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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 158, 00-08-17Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 158, 17 August 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] NEW ARMENIAN VETERANS' UNION DEPLORES LEADER'S RESIGNATIONMembers of the Union of Veterans of the Liberation Struggle (AVM) founded in May have issued a statement condemning the resignation of Major General Arkadii Ter-Tadevossian as leader of that organization, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 16 August. Ter-Tadevossian announced his resignation last week without clarifying his motives for doing so (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 August 2000). He later told RFE/RL that he quit to protest the AVM's transformation into "a second Yerkrapah," referring to the increasingly politicized union of veterans of the Karabakh war, which is aligned with the Republican Party of Armenia. Observers believe the AVM was created as a counterpart to Yerkrapah. AVM sources accused unspecified "forces" of coercing Ter-Tadevossian to resign as the union's leader. The AVM will create a commission charged with clarifying the circumstances that prompted him to do so. It has also elected four co-chairmen who will lead the organization until its founding congress next month. LF[02] ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN ENGAGE IN POLEMIC OVER POWSThe Armenian National Security Ministry issued a statement on 16 August rejecting as "lies and falsification" a statement made in Baku two days earlier by Ramiz Gurbanov, a spokesman for its Azerbaijani counterpart, Noyan Tapan reported. Gurbanov had claimed that Armenia still holds a total of 783 Azerbaijani hostages and prisoners of war. He also accused Armenia of reneging on a promise to release two prisoners of war on 14 August. The Armenian National Security Ministry asserted that there are still an unspecified number of Azerbaijani prisoners in Armenia, but it added that some of them do not wish to return to Azerbaijan. The ministry also said that unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia allows the International Committee of the Red Cross free access to all prisoners of war. LF[03] IRAN THREATENS TO REDUCE ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES TO AZERBAIJANI EXCLAVEIran's Energy Ministry has warned that it will halt supplies of electricity to the Republic of Nakhichevan unless Baku pays its energy debts, Turan reported on 16 August. Under an agreement concluded between Baku and Tehran in 1992, Iran supplies 60 percent of Nakhichevan's electricity. LF[04] GEORGIAN JOURNALIST ASSAULTEDSozar Subeliani, editor of the newspaper "Kavkazioni" and a correspondent for RFE/RL's Tbilisi bureau, was assaulted and beaten in a Tbilisi district courtroom on 16 August. His assailants were members of the congregation of an unfrocked Georgian priest who are seeking a nationwide ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses. LF[05] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT TO DRAFT LAW ON RELIGIONThe Georgian parliament will create a special group charged with drafting a law on religion, deputy speaker Giga Tsereteli told Caucasus Press on 16 August. He said that bill would be based on the constitutionally-guaranteed principle of freedom of belief but would "regulate" the activities of religious organizations that engage in "anti-national activity and infringe human rights." LF[06] GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY'S CASH CRUNCH AVERTEDGeorgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili told a government session on 16 August that the danger that some of Georgia's 29 diplomatic representations abroad might have to be closed for lack of funds has been averted by assistance from international organizations, Caucasus Press reported. He added, however, that there have been "personnel changes" at some embassies. A Foreign Ministry spokesman had said in early August that two-thirds of the country's diplomatic personnel would be recalled. He also said that Greece had made the ministry a grant of $2 million toward financing its diplomatic missions abroad. LF[07] DROUGHT DELAYS BEGINNING OF GEORGIAN SCHOOL YEARThe Georgian Ministry of Education decided on 16 August to postpone from 1 September until 18 September the beginning of the new academic year, Caucasus Press reported. That decision was prompted by the shortage of drinking water resulting from this summer's severe drought and its anticipated impact on sanitary standards. LF[08] OSCE CONCERNED AT RETREAT FROM DEMOCRACY IN KAZAKHSTANUlrich Schoening, the outgoing head of the OSCE office in Kazakhstan, met in Astana on 16 August with First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Pavlov to discuss the political situation in the country, Interfax and RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Schoening noted "ebbs and flows" in the democratization process and a lack of mutual respect between the government and political parties and pressure groups. He endorsed the proposal, made last year by former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, to convene a roundtable discussion between the authorities and the opposition. Pavlov, for his part, singled out as promising areas for cooperation fighting poverty and unemployment, which President Nursultan Nazarbaev last week termed a priority for the government. LF[09] ANOTHER KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FAILS LANGUAGE TESTBusinessman Anarbek Usupbaev, proposed on 10 August by the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan as its candidate for the 29 October presidential poll, has failed the mandatory proficiency examination in spoken and written Kyrgyz set by the Central Electoral Commission's linguistic commission, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 16 August. He is the second presidential-hopeful to be thus disqualified from contending that ballot (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August 2000). LF[10] IMF MISSION HOLDS TALKS IN TAJIKISTANAn IMF delegation led by Tapio Saavalainen, head of the fund's Second European Department, held talks in Dushanbe on 14 and 16 August with Tajik Prime Minister Aqil Aqilov, Asia Plus Blitz reported. The aim of the IMF visit is to review the current economic situation and draft a joint memorandum on economic policy for the third year of the fund's program for alleviating poverty. Interfax on 16 August quoted the Tajik Finance Ministry as reporting that the budget deficit in the first six months of 2000 was reduced to 257.7 million Tajik rubles ($102,000), which is the equivalent of 0.01 percent of GDP. Tajikistan posted a 6.5 percent increase in GDP and a 9 percent rise in industrial output during the first six months of this year, compared with the corresponding period of 1999. During the first half of 2000, inflation stood at 16.6 percent. But in the first week of August, however, the Tajik ruble dropped by 1.3 percent against the U.S. dollar. LF[11] ISLAMIC MILITANTS LAUNCH SECOND INCURSION INTO KYRGYZSTAN...Another group of some 40-50 Islamic militants entered Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan early on 16 August, less than 24 hours after Kyrgyz spokesmen claimed to have expelled the surviving members of a first group of invaders, Reuters reported. In a television address to the Kyrgyz population, President Askar Akaev said fierce fighting is under way between the invading militants and Kyrgyz government forces. Like Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August 2000), Akaev has cancelled his participation in the informal CIS summit in Yalta on 18-19 August, the presidential press service told ITAR-TASS on 16 August. LF[12] ...WHILE KYRGYZ OFFICIALS BLAME TAJIKISTAN FOR ATTACKSIn his television address, Akaev blamed the two militant attacks on Kyrgyz territory on Tajikistan, which, he said, had failed to fulfill its obligation to prevent them from crossing its frontiers, Interfax reported. General Bolot Djanuzakov, who is secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council, said on 16 August that the militants include foreign mercenaries, and that they have penetrated 8-10 kilometers into Kyrgyz territory. He criticized the Tajik government's refusal to allow either Kyrgyz or Uzbek troops to pursue the retreating Islamists into Tajikistan and eliminate their bases there, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. But a Kyrgyz fighter of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) to which the militants belong told RFE/RL the same day that the IMU forces did not enter Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan but had spent the entire winter in Kyrgyzstan. LF[13] DEATH TOLL IN CLASHES WITH MILITANTS UNCLEARKyrgyz Security Council Secretary Djanuzakov said on 16 August that a total of 18 Kyrgyz government troops have been killed and 11 wounded since the first incursion last week, Reuters reported. But local officials in Batken Oblast in the south of Kyrgyzstan told RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau that 26 Kyrgyz servicemen are either dead or missing. Uzbek Defense Ministry spokesmen told Interfax on 16 August that 12 servicemen have been killed or died from wounds since the Islamists launched their attack in early August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 August 2000). The Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office has begun a criminal investigation into the attack on Uzbek territory, Interfax reported. Meanwhile Tajik intelligence has handed over to Uzbekistan an IMU member detained in Tajikistan's northern Leninabad Oblast and wanted in Uzbekistan on suspicion of involvement in the February 1999 bombings in Tashkent, ITAR-TASS reported. LF[14] PUTIN EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER CENTRAL ASIAN FIGHTINGRussian President Vladimir Putin told journalists in Sochi on 16 August that the fighting in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan is a cause of concern to Moscow. Putin again discussed the situation with Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August 2000). Also on 16 August, Putin telephoned Uzbek President Karimov and offered to cooperate to restore regional stability, Interfax reported. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[15] KOUCHNER BLASTS 'FASCISM' AMONG KOSOVA'S SERBSBernard Kouchner, who heads the UN civilian administration in Kosova, told the BBC on 17 August that KFOR peacekeepers are confronted by "a sort of fascism" on the part of Kosova's Serbs and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's agents in the province. Kouchner stressed that it was necessary for the UN to take over the Serbian-run Trepca mining and metallurgy complex to stop it from polluting the environment (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August 2000). He added that as a medical doctor and administrator, he had "no choice" but to shut down Trepca, which was the cause of unusually high levels of lead in the blood of many local people. The workers are being paid and the complex will soon reopen "in the interests of all people of Kosovo," Kouchner said. PM[16] KOSOVA SERBS PROTEST SHUT-DOWN OF TREPCAOliver Ivanovic, who is a leader of the Serbs of Mitrovica, told some 300 Serbs at the Trepca complex on 17 August that "we will continue our protests, we shall not give up our struggle for Trepca to remain Serbian," AP reported. "If we continue to protest and struggle for our cause through democratic means, we stand a chance to retain our jobs," he added. Another rally is slated for the evening of 17 August. PM[17] UN DEFENDS MOVE AGAINST POLLUTION IN KOSOVAUN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said on 16 August in New York that "the levels of lead in the atmosphere [at Trepca] were absolutely beyond any levels that are acceptable. They are 200 times higher than what World Health Organization recognizes, or sees as acceptable." He pointed out that the workers are being paid and that the complex will reopen. "It's all part of a larger project, of course that takes time, to modernize and make that entire complex more productive within modern norms of environmental protection," the spokesman said. PM[18] SERBS HOLD BELGIAN KOSOVA PEACEKEEPERSSerbian police detained seven Belgian KFOR peacekeepers on the border between Serbia and Kosova and held them for 15 hours in Raska, a Belgian army spokesman said in Brussels on 16 August. The Belgians were released following negotiations between KFOR headquarters and Serbian authorities. PM[19] MEDICAL CHARITY LEAVES PARTS OF KOSOVAThe French-based international medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has removed its staff from three minority enclaves, MSF leader James Orbinski said in Prishtina on 16 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 August 2000). The spokesman criticized UN administrators and NATO peacekeepers, saying that "there has been a passive acceptance of acts of violence against minorities. A culture of impunity has emerged," Reuters reported. Kouchner is the founder of MSF. PM[20] SERBIAN JOURNALIST ARRESTEDPolice arrested Zoran Lukovic in Belgrade on 16 August and ordered him to serve a five-month prison sentence. A court sentenced him in 1999 for an article he wrote in the former daily "Dnevni telegraf," which was critical of Health Minister Milovan Bojic. The opposition Social Democratic Union said in a statement that the arrest is part of the regime's "intimidation of the public--and independent journalists in particular-- ahead of the national elections" slated for 24 September, AP reported. PM[21] YUGOSLAV MILITARY COURT FREES SLOVENIAN COUPLEA military court in Podgorica freed two Slovenes suspected of spying on a military facility (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 August 2000). The couple's lawyer told Reuters on 16 August that "Milos Glisovic and his wife Natasa Zorz have already left for Slovenia. Military court judge Milan Vujovic decided to punish Glisovic with a three-month sentence suspended for one year, while charges against his wife were dropped." Slovenian media previously reported that the couple were tourists who were arrested while vacationing in Montenegro. PM[22] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT: MILOSEVIC TO CAUSE 'CHAOS'Milo Djukanovic wrote in an article published in Podgorica on 16 August that the Yugoslav president has frequently provoked crises with his neighbors and will soon seek to cause "chaos" in Montenegro, Montena-fax reported. Djukanovic stressed that Montenegro and its political future are now Milosevic's chief preoccupation. Montenegrin citizens have the right to determine their own future, including holding a referendum on independence, Djukanovic added. PM[23] MONTENEGRIN ACADEMIC BLASTS KOSTUNICAProminent Podgorica law professor Radovan Radonjic said that Vojislav Kostunica, who is the Serbian opposition's presidential candidate against Milosevic, is more anti-Montenegrin "than even the regime in Belgrade," Montena-fax reported on 16 August. Radonjic was referring to some recent remarks by Kostunica in which he belittled Montenegro as an unequal partner of Serbia. Novak Kilibarda, who is Montenegro's diplomatic representative in Bosnia and an independent-minded politician, said that Kostunica and Serbian Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic do not respect Montenegrin equality with Serbia. PM[24] MORE BODIES FOUND IN BOSNIAA forensics team has uncovered the bodies of 11 people in a pit near the Serb-held village of Kalimanici, just east of Sarajevo, AP reported. The deputy head of the Muslim Commission for Missing Persons, Jasmin Odobasic, said in Sarajevo on 16 August that the victims are believed to be Muslims from Visegrad in eastern Bosnia. Serbian paramilitaries, including Arkan's Tigers, quickly and brutally "ethnically cleansed" Visegrad and several other towns near the Serbian border of their Muslim populations in 1992. Some 20,000 people are still missing as a result of the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. PM[25] RENEWED TENSIONS IN CROATIAN GOVERNING COALITIONDrazen Budisa, who heads the Croatian Social Liberal Party, said that Prime Minister Ivica Racan and President Stipe Mesic know that the Hague-based war crimes tribunal is investigating the chief of the General Staff, General Petar Stipetic, even if Racan and Mesic claim otherwise in public, "Jutarnji list" reported on 17 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 August 2000). Budisa recently told the weekly "Globus" that Racan said to him privately that he is aware of the tribunal's investigations, the daily added. "Novi List" interviewed several leading opposition and government politicians, who said that Racan and Budisa should clear up the matter quickly. Budisa's party and Racan's Social Democrats make up the larger of the two coalitions in the government. Many Social Democrats suspect that Budisa wants to bring down the cabinet and set up a right-of-center coalition government. PM[26] ISARESCU TO RUN FOR PRESIDENTRomanian Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu said on 16 August that if his support group gathers the necessary 300,000 signatures, he will officially announce his bid for the presidential elections, Reuters reported. Isarescu said the lineup of the "Isarescu For President Support Group," which has been formed by 300 respected intellectuals, is "impressive," and he ended weeks of speculation by declaring his intention to run as an independent candidate. The leadership of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic, which previously courted Isarescu to run on its party ticket, said it supports his candidacy and will begin gathering signatures for him. The latest opinion poll showed National Liberal Party candidate Theodor Stolojan and Isarescu closing in on Party of Social Democracy in Romania Chairman and former President Ion Iliescu. Iliescu has some 36 percent backing, Stolojan 20 percent, and Isarescu 15 percent. ZsM[27] BULGARIAN OPPOSITION SAYS OFFICIALS SPYING ON THEMThe Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) told Bulgarian Radio on 16 August that it has information that official structures have been set up in the Interior Ministry to monitor opposition parliamentary candidates. PG[28] BULGARIAN DEPUTY KILLED IN CAR CRASHPetar Krustev Stoyanov, 48, a deputy of Bulgaria's center-right governing coalition, died in a car crash on 16 August, AP reported. A theater director, Stoyanov had been part of the Union of Democratic Forces since 1997. He was not related to Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov. PG[C] END NOTE[29] BOSNIA MARKS REFORMS IN LAW ENFORCEMENTBy Robert McMahonNearly five years of peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina have allowed the international community to focus its latest efforts on establishing the rule of law in the country. The latest UN estimates of the number of Bosnians returning this year indicate that those efforts are making some progress. The UN's undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Bernard Miyet, told the UN Security Council on 15 August that so far this year 19,500 refugees and internally displaced people have returned to areas of Bosnia- Herzegovina where they are minorities. By comparison, he said, just 2,000 people returned during the same period last year. It is a clear sign, Miyet says, that confidence is growing among Bosnia's large displaced population. "It can be noted that UNMIBH--the UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina-- continues to move ahead in the implementation of its mandate in a positive fashion," he notes. "There has been progress in all areas such as inter-entity law enforcement arrangements and growing day- to-day cooperation between the interior ministries of the Bosnian Federation and of the Republic of Srpska." Miyet says there have been recent cases of cooperation involving Muslim, Serbian, and Croatian police units in combating two of Bosnia's biggest problems--illegal immigration and organized crime. He said inter-ethnic police task forces have joined to break up a smuggling and counterfeit money operation in Doboj as well as investigate a group producing false passports in Mostar. The UN Mission in Bosnia is also trying to ensure that larger numbers of minority candidates are admitted to police academies in Bosnia's two entities. Miyet says that more than 450 minority officers are attending or have now graduated from such academies. In an important symbolic gesture last week, a Muslim officer was assigned to work in Serb- controlled Srebrenica, site of a massacre of Bosnian Muslims five years ago. The mission has also instituted a stricter policy against local police illegally occupying residential premises. They now face a loss of their police powers if they do not vacate those premises after a court decision is taken. Miyet says such developments may help explain why nearly 300 Bosnian Muslim families this year have returned to communities in Republika Srpska that were seen as hard-line, including Prijedor, Doboj and Foca. On 15 August, Security Council members said they are encouraged by the high rate of returning minorities. But many of them said it is important for the UN mission to maintain pressure on Bosnia's collective leadership to tackle perennial problems such as smuggling, organized crime, and ethnic tensions. The Netherlands' ambassador to the United Nations, Arnold Van Walsum, expressed concern about shortfalls in Bosnia's budget. He said part of the deficit could be attributed to the hundreds of millions of dollars lost to smuggling. He said that activity is on such a large scale that it likely involves high-level officials. The Bosnian authorities, he said, must redouble their efforts to stamp out crime and corruption and be aware that foreign aid is not "an infinite commodity." Bosnian officials acknowledge the slow pace of progress in areas such as crime and corruption. But they say greater attention by the international community to economic progress in Bosnia could help strengthen the rule of law there. In particular, Bosnian officials say, they would like a stronger commitment from European bodies--particularly the EU--that they are regarded as potential members. Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations, Muhamed Sacirbey, told RFE/RL in an interview that he would like to see Bosnia move from being what he calls a protectorate to a partner with its European neighbors. The real question, he said, is "who is going to make investments in Bosnia if it is somehow set out as this no-man's land in a new Europe?" UN officials say that Bosnia needs money to help sustain its reforms. For example, an estimated $40 million is needed by the UN mission in Bosnia to support the State Border Service and carry out police restructuring and training. Meanwhile, there is deep concern that donor fatigue will hurt Bosnia before it is stable enough to follow through on reforms. 17-08-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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