEW DEFENSE STRATEGY

military leaders in Belgrade on 12 August, Milosevic

announced the adoption of a "new defense strategy," "Vesti"

reported. Serbian authorities provided few details about the

doctrine. Reuters quoted political analyst Bratislav Grubacic

in Belgrade as saying that Milosevic's announcement means

that the military will be increasingly used against internal

enemies. PM

[17] PEACEKEEPERS TAKE CONTROL OF MINING COMPLEX IN NORTHERN

In the early hours of 14 August, some 800 KFOR troops

occupied the Serbian-run Trepca mining complex near Zvecan.

The UN recently reported that levels of lead pollution and

other forms of contamination from the plant have reached

"very dangerous" levels (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 August

2000). After the occupation of the mine, crowds of local

Serbs threw stones at peacekeepers, AP reported. Unconfirmed

reports suggest that some Serbian engineers inside the mine

may have barricaded themselves in their offices. Bernard

Kouchner, who is the UN's chief civilian administrator for

Kosova, said: "As a doctor and as chief administrator..., I

would be derelict if I let this threat to the health of

children and pregnant women continue for one more day." PM

[18] KOSOVA TO VOTE ON 28 OCTOBER

on 12 August that local elections will take place on 28

October. He stressed that these will be the "first free,

democratic and well-controlled elections" in the province's

history," London's "The Times" reported. Observers note,

however, that most Serbian voters refused to register for the

poll. On 13 August, leaders of Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic

League (LDK) of Kosova appealed to representatives of

international organizations in Kosova to help end the recent

wave of violence against its members (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

10 August 2000). The previous night, unknown persons threw a

hand grenade into the Prizren home of a journalist close to

the LDK, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

[19] SERBIAN RADIO IN MITROVICA REJECTS UN ORDER

the pro-Milosevic Radio S said in Mitrovica on 13 August that

his station will continue to broadcast, despite an order from

the UN civilian administration to cease transmissions. The

spokesman said that he suspects that the UN is angry that his

station has refused to broadcast UN announcements for the

coming elections. Radio S often refers to UN peacekeepers as

an "occupying force," Reuters reported on 13 August. PM

[20] ROMANIA INVESTMENT FUND MANAGER ARRESTED

10 August arrested Marian Petrescu, the manager of the SOV

Invest company, which administers the collapsed National

Investment Fund (FNI), Romanian media reported. Petrescu is

accused of having committed fraud between 1997 and 1998 and

issuing fictitious reports to the National Securities

Commission on the number of FNI issues in circulation, thus

inflating the value of the FNI shares. Police estimate the

losses to FNI investors at 1,057 billion lei (some $47.4

million). ZsM/PG

[21] TOP NATIONAL PEASANT PARTY OFFICIALS JOIN LIBERAL PARTY

(PNTCD) officials, expelled from that party on 9 August for

their support of National Liberal Party (PNL) presidential

candidate Teodor Stolojan, joined the PNL on 11 August,

Romanian media reported on 12 August. Norica Nicolai, chair

of the Economic and Social Council and the Labor Ministry's

secretary of state, and Alexandru Ciocalteu, chairman of the

National Health Insurance House, said they will not leave

their current positions and accused the PNTCD leadership of

dictatorial behavior. Former State Ownership Fund president

and parliament deputy Sorin Dimitriu said he has nothing

against the PNTCD leadership but added that he always

believed "the only guarantee for the Romanian civilization's

modernization is the liberal way." Another PNTCD expellee,

Romanian Development Agency President Sorin Fodoreanu, has

not yet expressed his party preference. ZsM

[22] OSCE URGES CONFIDENCE-BUILDING BETWEEN MOLDOVA,

The OSCE mission to Moldova released a

statement on 11 August saying that Moldova and the breakaway

Transdniester region should work on measures to build

confidence, Infotag reported. The mission released the

statement after the "Peacekeeper" newspaper, which is run by

the joint control commission, refused to publish it. "Such an

approach," the mission said, "violates the underlying

principles of the freedom of speech and to all appearances

resembles censorship." PG

[23] MALFUNCTION LEADS TO TEMPORARY CLOSING OF BULGARIAN NUCLEAR

A failure of electrical equipment led to the

temporary shutting down of two reactors at the controversial

Kozloduy nuclear power plant on 12 August, BTA reported the

following day. The plant is located 200 kilometers north of

Sofia. Officials said the malfunction had not posed a threat

to nuclear safety. Bulgaria has agreed to permanently shut

down the two oldest of Kozloduy's six reactors in 2002, three

years before their 30-year lifespan is to expire. PB

[24] BULGARIAN MINERS STRIKE FOR BACK WAGES

Dol coal mine went on strike on 11 August to demand payment

of their June and July salaries, Reuters reported. The Bobov

Dol mine, 70 kilometers west of Sofia, is one of 10 mines

being offered for privatization by the government. The

average monthly wage there is the equivalent of $110. PB

[C] END NOTE

[25] LEFT IN THE FILES

A Polish court concluded last week that neither former

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa nor President Aleksander

Kwasniewski had collaborated with communist-era security

services. Those findings highlight both the continuing impact

of this aspect of the communist past and the enormous

difficulties people in Eastern Europe have in overcoming it.

Under the terms of a new Polish law that requires

candidates for public office to declare whether they ever

collaborated with the security services during the communist

period, Walesa was forced to defend his reputation against

charges that he had worked as an agent with the code name

"Bolek." On 11 August, a special screening court concluded

that documents suggesting that Walesa had done so had been

planted in his files to discredit him when he was the leader

of the anti-communist Solidarity movement. The decision came

less than a day after the same court cleared current Polish

President Kwasniewski of similar allegations.

Had either man been found to have cooperated with the

communist security services, despite his claims to the

contrary, he would have been excluded from serving in any

public office for a period of 10 years. Because of that

possibility, many in Poland appear ready to make such charges

to advance their own political agendas at the expense of

someone else. Indeed, Walesa was very clear in expressing his

disappointment that the screening process--which he had

backed--had failed to convince everyone that he had not

worked in some capacity with communist security agencies.

The political use of such charges now is only one of

many reasons people in these countries and abroad have argued

against this or any other effort to expose senior communist

officials and especially communist-era security officers so

that they will not be able to subvert democratic efforts to

overcome that past. Opponents of such efforts suggest that

the communist-era secret police files are not an especially

reliable source. Not only did secret policemen in communist

times have an interest in claiming greater successes than

they may have had, but on at least some occasions, they may

have inserted false information in files to compromise

people.

The introduction of such fabrications likely became even

more common at the end of the communist period in Eastern

Europe. On the one hand, the secret police would have wanted

to appear even more successful as things fell apart. And on

the other hand, some of them may have been ordered by the

Soviet KGB at the time to plant documents that could be used

against democratic leaders in the future.

Moreover, those who speak out against lustration

frequently argue that any focus on the past will almost

inevitably lead to witch hunts against innocent people and

thus poison public attitudes at precisely the time that the

stability of the countries involved is most at risk.

And finally, opponents of lustration argue that such

screenings fail to take into account the fact that people can

and do change, that many who were swept up into the net of

the communist-era security services had no real choice, and

that what people should be most concerned about is the views

of people in the present and future rather than their actions

in the past.

But despite these arguments, frequently made not only in

Eastern Europe but in the West and in Russia as well, many

people in that region believe that some effort at lustration

is necessary for both practical and moral reasons. In

practice, the supporters of the process Walesa and

Kwasniewski went through often suggest that such efforts to

expose those who did collaborate have the effect of calling

attention to the fact that most people did not, even if

others assume that they did.

And morally, lustration of the Polish kind in particular

does not so much punish individuals for their past action as

allow Polish society to express clearly its abhorrence at the

activities of the communist-era secret police and the

communist past more generally. A rejection of that past, many

in these countries argue, is absolutely essential if these

societies are to be able to build a future not undermined by

the past.

As Walesa and Kwasniewski learned last week, such a

process is almost inevitably awkward for individuals as well

as the societies they live in. And given the high visibility

of these two cases, Poles and others appear likely to have

deal again with how to face the past and thereby overcome it.

14-08-00

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

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